Diana Bunt

Diana Bunt Semon

[See pictures at the end of the biography]

I've just been trying to figure out what to write to update my life story for our reunion book. I sat down with a yellow legal pad and pen in hand. I even put on some of the 60's music. You know, all the "doo whop" and "sha-la-la-la-la" songs.

I got out Charmaine's kind e-letter saying not to worry about my story and that it is about our lives, and that's all that really matters. I looked at the date Mildred requested this little life story, and blessed her for doing all this work to make the reunion a reality.

Then I picked up the Echo booklet, which was done 9 years ago, and began reading all the letters; all the life stories written by the class of 1962. Reading all the wonderful stories gave me a "rush" of joy. Did I really go to school with such a nice group of people? My eyes get misty and I just feel like one of the privileged few in life.

I still live with my good husband on the "farmette" in Harpers Ferry. He is my King and it's good to be the Queen. Our grown children are healthy. I read the bible, I pray, and my heart nearly bursts with gratitude.

I've been given a wonderful life. Oh, yes, there have been the mundane, the "commonness", the trials and tribulations, some beyond what I thought at the time I could endure...and could not have, without Him.

Everything in life fades, decays and becomes out of date, save for the "Love" He sends to us through one another. Each one of my classmate's lives is a part of my life.

And as Sandra wrote in the last reunion booklet so simply, so clearly, so purely true..."God has certainly been good to me".

Forgive me, Sandra...I had to borrow it ...it sums up perfectly.

1993 biography

If I had a truly creative mind, I could write the most adventurous life story ever. My reader would be hanging on my every fabrication. I would title it "Romancing the Years" or "The Adventures of In-Diana Semon." Well, you can discern by my not-too-original titles the limit of my creativity, so I'll just have to entertain you with the truth as best I can.

Although I feel I'm still just beginning life, I truly believe I've had the best life ever. Is this the jewel of mid-life ... to know that however one has lived, it has been one's own individual perfect? Moving from this ethereal point forward, that is backward, here we go.

In 1962 for the first six months out of Destrehan (yes, this is going to be painfully long and maudlin) I waitressed in New York - I loved it but I hated it also. Why don't most people respect good waitresses and why do they think they are dumb?

In 1963 I attended LSU, now University of New Orleans. I took all those horrid courses in accounting and business. I also had to take wonderful things like English writing (I know it's hard to tell), French, and other goodies that "they" say will never help you "turn a dollar."

During the student years, I worked as a long distance telephone operator, a bank teller, and more waitressing. Somewhere in the midst of making all those connection, counting all that money, and watching folks enjoy their food, I decided that I like people more than anything else this old world had to offer. Thus began the romance of my life, or "Romancing the Years."

A truly wonderful rainbow came my way. I was hired by Pan American World Airways, better known as Pan Am or PAA. My flying for them as a stewardess and then as a purser, presented me with both an education and adventure I had never dreamed possible.

The silver wings took me to all kinds of cultures, and allowed me to meet some of the world's most interesting people - people who were wonderfully diverse, ever-changing and challenging. Some of the folks I flew with were among the best, and helped me to develop a philosophy that I would need later in life.

Then came the quintessential best. The best, without reserve, has been my marriage to my wonderful and loving husband, Peter, and connectedly, having the opportunity to nuture and share the childhood of our two children. Hence "The Adventures of In-Diana Semon," as all the action occurs within myself. My children helped me to grow into a pretty good "Mom" and a not too shabby person emerged as well.

Over the years, to pay the bills, I've worked as a bookkeeper, owned and managed a Japanese restaurant, server as a teacher's aide assisted in the education of the developmentally disabled and even served Pan Am again in 1989, this time on the ground. It has all been fun and from each job I took with me something more than the paycheck.

I've had the most fun with my hobbies. I make sure they stay hobbies by keeping them diversified and keeping myself a rank amateur. I also pursue them with a maniacal passion. I've enjoyed many of the Japanese arts: flower arranging, tea ceremony, graphic arts, etc. I enjoy reading opera stories, but I enjoy going to opera even more (not only am I ethereal, but I'm gaudy about it). I love to visit old historic houses, and I truly enjoy gardening. Is there anything more complete, more balanced, more vast, yet more earthy than a well dug hole? And I love to cook and bake and sew and clean house. I'm totally PIC - politically incorrect.

The path from Destrehan High School to Destrehan reunion has been a wonderful adventure. The path of growth, ever at my heels, has put me in a joyful vehicle, ME. And, this is my conclusion. (I know you have earned it, by way of your reading thus far.)

I spent, all told, one and a half years at Destrehan High School. I was there for my sophomore year and the last half of my senior year. My family moved so much that I had attended a different school nearly every year. In high school this was particularly difficult. We all know how intensely we wish to "belong." At Destrehan High School I was treated with such warmth and genuine kindness that the awkwardness of those sensitive years was greatly reduced. It was a gentle hug around my heart. Teachers also treated me as a young equal. They said, "You are young and inexperienced, so step on my back to get where you are going." Their kindness all those years ago, have given me the embers of self-love that have cast a warm glow on my life and all that it touches.

This then becomes a relating of "How I have become" and not "What I have done" ... And, for how I have become, I must say "Thank you" to my class of 1962.

A dream come true - What I did during French class -> dream.

La Tour Eiffel, c'est moi.
The journey just begins at age 50, my 87 year old friend tells me.

Our daughter and me. We are at the top of la tour Eiffel (only French I know).
"Paris at our feet."

Paris really does have everything!
For you who have a car interest.

More pictures here