Matt & Peoria
Back to the Land of Caterpillar
Peg came back to the US before I did but eventually, we had to move back to Peoria and join my regular group at cat. Peg found a home on Picture Ridge Dr. that she thought was simple and quaint and we moved in with about a 12.5% mortgage. It was a great location but a wreck of a structure and plumbing so Peg redecorated and in the meantime got a job with Bonnie Wellman as window dressing experts for JC Penny. This may have been Peg's first soirée into design and art and she did enjoy the job until Matthew came onto the scene.
Jan 3 1975 when I returned home from work Peg said she was having severe labor pain but it was hours later until we went to the hospital and well after midnight Dr. Ores put her on a tranquilizer until the next morning and the eventual emergence of Matthew Rex Dollinger.
From Picture Ridge Peg could peddle Matt all over the rather tranquil area including access to Detweiler park where they would seek out wild berries and bring them home for breakfast.
In March 1977 we moved to Germantown Hills and owned that house until our retirement and move in 2002.
When Matt got a little older Peg went back into the work force with a teaching position at Ill. Central College just 4 miles from home, and offering day care. We continued our association with friends on the Peoria Ski Club and started sailing with friends Stan Schoen and Earl Lehman. Eventually we purchased our own sail boat and plied the Illinois River, Chesapeake Bay (to visit our friends the Burnett’s in Annapolis) and eventually started chartering from Sailboats Inc. in Barkers and Bayfield. Peg was a great boat person in many respects but always had to be in charge during a race.
Our primary social contacts were through work, the Peoria ski club, and the IVY Club in Peoria
Matt went to Metamora grade and high schools performing adequately but not but was as well as we expected.
Peg continued at ICC both teaching and taking nearly every course that had the slightest interest to her, eventually starting an advanced degree in special education which she obtained through Bradley University in Peoria. She spent some time working in the Peoria County Clerks office but it was during an election year and all of the numbers and legal were too much for our right brained beauty and here tenure there was pretty short.
Then the opportunity came (about June 10) for me to transfer to the Cat subsidiary in Geneva and the financial benefits were too grand to pass up so the family spent about seven weeks in panic mode as we tried to pack up and relocate to Switzerland. Peg carried the burden of packing for storage, short term relocation, long term relocation, Matt’s schooling in Geneva, and someone to run the tree farm like a logistics master and we were on a plane Aug 27 in order for Matt to start Webster Univ. (wherever it was) the following Monday.
