Albert Byrns 'Al' Adams

I am retired from fulltime teaching of
English language arts in middle school. Since retiring in 1998 I have substitute taught occasionally to augment my meager pension and because I still love to teach.

Since graduating from SPHS I have lived in Northern CA except for four years when I was in the army and two years when my wife and I served as VISTA volunteers 1968-1970. We lived in North Carolina during our attempt at" waging war on poverty."

We lived just over the line on Los Robles in San Marino. We moved there from LA in 1953 just as I was to enter high school. My step- father was a vocational counselor with the Veterans Administration, and my mother taught ballroom dance in various school communities throughout greater LA .

I keep in touch with Bev Willey and Gretchen Ballard Guard.

I have fond memories of my scant participation on the "B" football team, furtive glances at many of the beautiful girls on campus, and the trip to Havasu Canyon by Tiger Eyes, the biology club. I greatly enjoyed school dances, Friday night football games, knowing the late Bob Peterson, the late Jerry Wilson and that other raging iconoclast, Steve Scholtz.

I'm proud of my service in Special Forces and in Vietnam. I am quick to recall that my proudest accomplishment was the two years my wife and I spent as VISTA volunteers where we were community organizers among rural Black families . We operated in the midst of Klan country in Cumberland County, NC. I was proud when my school district named me Teacher of the Year in 1998. Other proud moments came when our three children graduated from college and when my wife received her M.A. from San Jose State.

I substitute teach occasionally, and I am a volunteer reading mentor in two elementary schools. i am an active member on the Board of Directors of our school district retirees group. I organize luncheons and day trips for the members. This August my wife and I and two other couples went on our tenth cruise, this time in the Western Mediterranean. British Air lost all our luggage so we 'll look for a clothing optional cruise if there is a next time. i liked Spain best.