Deborah Tripp:  

OK if someone told me I'd be crunching numbers all day long when I was in High School, I probably wouldn't be here right now as I don't think I could have survived that thought. So for a living, I own my own business as a commercial real estate appraiser and broker and am the only woman in SC to have earned the MAI and the SRA designations of the Appraisal Institute. Yep, I'm proud of that. My pride and joy are my two kids - Robin (son of John Biro, class of 1970) who works with me, and Jessica, blonde hair, blue eyed just graduated from Winthrop University. I guess I'd have been considered a shy hippie type in High School. Went to Kent State University the fall semester after May 4th, where the environment was radical and unsettling, but also exciting for a rabble-rouser wannabe. My dream career of teaching got sidetracked in 1973 when my dad (Otto Schmidt - passed in 1980) gave me 'the talk' after being the first teacher in the Cleveland Public Schools to find a gun on one of his students. (Low pay, changing job, lots of paperwork, dedication and changing lives is your reward.) Hmmmm, maybe not such a great idea. So John Biro and I flew the coop. Moved to Arizona and lived in the desert, which we left when it got to be 115 degrees downtown and the buildings were waving. Went to a hippie ("Rainbow) festival at the Wind River Wilderness in Wyoming, where some peacenik stole everything we had in our red, double-cab 1952 pickup truck. Peace and love - not! So we hooked up with a couple of folks who needed a ride and had gas money but no vehicle, whereas we had a vehicle but no money. Ended up in Colorado when the gas money ran out. So, John and I got married and lived a 'back to the land' lifestyle on a fruit farm in a house made of hay (yes, folks, I said hay) and half-round wood, for almost 6 years, where my dear son Robin was born sans hospital, doctor, or midwife, in 1975. What an incredible experience and truly magical! But then, middle class called me h...Expand for more