ghs1974 - JoAnn Devitt Baasch

Hello all. Have all those years really passed since we stood in the sun in cap and gown? Hard to believe, especially when I had just said to some people who are younger than I "you know you feel old when you can say 'that happened over 30 years ago'". I won't tell them that I can add another five years to that about high school.

After GHS I attended Nebraska Wesleyan University in Lincoln, Nebraska. Fooled them into letting me graduate, too, with a B.S. in Business Administration and minors in Education, English and History. About seven months after graduation I married the only guy who could defeat me in ping-pong. Bruce must be a glutton for punishment because we are still married over 30 years later. We even still like each other!

The business degree came in handy during my tenures as a systems analyst and a tax preparer. It wasn't quite as appropriate for docenting at Folsom Children's Zoo though the education classes came in handy. I'd never learned to vocally tapdance so fast than dealing with the fourth, fifth, and sixth graders' questions about "what are the peacocks doing?" Gave tours to everyone from pre-schoolers to senior citizens as well as teaching classes in adaptation and animal behavior. My favorite memory of those days was walking down a school hall corridor with a grumpy six foot boa constrictor who didn't want to go back in his carry bag. The second speaking engagement was only a few rooms away so I elected to let Julius Squeezer stay wrapped around my waist rather than wrestle him into the bag. The recess bell rang -- and the kids parted like the Red Sea as they came up to the crazy lady with a parrot cage in one hand, a ferret cage and a slide projector in the other hand, and a snake who was sticking up over my head looking around at everybody. Julius enjoyed it and there certainly wasn't any problem getting to the next class through the crowd.

Couldn't waste all of those English credits, so I started a fanzine that I published and edited for around five years. What it lacked in literary style didn't matter nearly as much as all of the fun the creative group of contributors had writing and illustrating it. It also taught me all of those things that my college creative writing professor had tried to teach me but failed. It took me to various conventions all over the country where we talked about writing and I did backup singing vocals for a friend. Why the singing always started at midnight I will never understand...

The zine went the way of the dodo when my husband and I moved to the Cleveland, Ohio area because of his job. That was in 1987 and we've been here ever since. He worked as a computer consultant until just three years ago when he elected to go back to working as an employee for Key Corporation. He still works with computers, but now he is with the group that tracks suspicious deposits rather than writing payrolls. Terrorists beware! They will find you.

Rather than seeking a job in Cleveland, I have been able to pursue other things. I can build you a stained glass window, carve and tool a leather seat for your dining room chair, or supply just about any textile need you might have. But since 1991 my real hobby -- some might even say obsession -- has been with minor league professional ice hockey. For eight months out of each year I travel and attend games for the local team. No, I do not paint my face or commit any of the more fanatical forms of support, but I do travel around 15,000 miles a year. This year's peregrinations wended from Des Moines to Manchester, N.H. with many stops between. It is amazing how many museums and local interest spots have come up on the radar as we go to the different cities. I can tell you where there are great restaurants in MA and CT. Heck, the owner of one of the teams even guested us at his house in Cabo San Lucas for a week and a player is introduced by his own parents as our adopted son. The sport has brought a lot of great people into our lives and some day we are hoping it will bring a Calder Cup into it, too.

We share the house with two cats named Chaos and Mayhem. Their names are only too appropriate.

And that's about it from here. I look forward to reading your own stories.