Larry Barnes

Posted on: Aug 26, 2018 at 12:38 PM

I must admit, I had a BLAST at North High. But, the finest and most life changing event in my entire life, was to find a wonderful Christian girl there, who happened to have extremely bad taste in men. Carol Awalt and I were married in 1969 and will celebrate 50 years of marriage next June. We have three daughters, Susan (1969), Sarah (1973), and Stephanie (1978). They have blessed us with 6 grandchildren (4 boys and 2 girls) who range in age from 27 to 13. (No “greats” at this time, thank goodness.)

I graduated from WSU in 1976 with a BA in Secondary Education – English. The spring semester of 1976 I did my student teaching. I taught Sophomore and Junior English classes at Wichita High School North. What an experience! Eight years after graduating from North, there I was…on the other side of the desk. I had the same planning period as Mr. Harmon, my Psychology teacher in 1968. We had several conversations about the teaching profession. At the time, Mr. Harmon had his master’s degree, plus more than 50 hours towards his PHD. He was not the oldest teacher at North, but he had been teaching there longer than any other teacher on staff. If I remember correctly, his salary was just under $16 K per year. I realized that there were few careers where you could invest that much time, and that much education, and be paid so little.

So…instead of applying for a teaching certificate, in the summer of 76 I went to work for “the phone company” (Southwestern Bell), in Wichita. In 1985 we moved to St. Louis, MO, and in 1995 to Overland Park, KS. In 2000, the kids all grown and out of the house, Carol and I moved to Phoenix, AZ. In 2001 I took a “buy out” and retired as Regional Vice President with SBC Telecom. For the next ten years I had various work experiences – sold used text books, sold emergency management software, sold consulting services and worked for a couple of wireless telecom providers. In 2011 I retired and now dabble in residential real estate.

Carol is a professional seamstress. She has operated a successful custom sewing business out of our home, since we were married.

Looking at the pictures that have been posted on the profiles, Carol and I are glad we moved away from Wichita in the mid 80’s. It seems everyone who stayed there….got old. Seriously, we are looking forward to seeing our classmates in October.

Posted on: Aug 07, 2018 at 7:43 PM

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Posted on: Aug 07, 2018 at 6:09 PM

Posted on: Jul 20, 2018 at 11:21 AM

Lee (or should I say Marvin?): I hope you are planning on attending the reunion. I would enjoy catching up on the last 50 years, or so.