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THE TROPICS RESIDENT OF THE MONTH 33000 Almaden Blvd., Union City, Ca. 94587 |
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Barbara Chaney |
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Reporter - Charlotte O’Donnell |
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Barbara moved to The Tropics eighteen years ago and thoroughly enjoys her mobile home at 18 Palm Drive. When she moved here she found a home that needed her. She scrubbed painted, worked in the yard that had become a jungle and has created a lovely home that she thoroughly enjoys. Born and raised in Oklahoma City, Barbara was the youngest of three and claims to be spoiled by parents brother and sister. She graduated from high school in Oklahoma City and was attending the University of Texas. She met Bud, and they married. He was a pilot in the Air Corps. The two had two sons and later a daughter. They moved a great deal and Barbara attended William and Mary College while they lived in Virginia. Later after they moved to Palo Alto Barbara took classes at San Jose State. Barbara and Bud were married for twenty-two years
then went their separate ways. they remained good friends. She sold the home
they had built in Palo Alto and bought another in Palo Alto with less expensive
upkeep. She secured a job with a Research and Development Company in Palo Alto and worked there briefly and then went to work for Texas Instruments. She was there for eight months when a secretarial position opened in Seattle. She went up to Seattle to investigate, and liked the engineer in charge and transferred. The Seattle weather soon drove her back to California. She lived in Santa Cruz with her daughter and commuted to the TI office in Sunnyvale. Barbara had sold her home in Palo Alto. She went to visit her friends who lived in that community. They were going to Spain for three years and needed a house sitter. Barbara was happy to do that since the commute from Santa Cruz was pretty dangerous. The TI District Manager decided to form his own company and asked Barbara to come to work for him. She went to work for UCI where she did outside sales. She drove three thousand miles a month from Mountain View to Redding to Sacramento and Lodi selling consumer products to stores such as Longs and Payless. She was gone from home three weeks out of four. Barbara loved to spend weekends at a trailer park in Pollock Pines where she had purchased a 28 ft. travel trailer in place there. She came into an inheritance and started her own company in Pollock Pines called Barb’s Bar Stuff. She bought a used truck and drove all over delivering bar supplies i.e. glasses, mixes and supplies for bars. Everyone knew her in the area and she enjoyed the job. Winter came and it was not fun driving. The second winter drove her back to the Bay Area. Her previous boss had formed a new company, Education Access, and offered her a job. Barbara had bought a home as an investment in Fremont of which she knew little. She rented the home and the renters abused it. When she left the mountains she moved into the home until it sold. Rents were high and she wanted to own a home. That was when she decided to look for a mobile home. First she went to Besaro Park in Fremont but did not care for it. Barbara liked The Tropics. Education Access was a catalogue company doing business with school districts all over the U.S. Her office was in Sunnyvale. She arose at 4:00 and was at work by 6:00 a.m. after stopping for the company mail. The company was sold. Barbara did not want to be transferred to Alabama. She asked her boss to lay her off. Barbara has two grandchildren. Her daughter gave her the first related by blood and she enjoys watching her grandson play in her yard. For awhile after being in retirement, Barbara stayed at home but grew restless - she likes to works About eighteen months ago she began to work at Michael’s part time. She is glad she is doing that. I thank her for letting me use her computer and for the interesting life story. |