James Downs:  

I was born in Lincoln, Nebraska, and grew up in a town called Fairbury, about 70 miles South of Lincoln, where my Father was a Dentist and my Mom sang in the Methodist Church choir . One set of grandparents lived in Bloomington, Indiana, and the other set lived in Lincoln. We would take the Rock Island Railroad train from Fairbury to Lincoln often to visit them, which started a lifelong fascination with trains for me. This has fostered a hope that someday, I would have a model railroad in HO scale depicting the Rock Island in Nebraska. I have pieces and parts, and years worth of "Model Railroader" magazine, but thus far, no layout. Ah well....one can always hope! In 1959, my family packed up the family car, and my Dad and Mom, two sisters and our dog, Moses, trekked in a 1956 Ford with a U-Haul trailer on the back all the way out to Huntington Park, California, where I became an active member of the Huntington Park High School Spartan Band. I served as Drum Major in the 61-62 band, worked at Leeds Shoe Store on Pacific Boulevard, won the John Phillip Sousa Band Award, served on the yearbook committee a couple of years, and was a graduate from Huntington Park in 1962. After H.S., I joined the Army and was in Artllery Fire Direction Control, spent a little over a year in Korea, and the rest of the time at Ft. Lewis, Washington. I went to NCO Academy, and for a time, I was a Drill Instructor. I left the Army in 1965, lived in Bell, California and embarked on a series of jobs which led to my career in school Purchasing, which I enjoyed as Director of Purchasing for the Whittier Union High School District until I retired in 2009. Along the way, in 1972, I became active in the Republican Party, which is still true today. I met my wife, Connie while attending Control Data Institute, and we married in 1973. She had two children by a previous marriage, and we had four more together. Today, we are still happily married, which in itself, is an accomplishment! Of our six children four are married or have a significant other, and they have given us the blessing of sixteen grandchildren and 1-1/2 great-grandchildren. (Yep...another on the way!) My wife Connie still works at United Educati...Expand for more