Linda Marie Eide

I was born on February 21, 1941 in Seattle, WA. I attended Loyal Heights Elementary, James Monroe Junior High, and graduated from Ballard High School where I was an officer in the Girl?s Club and active in the Ski Club. We were very lucky growing up because my Grandma and Grandpa Hegge had a summer cabin in Juanita on Lake Washington. We all spent the summers there swimming and having all sizes and kinds of boats to keep us busy. ?The beach? was filled with cousins. What fun we had! Our mothers and fathers had grown up there and now our own children had the same good times at Juanita. All of us developed a love for boats and water.

After graduating from Ballard High in 1959, I attended Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, WA. In the summer of 1960, after my freshman year at PLU, I was lucky to have my Grandma Marie take me to Norway. We traveled across the country to New York by train and then boarded the ?Oslofjord.? We spent 5 days crossing the Atlantic and ended up in Bergen. We stayed on the boat and went north to North Cape where we climbed to the viewing area to see the Midnight Sun on June 21. It was cloudy that night so the image was not spectacular. We traveled by ship back down to Bergen, stopping many times to explore towns along the way. We left the ?Oslofjord? in Bergen and now traveled by bus, trains and cars. We spent most of the summer in Norway. I got a chance to meet all of Grandma?s brothers, sisters and other family members. I also met some of my dad?s family because so many of them lived not far from each other. We spent time in all of the big cities and did a lot of sightseeing.

I had a wonderful grandmother and the times we spent together were very special to me. We had a great time on our summer adventure. We ended up in Oslo where we took a plane to Copenhagen, Denmark. We stayed there a couple of days and then headed for home. We flew home in a propeller plane. We had a refueling stop in Greenland and another in Winnipeg, Canada. Our plane landed in Los Angeles after 22 ? hours. How plane travel has changed! Grandma was such a good sport ? she decided since we were in Los Angeles and I had never been there before, that we should see Disneyland. After flying for 22 ? hours we walked Disneyland for a day. She just laughed and said her bunions would never be the same. What a summer we had building memories together. I?ll never forget how much fun we had!

I returned to PLU full of stories from the summer in Norway. In May of 1963, I earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Elementary Education. I signed my first contract for $4850 a year to begin teaching third grade at Forest Crest Elementary in the Edmonds School District the following school year. That summer I worked for the City of Mountlake Terrace Recreation Department where I ran a summer recreation program for the neighborhood kids. We had all kinds of sports, crafts, and special programs for the kids at a local school.

In the fall of 1963, I began my teaching career. I loved my third graders. I had a new principal and several other new teachers starting with me. Our faculty was great and we had a lot of fun. We were like a close-knit family.

In April of 1966, Betty Susanj, another third grade teacher next door to me, decided she had someone she wanted me to meet. Betty and her husband Chuck set me up on a blind date with Gary, who was the son of some friends. They took us to dinner at the Lake City Elks Club. Our date was a big success! We found we had so much in common. Gary was working as the engineer on a tug boat at the time and leaving for Alaska shortly. His departure kept getting put off and we went out every night for seven weeks before he finally left in June. We had so much fun. I had already made plans to spend the summer in Hawaii with some teacher friends before I met Gary. Gary left for Alaska on the day after school was out for the summer. We were supposed to be working that day cleaning up our classrooms, but Dean Hillhouse, my principal, sent me down to the Edmonds waterfront to watch Gary?s tug go by. I waved to Gary, but of course he didn?t know I was there.

My friends and I did go to Hawaii for the summer. We rented an apartment in Waikiki and they took classes at the University of Hawaii while I got a job selling shoes at a store in the lobby of the Reef Towers Hotel. I sold a lot of sandals that summer. Gary continued on the tugboat up and down the west coast from California to Alaska. I started the school year in the fall and in November Gary had a run towing 1, 800, 000 gallons of aircraft fuel from California to Hawaii. The 13 day crossing was smooth, but after getting to Honolulu they had to go in circles outside the harbor because of large swells. The temperature was hot inside the engine room of the steel boat and the crew was anxiously waiting to unload the barges of fuel. Gary decided he had had enough and told them he was leaving as soon as he got to shore. He flew home about Thanksgiving time. We got engaged and he went back to work for Rental Machinery as a mechanic.

We got married the following February 18, 1967 at Crown Lutheran Church in Seattle, WA, which was my family church. My students were very excited about being invited to the wedding. Some of them borrowed clothes so they would look nice. ?My kids? were seated directly behind the family section. I continued teaching third grade and Gary continued at Rental Machinery. We lived in an apartment in Ballard. We started looking at houses and decided we had to save a lot of money. We couldn?t find a house we liked so we decided we would build one. We found a nice view lot in Kenmore that looked all the way down Lake Washington. We saved our money and in 1971 we were having our dream house built. Gary?s dad Gus was a carpenter and was working on our house, so we knew we had a reliable quality control person on site. We moved into our new house over Easter vacation in 1971. I shortly became pregnant with our first child, Erik Martin, who was born on February 9, 1972. By this time I had taught for nine years and Gary was doing well enough that I was able to quit teaching and become a stay-at-home mom. Sixteen months later, on June 20, 1973, Janice Marie was born. The following year Gary and his partners started their new business ? Alpine Equipment Rentals.

Erik attended a good neighborhood pre-school. The director talked me into being a teacher there the year Janice started the same pre-school. Erik was in a ? day kindergarten class in the morning and then got to come back to pre-school for the afternoon. He loved it. I taught pre-school there for two years.

I was a very active member of the PTA at Kenmore Elementary. Our kids were very busy with sports, Scouts and music. They played sports in every season ? soccer, basketball, skiing, baseball, and softball. Erik and Janice moved on to Kenmore Junior High and continued with all the Scout activities and sports. I continued my PTA work and was awarded the Golden Acorn Award for my service to the school. Gary and I enjoyed watching our children grow up. Erik became an Eagle Scout at the age of 14 and Janice was playing several instruments along with her sports.

Erik and Janice moved on to Inglemoor High School. Erik was on the varsity tennis team and Janice was in the school marching band in the fall playing her piccolo, and in the wind symphony for the rest of the year playing her flute. The band went to Orlando, Florida to compete in a national competition and came home with huge first place trophies. I continued working on PTA projects and stayed involved. I helped plan 9th grade parties as well as senior parties. We had a ?core group? that had worked together since kindergarten. We were a dependable group that had a lot of fun and enjoyed working together.

After both of the kids had gone away to school at the University of Puget Sound, in Tacoma, WA, Gary and I became active in the Seattle Yacht Club. I worked on a lot of committees and served as Secretary of the Women?s Group. I have chaired many of the Women?s Group committees such as Women?s Interclub, Dinghy Group, and May Cruise. Gary and I also help with Special People?s Cruise and work hard on the Opening Day of Boating Season celebration. Gary has been ?Dockmaster? and I have been in charge of food for all of the receptions, dinners, VIP boats, and breakfast for Opening Day for the past 9 years. It has been a lot of work but very rewarding. We have worked with a lot of great people.

My favorite times are the summers we spend cruising on our 44 foot Tollycraft, the ?Lucky Lady.? I also enjoy cruising the Caribbean and Panama Canal on Princess Cruise ships. I thoroughly enjoy relaxing at our townhouse on Lake Chjelan. As we spend summers on our boat, we like to use Lake Chelan as our winter get-away.

Further trends brought Gary and me to Arizona over the last few years and I fell in love with the area and its many attractions. We furnished and moved into our new winter home in Gilbert several months ago. I have thoroughly enjoyed hosting numerous parties with family and friends in our new home. We have spent countless hours around the fire pit and in the hot tub basking in the warmth of good friends, wonderful family, and the Arizona sunshine.