Patti Livaudais:
CLASS OF 1970
Andrew Jackson High SchoolClass of 1970
Chalmette, LA
Patti's Story
Life
After graduation, I married Bruce LeBlanc from Arabi--and an "Owl" from Chalmette High.
I trained as a Surgical Technologist and Bruce studied music at Loyola and worked a part-time job. A year after we married (12/71), we had a son, Bruce Jr., nicknamed "Toby". When Toby was about 14 months old, Bruce divorced me and let's just say that it was for good reason.
I worked at the Eye, Ear, Nose and Throat Hospital on Elks Place right off of Canal street for about 3 years. Then moved to EJGH for 3 years. Then worked for a cosmetic surgeon for a year before I moved to Virginia to continue a 3 year relationship. I took a job at Newport News Shipbuiding in the Benefits Department and during the 13 yrs I worked there I was a Health Claims Examiner, Supervisor of Health Claims, Wage and Salary Administrator, and a Workers' Compensation Analyst. I enjoyed Virginia a lot...My relationship ended after 8 great years when I was told that I would have to convert to Judaism to marry my lover. I couldn't and wouldn't do that so my man moved away to Florida. By this time, Toby was 7 years old. I didn't date for quite a while and when I did, I never let my dates meet my son unless or until I felt the guy was worthy of meeting my only child. I eventually met, dated, lived with and married Dave, who also worked for the Shipyard. Married a damned Yankee!! We lived in Newport News and we had 3 children when our child, Thomas was born in 1983. We were a yours, mine and ours family. It worked out great. We've been married for 27 years and have moved from Virginia to Lake Charles, LA, then to Elizabethtown, KY, then to Luling, LA. Each move was inherant to his job in the chemicals industry. He's a Director of Human Resources and Labor Relations and I am an Office Manager for a construction company in LaPlace. Toby fell shy of getting his accounting degree from McNeese, joined the Air Force and now lives in South Carolina with his wife of 15 years and his 11 and 6 year old daughters. Kerrie, Dave's daughter is single, living in Columbia, SC, and has a Masters Degree in Childhood Development and Education. She wants kids soon, so she'd better get busy getting a ring on her hand....Our son, To...Expand for more
mmy has an Associates Degree in Instrumentation and works for a local oil refinery. He lives in River Ridge and attends night school, one class at a time, to eventually secure his Engineering degree. Tom was engaged for a year but that didn't work out, so he is getting back into the single scene--which seems much harder and much more dangerous than when we dated, went out dancing and drinking, etc.
Well, not much more to report. I still have blonde hair, mixed with gray. I haven't played trumpet since I graduated. I've gained some weight but not much. I'm so wrinkled I can hardly stand it and sometimes wonder who that person is looking back at me in the mirror! I have 2 female chocolate labs, 2 female cats (1 rescued at my husband's work, the day after Katrina--still had it's eyes shut) and 1 male cat (I thought it was a female!). Never had a cat before and now I have 3 and I love them to death.
Well, that's about it. Hobbies come and go. I have tried a lot of crafts, artwork, athletics, hobbies--from embroidery to hang gliding, smoking dope to welding. I love to learn new things all of the time but find that the older I get the less time I have. Hey, that's true in more ways than one! My list of things to do when I retire takes up about a legal pad (bee keeping, owning and driving my OWN Harley instead of riding on the back of my husband's, playing the dulcimer, getting and spending time in a camp on the water).
Except for a few close friends and a few nice people I enjoyed spending time with at AJ, I can't say I was a "glee club" type of student. I didn't really come away with a whole lot to miss. After all, AJ WAS an all girl school and my parents were the absolute strictest. If it hadn't been for band, a few of my teachers and those few close friends I loved, I wouldn't even remember much of high school. When I get news of class reunions and cruises and the like, I just can't comprehend even entertaining the thought of going. I've always had a few exceptionally good friends wherever I've lived and that's it. I do not enjoy the company of acquaintances--people you either don't really have a chance to, or don't want to, get to know as a human being.
Patti Livaudais
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