Michael Woleben:
CLASS OF 1970
Gulfport High SchoolClass of 1970
Gulfport, MS
Michael's Story
Afida heltonter graduation in June 1970, I worked at Kahler's Food Store over the summer. In the fall, I attended Catawba College in Salisbury, NC. I got all good grades except an F in Phys Ed because I slept through the class that started at 7:30. I left there in January and came back to Gulfport without any real plans. It was not two weeks until I got a letter from Uncle Sam. Well, went down to the Navy recruiter and they had an opening and took it. (Cant imagine why). Anyway, boot camp followed, 12 weeks, not fun. I went back home to Gulfport and bought my very first car, a blue Pinto for $1900. I hated that car. I went through two engines. I could replace a starter with my eyes closed. I finally got tired of it and gave it to Dad. It got passed around the family. My next car was a 73 red VW bug. Great car. I went to electronics and communication school. In 1973 I got to shake the hand of the President. Not something one does every day. In 1974 I spent an entire year doing work on remote Greek islands. After that I was assigned to the USS Mt. Baker until January 1977. I was then sent to Paducah KY as a recruiter, where I met my wife, Donna. We left Paducah for another ship in January 1979. It was the USS Mahan (DDG-42) in Charleston. An interesting event, Nancy McKenzie was a newscaster in Charleston while I was stationed there. We were stationed in Charleston until1981 when the ship went into the yards in Philadelphia.
After getting out in 1982, I had some odd jobs like Prudential, Lincoln Insurance, and Pepsi. Then came along an opening at the Postal Service. I worked the next 25 years there as an electronics tech and retired in Oct 2009, 36 years as my military time counted. Joshua was born in 1984 and Rachel 1986. Josh is married to Laura Woleben and they live in Minnesota. He works with servers. Its way above my head. Rachel works for Ingram Barge and is in charge of Workmans Comp. She is married to Jacob Rayburn and they have one child. Think I forgot to mention we got married August 1977.
If I have any regrets in life, I wish I had spent more time learning to act like an adult while at GHS and less time playing practical jokes. It was seven years almost to the day our first one was born from the time we got married. Our next one came two years later. LOL 62 when our first grandchild born.
So she was Baptist I had been brought up Presbyterian. My grandparents were the exact same split, and they went to separate churches for 53 years. I decided that was not going to happen to me. I started studying about their doctrine on Baptism, because it was such a departure of sprinkling infants like I was used to. The more I studied it the more I was convinced the Baptists were right. There is not one example of the sprinkling infants in the Bible. The concept of a parent-child covenant does not exist, and if it did, has nothing to do with Baptism. So two years after getting married, I switched churches. More about that later.
The Lord had mercy on us. It has always been said that your kids will pay you back for the things you did. Now Donna my wife, never got in trouble at school. Well everyone remembers my high school record, Limburg...Expand for more
er cheese, calling Moscow, and others that do not come to mind......It was kind of a mixed bag. Nothing compared to the number of times Mom went to GHS. I can tell you the Navy and Postal Service does not have much sense of humor. There has been one practical joke since high school that backfired. I drive the van for church. One day my monitor and I were in the church to pick up the van. I was just finishing eating a banana. What are you going to do with that peel the monitor asked. I said, lets put it in the pastors chair star shaped. We thought he would see it, laugh and go on. It did not work out that way. I had forgotten about it. He did not see the peel. He had sat down in he chair and wallowed around in it. He was a large man. The banana peel was stuck to the side of his pants. The Pastor was furious. He was red faced. He came up to me wagging his finger at me. Do you know anything about this, the Pastor asked? I said NOPE. Lied right to his face.
In November 94 we had a revival. He asked questions, have you ever seen the gap between sinful man and a Holy God?; Have you repented and left your sins behind? Do you believe Jesus is the Messiah and was crucified, buried and rose on the third day. Jesus is the only way to heaven. It then hit me like a ton of bricks. I had never come to salvation and accepted the gift of salvation. I remember treating communicants class at the PCA like a history course. I had never trusted in Christ.
After retirement, I got to where I could only make one swipe with a power mower. I had my heart checked and needed a six way bypass.. Fist time I had been in a hospital.
Hope this paints a good pic. Oh yes, last year Donna and I had been in 47 of the lower states. The last one was North Dakota. The reason for not going was there is nothing there. So we went there to say we had. We found the largest cow in America on top of a hill. We visited the state Capitol and finally got to the Little Big Horn.
My most embarrassing moment ever: We were at a breakfast at a Hampton Inn out West somewhere. The room was narrow and long with a mirror at the end. I got up to get seconds. The aisle was narrow. This guy had the same idea. I stood inside a table aisle to let him pass. However, he gets into a place off the narrow aisle for me to pass. As soon as I get back out into the aisle here comes this guy down the aisle again. Then, as soon as I duck to the side, so does he. I was getting visibly angry. All the sudden the patrons bust out laughing. My face turned red as I finally realized I was getting mad at the image in the mirror.
My Dad just died and leave all with this story. We were in downtown Gulfport about 1967. We were walking to some store, I do not recall. Dad was usually a very quiet, serious, and at times stern man. Every now and then he would pull a zinger. We stopped at a light walking. A car with an old couple at the time stopped at the red light blocking the pedestrian walk. The back seat blocked it. My Dad opens their car door, scoots across their seat, opens the other doo and gets out. I just stood there. I went around the car. You should have seen the looks on that couples face.
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