August 15, 2009

Today we had another great day meeting with friends we haven’t seen in many years. We visited this afternoon and evening with Ed and Tommie Baylous. Ed and I both worked at Sears in Lexington. As a senior Division Manager, Ed was one of my mentors in the early days of my Sears career. He and I also worked together in the Retail Inventory Management Office during the transition to computerized ordering of merchandise to improve in-stock conditions at the store level. It was a good feeling to be part of a team of pioneers who implemented the beginning of computerized records for inventory control.

Tommie and Char both worked at the Southern Middle School Cafeteria for several years. They had various duties while getting a healthy lunch prepared for hundreds of students each day. It was a lot of hard work but both enjoyed the challenge.

While we were visiting, their son John came in. John works on one of the local horse farms. It was nice to have the opportunity to see him also.

Left to right: John, Tommie and Ed.

Ed told us that his next-door neighbors were Tommy and Becky Webber. This was a great surprise for us. We met Tommy and Becky when we first moved to Kentucky in the ‘70’s. We wanted to look them up also but thought they lived in nearby Danville, Kentucky. It was a very happy moment for all of us when they stopped in after spending the day at their antique business.

Left to right: Becky, Tommy, Granddaughter, Lily Grace and daughter, Dacia.

Tommie and Ed invited Becky, Tommy, Char and I to stay for a wonderful supper with them. We had a great time reminiscing, wonderful food and learned what has happened to each other’s families.

Thank you Tommie and Ed for an excellent day and also for arranging Becky and Tommy joining us for the evening. Today we accomplished two of the things on our list of goals we established four years ago. We met with Tommie and Ed Baylous and Becky and Tommy Webber. We love retirement, traveling around this great country and seeing friends from the past. Hopefully we will be able to travel many more years as we have lots more things and people we want to see.