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Where Are They Now?

City where you currently reside: We just relocated to Fort Collins, Colo.

Year graduated from VCHS: 1978
Education or training after graduation: I received my bachelor’s degree from Southern Illinois University, where I studied graphic art and design. Later in my career, I went back to school at Texas Christian University, where I received my master’s degree in liberal arts.
Family:  I have been married to my husband, Kevin, for 27 years, and we have three kids: Casey is a civil engineer living in Houston, Texas; Brooke is studying biomedical engineering at the University of Arkansas, and Brody is studying industrial engineering also at the University of Arkansas.
My parents, Ed and Lela Themig, are still active in the community and live next door to the house we grew up in on Morning Glory Drive. Our extended family – nearly 100 strong – spans from the East Coast to West Coast, and north to Canada. Every couple of years, we reunite for a special milestone birthday, wedding or family reunion.
Occupations during and after high school:  
High school:  I was working either as a lifeguard at the city park or a waitress at the former Jays Restaurant, where once I waited on Radar O’Reily from MASH. I heard the same day that Cher visited Pizza Hut!
College: I worked various jobs just to make ends meet, and most summers returned home to Vandalia to work at Jay’s and save for the next school year.
Career: When I graduated, I landed my first career job at Scott Air Force Base as visual merchandiser.
After a few short months, I entered their upward mobility program, and that led to a fabulous 30-year career with the Army & Air Force Exchange Service. Working for the Exchange was great in the fact that I had many, many different jobs within the same company, most of them in marketing and advertising.
Working alongside the military gave us the opportunity to live and travel to many countries across the globe.
We were fortunate enough to be stationed in Germany twice, and I had the great fortune to either work or visit more than 35 countries, where we always tried to find rather out-of-the-ordinary travel experiences.
Some of my most memorable travels include Switzerland, Norway, Peru, Afghanistan and Iraq.
School activities/clubs/sports that you participated in:  Throughout high school, I was a cheerleader, played sports and loved music. I was honored to be elected captain of the varsity cheerleading squad my senior year. It was also great fun to be in the high school musicals “Little Mary Sunshine” and “Bye Bye Birdie.”
School friends: In a small school like Vandalia, you pretty much know everyone, so I remember many, many great friends. It’s been fun to catch back up with them via the social media connections we have today.
Vandalia teachers/coaches/administrators remembered:  I have great memories of all my teachers, grade school thru graduation. In high school, Bob Barker was a very fun and somewhat eccentric art teacher ,and Gale Meseke made a dreaded history class particularly interesting. As I look back, I am grateful that my small town education afforded me so many opportunities in this great big world.
Fondest memories of Vandalia:  In 35 years, the outward appearance of Vandalia may have changed a bit, but it certainly hasn’t lost its warm, small-town feeling. Even though the Tanner Drive-In, Ben Franklin and Jay’s Restaurant no longer exist, we still have a couple of “to do” things on our visits, including a Dilly Bar at Dairy Queen, a shopping trip to Rural King and a country ride down Thrill Hill.

 

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