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OUR HISTORY
Frank and I were both born and raised in
Northern Westchester County in New York State. We married in 1957. We had our first
child, Sheryl,
in 1962, bought a house in Amawalk in 1964 and our second
daughter, Deborah, arrived in 1965. Frank had left his job as foreman for
a construction company to take a job as a Police Officer in the
nearby town of Yorktown Heights in 1964. He continued to do
carpentry work on the side as our family grew. In 1967
Richard was born and we spent the next 18 years raising
children and studying a variety of things in our
"spare" time. Fishing and hunting were
Franks hobbies and raising and showing of English Cockers became mine.
I held several jobs after the children
started school. The first, and probably the most influential
in my life, was working for a local veterinarian --
receptionist, 'jack of all trades', and office manager for small animal practice.
Sheryl married Paul Breau shortly after her graduation from Union College
in June of 1984 and
Frank retired from the police force in July of 1984
and went back to carpentry and installing custom
made kitchen cabinets that same
year. In 1988 with the children out of
school and independent we decided to make plans for
our future and took a vacation to scout out possible areas
for retirement. The Blue Ridge Mountain area had
always been my favorite place. On our first visit we
discovered Morganton and the beauty of a sunset over Lake
James convinced us that this should be our home. A realtor showed
us several properties and we fell in love with a home with 20 acres just
south of town.
In October of 1988 with the house in
New York sold, two moving vans full of possessions and two
station wagons containing 8 English Cocker Spaniels, 1 cat,
a multitude of house plants, Frank and I arrived to start our new adventure.
We moved into our new home in Morganton
My dream of building and owning a boarding Kennel became a reality and I kept busy taking care of both my and
others
animals. Frank found a job he enjoyed working at a local cabinet shop.
OUR CHILDREN
Richard moved to North Carolina with us. He decided to follow in his dad's
footsteps and enter the field of law enforcement. He attended the
police training classes here at Western Piedmont College and after
graduation accepted a position with the Town of Valdese Police
Department. Now a Sergeant he has a 10 year old son Richard Jr. or R.J.
Deborah moved to
North Carolina about 4 years after we did . She married Hadley Cash in 1997 and now has a
9 year old son,
Austin.
Sheryl and Paul are living in Newburgh NY
with their three children. Paul works for IBM in Fishkill and
Sheryl is the office manager for a Veterinary practice in the area.
Melissa graduated from high school and will be graduating from Manhattenville
College this May. Mathew and Keith are 17 and 15.
OUR TRAVELS
In December of 2003 we retired
again We sold our property in Morganton and we purchased a motor home and hit the road. After spending
the winter in Florida we headed west through the pan-handle of Florida visiting
Tallahassee and spending time at the beaches then west to
Alabama and eventually to
Corpus Christi, Texas where we visited some former school friends of
Franks. We visited the Alamo and River Walk in San Antonio and went through
El Paso and stayed a great weekend in Deming New Mexico on our way to Arizona. We spent two weeks in Phoenix area and
visited the Grand Canyon and several other National Parks in the area. Before continuing
west to California where we visited many of my relatives who had relocated there
many years ago. I had not ever met some of my California cousins and
enjoyed reunions with a Aunt and Uncle in their 80's.
We made a detour then in May to head back through LasVegas and the
National parks in Utah and east to Colorado to attend the
ECS National Specialty. We enjoyed our stay in Colorado so much we
stayed
an extra week to enjoyed the Colorado Springs attractions. We headed back west by way of
Southern Wyoming and then through Salt Lake City. We toured the Lake Tahoe area and then
went into the farming
country of Northern California. We spent 10 days in this area making
side trips to Yosemite,
San Francisco and 17 mile drive to Carmel.
Leaving California we camped at a wonderful camp site under Mount
Shasta. Heading into
Oregon we fell in love with that state. Mountains and spectacular
beaches. Frank enjoyed
the fishing and we both decided that if our family and the majority of our
friends were not on
not on the east coast we would make our home there. Washington State,
Seattle and then
British Columbia and Vancouver Island were next. We decided that
Alaska would have to
be done at another time - not in the RV. We headed back to Oregon
and then back east through Idaho and Montana. We visited the National
Bison Range and almost had a bull land on the hood of the car. Montana is
another beautiful place - great for a summer visit unless you are into
skiing or snow mobiling. Next stop was Yellowstone Park in Wyoming and we
stayed for 5 days touring there. This is one place that everyone
should see. There were
more spectacular sites than we had seen before in our travels. From
Yellowstone we went to Mt. Rushmore in South Dakota. We went very quickly then back to the
East Coast with short
stops in Ohio and Pennsylvania at Lake Eire. We visited relatives in
the lake country of NY and then went up to Lake Ontario where Frank went
salmon fishing with a new friend he had
met in Florida. I visited my fathers birth place in Weedsport and
Cato. We headed to our daughter Sheryl's from there. After a month long visit camping out in
her drive we headed back south to North Carolina. We had a wonderful time
but I am glad to be back in a place that is not on wheels with a real
bathroom and shower where I can do some gardening and cook again.
I.
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California
The Nichols family - Cousin Mike, Frank, Betty, Jim's stepson,
Aunt Gennie and Cousin Jim
May 2005
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Our
whole clan as of
3/31/02 (l-r)
Hadley, Deborah & Austin Cash, Paul, Sheryl, Matthew,
Melissa and Keith Breau,
Betty, Frank,
Richard and Richard Jr. (R.J.) Ganung |
Frank
with his mother
Mary Ganung on right
and her
sister Minnie Suma on Left
Summer 2001 |
