Life Changes....30º/partly cloudy

The 1980's came in with a bang, literally speaking...Mount St. Helens erupted on Sunday, May 18 1980, 8:30am...We heard a boom, similar to a distant sonic boom, but had no idea what it was and went on with our day, without giving it a thought...Later in the day the sky darkened from the ash fallout and we heard the news that St. Helens had indeed blown her top...We attended Bobbi's baccalaureate that day and she would graduate from high school the following week, and leave for college in September...Within three years Rusty would also graduate and move to Bend...Empty nest syndrome was staring us in the face, so I think the timing was right for me to move into a new job...Margaret made good on her plans to retire, join the Peace Corp and broaden her horizons...I was offered and accepted the Head Cook job at the Joseph Schools, in the fall of 1983.

I was excited, scared and full of plans...I wanted to continue with a great program but also introduce new menus, get more training for myself and staff and streamline the jobs in the kitchen...Working with teachers and administration and educating students about nutrition was high on my list...I took advantage of programs offered, through the summer, by the state for food service workers...Most of them were held in Bend and worked well for me because Rusty lived there...I must say many of these classes were poorly organized, redundant and a waste of time...BUT over the years I gleaned recipes and knowledge about making bread and cinnamon rolls, that I passed on to my new baker, Willa, that would make our kitchen, the go to place for melt in the mouth, delicious, cinnamon rolls.

It was always interesting to meet and talk with other food service workers, discuss government regulations and always a topic for conversation was how to use some of the government comodities...One summer I decided to take classes at Eastern Oregon College in LaGrande, thinking since they had a nursing program, surely they would have classes on nutrition...Wrong, the only thing close were classes on bulimia and anorexia, not what I was looking for but interesting all the same, so I signed up...I found that I loved learning and worked hard to make continual improvement to our program...I also was educated daily on getting along with people and a new administrative staff...Hugs To All...OWAV:)