Cheryl Vanstane:
CLASS OF 1980
Port Angeles High SchoolClass of 1980
Port angeles, WA
Roosevelt High SchoolClass of 1980
Port angeles, WA
Stevens Middle SchoolClass of 1977
Port angeles, WA
Roosevelt Junior High SchoolClass of 1976
Port angeles, WA
Franklin Elementary SchoolClass of 1974
Port angeles, WA
Cheryl's Story
Back to the beginning....
After high school I decided that seeing more of the U.S. was my prerequisite to settling down here. Forewarned is forearmed, as they say. There was a chance that I might find a more suitable place to settle and I needed to experience more of life before throwing in the towel. My choice of transport was considered controversial and proved highly enlightening -- I planned to hitchhike the country! I had an opportunity to tour the country unfettered and view things from a unique and often edgy perspective and I took full advantage of it. The knowledge I gleaned from my experiences has served me well in life.
Tori Barclay and I hitched down to Santa Cruz and spent a summer in the sun and then hitched to Key Largo, Florida, and back to WA.I LOVED Santa Cruz and hope to spend time down there again. 6 months later Ian Rolley and I hitched to Marmora, New Jersey, and spent the winter with his sister and her family. Ian and I filled our time with trapping muskrat, selling the pelts to get us by and restoring an early model Indian motorcycle so as to have a ride for the move on to Mississippi in spring.
After returning to WA I spent alot of time hiking the Olympics and learning to live off the land.
In time I began studying ti chi and weapon codas and finally learned to twirl num-chucks. (I now twirl 2 pair on fire!!) It took months to learn, initially, but once perfected, my ol' man, Dave Rasmussen, his brother and I began preforming exhibitions between StateLine, Idaho and Forks, WA, and made a pretty decent living.
Next came work at Shakey's Pizza -- everyone remember going to Shakey's for pizza after the drive-in let out??? Tori used to call the restaurant just before closing and order pizzas she never intended to pick-up so my co-workers and I had warm pizza to take home!Mmmmmm......
Dave and I got married in '84 and decided to drive our '64 Ford school bus down and relocat to London, KY, where our daughter, Sara, was born in '86. Heed my advice all -- never relocate to KY! The place was godawful. The humidity sucked soooo bad and then in the winter we would get up to 6 foot snow drifts and, on occasion, with wind chill factor the temps would plummet as low as -15 (that was the lowest we saw anyway...Expand for more
).We endured chiggers, poisonous snakes, cockroaches, ill-tempered possum, good-ol-boys, red-necks, southern slang,an extremely high illiteracy rate, dry counties, and the lowest minimum wage in the country. I was constantly told how proper I talked -- PLEASE!!!! Oh, and Hazard, as in the dukes of Hazard was just up the highway a piece. In all fairness I have to admit that the fishing was great, I got to see my first firefly and the growing season was awesome.
Back to WA the summer of '86 -- 1st to Olympia and then to Blyn where we lived in a unique cabin off the grid with solar panels and a 12volt system. Raised garden beds, chickens, rabbits, hunting and fishing sustained us. Packing in water sucked as was having to shower at the marina and tromping to the outhouse when snow was flying but ya gotta take the good with the bad.... Happy times.... Eventually the landlord decided to move back to the area and wanted to live in his cabin -- bummer!
College and back surgery in the early '90's.
Life kept rollin' and eventually it was just Sara and I, struggling to make something of the land we had attained but making progress.
Out of the blue Sara began having splitting headaches and an MRI revealed a huge brain tumor. We took her to Seattle for Brain surgery. The biopsy proved it was cancerous and she was diagnosed with Ewing's sarcoma. Through all of the trials and tribulations involved in battling this devastating disease we held on to hope. Even after 5 years of chemo, radiation, surgeries, and her enduring unbearable pain there was still a chance she could beat it.
We were forced to sell the property and move into town to better deal with her illness and pay the med bills.
In Oct. of 2009 Sara took a turn for the worse and unfortunately her cancer had metastasized throughout her entire system/body. 6 months later she passed away. I wont go into those last few months. I'm sure you can imagine.....
I've turned yet another page and am not certain where I'm headed but I'm doing my best to move on.
That entails working with a local photographer creating portraits with an edge, taking stock photos for commerce advertising and web page design and we have a calendar and a new book in the works.
I wish you all the best
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