Sharlene Jones:
CLASS OF 1964
Chalmette High SchoolClass of 1964
Chalmette, LA
Chalmette High SchoolClass of 2003
Chalmette, LA
Sharlene's Story
Life
I graduated from CHS in 1964, married Allen Jones (CHS 1961) four days later and moved to Norfolk, Virgina, for a year. (Allen was in the Navy and stationed there.) After his discharge, we came back to St. Bernard parish. Allen went to UNO (then LSUNO) during the day, and I started going at night. Our only child, Allen, Jr., was born two days before Allen graduated with a degree in English education, Jan. 1971). He began his teaching career (Orleans and St. Bernard Parishes). I went to school during the day, graduating in Dec. 1974, (My degree was also in English Ed.) and started teaching at CHS. I taught there until June of 2003 when I retired. Allen died in 2000 (lung cancer). I stayed in St. Bernard Parish until this summer (2004) when I moved to an apartment in New Orleans (Allen, Jr. moved into our house.) to be closer to my "gentleman friend". (It seems inappropriate to call a man in his 50's a "boyfriend".) I attended our (CHS 64) 40th reunion in Oct. of this year, the first reunion I was able to make (various personal reasons kept me away f...Expand for more
rom the others.) It was good to see so many people I hadn't seen in all those intervening years!
The apartment in New Orleans is only 400 sq. ft., therefore I left most of my "stuff" in the house in Meraux. Pretty much everything in the house was destroyed by Katrina--books (about 4,000--English majors tend to collect books), photos, yearbooks (mine, Allen's and Allen Jr.'s), etc.. Of course, almost everyone in St. Bernard Parish lost the same things. It's been over a year (Today is Nov. 21, 2006.) but I still mourn.
Allen, Jr. (CHS '88) lost everything he'd moved into the house, but he was able to take our cats with him when he evacuated to Florida to stay with friends. My friend and I evacuated together and ended in Bookhaven, Miss., the first place we were able to luck into a motel.--Someone was canceling a reserveration when we walked into the lobby!--After seven weeks we were able to return to N.O. Our apartments were fine (except for the refrigerators). We're still in these apartments. Allen, Jr. has found an apartment a few blocks from us.
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Yearbooks
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Reunions
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