Today's Featured Biography

 
Athena (Tina) Christos

After graduating in 1963, I attended college classes for a year. I then decided I was bored and wanted to go to work. I put in another year of college some years later, but I never decided what I wanted to be when I grew up. I worked at a variety of secretarial and customer service jobs and did get into management.

In 1970, I was working for a subsidiary of Santa Fe. When we in the marketing department were in charged with looking into moving the company to another city such as Houston or Tulsa. I didn't particularly want to move down to those areas at that time, and I knew I had at least six months before I would have to look for new job, so I used that time to do something that never had occurred to me before: finding a job in England. I always loved history, and we certainly studied a lot of English history, and I love the Beatles, so naturally I took this opportunity to see if I could manage it. I spent a lot of time in the library, looking up names and addresses of English companies. Then I wrote a lot of letters, including a résumé. I got quite a few rejections, but some of them used stamps, which added to my collection. A lot of companies didn't bother to reply. One, however, actually offered me a job, got me a work permit, and made it all possible. Once I got there, I learned just how many things are very different than they are here. How do you find an apartment? Here, you check the paper. There, I had to search for notes pinned up at the tobacconists or use an accommodation bureau. When I finally found something, it was a bed - sitter, a room in an old English house now rented out individually. In it, I had a bed, a small table and chairs for dining, one easy chair, a wardrobe and a couple of drawers for clothes, a sink with a small hot water heater, which is called a geezer-- spelled geyser--and a tiny oven/hotplate. For heat, I had a small electric heater. For electricity, I had to keep putting coins in a box; if it ran out of money, I ran out of electricity. The toilet facility was on the landing, and I shared it with people upstairs. For a bath, I had to use the landlady's and I had a weekly appointment on Friday evening. If I missed it, too bad! Once settled, I learned how to get to work, walk down the hill and catch a bus. Getting home, of course meant walking uphill. I had to be careful of early closing days, which could mean I couldn't find anything for supper, because everything closed at 1 p.m. in my district on a particular day. It would be a different day in a different area. One day in January, while living there, the coal miners went out on strike, which meant electricity was rationed throughout the country. One day, you got up in the dark, the next you had electricity. Part of the day at work, you could work, part of the day; you had to sit huddled in your coat, because nothing worked, even the telephones. Part of my pay was something called Luncheon Vouchers, which could be used in many of the restaurants, so it was a subsidized meal. The pay was pretty lousy, nonetheless! It was an interesting experience all the way around. I did get to see quite a lot of the country; I also got a glimpse of the queen one day. I got to spend quite a lot of time in lots of museums. I never did see any of the Beatles, though. Man! Was I gypped!

I never married; I seem to meet what might be a right guy at the wrong time. Maybe I was the wrong person for him. It probably is better than meeting the wrong guy at the right time and having a bad marriage! I've traveled around the country extensively. Fifteen years ago, I was diagnosed with MS and in 1999 I had to quit working. It just means I took an early retirement. Since the reunion I've been in touch with a number of our classmates hearing from them widens my world. We were a terrific class!

Tina.

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