Meet Your New Neighbors

"It's a small world, isn't it?" You hear people say that all the time but it was my meeting Dan and Ruth Schopen that brought true meaning to that statement. I asked Dan where he was born, he said Evanston, Ill. I said, "Me too". He said he was raised in a suburb of Chicago named Wilmette, I said, "Me too." He asked me what street I lived on and he grew up on the street right behind where I grew up. We left Illinois when I was eight, a little before his time, but who could imagine finding someone in our little town of Tehachapi, almost 2000 miles from Chicago and half a century later, who grew up so close.

Dan and Ruth moved here last November from Brentwood, Calif. (that's Brentwood in the Bay Area, not the one in LA). They found Tehachapi by accident. They were on their way from the Bay Area to Las Vegas to celebrate their anniversary when they broke down on the 58. They liked the town and then noticed that Tehachapi was about an equal distance from each of their kids. They began to look around and found their new home in Stallion Springs.

Ruth was raised in Glenview, Ill. near the Naval Air Station that closed in 1995. She has three brothers and they still live there. Dan has three brothers and two sisters and he says that they live "all over". He graduated from New Trier High School (where I took my first swimming lessons). He met Ruth on a blind date, adding that he knew right away that she was "the one".

When Ruth was hired by Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles as a medical coder, they moved to California. Dan worked as a truck driver, hauling sand and gravel until his retirement. His parents also moved to California and settled in Anaheim Hills. Dan and Ruth had four children, now all grown. Their son James lives in Las Vegas with his wife and two daughters. James works at the Mandalay Bay Hotel. The other three are still in the Inland Empire. Daughter Sharon also has a 20-month-old son. She and her sister Kayla work at Loma Linda Hospital.

As a result of her work with Cedars, Ruth was offered a position at Sanford Healthcare as a coding quality specialist and educator. She still commutes to Stanford, just not as often. She loves the needle arts (sewing, quilting, cross-stitch), and cooking and baking. Dan also likes to cook but his real interest is motorcycles and hot-rods.

The family greeters are two Siberian huskies. Dream is a gorgeous pure white Siberian husky with ice blue eyes and Ace is a rescue who was found near Las Vegas. They also have two cats name Shady and Belle.

Welcome Dan and Ruth. What a pleasant surprise it was to run into you.

Pat and John Hennemann moved to Tehachapi in May. They had lived and worked in Palmdale for the last 25 years. John and Pat recently retired after having owned a check printing business for 28 years. Before joining John in that business, Pat had spent over 20 years as a supervisor for Southern California Edison where she worked with the meter readers. Bear Valley was the perfect place for them to retire as their daughter Beth lives there along with three of their nine grandchildren. The rest are close enough for frequent visits.

John was born on Long Island, N.Y. and has one brother. His family moved to California when he was 13 years old and settled in Venice. Pat was born in Burbank, Calif. but raised in Reseda in the middle of the San Fernando Valley. She still has a sister in Palmdale.

The couple met at a Parents Without Partners meeting in Simi Valley and the rest is history. He had three children and she had two. Their children, now all adults are Pam, Steve, Beth and Joy. Joy still lives in Simi Valley and has three children, Beth is in Bear Valley and Steve lives in Las Vegas and also has three children. All of them are close enough for frequent visits. When the grandkids are not around Pat and John have the company of their two Golden Retrievers Sadie and Gracie.

Although both of them enjoy camping trips, Pat says that the grandchildren are her hobby. John, on the other hand, has a 1955 Chevy which is truly his hobby. Hopefully we will see it at one of the many Tehachapi car shows.

A big welcome to John and Pat; we know you will enjoy your retirement here.

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.