I graduated from Santa Cruz High School in June of 1962. That September I enrolled at Cabrillo Jr. College in Aptos. We were still living out in the boonies on Mountain View Rd. I was majoring in Elementary Education because at the time I though I wanted to be a teacher. Ironic, I ending up being a teacher of four (my kids).
I took some pretty basic classes. Political Science, Biology, French, Art History, Speech and English Literature. At first my Dad drove me, but then he let me use the car occasionally. I drove out the back way, past Rodeo Gulch to the Old San Jose Rd and then into Soguel and on to Aptos.
I really enjoyed my classes the first year, but was unprepared for the lack of pressure to get things done…I took copious notes, but didn’t join a reading group, so I got behind in all the reading…and when final exams came around, I was panicked. I enjoyed French Class, as the teacher would ignore you, if you spoke to him in English, so I took 3 semesters of French. I liked Speech class and Art History was great. Biology and Poly Sci I only passed by the skin of my teeth,
In 1963, I was in with my Art History buddies when JFK was shot. So a bunch of us left together and went to one of their homes to listen to the TV.
After that, I met a guy, strange but now I have even forgotten his name. He got to talking to me between classes, he was very handsome and flirted a lot with me. We got to where we met every day, months passed and he was starting to talk about us maybe going on a date. Then one weekend, I heard in the class that we shared, that he had been killed in a terrible freak accident. He and a friend had been drinking and were parked somewhere on West Cliff drive, when he must have stepped on the gas, thinking he was in reverse, and his car just plunged off the cliff and landed top down on the rocks and ocean below, killing him instantly.
I cut class a few days later to attend the memorial services in Watsonville, but they had been changed and so to get closure for myself I drove down to New Brighton Beach and sat on a long listening to the waves. Something about the ocean had always been a spiritual thing for me…the power of the undertow, the regularity of the waves…the force and power of water. Anyway I cried my tears for a boy I knew enough to like but would never know enough to love. After that something happened to me inside. I realized what I really wanted to do was get a job and quit college for a while until I knew what direction I really wanted to go in. I had two different boyfriends during this time. I was almost 20 and had marriage on my mind. That was a time before women realized there was no rush.
My parents were supportive, so I interviewed at the County Bank of Santa Cruz and got a job in the bookkeeping/control department. I think I got the job because someone there knew me from church. Taking this job would change my life and introduce me to the man that I would spend the next 45 years with.
