At this time, our family consisted of me, my husband, Gene, and our twin grandchildren: Alys (pronounced Alice) and Dylan.
Gene and I had retired after many years of hard work. We both served in the Army and were both veterans. Gene entered the Army in 1955, had been a radioman in the service, then attended Air Traffic School and was an Air Traffic Controller. Gene worked as an Air Traffic controller at the Pensacola Naval Air Station. We had met and married in 1971. He worked his way through college and graduated from UWF as an accountant in 1975. He operated Mead Tax Service, with my help, for decades in addition to our careers here in Pensacola. He was finally hired as an accountant at the Naval Air Rework Facility (NARF) at NAS Pensacola in 1978. It's not easy to change careers later in life. He retired in 1994, with 30 years service, and worked as an accountant part time.
I entered the Army in 1965 and had been assigned as the Command Officer's secretary until I was selected as an Army Recruiter in 1966. I attended the Amy Recruiting school in 1966 and was the recruiter for South Carolina and northern Georgia. I had to resign in 1967 and come home to care for my mother. I was the oldest child and a girl so it was expected and I accepted. She returned to the hospital the next year and I went back to work. Gene and I married in 1971. I worked my way through college and graduated from UWF in 1974 and entered graduate school. That didn't last long since we were in a recession then and I had to quit school and go back to work. We were the contractors when we built our house in 1978. I retired in 1994, with 20 years service, and raised our grandchildren.
