Meet your new neighbors

It was July when Hugh, Miriam, Dustin and Collin Shane arrived in Tehachapi with a black lab named Ashes and two cats (Duke and Duchess). They moved here from Colorado Springs where Hugh had been a contract engineer for MITRE Corporation. Now employed by Scaled Composites in Mojave, Hugh is an engineer on the Stratolaunch project. Miriam said that Tehachapi was a natural place for the family to settle as they were used to mountain living with Colorado Springs at 6200 feet and similar high desert scrub vegetation.

Miriam is a teacher and worked with exceptional children in Colorado Springs where she was the program liaison with the city. She is also a specialist in cultural history and would like to teach in Tehachapi as soon as they get settled.

Both Hugh and Miraim were born in New York State near the real Sleepy Hollow. Miriam comes from Dobbs Ferry and Hugh from Pleasantville. Twenty year old Dustin said that he was born in Seattle and his thirteen year old brother, Collin, was born in Las Gatos, California. He added that one favorite place the family has lived was Teton Valley, Idaho, where they lived for nine years.

Miriam told me that the entire family hike, ski and climb mountains. Mountaineer Hugh has climbed 30 of the 55 peaks in Colorado that are over 13,000 feet and Mount Whitney in California among others. She and Hugh both ride horses and she is now looking forward to getting a kayak and canoe.

The family also has a love of music. Hugh has played classic country guitar professionally since he was 15. Dustin plays drums and saxophone. His musical preferences are jazz and blues. Collin plays the flute. Miriam said that both boys played in the youth symphony in Colorado Springs. Dustin told me that he plans to go to college locally and is also very interested in the volunteer opportunities available in Tehachapi. I told him that we can find lots of ways to keep him busy here.

A huge “Tehachapi welcome” to the entire Shane family.

After 25 years in IT at Chevron in Bakersfield, Kim Rotkahr will be retiring this month from her job in “application support”. When her husband passed away last March, she knew that she wanted to make a move from Bakersfield. Although she was born in Bakersfield, she had lived in Tehachapi and spent the fourth, fifth and sixth grades here. She always loved the mountains so this is where she decided to retire.

She found the perfect lakefront house in Bear Valley to share with her children and grandchildren and made the move in July. She said that the interior of the house had more wood in it than she really wanted; however, she is finding that it is growing on her.

Kim’s parents, brother and sister all live in Taft, close enough to visit often. Her oldest daughter also lives in Taft and is mom to her two grandsons. Her son lives in Bakersfield and is dad to her two year old granddaughter. Kim also has a daughter in the Coast Guard currently stationed in Rhode Island.

If you think Kim might be a bit lonely, think again. She has her five year old MaltiPoo, Chaplin, and nine month old ShiPoo, Maggie, to make sure that she is not.

Welcome to Tehachapi, Kim, and Happy Retirement.

Samantha Gastineau arrived in Tehachapi in July from Ventura, California. The retired Facility Security Officer wanted a change of scenery and the coast was getting too crowded. The small town of Tehachapi seemed just what she was looking for and Old West Ranch provided the solitude she desired.

Samantha was born in Columbia, Missouri and came to California when she was four years old. In the 1960s she had the opportunity to attend the University of the Seven Seas and traveled around the world by ship. She sings, plays the guitar and is part of a five piece acapella group that sings 50’s doo-wop and rock.

Most of Samantha’s interests now involve the study of herbal medicine and aromatherapy. This is a field she would like to become more involved with here in Tehachapi.

She has one child, two grandchildren, two great grandchildren and an Egyptian Mao cat named Tigger.

Welcome, Samantha.

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.