I was born Lois Mae Cullison, June 29, 1936, in Windsor Colorado, the oldest of four children. Raised in this little town in northern Colorado was the best thing that could happen to anyone. We played kick the can, run sheep run, and all the other old-fashioned games until dark and we couldn’t see to find our way home. No one ever locked their doors. It was a very special life. My Mom wore dresses, baked, was superintendent of our Sunday school, helped start Rainbow Girls and was an all-around “Donna Reed”. My Dad worked shifts in the local sugar factory, did carpenter work in the summer and was the overseer of my Granddad’s farms.

In High School, I played piano in a dance band, sax in the H.S. concert band and was a majorette. My favorite class? Band. And then Math. I spent two years in Secretarial School at Colorado State University, then called “Aggies”, where I was also a majorette. I became known in my dorm as a clown during my sophomore year. I think I was covering up a basic shyness. (They asked me to take the first stage out of town). I then became a teller at the First National Bank in Greeley and in 1957, got married to my best friend’s brother, Virgil Tongish.. We had two children,

Valerie and Virgil Jr. Virg managed the local lumberyard, I did the bookwork and we drew houseplans on the side.

In 1971 my husband was transferred to Ohio. We lived in Marshallville for 15 years. While there, I was Assistant to the Treasurer at Orrville City Schools and worked for H & R Block in Wooster one year. The kids grew up and went away to college at Otterbein. I went to night school at Wayne College, a branch of Akron U and became a member of Alpha Sigma Lambda. My traumatic experiences started with losing most of my hair, having a large breast tumor, and two 4-foot floods in the basement of our home. Such fun.

I left my husband and moved back to Colorado to spend time with my aging parents and siblings. While there I worked as bookkeeper for the County Clerk at Motor V in Greeley Colorado, records clerk at the police department, postmistress at a postal contract store and held various other positions, including selling Princess House crystal. My sister and I joined the Order of Eastern Star. My sis was losing her hearing and when checked found she had a large tumor

attached to the base of her brain. She had an extensive operation and is doing quite well, although partially paralyzed in the face.

After my parents and one brother passed away, we sold the family farm and I moved back to Ohio to be near my children and grandchildren. Daughter Valerie married John Sharritts and they have two girls, Ashley, 17 and Courtney,

13. Val is a teacher at DeSales, John, a band director at Triad. Son Virgil (nicknamed “Sarge”) is a veterinarian in Medina County and engaged to a lovely vet, Silvi. She has had a very hard year after being operated on for an aneurysm in the brain.

We often visited Ohio when I was a child as my father’s parents were born in Coshocton County. (They grew up eight miles apart, but never met until they lived in Colorado.) All of the relatives we used to visit are now gone, but I guess I have a few cousins around. My brother and I are working on our genealogy and maybe I will find more cousins around here some day. If you look like me, run!