Joyce Marcus

Fifty years – where to begin?

Just some of the highlights: U of Arizona for a year after Allderdice. Returned to the Burgh for family reasons and went to work at Pitt in the Personnel Department. I have no idea how I was able to get that job – wait – maybe I do – my boss was very interested in an extra-marital relationship that never panned out for him – but did get me to my next job location, UCLA Dental School, Dean’s Office Administration – and a few years of fun in the sun in LA.

Re-met a friend from High School, Kenny Boas who was in NY in VISTA. We decided to hang out and he moved to LA where we lived until we decided to marry and move to Tangier, Morocco for a year.

After a year of fun in the purple haze of Tangier, we returned to Pittsburgh and a busy community of anti-war activists. Kenny promptly got arrested at a preliminary hearing at the courthouse where his brother Paul and friends were being arraigned for demonstrating against the war.

After a few months of Kunstler and crew working on the case, while getting a friendly divorce from Ken, I moved to a woman’s collective in a shared house near Penn and Negley. We opened a free childcare center for the working moms in the neighborhood, learned about and ate organic and vegetarian meals, while entertaining and housing women passing through Pittsburgh that shared our interests and work.

Just around the corner was the men’s collective. We were a tight group. We all worked out of a store front near the Pittsburgh Playhouse, continuing community awareness projects on the anti-war movement and other issues.

I needed a break from all this work and excitement and took a trip to Arizona to visit my sister, Carol, and friends. So I hitchhiked to AZ with a friend from the woman’s collective and then we headed south to San Blas, Mexico for more fun in the sun. I met up with a French Canadian who drove us back up to AZ. I decided to continue on with him to Montreal, Canada where I lived with a group of like-minded folks and worked at a vegetarian restaurant that was run by followers of Sri Aurobindo. I had a few interesting adventures in Toronto, and Ottawa, and at a Yoga retreat in Val Morin, Quebec.

From there I traveled with a friend to Europe and not long after that to Israel where I lived on a Kibbutz for a year, a vegetarian Moshav for a good while, and in the city of Safed. After 2 years in Israel, I returned to Pittsburgh and landed a great job with El Al Israel Airlines in their sales office in downtown Pgh. The office eventually closed – and so I worked from home selling Group Tours to Israel for my Western Pennsylvania territory. Before the sales office closed though, during a lunch hour break, I literally ran into Rick Slone, who was getting off a bus. We stopped to chat and have a coffee at McDonald’s. Who knew what a coffee at McDonald’s in downtown Pittsburgh would lead to?

Rick and I moved to Ligonier, opened a photography business on the slopes and a hot tub concession at Seven Springs.

Our son, Cary, was born in 1984 and is my greatest accomplishment and greatest joy. When Cary was reaching school age, we decided to move from Ligonier to Sun Valley Idaho for several reasons. First, Rick and I agreed that we wanted a better school for Cary and second, Rick wanted to ski in the West. Cary had been skiing since his third birthday. I lived Sun Valley from ’89 – '03 and still have many good friends there.

I found work quickly in Sun Valley as the Assistant to the CEO of Scott USA/PRE Skis. Cary was thriving, the school was excellent, the snow was very high and the winter very long. It was a great place to bring up Cary.

After a few years at Scott USA, I found a new position in the administrative office of Tom Hormel as Assistant to his personal Accountant. (Hormel Meats – I never have had what it takes to try SPAM). Just a short time into that job, we learned that Tom’s trusted accountant embezzled from him and had been for many years. I stayed with the team that was uncovering all the scandalous details but soon found a more inspiring role at the Environment Resource Center in Ketchum/Sun Valley as their Associate Director.

Rick and I divorced in '93. Divorce is never great – but I’m happy to report that after a period of craziness, we became good friends again and remain so to this day. I left the Environmental Center to become a Recruiter. Timing was right – it was before the dot.com crash.

When Cary graduated high school, he decided to move to San Diego. I moved there too in '03 and worked in various roles. In '06, I joined my current recruiting company as a contractor. I really loved San Diego – but had to leave when the economy tanked in '09.

I moved to NC and stayed with my extremely generous sister for two years. My son, Cary, was insistent that I settle down and encouraged me to build a house on my 5 acres of land, adjacent to my sister’s 5 acres in Hillsborough, NC (a small town outside of Chapel Hill). In 2011, I built my house close to my sister’s – but not too close. We have our woods, deer, bluebirds, all kinds of creatures, stream, dogs and a new life for me.

I work from my home office recruiting and placing candidates nationally for high tech companies. Cary is a glass blowing instructor (www.glassblowingsd.com) and is about to get his degree from UCSD in Sociology. Rick is still in Sun Valley, Idaho and we are in close contact and good friends.

I visit Pittsburgh regularly to see my mom, (now 93 years old and still playing Mah Jongg), my brother Bernie and his beautiful family, and my close cousins. I always visit with Frannie Israel Schreiber and Barbara Briskin Shapira too.

There were plenty of trials, tribulations, sicknesses, regrets, downtime, etc. but I prefer to focus on the positive. It’s much more fun. Life has been very good to me!