Class News

Today's Featured Biography

 
Russ Cicotte

Classmates 0
Russ's Story -

"Well, it’s been 60 years since I graduated from Shoreline High School and I’m still alive. Like most of my classmates, I’ve been retired full time for a while (9 years).

I have now lived in San Diego for about 55 years and still love it here. It is an especially good place for golf, which I do fairly frequently (but not all that well) and for bicycling. It is also a great place for scuba diving which I did for many years but have not done for a while.
Although San Diego has a great climate, I still like to travel to other places, especially ones that have warm weather and nice beaches. Like a lot of our generation, I have done quite a bit of traveling. When I was in my mid 30's I took four months off work and toured western and eastern Europe and also a little bit of northern Africa. That extended trip also included Greece and the Greek Islands, Turkey, and the British Isles. My wife Carol and I visited some of the same places in Europe on a Mediterranean cruise a few years ago. We've also done a Caribbean cruise, a Baltic cruise, and toured New Zealand, Costa Rica, and Alaska. We've been to Hawaii so many times that my wife doesn't get enthused about going there anymore. I still love it, especially Maui. Probably the most exotic trips have been Tahiti and Bora Bora and French Polynesia - once with my first wife and more recently with my second wife.

Probably like many of our generation, my hobbies have changed due to aging. I played basketball and skied for many years and was in Karate for over 20 years. However, bad knees and a hip replacement have changed my activities. My main physical activities now are golf, pickleball, bicycling, and working out (a little cardio, weights, and stretching).

I've been married for 42 years this time and have a daughter and two adult grandchildren - all living in this area and established in their careers. (I was married for 10 years the first time to an SHS classmate in our graduating class.)

Other than a couple of joint replacements (hip and one knee) and relatively minor skin cancers, I’ve been pretty healthy. The only major health issue so far has been the aortic aneurysm discovered by accident and repaired about 9 years ago.

I have had a few interesting experiences that I thought were out of the ordinary. I climbed Mt. Whitney (altitude 14,505’). (Other than the altitude, it’s not a tough climb.) I also took 3 parachute jumps (voluntarily) from a plane at about 3,000’. And I bicycle camped the island of Kauai by myself (not a tour) for two weeks one year and two weeks the next year with my girlfriend (now my wife). Back then, I was able to ship my own bike there and there were more campgrounds than there are today. I don’t consider my self a serious bicyclist, but I had almost 20,000 miles in 10 years on my previous bicycle. So far, I have around 1,100 miles in 4 months on my new bike.

Anyway, enough about me. I hope that you're all doing well and are enjoying life. I wish that that I would be able to see many of you at the 60th reunion but I won't be able to attend – my wife has health issues. Shoreline High School Spartans forever!

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