50-Year-Reunion

Timothy Noel 6104 Fairfield Drive, Huntsville, Alabama 35811 (256) 683 - 0268 February 2

During high school I concentrated mostly on musical courses: marching band, jazz ensemble (bass guitar) and concert band because this interested me more than anything else. This would turn out to be very helpful later. I chose to leave high school early, get my GED and join the US Air Force on November 11, 1974, but it didn ’ t take long to figure out that military life and I were not compatible. With an honorable discharge I returned to Bluefield, enrolled in Bluefield State College, and took whatever work I could find. A night job at St. Luke ’ s Hospital introduced me to a newly graduated LPN nurse that had just been hired. We struck up conversations, one thing led to another, and we were married three months later. But the economy in 1977 wasn ’ t doing well and she enlisted in the Army. I became a “ dependent husband ”, following her from base to base. Life changed drastically in 1981 when she was transferred to Nuemberg, Germany. I found work in an American warehouse as my day job but quickly found opportunities to play bass guitar for a series of “ GI bands ” that played in the NCO clubs on the weekends. I took full advantage of this, playing for several of them over the course of a year or so. However, as my musical career was ramping up, my unsteady marriage ended abruptly, and I was homeless for a few months with only the support of friends to get by on. When things seem darkest, it seems that God always makes a way. I had developed a good reputation and was fortunate enough to be able to audition for the position of bass player and backup vocalist for the second most popular Country and Western band in Germany, “ George and the Lucky Riders ”. I was hired by them and for the next six years I performed professionally, playing concerts, festivals and German and American clubs across Europe. We were blessed to perform as the opening act for the Marlboro Country Music Festival ‘83, opening for Waylon Jennings and Jessie Colter on a 15 - day tour across Europe. That same tour in 1984 had us opening for The Bellamy Brothers. We also supported other well - known American country artists who came to Europe to perform, needing a backing band to tour with. It was the dream job of a lifetime, and I was so blessed to be able to live it out. It was during that part of my career that God put Shelia Whitworth in my path, the wonderful lady who would eventually become my wife. In 1987, we decided that life in the fast lane needed to end, for various reasons, so we returned to the States together, got married and settled down in Huntsville, Alabama. Shelia secured a Civil Service position for a major agency of the federal government and retired in 2016 after 34 years of service. I completed my B.S. Degree in Computer Science and have been employed as a contractor in the IT field with many government agencies for the last 38 years.

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