Eileen O'Hagan Straley:
CLASS OF 1965
Ramona High SchoolClass of 1965
Riverside, CA
Eileen O'Hagan's Story
Hi, everyone! Boy, 50 years since high school! Hasn't the time passed quickly?! I see your names and many bring a smile to my face as I met you when I was half way through our junior year and then all of our senior year, graduating. With my father being in the hotel industry, we moved to various resorts as I was growing up and Del Webb's Sun City and dad managing it, allowed me to go to school in Riverside. (What teen wouldn't appreciate driving the freeways for 30 minutes one way each day...) I worked at the Ice Cream parlor there in the shopping center in Sun City after school and weekends til I went to college. Briefly attended Colorado State University in Ft. Collins, Colo where every friend I ever met throughout Colorado, Wyoming, Arizona and several in California attended. It felt like old home week...and I loved playing bridge...however, I soon found out....I needed to settle down and concentrate on studies. I entered a state contest thinking I could travel and was among the runners up. I got serious about what I needed to do and headed back to California to work and get some financial security going. I went to San Diego as Dad now had the Catamaran Inn in Pacific Beach. I got a job at Ryan Aeronautical and bought lumber for the drones they were making. Ahhhh not so much where I wanted to hang my hat for years. Opening at a radio and television studio (KGO TV) in San Diego applied and became the secretary to the News Room Director. I loved it. It was action, life, fragility. I was being groomed to be an anchor for the news when my husband received a promotion in the electronics industry and we left the area for San Francisco. Bummer....the one job I wanted to stay in .... We were in the area for another year when he received a Corporate promotion and back to the Los Angeles area. Bought our first house, delivered our first child (now 42), got the dog, I stayed home, white picket fence, etc. Three years later another beautiful daughter(now 40) and when school age, I returned to work as a school secretary in their public school. Husband's job took us back to northern California but this time we built our home and enjoyed the Santa Cruz area. Drats, again the job took us 'inland' to the Sacramento area.
(it was actually Modesto, but not alot of folks have heard of this college town). I continued working as a office manager, attendance, registrar and give out pills or clean wounds when the assigned nurse once a week wasn't there. Husband changed industry's. After a telecon with one of his sons (yes, I have two stepsons, Scott is 52; Jeff is 50) Jeff was the nurse at the time. He is now an Oncologist in LA. Bill (husband) went to College of Mortuary Sciences, became an embalmer, cosmetologist, funeral director, counselor. He worked that year at night in a funeral home in Oakland (gang capital of the world) and had many deceased to pick up and bring back to the funeral home to assist with. While he was attending the school in San Francisco, our oldest daughter was a senior in high school. On her way home walking she was attacked by some gangsters driving by in a car. 7 of them got to her. Suffice to say, it would have been a different outcome if any of the neighbors in the cuddlesac she was cutting through had been home and alert. I fee...Expand for more
l there would have been 7 less gangsters in the world if I had seen what was going on. Police, hospital, tests, reports, weeks pass and the pregnancy is announced. Abortion is not in our vocabulary. And, even though the attackers were hispanic, asian, black and white we didn't know what the color would be....but that was our blood running through its veins. A girl was born in Dec 1992 and our daughter asked us to adopt the baby and raise as our own. We did. We have. Another job offered in the Pacific Northwest and we decided a change of scenery might be best for all of us so left California for Washington. Truly, I had no idea that I would become a living widow so early in life. Bill is awake on the job 8-5pm and because a person has experienced a passing of a loved one, they want to talk to someone right then. So when they come to the funeral home ... even though the director might have been up all night and put in a full day, the director is the person they talk to for as long as they wish to talk and plan. Bill comes home may eat and then usually the calls come of a pick up needed for a deceased at a hospital, hospice center, or at home. They are respectfully picked up, taken to the funeral home, embalmed and prepared for their family and then the director returns home to maybe sleep. However, there are times when Bill is out of his suit, into his pajamas and gets the call. Puts his shirt, suit and tie back on and heads out to where needed. And, at 73, he is now working part time, but that means nothing. Again, the number of the deceased creates whether a person works part time for full - full time. The education in Washington is awful...ranked 48th out of 50 states. Being a homeschooling state, I decided I could homeschool. I had been purchasing curriculum for our districts in Cal for years and watched how the teachers improvised. I met with some women who wanted to open a co-op. I called 7 different school districts and obtained their substitute list. Called each one and asked what their passion in teaching was. Many said, none. Forget them. Those that did have a passion came on board to teach our home schoolers which started out at 100 families and 75 kids, aged 7-18. As time passed, more teachers came on board, more families, too. When Felicia graduated high school and had her AA from the junior. college in hand at the same time, we were servicing 3,500 students. God's hand was in this venture the WHOLE time. However, getting back to our daughter, now at 21, she just flew the coop and is thriving. She is a CNA on way to becoming an RN. She is a professional clown and member of Big Foot Clown Alley. She went to clown school in order to learn and be a therapeutic clown at the hospitals working with terminal patients. She loves ASL though she hears beautifully. She is an interpreter for the deaf when time permits. She was a gift at the time, she has continued to be a blessing in our lives. She keeps us young..so though I might be approaching 68, it is just a number. I feel 30/40 ...
I truly hope that your lives have been rich and full and that you are happy and in good health. I would love to hear from you and learn what you have done 'all grow-ed up!" Blessings be yours, Eileen O'Hagan Straley
(just celebrated 47 years of marriage)
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