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Today's Featured Biography

Shirley Abbott Banks

Let's get right to the good part:

In my "first" life I worked as a paralegal, married, had two daughters, divorced, and went back to work as a paralegal.

I met my husband Dick in a coffee shop, we married in 1983, and my girls, dogs, cat and I moved into the house where we were married.

Dick was born and grew up in Vermont, and wanted to return to live when we retired. I laughed and said, "I'd love to live in Vermont, if I could live in one of those old houses with a turret." And here we are. I've learned to be careful what I wish for!!

Dick was an air traffic controller and computer specialist with the FAA. When we married, they made him volunteer to be on a team redesigning the airport radar system. This gave us the opportunity to travel a lot, and to move occasionally. We moved from Denver to Manchester NH in 1989.

I found my first quilt guild and rapidly became addicted to quilting. When Dick retired and accepted a job in Washington DC working for the contractor building the new radar equipment, I found a larger quilt guild and we moved in 1992 to Rockville MD, where we lived for four years. I was exposed to lots more quilt fabric, quilters, quilt shows and quilt teachers. It is a frightening experience when an obsessive/compulsive person becomes a quilter! I bought more fabric, and made more quilts.

In 1996 Dick changed employers, still working on the radar equipment, and we moved to Somers Point NJ, close to Atlantic City Airport. Here I found a small quilt guild at the South Jersey Shore, and began to teach quilting. This enabled me to buy more quilt fabric to make more quilts as class samples.

In 2000, Dick was being transferred to Raytheon in Tewkesbury MA. We decided to move me into the old Queen Anne Victorian (with turret) house that we had purchased in 1986, while his employer provided housing for Dick in Methuen MA. So in September 2000, the old dog and I moved into the house, and Dick found an apartment, and began to commute home every weekend.

We had decided to convert our house into a bed and breakfast, the only feasible way to afford to live in one of these money pits in retirement. In the winter of 2001 the contractor and plumbers and electricians came and began work on the first floor of this old house. Charlie arrived at 6:45 am every work day, so I had to be up with clothes on before that. We had a great crew of workers throughout this project!

After 9/11/2001, the FAA budget was cut drastically, and Dick retired again and came home to live in November. Two weeks later the carpenters came back and we began work on the second floor conversion. Of course, we lived in the house throughout all this construction.

We were able to open our bed and breakfast for business for fall foliage season in 2003, and have entertained more than 500 visitors in our three guest rooms. We really enjoy all the guests, some more than others. Dick has mentioned that he never realized that retirement would be such hard work.

We enjoy our life in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. We like the variety of having five seasons, skiing close by, a college and high school with boarding students, and a huge front porch where we sit with a glass of wine most evenings.

In our line of work we don't get out much, but we'd love to have you come to visit us. I do get back to Denver for most of the class reunions, and several of our classmates have come to find us here at the back of beyond.

Adams City High School was a very special place in my life, and I developed friendships that have endured through the years. We were all blessed to be together as Eagles.

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