Rebecca Buttram:  

If you read my story, please also share yours! After graduating from EGHS, I attended Sacramento State College, graduating with double major in Journalism and Social Science ( concentration in Sociology). Wanted to have different options for jobs. After college, took a great 2 month tour of Europe, touring 13 countries, including some of the communist countries. Going through East Berlin and seeing the Berlin wall at that time, was so very sad for the people who were imprisoned by it. First job was with KPOP Radio as a special promotions director. It was like working at WKRP (If you ever watched the show in the '70's). a lot of fun and opportunity to do a variety of things. some news reporting and interviews with locals and a few interesting politicians. A former college friend worked for SMUD as a programmer, and encouraged me to take a test for a computer programming job. With no background in computers, I took the test on a lark......the salary was very tempting....and to my great surprise they offered me a job in Spring 1974. I married in September 1973, and in 1979 we purchased 5 acres of oak trees and granite rocks (and lots of poison oak!) in Granite Bay and built our home where we still reside today. In May 1982, when our son was born, I began to work part-time to spend time with our baby. In March 1986 our daughter was born. I continued working part-time until 1991, then resigned in order to be home with children. For about 4 years while at home, I volunteered at school and scouts, softball, soccer, a variety of things....yes even the PTA Prez.....all great experiences and great time with my children. About 1995, as my children were older and arriving home later in the day, I started working for a private software company for 6 hours a day, eventually working full-time as a private contractor in my own little company, working for various state agencies. For about 6 years I worked for the CA Office of Emergency Services (OES). It was extremely rewarding and interesting working on the disaster response/assistance software programs, especially when OES was activated during times of terrible floods, fires, etc. As year 2000 approached, Governor Davis volunteered OES to track worldwide anomalies when midnight year 2000 hit. So my business part...Expand for more