Jim Horton
1965
I’m encouraged to share my story after reading the inspiring life accounts of our Cleveland classmates in the reunion website….such interesting lives of families, careers, and adventures!! I also really enjoyed reviewing the Le Sabre articles and the personal classmate photos sent into the website….my 50 year-old high school memories are much fresher now and with fun updates too. Looking forward to seeing everyone in October, and sharing more stories then!!
I’ll start my story with Cleveland High in the 10th grade. My family moved to “The Valley” in Oct 1962 when I started attending GCHS. I was really a ‘fish out of water’ at first, or more accurately, a ‘roadrunner out of desert’. We moved from Paradise Valley….then a sleepy and quite rural suburb of very small Phoenix….with one grade school and one high school. In all, there were only 500+ kids in my high school in PV, including four grades…..and I was very attached to the area and had lots of friends who were hard to leave. My sweet wife Sherry calls me a wimp in whining about how tough our family’s move was on me. She and her family moved almost every year throughout her schooling with her dad’s career in heavy construction projects. Of course, she learned to be flexible and fun and easy-going everywhere she is….and she’s never met a stranger.
OK….so back to Cleveland. I was overwhelmed at first with the number and variety of kids at Cleveland….and I learned quickly, like Jim Hazard remarked in his “story,” to address the initial questioning….”Are you a greaser or a surfer” with my response….”Uhhhhh….I guess neither….let’s say I’m an athlete and let it go at that.” And then I’d amble away to “Building A” or “Building C” or the “Quad” on Cleveland’s then almost new, now (of course) celebrated buildings and grounds. Over time in classrooms and hallways, I gained many new friends at Cleveland. Through sports, I won more good friends and truly grew to love the game of basketball, and played it almost nonstop. Couldn’t believe Cleveland’s gym was open every night and on weekends….my small high school in PV was just then building a gym as I left the area.
As with Ron Garland’s heartfelt writings, Coach Stan Oken also had a big impact on me. As a Junior, I played on Coach Oken’s “B” team and learned so much about the meaning of teamwork, camaraderie and leadership….lessons I valued throughout my adult life. I then made the Varsity Basketball team as a Sr. with Coach Lee. Both teams were excellent with remarkable athletes and strong school support.…great memories. And speaking of great athletic achievements, do you recall that our school’s 1965 baseball team won the LA City Championships during the Spring of our Senior year. Our class had so many great athletes….Wow!!
Many of you may also fondly remember as I do the Friday night gym events with athletic games in the Boy’s Gym, and music and dancing on the Girl’s Gym side. The last slow dance song was always, “Theme From A Summer Place.” Sway to the dreamy music with your dancing partner and enjoy the moment….
I graduated from Cleveland with a B+ GPA in mathematics….really?? This was a bit of a misnomer….just a combination of assigned classes by administration….I was reasonably competent but certainly not a noteworthy math wiz. I entered Pierce JC in the Fall of 1965, but drifted a bit….OK more than a bit. I had little conviction or direction in my education other than the vigorous desire to earn a “2-S” college deferment from the draft. As with many of us fellas at that time, completion of less than 15 units during a college semester resulted in a stern notice from the Draft Board that one would now be considered “1-A” and therefore superbly qualified for drafting into the US Army. As we all remember, this was a scary proposition given the Vietnam War was in full scale. I dropped a class here and there during my first semester and the draft notice march was on!!
I left school and started up full-time in the shoe department at the JC Penneys in Reseda….yep, I got up close and personal with lots and lots of feet for the next year or so and learned more about shoes – and feet - than I could possibly imagine. Of course, Penneys was renowned as the local retail shopping hotspot on Sherman Way until Topanga Canyon Mall opened its huge doors. On Christmas Eve of 1966, without much money and having sold my car, I took a very long bus ride to Monterey to live with my Mom and brother….a cold and windy winter for this now SoCal affirmed warm-blooded guy.
Lou Olivas had joined the Air Force and I saw him on one of his leaves. He was doing fine with his service….I figured this would be a reasonable decision for me as well. So I signed up with the promise that my test scores qualified me for a variety of desirable white collar jobs….Great. However the Air Force placed me on its ‘Delayed Enlistment’ program for 6 months. My family moved back to Reseda in May 1967, and several weeks later I was in the Cleveland gym playing BBall with buddies when I messed up my left knee. The ortho doctor said no military for me and wrote a letter to the Air Force. Of course the AF was more than obliging in releasing me.…after all, I was damaged goods. But the Draft Board notified me within weeks that, yes, I was now “1-A” again….bad knee and all once I recuperated.
So heck, playing the recuperation “wild card, ” I limped back to Pierce and got serious about my school work, taking summer school and extra units to get as far with my education as possible since I expected to be drafted any day. Those days at Pierce turned into weeks and then months, and I completed semester after semester. Along the way, not only did my knee fully heal, I qualified for a temporary student deferment and kept on at Pierce, hoping to at least get my AA degree. My last semester I was notified that I was again designated “1-A” and sweated every day that I wouldn’t finish.
Remarkably I did complete my AA degree in Jan 1969….a big relief. Being officially out of deferments, I got a job managing the stock room/mail room at Ross Loos Medical Clinic in Van Nuys (a then smaller medical forerunner of the current Kaiser Permanente model), all the while waiting for my inevitable draft notice. By that time, I no longer desired to spend four years with the Air Force….being drafted into the Army only involved two years. It finally happened that I was drafted into the Army in Aug 1969. But hey, the stars and planets were aligned for me and amazingly I was assigned my so-called military “dream job” that every new soldier desires, but no one gets. I finished Basic Training at Fort Ord and immediately was transferred to Letterman Hospital in San Francisco as a “Medical Supply Specialist.” Later I was casually informed that my AA degree coupled with my civilian training ‘likely’ assisted in my military career assignment….good ol’ Pierce in Woodland Hills and good ol’ Ross Loos in Van Nuys saved the day!! I got to explore San Francisco as a 22 year-old but really not all that much on a PFC’s monthly salary…..even then SF was expensive.
In July 1970 I received dreaded transfer papers for Vietnam and flew over there with a plane load of somber GIs….we were all very anxious and fearful. Again, astoundingly good fortune guided me. My second day in-country, I was assigned to a Dental Unit, and retrained OJT to be a dental assistant….I was truly fortunate. During my year in Vietnam I met so many “Grunts,” good guys who were choppered in from the field to our base camp. These guys were ecstatic when, of all things, a dental appointment got them out of the field for even a day or two. I say this remembering vividly my dental buddies and I making a pact we would always be profoundly grateful for our relatively safe and secure service in that miserable war that took so many of our generation. We were just damn lucky.
After leaving the Army in July 1971, I returned to Reseda and rented an apartment and signed up for CSUN as a Junior. With the remarkable GI Bill and working part-time at Northridge Bullocks on the shipping dock, and later full-time as Manager of the Luggage, Books and Toys department, I eventually earned my Cum Laude degree in Business Administration in 1975. This was a proud achievement in my life, and ten long but eventful years later after graduating from Cleveland.
I worked with Mobil Oil as a field rep for a time but left when they proposed a completely undesirable relocation….no thanks. I was a California boy and wanted to stay here. Then I spent over a year with Litton Industries. These positions boosted my work experience and resume so that when I completed a Federal Job Application, I was quickly contacted and interviewed by the local field manager for the National Credit Union Administration....a Federal regulatory agency that regulated and supervised credit unions.…like the FDIC does for banks. After rounds of several more interviews, I was offered a position.
The New Examiner training program was complex and rigorous with much of it based in Washington D.C. I stayed with it and became a Field Examiner with a group based in greater Los Angeles, and also travelled all over the western states performing examination work. The job was both challenging and satisfying, and I really enjoyed my work and advanced relatively quickly. At my 8-year mark, I sought and gained promotion to the field manager position, called Supervisory Examiner. With my new managing career, I supervised 12 examiners and had much of SoCal in my group’s territory. Most considered this one of, if not the best job in the agency and it was highly sought after but hard to obtain. While I had other promotional opportunities, they involved major relocations to other regions, or to Washington, D.C….again, no thanks. The position also allowed me to work out of my home office much of the time…..not many jobs provided that bonus back in the day. The rest is history from my 30-year career and culminated in an excellent federal retirement.
I dated my first wife while attending CSUN….we married in 1976 and lived in Reseda, and then Canoga Park and Glendale. We started a bit late in the parenting department but eventually welcomed two sons who are turning 27 and 30 this year and are moving forward into their adult lives. I’m a pleased and very proud Dad. We relocated to the Bay Area in 1993 for my career when I took over a larger field operation. Eventually my wife and I came to understand that we were growing apart. After 20 years of marriage, we amicably divorced and then maintained our 50-50 custody arrangement (two weeks with me, two weeks with Mom) for the coming years until my youngest graduated high school.
I really enjoyed managing my boys’ teams in recreational Basketball and Little League for over 10 years….my home office job assisted tremendously in providing me the scheduling flexibility to coach my boys….something I will always be grateful for. I also served as a VP on our local LL board and managed several divisions over the years….volunteering in LL was fun and all about giving back. Along the way I decided to take up umpiring for youth baseball, and I’ve now completed my 16th year as a “Blue.” I work over 125 games a year for local Pony Leagues and Little Leagues and also train many youth umpires to understand umpire mechanics and their role in managing a ball game. The two main rules I emphasize are: Work hard to become good at your craft….and….Enjoy it and have fun! And yes I do very much enjoy and have fun with my umpiring….
In 2007, the year I retired, again the stars smiled at me. I met Sherry, the forever love of my life….we were both online with Match.com – yep, it really does work!! She lived in Phoenix and I was coming over to visit friends, so we arranged to meet. We’ve been together since….and a year later Sherry moved in with me in the Bay Area. We were married in Feb 2012 with a local civil ceremony to make it legal, and then a delightful beach ceremony on the island of Moorea in Tahiti as part of our honeymoon.
We desired something new and researched lots of places, eventually deciding to relocate to the San Diego north county area. We found our wonderful home on a bluff with over two acres and enjoy a superb view of the ocean 12 miles away. The best news is we’ve made many lasting friendships in this area. We love it here and even took up golf about three years ago….a demanding game to learn but great to play and enjoy together, and with our friends. Our home keeps us busy with lots of gardening and DIY projects, and we get in numerous traveling adventures as well.
My and our story continues, busy and happy………..Life is Good!!
I’ll start my story with Cleveland High in the 10th grade. My family moved to “The Valley” in Oct 1962 when I started attending GCHS. I was really a ‘fish out of water’ at first, or more accurately, a ‘roadrunner out of desert’. We moved from Paradise Valley….then a sleepy and quite rural suburb of very small Phoenix….with one grade school and one high school. In all, there were only 500+ kids in my high school in PV, including four grades…..and I was very attached to the area and had lots of friends who were hard to leave. My sweet wife Sherry calls me a wimp in whining about how tough our family’s move was on me. She and her family moved almost every year throughout her schooling with her dad’s career in heavy construction projects. Of course, she learned to be flexible and fun and easy-going everywhere she is….and she’s never met a stranger.
OK….so back to Cleveland. I was overwhelmed at first with the number and variety of kids at Cleveland….and I learned quickly, like Jim Hazard remarked in his “story,” to address the initial questioning….”Are you a greaser or a surfer” with my response….”Uhhhhh….I guess neither….let’s say I’m an athlete and let it go at that.” And then I’d amble away to “Building A” or “Building C” or the “Quad” on Cleveland’s then almost new, now (of course) celebrated buildings and grounds. Over time in classrooms and hallways, I gained many new friends at Cleveland. Through sports, I won more good friends and truly grew to love the game of basketball, and played it almost nonstop. Couldn’t believe Cleveland’s gym was open every night and on weekends….my small high school in PV was just then building a gym as I left the area.
As with Ron Garland’s heartfelt writings, Coach Stan Oken also had a big impact on me. As a Junior, I played on Coach Oken’s “B” team and learned so much about the meaning of teamwork, camaraderie and leadership….lessons I valued throughout my adult life. I then made the Varsity Basketball team as a Sr. with Coach Lee. Both teams were excellent with remarkable athletes and strong school support.…great memories. And speaking of great athletic achievements, do you recall that our school’s 1965 baseball team won the LA City Championships during the Spring of our Senior year. Our class had so many great athletes….Wow!!
Many of you may also fondly remember as I do the Friday night gym events with athletic games in the Boy’s Gym, and music and dancing on the Girl’s Gym side. The last slow dance song was always, “Theme From A Summer Place.” Sway to the dreamy music with your dancing partner and enjoy the moment….
I graduated from Cleveland with a B+ GPA in mathematics….really?? This was a bit of a misnomer….just a combination of assigned classes by administration….I was reasonably competent but certainly not a noteworthy math wiz. I entered Pierce JC in the Fall of 1965, but drifted a bit….OK more than a bit. I had little conviction or direction in my education other than the vigorous desire to earn a “2-S” college deferment from the draft. As with many of us fellas at that time, completion of less than 15 units during a college semester resulted in a stern notice from the Draft Board that one would now be considered “1-A” and therefore superbly qualified for drafting into the US Army. As we all remember, this was a scary proposition given the Vietnam War was in full scale. I dropped a class here and there during my first semester and the draft notice march was on!!
I left school and started up full-time in the shoe department at the JC Penneys in Reseda….yep, I got up close and personal with lots and lots of feet for the next year or so and learned more about shoes – and feet - than I could possibly imagine. Of course, Penneys was renowned as the local retail shopping hotspot on Sherman Way until Topanga Canyon Mall opened its huge doors. On Christmas Eve of 1966, without much money and having sold my car, I took a very long bus ride to Monterey to live with my Mom and brother….a cold and windy winter for this now SoCal affirmed warm-blooded guy.
Lou Olivas had joined the Air Force and I saw him on one of his leaves. He was doing fine with his service….I figured this would be a reasonable decision for me as well. So I signed up with the promise that my test scores qualified me for a variety of desirable white collar jobs….Great. However the Air Force placed me on its ‘Delayed Enlistment’ program for 6 months. My family moved back to Reseda in May 1967, and several weeks later I was in the Cleveland gym playing BBall with buddies when I messed up my left knee. The ortho doctor said no military for me and wrote a letter to the Air Force. Of course the AF was more than obliging in releasing me.…after all, I was damaged goods. But the Draft Board notified me within weeks that, yes, I was now “1-A” again….bad knee and all once I recuperated.
So heck, playing the recuperation “wild card, ” I limped back to Pierce and got serious about my school work, taking summer school and extra units to get as far with my education as possible since I expected to be drafted any day. Those days at Pierce turned into weeks and then months, and I completed semester after semester. Along the way, not only did my knee fully heal, I qualified for a temporary student deferment and kept on at Pierce, hoping to at least get my AA degree. My last semester I was notified that I was again designated “1-A” and sweated every day that I wouldn’t finish.
Remarkably I did complete my AA degree in Jan 1969….a big relief. Being officially out of deferments, I got a job managing the stock room/mail room at Ross Loos Medical Clinic in Van Nuys (a then smaller medical forerunner of the current Kaiser Permanente model), all the while waiting for my inevitable draft notice. By that time, I no longer desired to spend four years with the Air Force….being drafted into the Army only involved two years. It finally happened that I was drafted into the Army in Aug 1969. But hey, the stars and planets were aligned for me and amazingly I was assigned my so-called military “dream job” that every new soldier desires, but no one gets. I finished Basic Training at Fort Ord and immediately was transferred to Letterman Hospital in San Francisco as a “Medical Supply Specialist.” Later I was casually informed that my AA degree coupled with my civilian training ‘likely’ assisted in my military career assignment….good ol’ Pierce in Woodland Hills and good ol’ Ross Loos in Van Nuys saved the day!! I got to explore San Francisco as a 22 year-old but really not all that much on a PFC’s monthly salary…..even then SF was expensive.
In July 1970 I received dreaded transfer papers for Vietnam and flew over there with a plane load of somber GIs….we were all very anxious and fearful. Again, astoundingly good fortune guided me. My second day in-country, I was assigned to a Dental Unit, and retrained OJT to be a dental assistant….I was truly fortunate. During my year in Vietnam I met so many “Grunts,” good guys who were choppered in from the field to our base camp. These guys were ecstatic when, of all things, a dental appointment got them out of the field for even a day or two. I say this remembering vividly my dental buddies and I making a pact we would always be profoundly grateful for our relatively safe and secure service in that miserable war that took so many of our generation. We were just damn lucky.
After leaving the Army in July 1971, I returned to Reseda and rented an apartment and signed up for CSUN as a Junior. With the remarkable GI Bill and working part-time at Northridge Bullocks on the shipping dock, and later full-time as Manager of the Luggage, Books and Toys department, I eventually earned my Cum Laude degree in Business Administration in 1975. This was a proud achievement in my life, and ten long but eventful years later after graduating from Cleveland.
I worked with Mobil Oil as a field rep for a time but left when they proposed a completely undesirable relocation….no thanks. I was a California boy and wanted to stay here. Then I spent over a year with Litton Industries. These positions boosted my work experience and resume so that when I completed a Federal Job Application, I was quickly contacted and interviewed by the local field manager for the National Credit Union Administration....a Federal regulatory agency that regulated and supervised credit unions.…like the FDIC does for banks. After rounds of several more interviews, I was offered a position.
The New Examiner training program was complex and rigorous with much of it based in Washington D.C. I stayed with it and became a Field Examiner with a group based in greater Los Angeles, and also travelled all over the western states performing examination work. The job was both challenging and satisfying, and I really enjoyed my work and advanced relatively quickly. At my 8-year mark, I sought and gained promotion to the field manager position, called Supervisory Examiner. With my new managing career, I supervised 12 examiners and had much of SoCal in my group’s territory. Most considered this one of, if not the best job in the agency and it was highly sought after but hard to obtain. While I had other promotional opportunities, they involved major relocations to other regions, or to Washington, D.C….again, no thanks. The position also allowed me to work out of my home office much of the time…..not many jobs provided that bonus back in the day. The rest is history from my 30-year career and culminated in an excellent federal retirement.
I dated my first wife while attending CSUN….we married in 1976 and lived in Reseda, and then Canoga Park and Glendale. We started a bit late in the parenting department but eventually welcomed two sons who are turning 27 and 30 this year and are moving forward into their adult lives. I’m a pleased and very proud Dad. We relocated to the Bay Area in 1993 for my career when I took over a larger field operation. Eventually my wife and I came to understand that we were growing apart. After 20 years of marriage, we amicably divorced and then maintained our 50-50 custody arrangement (two weeks with me, two weeks with Mom) for the coming years until my youngest graduated high school.
I really enjoyed managing my boys’ teams in recreational Basketball and Little League for over 10 years….my home office job assisted tremendously in providing me the scheduling flexibility to coach my boys….something I will always be grateful for. I also served as a VP on our local LL board and managed several divisions over the years….volunteering in LL was fun and all about giving back. Along the way I decided to take up umpiring for youth baseball, and I’ve now completed my 16th year as a “Blue.” I work over 125 games a year for local Pony Leagues and Little Leagues and also train many youth umpires to understand umpire mechanics and their role in managing a ball game. The two main rules I emphasize are: Work hard to become good at your craft….and….Enjoy it and have fun! And yes I do very much enjoy and have fun with my umpiring….
In 2007, the year I retired, again the stars smiled at me. I met Sherry, the forever love of my life….we were both online with Match.com – yep, it really does work!! She lived in Phoenix and I was coming over to visit friends, so we arranged to meet. We’ve been together since….and a year later Sherry moved in with me in the Bay Area. We were married in Feb 2012 with a local civil ceremony to make it legal, and then a delightful beach ceremony on the island of Moorea in Tahiti as part of our honeymoon.
We desired something new and researched lots of places, eventually deciding to relocate to the San Diego north county area. We found our wonderful home on a bluff with over two acres and enjoy a superb view of the ocean 12 miles away. The best news is we’ve made many lasting friendships in this area. We love it here and even took up golf about three years ago….a demanding game to learn but great to play and enjoy together, and with our friends. Our home keeps us busy with lots of gardening and DIY projects, and we get in numerous traveling adventures as well.
My and our story continues, busy and happy………..Life is Good!!
Click on the photos to enlarge them
With my sweet wife Sherry in Cabo San Lucas (2011). Amazing clear water, unique rock formations and soft sand beaches. Ohhh. And strong Margaritas.
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With my sons Gavin (14) and Trevor (11) in the summer of 2000 on a River Rafting trip near Sacramento.
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Me doing my "Umping" thing. Yes, that's an "Out" on the catch.
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My boys with me in 2002 at a ceremony in Washington D.C., awarding me "Regional Supervisor of the Year".
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Golfing. Not particularly well, but always having fun!
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Our sweet Tahitian wedding ceremony on the beach in Moorea at our resort (2012)
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Jumping for joy from our Moorea resort dock.
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Halloween. Beautiful "Dorothy" and the Cowardly Lion on our front steps.
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Our honeymoon in Moorea. A fun and colorful excursion up the mountain with another peak behind us that flows right into the ocean.
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Comments
Jim: I can't tell you how happy and surprised I was when I got your e-mail saying you and Sherry are going to come to the 50th and play golf with us at Westlake Village. My wife, Shari and I, were both wondering where you were and how you were doing. You were always such a nice person.
Your story is great! Great pictures! I always enjoyed playing basketball with you in the gym, and I always felt you were a man of character and knew where he was going. It doesn't surprise me at all that you were so successful in your Federal career.
We are looking forward to seeing you again, and meeting Sherry. By the way, on our way home, we're stopping in Fresno to have lunch with Coach Oken.
Jeff Davis
Your story is great! Great pictures! I always enjoyed playing basketball with you in the gym, and I always felt you were a man of character and knew where he was going. It doesn't surprise me at all that you were so successful in your Federal career.
We are looking forward to seeing you again, and meeting Sherry. By the way, on our way home, we're stopping in Fresno to have lunch with Coach Oken.
Jeff Davis
Jim,
I remember you well and some of the partying we did when you were the Federal Examiner who examined/audited the Atascadero Federal Credit Union (I lived in Atascadero at that time). I'm glad you found us and look forward to seeing you at the 50th in October.
David Rounds
I remember you well and some of the partying we did when you were the Federal Examiner who examined/audited the Atascadero Federal Credit Union (I lived in Atascadero at that time). I'm glad you found us and look forward to seeing you at the 50th in October.
David Rounds