Bridal Veil Falls...I stopped on the way home and impaled my WRX on a rock...Shit.
Oh well, it was worth it... 
I’m home for a month, before my children’s writing class at the Oregon Coast. It’s good to be home. Summers here are beautiful, and the days are long and slo0ww…especially when we start harvest in July…or August? 
It’s a late year, but the crop looks good.
I put all my new pictures up of Italy, unpacked and did laundry. Time to relax!
- Tuscany countryside canvas with Kevin’s farm equipment underneath!
- Pisa and Montepulciano in my dining room!
My high school alma mater is PK Yonge, the University of Florida’s developmental research school. I like to joke that we were guinea pigs, but its true. What other high schools offered Aviation as a science elective way back in 1971?
The new PK Yonge auditorium
PK Yonge cafeteria...lots of good memories here!!
PK Yonge library...oh, what a memory here!!
Everyone has been asking how my speech went, and what I said. Luckily my sister-in-law, Carla, recorded it for me.
So, I was wrong - our class did have a graduation ceremony - Go figure! I sure didn't remember it until I found this in Mom's storeroom this week.
After the introduction, my whole life story and then some, what more could I say?????
While I was tempted to just say, “What she said!” I didn’t.
This was my ad-lib speech. I know I could do it better with practice…
THE SPEECH
“One of my girlfriends says that with that many things someone likes to do, they are either a renaissance woman or ADD. I hope I’m a renaissance woman….
When I graduated from PK Yonge nearly 40 years ago, I never expected to be flying a jumbo jet around the world. In fact, I didn’t know what I wanted to be, and once again, there were too many choices to choose just one. What I did learn from PK was that there were no limitations and that I could do anything I wanted. I think that’s the most important thing to take away from PK because I know you all can do anything.
If I can fly a jumbo jet that weighs over 833,000 pounds – 400 tons – longer and wider than this room with these little weenie arms, you can do anything you want: anything. Anything! (laughter)
Of course, the 747 is all hydraulic, so you don’t have to be strong – you just have to use your brain.
When I was at PK Yonge, math was the only class that I felt I really had to work at, and for those of you who have had my brother, Mr. Bice, for three years of math (Standing ovation, cheering, clapping!!!), I was going to say I feel your pain, but you all must like him, so go figure. (Laughter) He’s been my brother for 54 years. (More laughter) Yes, I know, that’s a long time. (Laughter, again!)
He’s told me quite a few stories about all of you, but I really hate to tell them in front of your parents, so maybe later we can get together and I’ll tell you what he told me.
My favorite class at PK of course was aviation, and I would like to thank Dr. Gadsden over and over again for being a great physics teacher, and then a great aviation teacher. When I learned how to fly, I didn’t plan on doing it for a living. I just did it so I could fly my friends over to the beach (chuckles). I know, it’s not a great goal or a huge goal, but that’s what kept me going – putting one foot in front of the other, and always having something I couldn’t wait to do next – something I was excited about.
I soloed at 16 at the Gainesville Airport, and one of the notations in my logbook said, “Student must stop counting swimming pools and start concentrating on learning how to fly.” (Laughter) Every time I went up I was looking for a friend’s house or something exciting in the air, and I still love to fly and it has been a wonderful career. I hope that our graduating students realize that this world has so many places to go, so many things to see, its incredible.
When I was flying the whale, which is what we call the jumbo jet, 4 engines, 55,000 horsepower each engine, we would usually go to Asia, but I also flew to Europe. The whole nose of the airplane would lift up when I was flying cargo. We would load on race cars, pigs, giraffes, antelope, zebra (laughter)…we took a whole zoo to Asia once.
We had thousands of chicks peeping underneath our cockpit all the way over, and you couldn’t hear the engines over the chicks – that’s a lot of chicks!
We flew saltwater fish, and probably every Nintendo game or Playstation or computer that you all would use. We couldn’t wait to see what cargo we had!
(I said incredible again, need a new adjective…5 total!!!! Yikes…at least I didn’t say “umm”).
You could look from the front of the airplane, if you pretend I’m at the front now, all the way to the back of the room where the tail would be – it was almost as long as a football field. An (incredibly) fun plane to fly, into foggy airports like San Francisco, icy runways in Alaska – for me the most exciting thing is a challenge, and I loved it when the weather was down, or I had to make a crosswind maximum gross weight.
I think finding your passion and being able to do it in this world is incredible (yes, 4 times). I know you’ve all heard how hard it is to make it in this world, how everything is changing so fast…but I would love to start over – the incredible thing about this world is that there is always something new in it…flying down to Singapore over the South China Sea, flying over the Saipan where the ocean goes down 7 miles, when you are flying 7 miles up – almost makes me an astronaut, right? 14 miles above the bottom of the ocean?! (Laughter)
I was flying on 911 when the skies were closing and I was one of the last planes in the sky. To me, one of the best parts of aviation is that it is always changing. You have to stay on your toes.
My life has been so fun and exciting…if I could tell you just a few things to keep your life fun and exciting, I would say:
Stay positive.
Hang on to your integrity.
Surround yourself with positive people.
I know you all have supportive people in your life, because your parents had to sign you up to get into PK Yonge. But I don’t just mean your family…
Surround yourself with positive friends and people who are going places and have dreams and ambitions. I find I can only have two people in my life at a time who are negative because they such the life right out of you. (nods, agreement)
Keep positive people around you, keep putting one foot in front of the other. You don’t have to know where you are going to get there…unless you are in a jet like me – then it helps to know where you are going, say to Singapore. (laughter)
Anyway, I think the world is yours and I’m excited for you, and I wish I could come back in 40 years to see what you do with your life.
Congratulations and good luck.”
1000 words, 7.5 minutes
Plans for the new wing at PK Yonge...wow!
PK Yonge modulars...I wish Sherman County would do this! It's amazing how many resources there are when K - 12 are on one campus.
Inside the modular classroom...much better than the originals!
Breaking ground for the new elementary wing
Now this is my kind of curriculum!! Rome, yes!!
