Julie Thixton:  

After graduating, Debby Eckenroth and I went to work for Los Compadres Riding Club in Palm Springs. When the wrangling side of the Club dissolved, we started at the telephone company in Yucca Valley. The old switchboard, party line fandango. I lasted a day, Debby lasted 12 years. We took a trip cross country to Nebraska where my Dad lived, where I reconnected with a young man that I would soon marry. We had one child, my beautiful daughter, and lived in San Diego, Hawaii, and Phoenix, AZ. We divorced after five years and I moved back to Yucca Valley in 1979. I raised my daughter in YV and she is also a graduate of YVHS, class of 1992. I remarried and gained two beautiful kids. A real yours, mine, and ours story. Though our marriage did not survive, we remain close to this day. In 1985, I went to work for The Department of Forestry, and spent that summer fighting fire all over the State of California. That same year, I tested for a position with the Combat Center Fire Department on the Marine. Corps base in 29 Palms. I was successful and began a 20 plus year career in the Federal Fire Service. My career took me from 29 Palms to Okinawa, Japan, to Camp Pendleton, to Yokosuka, Japan and Camp Zama, Japan, where I retired in 2005 as a Fire Chief. As part of my official duties, I’ve been to Diego Garcia, Singapore, and Iwo Jima. I joined the Japanese FireFighting Women’s Club of Japan, and spoke at their conference in 2005. I even managed to be featured in their premier fire service magazine. While in Okinawa, I was able to travel to Hong Kong during the last year it was occupied as a British Colony. My best friend joined me and we had a blast! I returned to the U.S., and landed near my kids in Mystic, CT. Then back to Yucca Valley where I worked for Copper Mountain College for three years. From there I went to the Bay Area and worked for an OSHA training company teaching Hazardous Waste & Emergency Response, OSHA 10 & 30 for construction safety, conducted construction safety site visits, and wrote lesson plans. I fully retired in 2013 and moved to St Augustine,Florida to be near my daughter and her husband, and my two beautiful grandkids. My grandson is 16, and my granddaughter is 6. My daughter met her husband while in the Coast Guard, My daughter was the Main Mast Captain (in charge of the main mast of the boat) on the USCG Barque Eagle, a square-rigged sailing vessel...Expand for more