James Booth:  

I stayed true to my goal of becoming an accountant and am still practicing at a regional firm in Poughkeepsie, NY. After 2 years at JCC I barely survived the 3rd year at University at Buffalo, but graduated the next year and took a job with Price Waterhouse in Rochester. The Army was after me as soon as I graduated, but I bought a year at work by enlisting in the Air Force. The Air Force years were good years for me, even though the times were really bad. I went back to music, playing in a Drum & Bugle Corps at my training base in Denver, then auditioning for, and getting into, the band at Sheppard Air Force Base in Wichita Falls, TX. I met my wife, Kay, in a chow hall there, where she was in training as a medic. We were married later that year and had a son the following year. I was taking trumpet and music classes at a local university, but an "early out" squelched plans to change careers. I went back to work with PW in Rochester and was offered a transfer to New Orleans in '81. After 2 years there, we were convinced (by the trouble we had with schools, primarily) that we belonged back east, so I took a job with a firm in Bridgeport, CT. One more job change brought me to NYC to work with a much smaller firm, where I thrived. I commuted into NY to that firm for 17 years, first from Trumbull, CT, then from Fishkill, where we moved after becoming "empty-nesters". I moved my practice to the current firm in Poughkeepsie in 2005, trading my 2-hour door-to-door commute for a 20-minute drive. Our son, Randy, and his wife have 3 children, the youngest born in August, 2013. They are a blessing and bring us great joy. Ran...Expand for more