Catherine "Kitsy" Symroski Cameron

Profile Updated: December 23, 2023
Class Year: 1964
Residing In: Coimbra Portugal
Occupation: Retired 2019
Children: One son, Rob, married to a lovely native North Carolina gal with two of the smartest, brightest, handsomest More…grand-children in the world. Of course!
Comments:

I have one amazing son who loves his job as an EMT in High Point, NC, and blessed with a slim, bright and loving wife and two children. So, I am a grandmother. Impossible. I feel 49 and there are even days when I look a decade younger than my real age.

Three husbands? Wonderful fellows, but never quite .. "the one". I said "yes" when they asked for my hand in marriage and they said "yes" when I asked for a divorce.

Residences: Seattle, WA (never, ever, should have sold my Ballard house and move to Florida, but there you go...); Florida (two thumbs down, ridiculous climate for a 4-season gal and a sense of artistic and creative artificiality, but a ***** star opportunity to keep my son in ONE school jurisdiction after I survived 13 schools in 12 years); Colorado (well, yeah, two thumbs up) every town along the Front Range, stunning out of doors but stunned, too by lengthy bouts of unemployment; Great Britain for five years (London, so-so, never really grabbed me, but this lassie raises two thumbs high up for Edinburgh, Scotland). Took up a contractor position as a traveling administrator for a Missouri-based multinational and got my traveling kicks with a return to Scotland, several tours in Venezuela and a multitude of USA-based assignments. Covid! Note the "traveling" in my contractor position? So, I retired! And for reasons I cannot recall, opted for Columbia MO. A purple bubble thanks to the University of Missouri in a sea of red and Trump-stickers. Sigh. But I had made three trips to Spain to walk the Camino de Santiago and there was something about Portugal ... hmmm, need to check that out!

Update Christmas 2023. Relocated from flat and uninspiring Wal-Mart-centric, Republican-mandated Midwestern USA to bustling, colorful Coimbra, Portugal and a cozy studio flat in "Baixa" the old town. Walk, bus or train everywhere: no car! Yippee! About to spend New Year's Eve on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean in Figuera de Foz, Portugal. I'll wave!

School Story:

Third generation "Brat". Grandfather, father and uncle all West Pointers. Fort Sam Houston in the year WWII ended, briefly to Kansas (Fort Riley) and Germany, then on to Paris (Dad: Ecole de Guerre) and Fontainbleau (SHAPE) interspersed when he was on Equstrian Team and alternate for 1948 Olympics. I attended Ecole Maternelle and a convent school where I learned to write French with a steel-nibbed pen dipped in an ink pot! (France resides deep in my soul.). Oklahoma, Vietnam (yes, the last othe Brats to experience school at Ton Son Nhut), Virginia, Pennsylvania, France AGAIN where Daddy got his star and he and mother retired in Williamsburg VA.

In many ways, I have never stopped traveling. The readers of these informational PAHS pages will have experienced precisely what my two sisters and I experienced: a new school every (fill in the blank) year/s, a new home (fill in the blank) in a new (fill in country) -- you know the drill! And that oh so familiar blank look you get when that kindly-but-puzzled-person-living-in-the-same-town-their-entire-life when they hear your answer!

PAHS provided a superb "package" of education and educators. I can still hear (and mostly heed) Miss Florine F F Carroll's and Mr Phil Colby's chalkboard instructions and examples for proper sentence structure and Mr. J H Hull's vibrantly authentic passion for every word scribbled by one W Shakespeare. The intelligent guidance of these three particular educators has remained with me ever since. (Perhaps, not so much, Mr Hull's sage advice to be "Clear, concise and comprehensive.")

And we had a darn good football team, too, even if our defense had a momentary slip and allowed Chateauroux to score their first touchdown in several years! (But imagine that tiny's school's celebration when they did!)

I loved typing THE PIRATES LOG and I loved writing a few columns gleaned from weekend hours spent prowling on my own through many Paris museums -- lucky me, I got to live "in town"!

My sister, Mary, and I rode 20 bumpy minutes to school in a OD-painted Army bus from our home in the 7th arrondisement to Garches; that same trip would take an hour in today's Paris traffic! Where else could you convince "Tiny" our XXL plus sized and kindly bus driver to grind to a halt and send a schoolmate to dart into a French bakery for baguettes to share and munch on the way home?

I seek confirmation if someone in virtual PAHS-land if some bright spark did encourage classmates to bring in alarm clocks, set them at 1-minute intervals from 8:10a - 3:20p and lock them in our lockers? I have hazy details to that effect. I think this cunning plan came only to partial fruition. In hindsight, I think it was designed as a two-pronged exercise: (1) drive wild our PAHS Principal Mildred "the Missing" Link (a disciplined administrator whose DNA, it must be said, conspicuously lacked the slightest trace of humor) with frustration and (2) elicit our 1964 equivalent of high fives and gleeful grins as our time at PAHS literally rang down.

I remember Jean-Daniel Noland squiring me to the 1963 Junior Prom, held at a breathtakingly beautiful Bois de Boulogne restaurant. I stopped at the door and let out a squeak of horror when I saw no bottles of good French wine gracing our tables ... egad, no, that's Coca-Cola! That's when a sad fact hit this Leslie Caron wannabee. Insofar as the powers which be governed PAHS and the potential for too merry student revels, we were under-18, American dependents, educated at US taxpayer's expense (big hug of gratitude to the US taxpayer), which just happened to be in Paris, France. I was introduced to proper and moderate wine consumption under the careful gaze of my parents, so it was a shock when I got the message, "That would be Coke, not Cabernet Sauvignon, young lady!"

So, let's raise our adult (at least in body, if not in 'spirit') glasses brimming with the beverage of our choice, clear our throats and sing out, everyone, sing out "Where 'ere we go, what 'ere we do", I do believe we will always carry in our hearts fond thoughts of you, oh Paris High!"

Vive la France!

Catherine "Kitsy"'s Latest Interactions

Dec
23
Dec 23, 2023 at 4:00 AM
Feb 27, 2023 at 10:04 AM

Hello, Kitsy, wherever you are today, I hope it is fun and fabulous

Feb 27, 2023 at 4:33 AM
Feb 11, 2023 at 11:34 AM

Paul, class of 1964 here in flyover Missouri! Wrestling with all the forms and attendant beureaucracy to relocate at long darn last to Central Portugal, preferably Coimbra or Tomar. Finding Portguese and its sliding consanants a bit daunting. Whereabouts did you set down European roots? I do not know of any PAHSers who have leapt the pond to settle in Portugal, but Americans are certainly on the move to discover it. Apparently the Porguguese do not have an "issue" with Americans as we are largely well funded, well berhaved and don't drink as much lager as the Brits, who are fleeing home to UK after Brexit debacle. I love my country ... I just don't want to live/and or expire there. Army Brat life in those early years in France (7 years combined tours) and VietNam made a deep impression on my heart and soul and my feet just don't seem to fit American steps. However, I cannot afford France and Portugal a proximate and more affordable option. Oh, and my parents retired in Williamsburg and used to go to Lynchburg -- do I have this right? -- for the annaul steeplechase, as my Dad used to ride for the Army after WWII. Happy trails!

Jan 12, 2023 at 6:21 PM

Posted on: Dec 26, 2022 at 11:02 AM

Kitsy - I loved reading your memories of Paris. I moved to Paris summer of 1966 from Ft. Sill, Oklahoma. Knew your sister Mabby (Mary?) who was a friend of my brother, John Fairlamb. She used to come over and use our tape player to listen to recordings from her French boyfriend. Oh, the memories. I was in the class of 1967 which moved mid-year to Stuttgart, Germany with EUCOM Hqs. Paris will remain a big part of my life. I spent a month in France (mostly Paris) in September 2021 and introduced my son, daughter-in-law and 10 year old grandson to Paris. I stay in touch with many friends from PAHS on Facebook and via email. Now living in Colorado Springs, CO.

Jan 12, 2023 at 6:22 PM

Posted on: Nov 06, 2022 at 8:41 AM

Serioously considering a relocation to Portgual (Central, like Coimbra) for a year, or several, or until The End draws really near ... anyone else?

Nov 06, 2022 at 8:38 AM
Jan 12, 2023 at 6:12 PM

Posted on: May 19, 2022 at 8:26 PM

David, I used to be the Typing Editor of the TThe Pirates Log" and nI would be tickled all manner of delight if you would care to send them on to me.

My email address is catheriam@yahoo.com Do send me a note and I shall forward you my Missouri nmailing naddress; of course, let me know of any shipping fees as some of those issues were a tad hefty!

Apr 29, 2022 at 7:18 PM

Posted on: Apr 29, 2022 at 12:50 PM

Thank you for your recent update (April 2022) on your recollection of European travels and where to obtain (generally!) the best midnight fried rice! We had a Chinese cook when we lived in Saigon (1959-1960) when my Dad was assigned to MAAG, but I do not recall my Mother ever asked him to cook us fried rice! I do recall that previous American residents in our villa had particular culinary requirements: the table was loaded with every conceivable hot sauce, mustard and meat-enhancing elixir! (Mother immediably banned every bit; she was a "salt and pepper" Mother!). On a more somber note, I was briefly married to a Green Beret who served four tours in VietNam. He, too, was diagnosed in later years with Agent Orange. I commend you, Frank, for your candor in relaying your current health challenges and reckon you and that three-wheeler do tear up some Kentucky roads! And one question: what in the name of all that is damn fine Rioja were you doing drinking Mateus in Spain? I am a Camino de Santiago addict and intend my fourth walk this September once the parts that don't work in my right hip get replaced. Considering more and more seriously to relocate to either Spain or Portugal. My son and family are well settled "back East", I am delighted to be single, I am cautiously in funds, my feet are happiest on old Roman roads and my hands love the feel of trailing along sunwarmed walls hundreds of years old. And when all is said and done, the food is better: period! Keep us in touch with you, Frank!

Feb 27, 2022 at 4:46 PM

Posted on: Feb 27, 2022 at 12:39 PM

My ex is struggling outside Nashville as a good friendmade him an offer he could not refuse on his three bedroom Jay Street home. "Denver has lost that cow town feeling" is so true! Although Missouri bores the heck out of me (flat, with more flat), my townhouse rental rates and good landlords have no comparison to Denver and environs. Thinking relocating to Braga, Portugal, as those post-WWII years living in France are deep in my soul. No place in USA has ever touched my heart as much as getting off a plane and stepping with joy onto the soil of Europe. At 77, I have a hip replacement scheduled for May and intend to set forth on my fourth Camino de Santiago on the Catalan Route in September. Wish you well in your relocation considerations. I love my North Carolina-based grand children and their parents are awesome; for me, a lighter, less proximate touch. Once year, say over Thanksgiving, works well. I am a wanderer, a traveler, a mystic and a dreamer. I marvel the changes COVID has wrought, how quickly, after a bit of a grumble, humanity has adapted. I gained too much "pizza and Netflix" and thankfully discovered Dr Berg's Intermittent Fasting Keto. I still smoke, see a doctor once every twenty years, trust homeopathy and sensible supplements, take no Rx meds. How are our classmates tumbling off the perch so recently? I am living long and with a judicious eye to investments and Social Security, sensibly prospering. The men in my life could never keep up with me and with many an eyeroll, I left them in the dust. I am looking forward to being the crazy cat lady ... give it a few years!

Feb 27, 2022 at 4:33 AM
Feb 20, 2022 at 3:07 PM

Dear Kitsy, Wishing you a Happy Birthday and hoping we can be back in touch. We are still in Denver enjoying condo life. Our grandkids are growing up too fast, as I am sure yours are also doing the same! Amazing that our oldest grandson is a sophomore in high school and already planning his college years. Where did time go? Cynthia

Feb 27, 2021 at 4:33 AM
Jan 25, 2021 at 9:47 AM

Still have that great smile! Tony and I are still in Denver. grandkids growing up too fast in Colorado Springs and have hardly sen them since mid-March 2020

Mar 18, 2020 at 9:49 PM
Mar 12, 2020 at 2:26 PM

Posted on: Mar 11, 2020 at 7:33 AM

I have fiddled with that darn "Residing In" to change it from Missouri to High Point NC (May 2019). That tab refuses to budge; any clues, anyone?

Mar 11, 2020 at 7:29 AM
Feb 27, 2020 at 4:33 AM
Jan 11, 2020 at 9:45 AM

January 11, 2010
]
]Terry, I know Puerto la Cruz! I was an inventory and administrative contractor with ProEnergy Services (Sedalaia MO) and have traveled the length -- if not the breadth - of Venezuela visiting our projects, begun under Chavez's administration. I think my first trip was in late fall 2008 and my last in 2011.

Oh, gosh, I miss the food! All the locals were ever so pleasant but clearly under a LOT of strain at every level in their daily lives.

I would so love if you would stay in touch-- most Americans, even well traveled ones, are a bit vague about Venezuela. They know of Caracas and Angel Falls ... that's it.

I'm in High Point NC, near my son and grand-children.

Feb 27, 2019 at 2:37 PM

Wishing you a very happy Birthday Cathy!