Ilene Elgen:
CLASS OF 1967
Sunset High SchoolClass of 1967
Hayward, CA
Modesto Junior CollegeClass of 1988
Modesto, CA
Chabot CollegeClass of 1972
Hayward, CA
Okmulgee High SchoolClass of 1967
Okmulgee, OK
Emerson Elementary SchoolClass of 1961
Okmulgee, OK
Ilene's Story
Life
I was born in Arkansas City, Kansas in January of 1949. Eight months later my two parents, 3 older siblings and I moved to Okmulgee, Oklahoma, where we lived for my first 15 years (thru 9th Grade). I have good memories of Emerson Elementary School and Okmulgee Junior High School (now Okmulgee Middle School). I miss our house on Delaware Street, the 1st Assembly of God church, Greenwood Lake, Bakers Ice Cream Parlor, Peoples Bakery, the Creek Council House, the B-Line, the Dog House (across the street from the Okmulgee Jr. & Sr. High School), and Harmon Field Stadium, where I was brought up.
My mother, the youngest of my two older brothers, and I moved to Hayward, California (1964), where I became a Sophomore in high school. I miss Sunset High School, being aware of the ever present seagulls flying overhead at lunch time, where I attended my last three years and graduated there. I miss Bethel Temple Assembly of God church, the Southland Mall, Capwell's Dept. Store, the Pizza Joint, Lyons Restaurant, and Chabot Jr. College.
Life has been very good and I am a wife and mother of 8, which includes 2 grown stepdaughters, ages 54 & 51; and 6 adopted special needs children-ages 33, 30, 29, 24, 24, & 19. My husband and I also have 7 grandchildren. We were married 38 years ago (when I was 28 years old) in 1977, in San Leandro, California. My husband had been married once, before I met him, so I became an instant mother of 2 stepdaughters, ages 16 & 12. He was my first and only husband. We moved to Modesto, Calif. in 1978 and spent 28 years in the Central Valley of California, until September of 2006. Just in the past 16 years (as of August 2, 2000, at age 51) we adopted 4 of our youngest children, all special needs kids. Our two older adopted daughters (biological sisters, Russian-ages 33 & 30) are developementally delayed; our oldest son (Indonesian-age 29) has Schizophrenia, PTSD, & learning disabilities; our third oldest son (age 24) was diagnosed with Schizoeffective Disorder, severe ADHD, PTSD, RAD, and learning disabilities, when he first came to live with us (at age 6). All 4 of our first adopted children had been living with us for 2 years prior, as part of our over 25 foster children that we cared for between 1997 - 2002.
My husband retired the first time, in 2002, after driving truck for 30 years. He is a licensed ...Expand for more
minister (since 1981), and restores old 1950's Chevy pickups. Just in this past 9 years (May 2006), we bought a 60 acres ranch and moved to Lordsburg, New Mexico, where we adopted our second oldest son (age 24) as well as adopting one more son (now age 19), in Nov 2011. It is our hope to turn this ranch into a safe, fun environment where we can continue to raise our youngest adopted child, until he is ready to live on his own.
Well, that's about enough, about me and my life. Hope to hear from some of you. It's so exciting reading all of your names and remembering back to when we were kids, when we were all so smart or at least thought we were. But things do change, don't they? I need to go now, I think I've misplaced my glasses, again. :-)
(bio updated Feb 2016).
School
I enjoyed my education for the most part while attending Emerson Elementary and Okmulgee Junior High School (1st-9th Grades). We moved to California in 1964 where I continued with my education. This move was rather traumatic, though. My parents got a divorce, and it was like going to a different culture, almost. I had grown up in a very small community, and then moved to the huge San Francisco Bay Area (Hayward), where my mother went back to school herself (at age 46) and became a Licensed Vocational Nurse (LVN). I graduated (Sunset High School) in 1967, but it took me a long time to call California my home. After high school, I tried to attend a private college (Bethany Bible College in Santa Cruz, Ca.), where I almost flunked out and only lasted 1 1/2 years.
Finally, after almost 5 years, I did grow to love it, but didn't really settle down to become a good student, until I was 35 years old. At that time, after my 2 stepdaughters were grown and had begun to raise their own families, I went back to college (California State University, Stanislaus in Turlock, Ca.) and finished earning a B.A. degree (in Psychology), in 1991 (it took 6 years). I then went on and finished my graduate course work for a Master's Degree program (in 1996, which took 4 more years) and did very well (3.6 GPA). I truly enjoyed my college experience. I finally received a M.S. degree in Psychology, in May of 1996. I am now 67 years old (2016); and I think I'm pretty much finished with getting a formal education, although I do hope it will be a very long time before I ever stop learning.
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Reunions
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