Dawn Anderson:  

Well, I can say that my life, so far, has been one of lessons. And I believe, if there is a pattern, more lessons to come....so.. Ok, lets catch up. Well I quit school during the summer after 10th grade in 1972. I had wanted to graduated the following year, needed only 4 more credits and I wanted to move on, start my life. Only the school board turned me down, as we had had 3 girls do the same in 72, and they didn't want to start a trend. Looking back, I don't know that I blame them, but I wanted to get out of the house. If you remember, my mother was real tight about me, what you didn't know was that she had plans for me, and being socially active was not in the game book. I was told more than once that people would bring me down, take me off of the path I should proceed on, either thru jealousy or envy..... But she approved me quitting, which didn't make much sense either , till I found out she wanted an unpaid nurse for her and babysitter for my sisters, a housekeeper and all out scullery maid, with only weekends allowed out of house. So I ran. I learned how to live, made some friends and learned how to get along with all sorts of people. But most of all I learned how to enjoy life and find out what it took to live it. Had several jobs around town and Pittsfield, like working at Bud Schells Exxon week I turned 18 doing his books, ordering for the store and picking which liquor he should order. Had a blast for the summer and learned a lot. Lived with the Maynards in the Springs, and I learned just how different people can appear to be, but have a warm heart and lending hand as well. I am grateful for them giving me a leg up on my lessons in life and joy. I also had a job in GE, got a car, had my own apartment and enjoyed how far I had come in 2 years. The most special place of all for me then was The ShowBoat, strange that may seem. Still needed to stretch those wings and let my hair down as some male graduate of 72 had put in my yearbook. I loved to dance, and being out on that floor, with the best music of our day, untied my wings and I could fly for just a few hours each night. I met and made friends from all the surrounding towns that came there, like East Greenbush, and reacquainted myself with friends from other schools I had gone to. I know this was a long story for such a short period of my life, but it was important afterwards because I soon found myself in love, and pregnant. Yes, I had lived from 17 till 2 months before my 20th birthday in 1975 when my son David was born to his single mother and had a disappeared father. Yes I had lived, been free, no rules, no responsibility except to myself. But I had also learned, as if I had known that those precious few years would be all that I would have, so the memories are more precious....and the lessons I learned were going to have to bring us both forward through the years. And they did. In 1979, I looked around, and found myself alone, my family having moved to Long Island and my friends living a life that I had done, and could not go back to. So I chose to leave the valley and all its memories, some good, some not so good, and start over down in Westchester County, where I had originally started. My dad is one of 8 kids, most living in the 2 same towns-Mamaroneck and Harrison. I went back as the original prodigal child, being the eldest, only with dirt on my face: quitting school, and being a single parent ,and OMG! LOOK AT THOSE CLOTHES AND STRAIGHT HAIR!!! (What is a Bradlees??) So more lessons and rules and yours truly being stubborn ( What the hell do you mean I have to give a money envelope at the wedding with at least $100 in it??? I already gave gifts at the engagement shower and all the damn bridal showers. Why can't they get married in the hall at the firehouse?) You could see that the "hick" in me was starting to show up in living color! (note: they hated my red plaid hunting jacket and nearly fainted when I walked into Saks with it on! Why not? It was clean!) Did I tell you I am one of 25 cousins, and they all had an opinion! But I survived, put David into daycare and started a job in the village treasury dept, and then quit to work for this geiser who was a CPA and a little nutty. But he was a great teacher and encouraged me to learn all kinds of accounting. Within a year I had my own clients assigned to me, started working the 2nd year down in Manhattan with our clients in the hotel business there. Don't let me lead you astray, though, they were small immigrant hotels, and one was off time square and rented by the hour!! Here is another example of learning (not of that kind). All of the clients had originally been Jewish Children in concentration camps, like Auschwitz, and had miraculously survived, 4 boys and 1 girl. The girl was taken when she had been in 4th grade, and as a hotel owner, she apologized for her spelling and math! There was so much I learned from her! After the war, one boy came to the states,and made oodles of money, and the first thing he did was bring the other kids, now young adults, over and set each up in business, each on the board of the others business. Isn't that beautiful? After a few years I was hired to be the 1st Treasurer of the brand new village of Ryebrook. Boy was I in heaven, no college, just old Abe Lincoln style of learning!! But a disagreement between the Village Manager and the Mayor began, and the job was demoted to part-time for now. No good, but then again , I went to my next job and it was better than all the rest. Learning, learning, learning. In 1982 I went to work for Laurel Printing, in Elmsford, NY as a full charge bookkeeper for the umbrella company and its 4 subsidiaries. It was time I learned the other side of accounting, the daily grind of numbers and papers, the different nuances of manufacturing and accounting. Computers were starting to be installed into businesses, and in 1982 we had a small one. In 1983 our business had grown to $50 million annual sales and we bought this huge mainframe and set up a monitor on each desk of the office personnel and away we went. Our company was run by young entrepreneurs, just aroung my age, and had such vision!! As the company grew so did my job title and responsibilities. Being trained the way I was, accurate books were my purpose in life, they were my Bibles. I eventually managed the accounting, billing,,data entry departments, was liaison to our quarterly auditing company, and was computer manager and assistant comptroller...I loved it and our companies sales multiplied and multiplied and we bought out other printing companies,and our clients were mostly Fortune 500 customers. We won award after award and had the first 7 color press in Westchester County. By 1985-86 we had 3 shifts running, 3 printing and art unions, and over 60 administration employees and over 400 factory workers. Then came the recession, and companies were not spending so much on advertising as they had during the boom years. The company was bought out in 1990. I am not writing of this to brag, but I was very proud of what we accomplished, but because it was lesson time again. I sure was busy those years of 1980-1987. I had a lot to learn and was going places. It was hard, I was working about 60 hours a week by then, and hated to go home, isn't that an awful thing to say? Because at home I had a young son growing up, mostly by himself. He was 4 when we left Lebanon, and by 1987 was 12 years old. I was making a good amount of money, but could always use more. Drove old, retired cars, didn't take vacations, you know how it is with kids, they get the money spent on them first...But living in Westchester was expensive, especially if you have a child and want him to play outside,not at the park whenever mom gets home,so we always rented a 2 family, usually the renivated bedrooms upstairs, etc. That meant we had to move every 2 years, because everybody had a relative who wanted our apartment. That meant payment to your agent, usually 15% of your annual rent, and first and last months rent up front, plus renting movers....Oh,yeah, spent about $3000 every 2-3 years...We finally moved next door to my job, across the county, but at least I was closer. And in the end, I believe it was preordained.... Remember what I told you about lessons??? Well, my life was out of balance, hadn't taken a vacation in 10 years, and as a mother, I sucked! So, fate came-a-knocking, not once but 3 times! It began as a headache, not like the migraines I had learned to live with, no, a you're-conducting-a-meeting-oh-where-did-my-thoughts-go-kinda-pain-in-the-head kinda headache. Would lose my thoughts, then speech, then pain in back of head where the room would disappear kind of pain. So, ...Expand for more