Carolyn McClure Cooper

Tomorrow (July 2), Paul and I will celebrate our 50th anniversary. We moved away for awhile, but returned quickly to Odessa. Paul was manager of Gorman’s Camera and Sound in downtown Odessa for years. After Gorman’s closed, he became a custodian for the school district. He has been retired since 1986 and has had about 70 surgeries.

I went to college at OC and then drove back and forth to Alpine three days a week, to get my degree. I taught 7th 8th and 9th grade Science and Math at Crockett Junior High, 2nd 4th and 6th grades at Goliad and Milam, and several years, summer school exit level math.
After Paul got hurt, I began working week-ends at the Funeral Home. I worked seven days a week for 16 years, then retired from teaching after 39 years. I LOVED my kids, hated the TESTS. I now work full time at the funeral home.

My daughter, Paula is a CPA, living in Plano. She has had many interesting jobs in risk management and is currently employed as Manager of Internal Controls with Builders First Source in Dallas. She has inherited her father’s love of photography and will wait forever for the bee to land on the flower pedal, or whatever, for just the right shot. She has two sons.
Chad, his wife Amba, and their three children, Sebastian, age 9, Yossarian, age 5, and Juniper, age 2, have recently moved back to Australia. Chad hopes to be a librarian. Both he and Amba enjoy felting. They make beautiful pieces of art.
Bryan, his wife Jenny and their daughter, Avery live in McKinney, Texas. Jenny is a physical therapist and Bryan is owner of NexGen Fitness, in Frisco. He loves playing golf, or any sport. He was on his way to being a pro basketball player, but decided to follow in his grandfather’s footsteps, and broke his back.

My son, Cory and his wife Kacey and their three children, Haylie, age 8, Camdon, age 7, and Kenedi, age 4, live on Lake Texhoma, near Durant Oklahoma. Cory is a fantastic artist and paints murals in homes; he also has a carpet cleaning company. Kacey works for an eye doctor.

You may have noticed that my great grandchildren are older than some of my grandchildren. Paula was almost 14 when Cory was born. She started to college the same day he started Kindergarten. Cory said he grew up with two mothers and her sons were his brothers.

I am anxious to see everyone at the reunion.

Unfortunately, I went to school, went to work, went home. Not much time left for fun.

I do remember in Chemistry, we were given a week to discover our “unknown”.
On the first day, my lab partner (I think it was Max Scarborough) and I accidently threw out the “unknown” (probably my fault). We spent the rest of the week pretending to work, then guessed at the answer. Thanks Max for helping me pass Chemistry. Bet he would be shocked to learn that my college degree was in Science, and I was even allowed to teach it.

Well, after the kids were grown, my husband and I were going to hop on motorcycles and travel anywhere and everywhere. By the time the last kid was grown, he had had several leg surgeries, 4 total knee replacements, several back surgeries, several heart procedures including quadruple by-pass, shoulder surgery, grand mal seizure, etc. etc.etc. Guess I am to blame for that also, cause I really wanted to go in a Winnebago, NOT a motorcycle.

para-sail

When I was in the 9th grade, I was robbed while working in a grocery store. I was at the cash register; the man pointed a gun at me and said “Give me the money” I said, “No, it’s not MY money.” Should it happen today, not only would he get the money, I would offer to help carry it to the car.

I work in a Funeral Home. When I asked what they would do if they saw an ole lady with a wrinkled up tattoo on her backside. They began to laugh, so I decided against it.