J-O-B

Yep, I'm working. Believe it. Me, who hasn't had a full time job since January 1980! Jim and I got married December 8, 1979 and I was working for a title company. His job kept him traveling for extended periods at a time, so I quit work in January, 1980 to travel with him. The first couple of years he worked in south Louisiana, St. Louis, Vicksburg, MS, but mostly south Louisiana. We loved it. We were close to my family in Louisiana and close to CAJUN food! We bought a house in Texas City, TX and traveled. We stayed in hotels...really, it was Motels!, or rented apartments. Life was good. We eventually bought a travel trailer to call home while we were away on the road. We met some really great people and still have many of those friends all these years later. In June, 1981 we went to Marshall, MN for a mainline (pipeline) job. (He had been working for the directional crossing division for a good while). Mid summer I was pregnant, but had a miscarriage at 3 months. Jim was so upset about it, but I was not. Not that I hadn't wanted the baby, I just knew that God was taking care of a situation that was not meant to be. Found myself pregnant a few months later and Jordan was born in August, 1982. HE WILL BE THIRTY IN A FEW SHORT WEEKS! We continued life on the road and then back to home base in TC, TX between jobs. Jim had a job to go to in Virginia in June, 1984. I was pregnant when we left home heading to Big Stone Gap, Virginia. We lived there for a couple of months and then the job moved to another location, so we moved to Pound, Virginia. We lived in a holler! Coal trucks, hillbillies, mountains...we actually lived in the county that Coal Miner's Daughter was filmed in. It was very interesting to live amongst people that I really had never been around. I mean, it's not that often that the sheriff pulls up, opens his trunk and gives you a gallon of moonshine! True story! We headed back to Texas mid-fall. Jim went on a few short jobs and Jordan and I stayed home. Hailey was born in February, 1985. We left when she was a week old to go to Jim's job in Longview, TX. Life continued like that for several more years. When Jordan started kindergarten, we decided that I would stay home so he could go to school like normal kids. Jim's Dad was a pipeline welder (he worked on the Alaskan pipeline in the mid '70's). Jim and his brothers had gone to different schools all over the country and he did not want our kids doing that. So, he started looking for a job where we lived so that we would ALL be home. During Jordan's kindergarten year he had several interviews with some local companies, but was told he was overqualified. In the spring of 1988 the company he worked for offered him a job in their main office...in Tulsa, OK. So, we packed up and moved to Oklahoma! ...to be continued...