What's Retiree Joan Dismore Doing Now?

Joan Dismore (regretfully we do not have a picture of her) worked in the SWIFT (System Wide Information for Telephoners) department at the old Main Library.  When the new Main Library opened at 303 North Laura Street, the department was renamed the Call Center.  Here’s Mrs. Dismore’s update to us:

“It’s hard to believe that 17 years have passed since my stint in the SWIFT area at the Haydon Burns Library.  I still remember the fun we had and some of the really unusual questions customers phoned in to us.  It was a happy nine years for me.

“Since that time, George and I have enjoyed many wonderful trips—ocean cruises to Hawaii and through the Panama Canal; riverboat cruises through the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany; bus tours of the western canyons, Poland, Czechoslovakia and parts of Russia and Italy; and a trip across Canada on the American Orient Express.

“Now we’ve narrowed our travels to a week each summer on the Gulf Coast with my sister’s family.

“Nearer to home, we work out three times a week.  My husband, George, is active in the Exchange Club and I volunteer one day a week at Nemours Children’s Clinic, meet old college friends once a month and also old high school buddies once a month.

“Thankfully, I’ve been able to keep in touch with a few former employees at Haydon Burns Library--Louise Warren (a former part-time librarian), Elsie Oishi (Senior Librarian in Literature and History), and Arden Brugger (headed up Genealogy department).

“At Sara Gunter’s request, I’ll relate a funny story about my engagement to George 54 years ago:  Meeting the father of a childhood friend, I told him to tell Joanne I was engaged to George Dismore.   Somehow, in transition, Dismore became Dinsmore (a Dinsmore dairy was here in Jacksonville for many years and was owned by the Skinner family who owned a lot of land).  By the time Joanne got my message, it had become my engagement to one of the Skinner boys whose family owned the Dinsmore dairy farm.”