"How on earth did you come to live in Waukegan?"

Even my friends from Waukegan often ask, "How on earth did you come to live in Waukegan?" Life is funny and after all of the interesting and exciting places I have lived; to end up here is a little surprising even for me. Actually it makes perfect sense how I got here but why I stayed is something else entirely. After I graduated from St. Andrews College in North Carolina I moved to Savannah, Georgia where I had grown up before moving to Mountain Lakes. I had lived on the Isle of Hope, a small, idyllic, barrier island, near Savannah before moving to another small, idyllic town in New Jersey called Mountain Lakes. It seems that our family always picked interesting places, with rather romantic names in which to park ourselves for a while. Pinewood Avenue, Isle of hope then Laurel Hill Road, Mountain Lakes, then my parents moved to England for about ten years. I was lucky enough to spend quite a bit of time in Europe over those years and when they moved back to Savannah I moved to Hilton Head Island where I worked in the hotel and condominium rental business for quite a few years. I also had jobs in South Florida but usually ended up back in Savannah and Hilton Head until my brother asked me to go into business with him. We bought a cookie company in Los Angeles in 1987 and I moved out there to manage it. After a year we moved the whole operation to the Chicago area where my brother's children were still in school. Our little cookie company called Golden Walnut Specialty Foods expanded over the years as we bought several other small companies and we became rather well respected in the gourmet food business. Unfortunately my brother Fred (Class of 1961) was diagnosed with bone cancer in 1995 and died in 1998. We sold the business and I semi retired and opened an antique shop. I have always loved big old Victorian homes and had acquired a great big old 1872 Italianate needing lots of work. I have also always been a great collector of neat stuff so friends suggested I open a shop. While my shop, Victorian House Antiques, success has been less than stellar it did give me the opportunity to buy yet another Victorian House to add to my collection and a great excuse to buy lots more stuff. It is amazing how we seem to become our parents. My parents came back from England and opened an antique shop in Savannah and now here I am doing the same thing. Life is strange. Three years ago I moved my wonderful mother up from beautiful Savannah to not so beautiful Waukegan. My father had died in 1979 but my mother is going strong at 87 this August. We lead a quiet life up in the frozen North and usually take a road trip once a year to see our friends and relations in the South. I do quite a bit of volunteer work with the local historical society and serve on the local preservation commission. I would love to hear from any of my old friends who haven't given up on me. I was lucky enough to have seen John Post back in the 1970s when he was living in Miami but other than communicating with John Connell recently, I have lost touch with everyone. I would like for everyone to remember our good friend Richard Ogden who died shortly after graduating from college. After struggling through college and finally earning his diploma he was diagnosed with a brain tumor shortly after arriving home from graduation. I was lucky enough to visit with him in Houston, shortly before his death, and remember him saying that his favorite song was "Ahab the Arab" by Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs. I wish you all the very best and perhaps I will be able to get together with you, in person, for our 50th reunion.