Kay Spangler:
CLASS OF 1960
Rincon High SchoolClass of 1960
Tucson, AZ
Watsonville High SchoolClass of 1960
Watsonville, CA
Kay's Story
Dear Classmates, 1960:
"Oh-h-h, you missed the band trip to Mexico!!" Words that echoed around me in the halls for weeks. I arrived as a new student at Rincon High School in mid-February 1959 from Watsonville High School in California. The band trip was a really big deal, eh? Yup, I missed it, oh well.
Many of you may not remember me. I played clarinet in band--the very quiet, very tall, very skinny blonde.
After graduating I attended Humboldt State University in northern California, majoring in Elementary Education and Political Science. I met George Spangler, a fisheries science major; he swept me off my feet. George's story, I chased him all over campus and seduced him! We married after our second year at college, George graduated, I stayed pregnant, and we had four kids in five years. In 1964 we moved to Toronto, Ontario, Canada where George attended graduate school at the University of Toronto. He completed a Masters Degree and Ph.D. in Fisheries Science and worked for the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources as a research scientist and director of a fisheries research station in the north of Lake Huron (Upper Great Lakes). For ten years we lived in Sault Ste Marie, Ontario and on Manitoulin Island, the largest freshwater island in the world.
Manitoulin Island is remote and an isolated place to live during the long cold snowy winters. George traveled for work during the winter and his absences from home were often a week at a stretch. Driving the kids to and from figure skating lessons, hockey practice and games (20 miles one way), piano lessons (50 miles one way), volunteering at the elementary school, attending oil painting classes (30 miles one way), and cross-country skiing kept me busy. One February eight people committed suicide on the Wikwemikong Indian Reservation nearby. Forty years later I vividly remember this tragedy and feelings of sadness well up within.
One winter day a knock on the door added a whole new dimension to my life--a vocational opportunity. My first real job offer. The Sandfield township administrator asked me to apply for her job of 30 years, she was retiring. I applied and, despite my very short resume and my being an American, got hired. I think the township council was both desperate and grateful that I accepted the offer. The old deserted one room school house, conveniently located next door, was transformed into a township meeting/gathering room, and the community kitchen in a newer small addition became my office. I sent the kids off to school on the bus in the morning, walked next door to work, and returned home when I heard the bus stop on the road in the late afternoon. A perfect working arrangement.
Wow, my new job title was impressive--clerk, treasurer, tax-collector, and welfare administrator ....... somewhat intimidating. The learning curve was steep, but with help and advice from staff at the provincial Ministry of Housing I persevered. The first year I set the mill rate; property taxes went way down! "What's up with that?" I worried, then I discovered that the township had over-levied for three years and the lower mill rate I set saved the township from being assessed a provincial penalty for over-levying above an allowable limit. "Phew!" A big sigh of relief. The second year on the job I applied for and obtained provincial funding for home improvements for low income families, basics like adding indoor plumbing. My popularity with township residents went way up with that upgrade! The district assessment office worked with me to computerize the township property tax roll so tax bills could be automatically calculated and printed--no more typing and manually figuring each tax bill! Math and typing were not my strong suits in school. The years we lived on Manitoulin Island, 1970-1978, are filled with charming, heart-rending, and humorous stories and are documented by a wonderful slide collection. There is enough material to fill a book, a project George and I want to work on in retirement for our family.
We moved back to the states and to Minnesota in 1978. George began work as Professor of Fisheries at the University of Minnesota, and I got a job as a financial assistant in the local school district office. A convenient and profitable way to keep abreast of our kids' education and activities at the American schools they now attended. In 1981 I applied for a position at the Minnesota Historical Society, downtown St. Paul, and was hired. As acquisitions assistant I worked for the Director of Library and Archives and the Acquisitions Librarian. Our office managed the library, art, and museum collection acquisitions, and the library and archives bud...Expand for more
get.
The MNHS awarded me a research leave in 1992 to identify and compile MN juried artist exhibits and artist records from 1896-1972. The index that I created is available in the Society's library collection for research use. My research leave experience motivated me to take a part-time position at the Society, assistant paper conservator, so that I could return to college. The art and art history classes, taken years earlier at Humboldt State, stimulated a budding interest that grew and blossomed over the years. I completed my bachelors degree in art history and studio arts at the University of Minnesota over thirty years later. In 1998, after seventeen years at the Society, I decided at age 55 to take an early retirement and begin another chapter in my life's story.
George and I found a retreat away from the hustle and bustle of the twin cities--an 1880's old house on 5+ wooded acres in SE MN. George loves the handy trout fly fishing access on the Root River only one hundred yards behind the house and the lodging the house provides for friends during the spring turkey hunting season. A 60-mile bicycle trail winds through the scenic Root RIver Valley and borders our property and an eighteen hole golf course is located a few miles down the road. In 2000 we found an old building, fixed it up, and I opened my own business--Buying Tyme, Antiques, Art, Collectibles, and Custom Framing, an upscale junk shop really. I love my work and being my own boss. My specialty is preserving and conserving antiquarian maps, paper ephemera, artwork on paper, and framing family memorabilia. A little mending, cleaning, flattening, or new cotton rag matting goes a long way to transform an old dirty torn photo, wedding certificate, print, map, or watercolor into a thing of beauty.
From 2003-2006 a small group of concerned residents in SE MN organized to stop a proposed large industrial tire-burning plant. With the assistance of a law firm experienced in environmental law, seven of us sued the MN Pollution Control Agency and the developer. Finally, after two years in court, and with the additional support from others in SE MN, we won our law suit and the local developer backed away from the project. Hooray! An inappropriate project was proposed for a beautiful area--historically agricultural with recreational trout fishing, a wonderful bike trail, and tourism becoming an important component of the local economy. The industrial development would have caused large scale environmental degradation due to the area's fragile Karst geology.
Our four kids and their families live within 100 miles of us. We share a cottage on Campbell Bay, Manitoulin Island, Canada, and enjoy the visits there each summer. Christine works in HR for a software development firm, hubby Steve is a police officer; Coreen is an high school counselor, hubby Denny is a mechanical engineer; Jennifer is an high school special education teacher, hubby Bob is a county developmental supervisor and psychologist; and our son, Mark, is an IT computer business analyst and consultant, wife Nicole is currently a stay at home Mom. Our four granddaughters, Erica, Lindsay, Sydney, and Sierra range in age from twenty to two and a half. Our two step-grandsons, David and Jon, are in their twenties. Pets over the years included two cats, Kitty and Samantha; one pony, Heidi; three horses, Pat, Rusty, and Belle; four parakeets, Pierre, Pierre II, Bird, and No-name Bird; and five dogs, Simba, a Golden Retriever, Pandora, an Old English Sheepdog, Saber, a German Pudelpointer, Brandy, an English Field Cocker, and Gordy our Gordon Setter. During our Manitoulin days, other members of our animal menagerie included two rabbits + many bunnies, a dozen Plymouth Rock laying hens, two roosters, one hundred chickens, a dozen pheasants and turkeys, numerous head of cattle, and the school's guinea pig family (during the summer holidays).
March 2009 George retires from the University. He is ready for the change and the freedom and opportunity to pursue interests at his leisure; my shop will remain open for at least one more year. We are planning to move permanently to SE MN when our home sells in the Twin Cities and we are hoping to build an energy efficient green concept house. We are looking forward to spending a part of each summer on Manitoulin Island at the cottage, try sailing in the North Channel of Lake Huron, playing more golf, gardening, fishing and hunting, bird watching, working on our family book, and traveling. As each cold winter passes, warmer places beckon.
This is my story. Can't believe I wrote so much. Hope to read more of your stories so I can catch up!
Cheers, Kay Spangler (Chapel)
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