I was born on a small farm in Carroll County near Galax Virginia (about 100 miles Southwest of Roanoke, Virginia).  My father, Gilbert Lawson, was an iron/copper ore miner and my mother, Emma, was a housewife.  I was raised "back in the day" when laundry took almost all day on Monday.  Well water was pumped with a hand pump and heated on the wood stove, and then poured into the wringer washer (Maytag, of course) and large "washing tubs" for rinsing (these did double duty--as our "bath tubs" on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday).  The wringer washer was not mechanized so clothes were hand cranked through the wringers to the rinse water and then hand cranked through the wringers again before being hung on the clothes line to dry.  They did smell good and felt crisp.  This was BP (before polyester) and everything was cotton and needed to be ironed (that took a good part of the day on Tuesday).

We had chickens, pigs, and cows, so it was best not to walk barefoot around the yard.  My grandmother who lived 2 miles away had a good farm horse named Blanche who knew the meaning of  "Gee" and "Haw," so we always had a garden.

Neither the home where I grew up nor the one-room grade school I attended had running water or a bathroom.  Since I was a very obedient and trustworthy kid, the teacher often allowed me and another student to walk the half-mile to the spring to bring back water for the school (of course I did know how to dally).  The "Library" was a van that came to the school once a month and allowed us to select four or five books.  That was a lot of Zane Grey.

My grandmother got electricity and a television about three years before we did, so we walked to her house three evenings a week to watch "Roy Rogers," "Gene Autry," "The Lone Ranger," and "The Life of Riley."  The Valleydale commercials still play in my head.  The highlight of the week was Saturday night, when the family went to the drive-in theatre for a double feature (usually Westerns) with a 6 pack of Pepsi and home-popped popcorn.

I graduated from Woodlawn High School.  My mother never vacillated in her belief that I needed an education, so I obtained a Teacher's Scholarship which covered the tuition to attend college.  I have a Bachelor's and a Master's Degree from Radford University.    My degrees say "Radford College, Women's Division of Virginia Polytechnic Institute (as in--"before Radford was a University" and "before VPI was VPI & SU").  I suppose a lot of people may not be aware of the affiliation between the two schools before they became co-ed.

I majored in chemistry and math, and I taught math at Dublin High School, New River Community College, and VPI in Blacksburg, VA (on a non-tenured track--at the bottom of the faculty totem pole),

I never wondered why my mother did not have a job.  She worked hard at home.  There was "wash day," "ironing day," milking a cow every day, an apple orchard, a garden, canning, sewing, and always a home cooked meal with corn bread on the table when the school bus dropped us off. 

However, she took a job working at Fries Knitting Mill when she was 38 years old.  Dad had already started work at Fries, because all the iron ore mines nearby were antiquated and they closed.

My parents (now in their 80's) still live in my mother's home place where she grew up.  My parents had 10 and 9 siblings respectively, so the yearly family reunions are something I have always enjoyed.  Regrettably, the family reunions are getting smaller. 

 My brother, Gary Lawson, always the entrepreneur in our family, owns Gary's Backhoe Service in Hillsville, Virginia.  He has also owned a motel, a restaurant, and a mobile home park--all without having purchased a computer!  He keeps the yellow sticky and legal pad companies in business!

I have a daughter, Lisa Arguello, who is an Audiologist at Bowman Gray Baptist Hospital in Winston Salem, North Carolina. Her husband, Francisco, works for Johnson Controls.  He has an Associate's degree in electronics and instrumentation.  They have two "almost perfect" children J (my grandchildren), Sarah and Julio, who recently received black belts in Tai Kwan Do.

I have a son, Michael, who lives in Blacksburg, Virginia and he owns a computer consulting business called Clay Computer Solutions. He is a programmer and he can perform troubleshooting, computer repairs and upgrades, virus removal, and he also does website design and hosting.  His wife, Debbie, is a loan processor.  They participate heavily in church activities.

My Interests

I play racquetball (B-) and tennis (C-).  If you know how incongruent these two sports are, then you know my tennis capabilities. 

I love reading the newspaper, doing crossword puzzles (though I rarely take time to do them), jokes (hey, we need to laugh every day!), socializing or playing card games with friends and political discussions with non-combative friends.  I love the computer; it is marvelous, it is astounding and awe-inspiring (even the simplest of things --email, cut and paste, picture editing, . . . are fascinating to me--and it all started with little 0's and 1's--right?).  I dabble with this website frequently, making modifications--hopefully improvements.

I love flowers and I have a little bit of a green thumb (with dirty fingernails and chipped nail polish in the summer). 

I still love learning--and I have so much more to learn!

I like people. I love seeing a buyer or a seller.  That keeps me from burn-out!

I have lasted longer than the Energizer Bunny

 because I give   !