Richard Ginnold:
CLASS OF 1954
Rogers High SchoolClass of 1954
Spokane, WA
Richard's Story
I am an old guy of 73 who raised two kids and have four grandkids and have had 3 wives, all of whom are on speaking terms with me. I lived in Brazil and Colombia during 8 years as a diplomat, taught at three universities in economics and labor relations, sold real estate and was a general contractor in my last home, Eugene, Oregon.
I met the love of my life, Julie, 4 years ago and we now live in San Cristobal, Chiapas, Mexico, high in the southern Sierra Madre mountains. I am in paradise after a very happy life. We have pretty good health and a lot of love.
Last year I wrote my profile from Berlin, Germany, where I met my German family for the first time after a 150 year gap. My son, Alex, joined me for a week and we had fun buzzing through Germany. Before this, I went to a bangup Rogers Reunion at the end of July, 2008 and my daughter Anne and my grandson, Alexander, joined me. My 96 year old Mom(she is now 98 and staying positive) was with us and was thrilled to see two of my late sister Glenda Anne's friends, Judy Capell and Marilyn Nordby and I saw John Dixon, Phyllis Mast, Pat Johnston who sold me my first sportscoat, and many others.
Viva la vida!! What more can an old guy ask, except continued good health and happiness?
I returned to Chiapas and my Julie and I have gone through a lovely year of family fiestas, religious fiestas and a great party of our own with Mariachis for our neighbors. We live in a great barrio, Mexicanos, in the 500 year old town of San Cristobal(now being discovered, unfortunately, by thousands of tourists-sorry, my nimby complex comes out sometimes, right near a little Catholic church, Templo de Mexicanos, where my priest says Amor, no Temor, every Mass. It is mid-January, 2010 and Julie and I just got back from a great trip to Guadalajara and the Pacific beach of Oaxaca. It is our 2 months of cold here at 7500 feet, low 40s to high 30s and no heat.
Ni modo, as the Mexicans say. It is up to March now and Spring has sprung! This AM we had a lovely toasty sun with just a few cotton candy clouds and I sat in our garden, basking in the warmth, my mind forming the clouds into fairy land figures. These days, every two or three days, take away the bite of our short winter and remind us that spring is just around the corner. Also, I saw 3 giante Calla lilies, a lovely marigold, flowers on our winter-stripped bouganvillea and our poinsettia plant flourishing. Yes, Spring has announced and none too soon.
We are also enjoying the fruits of our year long remodel of a 200 year old colonial house. We have no car, no local phone, and we can walk or ride our bikes all over town, from our central location in the middle of a completely mestizo and indigenous barrio. Just 3 blocks from the zocalo and plaza where there are free public performances every month. Cada dia, aprendemos mas costumbres, culturas y mejoramos nuestro espanol con nuestros amigos y vecinos mexicanos cada dia. Viva el Mexico!!
My favorite teachers were:
1-Laverne Mabbott, He saved my self-esteem for all four years by coaching me on the tennis team and was a great and tough mentor for my academic development. Are you a man or a mouse. Cmon, you Hanyak!I played tennis with him for 34 years when I came to town. God rest his soul.
2-Ray Roestel, one tough hombre and a great physics teacher. Never could get that last A from him. My best memory is trading hacks with him in physics class. I think we both had tears welling up after two hacks My left-handed tennis swing helped me. He visited me once in Brazil with his Air Force reserve squadron.
3. Miss Lefebre, great Latin teacher, what a body and sexy manner. My most intense memory was when I was sitting beside her in her car delivering Thanksgiving turkeys to the poor for the French-Latin club, driving down Hamilton and the pleasant sharing was interrupted by the car in front of us hitting a pedestrian, who flew over that car and landed smack in front of our car as Miss Lefevre braked. I called the police from a drugstore and she tried to tend to the man but I believe he was dead. We never talked about it afterwards.
I am wri...Expand for more
ting a lot. I have some writings on my early years in Spokane at Longfellow Grade School and Rogers High, and a lot of other stuff on my website. Check out my writings and give me some feedback on your life and doings.
2010 Update:It is July 2, 2010 in San Cristobal and we just had a little slap from Hurricane Alex. It was cloudy and foreboding all morning from our roofless garden. Julie and I were getting up slowly, tending some flowers that had been battered by recent rains, in between going in the house and playing Spanish scrabble. Lollygagging around. Suddenly, there was a huge Zap and all the lights went out! There was crashing outside on the street. Sounded like some roof tile and some galvanized roofing sheets were banging. We peeked out our gate and people were scurrying for cover and sirens were going elsewhere in the city. We couldn't observe a wind but we knew Alex had finally come to town. No electricity anyplace. We ran around and took potted plants from outside and our terrace, tipped over chairs and tables to make them less blowable and turned off all electric breakers and our natural gas taps. The sky got very dark. We waited in our living room, behind adobe walls, for the next hit. It never came.
Finally, I went out to investigate. Our nearby neighborhood store was open and crowded and their liquor supply was dwindling fast. Somehow waiting out a storm and drinking tequila and wine go together. I greeted a few neighbors and we gave our versions of the shock. Our entire block was without any power. Some people had parts of their roofs torn off. This isn't anything new to most.
We live in the middle of turbulent weather, but most of it passes right over our little green-covered bowl, left from a volcanic eruption under us 1400 years ago.
This little slap was nothing.
In fact, 4 days before, I had just walked in my door from Mass when there was another Zap outside and the power went off . I heard a rap,rap, went to the porton, our metal gate, looked out and there was Martins, the barrio handyman. He said:" a lightning bolt just came out of your meter"(the meters are all on the street-side wall, unprotected, so they can be easily read). We looked and sure enough the negative pole wire was sheared. What happened? Not Hurricane Alex.
This was just some kind of surge and it took all day to repair it. My computer transformer and the refrigerator motor were both blown. Luckily, Martins fixed everything from household appliances to CD players and Ipods.(He had 2 years of electrical engineering and worked for HP in their Tuxla Gutierrez factory, plus he is a genius). He also is one big, tough hombre, with a Bullish neck, chest and shoulders. After he and I scoped out the problem, with my help, he put my small refrigerator, now emptied, on his back and lugged it away to his home and shop a block away. It cost me some pesos, but 4 or 5 hours later, Martins and one of his helpers were back with my repaired refrigerator(rebuilt motor) and my transformer and I am sure they got enough to buy beer and watch the World Cup with 90% of their Mexican compatriots. Very good, helpful neighbors.
Back to Hurricane Alex which was heard no more. No more sirens, though there was a lone civil defense truck with a Twilight Zone beeping looking for more evidence of disaster. Our lights were still off, but we have a lot of candles. There might have been areas of the city hit harder, but we are close to the old center and luckily there was only a little rain, though a couple of low elevation barrios flooded. One of our neighbors,whose son Julie teaches English for, came by with a sumptious looking coffee cake which we will eat this morning.
Still no juice, so Julie and I went out in the evening to a favorite haunt and the downtown area was bustling and full of music and the conversation of Mexicans spending their Friday night out in the cool evening. After a great dinner and a martini(Julie) and my standard Margarita(total for all about $18 bucks) we went home and opened our gate to--an outside light. The terrible ordeal was over until the next one. .
Regards, Dick
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