I left Nacogdoches in 1968 and went away to college. While at Panola Jr. College(Carthage), I met my wife to be, Nevilee, and we were married(my best all time decision) in 1970 prior to moving on to Lamar University(Beaumont). After college, we moved to Tyler where I went to work for General Electric in manufacturing management. In 1975, I was offered the opportunity to particpate in their Manufacturing Management Program and was transferred to San Jose, CA, working in the Nuclear Power industry. One of my assignments was working as a Project Engineer and being the prime interface with the state ASME Nuclear Inspector(my degree is in Business). That was a stressful but fulfilling position. After 10 years with GE, I moved over to Xerox as a Project Engineer(what were they thinking?) and put in 10 years with them before getting caught up in the layoffs. After that, I spent another 6-7 years with contract manufacturing companies build parts for the GE's and Xerox's. Nevilee and I had a great time in California. There is so much to do, from the ocean to the mountains. We skied, snowmobiled, partied on our Party Barge at a lake in the Sierra's at the 5,000 feet elevation. Camped at Yosemite a bunch of times, once for Thanksgiving. Twice had bears go through our camp site. Stood on ledge overlooking Nevada Falls with about 30 other people and watched a yearling bear go through my neighbors backpack and select an apple before running off. We were about 7 feet away, he didn't seem too bothered. We couldn't say the same. California is a beautiful area, just too many people and too much concrete. Moved up to the Seattle area in 2001(movers were at the house on 911, guess that should have told us something!). Seattle is also beautiful, maybe more than California and almost as much to do. We were only there two years before moving back to Texas. Now we live in Longview and have the opportunity to be with family more as well as get re-acquainted with old friends.