Barry Wright

               Then                                              Now   

Home:    1127 Maplehurst Avenue
              Nashville, TN 37204

Phone:   615-292-2126           

E-Mail:   bwright@underwoodair.com

Bio:

Yes, we’re still together.  Linda and I will celebrate our 39^th anniversary on Sept. 3, ’05.

“Let’s start from the very beginning…” – Sound of Music:

As some of you know, Linda and I dated steadily from the 8^th grade on.  She attended Lipscomb from kindergarten through college except for her freshman year at York Christian College where her mother was dean of women and her sophomore year when she and I attended Abilene Christian College.  You may not remember that she also was not at DLHS for the first half of our senior year.  She was in Nebraska, but she came to Nashville and boarded with Barbara Buffington (Fee) just off campus so she could graduate with our class.

I attended DLC except for the second year and graduated in 1967.

We were married on 1966 in York, Nebraska.  Our honeymoon was in South Dakota’s Black Hills (Mount Rushmore, etc.)  We have always had a desire to travel.  

(More on that subject later).

We moved to Lubbock, TX, where I taught at Lubbock Christian while attending Texas Tech graduate school.  I realized that was a mistake.  A friend of ours recommended moving to Long Island, NY, for a teaching job.  We visited Carlsbad Caverns on the way out of town (see “travel” reference above).

When we arrived, the job I thought was available no longer was, so I substituted for a few months before getting a regular teaching job in Smithtown, LI, NY.

Our son, Brendan, was born on Long Island.

The same friend who told us about the teaching job recruited me for a year-round job with Camp Shiloh.  I was one of 6 area directors working with a team of young adults to help underpriviledged children, and raising money to send them to camp in New Jersey in the summer.

Our older daughter, Jennifer, was born in Red Bank, NJ.

In 1971 we moved back to Nashville where we have lived since.

Our younger daughter, Bethany, was born here.
Bethany Wright Jones, Brendan Wright, (Us) Jennifer Wright Bell

I have tried my hand at recreational vehicle sales, jewelry sales; I was even an assistant manager with Mrs. Winners Chicken for a while.  I’m sure many of you also have experienced those “do what you have to do to pay the bills” times.

By far, most of the last 30 plus years I have been an estimator in construction sales - either plumbing or heating and air conditioning.

Linda went back to school to become a Registered Nurse.  She has been with Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital for 21 years

We started attending church at Belmont Church of Christ in 1971 because one of our DLC professors, Don Finto, was preaching there.  We have attended Belmont Church, as it is now known, ever since.

Those of you who visited with Linda’s family in their house on Maplehurst will recognize our address.  We bought the house from Linda’s mom a few years ago.

All of our kids went to school almost entirely at Lipscomb elementary and High School.

Brendan graduated David Lipscomb University.  He went to St. Louis  to become a Doctor of Chiropractic. He helped pay the bills by modeling.  Linda and I always said, “It’s genetic.” He now has an office in Brentwood.  He has a son and a daughter.

Jennifer met her future husband at DLHS.  She quit DLU after the first half her junior year to get married.  Her husband is a Physician’s Assistant.  She is a stay-at-home mom for their 3 sons and 1 daughter.  She also helps Bethany’s husband part-time at his office.

Bethany and her husband also met at Lipscomb.  They went to Samford University in Birmingham.  They acted in several drama/musicals while there.  Brad was amazing at set design and building. Bethany was in several shows, but she was a Spanish major.  The natives who hear her speak think she’s from a South American country. They spent several years in Birmingham after graduation where he was drama director for a large Baptist church.  They moved back to Franklin so he and a good friend could start a graphic design business.  She has been working at HCA. They are expecting their first child in early December.
 

Jennifer’s Nathan and Jacob Bell; Brendan’s Charli and Dylan; Erin and Zachary Bell

In 2000 I had a quintuple (yeah, x 5!) heart bypass surgery.  I think that changed our attitudes toward experiencing things before it is too late.  I hope it doesn’t take a wake-up call like that for you to realize the same thing.

Since then we have traveled to:

The Southwest- Phoenix, Sedona, and Navajo country in Arizona, Canyon de Chelly, New Mexico’s cliff dwellings, Monument Valley, Utah, and the Grand Canyon.   (Don’t wait too long to see that!)

We took our first cruise through Alaska’s Inside Passage and the Alaska Railway’s tour train to Denali (Mt. McKinley) National Park and on to Fairbanks.  The scenery is incredible!

Our second cruise was from New York City up the east coast via Boston,  Portland, Maine, and Nova Scotia.  I like to visit lighthouses.  We saw or visited 6 while on this trip.  That includes the Statue of Liberty.  We sailed right by it as we started the cruise.  Wonderful!

After seeing the Alaska Marine Highway ferry on our first trip, we decided to go back to Alaska to ride the ferry from Homer, Alaska, half-way out the Aleutian Islands chain to Dutch Harbor.  The second week we took Amtrak from Seattle to Vancouver.  We toured on the Rockie Mountaineer Railway through southern British Columbia to Banff, then drove to Jasper and finally to Calgary, Alberta.

After studying the Alamo, Davy Crockett, etc., we finally visited San Antonio, TX, last year. I was surprised by the “necklace” of other Spanish missions near there.  We also went to Six Flags.  I have tried several times to “test” the effectiveness of my surgery by riding roller coasters.

My most unusual trip was going with a classmate who wishes to remain anonymous to smuggle Bibles into Cuba.

We leave next month for a week in Yellowstone National Park and the Grand Tetons in Wyoming.  This is a long dream of mine since I visited there about 20 years age with Brendan’s Boy Scout troop.  I have wanted ever since for Linda to see it.

In October we are also going to Orlando with Jennifer’s family.

Linda has a photography hobby (addiction).  We have one room in our house devoted to organizing photos.  Although our kids complained about her taking so many pictures, they now admit she was our family historian.  We have even had some of their friends tell her that they would have no record of their younger years if not for Linda’s pictures.

I was able to realize another dream a few weeks ago when I joined my 2 brothers and 3 sisters to make a family recording.  Since we are known by many of our family and friends for singing at funerals we recorded mostly funeral songs.  At least we have done that together while we still can.  The album is a tribute to our dad who died in 1991.

Since we seem to be so busy it may not be possible to be at the reunion, but I hope you enjoyed catching up with us.

If you are in the Lipscomb neighborhood drop by. (Please call first so we can clear a path!)

Last updated:    August 2005