Dean Thames:
CLASS OF 1956
West Valley High SchoolClass of 1956
Spokane, WA
California State University Class of 1985
Hayward, CA
Dean's Story
Of course, at West Valley, I participated in Track (a 4 year Letterman), football and also intramural basketball. I was not a very good student (college would have been much easier, with good grades), just good enough to stay in sports.
COLLEGE:
Eventually I did graduate from California State University, Hayward (changed later to California State University, East Bay; is that East Tampa Bay or East Hudson Bay, or Este Bahia de Banderas . . .?) with a double degree, a Bachelor of Science in Business and a Bachelor of Science in Management Information Systems degrees, taking the requirements for a Computer Science degree, to get the Management Information Systems degree. Why not a degree in Computer Science? They only allowed a specific number to be enrolled as Computer Science majors, which if exceeded would cause accreditation problems, because it was a part of the Math Dept., but anyone could take all the Computer Science courses.
I went to several Colleges and Universities. I started at San Jose City College (Engineering, San Jose, CA), then Chabot College (Welding and NDT Technology certification, Hayward, CA), Ohlone College (Grad w/AA Natural Sciences) (Fremont, CA), San Jose State University, Mechanical Engineering (San Jose, CA), Ohlone College (Grad w/AA Accounting/Business), and California State University, Hayward (Grad w/Bachelor of Science in Business and Bachelor of Science in Management Information Systems)(Hayward, CA).
For 1 year I attended Ohlone College (in Fremont), San Jose State University (in San Jose), San Jose City College (in San Jose), Foothill College (in Los Altos), besides CalStateU, Hayward, all at the same time, in order to get the classes I needed for Graduation. Talk about paying attention to what day where!
I have maintained contact with a few classmates, some that I worked with.
MILITARY:
I joined the USMCR in October 1955, activated for 2 years in February 1957, volunteered for Viet Nam in June 1957 (an excellent time to go there, they picked 5 of the 25 volunteers, and I was turned down) at the end of my 2 year volunteer time period, I asked for and was Released from Active Duty in Feb 1959, I was recommended for reenlistment, my Honorable Discharge was received in October 1961. If I had it to do over again, I would have made the USMC my career, but I have only slight regrets in not doing so.
WORKPLACE:
Leaving the US Marine Corps, I worked in the Aero Space Industry for Boeing, General Dynamics, and Federal Electric Corp. for a few years before returning to California, for work and college.
In 1962, I took an apprenticeship in Blacksmithing at Peterbilt Motors Corp in Newark, CA (Peterbilt is part of PACCAR {Pacific car & Foundry} along with Kenworth. Peterbilt has since moved to Denton, Texas). After that, in 1975, I worked as a welder while attending college, progressing into a position as a Welding, Non-Destructive Test/Examination Level III Instructor/Examiner (Xray, Ultrasound, Eddy Current, Magnetic Particle, and Penetrant Testing/Examination), and Materials Engineer, 1977. Upon completing my Bachelor of Science Degrees at California State University Hayward,1985, I worked as a Software Engineer, a Software Test Engineer, and a Software Quality Engineer.
I retired in 2002, and began work in 2003 as a Rangemaster for Santa Clara County, California, my retirement job. I retired from Santa Clara County Parks and Recreation in August 2014, Working for 10 years as a volunteer Part time Rangemaster, from June 1993 and 11 years for pay from Jan 2003 to August 2014 as a paid Part Time Rangemaster, working full time hours.
I drove for Uber and Lyft. I know, it got old very quickly, so I didn't spend a lot of time working. As any retiree knows, except for the very wealthy, a few extra dollars each week is always welcome.
TRAVEL:
While working my engineering jobs, I had to travel to Europe many times. I worked in Germany, and The Netherlands. Of course the times I was sent there were mostly winter, but a few times I had the luxury of spring and summer travel. When there was a gap in my work, I took a week or two of vacation, and my EX got to go there a couple of times, we went to see their former family chateau once. Her direct family had left France in 1050, Their family crest is still in one of the castle towers. The chateau is in Morance (or is Morance itself) just north of Chazay a few miles north of Lyon, France.
We did go to the French Riviera which is nice (pun intended), but too busy to enjoy. besides the traffic jam about 10 kilometers (6 miles) of stop and go cars going into each of the cities.
Another time I met the EX at Gatwick airport south of London. We spent a couple of days in London near Picadilly Circus (just a fancy name for a roundabout). We then went to see Stonehenge.
On to Oxford, where we stayed in a bed and breakfast that is also used as residences for students attending Oxford University.
Up to Bath, where the old Roman baths were rediscovered when part of a building, under construction, began collapsing. The building was removed, because the Roman bath was there underneath, and it's roof structure would not support the new building. The heated water was still flowing in and out, but apparently it is not safe to get wet. Contact with the water could result in meningitis.
In The Netherlands, I worked in The Hague. I stayed in the Kurhaus hotel in Scheveningen, right on the North Sea. I met the friends of a good friend here, and spent many evenings at their place. The two boys and I got along well, with the older boy later becoming an "educated playboy", sort of, and the younger boy becoming a Dutch Royal Marine because "Uncle Dean" was a Marine. The work took about 3 months, with a weeks vacation to England as described.
My neighbor in Fremont, was a coworker when I worked at Peterbilt. He and his wife are from The Netherlands, though he moved to The Netherlands after WWII from Indonesia. Anyhow, they both have relatives still living in The Netherlands, some of them I had met when they were visiting in Fremont. So I arranged to visit with them in The Netherlands. I really couldn't get a good time to visit his brother in Hoofddorp, NL, but was able to visit with her sister and family in Tiel, NL, several times.
While in Germany, I had a few weekends off, and one of them I took a drive on a Friday afternoon from Nuremberg, Germany to Vienna, Austria. I have friends there, Armenians from Istanbul, Turkey. It is amazing how far you can travel in a short time at 130 mph (~210 kilometers per hour). Autobahns at that time were not posted for speed limits except for when it was wet (bei nasse).
On the Saturday, the lady and her eldest son took me on a tour of Vienna. I was invited to attend the annual get-together for Armenians who live in Vienna on that Saturday evening. Almost everyone who attended just had to talk to...Expand for more
the "American", who had joined their activity. All that I spoke with, spoke English (American style) quite well, and I was able to answer the questions they had. I went to college with the sister of my friends there, and remain friends 50 plus years later.
HEALTH:
Those of you who remember me, most likely remember my heavy "Coke Bottle Bottom" glasses. I had cataracts, and I had to have them removed. I have Kaiser Permanente for my health insurance, and they have an outstanding eye care plan. The Kaiser Cataract surgery is done in an assembly line mode, and It was done painlessly in about 15 minutes at different times for each eye. All I can say is WOW, the colors are so vivid, and I have 20/20 right eye, and 20/25 in my left eye. What a different world than I had lived in before!
SPOUSE:
1st one is from Spokane, Rogers high school. We have a son Mike and daughter Tracy. Neither has children. Mike passed away 12 October 2022, age 62.
My current wife (2nd, and the permanent one), came here, from Thailand, to find me (WOW, I feel so important). She is a Thai Chef, and works hard. Restaurants require owners to work 48 hour days, 14 days a week, 720 days a year, or more! She was a successful restauranteur in Thailand for 25 years, and has worked for her son in his restaurants, in San Francisco, San Mateo, Los Gatos, San Jose, Mountain View & Palo Alto, here for 30+ years (where I actually met her, 22 years ago). She already had her Green Card, and got her citizenship, after we married. Though her "English" is a bit limited for talking, and understanding, her vocabulary is quite large, she gets better every day. She talks about the "Lotten Lobbie" (Rotten Robbie) gas stations and the "Led Robster" (Red Lobster) restaurants, as well as a few other "L" and "R" pronunciations that many Asians have a problem with. She laughs about that with me, a lot.
ACTIVITIES:
We went to Victoria, Canada on the "Fast Ferry", from Seattle to Victoria, and we met a couple from Spokane. The lady had been good friends, with Rudy Alexander (WV '55) who I grew up with, he taught History.
Our taxi driver, in Victoria, had gone to college in San Jose, CA. He played hockey on his college team and they competed with the Stanford University Club Hockey team that I ran the time clock for. His comment was, "Ha! We beat you guys every time!". That was true, but the Stanford University Club Hockey teams won the US National Club Hockey championship several times. We got along great.
An aside, the lady scorekeeper for Stanford, worked on the "Genome Project" decoding DNA. Since she was the backup goalie for Stanford, I asked her if she was an undergrad, or grad student. She said she had her BS in BioScience from Cal Tech, her MS from the University of Michigan, her PhD from MIT, and was a Research Scientist at Stanford. WOW, that made me feel small! She was very personable, and fun to work with.
MORE HEALTH:
As happens with some older folks, I did the tripping and falling trick, the right hip ball was broken (I broke my right hip) at 4:10 PM on Wed. 14 Sept. 2016. On Thurs. 15 Sept. 2016, I had surgery to replace the bone ball end with a CoCr (Cobalt Chromium, commonly called stellite) ball end (a partial hip joint), completed at 6:30 PM on Thursday. On Friday at noon they made me walk, and on Sat. 17 Sept. 2016, the doctors sent me home, at 3:30 PM.
It has been 7+ years, and I've been walking mostly like before the broken hip, but I still have a slight limp when I am really tired, most of the time now days.
Three weeks and 2 days after breaking my right hip, I tripped and fell again, breaking my left wrist. The large arm bone, the ulna, was broken. I will get back to 100%, given a little time. When I began walking without support, about a month and a half after breaking my hip, my wife insisted that I take my 'stick' with me wherever I go, so I do. I drive regularly, as I did to go home after I broke my hip, and again after I broke my wrist.
Most of the time, now, I make sure my cane is in my car, and walk easily everywhere I go. The cane has tripped me, so I just carry it in my hand, horizontally, if I take it with me. Recently I have had to resort to my cane a lot as I have 3 vertebrae with compression fractures and my lower back muscles are tending to stay flexed making it difficult to move around very much. Remember the old "Snap, Crackle and Pop" rice krispies cereal, well as with many others when you get older, as you move around you get to identify with rice krispies!
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HOME:
In my divorce from the EX, I basically gave her my interest in the house we were buying in Fremont, CA to get the divorce finished. In the 26 years we owned it it gained in value from $79,900.00 to just under $1,000,000.00. Refinanced a couple of times so about $250,000.00 was owed at the divorce.
Now, the costs to live in San Jose, or anywhere in the San Francisco Bay Area are astronomical. There are few houses to rent below $4,000.00 per month, where you might want to live, and few places to buy less than $1,000,000.00. We bought a house in Fresno, CA on 19 June 2019 and made the move to Fresno, CA on 30 June 2019.
The median income for San Jose, as reported In May 2020 is $204,000.00 per year! I'm not sure where the San Jose Mercury News got that number, but in March 2021 I saw another figure, which is $134,000.00; more likely the correct number. My retirement is nowhere near that.
Lockheed Martin, in Sunnyvale, CA, is tempting me with a job offer, starting salary between about $130,000.00 & $210,000.00. It gave me a good laugh, but it is tempting for an old guy who topped out at $130,000.00+ about 20 years ago. Naw, I don't think I feel like commuting 160 miles each way every day. Though I did commute from Dishman to Moses lake and back every day for a year.
In Fresno, we bought a house for $265,000.00 (currently 11/2022 valued at about $412,000.00) that would cost $2,000,000.00 in the neighborhood where we moved from, in San Jose, next to Los Gatos (2 blocks away or across the street depending on which way you go). Probably cost $170,000.00 to $270,000.00 in Spokane Valley. Now I understand that is changing.
Moved on 30 June 2019, as planned. Finding our favorite stores, and most are within about 4 to 5 miles, including the Kaiser Hospital.
Wife's daughter and family bought a house here in Fresno, after we did. Her husband will continue working in Sunnyvale commuting on Tuesday and Thursday. He is telecommuting now days.
My wife will soon get to work with her brother in Pasadena,CA 4 days a week coming home on weekends. This didn't happen, but so far this year, 2023, she has worked in Palo Alto for her son for over 5 months (posted 10/10/2023).
She went to Palo Alto from Aug 21 until 17 Sept. Now to Thailand for a month and a half, home for a week then back to Palo Alto for a month.
Updated 10/10/2023
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