Norm Clement:
CLASS OF 1969
William H. Taft High SchoolClass of 1969
Woodland hills, CA
Parkman Junior High SchoolClass of 1966
Woodland hills, CA
Woodland Hills Elementary SchoolClass of 1962
Woodland hills, CA
Dixie Canyon Elementary SchoolClass of 1960
Sherman oaks, CA
Alexandria Avenue Elementary SchoolClass of 1958
Los angeles, CA
Norm's Story
Hi Everybody,
*Sorry I couldn't attend out 49th re-union on Aug 12th. I hope someone grabbed our tickets for a free meal since the tickets weren't refundable. I notified the planning committee that we weren't going to make it. The reason I was absent was because of all the seismic activity going on in Southern California. I've been thru earthquakes, tornado's, whiteouts and hurricanes and there is no earthquake plan for a visitor non-resident who can't "shelter in place." There are a lot of changes going on recently so be sure to NOT to watch Dutchsince.com. You might just sell your hovel and get out of town. I'll keep my little story here until this subscription cycle ends (which is June 2019) and that'll be it. I wish I could've seen everyone who showed up. I didn't expect this to happen. Oh well, good luck, many wishes for a happy retirement and after we get to heaven . . . just get back in line to come back and see how everything turned out. Now, back to my story . . .
I figured I would replace that picture of me skating on the frozen pond with something a little more current. After all, I just hung up my ice skates in 2008. I've skated for many years . . . now it's measured in decades, but it's time to let go and move on. I've been a player, coach and a referee. I really love the game . . . but I'm getting arthritis and I don't need a broken hip.
(Apr 2002) There's still work here in Chicago so I guess I'll stay a while longer. I've been here for the last 8 years and its been great. I left L.A. back in '84 and spent 9yrs in Cincinnati, and 1yr in St. Louis. Interesting times since the bottom fell out of the aircraft industry. Reagan just had to ask Gorbachev to tear down that Berlin Wall ...didn't figure it would really happen! Oh Well!
Been married twice (still optimistic!:)and am now on the last of my goals that I set out on back in 1970 when I moved out of the house. Never did make it to the pros in ice hockey - missed out on an invitation to try out for the semi pros up in Las Vegas. I really tore myself up and wound up getting both knees rebuilt - ACL reconstruction :(
I now work as a Mechanical Designer in consumer product design (Pro/E and SolidWorks CAD work). But working with jet aircraft (at Lockheed) and jet engines (at General Electric) for 15 years were just too cool for words.
I went to five other colleges after H.S. but I only finished a 2yr degree. Good old Pierce J.C. I really soured on law school after two years, and I just couldn't take being a math major back in Cincinnati. I may hate programming but I did learn about plc's. I guess I'm just a tinkerer at heart. I spent 5 years with the L.A.P.D. and City Clerks Office as a civil servant - didn't join the department at 21. I went into the Air Force instead. I even drove a truck, I still have my CDL. Drove coiled steel on a flat bed (for Falcon Trucking) and general merchandise for Schneider Trucking. Those orange trucks on the freeway. But please don't hold it against me. Later. Norm
(July 2008) Busy, busy, busy. I'm living in Houston and working at BAE systems in Sealy. We make trucks, armored trucks and MRAP (mine resistant and ambush protected) vehicles for the military. It's pretty cool, but I do miss the aerospace industry, and I don't miss the consumer products industry back in Chicago. I think it was finally time to get out of town before this recession starts. I do miss the Chicago night life though - whatta party town.
I've been in Engineering for 33 years and I'm getting ready to move on to my next career. It seems that life is moving faster these days. More to come. Gotta go :)
Oh yeah, I got married 5 years ago to a Russian expat. You should hear the stories from the old country . . . yesha piva! Thats her, over yonder, in the new photo.
It's pretty amazing to look back and see the distance we've all covered. I've gotten a little humble over the years. I visited lower Manhatten 10 days after 911. :( That had a profound impact on me.
I've also got too many scars, concussions and the realization that we're 2/3rds of the way until its over.
I have no plans of retiring. I'm winding down my Manufacturing career to get into Money Management. I learned (from my time at Bank of America - as a Teller, Merchant Teller, Note Teller, Skip Tracer and Junior Loan Officer) that after a certain age, everybody becomes a money manager. You either do it yourself, or you farm it out and have someone else do it for you . . . for a price. I'm just not willing to pay someone else to do it. This way I can fund my own projects that I want to do in whatever spare time I have left. I'm transitioning to become a securities trader. I trade the dow mini (and weekly options against the IWM - Aug 2014) when I'm between contracts in manufacturing. We're getting close to being self sufficient . . . but this is one screwy business. I don't recommend it for anyone. More to come in the near future . . . but yes, it can be done!
It's time to move on . . . but where? Texas is too hot, but there's no state income tax. Illinois is too cold, but that's where the kids are and where the fun is. California is just . . . well, its just too California, and how about that 9th Circuit Court of Appeals? The political activism going on in the judicial system and the idiots in Sacramento are keeping me away. I just can't believe the debt load and unfunded retirement promises those poor residents are going to have to pay for. The country is in bad enough shape . . . California and Illinois are just over the top. Where to next? The adventure continues.
(Feb 2010) It appears that I'm going to stay here in Texas for the near future. I'm betting on a depression and a hyperinflationary future . . . with price inflation and asset depreciation. So, I think I had better stay put. The Truck factory looks like its going to take a hit and wind down. We'll know next week if the Army wants to continue buying trucks from the factory I work at. It's not looking promising. Natalia and I are still cranking along and our three kids (2 hers, 1 mine) are in the process of finishing college. By this time next year they will all be done. The future is so uncertain for all of us that I couldn't say what will be next. I hate to be so neutral . . . but world events are so unreliable that it doesn't pay to stick your neck out at this time. So, buy some extra mre's (meals ready to eat), extra Vodka, lots of toilet paper and batten down the hatches. We'll all have stories to tell at our 50th get together in 2019. Keep warm and take notes. I hope to see all of us then. Ya know . . . we may be getting short on time, but we're not yet short timers.
(April 2011) New news. We may be getting out of Texas in the near future. The truck factory had a major layoff and I was let go last September. I'm working at Hewlett Packard for now . . . but the trading world beckons. More to come. Have fun. Get ready to collect Social Security before it becomes means tested and given away as an entitlement to the poor. Another forced tax, taken at the point of a gun (jail time) that won't be delivered as promised. Keep your hand on your wallet. Inflation is here. Remember the '70's? The nightmare is coming back only this time it'll be on steroids and resemble the Nightmare on Elm Street. Get ready to duck . . . the chainsaw cometh . ! !
Paca. Norm
(August 2011) I haven't paid much attention to this website much . . . but I want to thank everyone who visited my little corner of the world and left a note about how they remember me. The automatic one word "notes" have been very kind since I don't think very highly of myself during our High School days. I didn't "wake up" until we actually graduated. Looking back, I grew up with a lot of poor advice and was given a lot of direction that was even less poor and really useless. When I saw the list of where we placed (academically) in our graduating class . . I was astounded at where I was. At that moment I knew who were the "better prepared" (not me) and who were the "less prepared" - me! The next 10 years was spent getting my (you know what) together and it wasn't until I was 27 that I finally got in gear with what life was demanding so that I could prosper. I'm probably not much different than the rest of us for the stup...Expand for more
id mistakes and poor choices we made. But if not for you, my base couldn't have been as well prepared as it was. I'll always admit that I've always thought of all of you over the years and how your behaviors and attitudes (both good and otherwise) have had an effect on me. I didn't finish a bachelor's degree so I don't have that experience to share. What I do have is a lot of college training for specific skill sets. Two years in Law School didn't hurt either. About 7 years of college in total.
Although it was my High School years that set the stage for me to finally "get in sync," it was all you guys and girls that opened me up to doing something with my life. I was brought up to be a civil servant with L.A. City Hall. And I did. I was a civil servant for 5 years. But I left that because of the colorful and various ideas that all of you talked about doing when you got out of school - both high school and college. Nobody was talking about being a civil servant . . . but this is what I was living with at home. Despite what I was dreaming about.
As we all turn 60 this year, we're probably thinking about where we are and how the lies of the politicians, economists and governors are going to ruin our retirement. I really hope you are all taking your personal economics in your own hands and are preparing for the depression that is certainly coming. I am hoping that all of us prosper as did those who prospered thru the 1930's depression. These people are my role models . . . among several others.
I see that there is an inbox on this site. Feel free to write. I'm still fat, dumb and happy going into this last phase of life. We have been involved in the greatest economic boom in history during our first third of life . . . let's not be strangers during this last third. I really hope everybody in our class comes to the 50th anniversary. We all had our chance at this game. We all went up to the plate and took our best swing. Some of us hit base hits and some of us hit home runs. Some of us didn't make it . . . and some of us are going to lose their life's savings when the dollar crashes. Let's celebrate what is left. I didn't find the "Happy Days" and "Father knows best" that television brought into our living rooms and I didn't have a "Grease" high school experience. The middle third of life brought a lot of "chop wood, carry water" but it was a blessing when the children were born and I got to be involved in their lives. Don't let $5 and $6 dollar a gallon gasoline take the wind out of your golden years. We can do better than that. Pick up that bat and get back in the game. More to come . . . 9978 characters remaining, I intend to use them all.
(May 2013) I just got laid off from my last job at HP. That brings my career of 35 years in manufacturing to an end. The lack of profitability in the tech sector seems to be driving businesses to pull back and become more
conservative. Looks like I'll be taking the early social security option so I can re-invent myself again. I still have several months to go ( I'm the baby of the class - I'll be 62 in September) . . . but the handwriting is on the wall. Now that we're all turning 62 this year, there seems to be little recovery for us through the job market. So, I'll move on. I don't go where I'm not welcome. I still have several mountains to climb, new horizons to see and no plans to retire until my body says it's time to slow down. My Dad is 82 so I seem to have many more years to keep plowing ahead. Besides, when I get done with my current goals . . . I'll just set new ones.
The state income tax rate in California is too high for me to come back. And the average home price just hit $400K. I get so much more here in Texas it's unbelievable. I was amazed by all the nickel and dime fees being foisted on the public when I lived in San Diego back in 2003. It's much cheaper to live here and visit the family back in L.A. and Chicago than actually move there. You should see my garden, We get two growing seasons here in Texas and my corn is already 6ft tall. Norm
It's May 2016 and I'm transitioning thru some major changes. I've been apprenticing as a securities trader (futures and options) for the last 3.5 years and I'm finally profitable. What an experience!!! There's no wonder why the hedge funds and banks are closing up shop and giving up on their "prop" desks. The market has gone thru a devastating loss of spread and profitability. But, you can do this yourself but you really really have to apply yourself.
I'm finally having a blast down here in Houston. We just sold our house and I'm moving on. My adventure continues and I'm getting what Steve Martin calls "happy feet." The job market just dried up for people like me in this area. I've been technically retired for the last couple of years and I just hated it. Being turned out to pasture really sucked . . . but I've been re-educating myself, going to the gym more often . . . taking more naps in the afternoon instead of downing a couple cups of coffee like when I was a working stiff . . . and . . . hey! this retirement gig isn't so bad after all. Looking back on what we went thru back in the 1970's, I wouldn't want to be in my 20's or 30's today. This economy is really poor and getting more worser all the time. My son is really struggling . . . but he's an M.D. so don't feel sorry for him. He'll get thru this. I'm a J.D. (64 year old juvenile delinquent) and the sun is on the horizon, the storm clouds have passed by and the future looks great. At least for me, not the country. Keep accumulating gold & vodka, pay off your debt, store more MRE's in the food pantry and grow more potatoes in the garden. We're going to need them. Have fun and remember that prosperity is better than poverty. You didn't hear it from me first . . . you just needed to be reminded.
More to come. :) :) :)
(April 2018) Well, here comes the “more to come” . . . as in “the last to arrive.” I’ve been so busy I didn’t notice that I have gotten old. I still have trouble with the “old people” discounts for hair cuts, gym memberships, cruise vacations and a bunch of other things I can barely remember. The discounts used to be for those age 55+. Now I see that the merchants have been losing too much income so they seem to be limiting these discounts to the 65+ crowd. I’ve also noticed I’ve been going to more funerals than ever before. Boy, have things changed. I traveled to the Valley this last February (for guess what . . . a funeral) and what a horrific environment the Valley has turned into. Expensive and crowded. Even on the freeways that didn’t exist back when we were in High School there were more cars (than I can shake a stick at) slowing down traffic (3:00pm on a Sunday) to 5-10 mph. Ugh! I’ll stay here in the Dallas/Ft Worth area. We have crowds but nothing like the old hometown. We have water, the barbeque is excellent and gasoline is 30% cheaper. Who needs anything else?
I wasn’t quite prepared for a 50th reunion 1 year early. I wasn’t even thinking of it and now I see that it’s coming this August. It was during my early years that I was pretty much “a day late and a dollar short” kind of guy . . . but I’ll be there. I hope to see as many of our 1000+ graduating class as possible. This classmates website seems to have gone international because Natalie has the same thing back in Russia. Her High School class wasn’t anywhere near as big as ours since she came from a small village, but it looks like I might be going overseas for another reunion soon.
Our journey is starting to wind down. We’re supposed to be the wise elders of the community now . . . but I think we’re just a bunch of wisenheimers
who can still party and shoot spit wads at our walkers and retirement home caretakers. If the retirement home I ever have to go to doesn’t have an open bar . . . I’ll start one. I’ll light up the bong too!
I see me and Natalie visiting the beaches at Malibu, Galveston, Chicago, Mackinac Island and Long Island watching the sunsets from a water side restaurant with a drink in my hand and a steak on my plate. I still have no interest in retiring. I miss the Engineering world and will go back at the first opportunity. In the meantime, being out “put out to pasture” has its advantages. See you guys soon.
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