Kennan Sailer & Nancy Mayer-Sailer
1702 Billings Drive Bismarck, ND 58504-6427
Home 701-258-7551 Cellular 701-226-3190
Kennan and I can’t believe it’s been 35 years since we all walked the halls of Hebron High School.
I will attempt to give you a recap of our lives for the past 35 years. As you all know Kennan and I are the only class of 1972 classmates that married. We have been married 32 years and from this blissful union we produced two lovely daughters!
In between my job as a Human Resources Officer with the Office of State Tax Commissioner and Ken’s job with Northwest Airlines we spent time with our daughters. Of course as they grew older the things we did to spend time with them changed. When they were younger we did a lot of camping and boating. From that phase of our life we followed them across the state watching them play basketball, for them it was a year around sport so we put on lots of miles! Between their activities and their friend’s activities we kept ourselves pretty busy and loved every minute of it.
When the girls started college Ken and I thought the speedometer would get a break. What we didn’t anticipate was how many miles we would put on moving them. Between summers back home, dorms to apartments and different cities we felt like a van lines company.
Angela, our oldest received her undergrad from UND and her Masters from NDSU. She is now living in Reno, NV finishing her doctorate in clinical psychology at the University of Reno. That move alone was 1400 miles! She married David Collins last July at South Lake Tahoe. David is finishing his Masters in Marriage and Family Therapy. I always love telling people that Angie figured after living with Kennan and me for eighteen years getting her doctorate in psychology would be a piece of cake!
Jennifer, our youngest married Matthew Wollan in July of 2004. We had the big traditional wedding here in Bismarck. Jennie received her undergrad from UND and her Masters in Speech Pathology from Moorhead State. She is currently working for a private clinic in Fargo. Matthew has his Masters in Math and teaches Advanced Algebra and Geometry at Fargo North High School.
One of the biggest changes in our lives happened last December. Northwest Airlines outsourced all of the jobs in about 45 smaller airports across the U.S. Bismarck is not what they would consider a large airport so Kennan, along with 23 of his coworkers, was left without a job. Most of his coworkers went in search of other employment. Kennan along with five of his coworkers made the decision to stay with Northwest which meant they would have to commute to Minneapolis. The reason Ken made that decision was not so he would be 400 miles from me (so he says) but rather to meet his retirement age requirement with NW. Kennan feels this life style change of having roommates again is like being back in college. One thing that does remind him of home is that one of his roommates snores.
We have our faithful companion Griffin, a French Brittany Spaniel that helps me keep the home front running. With Kennan gone Griffin follows me around constantly. I believe he has a separation disorder.
Being married classmates Kennan and I have the rare privilege of reminiscing about all of you as our classmates and friends. We have shared many stories about our days in Hebron with our daughters and current friends. It is even surprising to me how well Kennan remembers me from grade school. A couple of years ago I purchased a new pair of glasses. When I arrived home I asked Kennan if he liked my new glasses. He looked at me and said “they look just like the ones you had in the third grade!” I had no idea Kennan paid that much attention to me in the third grade.
Here’s to all of our classmates and teachers that we will
see at our reunion and here’s hoping that those who could not make it will cross
our paths soon.