Showing posts with label Diane Perry. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Diane Perry. Show all posts

Thursday, April 12, 2012

National Be Kind to Lawyers Day

I decided that this day needed to be included in my blogging.   Until I went into the early childcare field, most of my business career had been centered around working for attorneys - mostly in the criminal field.

My first time working for attorneys was when I moved to Atlanta in 1977  I went to work for Wells Fargo/Pony Express in their legal department.  Dad used to kid with me about my job asking if I was the one who fed the horses.  Just shortly before I got married, I quit that job (don't remember why) and went to work for Honeywell Corporation in their legal department.  I stayed with that corporation until I married and Les and I moved to south Georgia.

I then went to work for Perry & Perry, P.C. which was run by David and Diane Perry who were married at that time.  I stayed there from 1980 until 1982 when Corey was born.  This was my favorite law firm.  They were both members of the church.  In fact, David became the bishop while I worked for them. 

Diane and I used to spend a lot of time together.  We really liked to go hiking up in the mountains around Pine Mountain near Columbus, Georgia.  We'd take along our dogs and spend the majority of the day away from the house.  Les had a part-time job many times on the weekend or had to work, so that left lots of spare time for me.

Me and my little dog, Pepper.
Diane and her dog who had his own backpack.

I officially "retired" from working with attorneys after the birth of Corey.  I stayed home with him for his first years, but did occasional freelance work with other attorneys in town to make a little money and get me out of the house.

When he was three years old, I decided it was time to go back to work.  I missed working - both financially and socially and being an only child, Corey was in need of some social interaction too from sources other than his own cousins.  They let him get away with things and he was in need of learning how to play with other children.  So, I set out to find another job, which I did in Ocilla, Georgia with another attorney...Emory Walters - a very prominent attorney.  I was going to be his personal secretary and he would ultimately change my life. 

During my initial interview with Emory, as I was sitting across from his giant oak desk, one of the things I told him was that I did not take dictation.  He said that was no problem.  However, my first day he called me into his office to take dictation.  I managed to survive that heart palpating experience, but the moment I got back into town I went and bought me a hand help tape recorder.  Then, every time he called me into his office, I took the recorder with me, laid it on his desk and therefore, I was able to get every word he said.   And, every time he would buzz my desk intercom, I would turn on the recorder.  I did that after I had made the mistake of asking him to repeat what he wanted me to do.  His response was "I don't have *$*%($$ time to *#@*#& tell you *#*$%&@". 

Emory was a very hard man to work for.  I was ready to quit a couple of weeks after starting, but didn't because I was too intimidated and afraid to tell him so.  However, when it got to the point that I was waking up with a severe headache or diarrhea most every day, I finally decided it was time to leave.  He was very gracious and I vowed at that time that I didn't care if I ever worked for another attorney and I haven't.

Monday, April 5, 2010

Hiking In The Mountain

Before Corey was born, I used to do a lot of hiking in the woods. I primarily went up in Pine Mountain, Georgia which is outside of Columbus and my hiking buddy was Diane Perry. These pictures were made on one of our trips and I had brought along my little dog named Perry and Diane had brought along one of her dogs.

One weekend I got a "brilliant" idea and thought how nice it would be for me to take someone else along and enjoy the scenery and fun with me. I invited Nancy and Donald who had Jennifer, David and Helen at the time.

We made plans to go and took along all the fixings to have a picnic somewhere at the top of the mountain. Normally it would take me about an hour to hour and half to get to the top, but with the kids it was taking a longer time. Here is Jennifer playing in one of the mountain streams and being cautioned to NOT drink any of the water even if it did look nice and cool.

This is a very enthusiastic? Donald with Helen hanging off his back...

When we reached the top, Helen was asleep and was propped up against a tree...

Shortly after starting to gather some sticks to make a fire to roast our hotdogs, the weather suddenly changed as a storm began complete with lightning, thunder and heavy rain. We quickly threw all of our things back into our packs to hurry and get off the mountain. There was no shelter anywhere, we were being pelted with rain, the kids were screaming, we'd placed a trash bag over baby Helen so she wouldn't get too wet AND we had to be careful about the descent on the wet ground so nobody would break any bones. We finally made it back to car - everyone soaked and wet.


They never went on another hiking trip with me. I wonder why?