Meet Your New Neighbors

After living 18 years in Buena Park near Knotts Berry Farm, Phil and Terry Zamora retired and moved to Tehachapi in October. They were tired of the Orange County traffic and were looking for a slower lifestyle in which to spend their retirement. Terry’s brother, who lives in Cypress, Calif. (near LA) had heard of Tehachapi and suggested they give it a look. The location was perfect as Terry has family in Shafter and Phil has family in Barstow. Now her brother also wants to move here when he retires.

Terry is a retired mortuary manager. She was a mortician for 30 years and did everything but the embalming. This included doing makeup and hair. It is no surprise that she came away with the usual mortician’s sense of humor. For example, she says that her clients were “dying to get there” and the mortuary had a “lay away plan”. However, that is far from where she started.

Terry was born in South Gate and raised in Compton. She went to school in Linwood and later attended Cerritos College. She got her teaching credential and taught for four years. At the age of 30 she started her own commercial cleaning business before moving on to the Cypress College of Mortuary Science and a 30 year career. She says that she loves to shop in antique stores and bazaars and is looking forward to holiday shopping in Tehachapi.

Phil was born in Jarales, New Mexico, a little town that is now not much more than a post office close to Belen and south of Albuquerque. His family comes from an area called the Abo mission ruins. This part of New Mexico is now known as the Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument, near the town of Mountainaire. For the tourist, it is a fascinating day trip from Albuquerque; one I had the opportunity to do in the early 1990’s. Anyway, Phil’s family eventually moved to California and he still has family near Barstow. He added that he recently had the opportunity to attend his 50th high school reunion.

Phil was drafted out of high school and served in the Viet Nam War with the National Guard. He was a maintenance technician and after the war he continued to work for the National Guard for 19 years in Long Beach. He attended Cerritos College and became a welder. When he left his work for the military, he became a welding instructor at Cal State Long Beach, a job he held for over 10 years until his retirement. Hunting and fishing are still his passions and he plays his guitar as often as he can.

The Zamoras have a grown daughter, Jennifer, who works in logistics for a large trade show organizer in Los Angeles. They also have a canine son named Jack, a small rescue dog with a big personality who considers himself the family protector.

Welcome to Tehachapi, Phil and Terry. We are delighted you decided to become part of our community.

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. Publishing your welcome article is completely voluntary and is not a requirement of being welcomed.