Don Stanton:
CLASS OF 1964
Reitz High SchoolClass of 1964
Evansville, IN
Benjamin Bosse High SchoolClass of 1964
Evansville, IN
Kentucky Military InstituteClass of 1964
Lyndon, KY
Russellville High SchoolClass of 1964
Russellville, KY
Sunnyside Middle SchoolClass of 1963
Lafayette, IN
Don's Story
I am sitting here looking at all the schools I attended between Kindergarten and high school and remembering a little bit about each one, where we lived and the things I did. The only people I remember (brief friends) were those in schools I attended for 2 or 3 semesters (Howard Roosa, McCutchanville, and Sunny Side). When I finally got to high school, I put my foot down and told my mother that I was going to stay in the same town and go to the same school all four years. Well, I made it 3 1/2 years in one high school (made some life long friends), then the time came for my mother to be transferred to another city. I refused to go and ended up moving in with my sister and attended the high school on the west side.
After high school I spent 3 years in the Navy and got to see most of the world, including Vietnam, the Phillipines, most of Japan, most of Europe, and a few other countries and continents.
After the Navy I lived in southern Illinois for a few years (1966-1972) got a AS in Accounting. In February 1971, I have a freak accident involving a patch of ice on a railroad crossing and a railroad signal pole that resulted with the loss of much of my lower left leg. For a few years my career took a turn for the better (but was short lived), being an amputee and no one wanted to hire for fear of the risk, I found a job with a prosthetic and orthodic company in Louisville, KY and worked as an apprentice for 4 years. At the end of the four years I was a Prosthetist. A couple months after I completed my apprenticeship, the company was sold and the new owner let me go. I had dreams of one day owning my own prosthetic company, but things did not workout as planned.
When things turned sour with that company, I went back to pursue my original career as a draftsman. While working for the City of Evansville as a civil engineering draftsman, several contractors encouraged me to start my own drafting services, which I did as a part time business doing civil Engineering and architectural drafting. My last year with the city was an election year and my name was in the top ten list of people to get rid of after the election, so I looked for something else.
I found a much better paying job in Mechanical Drafting for a Transit Bus Manufacturer in Ohio. After we moved to Ohio, the word got out to the local building contractors that was an architectural draftsman, and my drafting services business got really busy. I quit the bus company a...Expand for more
s a full time employee, and worked for the company during the my slow winter months on contract. Went to college part time and earned an AS in Drafting Design Technology.
In 1999, after breaking my knee cap the second time, at the request of my wife, I closed my drafting services.
Since I was no longer working full time, it conveniently made me available to our families to look after and take care of our mothers. Odd as it was, like clock work, my mother got pneumonia complicated by CHF and hospitalized in January, when she was discharged she needed someone to take care of her until she could manage on her own again. I went to Kentucky in mid January to take care of her through April and in October my mother-in-law got pneumonia complicated by CHF and hospitalized and I went to North Carolina to take care of her for 2 months.
In June 2005, my mother fell and broke her leg. From October 2005 through February 2009, I lived in KY 9 months of the year taking care of my mother, managing her affairs and care givers. At the end of February 2008, I had aorta to femoral arterial bi-pass surgery and while I was recovering my mother moved into a assisted living facility where she remained until January 2010 (I continued to manage everything for her and visit with her two weeks every month) when my sister decided to put her in a nursing home in Newburgh, IN. My mother passed away 6 weeks later.
In May 2009, we (Ellen and I) got involved with Puppet Ministry. Ellen is the puppeteer and makes all the puppets and props, I built a portable stage (continue to improve and enlarge it), made the curtains, and do all the technical work. When we play to put on a puppet show, we get volunteers from the location. The for several weekends we get together with the volunteers teach them the skit and rehearse, then do the show. We are still learning all about being puppeteers and attend several workshops each year. We do 3 puppet shows each year, with the last one being in Ferdinand, IN for 3 or 4 performances at the annual KhristKindleMarkt in the Monastery Crypt.
When I am not working on the puppet stuff, I spend most of my time catching up with all the things that went undone in my absence for 5 years, work on my hobbies, doing woodworking with hand tools (clean, quiet, rigorous and very rewarding), and managing my online business.
I have only been back to Kentucky to visit with family once since my mother died in February 2010.
Register for Free to view all details!
Yearbooks
Reunions
Photos
