Cahokia High School Baby Boomers Alumni

[Mitch72]

My oldest is going today to get a physical to join the army. The younger is a senior at college. Is it possible the beginning of the empty nest may come soon? Should I change the locks?

[les1972]

Military physical, eh? I trust you warned him about the square needle or the extra-long Q-tip.

Les W. '72

[Mitch72]

Aye! That I did. I also warned him about large hands inside latex gloves. He didn't see the humor in it. Go figure. I have been teasing him for weeks about joining the girl scouts. My wife dropped him off at the recruiter today. She told the recruiter it felt odd. He asked why. She told him she was a 20 year Navy wife and anything army was just strange to her. She knows all the navy lingo, minus the marine talk. But no army stuff.

[CherylK2]

I've had an empty nest for almost two years now, and it sucks. Sometimes it's like I can feel my daughter is lying down in her room. She's my baby at 25. And has her own nestling at 20 months. Sometimes it's nice and the house stays cleaner, and sometimes I still cry.

[Judy]

With my older daughters married with children and my son (my baby) in the Army, yes Army, boys!, I still have one daughter, 25, at home. We will see when she will move out. She works weird hours for a radio station, so it's like she is not here at all. My family has been Army forever, so Chris wanted to follow his Grandpa's footsteps. He was also influenced by my Uncle, a retired Lt. Colonel. We were just talking the other day about the letters I use to get from the Marines in my Senior year, the old WE NEED A FEW GOOD MEN. I always tell them I scored high in mechanical abilities so that's probably why I got them. I am sure everyone got the letters in the late sixties and early seventies.

[les1972]

Sometimes it isn't any easier for the dads. We had only the one child, and he was grown up and gone before we knew it. Most of my career has been working nights and weekends, so I missed out on a lot, but that's the price I had to pay to make enough of money to take the kid on real vacations and pay for music lessons etc. The alternative would have been a 9-5 job that would have me home at nights and weekends but without the money to do the fun things we did.

I miss him most, though, when the lawn needs mowing.

Les W. '72

[Judy]

I know my husband misses my son alot. It is nice that since he came back from Iraq, he calls all the time. We always said we wished our kids would move away where we could travel and visit them when we retired. We don't wish that anymore. We have so much fun with our eight grandkids, we are sorry that two live in Alton and four live in the Chicago area. We do have two here in town and spend alot of time with them. My daughter in Chicago calls me when she is driving home from work so we get to have lengthy conversations often. I am trying to stay busy outside with my flower gardens in the evenings, my husband is an over the road truckdriver. I don't enjoy my almost empty nest. The days are okay, but the evenings are lonesome. Judy