I am a product of Cairo High School, born in "48", graduated in "66". Probably like all the rest of you at graduation, our parents told us to get a good education and go north, east, south, or west for there was no future for you in Cairo. The grass is greener across the fence, so go and make something of yourself. My two brothers and I tried to do just that. They moved south and I went north, but I stayed in Illinois. I think my parents sometimes had wished we were a little closer to home, but they were proud we all went and were successful at finding a good job and raised a great family.

For the next 4 years I went to Southeast Missouri State College in Cape and majored in Industrial and Technical Education. Going to school away from home, although not far, was an enjoyable experience. As a matter of fact it was one of the best experiences I have had next to a great education at Cairo High. Living in Cairo for 18 years and growing up with all your friends and community is an experience I will never forget. There are times you wish you could go back for a few days and live some of those days over again.

Living in Cape for 4 years was an experience I will never forget either. College life was good to me and taught me how to be successful in life. Living in a college atmosphere was fun and very rewarding. When the 4 years were up and it was time to go to work, I had to make that big decision of where to go--North, East, South, or West. With all the Great Experiences in Cairo and Cape I decided not to go too far away.

I applied for an Industrial Arts teaching job in the St. Louis area and found a school in Freeburg Illinois, 6 miles southeast of Belleville. I must have done something right because I got the job over about 18 other applicants. I walked into a school district that had suffered a destruction of a tornado in 1968 and had just finished rebuilding in 1970. I had a brand new Industrial Arts shop and all new equipment. After teaching and living there for a while I found out the people there were much like the people of Cairo. That is Great. Also for the last 30 years I have been teaching night classes at Belleville Area College and now Southwest Illinois College.

My fellow teachers and friends where hunters from way back. One from Paducah and the other from the eastern part of the state of southern Illinois. They taught me how to rabbit, dove, squirrel, quail, pheasant, goose and deer hunt. This is really fun and something I missed all my youthful life. Although my dad used to goose hunt in Cairo and I followed along with him as a kid, dad retired from hunting before I could ever got started. Well, I am still hunting today with my friends and my son.

After being a bachelor for a couple of years while living in Freeburg, I met my wife, Judy Phillips. She is from a small town in eastern Illinois called Enfield. I had always been a city boy living in Cairo, but I married the farmer's daughter. My mother in law and father in law are lovely people. I have had many enjoyable experiences visiting on the farm. This was a new experience for me and I enjoyed every moment of it. Enjoying the outdoors was very rewarding and helped to build on my hunting experiences. In the next few years I went back to school and received my Masters Degree in Industrial and Technical Education at Southeast Missouri State University.

My wife Judy is a graduate of both Rend Lake College in Mount Vernon IL and Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, with a major in Music Education. She is an excellent piano player. I cannot play a note, but enjoy listening to her play. Judy is the music and band teacher at an elementary school. She has been doing this for the last 30 years, except time off for the birth and raising our 4 children. We did not want a day care center raising our kids. We wanted our kids to have a mom and dad full time. So Judy has been a mother, wife, and housekeeper. She is an excellent cook and that is why Jimmy is not skinny any more. I look like my two brothers. We all look like Milfords! My mom was a Swoboda and between all the good cooks on both sides of the family, we all eat well. I use to eat all I wanted and not gain a pound, but age took care of that. I am a St. Louis Cardinal fan, a St. Louis Rams fan, and love basketball. My wife is a wonderful, loving and giving person. I have been blessed in having her as my wife, friend and mother of our kids.

We have four lovely children, two boys and two girls. The oldest William (Scott) Milford is now 27 years old, born in 1973. He has Red hair like his old man use to have and a heart full of gold. He graduated from SIUE with a degree in Psychology and a Masters in Higher Education from the University of Missouri at Columbia. He worked at the university for two years before getting an opportunity to sing at the Promise Theater in Branson Missouri. He is not married yet, so no grandchildren have come about. If you get to Branson Missouri, make sure you see The Promise at the Promise Theater. Since I have written this, Scott has moved to Nashville Tenn. where he plans to make his home.

My second son Gregory Alan Milford is now 24 years old, born in 1976. He is our Bi-Centennial baby. He has brown hair, which he must have got from his mother's side of the family. He also has a Heart of Gold and both are Good Christians. Greg also follows in Scott's footsteps in education and graduated from Ranken Technical College in St. Louis with a Degree in Computer Networking and now is a senior at the University of Illinois in the College of Engineering studying Computer Science. He graduates in June of the year 2001. He says he is going to stay in the St. Louis area. I am glad for that: Greg is my son, friend, and hunting buddy. Every hunter needs a partner and who else could be better than your own son. Greg is also unmarried and no grandchildren there yet either.

Our two sons Scott and Greg have been blessed with Musical talent. They both are Southern Gospel Singers. They and two other guys in the Freeburg area have formed The Gateway Gospel Quartet. They have been doing this for several years starting with their mother in the Milford Gospel Trio. They started singing in church and have formed a love of Southern Gospel Music. Scott is the Lead singer and Greg is the Baritone.

Our oldest daughter, Amy Lynette Milford is 21 years old, born in 1979. She is a beautiful brunette and probably will be the first of all the children to be married. She also has a heart of gold and cares a great deal about her family. She has a boyfriend that lives in Chicago. Amy is a senior at Eastern Illinois University, majoring in Computer Business Marketing. She is a bright young lady who has a gift in Business that some one out there will be glad they hired her. I hope she can lure Brett back to the St. Louis area. She is also the most independent of all our children growing up, she will go far.

Our youngest daughter, Angela Kay Milford is 16 years old, born in 1984. She is a blue-eyed blond and I will have to keep my baseball bat handy to fight off all the boys. Ha! Ha! She, like the other three, has a heart of gold and cares a lot for her family. She is a Basketball cheerleader at Freeburg Community High School and runs Cross Country. Like all our kids she worked summers at 6-Flags St. Louis. She is interested in Architecture and interested in Interior Design. She has not decided where she wants to go to college yet. She has a little time to figure that out.

As you can see we are proud of our children, a blond, a red head, and two brunettes. We have been truly blessed in the children God has given us.

With the two boys being the oldest we lived the typical life style of a young couple raising two boys, playing baseball, swimming, basketball, football, soccer, and all the sports two boys could find to participate.

After the boys graduating from high school, the girls all of a sudden were at the grade school and high school age. We had to change life styles from raising boys to raising girls. I found myself coaching girl's softball and going to grade school basketball games to see our girl cheer. I like basketball so I enjoyed the game also. So, I guess my life hasn't been much different than most people in raising a family and trying to give your children the safe kind of Christian life that our parents gave us in that great city of Cairo.

About 10 years ago we built ourselves a new house here in Freeburg. It seemed to be a long drawn out affair, but we kept plugging away at it until finished. We broke ground in May and moved in just before Thanksgiving 1990.

Some of you out there said you wanted all of us to tell of our family and kids. I hope you were not bored. I surely wasn't!

My mom and dad lived in Cairo most of their lives. Mom died in 1980 and Dad continued to live in Cairo for a number of years, but later moved to Paducah to be closer to my brother Rob in 1992 and later died in 1995 at the age of almost 85 years. I went down to visit him often in Paducah and on the last day I visited him, I took him out for dinner, visited with friends together and spent time with my brother Rob with Dad, said my goodbyes and before I could drive back to Freeburg he died. We figured he had a Great last Day. Mom and Dad were very good to us boys. Thanks Dorothy and John Milford. Many of you might remember my dad as one of the Maytag men in Cairo. He was in partnership with my Uncle Carl Swoboda.

Mom worked at Michelson's Jewelry Store on 8th street. Isn't it a shame the way it looks now, at least we can remember it in our 60's eyes. I guess everything must move on and form a new look.

We had to sell our Family Home a couple years ago. None of us boys had any interest in the family house, so we put it for sale. There are so many houses available in Cairo the law of supply and demand just took the bottom out of value of the house. If I had had that house up here in Freeburg, it would have been worth in the $70 thousand range or more. We sold it for just a few thousand dollars. I hope the new people get as good a life out of the old house as we did.

With the kids almost raised and out of school and almost 2 years away from early retirement, we are looking for all the enjoyments that life has to offer.

We hope to travel and enjoy life and visit our kids. I hope more of our classmates attend the next reunion in Paducah in 2004. Ken Hill and everyone who worked hard in putting the reunion together should be congratulated in doing a fine job.

I wish all of our classmates would be at our next reunion. For some reason some of us choose not to come. I have been at the last 2 reunions at Paducah and it has been Great. Everyone who was there last time or before should bring at least one new member to the next reunion_2004.

Classmates I would like to see be added to the Pilot Light 2000 are Mike Mescher "65" (My Best Friend}, Gary Johnson "65" {Classmate at Cape and Good Friend}, Ken Hill "65" {Classmate at Cape and Good Friend}, Jimmy Wright "66" {Good Friend}, Gail Beadles"67" {Good Friend}, Sandy Walder "66" {Good Friend}, My brothers Rob "62" and Ken "69", Mike Allen "66" {Good Friend}, Mary Ann Karcher "62" {My cousin and next door neighbor}, Edward Swoboda "67"{My cousin and Good Friend}, Patty Elias"68" {Good Friend}, Bonnie McGee "66" { Good Friend}. Sharon Althoff"68"{Good Friend}, John Profilet"66"{Good Friend}, Billy Johnston "65" {Good Friend}, and many others. If any body is in contact with any of these classmates try to get them to join.