Jeff True by Kristen H. and Megan E.
Jeff True, after graduating high school in 1984, continued on to go directly into the Marine Corps. As he stepped out of the Gymnasium, and all the other students went to the senior all night party, he walked out and was driven straight to boot camp. He served in the Marine Corps for a total of 8 years. This consisted of 4 years of active service and 4 years of inactive service. He was stationed in Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, Norway, Beirut, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. When Jeff had 6 months left in active duty he met his future wife Fran and they were married 9 months later. As of 2011 they have been married 25 years. He works as a maintenance man in the Mukilteo School District and was once the head of the custodial dept., making that 21 years of employment in the District. Also while in the district, he coached football and track at Olympic View Middle School for 5 years (head of track for 5 years, and assistant coach of football for 5 years).
I graduated from Cascade in 1984. I was a freshman in ‘80. I thought school was good, I enjoyed it. As far as the whole aspect of high school, I thought it was a good time, the teachers were good, and the classmates that I had were fine and overall it was fun.
The class I enjoyed the most was yearbook class. I enjoyed that; Mr. Saunders was the teacher at the time. I believe I was on yearbook staff for 3 if not 4 years because it was my favorite. I even designed a few of the covers and my artwork was featured throughout the entire books. The classes that stood out to me were anything to do with art, such as yearbook and technology classes. The academic classes weren’t my favorite.
I can’t say that I disliked any of my teachers; they were pretty good. If I had paid attention more, I probably would’ve liked school a lot more. The teachers didn’t affect the classes, even if I didn’t like them. As you get older, you start to realize you probably could have applied yourself better in those classes and maybe enjoyed them more. For me, I was there for more of a social aspect. As I look back on it now, I think of how I could have probably applied myself a little better and not been so involved in the social aspects of it and more into academics. But I consider myself to be a late bloomer in that respect. It took me a few more years to realize or to grasp some of that stuff we were taught. Years later I went “okay”, and the light bulb went on. Personally, I feel like just because a student may not do well academically in school, their grades may not be the A’s and B’s their parents like or what not may not always reflect their lack of interest in the class or lack of desire to learn but sometimes kids just don’t get it until later in life. That’s just kind of what happened for me.
I don’t really remember how many students attended the school. I think the school was somewhere around 2300 students; our graduating class was probably about 400. It was commonly 25-30 students per teacher… that’s been pretty common for quite a few years now.
I took German and I still know some of it. I actually failed that class. That was my one and only F out of high school. The funny thing was it was not for what I learned, it was for attendance. My step family, my mom and grandparents on that side and my brother were all German, so I don’t know if that’s what influenced me to learn it but I took it anyway. My oldest cousin from the Dye family, Nancy, took German in high school and I remember her going as an exchange student to Germany and I kind of thought that would be kind of cool. That’s probably what influenced me. I didn’t mind the language, ’cause that was easy; I just had trouble attending that class. It was just for one year. I think I took it as a freshman. I think it was a foreign language requirement. No it just must’ve been one year I didn’t take any other foreign language and it might not have been as a freshman it could have been a junior.
Reading and writing was never a problem for me, though math was. I struggled at math but it probably wouldn’t have been a problem if I had paid attention. I was more involved with talking to the student next to me and disrupting class as opposed to learning. I took algebra and geometry. I don’t think I got into calculus or trigonometry, maybe just briefly. I took all the required science. Mr. Daily was the teacher of biology. I did fine in all that. I took forestry and Mr. Peterson was the forestry teacher. Cascade owned a 40 acre plot out by Hilton Lake called The Lively Property. We used to go out there all the time. We did surveying and things like that. I enjoyed that class, especially doing the surveying and I retained a lot of that because I enjoyed it. I took power mechanics and Mr. Jim Dunn was my power mechanics teacher. I enjoyed that class and I retained what I learned. I took shop class with Mr. Terry Marsh. I think he took over the maintenance facility there for a while there. I really enjoyed that class, anything that had to do with creativity I excelled at.
I took architecture, drawing, architectural drawing – lots of those classes and Mr. Cliff Bottemiller was the teacher of the drawing classes. What I enjoyed about him was he made me a self proclaimed artist. So I got into his class, and we would debate and go over art theories. He would be teaching us systematically how to draw objects and I would not follow his system. I had my own way and my outcome was always as good as what his outcome was. We would debate over why I would not follow step 1, 2, 3 and 4 to come to the same outcome. We finally agreed to disagree that it’s not necessarily the steps you take but its where you start and where you end up that matters. We basically agreed to disagree that my art was quality and I didn’t have to follow those steps if I had the ability to go from A to D without going through B and C. I enjoyed that, we learned to respect each others ways of thinking about it and I think he appreciated my talent. He became one of my favorites there and still is today. Mr. Schneider was the architecture teacher.
I think school spirit is about the same. I would think there was certain days they would do class colors. Freshman would do something, sophomores, juniors, seniors but that’s kind of always been around. I went to all pep assemblies and things like that. I went to the bonfires and school dances. I went to most of the football games. I went to all of the formal dances as well as the game dances and the other dances.
If I could change anything about high school, I would probably go back and apply myself a little more than I actually did and try to do better. I don’t know that I would have pursued college, but at least I would have tried harder in my academic classes instead of being such a social butterfly. I played a few sports. I ran cross country, I ran track, running cross country and track all four years and I wrestled my freshman year.
I occasionally go to football games. I don’t go as much as I’d like to but I have been to some of Cascade’s football games and working for Mukilteo I follow what happens between us and them. They were good back then in ’84… we had an excellent football team. All of our sporting teams back then seemed to do quite well. I think talent comes in cycles. You get a group of exceptional kids who excel at sports and they come through in certain years.
I did have a job in high school, my first job being at Burger King, which is now Burgermaster. Burger King was right outside the back of the school. I worked there for about 6 months and I then applied at Phil Beck’s Chuckwagon. A lot of other classmates worked down there as well including Darren Simmons, Brian Beetle and Jerry Burnham. Most of my time was spent working after school. I’d go straight to work after class. Back then you could only work so many hours if you were a student, so I think I could work until 10 o’clock. And other than that I was hanging out with my classmates and stuff and other events.
I still have contact with a lot of the teachers from Cascade High School that have long since retired. Mr. Bottemiller was my art teacher; Charlie Cobb was my PE teacher. Mr. O’Neil was my history teacher whom I still see. Ed Berbee taught the carpentry class that I took, and I still occasionally see him. A lot of these guys were elk hunters like me; they share an elk camp with my uncle. They were great back then and still neat people. Those are the ones that stick out to me just because of the shared interest. I believe they are all retired. Cliff Bottemiller retired, though I think his wife may still work there. Steve Bertrand was my cross country coach. He still works there at Cascade. After you graduate, you lose contact with many of your classmates. I am a lucky guy who gets to see some people that I went to kindergarten with.
Technology kept up with the times, but it’s nothing like today. I took typing classes and I did quite well in them but we didn’t have the computers that kids are learning on today. We didn’t have cell phones in school, nothing like today, but it was with the times, everything was there for the way the times were. Academics were always important. The way education had gone because of technology has changed. With the technology that’s out there in the working world, I think if kids take advantage of those opportunities in high school they have a far greater opportunity ahead of them than what we had when we were in school to go and land some really good jobs that pay well. I’ve got a nephew that is one example of that. He graduated from Stanwood High School and he’s now 22 or 23 years old and he just landed a job less than a year ago. By the end of the year he’s supposed to be making 6 figures. I think that’s doing pretty well considering the technology he had access to. I think the kids with computers, if they choose to take advantage and apply themselves, there are far greater opportunities for landing good jobs and schooling after high school, and going on with continuing education. I see more changes in the future with this technology. For instance, parents will be able to log on and check their kid’s record right from home. Not quite learning from home but like poking right into the classroom. I see that stuff coming possibly, but I think it’s a good thing.
I went to classmate’s parties, and most weekends of my junior and senior year I went to these parties at somebody’s house, because I was into the social aspects.
I don’t remember when the school was remodeled. Part of it was going on when we were still there. The whole school has been remodeled since then. They did the gym; they added the racquetball courts, the lower level. That was about it. After graduation that was when they went through the rest of it. I used to go back in and see some of the teachers up there and talk with them so I’ve been in a few buildings since they were remodeled.
I did not drive to school, I was a passenger. I lived close enough to walk, so most days I would walk and then my junior and senior year a good friend of mine, Darren, who lived just up the street and would always take me. My brother went there as did my sister. We were class of 84, 83 and 82.
After I graduated, I went straight to boot camp. I had already joined the Marine Corps when I was 18. So I went my senior year already enlisted. When I graduated my folks came to graduation and we walked out of the gymnasium. My marine core recruiter was out front in his car. I already had my bag packed for boot camp in the back of his car. I walked out and handed my cap and gown to my folks and while most of the student body went to the all night party, I went to boot camp. I was in the Marine Corps for 4 years active and 4 years inactive for a total of 8 years.
I was working at the time; I had left Phil Beck’s Chuckwagon and was working at the A&W down on Evergreen Way which is now Mikie’s Drive-In. I was the assistant manager and I had no direction and no desire for continuing education and needed to do something. I had a friend whose older brother was a marine. That kind of influenced me and I thought that with the way things were in my life and at home at that time, I thought that would be a good opportunity for me. So I joined.
My Marine Corps times consisted of my 13 weeks of basic training, after which I came home for recruiter duty for a month. I worked with the recruiters locally here and went to high schools including Cascade and talked to other students about the Marine Corps. After which I was stationed in Camp Lejuene in North Carolina and I went back to there after my 30 day recruiter duty was up and spent the majority of my tour there. I went overseas a couple of times. I went once to Norway, once to Bayrut, once to Puerto Rico, once to the Virgin Islands. And when I had 6 months left of my active duty, I met Fran, who is now my wife, and we were married 9 months later and we have been married ever since. We are coming up on 25 years. That’s where I’m at now.
The Mukilteo school district has been my place of employment for the last 21 years. My wife and I moved out here shortly after I got out of the Marine Corps and decided to try and make things work out here. Shortly after our arriving, I was hired by the Mukilteo school district trying to get into their maintenance department and I worked as a head custodian for 10 years and finally was able to obtain a position in the maintenance department. I’ve been there for the last 11 or 12 years. It’s a good job. I coached football, track at Olympic View Middle School for 5 years. I was the head track coach for 5 years and assistant football coach for 5 years.
Probably Mt. Saint Helens was the biggest world event. May 18, 1980 stands out. Probably 1982 when we had the Beirut embassy bombing in 1983. The president was either Jimmy Carter, or Ronald Reagan. I remember Ronald Reagan was shot in the chest in ’81 but still lived.
I graduated from Cascade in 1984. I was a freshman in ‘80. I thought school was good, I enjoyed it. As far as the whole aspect of high school, I thought it was a good time, the teachers were good, and the classmates that I had were fine and overall it was fun.
The class I enjoyed the most was yearbook class. I enjoyed that; Mr. Saunders was the teacher at the time. I believe I was on yearbook staff for 3 if not 4 years because it was my favorite. I even designed a few of the covers and my artwork was featured throughout the entire books. The classes that stood out to me were anything to do with art, such as yearbook and technology classes. The academic classes weren’t my favorite.
I can’t say that I disliked any of my teachers; they were pretty good. If I had paid attention more, I probably would’ve liked school a lot more. The teachers didn’t affect the classes, even if I didn’t like them. As you get older, you start to realize you probably could have applied yourself better in those classes and maybe enjoyed them more. For me, I was there for more of a social aspect. As I look back on it now, I think of how I could have probably applied myself a little better and not been so involved in the social aspects of it and more into academics. But I consider myself to be a late bloomer in that respect. It took me a few more years to realize or to grasp some of that stuff we were taught. Years later I went “okay”, and the light bulb went on. Personally, I feel like just because a student may not do well academically in school, their grades may not be the A’s and B’s their parents like or what not may not always reflect their lack of interest in the class or lack of desire to learn but sometimes kids just don’t get it until later in life. That’s just kind of what happened for me.
I don’t really remember how many students attended the school. I think the school was somewhere around 2300 students; our graduating class was probably about 400. It was commonly 25-30 students per teacher… that’s been pretty common for quite a few years now.
I took German and I still know some of it. I actually failed that class. That was my one and only F out of high school. The funny thing was it was not for what I learned, it was for attendance. My step family, my mom and grandparents on that side and my brother were all German, so I don’t know if that’s what influenced me to learn it but I took it anyway. My oldest cousin from the Dye family, Nancy, took German in high school and I remember her going as an exchange student to Germany and I kind of thought that would be kind of cool. That’s probably what influenced me. I didn’t mind the language, ’cause that was easy; I just had trouble attending that class. It was just for one year. I think I took it as a freshman. I think it was a foreign language requirement. No it just must’ve been one year I didn’t take any other foreign language and it might not have been as a freshman it could have been a junior.
Reading and writing was never a problem for me, though math was. I struggled at math but it probably wouldn’t have been a problem if I had paid attention. I was more involved with talking to the student next to me and disrupting class as opposed to learning. I took algebra and geometry. I don’t think I got into calculus or trigonometry, maybe just briefly. I took all the required science. Mr. Daily was the teacher of biology. I did fine in all that. I took forestry and Mr. Peterson was the forestry teacher. Cascade owned a 40 acre plot out by Hilton Lake called The Lively Property. We used to go out there all the time. We did surveying and things like that. I enjoyed that class, especially doing the surveying and I retained a lot of that because I enjoyed it. I took power mechanics and Mr. Jim Dunn was my power mechanics teacher. I enjoyed that class and I retained what I learned. I took shop class with Mr. Terry Marsh. I think he took over the maintenance facility there for a while there. I really enjoyed that class, anything that had to do with creativity I excelled at.
I took architecture, drawing, architectural drawing – lots of those classes and Mr. Cliff Bottemiller was the teacher of the drawing classes. What I enjoyed about him was he made me a self proclaimed artist. So I got into his class, and we would debate and go over art theories. He would be teaching us systematically how to draw objects and I would not follow his system. I had my own way and my outcome was always as good as what his outcome was. We would debate over why I would not follow step 1, 2, 3 and 4 to come to the same outcome. We finally agreed to disagree that it’s not necessarily the steps you take but its where you start and where you end up that matters. We basically agreed to disagree that my art was quality and I didn’t have to follow those steps if I had the ability to go from A to D without going through B and C. I enjoyed that, we learned to respect each others ways of thinking about it and I think he appreciated my talent. He became one of my favorites there and still is today. Mr. Schneider was the architecture teacher.
I think school spirit is about the same. I would think there was certain days they would do class colors. Freshman would do something, sophomores, juniors, seniors but that’s kind of always been around. I went to all pep assemblies and things like that. I went to the bonfires and school dances. I went to most of the football games. I went to all of the formal dances as well as the game dances and the other dances.
If I could change anything about high school, I would probably go back and apply myself a little more than I actually did and try to do better. I don’t know that I would have pursued college, but at least I would have tried harder in my academic classes instead of being such a social butterfly. I played a few sports. I ran cross country, I ran track, running cross country and track all four years and I wrestled my freshman year.
I occasionally go to football games. I don’t go as much as I’d like to but I have been to some of Cascade’s football games and working for Mukilteo I follow what happens between us and them. They were good back then in ’84… we had an excellent football team. All of our sporting teams back then seemed to do quite well. I think talent comes in cycles. You get a group of exceptional kids who excel at sports and they come through in certain years.
I did have a job in high school, my first job being at Burger King, which is now Burgermaster. Burger King was right outside the back of the school. I worked there for about 6 months and I then applied at Phil Beck’s Chuckwagon. A lot of other classmates worked down there as well including Darren Simmons, Brian Beetle and Jerry Burnham. Most of my time was spent working after school. I’d go straight to work after class. Back then you could only work so many hours if you were a student, so I think I could work until 10 o’clock. And other than that I was hanging out with my classmates and stuff and other events.
I still have contact with a lot of the teachers from Cascade High School that have long since retired. Mr. Bottemiller was my art teacher; Charlie Cobb was my PE teacher. Mr. O’Neil was my history teacher whom I still see. Ed Berbee taught the carpentry class that I took, and I still occasionally see him. A lot of these guys were elk hunters like me; they share an elk camp with my uncle. They were great back then and still neat people. Those are the ones that stick out to me just because of the shared interest. I believe they are all retired. Cliff Bottemiller retired, though I think his wife may still work there. Steve Bertrand was my cross country coach. He still works there at Cascade. After you graduate, you lose contact with many of your classmates. I am a lucky guy who gets to see some people that I went to kindergarten with.
Technology kept up with the times, but it’s nothing like today. I took typing classes and I did quite well in them but we didn’t have the computers that kids are learning on today. We didn’t have cell phones in school, nothing like today, but it was with the times, everything was there for the way the times were. Academics were always important. The way education had gone because of technology has changed. With the technology that’s out there in the working world, I think if kids take advantage of those opportunities in high school they have a far greater opportunity ahead of them than what we had when we were in school to go and land some really good jobs that pay well. I’ve got a nephew that is one example of that. He graduated from Stanwood High School and he’s now 22 or 23 years old and he just landed a job less than a year ago. By the end of the year he’s supposed to be making 6 figures. I think that’s doing pretty well considering the technology he had access to. I think the kids with computers, if they choose to take advantage and apply themselves, there are far greater opportunities for landing good jobs and schooling after high school, and going on with continuing education. I see more changes in the future with this technology. For instance, parents will be able to log on and check their kid’s record right from home. Not quite learning from home but like poking right into the classroom. I see that stuff coming possibly, but I think it’s a good thing.
I went to classmate’s parties, and most weekends of my junior and senior year I went to these parties at somebody’s house, because I was into the social aspects.
I don’t remember when the school was remodeled. Part of it was going on when we were still there. The whole school has been remodeled since then. They did the gym; they added the racquetball courts, the lower level. That was about it. After graduation that was when they went through the rest of it. I used to go back in and see some of the teachers up there and talk with them so I’ve been in a few buildings since they were remodeled.
I did not drive to school, I was a passenger. I lived close enough to walk, so most days I would walk and then my junior and senior year a good friend of mine, Darren, who lived just up the street and would always take me. My brother went there as did my sister. We were class of 84, 83 and 82.
After I graduated, I went straight to boot camp. I had already joined the Marine Corps when I was 18. So I went my senior year already enlisted. When I graduated my folks came to graduation and we walked out of the gymnasium. My marine core recruiter was out front in his car. I already had my bag packed for boot camp in the back of his car. I walked out and handed my cap and gown to my folks and while most of the student body went to the all night party, I went to boot camp. I was in the Marine Corps for 4 years active and 4 years inactive for a total of 8 years.
I was working at the time; I had left Phil Beck’s Chuckwagon and was working at the A&W down on Evergreen Way which is now Mikie’s Drive-In. I was the assistant manager and I had no direction and no desire for continuing education and needed to do something. I had a friend whose older brother was a marine. That kind of influenced me and I thought that with the way things were in my life and at home at that time, I thought that would be a good opportunity for me. So I joined.
My Marine Corps times consisted of my 13 weeks of basic training, after which I came home for recruiter duty for a month. I worked with the recruiters locally here and went to high schools including Cascade and talked to other students about the Marine Corps. After which I was stationed in Camp Lejuene in North Carolina and I went back to there after my 30 day recruiter duty was up and spent the majority of my tour there. I went overseas a couple of times. I went once to Norway, once to Bayrut, once to Puerto Rico, once to the Virgin Islands. And when I had 6 months left of my active duty, I met Fran, who is now my wife, and we were married 9 months later and we have been married ever since. We are coming up on 25 years. That’s where I’m at now.
The Mukilteo school district has been my place of employment for the last 21 years. My wife and I moved out here shortly after I got out of the Marine Corps and decided to try and make things work out here. Shortly after our arriving, I was hired by the Mukilteo school district trying to get into their maintenance department and I worked as a head custodian for 10 years and finally was able to obtain a position in the maintenance department. I’ve been there for the last 11 or 12 years. It’s a good job. I coached football, track at Olympic View Middle School for 5 years. I was the head track coach for 5 years and assistant football coach for 5 years.
Probably Mt. Saint Helens was the biggest world event. May 18, 1980 stands out. Probably 1982 when we had the Beirut embassy bombing in 1983. The president was either Jimmy Carter, or Ronald Reagan. I remember Ronald Reagan was shot in the chest in ’81 but still lived.