| Biographical Non-Fiction posted December 6, 2023 | Chapters: |
...24 25 -26- 27... 
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Ch. 33 Decisions on where to retire.
A chapter in the book Grasping the Elusive Dream
Decisions on a Move
by BethShelby
For those of you who are new to my book, Grasping the Elusive Dream, it's a true story of my family living in New Orleans in the eighties; My husband, Evan and I have three children living at home. The twins, Don and Christi, haven't finished college, but they are taking a break and planning to return. Connie is 11. Evan has decided to retire as drafting supervisor from Chevron at 56. I was 47 and have been working for a printing company. We have an older daughter, Carol. She is a nurse, and she was married a few months before this takes place to Glen. They live in Valdosta, Georgia.
Once our house was back in peak condition everything was much nicer than before, and we were all enjoying it. Since I had gotten five pints of blood while in the hospital, I felt better than I had in months. I found a job and started working again.
Evan had invested the money wisely which came from his retirement package. Interest rates were high, so instead of opting for a monthly retirement check, he took a cash settlement, kept out just enough to live on, and put the rest into CD’s which were paying around 16%. He tied the money up for 10 years at that rate. We both also had IRAs which we could use when we were old enough to take out money as we needed it. It seemed, if we lived somewhat conservatively, we wouldn't be on starvation any time soon. Evan turned out to be a good cook, so he did his part to make sure we didn’t go hungry.
Don was able to get into LSU in New Orleans and start building his GPA back up. He started thinking seriously about what he wanted to do with his life. At the time, he had gotten very interested in health and natural healing. He decided that field might suit him. He got to be friends with a chiropractor at our church, who many people we knew claimed was a miracle worker. Don decided to explore that as a career and started sending out requests to schools for their brochures.
We remained in the Metairie area of greater New Orleans until Connie completed eighth grade. My best friend, Diane, at the time had converted to our protestant church from her Catholic background. Lesley, her daughter and Connie’s best friend joined our church as well. Diane decided to take Lesley out of public school and put her in our church school. She and Connie would be in the same room for Connie’s 7th grade year and Lesley’s 6th grade year.
In small schools, there are often problems not present in larger schools. Because girls are especially prone to clannish behavior, they often band together and make other girls feel left out. Connie knew the girls already because she had gone to school with them before. She was proud to introduce her best friend, Lesley. The girls immediately bonded with Lesley, and it wasn’t long until jealousy got the better of Connie. She believed Lesley was going behind her back and doing things with her former friends and leaving her out. Connie was still vulnerable from having caused the house fire and the auto accident. With all of her friends suddenly against her, she was totally depressed.
Both Evan and I were on the school board and some of the parents were up in arms over a teacher they felt wasn’t behaving properly, In the end, because of what seemed like unchristian behavior to us, we decided to put Connie back into public school for eighth grade and resign from the school board. Both girls went back to public school the following year, but they weren't as close as they had been before.
Glen, the husband of our oldest daughter, Carol, decided he wanted to go back to college and become a nurse. Since he wanted to go to the college where Carol had gotten her degree, the two of them moved to Chattanooga and rented an apartment. Carol found a nursing job at one of the large hospitals there.
Evan and I made a trip to visit them leaving Connie home with the twins. It was spring, and all the trees and flowers were in bloom. While Carol worked and Glen was in school, we decided to take a walking tour of the area. The neighborhood houses were older but well-kept and beautifully landscaped on rolling hills with mountains in the background. Some were for sale and Evan began picking up brochures and looking at prices. He was impressed. We were used to prices in New Orleans near the lake where real-estate was booming. These houses where larger and on nice-size lots and many times more reasonably priced.
Evan wasn’t sure where he wanted to live, but he was sure he was ready to leave New Orleans behind. When we got home, he started getting serious about where we should spend our retirement years. He would have been fine moving to our farm in Mississippi, but he realized that was going to be a deal breaker for me. I loved our place in the country, but there was nothing around there except fields of cotton, chicken houses and a lot of mobile homes. It was nearly thirty miles to the nearest grocery, restaurant or library. Jackson was about forty-five minutes away, so that was a possibility.
He suggested we check out the Ross Barnett Reservoir in Jackson, Mississippi. It was a recreational area with beautiful newer houses and upscale neighborhoods. We made an appointment with an agent and looked at some of the homes. The prices were as high as in New Orleans. At the time, they were on a 99-year lease program, which made no sense to me. You could never totally own your own home.
We went back home and talked to our kids about moving. Don had decided he wanted to get into a Chiropractic school in Marietta near Atlanta. He would have to be there several years. Christi wanted to go back to school in Chattanooga. Connie didn’t want to move at all, and certainly not to Mississippi. It seemed that if we moved back to Mississippi, seeing our children would be rare.
On the spur of the moment one Sunday morning, Evan suggested we go and see the school where Don was planning to attend, and while there, check out houses in that part of the world. For someone who had never been spontaneous, I was shocked. He told us to go pack a bag, and we’d leave immediately. Within the hour, Don, Evan and I were on our way. Retirement had changed my husband’s personality.
Marietta connected with Atlanta so closely you couldn’t tell where one started and the other ended. The traffic was horrible, even on the weekend. It was too much city for our taste. The idea of buying something near the school so Don could live at home went out the window. Still, it was less than two hours from Chattanooga, so if we bought in that area, he could be home often. Christi was planning on going back to college in Chattanooga and Carol and Glen were there at the present. It appeared Chattanooga made the most sense. We all loved the mountains, so everyone was happy with the decision. Connie was still on the fence, but she wasn’t old enough to vote.
All that was left to do was sell our home in Metairie and find a place to buy in Chattanooga. That wasn’t going to be nearly as easy as it sounded.
For those of you who are new to my book, Grasping the Elusive Dream, it's a true story of my family living in New Orleans in the eighties; My husband, Evan and I have three children living at home. The twins, Don and Christi, haven't finished college, but they are taking a break and planning to return. Connie is 11. Evan has decided to retire as drafting supervisor from Chevron at 56. I was 47 and have been working for a printing company. We have an older daughter, Carol. She is a nurse, and she was married a few months before this takes place to Glen. They live in Valdosta, Georgia.
Once our house was back in peak condition everything was much nicer than before, and we were all enjoying it. Since I had gotten five pints of blood while in the hospital, I felt better than I had in months. I found a job and started working again.
Evan had invested the money wisely which came from his retirement package. Interest rates were high, so instead of opting for a monthly retirement check, he took a cash settlement, kept out just enough to live on, and put the rest into CD’s which were paying around 16%. He tied the money up for 10 years at that rate. We both also had IRAs which we could use when we were old enough to take out money as we needed it. It seemed, if we lived somewhat conservatively, we wouldn't be on starvation any time soon. Evan turned out to be a good cook, so he did his part to make sure we didn’t go hungry.
Don was able to get into LSU in New Orleans and start building his GPA back up. He started thinking seriously about what he wanted to do with his life. At the time, he had gotten very interested in health and natural healing. He decided that field might suit him. He got to be friends with a chiropractor at our church, who many people we knew claimed was a miracle worker. Don decided to explore that as a career and started sending out requests to schools for their brochures.
We remained in the Metairie area of greater New Orleans until Connie completed eighth grade. My best friend, Diane, at the time had converted to our protestant church from her Catholic background. Lesley, her daughter and Connie’s best friend joined our church as well. Diane decided to take Lesley out of public school and put her in our church school. She and Connie would be in the same room for Connie’s 7th grade year and Lesley’s 6th grade year.
In small schools, there are often problems not present in larger schools. Because girls are especially prone to clannish behavior, they often band together and make other girls feel left out. Connie knew the girls already because she had gone to school with them before. She was proud to introduce her best friend, Lesley. The girls immediately bonded with Lesley, and it wasn’t long until jealousy got the better of Connie. She believed Lesley was going behind her back and doing things with her former friends and leaving her out. Connie was still vulnerable from having caused the house fire and the auto accident. With all of her friends suddenly against her, she was totally depressed.
Both Evan and I were on the school board and some of the parents were up in arms over a teacher they felt wasn’t behaving properly, In the end, because of what seemed like unchristian behavior to us, we decided to put Connie back into public school for eighth grade and resign from the school board. Both girls went back to public school the following year, but they weren't as close as they had been before.
Glen, the husband of our oldest daughter, Carol, decided he wanted to go back to college and become a nurse. Since he wanted to go to the college where Carol had gotten her degree, the two of them moved to Chattanooga and rented an apartment. Carol found a nursing job at one of the large hospitals there.
Evan and I made a trip to visit them leaving Connie home with the twins. It was spring, and all the trees and flowers were in bloom. While Carol worked and Glen was in school, we decided to take a walking tour of the area. The neighborhood houses were older but well-kept and beautifully landscaped on rolling hills with mountains in the background. Some were for sale and Evan began picking up brochures and looking at prices. He was impressed. We were used to prices in New Orleans near the lake where real-estate was booming. These houses where larger and on nice-size lots and many times more reasonably priced.
Evan wasn’t sure where he wanted to live, but he was sure he was ready to leave New Orleans behind. When we got home, he started getting serious about where we should spend our retirement years. He would have been fine moving to our farm in Mississippi, but he realized that was going to be a deal breaker for me. I loved our place in the country, but there was nothing around there except fields of cotton, chicken houses and a lot of mobile homes. It was nearly thirty miles to the nearest grocery, restaurant or library. Jackson was about forty-five minutes away, so that was a possibility.
He suggested we check out the Ross Barnett Reservoir in Jackson, Mississippi. It was a recreational area with beautiful newer houses and upscale neighborhoods. We made an appointment with an agent and looked at some of the homes. The prices were as high as in New Orleans. At the time, they were on a 99-year lease program, which made no sense to me. You could never totally own your own home.
We went back home and talked to our kids about moving. Don had decided he wanted to get into a Chiropractic school in Marietta near Atlanta. He would have to be there several years. Christi wanted to go back to school in Chattanooga. Connie didn’t want to move at all, and certainly not to Mississippi. It seemed that if we moved back to Mississippi, seeing our children would be rare.
On the spur of the moment one Sunday morning, Evan suggested we go and see the school where Don was planning to attend, and while there, check out houses in that part of the world. For someone who had never been spontaneous, I was shocked. He told us to go pack a bag, and we’d leave immediately. Within the hour, Don, Evan and I were on our way. Retirement had changed my husband’s personality.
Marietta connected with Atlanta so closely you couldn’t tell where one started and the other ended. The traffic was horrible, even on the weekend. It was too much city for our taste. The idea of buying something near the school so Don could live at home went out the window. Still, it was less than two hours from Chattanooga, so if we bought in that area, he could be home often. Christi was planning on going back to college in Chattanooga and Carol and Glen were there at the present. It appeared Chattanooga made the most sense. We all loved the mountains, so everyone was happy with the decision. Connie was still on the fence, but she wasn’t old enough to vote.
All that was left to do was sell our home in Metairie and find a place to buy in Chattanooga. That wasn’t going to be nearly as easy as it sounded.
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