Paula McNeely Faulkner

Well, I pretty much stayed here in Las Cruces after high school. I went to NMSU and am a junior status in both Civil Engineering and Elementary Education. I never finished either degree due to circumstances at that point in my life - I may someday go back. I have 2 wonderful boys - and I work at White's Music Box in the Downtown Mall - all of you former "band geeks" should know where I am talking about. I have been here since 1989 with the exception of 4 years from 1993-1997 when I lived in Albuquerque and Arizona. When I moved back to Las Cruces, I was hired back pretty much immediately and I have held every position here w/ the exception of "Tuba repair person", but I've been around it enough I'm sure I could figure it out. I currently hold an accounting position here as the "bookkeeping manager" and store manager.

My oldest son is a freshman at Onate high school. He is very talented and musically inclined {he gets it from me ;)} - he plays french horn/mellophone, trumpet, guitar and bass guitar and can hold his own on a drum-set. He is 14 and trying my every last strand of patience - teenagers stink! Literally!

My youngest is the jock of the family. He loves sports but his heart lies on the baseball diamond and the football field...he is pretty quick too and qualified for state in the Hershey Track meet (the oldest did last year too).

Marching the Rose Parade my sophmore year, almost getting caught smoking in the bathroom on the bus while on one of the band trips...Mr. White's curling toe cowboy boots and how he used to rock forward and backward on them, I awlays thought he was gonna fall. I also remember him throwing the megaphone many times if we didn't hit a mark or note right and climbing on top of the band truck - jumping up and down and yelling at us.

Mr. Hutchison's social studies/history class and his unforgettable teaching techniques from perfectly cutting out designs on ditto paper w/ blunt kindergarten scissors (to represent the life of factory workers), to picking up peanuts and pinto beans on the practice field in the freezing cold wind all to teach us what it must've been like to be a slave...he was and still is my favorite teacher of all time (and the best soccer coach I ever had).

...the many soccer trips and band trips - I have many fond memories of High School and hope to retain them until my dying day.