Seven Days to Seventy

We spent the rest of the 70s and all of the 80s in River Forest. Joe served many years as a Village Trustee. I completed my degree and really got into my career at Pioneer Bank. There I met and worked with many awesome people whom I consider friends to this day. It was a bit of a wild time for me as I had never had the opportunity to "own" my life - going as I did from parental care to married life. My friend Jeanne and I certainly sowed some wild oats - those were the days when banking was actually fun - and lots of money was spent on parties and outings. In addition - I was now happy that I could actually contribute to our family income and also the success of the company I worked for.

I had finally found a calling. Having been a terrible housekeeper and a mediocre cook, it was nice to know I could use my talents in creating bank products (NO, not that kind....), marketing our brand and guiding our employees through changes in banking, also in the change of ethnicity of our customer base. I inserted myself in the growing Hispanic community and served as a member of the Illinois Hispanic Chambers of Commerce representing the North and Pulaski Chamber of which I was the president. Pioneer Bank was the first bank in Chicago to sponsor a major Hispanic festival and one of the first to support the Chicago Latino Film festival. I was especially proud of that. We were all frantically busy - but here are some highlights of this exciting decade -I like to call it the decade of learning:

• 1980 - Joe passed the CPA exam and Colleen graduated from OPRFHS and went off the Illinois State


• 1981 - Kevin graduated from OPRFHS and went off to Georgia Tech


• 1982 - I graduated from Rosary College


• 1983 -Jody graduated from OPRFHS and went off to Kent State and I completed the ABA's National School of Retail Banking at the University of Oklahoma


• 1984 - Terry graduated from OPRFHS and went off to Indiana University


• 1985-Kelly graduated from OPRFHS and went off to St. Leo's in Florida - and I completed the ABA's School of Bank Marketing at Colorado University in Boulder


• 1988 - Jacky graduated from OPRFHS and commuted to UIC
  

All of this translates into full life, partial empty nest and definite empty wallet. In 1987 our first grandchild was born and the richness of that event made up for the empty wallet.