Peggy Bright:
CLASS OF 1966
Waite High SchoolClass of 1966
Toledo, OH
East Side Central Elementary SchoolClass of 1962
Toledo, OH
Peggy's Story
Life
I met my husband, David Deeslie, when I was working as a research supervisor at Hunt-Wesson Foods in Rossford. He was to begin his senior year at OSU and came to Toledo for the summer to work; his family was from down-state Ohio. We started dating the summer of '67 and married June 1, 1968. He graduated the 8th and was reclassified 1-A (draft eligible)immediately, although he had been admitted to graduate school at Michigan State for fall semester. We spent that summer in Toledo still both working at Hunt's and he was drafted in
September. I joined him at Ft. Meade (Maryland) Army base and so our lives as gypsies began. With his college degree in Biological Sciences, he was
made a medical lab specialist and had very specialized training. The last leg of his Army career he was sent to Nurnberg, Germany and I went with
him...we were always blessed for some reason...he could have been a medic in Vietnam just as well.
He did get his MS in Food Science from MSU (E. Lansing) and I got pregnant just before he got his degree. He took a job with Coca Cola Foods
Division in Houston where his family had moved 2 years before. We lived there 4 years and I had son Jonathan in '73 and daughter, Robin in '76. My
difficult pregnancy with Robin and Coke's poor insurance coverage was the catalyst to move...
David decided to go back for his PhD and I supported his decision. Robin was only 5 month's old, Jon was 3 when we packed up a u-haul and headed for Champaign-Urbana Illinois (University of Illinois). That move was very hard on our marriage...it took him 4 years to finish and
many nights he would sleep at the lab. I had to go back to full time work at the IL EPA and we came very close to divorcing. We made it however,
and moved to Minneapolis in 1980. We lived in Maple Grove, MN for 8 years and the kids consider it their home town; we bought our first home there
after 12 years of marriage. My m...Expand for more
om died in 1979 and Dave's dad died in '81, both were in their 50's and it impacted us tremendously. We moved to
Florida in '88 because David always felt he would die young like his dad. He loved the gulf and the beach and those years '88-'93 were his best
working years. The kids were both teens by now and the stress from family and job started to take its toll. His company (Klondike Ice Cream) was sold
to Good Humor and we had to move to Wisconsin Corporate offices in Green Bay.
Dave lasted 6 years in Green Bay but the stress and strongarm management style of the British owned company became intolerable. By this time I was working in theatre at the University of WI at Green Bay and doing a lot of volunteer work in literacy. We began taking dance classes in the disco
era '77 -'79 and continued with ballroom classes all through the 80's and 90's. Wisconsin was a mecca for ballroom dancers and we met lots of good
friends through our dancing. When David took his last job in Rochelle IL, we continued dancing. Fortunately,our daughter was living and working in
Chicago so we could spend many weekends enjoying the city. We started attending dances at our local country club (Dave was an avid golfer as well) and it was at the "Greek Night" dance where he collapsed after our last beautiful fox trot. He had just turned 55 (the same age his father was when he died) and we were married 33 years and 1 week.
This is turning into a missal so I'll save the now story for another time. In order to get on with my life, I've had to put that chapter in a very special compartment in my heart. We had a good 34 year run...now I'm single just like my daughter and struggling with relationships like everyone else. I'm a prolific writer and keep up with e-mails and snail mail as much as possible. After all the
moves we made, I have accumulated many dear friends along the way and still try to keep in touch.
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