HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!!!

 

The Independence Day I am talking about is JULY 4TH - the official date of Pat's first day of retirement!

Let's talk about his career which started when he was a teenager working at Bubba Burger. His manager told him one day that he was going to have to "lay him off". Pat was so new at the employment game that he thought that was just a few days off and waited for Bubbas to call him back.  Never happened. He drove a school bus when he was 16. I find that sooooo hard to believe, but I guess in 1964 in North Carolina school kids were expendable!

Pat enrolled in the Army soon after that. I don't know all the details of his service but I do know that he has mentioned being a 19 year old kid in VietNam as a platoon leader, being in charge and trying to keep not only himself but the other 19 year old kids in the platoon alive. Quite a burden for a teenager.  He served two tours over there.  When he got out of the Army he married almost immediately and finished college.  My recollection of his career after that included stints at LEGG's Hosiery and as a sales rep for IBM selling copiers. He hated both.

He was accepted at law school but family events kept him from going. He would have been a GREAT lawyer!  His career path took a turn to finance at that point when he joined a small bank and then the FDIC. During this time he also joined the National Guard, attended meetings, summer camps, and rose to the rank of Lt. Colonel. 

When I met Pat in 1996 he had just retired from the National Guard and was working for a small family-owned bank in Georgia. During the 14 years of our marriage he has been with that bank in Griffin, Ga. and then another bank in Ellijay, Ga.  When we moved to our retirement "trailer" he continued to work part-time for the bank in Ellijay and then decided to go back to work for the FDIC. (Two house payments will do that to a man!).

Wherever Pat has worked he has done a GREAT job (I hear this from people who were there).  One of his bosses once told me that he was the "one of the best bankers he knew and the most honest".  Not faint praise!  I know him and I KNOW that I was SO lucky to marry a man of character, honesty, hard work and a team player.

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY, SWEET BABY!

...and Happy 4th to ALL!