Mary Carter:  

CLASS OF 1972
Mary Carter's Classmates® Profile Photo
Mclane High SchoolClass of 1972
Fresno, CA
Blue Ridge High SchoolClass of 9999
Lakeside, AZ
Sierra Junior High SchoolClass of 1969
Fresno, CA
Vinland Elementary SchoolClass of 1966
Fresno, CA
Roeding Elementary SchoolClass of 1966
Fresno, CA

Mary's Story

Life: After graduating from high school in 1972, I moved to southern California (Yorba Linda, near Anaheim) where I worked 6 years as a nanny and 2 years in a factory (hated it). In 1980 I moved to Arizona where I attended ASU and NAU, getting my Master of Education degree. Since 1990 I've lived in the White Mountains of eastern Arizona (elev. 7200 ft), where I own a modest home on pine-covered property near a pond. I taught at Blue Ridge High School for 27 years and retired in 2017. I love retirement, being free to travel and working on the "great American novel." Our town of Lakeside was one of those evacuated for a week during the Rodeo-Chediski forest fire of June 2002 (more than 400 homes and 500,000 acres burned). My former husband and I have 3 children: Sarah (age 32, married to Chris), Jacob (age 31, divorced), and Dylan (age 25, married to Jake). School: I hated school! I truly felt it was a waste of my day, and my real life didn't begin until I got home from school. How ironic that I should eventually become a teacher. Looking back, I have many regrets about high school. I was painfully shy, so I never joined clubs or sports, and I thought I was a "dumb blonde," so I never tried very hard to succeed. If I had gotten involved in school activities and focused more on academics, I suspect school would have been more important to me. I do have some good memories of high school, as well. I made a few good friends, most of whom I'm still in touch with. My art classes were the best, especially with Mr. Poole and Mr. Mecham. Something wonderful about high school must have stuck with me, because I truly enjoyed te...Expand for more
aching high school and working with never-a-dull-moment teenagers! College: College is kind of a blur to me. Until my senior year at ASU, I worked full-time as an instructional aide in a high school while attending college full-time at night. I met and dated my former husband Mark during my junior year. We got married at the end of that year. On October 27 of my senior year we had our daughter Sarah, who attended my classes with me for the rest of the semester. (One class even gave us a baby shower!) My mom babysat her in the spring while I did my student teaching. Next thing I knew, I was graduating! I had a few friends in classes, but my personal life was so full during those years that college just seemed to whiz by! I earned my Masters degree from NAU in 1996, after 2 years of night classes. That was tough, teaching all day and leaving 2 young children at home with Dad most nights. I'm glad that's over! Workplace: I never planned to be a working woman. I fiddled around for years, waiting for a handsome, charming, wealthy man to come along and take care of me for the rest of my life. After years of taking care of other people's kids and slaving in a factory, I became an instructional aide at Westwood High School in Mesa, Arizona. Eventually I realized I loved working with teens and that there was no Mr. Wonderful out there looking for me, so at age 30 I enrolled in college. I taught high school for 27 years, including 20 years as department chair, before retiring in 2017. The best gift I ever gave myself! Teaching is challenging and teenagers are quite entertaining, but I'm loving this new phase of my life!
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Yearbooks

Mclane High School 1971 yearbook cover photo
1971 Yearbook
Mclane High School
FRESNO, CA
Mclane High School 1970 yearbook cover photo
1970 Yearbook
Mclane High School
FRESNO, CA
Mclane High School 1969 yearbook cover photo
1969 Yearbook
Mclane High School
FRESNO, CA
Reunions
Westwood High School Reunion reunion event on Oct 21, 2023 image
Oct 21, 2023
Mary was invited to the
Westwood High School Reunion
432 invitees
Calendar icon
Mar 26, 2022
Mary was invited to the
Westwood High School Reunion
504 invitees
Calendar icon
Oct 19, 2018
Mary was invited to the
Westwood High School Reunion
570 invitees
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Photos

Mary Carter's Classmates profile album
October 2014
October 2014
September 2014
Mary Carter's Classmates profile album
December 2003
Winter
September 2004
Sunday, October 4, 2020: The view of the pool from our third-floor balcony.
Sunday, October 4, 2020: The bathroom adjoined to the master bedroom.
Sunday, October 4, 2020: And I get the master bedroom! My room also overlooks the pool, harbor, and ocean, but no balcony .
Sunday, October 4, 2020: The main bathroom.
Sunday, October 4, 2020: Sarah and Chris's bedroom has it's own set of doors onto the balcony.
Sunday, October 4, 2020: Mark's bedroom. When I booked the resort in Sept 2019, I expected my entire family to be here together, as usual, so I got a 3-bedroom unit that sleeps eight people. However, no one expected the uph
Sunday, October 4, 2020: The entry as viewed from left to right: front door, Mark's room, the main bathroom, and the kitchen.
Sunday, October 4, 2020: This is the kitchen.
Sunday, October 4, 2020: This is the dining area. That's the door to Sarah and Chris's bedroom on the left.
Sunday, October 4, 2020: And the other side of the living room. Our unit is on the 3rd floor, with a wide balcony overlooking the pool and game courts. Oceanside Harbor and the Pacific Ocean are also visible in the distance.
Sunday, October 4, 2020: After waiting 2 hours for our condo to be prepared for us (thanks, covid-19), it's good to be settled in. This is the living room.
Sunday, October 4, 2020: Still waiting around to get moved in. We didn't know it yet, but our balcony turned out to be the one on the bottom right in this photo (above the one that's partly hidden by a wall), on the third f
Sunday, October 4, 2020: Still waiting around to get moved in. They let us bring our ice chests into the office kitchen to keep things cold while we waited.
Sunday, October 4, 2020: WorldMark Oceanside's pool behind the check-in office. We arrived at 3:00, but we spent a lot of time on the resort grounds waiting for our condo to be ready (thanks to the extended overreaction to
Sunday, October 4, 2020: Interesting formations along Interstate-8. These hills looked more like piles of rocks and pebbles than mountains. (Photo by Sarah)
Sunday, October 4, 2020: Windmill generators located about 50 miles east of San Diego, while we were en route to Oceanside, California. (Photo by Chris)
Sunday, October 4, 2020: Windmill generators located about 50 miles east of San Diego, while we were en route to Oceanside, California. (Photo by Sarah)
Friday, October 3, 2020: My itinerary is ready! This is where my OCD really shows, but I swear I'm very flexible with it once we arrive at our destination. I just need a plan in place for my own peace of mind.
Sunday, October 4, 2020: Windmill generators located about 50 miles east of San Diego, while we were en route to Oceanside, California. (We traveled to California through Yuma, Arizona, on the border of Mexico.) The smog wa
Friday, October 3, 2020: Willow and Diego were wishing and hoping Sarah would drop one of those luscious eggs on the floor.
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