When Linda Slater went to work for Douglas County in 1975, she was supposed to be part-time. Twenty-eight years later and after two terms as county recorder, she is getting ready to retire.
Linda, 53, is married to outgoing Gardnerville Town Board chairman Randy Slater, who retired as a lieutenant in the Douglas County Sheriff's Office in 1991. She says they plan on taking a cruise through the Panama Canal in January.
Linda and Randy met at Lake Tahoe when she was working for the old Sahara at Tahoe and he was a deputy at the Lake substation.
She and a friend went to her apartment after work one evening and found the door left open.
"My friend said I shouldn't go in there, but I said I'm going in, it's my place. So
I yelled in there." Linda said. "I didn't hear a crash so there was no one going through the
sliding glass door or anything. Then I called and reported it."
Randy was one of the deputies who responded to the call, and though they never found the burglar, Randy and Linda found love and were married in 1971.
"It's been such a wonderful life, Randy has taken very good care of me," she said.
After the end of the year, when she turns the reins of the department over to Christian Warner, she plans on doting on her three grandchildren.
Her son Dennis Slater is keeping the family tradition alive serving with the Douglas County Sheriff's Office. Hew other son, Danny, lives in Washington.
"We plant to watch the grandkids' basketball games and t-ball," she said. "And there will be some time for us, too. We have a nice motorhome and if we feel like traveling, like we want to, we don't have to look over our shoulders at the calendar."
One piece of unfinished business is a result of Linda's auto accident last year. She went to the doctor on Tuesday to find out about a third operation, this time for a severely herneated diaphragm found in May.
"It is not really pleasant to face a third operation," she said. "You do what you have to recuperate."
Linda says people have been great since the accident.
"There has just been an absolute outpouring from people since the accident," she said. "All the cards and letters makes me realize what wonderful people are out there in the world and what close friends I have. The county commissioners have just been wonderful and Dan Holler and my staff should be commended beyond words."
However, if they find themselves in need of Linda's expertise, she says she is just a phone call away.
"I told Warner I'll be at home, so you can call me," she said. "But they know what they need to do. We have very long-term employees in the office."
Joan McCutcheon, a volunteer at the Lyon County Animal Shelter in Silver Springs, wrote me to say the adoption fee for pets at the shelter has been reduced from $20 to $10. Joan said she hopes to get all the animals adopted out for Christmas.
The shelter's phone number is 577-5005 and it is located at 3595 Highway 50 West.
About a dozen volunteers from the Salvation Army and Greater Nevada Credit Union gathered on Thursday to sort through toys for the angel trees located in branch lobbies. There are a lot of angel trees out there and it is a good way to help kids who might not otherwise get a toy for Christmas. The Salvation Army wraps up its gathering on Friday.
Kurt Hildebrand is former managing editor of the Nevada Appeal. Reach him at 887-2430, ext.402 or e-mail him at kurt@tahoe.com