James Ayotte:
CLASS OF 1975
West Chicago Community High SchoolClass of 1975
West chicago, IL
James's Story
It has been a long road since the care free dyas at WCCHS. I remember in my first three years that I was extremely grade conscious and worked hard at achieving them.
I was not an angel but unless you knew me I was a fairly reserved person even with various escapades like drag racing the yellow Cuda and the water fire extinguishers episodes down by the cafeteria in frive by events where Terry blasted away.
Senior year was my favorite year for many reasons. Since I made the decison to join the USMC and I only needed a couple;e of classes to graduate the year was like a part time job. It breezed by quickly and I spent a lot of time with various friends I met in Geneva and Wheaton.
Since those care free years I spent 6 years in the USMC, a couple of years at SIU which felt too restricted and like high school after being in the Corps I went to work in the electronics world.
My original goal was to continue to work on aircraft electronic systems but I soon realized that the door into that world was a hard one to open with Unions and such so I worked in Carol Stream for a small company and continued from there. I worked for 5 companies in 30+ years and spent most of my career in a small company originally called Infortext Systems Inc. which was bought by present owner and is called ISI Telemanagement Solutions,Inc. I started as a Associate engineer designing hardware and some software in a small 3 member team that as we grew the company the engineering team grew. Because our manager spent more time marketing and selling I took responsibility for the shop and became the Manager after a couple of years. from there I went thru various management positions and roles with the organization and am still there after 25+ years filling the role of VP Engineering.
I met my wife Paula 34 years ago completely by chance when I returned home from the Marines. In June of 1979 we tied the knot which has held us together thru many good times and some bad times. We have 2 Daughters who are grown and we are empty nester's now with exception to our two Chocolate Labradors and 2 miniature Dachshunds. I have always loved animals and have had a dog or two since I was a kid. My wife shares my love of animals and that has passed on to our kids. One daughter lives fairly close to us. We currently live in South Elgin off of Randall road just north of McDonald. Our oldest moved to Colorado about 10 years ago and is doing well now. She married and divorced the...Expand for more
guy she went with to Colorado but after a couple of difficult years she moved on and is now engaged to a young man who treats her well. She is engaged again and will be married once they can afford it. Our youngest is also engaged and is tying the knot in 6 months to a young man she met on an internet site after college and many disappointing boyfriends who had no clue where they where heading.
At 53 I am now back on the job market. I have fought cluster headaches for well over 10 years and even though I have been with the place where I work for 25+ years it became CEO/Chairmans decision that I could not do my job with these cluster attacks. Like any story there is a lot involved so at this time we are waiting to find out if Long Term Disability Insurance will cover my ailment and I am getting ready for a job hunt. at 53 it will not be the one interview get a job experience from my early career days but we will do what we need to get a job so that like many others before me that we do not loose what we have worked hard for over the years.
As a kid my parents got us into boating and waterskiing. This has been a passion of mine since I was a teen and when my daughters where young we bought a boat that we used on vacation for 13+ years where we went with other family members, our parents and friends to the southern Ozarks for 1-2 weeks a year. My parent had a mobile home with lake access in Indianna that they bought when we were raising our kids. They bought it as a place to spend weekends together and still boat. We recently boat a higher end ski boat in 2007 to find out in 2009 that the employment world as I knew it was gone. It is going with us on our last boating vacation and then going back up for sale..
Like others we decided in 2002 to sell the house we had lived in for 15+= years and invest in a house that was more expensive but that would gain equity value at a better rate than where we were at. That neighborhood was aging rapidly and house values were flat. It looked like we made the right decision until the real estate crash. The house is still worth what we have into it but with a very high number of foreclosures in the market in the area we will be hard pressed to compete against foreclosed homes.
That is the 3 minute summation of a lot of good years this justjarhead from the land of yahoo has had. If you figure out my clue or google me you should be able to email me. I would be more than happy to answer.
Enjoy.
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