Christine K Lee

This is not a school story, it's what happened after graduation.....
Graduated barely, not the academic type for sure. Had too much fun to get involved in school programs or athletics...followed the philosophy of Dr Leary...Turn on, Tune In, Drop Out.....I didn't drop out of school, but I was quite uninvolved and very detached from the social and academic aspects of school. When I got my transcripts from West High to go to El Camino (I'm a bit more motivated as an adult) I was shocked at how I barely graduated from school. Good thing because I would never have stuck around to make up units. My salvation was that you could actually get your 5 units for a class even if you got a D!! Sad....I'm really not proud of this, but oh well!

Right after graduation I got married, my hubby was in the Coast Guard stationed in Yorktown Virginia so I moved there. What a culture shock for a south bay kid to move to the deep south!! It was good though, it's a really beautiful place to live. The variety of trees and birds was really amazing and interesting. We lived by an outlet of the Chesapeake Bay, and we had big crabs that made tunnels around everywhere. The cats would stand guard just outside the holes, where there were mounds of dirt about 8" high. They would get curious and poke their feet in there to feel around for a critter.
Marshes surrounded our neighborhood and you could see snakes...copper snakes (poisonous ugh) swimming through the marsh. The poverty and horribly deteriorating homes around us was disturbing, families with too many people living in a home with no indoor plumbing, outhouses in the back yard, and scruffy dogs covered with ticks roaming around on the property...I'm glad I don't live there now, but it was a good way to grow up very quickly. We returned in late 1972 and stayed in the south bay.

I am looking forward to leaving here in the spring, moving to Minnesota where I was born and have lots of family. I am buying a home and going to live a better life there than I can here. Since I'm retired I don't have to worry about driving to work through snow and hail and sleet....I can stay home and warm and dry....cuddle with the big dog I can have when I'm not living in an apartment.

The property has enough room to build a barn, get some goats raise them to keep the grass under control. It's a small town, Cannon Falls. I can hardly wait to get out of here. Too many people, too much stress, and too expensive. I'm hoping my sons will come to live there, and that my grandson can grow up away from here where the people are gentler and the air is clean, really clean.