Sandy Marshall Byrnes
After graduating high school in ’56 I started my working career with the New York Telephone Company. A year later we moved to San Francisco and I joined Pacific Tel & Tel’s Public Relations Dept where I met my first husband. In ’61 my little bundle of joy arrived, my son Scott. We then moved to Denver and I joined the Public Relations Dept of Mountain States Tel. In ’63 back to San Francisco with my son as my marriage was not working and returned to the PR Dept of Pacific Tel & Tel. I sure liked “Ma Bell”. In ’67 my stepfather, an Australian, introduced me to a visiting friend from Australia – Cliff, a Qantas steward. We corresponded for two years and on his last visit we married and moved to Sydney.
My first culture shock was wages – leaving a job paying in excess of $200 a week to one that was paying $47.50 a week. After working two years for one of the largest newspaper and magazine publishers, I applied for a job at Reader’s Digest – the money was quite a bit better. During the 27 years I was employed by Digest as a secretary, I worked in the Art, Public Relations and Production Departments. It was a wonderful place to work – like belonging to a very large family – the company sure looked after its employees. After a very serious operation and reaching the grand old age of 61, I decided it was time to call it a day and retired in 1999.
In ‘79 Cliff and I bought a very old house (just on 100 years young) 9 kilometres from the CBD. The house was in a terrible state of disrepair and that’s putting it mildly. Until Cliff became ill in ’82 all our free time was spent renovating – he passed away in ‘84. In late ’85 I met a wonderful chap, Vern, and we’ve been together ever since. As Vern and all his friends played tennis I thought I’d give it a go. After 10 tennis lessons he told me in a very nice way I looked more like a golfer. It took me more than a year to become confident enough to join the local golf club and then a group one golf club. Now that I’m retired I play three to five times a week. Although I’m just a very average golfer I have managed to win several championships in my division and that is a real milestone for me. I’d recommend golf to one and all – it’s such a social game, an excellent form of exercise and can be played well into the twilight years – almost there.
I’ve been in Aussie land for over 33 years and am extremely happy living here. Sydney is a great city with one of the most beautiful harbours in the world. The only drawback is being so far away from my mom, sister and her family (live in Hilton Head, SC) and my brother and family in Huntington, although I do have the added pleasure of having my son living here. Australia is a great country, closely tied to the US, and the exchange rate is a great incentive for Americans to visit. Would you believe I have met two people in Sydney who have worked for Digest and hailed from Huntington (Wes Oliver and Sue Gow) – it is indeed a small world!
P.S. If anyone is contemplating a visit to “DownUnder”, please get in touch.