Nancy Elliott Newton

Yes

Frank and I celebrated our 60th wedding anniversary this month and had 4 generations at our home for Thanksgiving! Life is very good. Frank and I have done so much and life has been good to us. We have been married 50 years and have three wonderful children, four grandchildren and two Great grands. Frank and I own an Aviation Consulting business and Frank is also an attorney.
We lived in Charleston SC when we first married while Frank served in the US Air Force. The pay for an airman third class would not make you rich but we survived and were very happy there. Frank worked at a TV repair shop sometimes in the evening and earned extra money for us to go out on Friday nights and to have a little extra for everyday needs. We loved going to the beautiful parks, fishing and crabbing on the beach with our daughters. ?We moved back to Charlotte when Frank was discharged from the USAF. I was a stay at home Mom until 1968 when I took a job with Eastern Airlines computer center here in Charlotte where I worked until Eastern moved its computer services to Miami in 1978. I relocated with EAL and worked on the team that coordinated the relocation of the communication system from Charlotte to Miami.? Frank went to Law school. We lived in Miami FL for total of about 18 years. Our first home in South Florida was in Ft. Lauderdale on a deep water canal. We had a pool and boat out our back door on the canal and could go boating all the way to the ocean. The commute to Miami was pretty tough though and after one year we decided to move to Miami to be nearer my work and the University of Miami where Frank was attending law school. We purchase in condo at Costa Del Sol across the street from Doral Golf Club in Miami. I was just minutes to work and Frank had an easier drive to the UM. After Frank graduated from law school, we were back to Charlotte. That only lasted for a couple of years and we were on our way back to Miami when Frank was offered a position with Eastern Airlines as an attorney. Meanwhile, I am getting myself relocated with EAL with each move. Much of the time we lived in Morningside, a beautiful historic district on Biscayne Bay in Miami. It was a lovely neighborhood, with deco and Spanish homes. What a wonderful life. We were members of the Bath Club on Miami Beach; it was a lovely sprawling Spanish building. The bath club had cabanas, salt water pool and a wonderful grill and restaurant right there on Miami Beach. We went to formal dances at the club. We loved to dress up, Frank in his tuck and me in a formal gown. I look back to those days with very fond memories.?After relocating to Miami for the second time, my new job with Eastern was to develop a PC software product for travel agencies. My new boss did not care much for my southern draw, so she gave me an assignment that would keep me away from her. I was to help develop a PC product for travel agencies. I had never heard of a PC at the time, but I was up for the challenge and certainly did not tell her of my ignorance. That assignment had me teamed with an IBM programmer and Bill Gates of Microsoft developing the first windows operating system. (Can you believe it? me working with Bill Gates.) I knew that Bill Gates was very smart, but I never dreamed that one day Bill Gates and windows would be where they are today. I spent many a day in his conference room dreaming up how windows would work. He had a personal chef that would prepare our meals each day. It feels pretty neat that I was a small part of the beginning of windows. I later traveled across the US and Caribbean visiting travel agents supporting the new windows system. ?Life with Eastern the last few years was always up and down. You never new when they would go out on strike. I finally threw in the towel in 1989. I went to Real Estate school and got my license. It did not take long for me to decide that selling real estate was not for me, people could get pretty ugly. ?A friend and I opened an antique store in Bal Harbor. We never made any money but we had a ball out looking for treasures to sell in the store. I don't believe that I have every laughed so much. In 1989 Frank announced that he wanted to open an aviation consulting business. I did not much like the idea. Frank was very smart and I new that he would be successful but he was not good at the day to day running of a business, billing and collecting the fees and personnel. We agreed that we would go into business together and he would provide the services and I would run the business. Here we are 20 years later still in the aviation business together.
Frank and I have traveled to more than a twenty countries around the world.We have walked on the Great Wall of China, slept on the Orient Express, riden horses in Ireland. What a wonderful education and experience. We have 8 horses, 2 dogs, 2 cats and 5 ducks.
I love cooking and have attended classes at Johnson & Wales. You will see evidence of that when see us at the reunion.
I also love gardening, decorating our home and all things pretty.

What I have not told you yet is how wonderful it is to be a grandmother. One of the greatest joys of life. My grandchildren are great, just like yours. One has actually “walked” across the United States, from shore to shore.
I could go on about the grand kids but I know how boring that can be to others. Just take it from me, they are pretty neat.

I began my school years at Berryhill. On my very first day I was left behind after school setting on the front steps. My two elder sisters were to see that I got on the school bus with them after classes. All the buses got loaded and pulled out of the parking lot; there I set on the front steps alone as they pulled out of the parking lot... I do not remember being scared but I do remember being very happy when my mother drove up. I was never left again.
I moved to Glenwood in the second grade and on to Harding in the 8th grade. The only thing that I remember about Enderly Park was getting knocked out with a softball and the beautiful orchids that my friend Connie’s mother grew.
I loved being at Harding, it looked like everything I thought a school should look like. I felt apart of it the first day that I arrived. I loved to go to school, I never wanted to miss.

I remember most that the teachers and Mr. Hawkins was the boss. None of this modern stuff of student’s rights.

I remember Miss Johnson, warming her sandwich on the radiator each day. My class with her was just before lunch period, it was hard to smell that roast beef (always roast beef) sandwich, my stomach would growl and I would think about that grilled chicken salad sandwich waiting for me at Condors as soon as class was dismissed. I also remember that Ms. Johnson did not allow pony tails in her class and no crinlines.

I had history via TV in the cafeteria with Ms. Shore. Mrs. Shore and the TV teacher did not agree on many points. She was always yelling "don't listen to that! She is wrong." I am afraid that I did not learn much about history that year.

English was my first period in the 12th grade with Mr. Curtis who was an exchange teacher from Australia. The students called his class "Mr.' Curtis story hour" He was always reading to us. It was really hard to stay awake that early in the morning. He did tell us some interesting stories about Australia and would share with us stories of his home.

Oliver Cook was great. I learned so much in his class. Mr. Cook did not stand for any misbehaving in his class. He was not beyond throwing things when he heard talking. I will never forget the time he threw a music stand across the room at someone. He would banish you to the hall for minor offenses which seemed to happen to someone in the class each day.

I must not leave out Ms. Bell. She taught me one of my most important lessons in life. She would always say “Can’t never could”. I have tried to live my life practicing that very wise statement.

I loved school, everything about it, cheerleading in Jr. high, playing basketball, home ecomonics (Ms. Cruise had me making her dresses), the dances in the gym, even my classes. I was elected class beauty but never understand why. I did not care for my looks and was very self-conscious. I loved Miss Dunn and Mrs. Elliott. I had planned to be an Algebra teacher until I met Frank.
I met Frank by chance.

I was a superlative my junior year, they planned the Junior/Senior. I had been dating someone else for a long time and had made up my mind that this was the time to break up with him. There was someone else that I wanted to attend the dance with. The committee was expected to attend the dance and we for some reason that I forget, were to invite our dates. By the time I got the nerve to invite him, someone already had. Cecilia told me that Frank was a good dancer and I already knew how cute he was so I invited him. He said yes and that was the beginning to a relationship that would change our lives.