Florida 1978 - 1999
Tallahassee 1978-1987
After selling the furniture and gving away the dog, the Dawdys moved to Tallahassee In May of 1978. The trip was uneventful as Dick drove the U-haul and Norma and Daina followed in the little Toyota. Near Huntsville, Alabama, they rolled down their windows and were smacked in the face by the 100 degree temeratures and humidity pretty close to that - at that point all of them began to question the wisdom of moving South. Dick enrolled at Florida State University and the family moved into married housing in Alumni Village where things were pretty basic.
Daina attended Pineview Elementary School and Dick arranged his classes so that he could meet Daina after school and walk home together. It was exciting eating meat once a week and discovering all the ways to cook pasta. Our entertainment was hooking the roaches up to wagons to watch them race. In order to get Daina to sleep, we had to tell her that the roaches couldn't climb stairs - that worked for a month until a Palmetto bug the size of a small dog walked across her face in the middle of the night!
After a year in married housing, Dick was able to stop paying out of state tution and the family moved to the Fulton Hills Apartments, behind the Tallahassee Mall. It was heaven! A screened porch, swimming pool, an elementary school next door and real pest control in the apartment!
In 1981, the Dawdys bought a home on Woodbine Drive on the north side of Tallahassee and Daina began attending Timberlane Elementary School. For Christmas that year, Daina received her playmate, a Field Springer Spaniel that we named Holly (AKC name, Daina's Christmas Holly). Daina and Holly were inseparable and poor Holly would have to listen to stories, be dressed in dolls clothing and treated like a little sister.
Daina spent of lot of time perfecting her gymnastics with Tallahasee Tumbling Tots and Dick and Norma were treated to cart-wheels and flips on a regular basis. Daina stayed active in tumbling until she got to the competition stage and then it became work, not fun, and that was that.
After Elementary school, Daina moved on to Raa Middle School and continued her gymnastics, Girl Scout activities and church activities at Killearn United Methodist Church.
During the time the Dawdy's lived in Tallahassee, Norma worked for Mickey Priester, who headed a CPA firm. Norma coordinated the office activities while discussing the latest Florida State football news with the CPA's
In her spare time Norma jogged and clogged and played taxi for Daina and her friends.
Dick received a B.S.in 1981 in Economic Geography (locational and transportation theory) and a M.S. in Land Use and Resource Management in 1982, also in the Department of Geography at Florida State. Dick's Masters Thesis was the Applicability of the Homer Hoyt Sector Theory to Tallahassee. Homer Hoyt was one of the early well respected real estate theorists who developed the theory that communities will tend to grow toward their largest neighboring city, all other things being equal. My Hoyt was overjoyed with the application of his theory in a modern setting and donated funds to establish the Homer Hoyt Center at Florida State University, which is now known as the Homer Hoyt Program in Land Economics and Finance.
After interviewing with the CIA and NSA, Dick made the decision to stay in Tallahassee and work for the Northwest Florida Water Management District as a Water Resource Planner. He instituted the Save Our Rivers Program in Northwest Florida and was involved in purchase and management of 90,000 acres of land in the Escambia, Choctawhatchee and Apalachicola River basins. He also was involved in regiona planning issues and contributed to both the Atlas of Florida and the Water Atlas of Florida. After reaching the end ofe the career path at the Norwest District,Dick applied and was hired by the largest Water Management Disterict in Florida, the South Forida Water Management District.
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Lake Worth (West Palm Beach) 1987-1997
Dick was hired by the South Florida Water Management District as a Land Acquisition Coordinator in the Land Management Department in West Palm Beach, supervising land acquistions for the District. While Norma stayed in Tallahassee with Daina until the house was sold, Dick looked for a place to live and bought a home in suburban Lake Worth. He had promised Daina that either they would live on the water or have a swimming pool. Since the small canal in the back of the house didn't qualify as "water", a pool was in place within a year
Of course if Daina could have her pool, although I did use it occasionally myself, I could have my bar. So we looked and found a nice bar made in Germany and it fit perfectly in the corner of our ramily room, where I could display all of my "stuff".
Dick continued as the land acquisition coordinator until, in 1989, a new Department, the Constuction Management Department was created and Dick was hired as the Senior Staff Analyst, where he spent the next six years overseeing budgets and finances, computer and human resource activities for the group that built all the structures that were needed to support the District's mission.
Norma spent almost the entire ten year period in southeastern Florida as the Office Manager.for Daniels Brothers and Associates, General Contractors for "high end" houses in the West Palm Beach area. By high end, we mean jacuzzi's for the dog, automatic window cleaning systems, million dollar wine cellars and other necessities of life
In 1995, Dick joined a new group called the Ecosystem Restoration Department. This was responsible for restoring the Florida Everglades, Lake Okeechobee, the Kissimmee River and many other environmentally fragile areas in South Florida. Dick served as the Business Manager and oversaw a staff that was resonsible for the budget, finances, human resources and computer technology for the Department
Unfortunately, because of his visibility, in less than two years the internal politics of the District, assisted by the back-stabbing efforts of his right hand person and confidant for the past six years, led to a move to the Planning Department as a Senior Planner. That position was not all that exciting and when a Manager within the Planning Department approached him with a job to manage a new study in Southwest Florida, it sounded like a challange. It was determined that Dick would answer to both the manager for Planning Studies in Southwest Florida, Dave Thatcher, and the Director of the District's Service Center in Ft Myers, Chip Merriam. Before accepting the job Dick confirmed with the Planning Director that no preconceptions or conclusions existed with regard to the study. After assurance that whatever was discovered during the course of the study would be used as the basis for decision making, Dick was off and running (literally since he and Norma quickly moved to Ft. Myers.
Daina graduated from John I. Leonard High School in 1991 and began preparation for her teaching career at Piedmont College in Demorest, Ga. Daina graduated from Piedmont College with a teaching degree in Special Education in 1995 and began teaching in Hartwell, Georgia. She completed her second year of teaching in 1997 and decided to move to California.
 
Fort Myers 1997-1999
Dick and Norma lived in a wonderful community in Fort Myers, called The Landings and Norma worked for Kelly Services at General Electric in Fort Myers.
As Project Manager for the Caloosahatchee Water Management Plan. It was initially determined that the study would last seven years and would require a staff of fifteen. As time went on and politics again raised their ugly head, the Planning Manager for Southwest Florida went on vacation only to return he had been fired in his absence. So, there went Dick's connection with Headquarters in West Palm Beach. About the same time, it was decided that the study should be done in five years and staffing would be about 12. Finally in April of 1999, after Dick had been in Ft Myers as Project Manager for two years (without the authority to manage anyone), his boss told him it didn't make any difference what the Plan had to say as long as it was completed by year end. Sorry guys, when you start to get some years on you, your integrity is about the only thing you can hang your hat on .... and so, Dick gave notice in May and officially quit the District in June of 1999. Within three weeks, he reduced his high blood pressure medicine by 2/3.
In July, Dick and Norma took a vacation and decided to drive to California to see the family - It's amazing what you can see when don't fly or drive the Interstate Highways.

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