George Morales:  

Hello fellow Classmates... It has been many years since I have been here and I guess an update regarding my life and experiences are long overdue. Anyway, after high school graduation and a change in plans to enlist into the U.S. Army in July of 1970 (due to the draft being in effect) led me to enlist later in the same year. Having served my boot camp at Fort Ord, California, I eventually ended up with the 82nd Airborne Division (paratroopers) as 16R2P (Vulcan unit) at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. and was honorably discharged in late 1972. This in a way became a tribute to so many of my relatives (my father included) who paid their dues in past wars and conflicts. Thank God there were those in the generation before mine and mine as well that found another way to remain safe at home. Upon returning back to Southern California, I enrolled at El Camino College into the Administrative of Justice program which eventually led me to become sworn in as police officer for the City of Torrance in November of 1973. After 29 years of service as a police officer, I managed to retire in December of 2002 with a wonderful lifetime pension. Now to fill in the gaps ..... At this point plans made in high school did follow in chronological order...graduation, military time, attend college on my GI Bill, acquire a career with a police department and marry at age 24. At the present time I am and continue to be happily married to my wife of 40 years ( Annette Waits ... Class of 1973) and we have 4 wonderful children...3 handsome sons and a beautiful daughter. All have enjoyed a wonderful life of love, support and respect and free of pain or tragedy, focusing on the positive things that life has to offer. All of our children have acquired their 4 year college degrees by attending universities both in and out of state. Our oldest son who is now married acquired his Masters and Doctorate degree and works full time that led him and his lovely wife to purchase their first house in August of 2012. Our first grandchild (Bethany) was born May 9, 2014 and doing quite well growing into a healthy and beautiful little girl (3 teeth have surfaced so far as of early January 2015. Our daughter furthered her education upon returning from Lewis and Clark University in Portland, Oregon by completing a two year program in one year and was recently awarded her CPA thru the State of California. The auditing firm she has been employed with for the past 5 plus years recently promoted her to a managers position which is one step below being offered a partnership in years to come if all works out. Our third oldest lives in Austin, Texas and as of last December 2015 completed and was awarded his Doctorate Degree in Physical Therapy Medicine. Between his stay at the University of Pacific where he played in Division I volleyball and now he lived several months in Beijing, China and later played professional volleyball in Europe. We are happy to say that he has now returned back to southern California and after a few months of intense studying took and passed his national board exams. Our youngest son who doubled majored in Psychology and Philosphy was awarded his Masters Degree in Human Factors at Long Beach State University. He is currently living in the silicon valley where he is now employed with GOOGLE. Annette is now and has been a professional quilter for several years, running a successful out of home business which keeps her busy, but manages to break away when a need and/or desire for us to travel presents itself. As for myself, I found that being retired was somewhat boring during the first two years after leaving the Torrance Police Department. While no longer having a desire to keep my private pilots license active or pick up where I left off with a few hours of helicoptor training, I was able to trade my passion for flying by acquiring a position with JetBlue Airways out of nearby Long Beach Airport (about a 5 minute commute). My position in Airport Operations as a counter and gate agent provides me with a wonderful opportunity to work with so many exciting people and cultures from all over the world. This has been a very rewarding experience for myself as I continue to learn from others what real friends and respect for others is all about. My airline flight benefits has provided both Annette and myself, as well as our children the opportunity to travel quite freely, both domestically and internationally. We have also become quite fond of traveling via cruise ships and will manage to do that more often when I acquire a second retirement anytime after October of 2015 when eligible. When not working or traveling, I work on our rental property located close by which makes it convenient to my time schedule. Since all but one of our children are no longer living at home, we manage to host family and friends from all over the U.S throughout the year. My experiences over the years has taught me that what you put into this life is what you get out of life. There are so many wonderful people from so many wonderful cultures that have so much to share and should be treated with the same respect as you yourself wish to be treated. So in closing I can honestly say that after high school, I managed to move on in a positive way that led to bigger and better things. Life is great and continues to get better every day. UPDATE: Annette and I will be blessed with the birth of a our first grandchild (Bethany K. Morales) in May of 2015...everyone is healthy and looking forward to this wonderful event in our lives. We both just returned from a 2 week cruise (our 8th in as many years) that took us from Fort Lauderdale, Florida thru the Panama Canal, misc. stops along the way and ending in the Port of Los Angeles. In late summer of 2014 we plan to visit Hawaii (preferably Maui) again as we have not been there for many years. Working around family events gets easier all the time since we always manage to get the work and other obligations out of the way first. In October of 2015 I plan to complete my 10 year airline obligation and obtain another retirement that will allow Annette and myself to travel more on an international level without having to be tied down as much to my current work schedule. So for now I hope all is well with you and your families...so many years have gone by, but what wonderful memories to share with those we can. UPDATE: Year 2014 has been quite wonderful to all members of our family. Our daughter Jessica married in October and along with her new husband spent a fantastic honeymoon in Aruba....their skills and experiences as deep sea divers have provided us with many interesting photos of their love for the water and traveling. With my oldest and 2nd oldest now married, our third oldest will also wed in May of 2015...more planning but seems to get easier after the first few. Annette and I recently closed out 2014 with a trip to Portland, Oregon, Austin, Texas and as of the first week in January of 2015 enjoyed a wonderful trip to Las Vegas for a quick overnight stay since staying at home is not as much fun. Rather than add or modify the original profile of my classmates.com account, I will now include "UPDATES" to avoid any repeated information. UPDATE (June 8, 2015): Son Garrett passed his national boards, married 2 weeks ago to our newest member of the family Vannesa and now living in Texas south of Dallas. We just returned from a 2nd reception given by her side of family in Fort Myers, Florida. We took advantage of the extra time and drove up to Savannah, Georgia and on the return trip flew to Austin, Texas for a family reunion giving by Annettes side of the family.on Youngest son Greg has completed his Masters Degree from Long Beach State University and living up in San Francisco area where he and his girlfriend both work for GOOGLE doing what I refer to as rocket scientists related issues (way over my head, but I am still the dad and very proud of course). So at this time our children have acquired 4 Bachelors of Arts Degrees, 2 Master Degrees, 2 Doctorates and 1 CPA. I could retire from my airlines in less than 4 months but will probably stay longer since I am quite active and prefer not to sit around and wilt. Update: Sept. 8, 2015 Well Annette and I just returned from another cruise..this time thru the beautiful islands of Oahu, Kauai, Hilo and Maui (Maui being our favorite). Came close to meeting up with Dennis Oliver (AHS Class of 1968) while on Kauai only to find out he was in San Diego area and would not be back until after we had left. Road trips to 2 different volcano craters on Kauai and Maui were amazing..worth the drive to both with outstanding views. On this cruise we met so many wonderful people from other parts of the world who we shared community tables in the specialty restaurants onboard for all of our meals. The Australians were absolutely our favorites with so much passion and respect for others as we had for them as well. We did manage to spend 4 extra days on the beaches of Wakikii, Oahu (excuse my spelling if wrong) as we made out way thru the island and also experiencing one of their wonderful surfing festivals. Anyway as October 13, 2015 is quickly approaching I am still up in the air (no pun intended for those who may think it was intentional) about retiring from JetBlue Airways. I still very much enjoy the rush and challenge of turning out an inbound and outbound aircraft (150 customers coming in and 150 going out) in 50 minutes and less. Working with the Pilots, Inflight personnel, ground crews, customers etc. is wonderful experience. So many cultures of wonderful and warm individuals makes it hard to give up knowing that another phase of my life will be behind me. However on the plus side, retirement (2nd and final one) will open up our desire to travel on an international level with unlimited restrictions pertaining to when we will have to return. Aside fr...Expand for more