James Comrada:
CLASS OF 1968
Bainbridge High SchoolClass of 1968
Bainbridge island, WA
James's Story
UPDATE 10/14
We are stardust, we are golden,
And we got to get ourselves back to the garden.
Whew! Heady stuff when you go back to the dreams of your youth.
In eight years both sides of the aisle have gotten so far from the basics.
Let's hope the next four will be better for everyone not just 1% of us.
It's time.......
UPDATE 10/08
A picture of me? Heck she's cuter.
Wow! What can I say? Both of my daughters were beautiful when they were born. No, really!
But Linda and I were not prepared for our first granddaughter. Angelic is an understatement! Baby smell! Bottle it and there would be peace on earth. and sleeping baby sounds.... What a gift....
Alise and Greg are two very happy parents. I am especially impressed by the sense of family and participation from both Alise's and Greg's family members that have been so supportive.
Yeah, proud papa and grandpa.....!
Linda now is fully invested in doing home visits for her families now and loves it. She is a teacher family advocate for Head Start; one of those poorly paid social workers that truly does make the world better by preparing poor and at risk kids for life in this big world. Can't express how proud I am or how wonderful it is to have a person like her in my life after several difficults attempts.
Funny, even knowing what I do now I wouldn't have changed a thing, because I ended up with two lovely daughters and two great step-sons. What else is there, huh?
Work is slowing due to the wonders of Wall Street and a complacent Congress, but that was to be expected.
Being roped into the presidency of the local chapter of the Native Plant Society has been hectic, but rewarding this year. Right now we are working on a partnership with WDFW's regional office and joining forces with WSU Extension Watershed Stewards, local schools, and a lot of other local organizations to start "Oak Quest". From south Puget Sound to the Columbia River we are understaking a mapping of every Oregon White Oak trees=. 300 to 400 plants and animals are linked to them in some way; some existing only by the mere presence of Oregon Oaks. From algae and lichens to deer, elk and Bluebirds they are a uniquely rich ecosystem in many manefestations, so we are going to map them and classify each specific plant community. Very cool for a geek like me.
UPDATE
Still limping around in my steel and leather leg braces, which is very interesting in the wetlands I work in.
Still also periodically teach introductory native plant ID for the local (Clark County, WA) WSU Extension Watershed Stewards.
I'm still an ecologist/riparian horticulturist for an environmental consulting firm based in Vancouver. Much of my time doing wetland delineations is on the Oregon coast. Work, work, work!
Our company is one of the most qualified in the business considering the depth of experience in our team. We are a branch office of an engineering firm based in Gladstone, OR with offices in Spokane and John Day, and Medford OR, and down the hall from us here in Vancouver, WA. Our office has a wildlife biologist, fisheries biologist, engineer/environmental scientist and me. Plus we have the full support of the engineers (PE's or Professional Engineers) from the main office and branches.
Several years ago I created an exhibit at the local SWS (Society of Wetland Scientists) conference on why wetland mitigations fail. A result of that and my harping on this point I created standards and specifications that all of my AutoCAD drawings end up with, that put to rest the poor specifications too many landscape architects have used for too long. Periodically we have them peer reviewed by associates at WSU. Oregon State University, and the University of Florida for accuracy and verification that we continue on the right course to turn around the long term failure rate of mitigations in the PNW (85%).
Alise and her husband my oldest stepson Jason and his wife are enjoying their homes and settled in to fixing them inside and out.
Alise (Brenda's Mattson's daughter) is expecting my first grandaughter! What a treat. I know many of you had them a long time ago, but, well so it ...Expand for more
goes. Just means we'll work that much harder at spoiling ours.
Lindy my youngest is working as a field instructor for Outdoor School in the Multinomah County educational system. She is the first to get hired in that capacity without at least a BA in Biology or some form of environmental studies degree. Still continues to amaze us with her talents.
Jake, stepson number 2 graduated at Eastern Washington Universtiy; a BS in Biology with minors in Chemistry and Physices. Wow!
Still remember the day Jake let me know he was declaring biology as his major compared to the architecture his father hoped he'd get into. Just like corrupting Lindy with "The Lorax" I had some how done the same to my step-son..... YEAH-BABY! (That was uncalled for...)
For a college drop-out that doubles as an ecologist for a first rate environmental consulting firm I am very fortunate to have had such a rich life with my wonderful wife the teacher family advocate for Head Start and these four fantastic kids. Life! :)
Hope to hear from some of you someday and read about yours lives at some point. I haven't, which is fine. While I tend to be candid I know many are overly protective of themselves, their true selves.
Take care, and good fortune at you.
Jim
Life?
Hmm. How would I like to be remembered?
I guess being one of the kids from the other side of the tracks, or perhaps a kind of odd little man with parents old enough to be my granparents, I always felt like an outsider. I miss a lot of you a though, many who have probably not thought of me for decades.
I wonder about John and Trudy (spelling?) to this day. Still wondering what happened. Miss them both.
I would love to see Nancy and John and Barbara.
Pat and his "Cristine" style Plymouth doing an about face on his sexuality or maybe just an extension of what was always there.
Collen? Hmm.
I remember the day Robert Kennedy died. I bumped into Kathy who volunteered for his campaign. She was so distraught. I was too, but was too shy to express any feelings about it as she did. Always seeming to never be taken seriously because she seemed elsewhere yet always having something important to say even though most of us missed her points, because of preconcieved perceptions of her.
Victor, the first to get kicked out of school for his long hair. God, his already messed up world just tripled in being that much worse. What a gentle hand on his guitars. Oh, Tom got busted for long hair too, but he had an intact family that jumped down the throat of the school district so fast I thought school was going to be closed for a day or so. A half-way intact family, what a luxury for some.
For all his personal demons and tragic life he was a gentle soul; good at heart.
Some of you don't know he spent a summer with me fishing in the Tlingkut fleet in Kake, Alaska with me. When we were'nt fishing for salmon we were playing our hearts out jammin' or playing at a gig. Fun stuff.....
Bob and Gary and all the people that came to a birthday party for me just once. They enjoyed themselves, but I think the fact that my family lived in an unfinished house better suited for po'-folk stopped any real relatioships or freindships in their tracks.
Jim and Mike and Mike's brother Neal. Wow Boyscouts!
Finally, my best friend my god-parent's son Steve. He was like the little brother I never really had. Still remember picking him up and running into the woods to get away from the cops at a St. Barnabas weekend dance 'cus he was a bit under the weather'. Ah memories.
Yeah, it was hell for him to have a father that reminded him constantly that he was a disappointment. Didn't do much for his life at the time. I hope he and his family and his kids are doing well. Worried too much about him growing up and miss his candidness with me, though I still have an IOU for some of the money he got out of me for cigarettes or something stronger. Cracks me up every time I find it in an old file of stuff from my past
An' Chuck and David and Rhonda missum' all.
And so many more. What an interesting group of people we were, even if I wasn't a part of it for the most part, really.
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