First Name Dean

Last Name Mills

Maiden Name

Spouse s Name Patricia

Address 3930 N. Harrison Rd.

City Tucson

State AZ

Zip Code 85749

Hm Phone 520-749-9369

Email azroadrunner80@comcast.net

I DO authorize sharing all of this information on the Class of 1961 Web Site.

Q1 What are some of your positive and some of your negative experiences with modern technology?

I enjoy taking pictures with digital cameras. It's so easy and if I take enough of them at a subject, I might get a couple good shots. Then delete the others. Couldn't do that with film. As for computers, I had to use them at my job. IBM lives on computers, even in a machine shop. As for cell phones, I can't seem to be able to hear them ring. Too many years in a noisy machine shop I guess. Last fall I found that they are expensive when making a call from out of the country. International calls. I was in Ontario, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island. Found out the cost when we got back to Tucson. Ouch! They tend to be a leash. Sometimes good and sometimes bad.

Q2 What are some of your most memorable experiences?

Probably the most memorable was almost not graduating. Something about Goudy's English class and a Biology class. I don't even remember the teacher, but he was going to fail me. A last all night marathon of writing a whole new notebook of some kind that I don't remember got me through it, and I did graduate. After the ceremony I gave my parents the down slip I had snatched out of the mail before they got home. Good thing about having both parents working. All's well that ends well, right? Also memorable was becoming a husband, (1X), a father, (2X), and a grandfather, (4X). Enjoy the grandkids!!

I signed on with IBM in 1966 and worked there till 2003 till one day a friend I worked with who was younger than I, didn't wake up one morning. That loss was quite shocking and after 2 1/2 months of thinking about that, I turned in my resignation. I had been telling the people I worked with that I didn't need that job, but as long as I was having fun, I'd stay. With the loss of my friend, it wasn't fun anymore. I left in Sept. 2003. Since then I have found that retirement is the best job I've ever had.

Q3 What fun activities/hobbies, etc. do you participate in?

I guess my main hobby is driving. We travel quite a bit in our motor home. That has gotten difficult with the price of gas. We traveled to the northeast in 2010 fall to look at the foliage, but the colors changed late. We missed a lot, but did find color in Virginia in Shenandoah Valley. With that trip, we have been in all US 50 states and 9 Canadian Provinces. We had to fly to Hawaii and rent a car because the bridge isn't finished yet. All the rest we drove to.

I also shoot Trap and Skeet, both of which I used to be good at. Something else growing older hasn't helped. And if and when I get the engine back together, I'll be back on the Gold Wing motorcycle. That vehicle I have also ridden coast to coast and border to border, and beyond in Canada.

Q4 What are some of the major changes in your life?

Somewhere along the line I got old and slower. With this I find that I can no longer drive for 30 hours straight. Oh well, time to stop and smell the roses I guess. Several stents and an aneurism have altered some of my bad habits, such as an abusive diet I have maintained for the past 50 years.

Personal narrative 2011:

Overall, I have enjoyed a good life. There have been a few bumps along the way, but we got through them. We still travel a lot, (drive), but do so at a slower pace. Driving a motor home at 75 to 80 mph is all white knuckle driving and gives you absolutely terrible gas mileage, and if we have the car hanging on behind, it weighs over 10 ton. That's a lot of weight if you need to stop in a hurry. So we go slower and enjoy the scenery. Pat doesn't like to travel at night, so we stop.

We do enjoy coming to the class reunions and renewing old friendships. Although we have lived in Tucson for 33 years we come back to Loveland at least once every year. We still consider Loveland home even though as it has changed and grown so much that we hardly recognize it. And yes, I'm talking about driving again. What did I say about my hobbies? When I talk about going around the block, I mean leave Tucson at 3:00 AM on motorcycles, and go to Flagstaff for breakfast, then to Albuquerque for lunch, followed by Hatch, NM, across to Deming and to Lordsburg for supper. Then on to Tucson by 11:00 PM. 1058 miles in 20 hours, and that when the speed limit was 55 mph? Nice little ride! Oh, and my wife refused to go with me on that one. Don't know why.