About Marty and Karla Grant
My name is Marty Grant (actually Marvin A. Grant Jr). My folks nicknamed me "Marty" for some reason. My theory was that I was named after singer Marty Robbins, whom my dad was a big fan of, but my mother said they just liked the name, and first heard it on the Mickey Mouse Club! (I prefer the Marty Robbins theory!)
I was born in Marion County, South Carolina, which is where my mother's family had lived for generations. My dad had moved there in time for his senior year of High School and that is when they met. My dad's family was mostly from the mountains of North Carolina. My parents moved us around several times before I was 5 years old, but by then we moved to Durham, North Carolina where I started and finished the first grade.
After first grade we moved to Hillsborough, North Carolina where I completed 2nd, 3rd and part of the 4th grade. While I was in the 4th Grade my dad was transferred to Columbia, SC (he worked for IBM, now retired). I finished the 4th grade there, and started the 5th. During the 5th we moved to Kinston, North Carolina and resided a few months with my Uncle Garland Grant. Before the 5th grade was over, we moved back to Hillsborough, NC. We remained in Hillsborough after that. I finished 5th grade, and 6th through 12th in Hillsborough.
I applied, and was accepted at North Carolina State University in the School of Civil Engineering, but the tuition was a big problem, so I went into the United States Air Force instead. I spent 6 weeks at boot camp in San Antonio, Texas (Lackland Air Force Base), then 7 weeks at Personnel School at Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi, Mississippi. I was trained to work in the Consolidated Base Personnel Office (CBPO) as a Personnel Technician. For my first assignment, I was assigned to Grand Forks Air Force Base in North Dakota! I had to check a map to see where North Dakota was, as I wasn't sure! I spent the rest of my enlistment there in that cold, but friendly state. After only two weeks there, I was transferred out of Personnel into the Personnel Systems Management office (managed computer systems for Personnel Division) and that was my job for nearly 4 years.
Just a few days after arriving in North Dakota, I met my future wife Karla Mangus.
Karla was born in Seattle, Washington, and lived there the first few years of her life, then her family moved to Illinois. Her dad was an Engineer with Caterpillar and worked with them until he retired. They lived in Brimfield, a small town not far from Peoria.
Karla graduated from High School and went off to College in Kentucky for a year, then back to Illinois for some more. Then she enlisted in the United States Air Force (about 1 year before I did). She also got her boot camp at Lackland AFB in Texas, and went to Personnel school in Keesler AFB, Mississippi. She was assigned to Grand Forks AFB, North Dakota, and by the time I got there, she had been there a year already, and had new orders to go to Italy. Fortunately, those orders got cancelled, and we got married (a few years later!).
Karla's enlistment ended before we got married, but afterwards, she came back and spent another year in North Dakota with me, until my enlistment was up. During that year, she went to the University of Minnesota at Crookston and worked on a Court Reporting degree. When my enlistment was up, we moved to North Carolina and spent a few months with my parents. Karla wanted to finish her Court Reporting degree, and there was only one school in North Carolina that offered it, and that was Lenoir Community College in Kinston, so that is where we moved (and have been ever since!).
I got a job at the City of Kinston in the computer department, and worked as a Computer Systems Technician for 8 months. At that time my boss left for another job, and I got her job as Computer Systems Supervisor, and remained in that position for about 4 years. Just before I left, they changed the title to "Data Processing Administrator", which I liked even less than the old title. I left the City of Kinston to work with Logics, the company that provided the City of Kinston (and other local governments) with all of its Governmental Software. I worked as a Cobol Programmer and a Technician with them for almost 8 years before I was unexpectedly laid off. A few days after being laid off, I was hired (part-time) by Ag-Soft a company that provides software for Seed Companies to manage their inventories and sales.
While Karla was working on her degree, she got a job with the Kinston Police Department helping with data entry work for a Narcotics investigation. After that investigation was complete, she worked in administration in the Narcotics division.
Karla obtained her Court Reporting Degree and began work as a Freelance Court Reporter, taking Depositions, as well as working in Court, filling in for other reporters. After awhile, she became an Official Court Reporter for the State of North Carolina working as a "rover", covering three counties (sometimes more). All that travel was too stressful, so she quit that job, and became a Freelance reporter again. After a year or two, she became an Official Court Reporter again, this time for only one court, in Wayne County. That is where she still works.
We are born again Christians, believing that Jesus died for our sins, and rose again after three days, and we believe that the Bible is true and complete. We also believe in the literal return of Christ to earth someday (someday soon!).
Our interests include: Bible Study, Hiking, Music (Gospel, Country, Rock). Some of my interests also include: Genealogy, Computers, Reading Science Fiction, TV (Sci-Fi), Science (Archeology, Paleontology, Astronomy), History and much more. Karla's interests also include: Playing piano, Roller Skating, reading and much more. Check out our "Personal Tidbits" page for book reviews, TV shows we watch, etc.
We have no children, but we do have a cats named Tabby, Jabber and Rebel. Our other cat, Scruffy recently past away.
Scruffy was with us for 10 years, and was probably about 15 years old when she died. She was a pure White American Shorthair, and she was just as mean as can be. She showed up on our doorstep several years ago, in very bad shape, with a terrible wound all around her front shoulder and leg. She kept hanging around our door, and it was getting so cold outside, that we finally had mercy on her, and let her inside. The vet said that the wound was caused by a collar that she had tried to get out of, and had somehow gotten it wrapped around both her neck and leg and it rubbed her raw! She was also de-clawed already, and a de-clawed cat has no business being outside where it can't defend itself! We don't know whose cat she was (and whoever it was didn't deserve to have her), but she adopted us pretty quickly. She was very friendly to Karla and me, but not to anyone else. She didn't like our other cat Tabby, but he just adored her. She died on March 14, 2002 after her health slowly declined due to cancer. We will miss her greatly. Though she was mean to others, to us she was as sweet as can be.
Tabby is (you guessed it) a Yellowish-Orange Tabby cat. He is about 6 years old. We first noticed him when Scruffy started having a hissing fit (a "hissy fit") and some serious growling while laying in the window seat. We looked outside and expected to see a big dog out there, but all we saw this little kitten! This little tabby cat was so small, yet it saw Scruffy in the window and was trying to climb up to see her. Scruffy didn't want anything to do with him, and she had a similar reaction every time she sees him (even years later!). We assumed he was a neighborhood cat, and ignored him. A few days later we saw him attacking the neighbors dog (a BIG dog). We thought we were about to witness something horrible, but the dog was so happy to have a playmate that they just played together. After a few weeks we couldn't find out who owned the cat, so we took him in. We tried to get him and Scruffy used to each other, but Scruffy just wouldn't cooperate, and we had to keep them separate at all times. It was very frustrating. However, Tabby is a very sweet cat, and he fits all the well known cat stereotypes. He is too fat though (but very active).
Recently we added to our household by adopting brothers Jabber and Rebel, who are both American Shorthairs. They were six months old when we got them. Tabby enjoys the company.
Last Updated January 21, 2006
