Jeff Hunker:
CLASS OF 1979
Fostoria High SchoolClass of 1979
Fostoria, OH
Owens Community CollegeClass of 1996
Toledo, OH
Emerson Junior High SchoolClass of 1975
Fostoria, OH
Lowell Elementary SchoolClass of 1973
Fostoria, OH
Riley Elementary SchoolClass of 1973
Fostoria, OH
Jeff's Story
Life
Hello Everyone! Like you, I decided to join Classmates.com. As the years go by, I find that the years spent long ago mean more to me. I live in Bowling Green, Ohio, and have finally divorced from wife #3...Whew!
I do Engineering work for a local manufacturer. My oldest son is serving in the US Army and is stationed near Baghdad while my youngest son just turned 14 and lives nearby.
In February of 2006, I fell at work and tore my rotator cuff, which subsequently developed into RSD (Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy). I prefer to call RSD a Really Stupid Disease. For those of you not in the know, all one has to do is type RSD in your favorite browser search line and you can read about it. The RSD has basically taken away life as I knew it and life as I wanted it to be. My work is limited and my time at home is severely impacted in the wrong direction. The next step, according to doctors at the Cleveland Clinic, besides the multitude of pills that I take, is spinal cord stimulator surgery. Workers Comp just denied the latest C-9 for that, so we shall see where that goes!
I met a wonderful woman who understands all of this and accepts me as I am. It is very nice to be appreciated for who you are, not for who someone wants you to be, or for someone that must continually buy things for them, furnishing them with what they want. She has been a big help with my recovery and my situations. She really does understand and she takes quite a bit of the burden off of me as simple tasks are monumental for me at times. So many times, I come home to find many of those tasks completed. So, then, when the meds knock me out in the following few hours, I can rest without worrying about what needs done. She is wonderful and she has been a Godsend for me, allowing me to get through this RSD.
Hard to believe that it has been over 25 years since High School graduation! I was really disappointed that I missed the 25th reunion. I live and work in BG and many of my classmates are in this area. I did not know of the gathering, yet my name was in the phone book and on the web at that time. So, yes, that disappointed me.
Even though I studied auto mechanics in high school, many of my classmates are very important to me, those in and out of the auto mechanics circle. I remember the last reunion that I attended, I had taken yearbooks and school newspapers, all of which proved to be very popular with the guests. Kim B. said there was a tape of me dancing on a picnic table at one of the first reunions! ha ha! I have yet to see that. Many times, I wonder where everyone from school ended up. I know that many of them left Fostoria after graduation to start your lives. Which, I would think, is a good leap of faith. I wanted to live elsewhere, but when you have children that do not live with you, it is best for them that the parents live close bye. We shall see what happens in 4 more years. By then, I will be too old to be hire anywhere, ha ha! At least I have managed to make myself worthy at work, at least I try. Not sure how that happened but my boss said how he wishes he could hire two of me.
School
Although I would not trade the experiences for anything in this world, I would not have taken Auto Mechanics if I could start over. I would have taken more college prep courses. Who knew I would be headed back to college 10 years after high school? Then, who knew that 10 years after an Associates Degree that I would start working on a Bachelors Degree?
Still, the memories created in Mr. Dull's and Mr. Wilson's auto mechanic classes were the best! All the other kids were sitting through Biology while we crept around on mechanics creepers at the downtown garage in Mr. W's class. "Chalfin's going over to the bakery...do you want anything?" Ha ha ha!! Or how about the day that the bag of pot (no not mine) was found! Poor Mr. W. had to ask a visiting graduate if it was what he thought it was! Then there was Mr. W's trademark, "ok" when releasing the students. Oh, how many times I would pull that one and have to yell for the guys halfway out the door to tell them it was me!
On the lighter side, who can forget the dissection projects in biology? There was a girl that ...Expand for more
I had a huge crush on. She never knew. Dianna D...she was fun in Biology class. Anyway, the smell of formaldehyde was awful! I am glad that I did not continue that class and have to cut up the cats the next year!
Mrs. Z's Spanish class! Who can say that name and not envision pinatas and sombreros? She was quite the smart teacher, but just different for us kids.
Mr. R.'s Geometry class was fun. Perhaps that was one of my biggest influences in carrying on in Engineering. I am big on mechanisms and so on, tracing my talents back to his class. Turns out that one of my college teachers was Mr. H, I believe, umm...who was Brenda H's husband at the time.
Can anyone still hear the morning announcements? My most fond memories of those aren't so much in the senior year as they are the years prior. Had to get those announcements in! Now, they have TV and all that. I used to laugh at a certain Toledo Rock Station's Principal Prickley character as I could remember past faculty blowing into the microphone to be sure it was on, ha ha ha!
How about those nutritious High School lunches? One morning, I remember how I was sitting across from Scott G. and I was so rude, being egged on by others but that is not to say that it was them, how I would flat out tell him that he was not cool. After 28 years, I still carry that. So, Scott G. wherever you are, I am sorry. Anyhow, who can forget the slice of pizza? It was a big seller, able to buy slices on the side. I guess now all the lunches are prepared elsewhere, or so I hear.
OK, this goes back to Emerson School days, but whatever happened to English teacher, Miss D? I know she was married but then later divorced. She was always nice, at least I thought so.
Once, back when Mrs. Matz, was teaching music class (grade school at Riley School), me and Mike M. were sticking our rear ends out through the open space in the chair backs to the point that it looked ridiculously funny! We were giggling so much that Mrs. M. said that she was going to treat us like Mrs. S. if we didn't stop misbehaving. One of those goofy but funny memories.
I should probably read the fine print before I go spilling all these names. Oops...they said NO LAST NAMES. OK...now I gotta go back and edit. No one will know who I mean, maybe. BORING. Crap...there go my stories with no last names :(
College
Randy and I used to cut up during Physics class, making a good time of it. Often, on Tuesday nights, we would waste no time leaving in order to get home and watch the best night on TV...now, if I could only remember what those shows were....hmmmm.
Workplace
Talk about some good times!! The crew that I was part of used to walk down to R-Place in Fostoria over lunch on Fridays to cash our checks, have some lunch, play a little pool and have a few beers, only to walk back down the alley to the Pontiac dealership and go back to work! Ah..those were the good old days! Who can forget "Ellie May" being asked where her critters where only to be told, "In your mouth!" Ha ha! Who can forget the Jackson shuffle as Harold made his way around the pool table, showing all the kids how it's supposed to be done!?!
Then came the Post Office, where someone came in on Saturday to pick up that day's mail. Upon return with their mail, the customer told the clerk that they would not return until Tuesday, so they would like Monday's mail, too! ha ha!!
The came the engineering life. Bouncing around from job to job until you find your niche, or your niche finds you, or you wear your niche out from using it so much!
Then came the accident, from which there is a picture on my profile. Talk about life altering changes! I figured I would be heavy, but not be forced into it. Well, I guess not forced, but it makes things very difficult to do with dealing with RSD plus the meds, which practically put me to sleep 24/7!
UPDATE to the RSD. I am finally healing thanks to the Lord God Himself! Falling to my knees, clutching my Bible and praying for Jeus to take my pain away, an amazing event took place...He started to do just that, to heal me and take my pain!
Give prayer a try when you need to and when you don't. Give thanks to our Father for our endless bounty!
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