Vangie Pullins:
CLASS OF 1973
De Anza High SchoolClass of 1973
Richmond, CA
Vangie's Story
Life
Don't care for some of the questions this site asks. Would like to say a couple of things though and if you're reading this you must be at least curious. I married my sr. prom date, David Torres, in Sep. 1973, and we had one daughter in 1977. My beautiful Camille -- chose that name when I first saw Camille Horton, a senior when we were little 9th graders. David & I amicably divorced in 1979 and I stayed single for 5-1/2 yrs. I was living in Union City during our class 10 yr reunion. Just before Xmas 1984, I and my Camille moved to Petaluma and I started working in San Francisco. Rick Corum and I found each other for a couple of weeks in 1985 but the timing was off, just as it had been all through high school. On July 4th, 1985 I met my second husband, Bobby Trenchard, a local of Petaluma. He was an avid sportsman, fisherman, diver, surfer, and musician -- lead guitar and vocals, he wrote many beautiful R&B songs. He was a great entertainer, my best friend and I was his biggest fan. We had more than 16 years together when he suddenly died of an aneurysm in May 2001, 2 months before his 42nd birthday. I had many friends and family around me and combined with previous life experiences, I had many "tools" to help me through. Miraculously, I am very happy and in love once again and I hope that we'll see old age together. He's wonderful, we've known each other since we were born, and he is my partner in every way. How could I be so fortunate after such a tragedy? I'll never understand. His name is Lyndon Pullins. p.s. We married on 5/28/04.
Workplace
Seems I've been a secretary most of my life, a litigation secretary in San Francisco since January 1985. My high school typing/steno teacher got me my first job as a loan dept. secretary at the Bank of America in old downtown Richmond which I started the Monday after graduation. And so it began. One secretary told me "our jobs are like golden handcuffs", money's so good that an education or job change is hard to do. When my daughter started planning to move to New York to study acting, I decided I needed my own activities other than gardening and sewing, and antiquing. I took up stained glass. It was perfect for me. Two years later in 1996, I established my business, Aurora Colors. I was so inspired by the response to my designs and art that it was my mission in recent years to find a way to leave my secretarial job and open a store in Petaluma. Lyndon joined me in late 2002, became my first student, and by Feb. 7, 2004, we opened our full-service art glass store and studio, providing original custom art, classes, supplies, and a gift shop. I retired from my secretary job in August 2005. I'm living my dream! In April 2006 we moved our business to a wonderful downtown location in an old Victorian building at 145 Kentucky Street, Petaluma.
As of 12/09/09:
Our fine art gallery founded in October 2006 has been on two floors. I have enjoyed working with artists from all over the U.S. and Canada, having juried-themed exhibits change about every 7 weeks, 2D and 3D. I take in consignments for resale and at certain times of year I bring in high-quality crafts for sale. Everything has always been on consignment or my husband and I made it (glass works, of course.) In recent weeks we have been a victim of the poor economy in that our landlord raised the rent. One option was to move, which we are doing. Our glass business and gallery will close at this address on Christmas Eve, 2009. One door closes, and another opens.
08/16/13:
Amazing how much we change in a few years. Our glass business survived through a 3-year stint in Rohnert Park, just South of Santa Rosa. We moved our store and studio one last time (we hope) to 503 S. Main Street in Sebastopol, which opened on 03/04/13. Many stores like ours have closed throughout the U.S. in recent years, ...Expand for more
but we manage and have had great improvements since moving to this more artistic community. We moved our home here, too after 28 years of living in Petaluma. I love Sebastopol and living above our studio and store. You can see a portfolio of my stained glass designs at auroracolors.com. We do only original works in various techniques with stained glass, everything except glass blowing and flame working.
After our gallery closed, I began an online gallery which is auroracolorsfineart.com, and has become an expert on Les Lambson's art. Having our fine art gallery in such a beautiful old building (known as the old Petaluma Opera House), was probably the finest years of my life, at least, my favorite years. I love to give parties and we had receptions and big events regularly. But the art!!! by accident I discovered curating and hanging large exhibits is something I have a knack for. Made wonderful friends - so many talented artists from everywhere. Just loved it.
The glass industry forced us to look into creating another income. Cards fell into place for compostable tableware and to-go container business. Bamblu was born two years ago and today is a thriving, time-consuming online business with a storefront presence by appointment (you can pick up orders or samples.) We ship orders throughout the U.S. daily. You might check it out at bambluware.com.
My daughter, Camille, married a wonderful young man from New Jersey, Jake Kaminker, in July 2010. They had a Jewish ceremony in a friends' garden and pool setting. She is currently attending the California College of the Arts in Oakland, jewelry and metalsmithing. No grandbabies yet.
At this writing, I have to cancel plans to attend our 40-year class reunion. I had a lot of fun at our 10 year reunion, but I didn't realize until recent years, this:
I had a lot of hangups during high school and many kids that were friendly could have been friends. I am sorry that I didn't realize so many things back then. The school could have been fun, instead, it was a problem for me, I cut classes constantly from 10th thru 12th and it is a wonder I graduated, and even more amazing that I never got caught! That typing/steno teacher saw my potential, I guess. I will forever be grateful to him for basically "getting my job" at that BofA bank. A loan department secretary at 18 yrs old saved me (at the time.) I'm 58 yrs now and holding.
03/15/23
Fifty years since we graduated caused me to return here to CM. So many wonderful things have happened in the past ten years but the topper is that I have, we have, Asher, our grandson born 01/13/22 - another Capricorn like me, like his mama. Ash is truly a miracle baby and Camille and Jacob are awesome grateful parents, already in their forties. Lyndon and I finally retired and closed our stained glass studio and store in May 2021. We bought our home in Missouri near my mom, brother, and Lyndon's two sisters. I would have preferred to stay in California but we wanted a lot more home and acreage than we could afford in California. We will always return to Cali, at least once a year as my daughter is there, and I do miss the ocean. Lyndon has a wood shop and spends a lot of time tending our property and playing with wood. We both love gardening, Lyndon and his vegies, me and my flowers. Plan to make a fairy garden this year. Me, I have a lot of hobbies and a large room dedicated to just that. Of course, I also have a stained glass studio and kept two of our kilns and a sandblaster. I will never stop designing and creating and learning about glass. I did close Aurora Colors for good but I still have much to share. Someday, maybe this year I hope I will have my site available where I can share and view my memories other than just in my mind ~ at vangeleen.com. Take care.
"the things left unsaid stay with us forever" ~ anonymous
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