Where have the fifty years gone! We have lived the last two years in the small California foothills community of Angels Camp, a place rich in history and lore, beautiful in aspect, friendly and un-crowded. That’s the end of the journey so far, but the beginning was back in Ann Arbor.
John Sharum and I dated in our senior year of high school. We both went to the U of M and after a few breakups and reunions happily married in 1969. With degrees in hand, we headed West in 1970. We missed the Summer of Love, but still caught the afterglow of San Francisco in the 70’s. John took a job in engineering at Standard Oil Company (now Chevron) for “a couple of years” which morphed into a 29-year career. I worked in broadcast television, where I produced an Emmy-winning show, but I eventually moved into international auditing and profit analysis for a major bank. All of my jobs were BC (before children), interrupted when we moved to Brussels for two years for John’s work on a refinery expansion. When we returned in 1974, we moved out of the City, over the Golden Gate Bridge to Mill Valley and our first house. It would be eight years before James would arrive and twelve before Elizabeth. During those Mill Valley days, John completed an MBA in Finance and moved into staff and planning work for Chevron, focused on logistics in the US, foreign operations in the Middle East and Chemicals worldwide.
With Elizabeth still in swaddling clothes, we moved again, this time to Houston, with John as Business Manager for Chemicals. We set up shop in Kingwood, Texas in one of the large planned communities Houston is famous for. It was a great place to raise children, but we were more likely to meet someone from Ohio or Pittsburgh than a native Texan. I enjoyed supporting the varied activities of the children--swim team, soccer, horseback riding, scouts, etc.-- as did John when not travelling. Later in our Houston stay, John became the International Sales Manager for chemicals and logged a lot of miles. It was an exciting time of experiencing a lot of the world, and it was best when I could accompany him on one of his trips! After ten years in Houston, we returned to San Ramon where John was setting up a new International Chemicals division. We lived in Alamo (guess we couldn’t get Texas out of our system). In 1999, John retired from Chevron and went to work for an internet start-up, setting up their international operations. Alas, the bubble burst, and John retired in earnest in 2001.
Since then, John has become interested in art and took all the courses he could from our local community college. He has set up a studio in Angels Camp to produce fine art prints and to paint. We are also enthusiastic gardeners and got much joy from working on our Alamo garden and now our Angels Camp property.
Both of our children live in Oakland, about two hours away. James is married, and he and his wife just had their first child, Frances. We have so enjoyed being a part of her young life. Liz has a steady beau, whom we like very much, a huge dog and a cat. Besides visiting them and enjoying life here, we still love to travel. Recent trips to Rome, where we hung out with Nancy McArtor and Bill Bucci, and Ireland, a white knuckle Mr. Toad ride through some very gorgeous countryside, will be followed by a return visit to Belgium and France this Fall. We couple our interests in art, architecture, gardening, history, languages and of course food as we continue to make new friends and memories as long as we can.
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