Transferring into Bay High all those years ago was a real eye opener for me. I attended Catholic schools through my junior year then enrolled at Bay after my dad was transferred. (Magnificat was too far away so my parents decided one year of public school wouldn't corrupt me.) It was the first time I wore any thing but a uniform with the hem touching the floor when I was kneeling! It was a completely different atmosphere than what I was used to, miniskirts, PDA, drugs, guys without ties, and way less restricting behavior (doesn't sound so shocking now).
Pat Groya, Terri Mathes and Karen Saum were my closest friends. Any mischeif I got into was due to them. I remember once we were trolling through that park in Bay (I think Mathes called what we were doing bushwhacking) and we came upon the car of Mike Jones. Terri told me to aim the car and headlights on his car. We did that a couple of times, circling around the park and coming back to his car again. I guess he and Sharon were busy and he found us annoying because on the last trip around, when I aimed the car toward his, suddenly he popped out of that car and was running towards us. He could really move fast for such a big guy. I can't remember a time I was caught so off guard. I was in a VW bug and barely got it in gear to escape. I felt like if he caught up to us he could crush that little car. Terri, Pat and Karen were laughing hysterically (I believe Saum was having trouble controlling her bladder). The next day, Mathes told Sharon that it was us. Even though I didn't know Jones and he didn't know me, I would turn away everytime I saw him in the hallways.
Moving away from lifelong friends and trying to fit in during senior year was hard for me but I really enjoyed the friends I had at Bay. Even though I haven't kept up with any of them, I appreciated that they welcomed me. One of the things I remember in particular was how nice it was to have the senior girls potlucks before the football games. And what about the party where we were roused from bed and taken to someone's house in our pajamas for breakfast. We never did things like this in the Catholic schools! (I know these don't seem like extreme activities now, but they were to me then.)
After highschool, I returned to Columbus, and graduated from college with a degree in Allied Medicine. I have worked in various capacities for OhioHealth since 1973. Currently I am working in the laboratory of a 40 bed hospital in Dublin, Ohio. Within OhioHealth, it is referred to as the "little hospital on the prairie". I am married to Dennis Ross and though we have no children of our own, we have hosted 7 exchange students over the past 15 years and have maintained close relationships with 5 of them. (Thanks to Marianne and Gippi for getting to know them.) We have traveled a lot visiting them both at their homes and meeting them to tour other sites together.
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