Carolyn Mason:
CLASS OF 1966
Florence High SchoolClass of 1966
Florence, CO
University of Southern ColoradoClass of 1970
Pueblo, CO
Penrose Elementary SchoolClass of 1962
Penrose, CO
Carolyn's Story
Life
After high school, life became...real! I put myself thru college working several jobs. I have known divorce, being widowed, and losing babies. Now, after living in several different states, I am learning what happiness really means, in Georgia, where I live with my husband, our pets and... flowers in YOUR winter! LIFE IS A GREAT ADVENTURE! ...Wanted or not! Speaking of adventures...how can you beat getting together after 40 years...(give or take 10 or 20 or even 30 years)...and having more fun than could even had been expected?! For whomever should drop by and read this, if you haven't gone to your 40th reunion yet, DON'T MISS IT!!! If you didn't go, you really missed something!! People have USUALLY changed over the years, for the better, by then! Forty may "just be a number" as you age, but in Reunion years...you've "made it" or you haven't by then. And if you have OR haven't, you've adjusted...like that or not! I knew our class was cool and we were some kind of classy bunch of kids...back then, BUT I MARVEL AT THE WONDERFUL ADULTS WE ALL "TURNED INTO"...(clean and tidy words for, growth & survival!!)...it has been a very long time since I have enjoyed so completely, the company of so many...well turned out adults!!! Did I mention we had a blast?? What a weekend! If it weren't for the excellent planning and the positive efforts put into it, this might not have been as it was, but then you can't beat cool on the other hand!
I am truly looking forward to our "60th birthday bash"....oh, you haven't heard?? We had so much fun at our 40th reunion that we can't wait for even five years to go by before we get back together for more fun and for a longer time!!!!!!!! Bring your sunscreen!! I hope I can keep up with you youngsters!! Until then, be good to yourselves and love life!!!
As time does, it has gone into the ether and in a few years we'll all be wondering who's alive & well, who's a missed-memory and who's going to show up for our 50th Reunion. YIKES! 5 0 Y E A R S !! Since our last Reunion, I have had cancer...a C-2 Chordoma in '07. They had to fuse my neck from my head to C-4. The next day, they spent 10 hours in my mouth..on "jacks"... I was "under" from the day before. Am told I nearly didn't make it...but who could miss seeing those of us left, after 50 years?! As it turned out, I lost my uvula, some salivary function and about 25 lbs. of ugly fat!! (Nay, lost the hospital bloat in the 12 days I was there!) But as I mentioned much earlier...LIFE IS AN ADVENTURE! I've been cancer-free, at the end of Oct. '11, 4 years. For this rare bone cancer this is the, "Thank God", point! At four years, this form of cancer, if it hasn't JUMPED to life, they declare it gone. I had to have radiation (Photon Beam) and Proton Beam. At Emory, the doc, who'd never seen or worked on this rare cancer, said he could push my life out 2 more years...found one who'd actually worked on them and he told me that this Chordoma would eventually kill me. Then came Proton Beam Therapy, the only known thing to be able to kill (actually STERILIZE) this type of cancer. Because it sterilizes the cancer cells so they can't reproduce, I was told that I might be 87 and run over by a bus, but the Chordoma wouldn't be what ushers me into the next world. Never the less, I had to learn how to talk and eat again....that little hunk of flesh hanging in the back of your throat is a delightful creation of God's, believe it!!! As to our 50th Reunion....has anyone ever given it a thought on how great it would be to see other classmates that were in the classes around us?? Come on 50th!!!! Stay well, and suggest to those who didn't come to the past reunions..."People change (gratefully!) and it's really great to visit with mature adults that we spent so much time with, for so many years, growing up!"
School
Can you I M A G I N E doing it ALL OVER AGAIN??...in my nightmares, ONLY!!! I was lost in space in high school, really. (You couldn't tell?)
There's so much that "happened" in high school, to wander too far down that rose path, we'd all get lost, but I can answer...well, sort of answer, classmates.com's suggestions.
After taking that strange music test in the 6th grade in Penrose and being told I "passed" 100%...when we, in 7th grade combined with the Florence kids, played our instruments or sang with them...ahhhh, I "acquired" a crush so H U G E , I can't believe I never "told" the guy! He was SO handsome...as handsome as any 7th or 8th grade boy can be!...then there was his cousin when I was a freshman! What a sweet guy and so well mannered! Must have been a family thing!! The cousin that didn't move away was in several classes with me over the years and I would "die" when he would tease me! You want to know who it was!...Ya gotta be kidding!!! However, at our 10 year reunion he gave me a big hug...........a DAY...late...! Oh well!
Four teachers inspired me, Mrs. Abrams, Mrs. Parker, Mr. Benton and Mr. Hill. They each taught me about a part of myself that was strong and capable of growing and doing so with integrity. I wish I could thank them each in person now.....
One of my happiest memories happened during our Freshman year. George, Gayland, Toni and I took off on the Guys' scutters at lunch. Do you remember, Guys? The hills north of town, scared the....out of me--SO MUCH FUN...good thing that scare/fun thing didn't develop and catch on in my life!!!
I hated math and didn't take chemistry because only the "brains" took it...in college, I ended up having to take a full year of it, and physics also....YEOW! Go figure!
The funniest thing (now) that...won't go away...is about the gym class...locker r...Expand for more
oom around Christmas. Mom had brought home some red and green Kleenex. I, for some reason, thought I should stuff my bra with it...red on one side and green on the other........NEED I SAY MORE????!! God bless Kathy Kush (sp)! I hope she went into something visual, and made a mint with those eagle eyes of hers!!!!!!!!! Now, THAT might be ONE TIME, I'd like to do things all over again!
YOU KNOW, MAYBE THE LOCKER ROOM "INCIDENT" HAPPENED BECAUSE
MOM WAS ALWAYS BUYING CLOTHES THAT WE COULD G R O W
INTO....HA! God bless you Mom, you really did know what you were doing after all!!
College
College...hmmm...what a shock for this country kid! My first impression of college was that it was so much better than high school...you were among people who were there to get an education...mostly...the responsibility felt good. I saw the first mini-dresses in the fall quarter of '66...this country kid was appalled!! (Who would think that a short 2 years later I'd be shocking my peers, happily?) ...the two gals were so...openly flirty with the young men who were floating in the air like butterflies around them! It was a time of political unrest, the birth of the flower-children and women discovering their worth outside of their homes....a very new time for our parents also, who would not abide their sons with their hair touching their collars and falling over their eyes. Their daughters were ironing their hair where once they'd ironed their skirts...marching with signs; burning their bras; claiming sexual liberation while marching arm-in-arm with their male counterparts. Free love was in the air while draft notices were in the mail and young people were dancing wildly, nakedly on stage as "Hair" debuted before a world that was being electrifyingly torn apart by war, peace marches, screaming and dying college students!! And then to thank our broken young men coming home from 'Nam, who had answered the call...Jane betrayed them and led those who spat on them....it is a time in our history as kids of the time, that we should NEVER forget...the highs, the lows, the screams in our heads, the finding our way-times...how can we forget? I am told that I am a true-blue rebel of the 60's...but a patriot true... College was a place that opened my mind and showed me that I didn't know what I thought I did...it left me with that open mind and grit in my gut. It was one of the hardest jobs I have ever taken on and yes, I am now grateful that I put myself thru, Dad. Thank you!
Workplace
I have spent much of my life, so far, trying to prove that, as a woman, I can do the same job as a man...at this point in my life...I am realizing it would have been much better for my health and much more productive, possibly, if I had burnt my bra back when I was in college. I have learned a lot about job areas that I would never have known, and there is true merit in this, however, I am the only one that considers it a merit! I have refused to sit at a desk and get "broad", having been in the thick of "where it's at"...to men...
I will not be specific, although I feel no shame in any type of work I have done since high school. I feel no need to brag or seek sympathy or whatever we are writing in this area to show or elicit from the reader of it.
I have worked hard 99% of my adult life, to the point of doing up to 4 jobs at one time. One of the things I was taught, growing up, was that you do what you have to do, to get done what you have to get done. I am proud that I have held to high standards in the face of superiors who tried to beat me down, in sometimes low and devious ways, at times. As a rebel of the '60's, it wasn't 'til the late '90's that I discovered this fact...must be slow...
The greatest thing that I have learned, approaching life as I have, is that as a woman trying "to do" in a "man's world", it is very possible to succeed, but it just takes 3 times the energy and fortitude and the ability to deal with the threat it causes to the male egos around you.....another thing I learned working with mainly men over the years...ladies, did you know that men are as gossipy as the women they accuse?...actually more so!!
On Jan. 4th, 2013, I lost my best friend of 13 1/2 years, the love of my life, Dick. He found out in Mar. '12 that he had bladder cancer, a rare & aggressive type. He did his research and found of all the places available, M.D Anderson in Houston had dealt with this type, on average, 5 times a year, the others, zero. We drove back and forth so many times, we knew the bumps in the road on a personal basis. At the end of Sept. they removed his bladder, which had been planned from the beginning, before the pre-surgical chemo was started. In Oct.'s visit he was clear. However, by Thanksgiving, he was noticing little things, like increasing fatigued. We got the chocolate covered cherries done before his birthday, which he thought was the best birthday present he'd ever gotten. We'd never gotten them done before Dec. 8th, even though that had been a goal unreached til this year. His brother wrote a very accurate and touching obit. His sister helped re-write in things I wrote down, while listening to what Dick wanted in it, as he laid in that hospital bed.
This was a tough year, for everyone who knew him. He faced death with the same fortitude and courage that he faced and dealt with life.
Now I am back doing a cancer protocol...we found out in Nov. that my chordoma is back. Somehow this whole thing doesn't seem quite fair, but then there really isn't a "fair", all things just ARE. I can have no more radiation or surgery. It all lies in God's hands as to the outcome. There's a 50/50 chance that Ill...............
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