Mac Gutierrez:
CLASS OF 1964
Hayward High SchoolClass of 1964
Hayward, CA
Castro Valley High SchoolClass of 1965
Castro valley, CA
Castro Valley High SchoolClass of 1965
Castro valley, CA
Mt. Eden High SchoolClass of 1964
Hayward, CA
Bret Harte Middle SchoolClass of 1960
Hayward, CA
Mac's Story
Life
Janet and I were married Sep ' 65 and I was drafted two months later. With the Vietnam build up and my assignment to Korea we were together perhaps four months our first two years of marriage, in fact the first anniversery we could celebrate together was our third! However on Mar 17th we will have been together 40 years! We have lived 10 years in Germany and two in Turkey. Our daughter, April was born in Bad Kreuznach Germany in '68. Stateside assignments included California, Georgia, Colorado and Texas. After a couple of years in the NATO Headquarters in Izmir, Turkey, and a two year stint in the United States Secret Service, Janet and I decided that after 21 years that it was time for me and the US Government to part ways.So I retired from the MIlitary in '86, and worked on a Geo Positioning contract for several years. A year after retiring' Janet and I recieved our degrees within days of each other. In '90 we moved to Southern CA, and I retired again. Janet made short work of that and talked me into getting a teaching degree' which she already had. We wound up teaching in the same school, and even shared a class. Janet received her Master of Education in 94, and I took a little longer and got my Masters of ED in 2000. I retired (for good this time!) from teaching in June '02 and Janet retired this June '03 then we moved to Savannah GA.
Savannah is semi-tropical, the opposite of the dry arid Southern CA, we left a year or so back. We have a lagoon in our back yard, and this morning as I wandered to the waters edge with my morning coffee I was greeted by a four foot alligator!
We have written several books together, which are still in manuscript form, and with retirement and moving we have let our search for a publisher slip. Janet has written two children books which also await a publisher. We have had a few articles and a short story published in magazines, but the books are proving to be ten times harder to publish then write. The new photo is from Sep'05, our 40th, which was a night of magic, as has been the last 40 years!
Have been able to concentrate on my drawing and painting...Expand for more
since retirement and average a couple of commissions a month, mostly portraits, both in oils and pencil. Janet also has sold some of her art. It's strange to think we worked all those years, for we hardly have time to do all we want, and don't see how we ever had time to work! A few years back Janet decided that I should make good on a lifelong desire to play the guitar and bought an electric guitar and a small amp, and a darn good book for beginners. Now I played as a kid, about fifty something years ago, and my dad, an absolutly gifted player, was my teacher, He had me learn on a 1949 Electric/acoustic Gibson the size of an aircraft carrier! I never could reach anything, if my left hand was extened to the top my right hand was half way up the finger board. Any way that did not last long, and as I said if was some fifty years later that I took it up again. To my amazement those lessons from way back when were a great help as my fingers seemed to remember quite a bit. Hardly a day goes by that I don't pick up my Spanish Flamenco guitar and try to play Flamenco, trying being the operative word, I will never master Flamenco, but I don't care it's fun! Now the electric guitar is so much easier than the acoustic guitar and a lot of fun. When Janet goes out to the garden I can crank up the amp, if not I have headphones. Most our friends here in Savannah are musicians, ( I should say band members as few can or care to read music, they can play a song after just one listening, something I will probably never be able to do) they have been playing all their lives and they can be intimidating to a plodder like me. When I began this , I guess it has been 2 1/2 years now, I told Janet I just wanted to play well enough to entertain myself, or at best accompany her when she was on the piano. Now I can see myself perhaps being able to play maybe a few songs on stage with my friends, if I can pick the song, date, time, phase of the moon, season, muscle relaxer and anything else that would give me the nerve to get up there!
Oh yeah, If you get a chance, check out our blog at macqueblogspot.blogspot.com/
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