James Long:  

After Archies, I attended UMass Amherst Fall 1965 Semester but, due to family finances, didn't return. With the draft breathing down my neck, I enlisted in the Marines in June the same week I asked the same young lady from Braintree High that I had taken to our senior prom (and hers). I left for Parris Island in early October, shortly after she started nursing school. A year later Terri (Centorino) and I were married (9/9/67). After a year and 1/2 in NC I left for Vietnam and returned a year later. Our first child, a daughter, was born while I was there. Six months later I left active duty and returned to my pre-corp employer. Our second daughter was born a few months later. In 1973, I started night class at Quincy (Jr) College and after graduation five years later took additional courses at Northeastern extension locations. During that time we had our third and fourth daughters. The latter just three weeks before the great blizzard of 1978. In the early 80's I left Boston Gear, where I had held several managerial and staff positions, for the first of several smaller companies, spending most of that time until now as a company cont...Expand for more