Rick Kemenesi:  

hrough High School and college. The first one was the Pomona Concert Band which I joined when I was thirteen and continued to play with into my mid twenties. Later in H.S. I auditioned for and was admitted to the Jr Philharmonic Orchestra of California who continue to give concerts at major venues around Los Angeles. As a matter of fact I've just had the pleasure of playing a concert with them at Walt Disney Concert Hall this past June 16th, 2018. Traveling all around and playing concerts in so many different places was one of the best experiences of my teen years. Of course the best part of school was hanging with friends and partying. I was surfing a lot and became entrenched in the surf culture of the sixties. Some of the best times were those weekend trips to check out the surf from Huntington to Encinitas with my surf buddies. Summers we would hang out at Doheny with a whole crew of surfers and beach bunnies from Bassett! After graduation it was on to MSAC where my education was interrupted for a time by the war but I did gain valuable training in the Navy and later at Saddleback College that helped in my career with the phone company. It was also at Saddleback that I finally gained the skills necessary to be a good student. I have no regrets (well maybe one or two) and would do it all the same as I obviously don't always catch on the first time! Workplace Right before I got out of the Navy I was hired by Pacific Telephone and went to work for them immediately upon my separation from active duty. My sister Randa was the one who got me the job. I started working in Downtown L.A. in the same type of job I had done in the Navy. I was able to transfer to other jobs and locations around the L.A. area and eventually ended up in Orange County as a Service Technician which I did for the majority of my career in Orange and L.A. Counties. While working in Southern Orange County I lived in San Clemente and was able to surf almost daily. I also met my daughters mom at this time. It was a great place to be, I had a great job and a lot of good times with people I met on the job, partying with co-workers, surf buddies, taking surf trips and generally living in paradise! In the mid eighties Pacific Telephone changed to Pacific Bell and at this time my mom became ill and I transferred to the El Monte garage living in the house I grew up in with my girlfriend with our daughter on the way. Pacific Bell was acquired by SBC (Southwest Bell Communications) in the late eighties. After my mom's passing I returned to Southern Orange County (my girlfriend and I had split up by then but I have this beautiful daughter) to continue working down there. I worked down there through the nineties and in early 2000 transferred to SBC-ASI in Pasadena where I retired from. I met and worked with a lot of great people over the years and it was a good job that I was very fortunate to have. I retired as of June 2002 and I'm enjoying life more than ever now! Military I was drafted into the Army on December 30th of 1970. I was going to MSAC at the time and having the time of my life. This definitely put the skids on everything and my life has never been the same since. I was able to get a postponement of induction to finish the semester and then joined the Navy instead of going into the Army. I hated Boot Camp in San Diego and after Boot Camp was sent to Radiomen "A" School also in San Diego. After a nice summer in San Diego I graduated from "A" School and received orders to the U.S.S. Kitty Hawk CV-63 which was homeported at North Island in San Diego (it's now in the inactive fleet and interestingly enough was replaced by the USS George Washington which my daughter served on). As soon as I reported onboard it sailed off to a Westpac cruise which included two combat tours in Vietnam. I sailed all over the world on that ship and saw a lot of places while circumnavigating the globe twice. At one point after just returning from my first Westpac I was assigned temporary staff duty with CINCPACFLT (Commander-in-Chief Pacific Fleet) in Hawaii working on "Operation Homecoming" (when they brought the POW's home from Vietnam). I worked in Makalapa Crater and lived in the barracks at Pearl Harbor. It was a lot of fun in Hawaii but I eventually had to rejoin my ship in drydock at Hunter's Point in San Francisco. After drydock it was back on a Westpac cruise. Shortly after returning from the second cruise my enlistment was over and after what seemed like a lifetime of military service I was separated from active duty and returned to civilian life and a good job with the phone company.