Jim Fletcher:
CLASS OF 1965
Orange High SchoolClass of 1965
Orange, CA
Washington State UniversityClass of 1969
Pullman, WA
Brookhurst Junior High SchoolClass of 1962
Anaheim, CA
McPherson Junior High SchoolClass of 1962
Orange, CA
Richardson Elementary SchoolClass of 1959
Oscoda, MI
Jim's Story
Life
Well, hi everybody! I was happy to see so many people at the all-class reunion in 2001, then I ended up moving to Virginia for a decent job with the Patent Office (Retirement on a government pension is less than 6 years away!).
I've been married for 30 years; no kids but two cats. If you're ever in the Washington, DC area, look me up.
School
I always felt like kind of a dweeb in high school, because I was pretty mediocre as a jock, and in spite of running for class office every year, I lost all of the elections I was in.
I had some good teachers, and some that would have made sex education boring. I had some friends that I'm happy to have rediscovered here after all those years, including some girl friends. You can check out some of the girl friends on the photo board.
College
I spent my first freshman year at Washington State University - what a disaster! I did everything but my homework while I was there, and it showed in my GPA.
My second freshman year was at Fullerton JC, and it turned out to be worse. After two years of sub C- GPAs, the draft board said "You're not really serious about this student thing, come with us for a couple of years."
After I got out of the Army, I screwed around at FJC and CSUF, never really getting the classes I felt I needed on the schedule I needed.
Eventually, I went to West Coast University, where I di...Expand for more
d my homework, made the grades, and finally got my BSEE.
Workplace
I've had several jobs with two of them lasting around 10 years. Some of them left me bitter about what kind of jerks I was working for, some were great learning experiences, and one (self-employment) left me with a much greater respect for salesmen (that's an engineer who said that!).
Military
I got drafted in 1967 after almost flunking out of two colleges in two years and losing my student deferment.
I had basic at Ft. Ord with two guys I went to High School with - small world! They sent me to Ft. Polk to be a 11B, but I was able to worm my way out of that and went to Ft. Huachuca to learn 05B radio operator. I already knew that, so they sent me to Ft. Gordon to be 05C Radio Teletype operator (typing is a useful skill these days) and from there to Pruem, Germany, where I served out my term.
Well, I'm updating this "memoir" after about fifteen years. I'm retired, but not from the Patent Office (yet another disaster, but that's a long story), and I'm finally getting around to all those home-improvement projects that seem to build up instead of go away. We'll probably be moving back west in 2018, but that's a while off as I write this, and one thing I've learned is that I'm a lousy fortune-teller.
In the meantime, as I noted before, if you're in the Washington, DC area, look me up!
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Reunions
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Photos
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