James Adams:
CLASS OF 1967
Lakewood High SchoolClass of 1967
Lakewood, CA
James's Story
As of Oct 2016
Briefly, after graduating from Lakewood High School in 67, I was working and attending Long Beach City College before becoming restless. As you recall, that period in our lives was very unsettling. So I decided to enlist in the United States Air Force (USAF).
After basic training and technical training the USAF assigned me to Vandenberg Air Force Base (VAFB) near the town of Lompoc, California. While assigned there, I met the lovely Rita J. De Lira and fifteen months later Rita and I married in her hometown of Lompoc. Rita and I have been happily married for forty-five years.
A year after we married, we were blessed with our first of five children. Christopher, who represents another generation of military service completed a career in the USAF. He is married with three wonderful children, the twins (boy and girl are now 19 years old) and another boy (15 years old). Chris and his family live in Bellevue, Nebraska.
Michael, our second son, is married. He graduated from Notre Dame and is a first line auditor manager with the Internal Revenue. Michael lives in San Jose with his wife and sweet four year old daughter. Michael is one of my fishing buddies.
John, our third son, is married and has four wonderful children, a boy (9 years old) and three girls (7, 5, and 3 years old). John recently bought the shop he worked at for the last eleven years, German Auto of Santa Maria a service and repair shop. So if you are in the area stop by and see him. John and his family live in Lompoc. This is a real pleasure for Rita and me to have some of our grandchildren in town with us.
Thomas, our fourth son, is married and has three wonderful children, three boys (10 and 7 years old and 7 months). Thomas and his family moved to Lompoc five years ago from Boise and recently bought a house across the street from us. He works near by in Santa Maria as a Designer for a German company. Again, it is a real pleasure for Rita and me to have more of our grandchildren in town with us.
Angela, our daughter and the youngest was married earlier this year. She graduated from the University of California at Santa Barbara. She is a teacher here in Lompoc and Flamenco dancer and instructor. Rita and I look forward to holding her children in the future. She is als...Expand for more
o one of my fishing buddies.
After serving my first four years in the USAF, I decided to make it a career. I retired after 26 years. For 18 years I was assigned to the Strategic Air Command in the Inter-Continental Ballistic Missile forces. Then I finished up my career launching satellites from VAFB while assigned to Space Command. I had a wonderful, exciting, and interesting career in the USAF until congress mandated a force reduction that involuntarily retired me in 1994. I had planned on doing 30 years.
Since 1986, we have been living in the Lompoc. After retiring in 1994, I returned to school to complete my degree. Then after completing school, I re-entered the workforce. After working a couple different jobs for about five years, I found a great job at VAFB working for a defense contractor in the space launch business.
These days, I continue to keep my hair closely cut as I have no hair on the top of my head anymore. I shave everyday and have no tattoos, earrings, or piercings. I currently weigh in at 189lbs and have probably shrunk about a half-inch since high school. My eyes failed me after I retired from the USAF and now I wear eyeglasses. Otherwise my health has been pretty good considering I am 67 years old now.
Since retirement I watch grand kids and teach them about the garden and working in the garage, take them to the park, and practice baseball with them. I also do woodworking, go fishing on the central coast and pristine VAFB beaches, travel a bit, work on my genealogy, do Knights of Columbus stuff.
Some of the things I need to do or finish are resurrect restoring my 1969 Camaro Rally Sport and take Rita to see Washington D.C.
Since leaving Lakewood, I have not been back to visit but a few times. I see family in the surrounding areas and attend different events and activities, but do not seem to get enough time to checkout Lakewood more thoroughly. I sometimes think about the class of 67. I wonder what each of you have been up to for the past 49 years. Too bad I could not share some time with you at past reunions or come across you at the Lakewood Shopping Center. It would be nice to hear from you and learn what you have been doing all these years.
Wishing all the Class of 67 good health and happiness.
Best regards,
Jim Adams
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