This personal history was first written by Jeff in 1985 and then updated by him in 2016.
Ancestry
Many of my ancestors from my father’s side were from England where they served the various monarchies in such positions as Lord of Darby, Sheriff of Yorkshire, and Baron of Parliament, among others. Many of these Englishmen migrated to the British colony of Connecticut and were some of the original settlers of that state. Here they served as leaders in the Revolutionary War, most notably General Joseph Spencer who worked closely with George Washington. There were some that were members of the Continental Congress and many held state legislature positions. At the turn of the 18th century, they began to migrate west to the states of Ohio, Illinois, and Iowa. This is where most of them settled, and to this day, some of my relatives still live in Iowa.
Monument to General Joseph Spencer, who is my 6th great-grandfather on my father’s side.
My father, Maynard Grant Jones, with his father, Homer Boardman Jones.
My father’s mother, Mary Agnes Ray.
On my mother’s side, there is a lot of French ancestry, and many of them ended up in Minnesota and Iowa. Many were farmers, who are some of the best people around. Their history is not as well documented, so that is one of my future projects.
My grandfather, Guy Eldridge Hall, in his World War I uniform.
My grandparents, Guy and Beulah Hall.
My mother, Charlotte Rose Hall, when she was a teenager.
My mother’s family. Front row: Charlotte and Cedric. Back row: Ronald, Guy, Beulah, and Doris.
My parents, Charlotte and Maynard Jones, on their wedding day, 25 Mar 1948.
1959
I was born on August 28, 1959 at 7:50 a.m. in the USAF Hospital of Mather AFB in Sacramento, California. I was the fourth and final child of Maynard Grant Jones and Charlotte Rose Hall. My sister and two brothers were Cheryl (Cheri) Lynn, Randy Maynard, and Casey Grant Jones. My father, Maynard, was a navigator in the U.S. Air Force with the rank of Captain, and my mother was a homemaker. Cheri, my older sister, was especially excited about the new arrival in the family, though at first she was quite disappointed at receiving a new baby brother instead of a curler bag for her doll on her ninth birthday. She and I were born exactly nine years apart to the day.
Mather Air Force Base where I was born.
I almost didn’t make it to the right family. As I was being released from the hospital with my mother, the nurse gave her a cute little girl instead of fat little Jeffrey by mistake, but fortunately Charlotte immediately recognized the difference!
Safe at home with my family.
1960
When I was about one year old, my family was transferred by the Air Force to Plattsburgh Air Force Base in Plattsburgh, New York. Our family traveled the whole distance from California to New York by car, which must have been quite difficult with four young children. When we arrived in Plattsburgh, my parents purchased a home at Six Valcour Boulevard in a new housing complex called Cliff Haven. This is where I grew up and lived for fifteen years.
Downtown Plattsburgh in the late 1950’s.
Our backyard at Cliff Haven
It was an ideal location for a child to spend his growing years. It was situated on the shores of an immense lake called Lake Champlain amid the beautiful Adirondack Mountains in upstate New York. There were woods all around where we could roam and build forts, as well as sports fields and a nice private beach where we could spend our summer days. There was no crime or pollution, but it still offered all of the modern conveniences that people depend upon.
Me and my siblings at the Land of MakeBelieve in Lake Placid, New York. (L-R): Casey, Me, Cheri, and Randy.
I was doing quite well as a baby except for one minor problem. I ate too much and was getting very, very fat! In fact it got so bad that my doctor had to put me on a diet for fear of my heart having too much strain on it. The diet worked and I actually had the opposite issue later. . . too skinny!
Enjoying crib life
Christmas 1960. (L-R): Cheri, Me, Randy, and Casey.
1961
As I was still in my infancy, the state of the world was one of great tension and fear of nuclear war. The war in Korea had just ended and the United States and Russia were struggling to become more powerful than the other. President Eisenhower was in office and his vice-president, Richard Nixon, was preparing to campaign against John F. Kennedy in the upcoming election. Elvis Presley and Pat Boone were the big singing stars, and such shows as Leave It to Beaver and You Bet Your Life were very popular.
Kennedy – Nixon presidential debate
As far as I was concerned, threats of war and the popularity of rock and roll weren’t very important. All I cared about was food and cats. In fact, I loved cats so much that I would give them my food just to have them nearby. My cat, Puff, was my best friend, and many times Puff would be caught eating my breakfast as I just sat there petting her. I never outgrew cats, and I still maintain a great love for them, as well as some types of dogs (like collies) and other animals.
Enjoying an ice cream cone.
1962
This period was one of the most critical of my life. It was during this time that I developed a case of emphysema that nearly killed me. I was in and out of the hospital much of the time, and my parents would often stay awake at night as they listened to my labored breathing as my body tried to receive sufficient oxygen. One night I developed an extremely high temperature, and the doctor was called. He told my parents to submerge me in a bathtub filled with ice water. My mother later recalled that it was one of the most difficult things that she ever had to do. It proved to be the solution to the problem, and my temperature went down. Thanks to the effects of modern medicine, my case of emphysema subsided, and I recovered my health once again.
Cowboy with a diaper
Having fun in the wagon.
1963
It was during this year of my life that my family was put under the stress and grief of a divorce. My parents ended their marriage of fifteen years as my father moved out. All of this meant that my mother had to go out and earn a living, so I didn’t see as much of my parents as I was used to. Occasional visits to see my father during the summer were very enjoyable for me, but my mother primarily handled the roles of provider and parent.
I had a babysitter at this time during the day, and I called her Nancy Long Legs. With the help of the older children, I was well taken care of and things worked out okay for us.
My sister Cheri would always protect me from my much older and larger brothers, Randy and Casey. One time they came after me with a toy tomahawk, and Cheri was able to fend them off, lucky for me! In general, we had a lot of fun together, but there were those interesting moments.
The Jones kids in 1963. Front row: Me and Randy. Back row: Cheri and Casey.
1964
It was finally time for me to go to school like my older brothers and sister. The name of my first school was Peru Elementary School, and it was in a little town called Peru, New York. I can remember riding the school bus on the first day with my new red Snoopy lunch pail in hand and a box of new shiny pencils. The only things I recall about my first year of school were naps, cootie shots, milk break, and not quite making it to the bathroom on time now and then. I enjoyed it though, and it was pretty exciting to be able to get on that big yellow school bus every morning just like the older kids did.
My father was part of the U.S. Air Force bobsled team, and they won the championship at Lake Placid this year. He was based in Goose Bay, Labrador at the time and came to Lake Placid to compete.
My father was on the USAF bobsled team.
My mom had a Franklin stove installed in the family room (aka the rumpus room), and that came in handy on those cold winter nights. It was really nice to have when she ran out of money for heating oil, and we all had to sleep around it in order to stay warm. But we all managed to do okay, and the good news was that the water pipes didn’t freeze and burst.
Peru School complex
1965
It was about this age that I really began making friends and being a little more independent. My best friend during this time was the boy that lived next door to us. His name was Raymond Clifford, and I think that he was about a year younger than me. We used to play a lot at his house with toy army men and superhero figures, and we also played a lot of Old Maid. But my favorite thing to do was to play his Candy Land game. I just loved that game, and I’m sure I drove his parents crazy being over there all of the time playing it.
Me at age six
Me and Randy at the Jefferson Memorial in Washington DC
My mother was working at JC Penney in Plattsburgh, and I can remember calling her at least three times a day. I called her so much that I still remember the phone number decades later (563-2610). I really admire my mother for putting up with all of us. I think we would have driven anybody else crazy.
My mother working at JC Penney
Another notable thing during this period was my large collection of stuffed animals. I had several bears, a tiger, and a leopard, among many others. Some of the names I called them were Beary, Fudgy, Spots, and Tiger. I would occasionally load them all up in my wagon, tie it to the back of my bike, and then ride it around the block a few times. My brother Randy liked to perform surgery on my poor stuffed friends, and once he took Beary the Bear and buried him out in the backyard in a shoebox. He finally dug it up for me after I cried for awhile, and luckily, it was still in good shape.
Me with Fudgy and Spots
This was also about the time in my life when I loved to go Christmas shopping at the Grandway Department Store. I usually didn’t have much money, but Randy always seemed to, and he would buy cool things like transistor radios and Polaroid cameras. I thought it was amazing that the pictures from the Polaroid cameras would develop right before your eyes.
A Polaroid camera
1966
This is about the age when I began to really enjoy reading. The bookmobile used to park right in front of our house every Thursday afternoon, and I can remember checking out at least four books every time it came. They were usually books about sports, famous people, or wars, and I would spend all of my free time in the top bunk bed in my room reading those books. Sometimes I would want to stay home and read instead of going to school, so I would warm my hand on a light bulb and place it on my forehead and then tell my mother that I was sick. It usually worked, and I would only stop reading to watch my favorite TV shows, which were The Edge of Night, Dark Shadows, Gilligan’s Island, and Gomer Pyle.
A school picture
Christmas of that year is when I got my Santa Mouse pajamas and a little electric shooting gallery. Christmas was my favorite time of the year, and I just loved to peek at all of the presents hidden under my mother’s bed before they were wrapped. I would also spend hours looking at the JC Penney Christmas catalog, and I just about memorized it every year.
The Santa Mouse book from my mom was my favorite Christmas story.
Since Plattsburgh was so far north, we had a lot of cold, snowy winters. After large snowstorms, I would get up in the morning and listen to the local radio station (WIRY AM1340) hoping that we would be having a “snow day,” which meant school was cancelled for the day. This would happen several times each year, and all the kids would head outside to build huge snow tunnels and have major snowball fights. Very fun!
The WIRY AM1340 building in Plattsburgh
One of my other favorite toys was the Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots. Casey and I would pummel each other for hours playing this game. They really knew how to make fun toys back then.
One thing I really enjoyed at school was our music class. They would have us sing all the latest movie hits, like songs from The Sound of Music. They also taught us how to play the flutophone and the melodica. I liked it so much I actually got a melodica for Christmas one year.
A melodica
1967
I can remember more of what went on at school at this age of my life. I believe that my teacher in fourth grade was Mrs. Pascal. Some of my friends at school were Timmy Kelley, Barry Banker, and Todd Woodward, and we had a lot of good times together playing during recess. I think that my favorite subjects were history and reading, and I liked doing math problems on the chalkboard, too. By this time, I had grown tall and extremely thin. Now I wasn’t too fat, but I was too skinny!
My best friend during this time was my cat, Tammy. She was the daughter of my other cat, Puff, and she was grey and white with long soft fur. Tammy and I certainly had a lot of fun playing together.
Tammy was our family pet for many years.
I did get in some occasional mischief during this time of my life. One time, Randy, Casey, and I went to a store called Pavone’s, which was right next to where my mom worked at JC Penney. They had all kinds of gag gifts, and I bought some rotten egg perfume. I then proceeded to go back to JC Penney and sprinkle some of this perfume around the store. It created quite the stir as the store employees, including the manager, tried to figure out where that awful smell was coming from. My brothers and I made a quick exit, and I don’t think they ever figured out what happened.
We had some great neighbors in Cliff Haven that really went out of their way to help us. My friend, Scott Murray, had a wonderful mother, Karen Lavarnway, who was like a second mother to me. She and her husband, Rod, did so many things for me that I can’t even begin to describe them.
Karen Lavarnway
Also, our next-door neighbors, Don and Julia Ryan, helped us on many occasions, including driving my mother to work and back every day for quite a while when her car got totaled, and she couldn’t afford another one. These were truly earthly angels sent to help our family.
A Father’s Day card that I made for my dad.
1968
I was about nine years old when I started to enjoy playing sports, and I gradually shifted most of my attention from reading to sports. Our next-door neighbors, the Ryan family, had several boys, and I would play ball with them, along with another neighbor, Scott Murray. We spent many hours together playing baseball or football, and I just loved it. Even with a foot of snow on the ground, we would still be throwing the old football around in the street and diving into snowbanks.
I can remember visiting my father in Virginia about this time, and I had a lot of fun there. My brothers and I would visit him for a couple of weeks, and we went and saw all of the historical sites in Washington DC and Virginia. We stayed in Williamsburg for a couple of days, and I really enjoyed that a lot. The twelve-hour bus ride home was pretty exciting for me, and I loved to sit in the front seat and watch the bus driver. I always thought that it would be so exciting to be a bus driver. I’m sure glad I’ve changed my mind about that!
Me, Randy, and Casey visiting our dad in Virginia during the summer.
Me playing with Tammy in the backyard.
My sister Cheri graduated from high school that year, and I can remember going to the ceremony. I couldn’t imagine ever being old enough to go to high school, let alone graduate.
I was also a big New York Yankees fan in baseball and the New York Jets in football. I watched a lot of games on television and really enjoyed being a fan during that time of my life. My dad also took us to a Washington Senators vs. New York Yankees game in Washington DC and that was an exciting experience for me.
It was about this time that I chipped my tooth when Casey and I were playing with a toy called Time Bomb. You would throw it back and forth, and whoever was holding it when it went off, was the loser. Unfortunately, Casey threw it a little too hard, and it hit me right in the mouth and created a big chip on my front tooth. I ended up having that chipped tooth until I was 21 years old! I can’t believe I didn’t get it capped before then, but part of the reason was we were too poor.
1969
About now is when I started to forget about stuffed animals and toys, and I became more interested in my social status. The kinds of clothes I wore, and how I combed my hair all of the sudden became quite important to me. I was beginning to realize that girls probably didn’t have “cooties” after all, but they still were quite intimidating to be around. I guess that I was preparing myself for puberty, and the trying years as a teenager were just ahead.
I spent a lot of time with my sister, Cheri, during this time of my life, and we would watch television and have Hostess buddy cakes (chocolate cupcakes with crème filling) together. I would walk down to the store to get them, and she would pay for them. Our favorite shows were All in the Family and The Mary Tyler Moore Show. We would also go to Dairy Queen for a cherry-dipped vanilla ice cream cone a lot, and since it was right across from the local television station, we would watch for “movie stars” like Bird Berdan, the weatherman on WPTZ Channel 5.
Hostess cupcake
One of my favorite TV shows
Cherry-dipped vanilla ice cream cones from Dairy Queen were a favorite of mine.
To earn money while growing up, I would mow lawns and shovel snow. After earning $5 or so mowing a lawn, I would run over to the Vieu’s Mini-Mart across the highway and buy a quart of chocolate milk. I would then guzzle it down in a matter of seconds. I still love chocolate milk and like to sample it wherever I go.
Another school picture
1970
This is about the time in my life that I really started liking rock and roll music. I would play my sibling’s records on our console stereo in the living room really loud when no one else was home. I decided I wanted my own records, so I joined the record clubs (Columbia and RCA) and got a bunch of albums all at once when I committed to buying a certain number more within a couple of years. I really liked Elton John, especially his first few albums.
This Elton John album was one of my favorites.
One crazy thing I did as a kid was to catch flies, pull their wings off, and then let the cat chase them around and eat them. Kind of gross, but the cats sure liked it!
A couple of other things we did, as kids in the winter, were kind of crazy, too. The first was to go sledding and skating on Lake Champlain when it froze over. On the sleds, we would hold up a piece of plywood like a sail and then the wind would blow us around at high speeds on the lake. We would also skate on the lake, but I would get a little freaked out because I could hear the waves pounding underneath the ice. Pretty creepy and very dangerous, especially when you were out in the middle of that huge lake.
The second thing was when the roads were still covered with snow after the plow came, we would run up behind cars in the neighborhood and grab their bumpers while they were moving. We would then ski behind the car until it stopped or we let go. The only downside was if you hit a patch of road that wasn’t covered in snow. That could really be bad…
Spending time with Tammy
1971
I finally made it to junior high school! How exciting to be able to be in the same building as my older brother Casey. The name of the school was Peru High School, and it was right next to the elementary school that I attended in Peru. Since the school was so crowded, all of the junior high students attended from 12:00 to 5:00 pm which was kind of different for me since I had always gone from 9:00 to 2:00 pm in grade school. It was kind of fun to have the mornings off, and then to come home in the dark at night. I began to dislike school during this time in my life, and I went from straight A’s to B’s and C’s. Back in those days it just wasn’t “cool” to get good grades. Long hair was “in,” and so my hair was pretty long (and puffy), and it went perfectly with my dirty jeans and T-shirt.
Peru High School Indians
My brother Casey and I happened to be in the same gym class that year, and I’m sure glad of that. We were playing basketball, and one of the older boys got mad at me because I didn’t pass him the ball. So in the locker room, he came over and started to threaten me. Casey ran over and told the guy that if he ever touched me, he would be very sorry. The guy had a knife, but Casey took it away from him, and the guy left. I was very lucky to have Casey there, or I could have been in real trouble.
By now I was attracted to the opposite sex, and especially one girl named Pam Hough. She was a cute little blonde-haired girl who lived in Cliff Haven and was a couple years younger than me, and I must have been completely infatuated with her for at least five years. To my disappointment, we never did date though. We were just good friends.
I also played Pony League Baseball for Cliff Haven. I had a very strong arm, but never much coaching growing up. They let me play pitcher, but I wasn’t accustomed to using a pitcher’s mound, and it impacted my ability to pitch accurately. I guess baseball just wasn’t for me.
I played pitcher in Pony League baseball.
1972
1972 was a pretty difficult year for our family. Our finances were really tight, and my poor mother could barely keep enough money around to feed all of us, let alone pay all of the bills we had. We rented out one of the bedrooms to a man named Dick Cooper, and that helped out quite a bit. Dick later married my sister Cheri, and that turned out to be a very important event in my life.
One time I thought that I would do Dick a favor and shine all of his shoes for him. The only problem was that I used the wrong color polish on some of them and ruined them! Luckily, he was a nice guy and recognized that I was just trying to be a good kid.
I earned the NEDT Award in 7th grade.
Eighth grade is when I really started to change from an innocent little kid to a teenager wondering what life was all about. I stopped associating with my previous friends and began to do things with some other boys, such as Scott Williams and Pat Nolan. We all looked up to the older boys who smoked and drank a lot, so we tried it out, too. One time, I really wished that I hadn’t because I got so sick from alcohol that I couldn’t even see straight, let alone walk. But since drinking meant that I was “with it,” I didn’t learn my lesson. Fortunately though, I didn’t like smoking at all, and I never had a problem with that.
1973
I was in high school now, but I didn’t attend as often as I should have. I did play on the freshman football team at school and even caught a touchdown pass in my first game. It was a good experience for me, but then I injured my arm and had to quit the team.
An invitation to President Nixon’s second inauguration
Scott Murray, Scott Williams, and I built a fort out in the woods near our homes and spent a lot of time there. We would make a fire, cook hot dogs on it, and listen to a portable radio. We had a lot of fun building forts, and I really enjoyed it. I also really enjoyed going sledding down a very steep hill near Cliff Haven Beach called Woodcliff. When the hill got icy, it was hard to make it around the corner and we would often have to jump off our sleds before running into a very large tree. Also, at the end of the hill was a small creek, and we would have to stop before we got to it or run the risk of ending up very wet. This was great fun!
We also had a lot of cats during this time, including Posh Puff, Smokey, Tigress, Stubby, and Fang. I think we actually had five at one time.
Racing cars with Posh Puff
One of my favorite restaurants while growing up was Nitzi’s, which was about a half mile from where we lived. Once in awhile, my mother would take us to Nitzi’s, and it would be a huge treat to order a Michigan, some french fries, and a cherry shake. Yum! As I got older, I was able to afford to go there with my friends, and it was a regular hangout for us.
Nitzi’s
Another favorite eating spot was Arnie’s Restaurant in downtown Plattsburgh. They have some of the best pizza around, and I would often choose Arnie’s as the place I wanted to go for my birthday dinners. Even as a little boy, I could eat a whole large pizza with no problem.
Arnie’s
1974
This turned out to be a really good year for me, and an important one. I made several friends in my neighborhood who went to St. John’s High School, and they were really a good influence on me. Their names were Kevin Cosgro, Greg Bechard, Randy Bechard, and Karl Kircher. We would have a lot of fun together just going to the beach or playing softball, and we would ride our ten-speed bikes everywhere. We spent a lot of time in the Bechard’s basement which was fixed up with a really nice stereo, a foosball table, and plenty of room to horse around. We would use hockey sticks for guitars and play to the music. Some of our favorite music groups were Bachman-Turner Overdrive (BTO), Alice Cooper, KISS, and Elton John, and we went and saw BTO perform at The Forum in Montreal one night, which was a lot of fun.
Cliff Haven Beach
Sleeping outside was one of our favorite pastimes, and we would stay up all hours of the night riding our bikes, talking to each other, and fighting off the mosquitoes. I’m really glad that I made friends with these guys because some of my old friends were now into drugs, and I could see them deteriorating week after week. I didn’t want that to happen to me.
Playing football in the Cliff Haven hockey rink
1975
In August of 1975, my sister Cheri married Dick Cooper. This was an important event for me because they wanted me to live with them in their home. My mother was selling the house in Cliff Haven after fifteen years of living there, and she was going to move to an apartment in Plattsburgh. I didn’t want to move anywhere, but I really had no choice. Cheri and Dick really wanted me to stay with them, so I did. It was only five miles to Cliff Haven, so I bought a nice new ten-speed bike (a blue Schwinn Le Tour), and I would go there whenever I had some free time.
I was working for Dick in his computer business as an office helper, and I enjoyed that. Dick and Cheri really helped me out with a lot of things. They made it possible for me to go to St. John’s High School, where all of my friends attended, and they bought me all kinds of clothes and things. The house we were living in was at 46 North Prospect Street in Plattsburgh, and it was very nice. It had a swimming pool, but the only problem was that it had a ripped lining. It was nice living there with them, and I feel that I made the right decision in doing so.
St John’s High School
At home, Dick and I really got involved in model railroading. We had a huge set in the basement, and it was really nice. I was really hooked on that for quite awhile and spent a lot of time looking at magazines and catalogs related to that hobby. It must have been infectious, because my friend, Scott Murray, set one up in his basement as well.
My mother and my brother Casey moved to an apartment at Terrace West Apartments in Plattsburgh. Randy was living in Washington DC by now and was doing quite well there. My mother also had a new job as Jewelry Department Manager at a store near us called Grandway.
I would ride my bike to my mom’s apartment for breakfast (it was about 5 minutes away) whenever there was no school, and she would make me lots of bacon. That ride sometimes got a little interesting when the roads were icy, and I was riding a ten-speed bike with very skinny wheels. Let’s just say I wiped out a few times, but it was worth it to get a delicious breakfast.
1976
As always, going to a new school can be difficult for a person to adjust to, and for me, it wasn’t any different. Even though most of my friends went to this same school, they were all sophomores, and I was a junior, so I didn’t see much of them. Also, all of the teachers were nuns except for a few, and that was quite different to me. But I got accustomed to it and made some new friends there.
One memorable experience I had when trying to adjust to my new school was at lunchtime in the cafeteria. I had my suit and tie on (the dress code was suits for the boys and dresses for the girls), and I had a bowl of tomato soup on my tray. As I leaned over to sit down at a table, my tie ended up in the soup bowl, and it was not a pretty sight. I also got to walk home every day from school, which was quite chilly during the winter. With my polyester dress pants (often plaid) the wind would blow right through them. It got so cold that it actually froze the hair off the back of my legs in a couple of spots, and it still hasn’t grown back!
I was taking mostly business courses there because I had no desire to go to college. My grades improved drastically compared to those of a year ago, and I started taking school a little more seriously. I must have been kind of shy because I didn’t date anyone at all until my senior year. It wasn’t that I didn’t like the girls. I was just nervous about asking them out.
Cheri, Dick, and I moved to a different house in Plattsburgh at Four Lincoln Lane. We had a cat with us then whose name was Posh Puff, and then we adopted another cat named Tigress. I spent a lot of time with those two!
Our home at 4 Lincoln Lane in Plattsburgh
Posh Puff and Tigress
I was still riding my bike out to Cliff Haven a lot, and Scott Murray’s house became my home-away-from-home. Scott and I had always been good friends, and we spent most of our time together doing one thing or another.
Scott Murray
Dick sold his business that summer, so I was out of a job. The first place I applied to was Big N in Plattsburgh, and I got a job as a clerk in the paint and hardware department. It turned out to be a perfect job for me, and because of it, I got to be excused from school at noon every day. I mixed paint, stocked shelves, and put together bicycles most of the time. It was great experience.
Casey (left) and Dick at my mother’s apartment on Christmas Day
With all of my new income and a driver’s license, I was able to buy my first car, and it was a 1965 Ford Galaxy 500. I bought it from my brother Casey for only $25! It needed a lot of work done on it, so I had it all fixed up. Just after I had finally finished getting it running well, a lady speeding around an icy corner smashed right into me and totaled it! I was devastated to say the least.
A 1965 Ford Galaxy 500
So, I bought another car, this one for around $70. It was a 1962 Chevy, and it had a smashed-in back fender. But for $70, what do you want! It served the purpose, even though it seemed like it used more oil than gas!
My second car – a 1962 Chevrolet
I would always take really good care of my cars, and even though they were old, they were still always very clean and shiny. I would even wash them by hand in the winter, and the water would freeze on the cars before I could dry them.
One time, while I was visiting my mother’s apartment, some kids I knew from St. John’s High School came by and threw eggs all over my shiny car. By the time I realized it, the eggs had frozen on the finish (it was the winter), and it was a terrible job to clean up. Ever since then, I have not been a fan of practical jokes like that.
1977
My senior year was finally here! I was quite anxious to get out of school and earn some real money. At least that’s what I thought I’d do.
My high school senior portrait
The year went pretty well, and time flew by quickly between school, work, and doing things with friends. My friends and I weren’t perfect, but at least we didn’t get involved in drugs like so many others did. Some people just lived from one day to another trying to get “high,” and you could see the effect on their minds and bodies.
Graduation day was pretty exciting, and I was so glad to be out of school. I didn’t really have any future plans right then. I just wanted to enjoy my new-found freedom and make a little money. I bought another car, this one for $600. It was a 1970 Ford Maverick, and I loved that little car. But my streak of bad luck with cars continued, and the brakes went out on it, and I slid into the back of a telephone truck. I got it fixed, but it never ran the same after that.
My graduation announcement
I can remember, during this period in my life, going to the county employment office and telling them that all I wanted to do was be a file clerk. They sent me out for an interview at a manufacturing company, and it was obvious that the man I interviewed with wondered why I didn’t want to do more with my life. He ended up not hiring me, which was a good thing in the long run.
1978
This was the year that I did nothing except work and go to parties. I got a full-time job at K-Mart working as a clerk in the health & beauty aids department. With the extra money I earned, I bought Dick’s car, a 1973 Buick Riviera. It was just beautiful, and I spent every spare dime I had on it. I really loved it though, and I never regretted buying it.
Cheri in the K-mart parking lot
My 1973 Buick Riviera
Before work every day, I would hurry over to my mother’s apartment and have breakfast with her. She was always a lot of fun, and I looked forward to seeing her every day.
I dated a lot of girls during this year, including several from K-Mart. Besides stocking shelves, I kept busy flirting with all of them and actually convinced quite a few to go out with me. Nothing too serious, but it kept me entertained. Even one of the popular girls from high school, that I never would have dared to pursue, actually asked me out for a date!
Playing croquet with my family
Like I said, besides working, all I did was party. Luckily though, I finally realized that life wasn’t one big party and that my future didn’t lie in Plattsburgh. For awhile, I would come home from work and just sit in my room listening to music while trying to figure out what to do with my life. Finally, I decided to move to Mesa, Arizona where my father was living, and I wanted to go to school there at Arizona State University. So I bought my airline ticket and spent my last Christmas as a resident of Plattsburgh.
The Jones kids. Front row: Me and Casey. Back row: Cheri and Randy.
1979
In January of 1979, I left Plattsburgh and flew to Mesa, Arizona. I hated to leave all of my friends and family, but I knew that I had to do this. As I later found out, it was probably the wisest thing I’d ever done.
It had been four years since I had seen my father, so I was really happy to see him again. But when we got to his home in Mesa, he had quite a surprise for me. A woman named Wilma, to whom he would later marry, was living with him, along with her two young boys, Lee and David. I didn’t have much of a chance to get to know them before my father and I went on a trip to southern California and Mexico. We stayed at a hotel in Huntington Beach (ironically, where my future wife, Laura, was living at the time) for about a week, and I spent most of the time at the beach watching the ocean. I sorely missed Plattsburgh, so I didn’t really have much fun there. We then went to Rosarito, Mexico, and my father bought a real nice little condo there which was right by the ocean, in a development called Las Gaviotas.
My dad’s white townhouse in Mesa, Arizona
When we got back to Arizona, I found out that my application to Arizona State University had been turned down, so I started to look for a job. I remember looking at the help wanted ads in the Arizona Republic newspaper each morning, and I even went on a couple of interviews. However, I kept looking at one ad for an insurance and securities salesman at a place called Investors Financial Planning, but I wasn’t sure if I wanted to do that or not. I finally picked up the phone and called the number in the ad and talked to a man named Byron Chappell. I ended up getting the job, and Byron was my first contact with the LDS Church. Since Byron turned out to be the primary one who shared the gospel with me, and eventually baptized me, it was a good thing that I went to work for him!
Byron
My father married Wilma in April of 1979, and that’s when trouble started to happen. In June, I went back to New York to pick up my car, and while I was gone, my father and Wilma moved all of my things out and into an apartment with my brother Casey, who was also in Arizona at this time. So when I got back, after driving 3,000 miles, I found that I wasn’t welcome there anymore. Casey left for Washington DC, so I found my own place at 900 North Country Club in Mesa. It was a nice little studio apartment, and I really liked it. I wish that I had stayed there because a few months later, I bought my father’s townhouse—only to find out later that I had a phony deed. I won’t go into great detail on that subject. Let’s just say that I made a mistake by not having a title search done, and for trusting my stepmother. That was one mistake that I wish I had never made.
My first place
On November 27, 1979, I joined the Church, and I was baptized by Byron in Mesa, Arizona. That year turned out to be one of the best, but most trying years of my life. Byron and I started to become good friends, and this is when he asked me to read The Book of Mormon. I took it home with me, and right from the first page I knew it was true. I just felt an inner peace that I had never known before, and I really enjoyed reading it. The next week Byron and his friend, Jim Finch, took me to the Arizona Temple Visitors’ Center. I viewed the visitor presentation and really liked what I saw. I had noticed, during my time in Mesa, that many people disliked the Mormons, and I couldn’t understand why. They had the nicest families around and were always kind to others, unlike many of those who complained. I started to have a strong desire to be a Mormon and that desire was fulfilled. Byron and Jim invited me over to a dinner at Jim’s house, and it was there that I was introduced to the missionaries. They were Elder Greg Neilson and Elder Scott Jensen. I really liked them, and the next week we started the discussions. I’m sure that I was an easy one to teach because I had a testimony even before they started. After several discussions, I was baptized and confirmed a member of the Church. I was a member of the Lehi 4th Ward, and I really liked everyone there. I played on the ward basketball team, and I was also made the Young Adult Leader.
Byron’s home
Elder Jensen’s missionary card
1980
I met one of my best friends this year, and his name was Keith Boyd. We spent a lot of our free time together dating girls and playing softball, and we had a great time together. It was through him that I met his sister, Leslie. She and I became very involved with each other, and if I hadn’t gone on a mission, we probably would have gotten married. We had a lot of great times together.
Me with Keith Boyd
Speaking of missions, this was the year that I decided to go on one. I really had no desire to go until I spoke at a stake conference. Hartman Rector, Jr. was there, and after I listened to him speak, I had a great desire to go home and pray about it. I did and received a very strong answer to go. So, from that point on, going on a mission was my major goal.
It was right around my birthday that Byron and Tara sold their house and moved to Utah. I was planning on leaving for my mission in a few months, so I decided to go with them. I didn’t want to leave Leslie, but I knew that it was the right choice to go.
So we moved up to Orem, and I got a job at K-Mart. I worked in the camera department, and the job turned out well for me. I sent my papers in for my mission from Arizona, and about six weeks later, I got my call to go to the Venezuela Caracas Mission. I was to report to the MTC on January 22, 1981, so I had a couple of months to get ready.
The ticket from the first BYU football game I attended
My mission call to Venezuela
During Thanksgiving, I went to Mesa and was ordained an Elder by Bishop Donald Brown. A month later, Leslie and I went to Plattsburgh for Christmas, and we had a great time. When I got back to Utah, the Chappells and I got everything ready for my mission, like suits, shots, etc. I also went through the Provo Temple to receive my endowment.
Cheri and me in Plattsburgh
1981
I reported to the MTC in Provo on January 22. I won’t get into great detail here since my missionary journal does that. My first companion was Scott Anderson, and I was in the Bolivar District. Learning Spanish wasn’t easy, but I did pretty well for only being there for eight weeks. I was the district leader, and we had a great district.
My missionary portrait
The Missionary Training Center
My missionary badge
In March, our district headed to Venezuela, and it was quite a trip. I had culture shock for awhile, but then things started to click once I got my second companion, Elder Ortigoza. During that time, Leslie sent me a Dear John letter, so that ended any big distractions I had, and my companion and I started to really baptize a lot of people.
Me with President Dale Miller and his wife in Venezuela.
My missionary assignments
My missionary card
Me in Barcelona, Venezuela
A baptism in the Barcelona Branch.
A P-day in Barcelona
I celebrated my 22nd birthday in Puerto La Cruz with a party at the home of my first baptisms, the Felix Jelinek family. About a week later, I was transferred to the city of Maracay. It was hard to leave Barcelona, since I was there for almost seven months. I had really grown to love the people there, and I still consider that my favorite area.
1982
I spent five months in Maracay and really enjoyed the experience. The missionaries there were a fun group and that is where I met one of my favorite friends, Brian Richardson, who was a new missionary.
The Maracay missionaries. I’m in the center back and Brian Richardson is the blond standing next to me.
In about February of 1982, I was sent to Puerto Ordaz. I really liked my area there, and it was a nice city to work in. It was there that I decided to serve an eighteen month mission and go home in July. Right after that decision was made, I was transferred to Campo Alegre in Caracas, and that is where I ended my mission. It was a rewarding experience for me to serve in Venezuela, and I made some great friends there. It was definitely the right choice when I decided to serve a mission.
I arrived back in the United States on July 22, 1982, and it was great to see my family again. I flew in to Washington DC where my brother Randy lived, and then we drove up to Plattsburgh together. After about a ten-day visit with family and friends, it was time for me to head back to Utah. I knew that it was where I was supposed to be at that time, but it was difficult to leave Plattsburgh again, especially with Leslie out of the picture. When I got to Utah, Byron and Tara were waiting for me, and I moved back in with their family once again. I needed to get a job quickly, so I looked around for awhile, and then I decided to go back to work at K-Mart. I wanted to go to BYU, but since I had no money, I had to work instead.
In the camera department at K-Mart
Me in 1982
I guess I didn’t take very long to adjust from a mission to the real world, because I couldn’t wait to start dating again. One day Tara met this really cute girl at BYU and lined me up on a blind date with her. She told me that I would marry this girl, so I was quite interested in meeting her. Tara turned out to be right because that girl was my future wife, Laura. We liked each other right from the beginning, and within three weeks, we were engaged. I was so glad to have finally met my wife, and we spent all of our free time together.
On a date with Laura
I ended up moving out of the Chappells home because it was obvious that it was negatively impacting our friendship. Since I was still pretty poor, Laura actually paid for my rent so that I would have a place to stay. I found a shared room in the basement of a place called “Casa de Hombres” or “House of Men.”
We originally planned on getting married in April in the Salt Lake Temple, but then later decided to be sealed in the Los Angeles Temple in January. We decided to go to southern California where Laura was from so that we could get on our feet financially, and then return to BYU in a year or two.
So in December of 1982, we headed for California with our 1978 Olds Cutlass, that we had just leased together, loaded down with all of our worldly possessions. We stayed at Laura’s mother’s home in Mission Viejo, and I just loved California. We both started looking for jobs, and I found one as a teller at Great Western Savings in Laguna Hills, and Laura got a job as a bank reconciliation clerk at Avco Financial Services in Newport Beach.
Christmas was really nice, and everybody was quite busy preparing for the wedding. Laura’s mother made her wedding dress, so we spent half of our free time at the fabric store.
My first Christmas with Laura
Our wedding announcement
1983
On January 15th, I took Laura through the Los Angeles Temple for her endowments, and a week later, on January 22, 1983, we were married there. It was in sealing room #2 of the temple, and President Jack McEwen was the one who sealed us together. The reception was held in the home of one of Laura’s friends, Alison Curtis, and it went really well. We had a dinner at the Meadowlark Country Club, and then off we went to our new little studio apartment in Newport Beach. Since we both had new jobs, there was no time for a long honeymoon, and we went back to work on Monday morning.
Leaving the temple as a married couple
The Los Angeles Temple
We liked our little apartment and everything went pretty well for us. We were far from rich, but we did okay and paid off all of my old bills. In June, I started attending Orange Coast College at night, and that was a good experience for me.
Our apartment in Newport Beach
Since we only had one car, I would take the bus from Newport Beach to Laguna Hills each day. It was typically fine, but one day a barking man started acting up while I was waiting at the bus stop in Laguna Hills. I was quite happy when the bus finally arrived!
My brother Randy was in California visiting us when I celebrated my 24th birthday. We had a great time together at Disneyland, Knott’s Berry Farm, and Universal Studios.
We bought our first brand new car in July—a 1983 Toyota Tercel, and things were going pretty well for us considering how long we had been married.
Our 1983 Toyota Tercel
We visited Laura’s father and stepmother for Thanksgiving and had a really nice time with them. I have always really liked the Sacramento area, and it was fun to spend time there.
Visiting Laura’s Dad and his wife in northern California. (L-R): David and JoAnn Lowe, Laura and Me.
I was doing well at Great Western Savings and was promoted to work in the new accounts department. Our branch was located right next to Leisure World, a retirement community, and 90% of our customers were elderly. I really enjoyed working with them and helping them to keep their finances straight.
We lived in the Newport Beach 2nd Ward boundaries and really enjoyed that ward. We served in the Young Men/Young Women programs and also coordinated the youth dances for the Newport Beach Stake. We also had some fun trips to the Los Angeles Temple on the ward temple bus.
1984
This year was really a busy one for me because I was working full-time plus going to school at night. Laura and I didn’t see much of each other during that period. Laura got a new job working as an accounting assistant for a company called Capital Properties. Even though she didn’t like the work environment there at all (the owners were rude and eccentric), she worked really hard and they paid her well for it.
Laura’s sister, Linda, got engaged to Jay Driggers during this time, and we were all excited about that. They were married in July, and Laura was a bridesmaid, and I gave the bride away. We became very good friends with them, and we spent a lot of our time together.
In April, when my mom visited us, we all went to Disneyland together. She got a little nervous about some of the rides, but I was able to coax her on to Big Thunder Mountain which was an old west train—basically a roller coaster—and she had quite the thrilling ride.
Mom and Me on the Monorail at Disneyland
In August, we moved up to Provo, and Laura started looking for a job. She got one as a bookkeeper for Contract Carpets in Orem. I stood in many long lines trying to get a student job, and I finally did. I worked in the Cannon Center at Helaman Halls which is where all the freshmen ate their meals. I would check the meal tickets and then let them in to the dining area. I felt a little bit old working there since most of those students were 17 or 18, and I was 25. It only lasted for a couple of months because I found another student job, this time as a computer operator for BYU Information Systems. That was much more up my alley!
Our apartment was in the Meadows apartment complex, and it worked out well for us there—though the trains were very noisy. We had another car, a 1984 Nissan 200SX, so we were pretty well set by the time school started.
Our apartment at the Meadows in Provo, Utah. Our new Nissan 200SX is in the foreground.
It was nice to be able to go to school and not worry about a full time job anymore. My classes went well, and I had an interesting first semester. One highlight was that the BYU football team had their best year ever and ended up winning the national championship. I really grew to love BYU sports when I was there, and I still do!
During Christmas, Laura’s mother, and Jay and Linda Driggers came up. We had a lot of fun together, and we went to see the lights at Temple Square in Salt Lake on Christmas Eve.
Linda and Sara during their visit at Christmas.
1985
In February of 1985, I decided to change my major to Finance which I enjoyed more than Information Management. I found computers to be very interesting, but did not do well in the Information Management classes for some reason. It may have been that I preferred to learn by doing things rather than having someone else showing me on a screen and lecturing about it, because computer technology always played an important part in my ensuing career.
Laura and I kept very busy, with her working full-time, and me taking 18 credit hours per semester and working part-time. We were both very focused on getting through school, and so it did not leave much time for anything else. When we did have some free time, we liked to do family history work.
In March of 1985, we were excited to be able to move to Wymount Terrace, which was on-campus housing for married students. Our address was 15C–797 Wymount Terrrace, and it was a brand new one-bedroom apartment right next to the Provo Temple and the MTC. Some of our friends there were Drake and Jenny Turner and Roark and Rebecca Janis. It was great for me just to walk to my classes and not have to count on Laura for rides.
Our apartment at Wymount Terrace on the BYU campus
We were now in the BYU 148th Ward and Karl Snow was our bishop. I was called to be the finance clerk, and I really enjoyed working with Bishop Snow. He ended up being one of my favorite bishops that I’ve ever had.
It was exciting to buy our first personal computer this year, and that was one of the best investments we have ever made. It was an IBM portable PC, and it worked great for us. I learned a lot using that computer that really helped me in my future career. However, it was funny to see people walking around campus with this “portable computer,” as it was actually quite large and bulky—about the size of a a modern desktop computer!
Our first computer – an IBM portable PC
We made a couple of trips to southern California that year, one for the 4th of July and one for Christmas. On the way back from the Christmas trip, we hit black ice, rubbed the front-end of our car against a pickup truck in the left lane, and spun off the freeway. Fortunately, we did a complete 360-degree spin and ended up on the right shoulder of the road. Just seconds later, a large truck came zooming by, and we would have been in bad shape if our car was still on the freeway. We ended up with some minor damage on the front of the car, but no one was hurt. That was pretty frightening, to say the least!
1986
1986 was our last year at BYU, and I pushed hard to finish in June instead of August. I was also interviewing with companies in southern California and ended up getting offers from GTE California in Westlake Village, CA and Pacific Investment Management in Newport Beach, CA. I really wanted to live in Orange County again, but we both knew that the job with GTE would be better for me. I remember agonizing over that decision and even flipping a coin six times to see if the Newport Beach job would win. Unfortunately (or fortunately), all six times it was “heads,” which meant GTE! I couldn’t believe it!! Anyway, it ended up being the right decision in the long run.
Right after I took my last final exam at BYU, we immediately left for California. One of our neighbors, Mike Rose, had a pickup truck, and so we loaded that up with all of our belongings and paid him to drive down with us to Thousand Oaks. We drove all night, and in the morning his truck broke down in Rancho Cucamonga, which was just a couple of hours from our destination. We finally got his battery fixed and off we went to Thousand Oaks. I remember being awestruck by the amount of traffic on the 101 Freeway after living in Provo for 2 years!
When we got to our destination at Oakview Apartments in Thousand Oaks, we quickly unloaded the truck and then we all fell asleep on the floor for several hours. That was a long trip!
We enjoyed our new apartment but were not crazy about the lime green carpeting! However, it was air conditioned and had a nice breeze blowing through it all the time. We purchased some nice furniture for it, including a black lacquer dining room table, an entertainment unit, a sofa, and a coffee table.
My job at GTE was as an Associate Accountant in the Materials & Supplies Group and that was located at GTE’s headquarters at 1 GTE Place in Westlake Village. It was a great place to start my career, and I learned so much. I supervised eight accounting clerks, and almost all of them smoked like chimneys. That took some getting used to, but I survived! I made $23,500 per year as my starting salary, which seemed like a fortune compared to my student job.
At the GTE office building in Westlake Village, California
Laura got a job as a bookkeeper-secretary for a company called Felburg & Sun (a solar energy company). It was right up the street from the apartment, but the owner was a bit eccentric and so she just stayed there a few months.
In November, we purchased a condominium in a development called Hidden Canyon in Westlake Village, and we paid $118,000 for it. Our unit had two bedrooms and two baths and was about 1,000 square feet. It was brand new, and it had a beautiful greenbelt right in front of it where we occasionally saw deer and other wildlife. How exciting it was to own our first home!
The view from the front of our condo in Westlake Village.
1987
I started to carry out projects on our new home, and those included a wood deck on the back patio and a nicely landscaped front entry. It was gratifying, eighteen years later, when we stopped by to look at our first home and saw that much of what I had built and planted was still being utilized.
In April of 1987, my mother came to live with us for a year. She had lost her job in Plattsburgh and after a brief stay in Washington DC, she decided to stay with us and work for awhile to get back on her feet again. She got a job in the jewelry department at JC Penney in Thousand Oaks. We really enjoyed that time with her, and we had a lot of laughs together.
Pets came into our life this year when we adopted two kittens. One was grey, and we called him Pepper. The other was black & white, and we called him Mittens. We had a lot of fun with those two, especially when my mother started sewing for them. She made them some shorts, and it was quite the site to see them wearing them!
My mom and Pepper in front of our condo
Me with Pepper and Mittens in the garage of our condo.
In August, Laura and I went to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico together. It was an interesting trip, especially when an iguana fell out of the ceiling of the hotel room bathroom and then the sewer backed up into the swimming pool. Mexico is never boring!
Beautiful Laura in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
In September, I started my MBA at Pepperdine University. I took my classes at night at their location in Encino. It was a good deal because GTE paid for everything, including my books. I was busy, but it was a great investment that would pay off handsomely in the future.
During this time, Laura left Felburg & Sun and started working at a company called International Video Entertainment. She only stayed a few weeks because the company was quite dysfunctional, especially her supervisor. Laura found another job, this time at Griffin Homes in Calabasas, and she really enjoyed that. She was a Staff Accountant and worked for Dan Lively, who ended up being one of our friends for many years.
I also started working out at a fitness center on a regular basis during this time period. It was a great habit that I have continued throughout my life. I can’t imagine what I would look like now if I hadn’t!
Me with my Cliff Haven friends during a trip to Plattsburgh
1988
Things were going well for me at GTE California, and I was promoted twice rather quickly, first to Accounting Unit Supervisor and then to Senior Accountant. I enjoyed working with everyone there and gained a great exposure to how a large corporation operates. The building was amazing and looked more like a space station than administrative offices. They even had robots delivering the mail!
We lived in the Westlake Village Ward, and I served in the Elders Quorum Presidency as the First Counselor to Ron Call. We had a lot of great times together in that calling, including moving a lot of people—some late at night!
In March of 1988, we decided to sell our condo and buy a house in Moorpark from Laura’s employer, Griffin Homes. It was in a development called Campus Hills. It was just being built, so once we sold the condo (for $151,000) we had to move to an apartment in Thousand Oaks in a complex called Stonepine Apartments.
Our house in Moorpark, California while it was under construction
Before we moved to the apartment, we flew to Washington DC with my mother and visited my two brothers, Randy and Casey. We then rented a car and drove to Plattsburgh to visit Cheri and Dick. We had a really nice time and then flew back to California. We left my mother in Plattsburgh because she was able to get a transfer to the JC Penney store there.
Laura and Me visiting Karen and Rod Lavarnway in Plattsburgh
1989
This was definitely an eventful year for Laura and me. In January, we moved into our new home in Moorpark, and we really loved it. Laura’s sister, Linda, helped us pick out all the flooring and upgrades, and it turned out beautifully. It had three bedrooms, two baths, and a very nice yard.
Also in January, I started a new job at American Nucleonics Corporation (ANC) in Westlake Village. I had met the Controller of that company in one of my classes at Pepperdine, and he asked me if I would like to work with him as the Accounting Manager. Even though I loved GTE, I decided to make the change since it was a huge career advancement and a lot more in salary. I was making $44,000 when I started there which was a large increase compared to GTE.
The logo for American Nucleonics Corporation
We also bought a new car that year. It was a 1989 Nissan Maxima. It was pearl white with a grey interior, and that ended up being one of the best cars we ever owned.
In May, we adopted a sheltie collie. She was named Lucy because she was found as a stray at Burbank Studios shortly after Lucille Ball died. Lucy was an absolute sweetheart and was the kindest and most gentle animal I have ever met. She even liked our two cats, Pepper and Mittens!
Our dog Lucy wearing a scarf and bow
In Moorpark, we were part of the Moorpark 2nd Ward and really enjoyed it there. I was teaching Primary, and Laura was the Primary President. She felt a little strange at first doing that because we didn’t have any children, but she adapted quickly and did a great job.
Me and Laura in 1989
In August of 1989, I graduated from Pepperdine with my MBA, and it was exciting to finally be finished with that program. It was a pretty heavy workload for two years, but I did learn a lot.
With Laura on the day I graduated from Pepperdine University
In November, I was called to be the 1st Counselor to Bishop Zierenberg. I really enjoyed serving with him and learned a lot about how a ward actually operates. It was interesting because Laura was the Primary President, and I was the member of the bishopric who oversaw that area. I think we worked pretty well together!
Me and Laura before going to a Griffin Homes Christmas party
1990
In the spring of 1990, we decided we wanted to live in Orange County and be nearer to Laura’s family, so we put the house up for sale in Moorpark, and it sold in just a few weeks. We had put a deposit down on a home in Rancho Santa Margarita, which was a new master-planned community near Mission Viejo and Coto de Caza. It was a four-bedroom home that cost about $250K. It was located right next to Tijeras Creek Golf Course, and it had beautiful rolling hills all around it.
The house we bought in Rancho Santa Margarita, California.
Laura had moved down to Orange County while we were still trying to sell our house, and she started working at Lusk Homes as an Accountant. I found a job at The Upper Deck Company, which made sports trading cards, and that was a much more exciting place for me to work than ANC. I was the Assistant Controller, and I pretty much set up much of the finance organization because it was a new company. I learned a lot very quickly, out of necessity, and really got exposed to many facets of operating a rapidly-growing corporation. We also had sports celebrities walking around all the time, like Reggie Jackson, Eric Dickerson, and Jose Conseco. It was never boring at Upper Deck!
The Upper Deck office building where I worked.
In September, Laura got a job offer from Dan Lively, her former boss at Griffin Homes, to work for him at Westrend Homes in Lake Forest. It was much closer to home, and so she decided to take it, even though she had only been at Lusk Homes for a short period of time.
We worked hard fixing up our new home, and it turned out quite nice. I even put in a brick sidewalk in the backyard and Laura planted a vegetable garden.
Laura and Me with Lucy in Rancho Santa Margarita.
1991
This is the year we finally became parents after being married for over eight years. Laura and I had actually been working with an infertility specialist in Pasadena, when on July 3, we got the word from Dennis Irving at LDS Social Services that they had matched us to a little girl born on June 30. I was so excited to hear that we were finally getting the baby girl we had always hoped for. I waited for Laura to get home, and then I ran into the garage waving a baby dress and a little lamb. She thought I was excited about working with the infertility specialist, and she couldn’t believe it when I told her that we had been matched to a baby girl.
We were both numb with excitement. We called Sister Walker from LDS Social Services, and she told us to meet her at her home in San Bernardino at 1:30 pm on July 4 to pick up our baby. We hurried and bought a video camera and some baby formula and then picked her up the next day. Sister Walker told us about our new baby and then brought her in. She was dressed in a cute little pink lace outfit, and she was so beautiful. She weighed 8 pounds and was 20 inches long. She had lots of brown hair and some cute little dimples. We fell in love with her the minute we saw her, and we knew she was supposed to be our little girl. We named her Ashley Brooke Jones.
Picking up Ashley at the home of the social worker on July 4
While Ashley was in her car seat on the way back to Orange County, her head kept falling to the side, so we stopped, and Laura got in the back seat with her to hold her head steady. Our first stop on the way home was to Laura’s mother’s house so that we could show everyone how cute she was. When we went into the house, Laura’s sister, Linda, took one look at Ashley and started to cry. Everyone was so excited to have Ashley join our family!
The next few months were busy ones as we learned to be parents for the first time. We were fortunate that Ashley was a healthy and vibrant baby girl, and we spent almost all of our time taking care of her. Laura continued to work at Westrend Homes on a part-time basis, and so during the day we had Ashley stay with a babysitter from our ward who took good care of her for us.
With Ashley at Pumpkin City
One of my favorite things to do with Ashley was to dance her to sleep. We would play some music in the family room, and then I would hold her in the air and gently move her up and down and side to side like she was waltzing with me. Her eyes would get heavier and heavier until she finally went to sleep.
Baby Ashley wearing her new sunglasses.
1992
This was a great year for Laura and me as we learned more and more about being parents. Ashley kept us pretty busy with lots of formula bottles, dirty diapers, toys, baths, and playtime. The good news is that Laura was able to stop working outside the home in October, and it was so nice to have her home full-time. I especially enjoyed playtime with Ashley, and we would play with our dog Lucy, have great bath times with lots of dinosaurs and other bath toys, and just have a wonderful time together. When Ashley was about eight months old, I would do “rolling practice” with her as I tried to teach her to roll over. It was so cute watching her trying so hard to do it, and it was exciting when she finally did it. One of her first words was “basketball,” and her first sentence was “I want more cheese.” She surprised us when she said them.
After the adoption was finalized, we were able to be sealed to Ashley in the Los Angeles Temple. Laura made a beautiful dress for her, and she looked just like an angel when she came into the temple sealing room.
We had Ashley sealed to us at the Los Angeles Temple.
With Ashley on the day of her blessing at church
I continued to work at Upper Deck even though they moved to their new headquarters in Carlsbad, California. It was 52 miles each way, and so I would get up at 5:00 am, go directly to the gym and work out, and then drive to work. Sometimes I carpooled with my friends Paul Sackman and Mark Christensen, which helped to make the ride more enjoyable and save some gas money. I would get home at about 6:45 pm, so it made for a long day. But it was worth all the effort to see my beautiful family there waiting for me.
Ashley’s 1st Birthday
Lucy the party dog
We went to visit my family in New York this summer and had a nice time with them. They all loved Ashley, and we had a lot of fun doing barbecues, playing badminton, and going on hikes in the woods. We also visited with some of my friends that I grew up with in Plattsburgh, and it was interesting to see them all with wives and children. How time flies!
1993
As we continued to have great fun with Ashley, Laura and I waited patiently as we went through another adoption process with LDS Social Services for a second child. During this time, I was serving as the ward clerk to Bishop Arlen Woffinden, and Laura was the homemaking counselor in Relief Society. We enjoyed the Santa Margarita Ward, and there were a lot of younger families like ours with small children, so we fit right in.
Ashley continued to be the focus of our attention, and she had a real talent for making everyone laugh. One time I asked her what she should say when she needed to go potty and she said, “Trick or Treat!”
Another time I was working in the backyard, and she came out and started cleaning up leaves on her own without me even saying anything. She then looked at me and said, “Daddy, I am your best friend!” I told her that she was definitely my best friend, and we went on working together.
During this year we built a beautiful playhouse for Ashley in our backyard. Laura did all the design work and measuring, and I did all the manual labor. There is no way I could have built it without her help! It really turned out nice, and Ashley really liked playing in it. She would often invite our dog Lucy and me to come in and play house with her, and she would make us all kinds of treats with her plastic food. We had a lot of fun together in that playhouse!
1994
This is the year that our family grew again as we adopted another child—this time it was a little baby boy. After much discussion and lots of time looking at name books, we decided to name him Craig Michael Jones. He was born on December 9, 1994 in La Jolla, California, and we picked him up at LDS Social Services ten days later.
When Dennis Irving called us to let us know about the adoption, he asked if we were done with our Christmas shopping. He then let us know that there would be a little bit more to do because we would be getting a son before Christmas. When we first saw Craig, he was in a Christmas stocking, and he was very handsome. He bonded very quickly with Laura and would cry if anyone else held him—even me! That lasted for a long time, and he and Laura still have a very close relationship.
Picking up Craig at LDS Social Services
Ashley was very glad to get a new little brother, and she could always make Craig smile and laugh. They were pretty cute together, and we were very fortunate parents to have those two beautiful children. They certainly kept us busy, although Craig would sleep a long time every day, which helped Laura a little bit.
During Craig’s baby blessing, he grabbed onto my tie while I was saying the blessing. He held on tight the whole time, and I was glad when he finally let go when it was over. He has always loved to tease his dad and that was the first sign of it.
I was starting to get frustrated at Upper Deck as some of the people there were more interested in corporate politics than doing what was best for the company. During this period I spent some time working in the marketing group and got to interact closely with some famous major league baseball players from the past as we introduced a memorabilia product line—like Steve Garvey, Orlando Cepeda, Rollie Fingers, Larry Doby, Vida Blue, and Bob Feller.
Working with Steve Garvey at Upper Deck
One project I had at home during this year was to build a fountain in the backyard, which turned out pretty nice. We also bought Laura a new minivan this year to make it easier to get around with two little kids. It was a 1994 Nissan Quest, and she really loved it.
My dad came to visit us from Arkansas.
1995
1995 was the year I finally left Upper Deck after working there for five years—the longest I had ever worked anywhere. I accepted a job that was just 1.5 miles from our house. It was with a company called Noel Joanna, Inc. (NoJo), a manufacturer of infant soft goods, and I was the Chief Financial Officer. It was a much smaller company than Upper Deck, but I was responsible for much more, and working there was a great experience for me. I had a huge office with a beautiful view of Rancho Santa Margarita, and Ashley loved to come and see the large doll collection the owner had sitting outside my office.
The kids did great this year, and Laura kept busy doing things with them all the time. Craig smiled so much that we called him “Mr. Smiles,” and Ashley was having a great time being part of different playgroups with lots of other little girls. Laura was also redecorating our house, and it turned out really nice.
Craig was such a cute baby that he got a modeling job at NoJo. He posed with several of their products, and we continued to see his picture on product packages in baby stores for many years.
Craig posing for NoJo
Once Craig’s adoption was finalized, he was sealed to us in the San Diego Temple, which is located in La Jolla where Craig was born.
Craig was sealed to us at the San Diego Temple.
With Ashley at church
1996
Another year of significant change for us as I quickly grew tired of working at NoJo because of the eccentric owners, and I started interviewing with different companies. I ended up accepting a position at AirTouch Cellular in Irvine, and that was one of the best career decisions I ever made. I was hired as the Sr. Manager of Revenue Accounting, and I was glad to be back working for a large company again. AirTouch was growing so fast that it was a great place to be, with many opportunities opening up all the time. This was the period of time when mobile phone usage started to grow dramatically, and I was definitely in the right place at the right time.
Another benefit of leaving NoJo was that they wanted me to continue to work for them on a consulting basis, and I made $125 an hour doing that for several months. That was a great financial blessing for our family, and I would do that work on Saturdays and some evenings. It worked out great!
Visiting with my family in Plattsburgh. (L-R): Cheri, Me holding Craig, Mom, Randy holding Ashley, Casey, and Dick.
I bought a Mercedes C220 that year, and I really enjoyed that car. I had always wanted a Mercedes, and so this was pretty exciting for me to finally get one. It was dark green with a beige interior.
Ashley started pre-school and seemed to really enjoy it. Craig was learning to talk, and he loved to say “What’s that?” all the time.
1997
I continued to enjoy working at AirTouch Cellular and became involved in a very important project related to creating a shared service center for the administrative areas of the company, like Finance and Procurement. This turned out to be a crucial time in my career, as this experience with shared services would open many doors for me in the future. As part of this project, I spent a lot of time in Walnut Creek, California, and that meant that I was gone most of the week and would return home on weekends. This lasted for about two or three months and was a great learning experience for me.
Laura and the kids were doing great, and we had a lot of fun together. We took a road trip to Las Vegas, Salt Lake, Jackson Hole, Yellowstone, and Park City and had a nice time. My mother came along with us and she really enjoyed the trip.
With Laura and the kids at Yellowstone National Park
At church, our ward split, and we became members of the Tijeras Canyon Ward. I was serving as the Assistant High Priest Group Leader with Ken Gibson and Larry Tate.
The new high priest group leadership of the Tijeras Canyon Ward. (L-R): Me, Ken Gibson, and Larry Tate.
1998
After living in Rancho Santa Margarita for eight years (the longest we had ever lived anywhere together), we finally moved. I had secured a new position with AirTouch Cellular in Sacramento as the Director of Planning & Analysis for the new shared services organization, and was I excited! My office was located in downtown Sacramento, near Arden Fair Mall, and so I had a little bit of a commute, but it wasn’t too bad.
In May, we moved to Granite Bay, which is a suburb of Sacramento. We bought a beautiful new home for $395,000. It had five bedrooms, four bathrooms, and was about 3,800 square feet. This was about twice as big as the home in Rancho Santa Margarita, and we loved all the extra space. It was a very nice home, and I still consider it as one of my favorite places I have ever lived. It was also just a couple of miles from David and JoAnn Lowe, Laura’s father and his wife, and we had lots of fun spending time with them and the kids. We also built a pool and spa, and Ashley and Craig just loved swimming in it.
Our new home in Granite Bay, California
Craig in his new boat in our backyard pool
A birthday celebration for Ashley at Dave and JoAnn’s house. Front row: Ashley and Craig. Back row: JoAnn, Dave, my mother, and Laura.
It was strange to attend a new ward after living in Rancho Santa Margarita for so long, but we adjusted quickly and made some new friends. We were in the Granite Bay 3rd Ward.
1999
This was the year that we decided to adopt another child. I was looking on the Internet at international adoptions and showed Laura a website from an agency called Russian Adoption Facilitation Services (RAFS). Both Laura and I felt that it would be a good idea to adopt another little girl, and Ashley and Craig were excited to do so as well. We started the rather cumbersome international adoption process, and it took a few months to get all the interviews, tests, and paperwork completed.
Towards the end of the year, we received notice that we had been matched to a little four-year-old girl living in an orphanage in Birobidzhan, Russia which is in the Jewish Autonomous Region in the eastern portion of Russia near the border with Mongolia. It would be several months before we could pick her up, so we waited patiently for that time to come.
My work at AirTouch was going well, and I was excited about the opening of our new office in Folsom because that was just a few minutes from our home. Some exciting news during this time was that AirTouch was being acquired by Vodafone, and this was a great financial blessing for our family as all my stock options vested and became quite valuable.
Ashley and Craig were a lot of fun, and we had a good time riding bikes through the neighborhood and looking at homes that were under construction. We also liked to sit on the patio on Sunday and read the newspaper together.
I bought a beautiful new BMW 740IL that year, and I just loved it. It was one of my favorite cars that I have ever had. We also bought Laura a Toyota Sienna minivan, and she really liked that, too.
My 2000 BMW 740IL, aka “Zoomer”
2000
This was another exciting year for us as we entered the new millennium. After surviving all of the hoopla surrounding Y2K, we spent most of April in Russia as we went through the adoption process for Makayla. It was quite the experience, and Laura did a great job in keeping a detailed journal of all that took place while we were there. Makayla was a great addition to our family, and we were excited to bring her home to meet everyone. She adapted quickly, and it was amazing to see the progress she made in just a short time.
Meeting Makayla at the orphanage in Russia
We celebrated Easter the day after we returned from Russia.
During this time, the joint merger between Vodafone and Verizon meant that my job situation was going to change dramatically. I could stay with the new company and work in New Jersey, or I could leave and try something new. I had been a client of a company called Exult that did shared services research, and they offered me a position as a research director based in Atlanta. I chose that opportunity, so we sold our home in Granite Bay and moved to Atlanta. We bought a home in a suburb called Alpharetta, in a neighborhood called Country Club of the South. It was a beautiful 7,200 square foot brick home, and it had a view from the front of the 18th hole of the golf course. The yard was about a third of an acre which was much larger than we were used to, and we had a lot of fun playing out there.
Just before arriving in Georgia, we spent ten days in Hawaii. Our favorite place to stay was the Grand Wailea on Maui which was absolutely beautiful. But we also enjoyed our helicopter ride, a sailboat trip, and two luaus. Laura and Makayla were the only ones who were willing to experience snorkeling. We also spent four days on the Big Island, but most of it gave us the feeling of driving on the moon.
Our family in Hawaii. Front row: Craig, Makayla, Ashley, my mother, and Sara. Back row: Laura and Me.
My job was quite different than I was used to, but I enjoyed the new challenge. I worked closely with Mike Hostetler and Robert Hughes, and I was actually able to work most of the time from our home which was really nice. I think it took Laura a little while to get used to me working out of our house, but she eventually grew to like it.
Our home in Alpharetta, Georgia
Our ward was the Webb Bridge Ward, and Bishop Broome was our bishop. Laura was called to be the Relief Society President and did a great job at that. I served in the Primary and had Craig and Makayla in my class.
My mother came to visit us at Thanksgiving, and she helped me put up the Christmas decorations. Laura’s family came to visit us for Christmas, and we had a nice time together. It was fun to actually have some snow during the holidays.
2001
Never being people who stayed in one place for any length of time, in 2001 we decided to move back to Orange County, California. We enjoyed living in Georgia, but we missed our family and friends.
We had this family picture taken while we lived in Georgia, and we used it for our Christmas card photos.
When visiting Laura’s family during the summer, we saw a model home in a new area called Ladera Ranch that we really liked, and we decided that we wanted to buy it. It was completely furnished, so we sold the majority of our furniture in Georgia and then made the move in August to California. The home wasn’t available for us to move into until the builder was done using it as a model, so we moved into a rental home up the street until it was ready about six months later.
Our last day in Georgia
I was still able to work for Exult out of our home in California, so that worked out well. Our division was sold in late 2001 to a company called The Hackett Group, but nothing really changed that much as far as my position was concerned.
The kids were excited to be back in California, and they went to a nice new elementary school called Chaparral. They really enjoyed it there and did well.
On September 11, 2001, the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon took place. I was in the kitchen having breakfast and couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw the first plane crash into the World Trade Center. I ran upstairs to tell Laura, and then we watched as the second plane hit a few moments later. That is a day I will never forget.
In December, we rented a cabin near Park City, Utah and spent the Christmas holiday there with Laura’s mother, her sister Linda, and Linda’s boyfriend Dave. We had a fun time but nearly got stranded in the mountains at night trying to find the place. Overall, it was a fun trip, especially when Craig said he heard Santa’s reindeer on the roof on Christmas Eve!
Christmas in Park City, Utah with Laura’s family. Front row: Ashley, Makayla, and Craig. Back row: Me, Sara, Linda, and Laura.
2002
In March we finally moved into our new home. It was kind of fun to just stroll in and have it all furnished, but we did have a lot of other things to move which kept us busy for a few days. The home was in Ladera Ranch, and it was about 3,800 square feet. It had five bedrooms and was a Spanish design. There was a pool when we bought it, but we decided to redo it by making it deeper and adding a spa to it. It turned out very nice, and we really enjoyed our new home.
Our new home in Ladera Ranch, California
At church, I was called to be the assistant high priest group leader, and I served with Dave Farr and Pete Mitchell. We were in the Mission Viejo 2nd Ward, and Bishop Andrew Mortensen was our bishop.
I continued to work for The Hackett Group, and it seemed to be going okay. Mike Hostetler and I led a conference in Glasgow, Scotland in March, and Laura got to come along. We went to London for a few days and then to Scotland and had a very nice time together. My mother and my sister Cheri came to watch the kids, and they had a nice visit with them.
Laura and Me in London
I bought a new Jaguar X Type, and it was quite nice. It was British racing green with a beige interior and fancy chrome wheels. We also got Laura a new Nissan Quest minivan.
A 2002 Jaguar X-Type like the one I bought
Craig and Makayla got baptized this year, and they all seemed to be growing up so fast. We went on lots of long walks together at night, and the kids would roller-blade or ride scooters. Those were a lot of fun.
Having fun at the beach in Orange County, California
Laura kept quite busy finishing up her college degree at BYU. She decided in September that it was about time to finish what she started twenty-three years earlier, and so she enrolled in a course of study that she could complete remotely, and that would allow her to apply all of the credits that she had earned when she was a full-time student. She majored in American Studies and planned on graduating in 2004.
2003
A big change happened in my job situation as I resigned from The Hackett Group and helped start a new company called Executive Performance Group. My partners were Mike Hostetler and Robert Hughes, and we literally quit our jobs and started a new research company with no clients. It was a bit risky to say the least, and it didn’t help that The Hackett Group sued us to try to stop us from becoming their competitor. Fortunately, after months of legal battles, we settled out of court for a small amount and were able to proceed in operating the new company. It was a research firm focusing on shared services, and I was the Senior-Vice President. Our company grew fairly quickly, and we added some great new clients like Walt Disney, Sears, JC Penney and Georgia-Pacific. It was amazing to watch as we would struggle for awhile and then a new client would join just at the right time to keep our cash flow going. We were certainly getting help from above. We had 29 major clients after just eight months in business. Not bad for a new start-up with strong existing competition.
In April, before all the job excitement happened, our family went to Switzerland and had a wonderful time. We spent a couple of days in Zurich which is a beautiful city, and then several days in Lucerne which was spectacular. It is even more beautiful than we could have imagined. Then in August, we all went on a wonderful 7-day cruise in the southern Caribbean. We visited many spectacular islands and ate plenty of delicious food on the ship. It was a great time for all of us—except when Laura thought she saw a shark while snorkeling and climbed back on the boat as pale as a white sheet. I have never seen anyone swim so fast before!
With the kids during our Caribbean cruise
I tried taking piano lessons this year, but it just didn’t work out very well. I would love to play the piano, but I don’t think I have the patience or natural talent for it. I am a little envious of our son Craig, who has a natural gift for piano and can play wonderfully. I still tinker around with it, but that is just for fun.
A cute portrait of the kids
In November, I was called to be the first counselor to Bishop Andrew Mortensen in the Mission Viejo 2nd Ward. I hadn’t served in that type of position since 1989, so it was fun to be part of running a ward and re-acquainting myself with how things worked in doing so.
2004
This was an exciting year for our family in many different ways. In March, I was called to be the bishop of the Ladera Ranch Ward which was formed when the Mission Viejo 2nd Ward was split. This was a wonderful calling for me, and I loved serving with a great group of people which made it a lot easier. Mike Grossen was the 1st counselor and Keith Willes was 2nd counselor for a couple of months. Then David Van Oostendorp replaced Keith when he moved to Utah. Pete Stokes was the executive secretary and Erik Brown was the ward clerk.
The new Ladera Ranch Ward meetinghouse
Since Ladera Ranch was still a relatively new community with lots of new housing developments, the ward was growing quickly, so we spent a lot of time visiting new members and keeping the ward organized. It was a great experience, and I learned a lot.
Ashley turned 13 this year and so began a long stretch of having teenagers in the house. Never boring, but usually lots of fun and excitement! Craig was crazy about computers and video games, and Makayla absolutely loved television and could spend all of her time watching it, but we didn’t let her, for obvious reasons.
Laura graduated from BYU this year, and so we took a fun trip in our new Toyota Sequoia to several national parks in Utah, including Bryce Canyon and Zion. We then went up to Provo for the graduation and had her mother, sister, and brother-in-law with us. It was great to have that completed to say the least. She had kept quite busy working on that for a couple of years.
My 2004 Toyota Sequoia
Visiting the BYU campus
In November, I had a business conference in Melbourne, Australia, and since Laura’s mother was willing to watch the kids, Laura got to go, too. We flew to Sydney a few days before the conference so that we could do some sightseeing. Sydney is such a beautiful city, and we had an incredible view of Sydney Harbor and the Opera House from our hotel room. We also took some sightseeing tours where we saw lots of gorgeous scenery, including plenty of kangaroos and koala bears. It was a great trip!
With Laura along the Great Ocean Road in Australia
We spent Christmas in Plattsburgh this year, and was that an eventful trip! We had all kinds of problems with the airline and missing flights and having lost luggage. We stayed at Randy’s cabin and had a nice time, but then we ran into an ice storm and had to abandon the rental car and walk through the woods to his cabin in the middle of the night! Then Randy, Craig, and Randy’s cat (Sammy) got the stomach flu and started vomiting the last day we were there. That was certainly one Christmas we will never forget!
Christmas with my family in Plattsburgh. Front row: Craig, Ashley, and Makayla. Back row: Randy, Me, Char, and Casey.
2005
While 2004 was very exciting, 2005 may have been even more so! One major highlight of this year was the sale of my company, Executive Performance Group, to The Corporate Executive Board. This took place in September and was a great temporal blessing to our family. I continued to basically do the same work, but as an employee, instead of an owner. I really enjoyed the people I worked with, and the business continued to rapidly expand.
In August, our family took a cruise to Alaska and had a wonderful time. We had excellent weather and were able to visit a dog sledding camp, view some incredible glaciers and scenery, and take a bush plane into the back country. The food was incredible, and we had a great time.
With Craig on an Alaskan bush plane tour
The other major change taking place this year was our decision to move to Provo, Utah. While we loved Ladera Ranch and being near family and so many friends, we felt our kids would have a better experience growing up in Provo. So after my company was sold, we went house hunting (one of my favorite things to do) in Provo and purchased a beautiful home in a neighborhood called Stone Gate. It was an absolutely gorgeous 11,000 square foot home on a half acre of land. There were 7 bedrooms, 8 baths, 2 offices, 2 family rooms, 2 kitchens, an exercise room, and a home theater. Quite the change from the last time we lived in Provo in our student apartment! While the weather was certainly different from southern California, we loved the view of the mountains and the slower-paced lifestyle. Being four miles from BYU also had its advantages as we enjoyed the cultural and sporting events that are constantly taking place.
Our new home in Provo, Utah
The kids adjusted to the move fairly well, with Ashley having the hardest time since she was the oldest and had left many friends behind in California. However, she made a new friend in Provo named Taylor Wilcox, to whom she became very close, which really helped.
The winter view from our front door in Provo
2006
We continued to enjoy Provo and all the fun things you can do living near BYU. We attended just about every cultural performance offered on campus and also had season tickets to the Hale Center Theater in Orem which is amazingly good. We also got season tickets to BYU football and basketball, and Craig and I really enjoyed eating Cougar dogs and Cougar tails while watching those exciting games. Yum!
An aerial view of the BYU campus
In May, I received a new calling at church to serve on the high council for the BYU 4th Stake. I loved serving on campus with all the young people during their first year at BYU, and it was a great experience. I worked closely with Bishop Tom Rogers of the BYU 118th Ward, and we had a lot of fun together.
With my mom at Thanksgiving Point in Lehi, Utah
With the kids on my birthday
Ashley started high school at Timpview this year, and she liked it better than middle school. Craig and Makayla attended Canyon Crest Elementary School and were in the 6th grade.
Laura had been working hard on her family history the past few years and did an incredible job organizing all of that. Even though I was very interested in it, mine wasn’t quite at the same level!
I continued to work for Corporate Executive Board, and the business I had started grew by over 400% since we were acquired. I was glad to see that it was a good investment for them. It certainly was for me!
Laura and I experienced what it was like to build a swimming pool in Utah this year, and it was not a fun thing to do! Even though it turned out great, it was a pain to manage the contractors and get everyone to keep their commitments. Seems to be a common problem with contractors in Utah for some reason. Not sure why. Anyway, it was great fun to have a pool again, even though summer was almost over by the time it was ready!
While we were waiting for the contractors to do their thing, we went on a cruise to Bermuda and the Bahamas and had a nice time. The ship left out of New York City, so we went to a play there as well, and the kids really enjoyed that. Every time I go to a large city like that, I learn to appreciate where I live even more. I really don’t like big crowds and all the noise and filth that most large cities have.
Me and the kids in Bermuda
2007
Ashley turned 16 this year and all of a sudden we had a child who could drive and date! After having her driver’s permit for several months, she got her license right away, and it was a little nerve-wracking to see your child drive away in the car on her own. However, she was actually a very good driver compared to many people that age (or Utah drivers in general), so that was certainly a good thing.
Craig and Makayla became teenagers this year, so we now had three of them in the house. Boy, they sure can keep you busy!
For fun this year, we went to Cancun in April and had a nice time. However, I had some troubles with my eyes while there and actually ended up putting some ear drops in my eyes by accident. Ouch, did that hurt! I guess my ability to read Spanish is not as good as it used to be or I would have realized what I was doing!
Laura and the kids in Mexico
We also went to visit my family in Plattsburgh during the summer and had a nice time. We had purchased a townhouse for my mom there in 2006, and she just loved it. We did some painting while we were there, and it looked very nice.
With my mom in front of the townhouse we bought for her
With my family on an excursion in the Adirondacks. (L-R): Laura, Randy, Ashley, Craig, my Mom, Makayla, and Casey.
My dad came out on the train to visit us and got a chance to be at Ashley’s 16th birthday party. He loved visiting since he didn’t live near any family at his home in Arkansas. We had a nice time together, but he said the ride back home was a long one.
I received a new calling at BYU to serve as the 1st counselor in the stake presidency of the BYU 4th Stake. The president was Tracy Ward, and Brad Wilcox was the 2nd counselor, and they both became great friends of mine. We had Heritage Halls as our stake boundaries, and so we had primarily freshmen—about 1,500 of them! That was a great experience for me, and I learned so much. I especially enjoyed speaking at the firesides and stake conferences, and I got to do dozens of missionary interviews as many of the young men in our stake prepared to serve missions.
A winter wonderland in the backyard
2008
This is the year I decided to update this personal history which hadn’t been revised since I first wrote it in 1985! It has been interesting to write it and to remember all of the great opportunities, experiences, and challenges I have had in my life. Hopefully, I won’t wait another 23 years to update it again as it might be too late by then. (Note from 2016: It has actually taken over seven years to get it done.)
This year we decided to have a home both in Utah and one in California. To do that, we would need to downsize from our current home, which we loved, to one that is still nice, but not on such a large scale. So we listed our home for sale in May, and I worked like crazy for the next few months trying to make it as attractive as possible to potential buyers. While we had lots of people who liked it a lot, it wasn’t until August that we received a firm offer. Unfortunately, in October, right before the deal was ready to close, the financial market meltdown hit, and the buyer backed out. While we were fortunate that we did not have any money invested in the stock market, it completely dried up the real estate market, and so we finally took the house off the market for a few months to see what would happen.
In April, I was released from my calling at BYU so that I could spend more time with my family. Laura and I were called to teach a youth Sunday school class, and both Craig and Makayla were in it which was kind of fun.
We also took time during spring break to go to Orlando, Florida and visit all the sites there, including Disney World, NASA, and the beach. I even managed to avoid getting sunburned which is a major accomplishment for me. In August, we also spent a week in southern California and spent a lot of time at the beach there as well. In December, we went back to southern California for ten days and stayed at a condo on the beach. We all had a really nice time and enjoyed the warmer weather in southern California.
With Laura at the beach in Dana Point, California
2009
2009 was an extremely eventful year! In January, I found out that my job would be ending at Corporate Executive Board, as well as the jobs for the two other original owners of EPG. We had a three-year final earn-out period with CEB that ended in 2008, and it was a logical time for them to make that type of change. With the difficult global economic situation that was taking place at the time, we were trying to achieve our final objectives but were unable to hit the final targets. But CEB was generous enough to give each of us a significant amount of money when we left the company in February.
With that financial cushion, Mike Hostetler and I started a new company in April called Peeriosity. It was based upon the same business concept as EPG, but we invested heavily in new technology and design that made it even better. We spent the rest of 2009 developing this new company, and it was a great learning experience for me.
Ashley graduated from high school in May, exactly one year early because she had taken several BYU Independent Study classes, and then she moved into an apartment near BYU in June. It was about that time that Laura and I decided to spend a year down in Orange County, and we rented a house in Laguna Niguel and moved there in August. Our friends, Don and Michelle Patterson, moved into our Utah house and took care of it while we were gone.
The house we rented in Laguna Niguel, California
Craig and Makayla attended Aliso Niguel High School and had a good time while we were there. They made some really nice friends at church and enjoyed their early-morning seminary class.
2010
In January of 2010, Peeriosity went live, and we did quite well right from the start. We were able to sign up a lot of companies that we had worked with in the past which really helped create a solid base of member companies.
In June, we went to visit my family in Plattsburgh again. My mother had been dealing with a lot of health issues, and I felt strongly that we needed to go spend some time with her. She was in the hospital while we were there, and we visited her every day.
With my siblings while we were in New York. (L-R): Casey, Me, Cheri, and Randy.
Mom passed away in September. I was able to fly back to Plattsburgh in time to spend her last night at her bedside, holding her hand and reminiscing about our lives together, even though she was heavily sedated. She was the perfect mother for me, and I am so glad I got to have her as my mom. My last words to her were, “I love you and will see you on the other side of the veil.” I then kissed her on the forehead and walked out the door.
With my mom on Lake Champlain a few years earlier
I flew back to Plattsburgh a few weeks later, and we took my mother’s ashes to a beautiful setting in the woods of the Adirondacks and scattered them in the river there. It made me happy to know that the river ended up flowing into Lake Champlain which is my favorite body of water on the earth.
In August, we moved back to our home in Provo. While I really enjoyed Laguna Niguel, it was nice to be back in Provo in our own home again!
For Halloween, Laura liked to dress up as a witch, and she had me wear a black cat costume she made for me years ago. We made quite the spooky couple!
Laura the witch with her black cat
2011
In 2010, much of my focus had been on my mother, but in 2011, it shifted to my father. He had been living alone in a little house in Flippin, Arkansas (yes, that is a real place) for many years, and it was becoming obvious that being on his own was a struggle for him. So in July I flew there and spent a few days helping him identify what he should keep and what should be given away. We ended up just shipping a few boxes via UPS to Utah and having him bring a few suitcases on the plane to Provo. He gave his house to a single mother and his cars to friends, and he left the rest behind for charity or the dumpster. We found him a nice two-bedroom apartment in Orem and also took him car shopping. He has always been crazy about cars, and this time he picked out a beautiful red Mercedes convertible. Ashley stayed with him to take care of his cooking and cleaning, and she also drove him around in his new car.
My dad with his last car
At the end of the year, he was able to move into an assisted-living center called Jamestown which he thought was more of a hotel than an apartment. He liked all the meals in the dining room and made some very nice friends there that he spent quite a bit of time with.
In August, we took a Caribbean cruise and had a nice time. I love to go on cruise ships and the southern Caribbean is one of my favorite destinations.
With Laura in the Caribbean
2012
2012 turned out to be a very eventful year with lots of change taking place in our home and family. In March, my father had a major stroke and was in the hospital and rehabilitation center for several weeks. He was eventually able to return to Jamestown but needed to be in the extended care unit because he had lost his ability to communicate and take care of himself. This was very frustrating for him because he had been so independent his whole life. He then passed away in August which freed him from all the pain and frustration. I was so glad that I was able to bring him to Provo in 2011 and spend the last year of his life with him in a family setting.
With my dad at P.F. Chang’s
For several weeks, while Ashley lived in housing that didn’t allow pets, her two cats, Kato and Chloe, stayed with us in our home. I became very attached to them and even called them “the grandkittens.” They really brought a lot of happiness into my life and are still a treasure to me now.
Chloe
Kato
In August, we finally sold our house on Stone Brook Lane, after having it on the market for several years. The real estate market had been crushed by the major recession in 2008, and we were fortunate to be able to sell it, even at a much lower price than what we paid for it. Fortunately, we were able to buy another home in the same neighborhood at a great price, so that offset some of our losses. It was still a good-sized home, with over 8,000 square feet, and all of our furniture and accessories fit perfectly. We then spent a couple years really fixing it up, and it turned out great!
Our second house in Provo
In the October General Conference for the Church, they announced that the minimum age for missionaries was changing to 18 for young men. All of a sudden, Craig’s mission was coming up a year sooner than we thought, which was both exciting and a little concerning since he was so young. He decided pretty quickly that he wanted to go right after he graduated from high school, and looking back at it now, that was a wise decision on his part.
After having my Toyota Sequoia for eight years (the longest I had ever kept a car), I bought a 2006 BMW 760LI. I had loved my first BMW 7 Series car and always wanted to get another one. This one had a V12 engine and so the name Zoomer 2 was especially fitting.
My 2006 BMW 760LI (Zoomer 2)
2013
This was an exciting year for us with Craig receiving his mission call in February to serve in the Italy Rome Mission. He would report to the MTC in Provo in June. We were able to fit in a trip to Washington DC in April, with the highlight being my dad’s funeral at Arlington National Cemetery. What a great experience it was to be part of that, and they did an excellent job making it special for us—something I will never forget, that is for sure.
Elder Craig Jones
My dad’s funeral at Arlington National Cemetery
Laura and the kids in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
We were all excited for Craig when he left on his mission, but I never realized what an adjustment that would be for me to have him gone for two years. But I eventually got used to it and really enjoyed having a son on a mission. I can’t think of a better experience he could have had at that time of his life.
Makayla and Craig graduated from Timpview High School in May, and she moved to a student apartment shortly thereafter. I missed having the kids around, but being an “empty-nester” can have its advantages.
Laura and I took a trip to Sacramento to visit Dave and JoAnn in September and had a nice time together. We rented a nice little home in Auburn and really enjoyed the beautiful setting there.
All during this time, Peeriosity was doing well, and we were very happy with the results of our efforts. There is always a lot of risk being an entrepreneur, but the rewards and autonomy are also great.
2014
I have always been crazy about cars, and in 2014 I decided to jump into the collector car hobby. In May, I purchased a beautiful red 1955 Ford Thunderbird convertible with a removable hardtop from an estate sale in Florida and had it shipped to Provo. I had so much fun with that car. I loved to take care of it, and it was an absolute blast to drive. It had its share of issues, like any 60-year-old car, but it was all worth it to me.
My 1955 Ford Thunderbird
During 2013-14, we continued doing upgrades on our home which included adding another bedroom and bathroom in the basement, painting the entire inside of the house (I helped with that), and re-doing the garage with a fancy textured floor, beautiful storage cabinets, and shutters. It looked great, especially with the T-Bird in it!
In September, Laura and I took a vacation to New England. We started in Boston and then headed north and visited New Hampshire and Maine. We stayed in some nice bed and breakfast inns and really enjoyed all the beautiful scenery. From Maine, we drove back to Massachusetts and stayed on Cape Cod for a few days. It was a part of the United States I had always wanted to see, and we had a very nice time together.
Enjoying the Cape Cod coastline
While Craig was on his mission, each Christmas and Mother’s Day we got to Skype with him. It was fun to hear about his life in Italy and all the great experiences he was having. It made us feel good to see him happy and doing well.
Skyping with Elder Craig Jones at Christmas
2015
This was a very interesting, eventful, and busy year! After completing an honorable two-year mission, Craig came home on May 26, and we were all very proud and excited. It seemed like we hadn’t seen him in so long, but looking back, that two years actually went by pretty fast. He was a great missionary, and he really grew up a lot. He was much more confident, and his social skills really improved. It was great to have him home again!
Meeting Craig at the airport when he returned from Italy
I went a little car crazy this year, but once the dust settled, I ended up with a 2014 Nissan Armada and a 2016 Vespa LXV150ie scooter (a blast to drive). There were a couple of BMWs also passing through during the year, but I decided that I am not really that excited about luxury cars anymore. My heart is with classic cars, and I hope to get another one someday (yes, I even sold the T-Bird). But for now, what I have in the garage is just fine.
My 2014 Nissan Armada
My 2016 Vespa scooter
Ashley moved back down to Provo from Salt Lake, and Makayla is living close by in Orem, so it is great to have all three kids around again, at least for a while. We try to get together on a regular basis, usually on Sunday, and have a lot of fun together playing games, etc.
My company, Peeriosity, continues to do well, but we have plateaued with our revenue over the past few years. We are doing a joint venture in early 2016 with Accenture (the world’s largest consulting firm) and are hoping that will take our business to the next level.
Closing Comments (for now)
I will plan on updating this personal history on a more frequent basis. Creating it has been a great experience, and it made me realize what a wonderful life I have had.
The last section of this personal history is a paper I wrote back in 1984 during my first semester at BYU. It is about my life growing up in Plattsburgh and my eventual decision to leave. It was an assignment for my English class, and the teacher made it very clear that it was almost impossible to get an “A” on that particular assignment. You can see her comments in red in the margins.
Family History Treasures 