Mona "Palmer" Swails
Hi! This is Mona Palmer Swails, Class of 68. You can take me off the lost classmates list now. My e-mail address is j-mswails@juno.com.
With all my travels over the last 30 years and frequently changing addresses, I've never been informed of any class reunions, until last year. And then I didn't find out until it was too late to change already scheduled travel in favor of returning to my old home. How do I get my name on the list for invites to the next one?
Brief update: After graduation, I attended a court reporting school in Abilene for about a year and a half, left the school and moved back to San Angelo. About the same time, my father was transferred to Austin, so I went ahead and moved there, too. I worked for the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission for about five years. During that time, I broke off one engagement and married my John Wayne, a member of the USAF. We left Austin about the time our son was 4 mos. old and transferred to Denver, remaining there about 2 yrs. Next stop Hessich Oldendorf, Germany, where our daughter was born. We returned to the states about 3 months after my mom died in 1979 and were stationed at Stallion Range near Socorro, NM. We stayed there for just over two years and I worked for one of the five or six attorneys in that tiny town. Our next station was about 6 months in Phoenix, AZ, then on to an air base near Riverside, CA. I had a great time working for the Douglas Aircraft Co. at its site on base for about 2 yrs. before our next transfer. We ended up in the Oklahoma City area (Choctaw, actually) and have been here for almost 14 years. I've been working for the Oklahoma State School Boards Association for the past 13 yrs., primarily writing school board policy manuals, and my hubby has been working for the U.S. Postal Service for about 10 yrs. Recent tornadic activity took a hop, skip, and jump right over the top of our house and spared us the agony of the aftermath, although touchdowns were within 2 or 3 blocks on all sides.
We are celebrating 27 years together this summer. Our son just turned 25 and is attending medical school in Philadelphia. Our daughter is 22 and has just graduated from college. She now lives in Kansas City, MO and works as a correctional officer in Olathe, KS. Now that we have put them through college, it's my turn. I plan on enrolling in a local junior college this fall and get started on my own mid-life crisis. After all, there are no more soccer matches, band practices, or awards banquets to go to anymore and empty next syndrome has set in. Better to expand my knowledge and training now so that I can be the family provider when my husband retires in 5 yrs. (I personally don't plan on retiring until I'm 100--after all, there won't be any social security left anyway!)
A name on the lost classmates list struck a familiar cord. Sandra
Henderson Cunningham got in touch with me several years ago, but I've
lost contact with her again. The last address I had for her is 1317 E.
61st, Apt. 9C, Tulsa, OK 74136. At that time, she and her husband were
driving trucks across country.