Back in the city where she lived, there were a lot of neighbors with kids of all ages. They all played every chance they got. "I can remember going slay riding down the street in the winter. There would be forty to fifty, sometimes more, people out there sledding." Her dad and most other neighbor kid's dads would join the kids. When they would go inside the house after sledding, her mom would have hot chocolate ready for them. In the summer they would go swimming, bike riding, play ball or put on plays for all the moms and dads. "I don't think any of our parents really enjoyed the plays we put on but they clapped and laughed and acted like they were enjoying themselves." In the spring her dad would take them out to the farm to look for mushrooms. "That was so much fun. It was like looking for hidden Easter eggs, only mushrooms weren't as good.
She went to Sacred Heart grade school in Florissant and then to Aquinas High for high school. She said she enjoyed school to a degree. After she graduated from high school she flew out to California to visit her sister and her family. It was the second time she had been on an airplane and she really enjoyed it. Her sister talked her into applying for a job as a flight attendant. She liked to travel and her sister said she could travel for free if she got an airline job. She did just that and never went back to college. She was only going to fly for a year or two, but after that time went by she decided she still had too many places to go. Her parents also got to fly for free, so they went all over the place. Her oldest sister Karla married a man in the air force. Every time her sister moved, her mom, dad, and herself would go visit them and check everything out. "I guess the best trip with them was the one to Germany." Her brother-in-law took about a week off and they went all over the place. They stayed in Bed and Breakfast places or stayed in an air force compound.