Jerry Chittenden:  

After high school, I continued working at the John Jacob Astor Hotel in Astoria and then took a job in Portland with the State of Oregon, Department of Human Resources, in late summer of '61. Over the next 30 years with the Department, I held a variety of positions of increasing responsibility and challenge in Portland and then took a job with them in Salem and commuted for the final 11 years until retiring at the end of 1992 - yes, it looks like I worked for them for 32 years but at the end of year 5, I took 22 months off to go to PSC/PSU full-time. Never graduated but had a good time learning quite a lot of new things, particularly in earth sciences (especially the geology of Oregon and what all happened to make it so beautiful and scenic) and studying and exploring music (theory, composition, counterpoint, and orchestration). In '65, my companion at the time and I started renting and then bought an older 4-bedroom house together in SW Portland - Lair Hill Park area - lived there together for 13 years, got it paid off and then sold it, splitting the profits, going our own separate ways and each buying another house in very early 1978 in the inner NE area of Portland - mine's in the Sabin area (squeezed in between the Irvington and Alameda neighborhoods) after returning from an absolutely fantastic three-week trip to Egypt in November, 1977. Over the ensuing years I had the good fortune of being able to see and explore a lot of Oregon and the beautiful Pacific Northwest on the back of an assortment of "steeds," the last of which was a 1982 Honda Goldwing Aspencade (a motorcycle for those of ...Expand for more