Time Capsule - Robin C. by Jackie Loiacano

Robin - On the Day You Were Born

jackieloiacano — 2025-09-20 23:37:17 UTC

Robin was born on August 24, 1956. On the day that Robin was born a U.S. Army Shawnee helicopter completed the first non-stop flight across the United States mainland, flying 2,610 miles from San Diego, California, to Washington, D.C..

Cheers to Family!

jackieloiacano — 2025-09-20 23:39:25 UTC

Robin has three brothers, a sister, a son, a daughter and two grandsons. Family is everything to her. In fact, she and her daughter live together, travel together and are out and about at events all the time. Robin also helps take care of her mother as often as she can. She's traveled to Europe for a family wedding for a niece and you will often hear her talking about the conversations she's had with her nieces. She regularly gets together with her brothers even when everyone is scattered around the country. And her grandsons are the apple of her eye!

Education

jackieloiacano — 2025-09-20 23:41:32 UTC

Robin attended Holland Patent schools, graduating in 1975 and just celebrated her 50th high school reunion. Robin served on the committee for the reunion because as you will see she volunteers for everything and she knows everyone! She remembers having air raid drills and explicitly having to go out into the hallway with your face to the wall and your hands over your heads because it was the safest place to be since the buildings were a bomb shelter. She later realized as she got to be in about 6th grade how this was taken so seriously. She grew up next to a very active air force base and so there was always a threat that it could have some kind of event taking place there. In fact, there was such an influx of students in the area, that her school district had to build a bigger high school to house them all.

Aviation Career

jackieloiacano — 2025-09-20 23:54:36 UTC

While she was temping she came across an aviation company that hired her where Robin worked for a number of years in the aviation industry as a researcher and helped identify the owners of business aircraft. While she was working here, she also held several part-time retail jobs and local clothing boutiques. Not only for the extra money, but the discount on the clothes to keep her stylish didn't hurt! She was able to retire in 2023, but even after retirement, she just couldn't sit still and now works as a breakfast and lunch monitor at a local elementary school.

Boilermaker 15K Road Race Volunteer!

jackieloiacano — 2025-09-21 00:01:19 UTC

The Boilermaker Road race in Utica, NY is a pretty big deal. In fact, it is the 2nd largest 15K in the U.S.! But another big deal about the race are the volunteers. If you've never been to the area you have no idea what the crowds are like and the volunteers are AMAZING! Guess who's been volunteering forever? Yup, it's Robin. She's done everything from water stations, to helping out with the administrative side to working with the elite runners to make sure that they get to the start line and finish lines! She even volunteers for the dinner FOR the volunteers! Previous organizations that she has volunteered for include the Heart Association and anything that has to do with her children's previous school district.

Hockey Fan!!!

jackieloiacano — 2025-09-21 00:04:40 UTC

You'll find her at the Utica Comet's AHL hockey games and the Utica University college hockey games on a regular basis. She participates in all the fun events such as the teddy bear toss and even has season tickets for the Utica University. You can find her chatting with her daughter and anyone who is lucky enough to be sitting by her in her section. She loves to strike up a conversation.

The Happiest Place on Earth

jackieloiacano — 2025-09-21 00:07:02 UTC

Did someone say Disney? If it were up to Robin (and her daughter) they would go every year! If only money grew on trees. She loves all the parks. She is very committed and even went when she had an injury and was couldn't walk on one leg. She just got on that scooter and went.

Love & Marriage

jackieloiacano — 2025-09-21 00:20:49 UTC

Robin got married just shy of her 21st birthday and was married for 10 years. During that time she had two children and stayed home to raise them, until her divorce when she went back to work when both kids were in school.

Religion

jackieloiacano — 2025-09-21 00:25:02 UTC

Robin was raised Catholic and every Sunday you will find her at 10:30 am mass with her daughter. Religion is an important part of her life.

European Vacation

jackieloiacano — 2025-09-21 00:34:26 UTC

One of Robin's most memorable trips was her visit to London in August of 2023. The flight was long but the trip was worth it. She was able to see her niece get married and have some fun along the way. She got to do a lot of sight-seeing of the shops, Buckingham Palace and Tower Bridge. Unfortunately, the plan was to take the EuroStar to Disney Paris (which would have been the dream) but they weren't feeling that well that day. So it will need to be another time! Although I think the next trip might be to Ireland.

Proud to Have Her as My Friend

jackieloiacano — 2025-09-21 00:39:03 UTC

From weekly reminders to watch our shows together so that we could talk about them to breakfast, lunch or nighttime excursions just to get together to chat she's a special person to me. We laugh ALL the time. She has a great personality, a wonderful sense of humor, is kind to everyone and is truly is an avid community member.

Are You Organized?

jackieloiacano — 2025-09-21 00:41:51 UTC

If you want something done, give it to Robin to do it. When she's in charge, no detail gets left out. From office supplies to volunteer events and activities to reminders of things to do, she's your go-to gal!

Employment History

jackieloiacano — 2025-09-22 00:48:40 UTC

Robin started working when she was going through a divorce (although her lawyer told her not to). Her first job was working for a bank pulling credit reports on people and when the company was bought out, she had to reapply for her job! Luckily she was able to get a job with the new company, but unfortunately that company moved to North Carolina and so she was given a severance package and had to start over. She temped for a bit and even sold tupperware. She even worked at H&R Block where she remained as a part-time employee. She often had multiple jobs at the same time.

Growing Up

jackieloiacano — 2025-09-22 00:58:02 UTC

When she was little, she actually shared a camper trailer with her mom, dad, sister & brother which was right next to her grandparents farm. The family was so close that one set of grandparents lived above the other set of grandparents. Robin has some great memories of riding the tractor while her grandfather would smoke a cigarette and they would just as he would say "put-put" around the farm. He warned her to stay away from the fence because he didn't want her to get hurt by the bull, but she did end up getting bunted in the head by an animal, but it was the cow! Needless to say, they there was a lot of burgers and steaks that next week.

She also remembers a time as a little girl when they found a pail of tar and put sticks in it to "make food" innocently for the pigs, not knowing that it wasn't good for them and she got in a lot of trouble for that.

Impactful Events

jackieloiacano — 2025-09-22 01:08:18 UTC

Some of the big events that Robin remembered vividly were the assassination of JFK and while she was still in elementary school at the time, she remembers this being the first time she ever saw a funeral on TV and vividly remembers this scene where JFK's son saluted him at his funeral. Her brother's birthday happened to fall on the same day as the funeral and she remembers how it was such a solemn birthday because there was just a sad presence in the air.

Other impactful events include a huge snowstorm that happened in the 60s. The snow was up to the telephone wires and schools were closed for a week!

More recent events that were impactful were 9/11 and COVID. She remembers working at the bank during 9/11 and having to run to a local store to buy batteries for a transistor radio/tv so that they could watch and hear what was going on. A coworker had a son who worked between NJ & NY and was frantic until she was able to reach him. COVID had such a huge impact on how everyone was unable to see their family and friends and just brought about a lot of changes that were necessitated because of it.

Words of Wisdom

jackieloiacano — 2025-09-22 01:16:21 UTC

A few tidbits of advice from Robin & her views on society.

Enjoy your family. Spend as much time with them as possible and do what you need to do to be able to enjoy your time with them.
Save your money sooner. Find a way to put away money even if you don't think that you will need it later on down the road. Make good investments and plan ahead.
Don't put all your eggs in one basket. Be prepared for things to happen and always have a safety net.
Society needs to really get a grasp on the fact that people are living longer and to be patient with them. Don't brush aside someone who is older or belittle them when they need help.
Many older adults struggle and could really use the help especially when it comes to medical advice, planning and finances. It is not uncommon for an adult who has already retired to continue to work and collect social security and still have trouble making ends meet even if they had a job with a retirement account.

Changing World

jackieloiacano — 2025-09-22 01:26:10 UTC

One of the most notable changes in society is the way people don't have as much loyalty to their employers anymore. She believes that many people her age have a hard time wrapping their heads around this because loyalty used to be rewarded with things like a severance package, raises, bonuses, promotions and respect. However she sees the opposite side of this as well. Companies are much quicker to replace employee to save money and not give a second thought to the amount of knowledge that they are missing out on.

Life really was very different back then. It wasn't unusual for an adult to have a drink and drive the kids around (without seat belts - they didn't exist) and there weren't the tragedies that occured with accidents happening. Perhaps it is because you didn't hear of all the things that were happening. Today's world is bombarded with news and data from every angle and it seems that it was much simpler back then.