John Covell:
CLASS OF 1961
Suitland High SchoolClass of 1961
Forestville, MD
John's Story
Shortly after I graduated from Suitland, my dad retired from the Air Force and decided to move to the KC area where my mom's family was from. I didn't want to leave the area since I had pretty much "grown up" there. The rest of the family left, and I finally landed, renting a room from what became my best friend, from a class two years later. His name was Larry Poe. He passed away a number of years ago from cancer and I miss him dearly.
Anyway, I got drafted in 1964 into the Army, and became a paratrooper. Right out of jump school they sent my whole class directly to Viet Nam, where I spent a year tour. Was fortunate to make it home alive. Used the GI bill and the opportunity to get more education, and ended up in KC where I went to KU. After a couple of years there, I met the love of my life, Jane. We were later married and I had told her my heart was in MD, so we went back to live. Spent five years there, and for a variety of reasons decided to move back to he midwest.
Being new to the area, I bounced around in a number of jobs. While I had been in MD, I had spent some time with a neighbor helping him in his basement doing upholstery work. I remember thinking then, that maybe at some time this might come in handy. Little did I know. Finally, got a job at a local upholster shop and became great friends with the owner. We're still friends to this day. Anyway, after a few years, I started riding motorcycles again, and doing some touring. Found out that custom touring motorcycles were a big thing, and started my own business doing just M/C seats. Was great while it lasted but then the production seats were way better and my hand made approach to making seats wasn't practical.
Ended up as a GM for a van conversion operation. While there I went to night school to get a degree in the tech field, in computers. The van business crashed and I left for a job with Wang Labs. doing field service work. I thought I would retire from there, but they ended up going out of business (you see a pattern here...lol) and I landed a job as the ...Expand for more
IT director for a insurance company.
By then we had been going to Lake of the Ozarks on weekends and summer vacations for a number of years. After about 10 years of this, we noticed that the value of property at the Lake was booming and that if we were going to be able to afford to buy a retirement home there, we had better start looking. Well after about 3 years we finally found what we were looking for and bought a full time residence on the water. Wasn't long after that, things fell apart at work and I took a separation agreement. We ended up selling our house in the city and moving to the lake.
Things at the lake are very seasonal as you can imagine, and finding full time employment was difficult, especially in the IT field. So, as fate would have it, I fell back on my old skills and started my own upholstery biz. Of course boats are big business here at the lake so lots of boat upholstery to do. With my IT background I built my own website and was active on a number of boating websites. I had developed a seat design change for a popular offshore boat called a Cigarette Bullet, which I owned. Anyway, I had pictures of the the new style seats that I offered on my website. I was amazed that I was getting guys sending me their stock seats from all over the country to get the new style. Was very busy doing boat interiors and work for years before I semi-retired. I still do the small stuff but have gotten out of the big stuff.
About four years ago we were thinking about buying a motorhome to do some traveling. After looking for a couple years we ended up taking a vacation to So. Texas to visit a friend from the lake that had bought a place down there. We spent a great week there, and before we left we had a contract on a place in the same park as our friends. We have been spending our winters down there now for 4 years now, and looking forward to going back this winter. Nice to be able to get out of the cold and snow.
That about wraps it up. Will be anxious to hear from any of your that remember me. Thanks. John & Jane
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