Name:  Marji Nash                                                       Maiden: Speece

Personal narrative!

I've gone full circle and again live in Colorado.  After my husband, Doug, retired from the Air Force we moved to Fort Collins in the summer of 2000.  We were fortunate in that we were able to spend time with my parents while they were both well and still living in the house where I grew up (that Dad built in 1956*).
    

Life with the Air Force was an adventure.  I originally met Doug when I was a history/government teacher at Yokota Air Base High School in Japan.  Follow-on assignments took us to Alabama, Ohio, Saudi Arabia (Jeddah & Riyadh) and West Virginia.  I became a "Jill of all trades" -- school teacher, secret shopper, postal clerk, "gun runner", management analyst... After we moved to Fort Collins I tried retirement (just not for me yet) and now work part-time at CSU.

 

Once upon a time I had running-a-marathon as a personal goal.  It's still on my "to-do" list (a half-marathon is my longest distance).  Doug is the long-distance, trail-runner in our family.

 

No children and for 16 years B'ham and Bama (the only 2 kittens in the litter) were our babies.  B'ham is still with us and turns 19 years old in September.

*Dad died in April 2002 and my mom lives in her own apartment at Loveland's Good Samaritan Village.

 

A Loveland memory from 1950/60 era!
A real downtown with a real main street:  banks on the 2 corners, Woolworth's with a lunch counter, clothing and shoe shops, hardware and appliance stores, drug stores and creameries with soda fountains, gift and jewelry and music stores, barber shops and the Rialto Theater (and a couple of bars with very dark windows).  For years we bought everything we needed in downtown Loveland.

Feeling safe.

 

Walking or riding my bike everywhere -- then getting my driver's license on my 16th birthday.

 

Elementary school (there were 4 schools) Spring Music Festival and the spring track meet.

 

Everybody seemingly knowing everybody else (and back then that was a very comforting feeling).

 

The median down the center of Cleveland with big, beautiful, towering elms.

 

I have such good memories of growing up in Loveland -- definitely the "Father Knows Best" and "Donna Reed" kind of memories.