All About Me

All About Me

                My name is Melinda Cassidy and I am a California native. I was born at Saint Luke’s Hospital, located in the Mission District of San Francisco. I am the third of four children. I have two older sisters and a younger brother.  My family lived in the beach town of Pacifica for the first year of my life. Pacifica is southwest of San Francisco, and though it is a beach town, it is not like the beach towns in southern California. It is cold and foggy most of the year. The ocean temperature is always in the 50’s, so we did not do much swimming in the ocean when I was young. My father loved to fish, so when we went to the beach, we spent time fishing and exploring tide pools.  It was not long before my mother grew tired of the foggy weather in Pacifica. When I was about 18 months old, she moved our family to Burlingame, which is directly south of San Francisco about fifteen miles. 

Burlingame is where I ended up spending all of my childhood. My mother still owns and lives in the house that I grew up in. This house was built in 1914, which makes it 97 years old! Burlingame is a town with lots of families and unique homes.  The history books say that Burlingame began developing after the 1906 earthquake. Since cars were just being invented around this time, most people who had homes in Burlingame lived and worked in San Francisco, then spent their weekends at their homes in Burlingame. Burlingame is a quiet town with lots of trees, birds, and squirrels.

                After high school, I left Burlingame to go to college at the University of California at Santa Barbara. Instantly, I fell in love with the warm beaches and outdoorsy lifestyle. I had my driver’s license but did not own a car, so I rode my bicycle everywhere. I was very athletic! I swam, jogged, and rode my bike every day.  Being at college will always be one of my fondest memories, because I met so many new friends and had lots of new experiences.

                After college, I worked in restaurants for awhile, then, decided to become a flight attendant. I interviewed with five different airlines before I was hired by American Airlines.  The first thing I had to do was go to Dallas, Texas for a four week training class. It was a little scary, but I met some new friends and we made it fun. When I graduated, I returned to California where I was stationed in San Jose.  Being a flight attendant was exciting initially. I loved the fact that I could just hop on a plane and travel. But soon travelling became work to me and I started to lose my incentive to want to go places. I decided that if I switched to a ticket sales position I would be happier. 

                Making the transition into ticketing was pretty easy. I had to go back to Dallas and partake in another four weeks of training, but then I was good to go. My new base was Oxnard. I found a beach house in Ventura to live in and all was well. 

Shortly after moving to Ventura, I met my future husband at the nearby Laundromat. It was love at first sight for me. I’m still not sure how he felt, but we have been together now for 17 years. 

               

               

A Favorite Memory of My Dad

Skiing with My Dad

My dad was a man who loved the outdoors. He was athletic, adventurous, and eager to try anything new. He had a passion for the mountains, and though fishing was his all time favorite pastime, he also loved to ski. My favorite memories of my father are when he took me and my brother and sister skiing.

When my siblings and I were just beginners, my dad would put us in ski school or spend the day teaching us how to snow plow, also known as “the pizza.” He was not always the most patient teacher, but I knew that he wanted us to improve so that we could enjoy skiing as much as him. I was only four years old when I first learned to ski.

Generally, we would ski at resorts around Lake Tahoe, because we lived only three hours away. However, during longer vacations, my dad would take us out of state to ski mountains we had never seen before. He took us to Mt. Bachelor in Oregon, Sun Valley in Idaho, and all of the ski resorts in Utah. All of these trips with my dad helped me to become a pretty good skier. Skiing is now one of my favorite things to do for vacation, and I feel very grateful toward my father for introducing me to this sport.

In 2005 my father died of cancer. I am sad that he is gone, but I am grateful that he is no longer suffering from this horrible disease. And though I miss him very much, I have learned that whenever I am skiing, his spirit is right there with me on every run, and I am flooded by all of the happy memories that I shared with him on the snowy mountain slopes. Over the years I have come to understand why my father loved skiing so much. Skiing is not just a sport. It is being in nature, breathing fresh air, and appreciating and living life.  Thanks for the wonderful memories, dad!