Reflections on a Long and Blessed Life No.68 Parent Effectiveness Training II

 Working for PET involved moving our family from St. Louis to the San Diego CA area, specifically to Encinitas. Our first arrival there as a family had a moment of anxiety and then a roar of laughter. I had gone to California and purchased a house without Jane or the kids ever seeing it. When our family arrived there just ahead of the moving van I was excited to proudly show off our new home, So I was stunned  with the initial reaction. We pulled into the driveway. .They family all got out of the car. Then in unison they groaned “Oh, No, Dad, Not This !” I was devastated for just 5 seconds. Then they all burst out in laughter. They had conspired (under Jane’s direction) to play this trick on me. The house was great. We found schools for the kids, a church for all of us, new doctors and the beach. After awhile Jane began working at the Effectiveness Training offices (not reporting to me ). She assisted with the operations of Instructor training which took place all across the USA. Then she became assistant to Linda Adams for Effectiveness Training for Women. Of major impact in those years (the late 1970-s early 80’s) was the introduction of computers into the workplace. Our offices acquired computers and then with zero training handed them over to office staff (including Jane) to figure out how use them (for security reasons the  instructional manuals were stored off site in a locked box at the bank! Jane learned computer skills very well. She consistently improved upon and expanded her expertise, eventually setting up all kinds of systems and today in our retirement community is considered our floor computer guru.

Dave  had a dramatic job shift in Chicago. For a few years he left working with street kids to become an exec for a company which ran exclusive stores selling high quality furs to women. Soon he was flying corporate jets to places from Las Vegas to New York. Peg and Tim continued at Valparaiso University with an interesting stop-over on their way home for Christmas. They traveled by Greyhound bus. They had a stop in Salt Lake where they discovered that close to the bus station the Mormon Tabernacle Choir was about to have a concert. They changed their tickets, went to the concert and came home to San Diego a bit late but had a great experience. Liz did very well in school, greatly enjoyed Moonlight Beach, was student body president and had lots of great times in the vast bonus room on the second floor of our home. She went to college at Claremont McKenna College. John was pretty bored with school, but got into duplicating famous paintings on the walls of bedrooms both at home and for others, developed an interest in Mandarin Chinese, applied for university at only one place U of California Berkeley and got accepted.

We adopted an exchange student for a year from Venezuela: Eliana Odreman  That was a good experience for all of us. Tragically she is now in Venezuela struggling with all the unrest and chaos of that country and we feel powerless to assist her.

We enjoyed our years in Encinitas. The California climate and multiple activity options were very satisfying. When we left after 8 years we, even then, had the feeling that some day we would like to return there for a satisfying retirement. But first to New York and my next series of blogs.