Terrance Jones:
CLASS OF 1966
San Juan High SchoolClass of 1966
Citrus heights, CA
Utica Free AcademyClass of 1966
Utica, NY
Utica Free AcademyClass of 1965
Utica, NY
Terrance's Story
Not much to say. The reason I'm on Classmates is to see how a few people from the past, that were important to me, progressed through life. I wish you all well and hope you are happy with your choices.
Class of '66 at UFA, but my Mom's job transferred to Calif my Junior year. Ended up at San Juan high school in Citrus Heights CA for my senior year. I was the quiet, slightly goofy kid ( A geek, if you will), all through high school- got picked on a lot. Always felt out of place and never fit in - still don't.
Life has been good thus far. I received a fairly good education in Microbiology through the Air Force, UC Davis, and Humboldt State University. Have a state license and currently work at HSU in the Biology Department as a Microbiologist. Was a Chief Technologist/Lab Supervisor for about 18 years in private industry before working at HSU. Got my first Microbiology Department when I was 23, have always been a supervisor of some sort ( beyond.
supervising the kids)
Met a wonderful woman, Debbie, who I married in 1976. We decided before we got married that we wanted a large (4 kids) family, but she didn't want to birth 4 kids and I was set on only two biological offspring. The result was we decided to have two of our own and then adopt to to get 2 girls and 2 boys. Raising four kids was the blessing/torture you might expect. The oldest is a city planner in the Seattle area, the next hopes for a PhD in Anthropology, the next in line owns a small grocery store and the youngest is going to Police Academy. Good kids, we're blessed.
Three dogs, ten cats, 3 ducks, 1 parrot, 1 axolotyl, 5 frogs (The sheep, rabbits, pigs, goats, chickens et al are gone once the youngest got through 4-H). House on a dead end road in the country, overlooks the creek, 1 acre.
No drug or alcohol problems, could stand to lose 5-10 pounds. I read an awful lot, no television to speak of. I play with electronics (Ham radio, home made radio telescope), chess, race cars (currently race a Merlyn Mk31). Took up the violin since we "forced " the kids to learn an instrument, I thought it only fair that I give it a shot as well. Oh well, I tried, and I can play a few barely recognizable Irish fiddle tunes. I try to do as little yard work as Deb will allow.
Graduated 42 years ago and my life since then fits in 6 paragraphs, odd what we do with our time.
Update, fwiw. Jul 2010 Retired March 2010. Houses are all paid off, no car payments, no credit card payment. I guess we won...or something. I'm amazed at how much time grand kids and dogs can take up. My boys and I put a new roof on the house. Lived here 30 years, it was time. Unfortunately the yard work is still there.
Did lose the 10 pounds, btw. Doc says I'm in be...Expand for more
tter shape than most 50 year olds. ( What else would he say? - that he's doing a lousy job looking after me?
Update 2, fwiw Jul 2015. Got three dwarf goats in 2011 - My "yard maintenance crew" for the back half acre. I'm still not much on yard work, but at least my lawn mowing duties have been cut in half. The "zoo" now includes chickens - Speckled Sussex- organic free range eggs, $2.50 a dozen! Youngest daughter has married, nice young man. No Grand Kids - yet. Painted the house last year , myself and two Grand Kids, who spend summers here.. They each painted about about 20 square feet, not bad for a 5 and 10 year old! Still blessed with good health, seem busier now than when I was working. Hopefully, will update in 5 years. God Bless.
Update 3 Sept 2018 -- The goats are doing a fine job! Less yard work for me! Chickens are still doing their job as well- added some Welsummers to the flock, nice large brown eggs. .Retirement is going well, still in amazingly good health, as is Deb. We both got this crazy idea that we'd like to do Foster care. So here we are with little kids running around the house/yard. We're on our fourth Foster. It's very rewarding and keeps us on our toes. The county pay $1.23 an hour, so we're really getting rich quick. Unfortunately I have to share with Deb, so my half works out to 61 cents.
One more granddaughter since last update. She is healthy and active. Still read a lot, mainly to avoid yard work. Seems to work, Deb hasn't caught on.
I've been tutoring High School Math ( Algebra, Geometry, Trig. and Calculus) just for something to do. Doing it for free, I charge only for gas if they're over 1o miles away. Not as rewarding as I would have hoped - their biggest problem is they don't want to put in the effort. A few graduate students still keep in touch, they seem to think I did them some good. I did the best I could, hope it was enough.
The Merlyn just sits in the garage. After retirement I was going to race more. I was going to go fly fishing more, I was going to play more chess, I was going to do LOTS MORE with all my free time. Yup, I was. Really. Lots more. Way more. .... All I do is play with grand kids, foster kids, and read when I can. Where does the time go?
Lost another 10 pounds. Playing with little kids has it's benefits.
Did manage to get some camping in. Uploaded a photo of Deb & I, as well as some wildlife.
Other than that, same old same old. I hope whoever reads this is doing well. I hope all of you from U.F.A. and San Juan H.S. are making the best of what life has to offer. Hopefully I can update in a few years - we'll see how that goes. Hopefully I can at least tell you I painted the house again.
Take Care and God Bless.
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