Paul Morey

Paul and wife Helen pre-covid retirement

Mom and I moved to Rosemary Lane one week before school started in 1958. Campbell Hi was my sixth school in the previous five years. Four years later, following graduation, we moved to Cambrian Park. Those four years at Campbell Hi became a platform of stability and friendship that launched the successes I have had in life. In particular, Jim “Sparky” Caldwell was my mentor and pushed me to reach for goals I would have never dreamed possible. As best friends, we decided to go to San Jose State together, where we eventually became fraternity brothers and roommates, though it took two years for that to happen. Jim worked the first year out of high school, and I worked the second, before uniting as roommates and officers of Theta Xi Fraternity. I have missed him very much since his early death. I recently attended Joe Falcone's memorial service and was impressed at how strongly he also touched the lives of several of our classmates

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Classmate Hal Evens and wife Donna with Paul

One fine day in April 1964, while I was working as a Fuller Brush salesman, Jim called me and insisted that I take the afternoon off to come to a TGIF party at our fraternity, as they had invited the girls of Colonial Hall to join them. That's where I met Helen Newhouse, and we have now been married 55 years. She worked as a teacher, until we started our family. We have two daughters, Julie and Kristen, both born in New Jersey, where we lived at Lake Valhalla, outside of NYC. In 1983 we returned to Calif., moving to Walnut Country, a PUD just outside of Walnut Creek, and about a half mile from where we lived before transferring to New Jersey six years earlier. Fifteen years ago we moved to a retirement community in Sacramento, where it was like being in a resort 365 days a year (until Covid).

daughters Julie & Kristen

Julie is a world class adventurer. She has traveled to over 75 countries, usually by herself, with just a backpack and her iPhone. In addition to traveling, she lived and worked abroad for around 7 years, including over two years as a Russian nanny based in Moscow, to three different “super rich” families. Imagine getting paid an absurd  amount of money for managing their spoiled kids (and tutoring them in English) while they vacationed. She spent one summer in Nice, France, and another on a yacht cruising the Mediterranean. Did I mention that they also provide your apartment, and you eat at the same restaurants they go to? Actually, it was not as much fun as it might sound, and very challenging. She returned to her 'real life' as a social worker (she has a Masters in Sociology) in San Diego, where she settled down for four years. At forty she decided to become a 'single mom,' and we now have a three year old granddaughter. She lost her job at the end of last year, and now lives with us. Her plan was to get a teaching job in Sacramento and move into one of my rental houses. Unfortunately, schools are not reopening here (no teaching jobs), and I have had no vacancies. But in December a tenant is leaving and Julie and Amilyn will move into their own home. We look forward to having them close, but not too close.

Kristen was always our rebel child (yeah, Julie was the conservative one). She took a training program and then manned a crisis hot line at age 14. At 15 she volunteered to sew up cadavers at the county morgue (thought she might like to be a surgeon). At 16 she passed her GED exam and left high school to enroll at Diablo Valley College, where she passed out condoms for Planned Parenthood. At 18 she transferred to Cal. Berkeley, and volunteered in the emergency room at County Hospital for one summer. That is just a small sampling of the crazy things she did. After graduating from Cal, she eventually went to the police academy in Sacramento, but left the force in less than a year. She moved in with us and started substitute teaching, after finding out she didn't like working in my financial planning business. She found she really liked teaching, however, and became a high school biology teacher for 17 years. True story: she called me from Sacramento and said she had no idea what to do with her life, but she couldn't be a cop and she hated Sacramento. I asked her where she would like to live, and she said Concord, where she grew up. Said she wanted to come home, and what did I think she should do with her life? I told her I thought she would make a great science teacher.

She quit teaching (after starting an on-line Amazon business) a year ago. They sold their home in Concord (she has two daughters, 4 and 6), and temporarily move into our second home in Pollock Pines. Julie moved in too (after losing her job), and they planned to travel the world to see if there was a better place to live and raise their families. Early this year they traveled to Mexico, Bali, and Malaysia, from which they were forced to leave when the Covid pandemic started closing borders. Julie went to Thailand for three months, then returned home. Kristen went to Taiwan (the safest Covid country in the world), and does not want to return to the US. She isn't able to continue her travels (which she tells the Kids is their Great Adventure), because almost all borders are closed. So she has taken up residency and teaches English in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. Interestingly, Julie taught English in Kaohsiung for two years, about ten years ago. She chose to go to Thailand rather than return to Kaohsiung, where she had divorced her husband of 10 years. Kristen has almost made her decision to divorce her husband, and that may happen in Kaohsiung, as well. Kaohsiung? What is it with this place?

So, here we are, with our lives on hold. Helen and I are most fortunate, however, and have little to complain about. We had to put down our 16 year old Jack Russell (Buddy) a few weeks ago, and that is just heart breaking. Otherwise, our lives have been too boringly good to tell you much of interest: went to college, got married, got an MBA, went into business, made good money, raised a family, stayed in good health, retired, living happily ever after. Ho hum: the American dream. But I have such interesting daughters, I thought you might like to hear about the next generation. We enjoy having our older daughter (and granddaughter) here with us, and hopefully, a return to normalcy next year. “May we live in interesting times:” an old Chinese proverb. Paul Morey

Paul Morey and wife Helen

Paul Morey as Elvis singing to wife Helen