I received a note from Sue Roark Henderson recently with an attached photo of Sue and her husband Jim. Sue has also provided the following information for the Blog.
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This picture was taken in Dalton, GA. Jim and I went there to visit Bruce Kruger's cousin, Pete Pangle, and Pete's wife Paula. This picture was taken by our son, Chris. We are sitting in front of a Cracker Barrel restaurant on our 42nd Wedding Anniversary.
Jim and I have two sons, ages 32 and 34. Our youngest son entered the Air Force after he graduated from the University of Florida. After seven deployments to the Middle East (I think he visited every country with a name ending in the suffix “-stan”, plus a few others), he decided to transfer from the Air Force to the Navy. As parents, we are delighted to have him in the United States, and even better than that, in Florida. Greg is attending the University of South Florida Medical School, courtesy of the United States Navy. He is in his first year, and he refers to himself as the “old man” of the class. I will never forget his account of his USF interview when he was applying to various medical schools. One of the doctors conducting the interview asked, “Why are you interested in changing careers at this point in your life? You are an officer, and you have an excellent record with the Air Force.” Greg’s answer was rather pithy, I thought. He said, “Lady, have you ever been shot at?”
Our older son, Chris, is a professional bartender. He attended Miami-Dade College (formerly Miami-Dade Community College, and also my husband’s employer since 1970), graduated with a 2-year honors degree, attended 1 year at FSU, and decided he was tired of school. He had been working as a bartender the whole time he was at FSU, and is now working in Atlanta, still tending bar. He was a night owl as a child, and he is still a night owl. He is the one who took the picture you have.
Although I am retired now, and have been since June of 2002, I spent 38 years as a classroom teacher. When Jim was doing his graduate work at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, between 1965 and 1970, I did my first five years of teaching. When Jim finished his graduate work in 1970, we moved to Miami, FL, expecting to stay one or two years. At that time, there was very little demand for Professors of Biology, and so we stayed. We’ve been in the same house for 29 years. This is where we rode out Hurricane Andrew. Both boys were living at home then, thank goodness. We were without electricity for 6 weeks. It was like camping out. Our daily routine was as follows: Jim, Chris, and Greg would each crank up a chain saw after we had our morning coffee. I often felt like my new career was boiling water on our camp stove so we could have morning coffee. Then, the three men would cut fallen trees (we lost 58). As they cut limbs, I dragged them to the front of our property. This went on for the first 5 weeks.
Strangely, I remember that as a time of intense family bonding. We were happy to be together. We didn’t bother with clocks, telephones, or T.V. Given all the natural disasters Mother Nature has to offer, I’ll choose hurricanes every time. Of course, Andrew was no Katrina! I’m sure some of our classmates from ’61 were affected by Katrina. Jim’s sister and her family live in the New Orleans area on the north side of Lake Pontchartrain. (I’m not sure of that spelling…guess I’ve been away from Louisiana too long.) Jim’s nephew lost his house, but has since rebuilt. His niece had water up to within 6 inches of her front steps, while all the rest of her neighbors’ houses had water inside. Jim’s sister lost over 50 pine trees and was without electricity for quite a while. No one was hurt, and all is well now.
I’m beginning to wonder whether we will ever have grandchildren. Our older son declares women to be too high maintenance to even consider marriage, and our younger son is wise to wait until he finishes medical school (in my opinion). He married two years ago.
I hope your family and loved ones are well, and I wish for you all good health and the best life has to offer.
Sincerely,
Sue Shannon Roark
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