Saturday, October 15, 2016

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - What Were You Doing in 1995?

Calling all Genea-Musings Fans: 

 It's Saturday Night again - 
time for some more Genealogy Fun!!



Here is your assignment if you choose to play along (cue the Mission Impossible music, please!):

1) Do you recall what you were doing in 1995?  Family, school, work, hobbies, technology, genealogy, vacations, etc?


2)  Tell us in a blog post of your own, in a comment on this blog, or in a Facebook or Google+ post.

Here's mine:


*  I was age 53 in 1995, with our two daughters out of high school and away at college.  The Bank of Dad was in high gear!  

*  I was still working at Rohr Industries in Chula Vista as an aerospace engineer, and was supervising about 15 engineers as the Chief of Aerodynamics and Thermodynamics.  We analyzed and tested the fluid dynamics, thermal environment and performance of aircraft engine nacelle systems on several contracts - usually one with Pratt & Whitney, one with General Electric, one with Rolls-Royce, one with Airbus, one with McDonnell Douglas, and one with a business jet manufacturer.  Linda was teaching 4th or 5th grade at Montgomery Elementary School in Chula Vista with a class of 30 students.  

*  We celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary on March 21 with dinner at Peohe's, a Polynesian restaurant in Coronado.  On the following weekend, Lori and Tami co-hosted a wonderful anniversary party.   They banished Mom and Dad from the house so they could decorate and organize the event.  Tami's boyfriend, James, and Lori's boyfriend, David, helped set up, host, and clean up - a great team effort.  About 75 friends and family attended, and a wonderful time was had by all. 

*  During Easter week, we had a second honeymoon to Tahiti.  We stayed on the islands of Papeete and Moorea, with the beach just outside the room.  It was very beautiful, relaxing, and fun.  We did some sightseeing, a little shopping, some snorkeling, and a little canoeing (after flipping over and cooling off!).  

*  For our summer vacation, we took a three week trip through eight Western states in our Dodge Caravan.  The itinerary consisted of:  San Diego - Las Vegas - St. George UT - Salt Lake City UT - Jackson WY - Yellowstone Park - Twin Falls ID - Boise ID - Reno NV - San Francisco - Morro Bay - San Diego.  We stayed with friends in St. George, and enjoyed Sally's guided tour of beautiful Zion National Park.  In Salt Lake City, Randy had two days of research at the Family History Library.  Grand Tetons National Park was awesome;  we took a boat across Jenny Lake and climbed up Cascade Canyon to a waterfall.  Yellowstone National Park was breathtaking;  we saw Old Faithful, many geysers, springs and colorful mudpots, the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, and Yellowstone Falls.  We also visited Gardiner, Montana, which was  Linda's father's birthplace.  The fire damage in the Park is still highly visible, but nature is gradually renewing the trees.  We enjoyed several ranger programs, especially one on the re-settling of gray wolves within the Park.  In Twin Falls, we stayed with the Reeves family, who showed us the sights of Shoshone Falls and Twin Falls, and worshiped at Paul's church.  We visited the Shangle's in Boise, and had a beautiful ride to McCall, Idaho for sightseeing and shopping.  While in Reno, we took a drive to Virginia City and were amazed by the mines dug in the 19th century.  On the way home, we visited Papa Lee in San Francisco and Lori and Dave in Morro Bay.  It was a long, interesting, and fun trip.

*  In early September, Linda, Randy, and Tami flew to San Jose to enjoy a Leland family celebration of Papa Lee's 84th birthday and Paul's 50th birthday.  Linda was able to see cousins and friends that she had not seen for about 30 years.

*  In my spare time, I was doing genealogy research.  I went to the Family History Center in San Diego every Saturday to look for ancestral information on microfilms, to the Chula Vista Library to see books on the shelf, to Carlsbad Library every two or three months for books and periodicals.  I had two days of fantastic research at the Family History Library while on vacation.  There were no digitized databases yet, although there were indexes on microfiche or in books for census and other records.  I had my family tree in Personal Ancestral File and had found about 80% of what I now have for my ancestral families - all on paper in my 40 linear feet of bookcases in the genealogy cave.  I had enjoyed my time on the Prodigy network in 1992 and 1993, and was connecting to the Internet with a 1200 baud modem to other networks (About.com, Delphi?).

That's my story -thank goodness for the yearly Christmas letters that we sent.  1995 was a very good year!


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Copyright (c) 2016, Randall J. Seaver

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7 comments:

Seeds to Tree said...

Thank goodness Randy mentioned he got his information from his Christmas letter. A couple of years ago, I organized my letters from 1986 to the current year in a red three ring binder. I made a similar binder for each of my kids. You can find a link to this idea here: http://seedstotree.blogspot.com/2015/12/do-you-want-simple-gift-idea-for.html.

In 1995, my children were 13, 10 & 7. They were involved in basketball, softball, piano, and French lessons. My brother was married in a lovely ceremony, and my daughter was a junior bridesmaid. I was sewing doll clothes for the American Girl dolls and selling at craft shows. I would buy up used Catholic school uniforms and sew them into doll sized uniforms. Those and night gowns were my best sellers. My dad and my grandmother had health problems that required surgery, on the same day in separate hospitals. For our 1995 vacations we did a bunch of camping. Not alot of money, but family togetherness. Our kids still enjoyed the Christmas festivities and traditions. Some we still do today.

Seeds to Tree said...

I realized I left out something of genealogical importance. At the time, I was not doing genealogy. I'm not sure if I even knew the definition of the word. However, I did realize that my father, being an only child, probably had some wonderful stories to tell from his childhood in Luxembourg. I did have the fore-thought to ask him to tell me stories in the car on the way to and from his chemo. I also spent most of a weekend with my grandmother while she was recovering from surgery interviewing her for several hours about her life stories and recorded them. These became my basis for my genealogy when I first started at the end of 1996. (And knew what the word meant.)

Mary Rohrer Dexter said...

While I will enjoy reading about every one else's experiences in 1995, I choose not to participate this week. 1995 was in the midst of a very bad era for me. I didn't begin my genealogy hobby till the late 1990's so was not researching then so I don't think my experiences apply. I have worked hard to forget a lot of it. I am glad to have put all that behind me and am enjoying life now.

Lisa S. Gorrell said...

In 1995, I was 41, working at BART still as a Train Operator. My daughters were 6 and 4 years old. I don't think I was doing genealogy yet, though it would be soon that I visited Sutro Library in San Francisco and found my grandfather in the 1920 census. I was mostly busy volunteering in my daughter's classrooms.

Lois Willis said...

Here's my post
http://loiswillis.com/2016/10/16/sunday-afternoon-genealogy-fun-what-were-you-doing-in-1995-2/
I noticed when posting the link, that I had already done a post about this, back in March
http://loiswillis.com/2016/03/20/sunday-afternoon-genealogy-fun-what-were-you-doing-in-1995/

Janice M. Sellers said...

I remember a little about 1995.

http://ancestraldiscoveries.blogspot.com/2016/10/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-what-were.html

Suzanne McClendon said...

It looks to me like 1995 was a wonderful year for you and your family. :) We have two daughters in college right now, so I understand completely your Bank of Dad comment. There's always something that is needed, no matter how much one prepares in advance.

Here is the link to my response: PS Annie!

Have a blessed day!