1980-1988

In 1982, My Mom died at 70 on April 14th and was buried in the Mountain View Cemetery on April 18th, 1982 in Mountain View Oklahoma. I didn't know she had died until I came home from Korea and met with my brothers Charles & Robert. It pissed me off about, but there was nothing I could do or say that make a difference, so thank my brothers for handling the situation.

Once home Bechtel called and wanted me in Homestead Florida which I turned down but they kept after me so I finally accepted the job knowing it was a bad decision because I knew the project manager and the lead superintendent and didn't trust them because they were from the east coast team and I was a west coast team member. On the way to Florida, I learned that Cheryl, my first cousin, had brain cancer and was in Houston TX. the hospital and the project didn't want to give me time to see her but I went, anyway. My grade level was higher than both of them, plus they wanted me to take over the insulation supervision and I refused, so that assignment only lasted a month. One because I didn't want to work for them, and two, it was an unsafe area to live in because they had machine gunnings in the malls a few days before, so I quit and came home.  

Once home, I went to the mountains for a month to get away from the hustle and bustle of professional life. I bought a horse (Tippy), horse trailer, outfitters tent, and other necessary items and lived in the Blue Mountains at 5 degrees on one of the coldest days for a month. I did some hunting, but I wasn't really hunting, just killing time and recuperating from an intense job overseas. 

After the so-called vacation, Bechtel called and wanted me in San Onofre Nuclear Generation Station in March of 1983 which I turned down twice because I didn't want to go back to California. I finally accepted the assignment and was there from 1983 through 1986 and live in a rented house on Avenida Pico in San Clemente CA. James and Terry were both invited to come during school vacation where I learned that James had quit school but came and I could get him a GED while he was with us. Once I accepted the assignment and manned the job, we sold the Condominium. 

Following that assignment, it ushered me off to Pottstown, PA. to work on the Limerick Nuclear Generating Station as a contracts administrator overseeing an insulation contractor from 1986 to 1988. While I was there, I bought a 9-acre place and put a mile of fencing around it, and had an 8-stall barn built. The kids were grown by then. I think James was 26 at the time having all kinds of problems growing up and getting on with his life and wanting to live with us, so I made a deal with him to help build the place and he agreed. In the meantime, my food bill went up by $1500.00 a month. He helped with the fencing for a while, then found a girlfriend in Boyertown and moved in with her. Getting him out to work on the place was subject to the way he felt that day. What I learned about him during that period was that in some respect, he was a lot like his mother and agreements were subject to change. I kind of knew that already, but that episode drove it home. He was big on using people to get whatever he wanted.

We tolerated his behavior because that’s what parents do.