Guy Newton:
CLASS OF 1975
Jeffersonville High SchoolClass of 1975
Jeffersonville, IN
Wilson Junior High SchoolClass of 1971
Jeffersonville, IN
Guy's Story
If you remember me then you might notice that my profile/timeline is already messed up. I don't see how to fix it so a couple of corrections. My family moved in 1974 so I graduated with a bunch of strangers! Well sorta.
I left Jeff in the second semester of my junior year. I made some good friends in Mitchell (hey Eddie) but I missed graduating with the people I grew up with.
I attended IU for two semesters but had no idea what I wanted to do so I dropped out.
I thought I was going to marry a girl from Charlestown that I went with for more than three years but that didn't happen. She dumped me. (My fault) That was the low point of a bad year. I couldn't even drive through Jeff for a long time after that.
I joined the UAW and worked in a school bus factory for a couple of years. We went through a 9 month strike to raise our pay to $4.15 an hour. I didn't think this was the way to live so I moved to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida where my sister lived.
I got a job as a plumber's apprentice. Within six months I found a job as a pipefitter running copper waterlines in a development in Plantation. I didn't know what I was doing at first so I had to learn fast before the owner found out what he had hired. I faked it just long enough to learn how to work with copper.
One Saturday I went to see a coworker at his parents house. He wasn't home at the time but his sister invited me to come in and wait for him. She was just sitting down to watch a movie on this newfangeled device called a "Home Box Office."
We watched "Billy Jack" together and talked about the terrible treatment that Native Americans had received from the likes of us and wondered if there was any hope for things being better in the future. By the end of the movie I didn't care if her brother ever came home. (sorry Ricky)
It was touch and go for a while. She had a boyfriend already. (and a boyfriend that her boyfriend didn't know about) "My life is too complicated already" she told me when I asked her to move to Ft. Myers with me. (Ft. Lauderdale was way too crazy in 1980) She thought about it for a couple of days before she called me and said yes.
We moved to Ft. Myers, got married, and had three kids. (Michae...Expand for more
l, Kary, Sarah) I continued working in construction, getting licensed in plumbing and certified to do fire sprinklers and medical gas piping. I got to do some interesting work in some fantastic locations. Debbie got an associate degree with the goal of becoming a teacher.
Ft. Myers did not have a four year college for Deb to complete her degree so we had to decide what to do. We considered Gainsville but decided that since we had to move anyway, why not go somewhere we really wanted to go. I've always loved the mountains. (I was born in eastern Kentucky) Deb had visited Asheville in 1988 so she was thrilled when I suggested we move to North Carolina. I told her that I could find plenty of work in Charlotte but she said that was too far from the mountains. I looked on a map and saw that Asheville looked like the biggest city in the biggest mountains so we came here.
When I was a kid living on Blackston Mill Road, I had learned how to use a 35mm camera. I used to ride my bike out to the edge of town and take pictures of farms and telephone poles and dead trees. I lost interest when I discovered girls. I started doing some photography again in '95 and found that there was a market for a nice landscape. After working at it part time for three years I had to quit my real job to keep up with my new business. I started making hand made wood picture frames to show my work in and that is what I still do.
The kids are grown up and on their own now. (pretty much) Mike is an electrician. Kary works in IT. Sarah Michele is a teacher like her mom. We've also got several grandkids now.
Before I go I would like to say something else. I have read some of your messages posted on classmates. People who live in Jeff often seem to apologize for still being there. Don't talk like that. I envy people that have a place to call home. If you still have even one friend that you grew up with, then you have something that a lot of us wish we had. Everywhere I have lived since leaving Jeff I have known that I'm not "from" there. When people say "You're not from here are you?" I say "I was born in Kentucky, I've lived in Florida and North Carolina, but I'm from Jeffersonville!"
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