Chris Gerrie
72-80: After the great speckled dome conspiracy the school evicted me from the domes. I figured the best thing to do was go skiing. Loaded up my VW Bus and headed to Tahoe in November. I basically worked enough to survive and had fun with college thrown in. Lived in Tahoe City, Carnelian Bay, Davis, Truckee, San Luis Obispo. Worked for Squaw Valley, North Tahoe Machine Shop, Libby’s, Concerts at UCD, UCD Student Union, A Home Builder, Self Employed (drawing house plans) and built a home I designed. After 1976 I only worked in the construction industry. What really made my day, was 8 years of Ski Passes, playing on the Sloballers softball team (13 years), Stereoscope Loafers basketball team(7 years) and golfing. The music scene was real good back then. Played in a good band in Truckee and SLO.
1980-90: Work started getting very dicey in the start of the 80’s (22% prime rate) and I moved to Oakland to work on the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Oakland is a different place but it is a great sports and music town. Where I lived had a big music room. After getting laid off work I stated back in college at SF State. Transferred to Davis and moved back. After a 14-year College career I Graduated in 1985 in Civil Engineering. Moved back to Truckee, and worked in Reno and Truckee. While I was estimating high rise concrete for a Casinos I noticed a Structural Engineering Company from Chico was doing most of the work. Right before Christmas 1987, I got a call from Chico. Started working for Culp and Tanner Structural Engineers in Jan. 1988 and lasted for 27 years. Immediately I was thrown in the fire taking over JA Nugget Convention Center which was way behind. I worked in Reno 5 days a week until it was completed. Learned to windsurf. Discovered paid vacations by going windsurfing near Cancun. Followed that up by going on a sailing trip in the Windward Islands.
1990-2000: Met my lovely wife Cynthia in 1991. My son Naish was born in 1993. Started a career of taking windsurfing trips. Went to Los Barriles Baja 4 times, Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Punta San Carlos Baja 17 straight years, The Gorge every year for 15 years along with weekly trips to the Calif Delta. Golfed in the local twilight league. Work started out very slow with zero jobs in our office in 1991 summer (take a guess what I did). Then 2 major jobs took me thru to 2000, Project Engineer of The Silver Legacy in Reno, and Project Engineer of 2-10000 car parking structures for Universal Studios in Orlando. Cynthia and I coached kids’ soccer. Built my current house which I designed in 98-99. Got married to Cynthia in Maui in 99.
2000-2010: Still involved with kid’s sports, coaching soccer, basketball and baseball. Became a member of the board of directors of our local little league. I upgraded both the Major league baseball diamond and Juniors. Our little league was based out of the Elks which I joined and still belong to. Started kitesurfing in 2007 with Naish. Spent many weekends with the 2 of us camping in the windy Delta. Started going to La Ventana Baja Sur with Naish in 2009. Still windsurfing but mainly in the surf. My job has gotten to 2 phases, working on the hard stuff and providing Design Development drawings for Design build projects. In 2008 my pay was reduced by 70%, yikes. C&T laid off half the staff. I reduced my time at work to half time. I built a music studio in 2008 and started weekly band night. This continued until the Campfire, where I lost my drummer and lead singer who got burned out.
2010-2020: In 2012 Cyn and I started going on music cruises and music festivals. We followed The String Cheese Incident across the country. We have been in many states and many islands in the Caribbean. That lasted until the pandemic. The day after my 60th birthday bash I was rocked by chest pain riding my Mountain bike. I was so spaced out and tired, I retired from my job. I spent the first winter after retiring building a house I designed in La Ventana. I have now done 4 additions. I have gone every winter including the pandemic. It took 2 operations in 2018 to get my heart fixed. In 2019 I developed eye cancer. Had surgery and then chemo. The campfire and then pandemic, sucks.
2020-2022: Cynthia and I became foster parents of our 2-year-old Granddaughter Roxy. Bought a 1983 VW Vanagon Camper. Roxy loves it.
