Charlotte_Baeder

After my children started school my first job was
clerking in a health food store where I managed to foul
up the cash register so bad that my boss told me he
pretty sure I
was honest but couldn't prove it either way. He told me
that he did not feel much of a future in retail sales and
urged me to try elsewhere.

Next I worked as a proofreader for the "Lafayette Daily
Advertiser", then as circulation manager for " Acadiana
Profile" magazine. After that I worked several years in
Baton
Rouge, typing for graduate students and teaching
assistants at LSU and transcribing medical reports. I
retired from the Library of Congress in 1996, then
retired again from
the Ark-La-Tex Cardiology transcription department in
2003. My husband and I bought a few acres in
northwest Louisiana, intending to garden, but it turned
into a small organic farm before we knew it. That was
just too much of a good thing , so we are in the process
of selling off the equipment and shutting down. I now
only work part time for a surgeon in Minden, volunteer
at a local nursing home, and otherwise run the roads a
little, like every good woman should.

We have three children and two grandchildren. I don't
like to fly so just returned from a l-o-n-g Amtrak trip to
visit them in northern Virginia and still walk a little
funny, side-to-side, kind of like an old sailor. While I
enjoyed my first train trip since the 1950's, I never
knew there could be so much kudzu and poison ivy in
the world.

I look forward to Pie and Joey's updates and am
excited about seeing everyone in April of '07, the good
Lord willing, and those who have suffered illness and
loss are in my
prayers.