Meet Your New Neighbors

After completing five years in the Air Force, Victoria Lohnes is finally settling into her Bear Valley home along with her husband, Geoff, and two year old son, Gabriel. Her last assignment was a chaplain’s assistant at Barksdale Air Force base in Louisiana. Geoff came to California a couple of months before her and started setting up the household. He also spent four years in the Air Force and is now working for them as a civilian specializing in communications.

Victoria and Geoff met in the Air Force while they were both stationed in Korea. At that time she was a Morse code operator and he was a linguist. Her dad was military and at one time taught at West Point. She was born in Sioux City, Iowa, and she told me that she has never lived in one place for more than three years. She went to four different high schools. Her freshman year was in New York, her sophomore year was in Kansas, her junior year was in Korea and her senior year in Texas. She has an older brother in Kansas and an older sister in El Paso, Texas. She also has a younger brother in college in Kansas and a younger sister in the U.S. Navy. She joined the Air Force in 2009 and specialized in Morse code and meteorology. She likes to write and sing – even karaoke. She said that she would like to go back to school and become a physician, however, that will have to wait a while as she and Geoff are expecting another boy in February.

Geoff was born in Springfield, Illinois, and raised in Carlinville. He has an older sister and a younger brother who are both in Illinois. Geoff enlisted right out of high school specializing in linguistics. He spends his free time woodworking, hunting and fishing. I’m told that he also plays a mean guitar.

Geoff and Victoria are also parents to Belle, a dog who ended up on the doorstep in Korea. Victoria said, “They eat dogs in Korea!” and she couldn’t let that happen. Bruce, the cat, rounds out this household

Welcome to Tehachapi, Victoria and Geoff. Thank you for your service.

Cara Evans and Fons Giannone have a most unusual lifestyle. Cara is a scientist with Nestle in Bakersfield and carpools daily. Fons has been in IT with FedEx in downtown Los Angeles for twenty years and takes the bus to Lancaster to catch the Metrolink to Los Angeles Union station on Monday morning and back again on Friday evening. The couple has been married for about six months and both agree that so far the system works well but they really LOVE their weekends at home. Cara was born and raised in Ohio. She still has family there. She was transferred to California from Columbus, where she had been with the company for many years in product development. She says that one of her responsibilities is flavor testing. As a result, she gets lots of free ice cream. What a great job for a scientist. I also learned that Nestle puts out an ice cream for dogs called “Frosty Paws”. It comes in peanut butter and vanilla. In her time at home Cara cooks, does yoga and works out. She said it helps alleviate stress.

Fons was born in France although his parents are Italian. He still has a sister living near Normandy. He told me that he spent a year in the French army and then worked as a bartender for 15 years in England, Canada and the United States. In 1989 Fons took a Greyhound from Canada to New Orleans, Louisiana, and has been in the United States ever since. After he moved to Los Angeles, he was a bartender at the Laugh Factory in Hollywood for three-and-a-half years. His passion is swing dancing and he said that he would really like to get a group going in Tehachapi. I really hope he does because that would be great fun. He still DJs for a swing group in Santa Monica once a month.

A big welcome from Tehachapi to you both, and, Fons, if you get a swing group going in Tehachapi, be sure to call The Loop newspaper and let us know.

If you have moved to the Greater Tehachapi Area within the last six months and would like to know more about your new community, call 661-822-8188. We will be happy to make an appointment for a hostess to come by and give you lots of helpful information, some valuable coupons, gifts and much more. Many families and individuals who come to the area are pleasantly surprised with the amount of knowledge they gather about their new home. Publishing your welcome article is completely voluntary and is not a requirement of being welcomed.