My dad was a corporate nomad, moving as promotional opportunities arose in his chemical engineering career in synthetic rubber and associated manufacturing. He worked on the design, then the construction, and then managed the facility before moving to a new project. I was the last kid so got the benefit (or burden) of most of the moves during the peak of his career. So here is my Places I've Lived list:
Baytown, Texas, 1944-53 (near Houston)
Ashtabula, Ohio, 1953-56 (near Cleveland and Erie, PA; PVC plant for General Tire)
Azusa, California, summer of 56, (near LA; design phase of Odessa, TX facility)
Odessa, Texas, 1956 - 1959 (between Dallas and El Paso, near Midland; synthetic rubber plant)
Muskogee, Oklahoma, late 1959 to early 1960 ( jet fuel manufacturing plant)
Tyrone, PA, first six months of 1960 (Dad was in London for design phase of the India plant so we lived with my maternal grandmother while I finished ninth grade.)
London NW8, England, June, 1960 to June 1961 (design phase of India plant)
Mussoorie, UP, India, June 1961 - May 1963 (while attending high school)
Bareilly, UP, India, winters of 62 and 63 (synthetic rubber plant project, first in Asia)
State College, PA, 1963 - 67 (went to Penn State University)
Hopewell, VA, summers 1964 - 67 (south of Richmond)
Gainesville, FL 1967 - 69 (attended Univ of Florida for master's degree)
Kiamesha Lake, NY 1967 - 69 (worked summers and Xmas during grad school)
Champaign, IL 1969 - 1977 (worked as Asst Dean of Students at the Univ of Illinois)
East Lansing, MI 1977 - present (worked at Michigan State University, then House of Reps, then executive branch positions)
In making up this list, I realize how much my mother and father were separated during my childhood due to school schedules that left my mom and us trailing my father by 6 - 8 months when he transitioned to a new job or location. Local control of education has bred widely varying curriculums that do not accommodate a mobile work force. Where I live now, I am quite an oddity. Until recently, four generation of Michiganders could all get jobs in manufacturing quite easily. Moving from one's birthplace was unusual, and moving for a job was unknown to them. I grew up expecting to move with most promotions, just like my dad. And here I've been in Michigan for 33 years.
Mary P
Thanks, Mary. I had no idea you'd moved so much in your childhood. Don't know if we'll start another separate list of states we've lived in, but perhaps so, if people keep sending them in. I"ll certainly add you to the England/UK next time I do an update.
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