FAMILY
AND FRIENDS Dad (Elwood or "Gump") and Mom (Darlene) met and got married in
1958. I came along in 1960. In those early days, we lived in a small town
in North Dakota but Mom and Dad and I moved to Seattle (Burien) when I
was 2. Dad took a job with the local school district in maintenance,
while mom took her RN degree to Riverton Hospital. In 1964,Mom and Dad
bought their first house northwest of SeaTac airport on 13th Avenue. That
house was the epitome of the the early '60's- we had danish modern furniture,
covered the wooden floors in the Living Room with Tourqouise wall to wall
carpeting and the drapes in the dining room looked some wild modern art
project sitting in front of the formica table. It was heaven! But unfortunately, ten years later the airport would
expand and buy out the whole neighbor hood. I have grown a big distaste
for SeaTac Airport eversince, but more about that later! The Airport bought Mom & Dad's house so they bought
a brand new house in 1973 in what is now considered the City of Burien,
near Seahurst Park. The new house had a basement that dad turned into a
Rec Room and dad liked the smaller yard- for about a month then had me
mowing the backyard neighbor's double lot yard- Dad didn't mind not having
a yard to mow, he just minded me NOT having a yard to mow! Dad retired from the schools in 1982, but saddly and
unexpectedly died 2 months later. The one good thing is Dad got to go back
to North Dakota and go Duck Hunting one last time. Mom continued to work at Riverton and retired in 1992
but it was very short lived! She was planning to take a year off before
working again but a few weeks after retiring, Dr. Bunch called and said
he needed an office nurse. Mom told him she had no experience at that type
of nursing so he said lets just try it out. She continued to work there
for 5 years! Mom never re-married and sold the house in 2006, moved
to an apartment so she can be free to go to the casinoes anytime she wants!
