I was born in Paducah, Kentucky on April 16, 1947. My parents lived in a small town called Benton, Kentucky, which was approximately 30 miles from Paducah. Benton had about 2,000 residents in 1956, so it was smaller in 1947 when I was born. Benton had no hospital at that time, so my mom delivered me at the Paducah hospital. Shortly after I was born, we moved to St. Louis, Missouri, where we lived with my maternal grandparents, Ben and Lena Badami, in a large house on Belt Avenue, with my three uncles, Tony, Frank, and Benny Badami. We stayed there until I was four years old, and then we moved back to Benton where my dad got a job as an apprentice electrician for the Tennessee Valley Authority at Kentucky Dam. My family had been in the electricity business for a long time!
My dad liked to hunt and we always had dogs. First, I remember having a pointer and then, the summer when I was eight years old, my dad bred a litter of weimaraners and a litter of black labs. That was the summer of 1955, and I loved those puppies! I named three of the black lab pups Lady, Tramp, and Jock. Those were the days when parents didn't have to worry much about their 8-year-old daughters wandering around unescorted throughout the countryside. Benton was so safe that we did not lock our doors at night and, in the summer when it was really hot and humid, we left the doors open with just the screen doors for protection. The only policeman that I remember seeing in Benton was called "Chewing Gum Charlie." He drove around and walked around the streets of town, protecting us, but I never saw him with a gun strapped on.
Unfortunately, summer vacation was eventually over and school started -- I was assigned to Ms. Margaret in the third grade. She was a tough teacher and we had lots of assignments. She once took us all to her house during the day so that we could pull weeds in her yard! Soon it was Christmas time. I remember that I often heard talk from the adults in my family of a place called "California." I wondered what that was.
Christmas eve, we had company: my Uncle Carl, Aunt Julia (my dad's sister), my cousin Nat, and my cousin Cherye. Cherye was seven months older than me, so we played a lot when they were in town. The snow was falling and suddenly we heard a knock at the door. A man asked my dad if he knew anyone who had a black lab puppy dog -- he had just hit one in the road next to our house. Unfortunately, it was my Tramp! Cherye and I started crying hysterically. My dad took Tramp to the basement, where he laid on a blanket on the floor. He stayed there several days. One day, my dad told me that he was going to take Tramp to the vet to make him better. Poor Tramp had lain on the floor for days, unable to get up. I trusted my dad to make him better for me.
I kept waiting for Tramp to come home. About two weeks later, my parents were sitting in their chairs in front of the fireplace, reading the newspaper and listening to music on the radio. Curious as to how he was doing, I asked my dad, "When is Tramp coming home?" My dad looked at my mom and she looked at him -- and a quiet hush fell over the room.
My dad looked at me and said, "We thought you would forget, so we decided not to tell you that Tramp died." I was devastated. I felt a lump in my stomach that I had never felt before. I felt my face flush -- my eyes filled with tears -- and I began to lose control. I felt so betrayed. I wasn't sure if the tears were the result of Tramp having died or of having my parents think that I would forget about him, thereby relieving them of the burden of having to tell me of his death. I went to my bedroom and climbed into bed. I continued to cry, wondering what had become of Tramp. I went to church regularly and had heard of heaven. My dad's father had recently died, so I thought I knew what death was (I'd attended his funeral). Soon my dad came into my room to talk to me. I said, "Is Tramp in heaven with PeePaw?" He responded, "No, honey, dogs don't go to heaven. Heaven is only for people and dogs are not people. They are just animals. When they die, they are just dead and gone."
That made me feel even worse and I cried more deeply. I was so miserable to think that my little Tramp -- who I loved so much -- was lying somewhere decomposing into nothingness -- because God wouldn't let dogs go to heaven. That was when I decided that I did not like my Dad's religious beliefs, if that was the way they looked at things. I knew Tramp had to be in heaven if one existed.
Two months after Tramp died, my dad gave away my two remaining labs -- Lady and Jock -- to some people in the country and moved our family to California. So, I lost Tramp in December and then I lost Lady and Jock in February. I was so depressed, but nobody paid any attention. I was just a kid.
I don't remember the actual trip to California, but I remember being deposited with my Aunt Bert and Uncle Charlie in San Diego. My parents moved to Inglewood, California with my little brother, where my dad had a job. So, there I was -- eight years old -- I lost my three beloved pets, my family abandoned me, and I was stuck living with strangers in a big city. I missed my small town life and was miserable, because I had lost my three dogs, my hometown, and my family. Nobody seemed to understand why I became withdrawn and depressed.
I was enrolled at Montezuma Elementary School for the remainder of the third grade and was a very good student -- what else was there to do? I really loved to learn and study and enjoyed getting the highest grades. That was always my escape from what was a horrible existence – doing well in school! I thought I was the only miserable kid in the world! Who knew so many others were miserable like me and it was normal for kids?
In the summer of 1956, my dad got into the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers in San Diego, and my parents rented a small two-bedroom duplex in the area of San Diego called Clairemont. I remember that address to this day (but cannot remember what I did last week): 3365 Clairemont Drive, San Diego. I enrolled in Whittier Elementary School for the fourth grade. I was nine years old at that time. Two years later, my parents bought a brand new, 3-bedroom, 2-bath, house in a new development in Chula Vista. It was 1958, and I think they paid about $12,000 for it! I enrolled in the sixth grade at Kellogg Elementary School -- Mr. Bickel was my teacher and he drove a Volkswagen Beetle, which was so very cool!
Our house was on the outskirts of town at that time, which was ideal for a tomboy who like rural areas! The neighborhood had lots of kids my age. I had lots of girlfriends who were also tomboys. We loved to explore all over the countryside from Chula Vista to Otay Lake. We had wonderful times together: riding bikes all over, going downtown to shop and buy French fries and Green Rivers at the soda shop, building forts in the canyons with tumbleweeds, having slumber parties where we ate like pigs and told ghost stories, playing girls' basketball at the Recreation Center, and discovering boys eventually!
In the fall of 1959, I enrolled in the 7th grade at Castle Park Junior High School. I liked school, got good grades, and was in the advanced classes for all subjects that were offered. My favorite teacher was Mr. David Bannister, who taught Social Studies. He always said, "To thine own self be true, and it shall follow as the night the day, that thou canst then be false with any man." I really admired him.
That same year, my Dad decided that we should go back to church again -- we had regularly attended the local Church of Christ in Benton before moving to California. So, we started going to the Chula Vista Church of Christ three times a week: Sunday morning for Sunday school and services, Sunday evening for bible study, and Wednesday evening for bible study. I met Rita Hopkins, who would later become my college roommate, and Alice Wojciechowski, who I still know today. She is my oldest friend.
In the fall of 1962, I enrolled in 10th grade at Hilltop High School. I only went there one year, however, because they were building a new high school that was closer. In the fall of 1963, I enrolled at the new high school -- Castle Park High School. I was in the first junior class. I enjoyed it, but was anxious to leave home and see the world. I wanted to leave high school early, so in the summer of 1963, I attended summer school at Helix High School to earn extra credits. With those credits, I was accepted to Pepperdine University in Los Angeles for the fall of 1964 because I had enough credits and an A-average, but I was only just 17 years old and 4 months, so I was afraid to go to the "big city."
At the last minute, I decided to go with my good girlfriend, Rita Hopkins, to a small Church of Christ college in Lubbock, Texas -- Lubbock Christian College. So, when I returned home, after that year in Texas, I went to the Chula Vista Adult School and took enough credits to earn my high school diploma after my first year of college. In the fall of 1965, I enrolled at Grossmont Junior College (I did not realize the importance of where you go to college at that time and nobody advised me of that fact, so I went to the nearest college to home and the cheapest).
In early 1966, during my second semester at Grossmont JC, Jim Smith visited me in San Diego. I had met him in Lubbock, where he was a pitcher on the softball team. He was the roommate of my roommate’s boyfriend so we saw each other often. We even had a date to see Goldfinger – a James Bond movie. We started going together, I lost interest in my studies, and my family did not approve. So, I quit school, got a job at Local Loan Co. in downtown San Diego, and moved out of my parents’ house. Jim had returned home to Denver, so I saved some money and ran away to Denver without telling anyone in my family where I had gone. They had no idea where I was for about six months. Jim and I were married on July 19, 1966, but I did not call my folks until mid-November to tell them where I was. Teenagers can be so rebellious and insensitive! I was one of them.
Jim and I both got jobs in Denver and rented a small one-bedroom apartment. I worked as a disbursement clerk at the First National Bank of Denver at 17th and Welton Streets. I distributed the trust funds to the beneficiaries of trusts that the bank administered. I remember a young, beautiful female attorney who worked in the trust department -- Anne Gorsuch (later Anne Burford, who became head of the EPA under President Ronald Reagan). She was an inspiration to me to go back to school and get a good job. I eventually did go back and get a B.S. in Physics in 1972 and a Juris Doctor from Loyola Marymount University Law School in Los Angeles in 1987. I think that experience in Denver had a significant effect on my life. In the '60s, girls were not generally encouraged to become professionals.
My first professional position after getting my B.S. in Physics was at TRW in Redondo Beach (now a part of Northrup Grumman). I started working there on February 19, 1973 as a Member of the Technical Staff in the Materials Technology Department under the direction of Robert Hammel, who remained a good friend until his death a couple of years ago. It was actually Bob Hammel who encouraged me to go to law school. I might never have done so without his encouragement! Thank you, Bob, wherever you are!
During the 15 years at TRW, I worked on various projects related to space science experimentation planned for the Spacelab to be flown on the Space Shuttle. I assisted a Principal Investigator (Jo Reger) who performed zero-gravity experiments on metals on NASA's Skylab. Later, I transferred to the Heat Transfer and Thermodynamics Department and worked on analysis and design of satellite thermal control systems, such as DSP, FLTSATCOM, and MILSTAR.
From August 1983 to June 1987, including summers, I attended Loyola Law School at night, while working full-time at TRW. I passed the July bar that year. In September 1987, I took a position as an associate attorney at Parkinson, Wolf, Lazar, & Leo in Century City. The following year, I bought a 12-acre parcel of land in August 1988, while I was living in Torrance, California, because I always wanted to live in the country and build a custom home. My land was on the eastern out-skirts of San Diego county in an area called Blossom Valley. That became the name of my ranch and kennels.
In 1990, I started looking for a position in San Diego, and my headhunter sent me to Southern California Edison Company to interview for the position they had for a gas attorney, who they planned to move to San Diego when the Gas Fuels Department moved after approval of the pending merger with San Diego Gas & Electric Company. They convinced me that the merger was 99.9% going to be approved, but it was rejected by the California Public Utilities Commission and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission! I was screwed!
In 1993, I decided to move to San Diego anyway, so I leased my house in Torrance and rented a house in San Diego while I researched and planned my construction project. Eventually, in March 1997, I sold my house in Torrance and proceeded to start my construction project. I moved into my new house in April 1998, and stayed there until 2010, when I decided that it was too congested with people and I wanted real country living. I had driven through Aguanga on my way to Palm Springs one weekend and fell in love with the Anza-Aguanga area. I started looking for a property in April 2010 and closed escrow on my first property in July 2010. I finally found a place where I could feel at home with my animals – close enough to a city for shopping and far enough away to avoid the congested feeling. I continued to work at SCE until September 30, 2013, when I decided it was high time at 66 years old to retire and enjoy the country life full time!
In 2014, I bought a 14-year-old Arab mare so that I could really learn to ride at the ripe old age of 67. I had lessons when I was 8 years old in Kentucky and rode in the county fair that summer, but during the intervening years, I only road on trail rides occasionally. I started learning more seriously on my horse Lavona in October 2014 by riding with Veronica Chavez for about a month and then I moved my Lavona to Terwilliger Creek Ranch where I have been riding once or twice each week with Tish Clark since.
I just love country living in the Anza Valley. I hope to contribute to the economic advancement of the area and have been working to that end as a Board member of the Anza Valley Chamber of Commerce.
In addition, I am running for the position of Board member from District I of the Anza Electric Cooperative, Inc. Board of Directors. Elections are held at the annual meeting to be held July 19, 2015, at the Community Hall. I believe that my utility and technical experience will definitely be an asset to the Board, and I would like to serve the community in that capacity. I NEED YOUR VOTE!
About Me
