"DeEtta Summer 59"

27 August 2007                                                             

     I was married on 16 May 1959 and after graduation we took a small apartment in San Diego. After six weeks my husband finished a military school and we got orders to Hawaii. We lived in the Waikiki Beach area for four and a half months until Navy housing became available. My first son was born in June of 1961 at Tripler Army hospital, Honolulu, HI.
 

     After 33 months in Hawaii and a brief stint in California where my second son was born, we moved to Columbia, MO, where my husband went to college under a Navy program. After three and a half years in MO and a brief training time in Newport, RI, we moved to San Diego, CA. Our daughter was born in 1967 in San Diego. Without going into all the military assignments we had after that I will just tell you we lived in San Francisco, Republic of the Philippines, Newport, RI, and San Diego, CA, where we now live.
 

       We retired from the military in 1979 and remained in San Diego. I had done some volunteer work for the school district when my husband was in Viet Nam and I later became a full-time employee of the San Diego City School district. I retired in 1989 and at that time was the counseling secretary for LaJolla High.
 

        From 1989 to 1999 I split my time between a condo in Palm Desert, CA, and our home in San Diego. My husband had become a math teacher at Palm Desert High.

        We have been fortunate in that we have been able to travel a bit. I’ve been able to visit Hong Kong (twice), Japan, England, Sweden, and Finland.  We still travel a bit to various U.S. cities for ship reunions and to visit our two sons. So far our health is good and we are enjoying retirement, our 3 children, and our 8 grandchildren (ages 23 to 8). We have four grandchildren in Reno, NV, two in Erie, CO, and two in San Diego. I guess I could be called a “soccer grandma” because I never miss a game the two San Diego granddaughters play.
 

We hope to be able to attend the 50th high school reunion and would love to see all of you again.

7-12-09 update..."Our 50th anniversary was 16 May and in June all our children (and their spouses) and grandchildren joined us for a few days in Branson, MO. This family picture was taken 25 June 2009 just before we got aboard the WWII DUKW (duck) and toured the area around Branson and into Table Rock Lake."
See you in October........DeEtta Craft Engelken