Penny Watson Hoeltzel

Four years after graduating from Penncrest, I graduated from Penn State as a journalism major and have remained in the Philadelphia area ever since. I worked at a medical journal, married, and had 3 children. I returned to work at the journal and then at a local pharmaceutical company before retiring a few years ago.
 
My husband Les and I both love being retired, and somehow life doesn't seem to have slowed down that much! We have three grown kids, all out of college and married, and four grandchildren. (Two of our children and the grandchildren are in Colorado--a wonderful place to visit but too far away!) We enjoy travel, rooting for the Phillies, and getting together with family and friends. We stay active by running and hiking and have hiked the Appalachian Trail (AT) in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. It took a couple of years because we did it in day trips: Our cats would not hear of our being gone for extended periods, and we hiked only from spring until the start of hunting season to avoid being mistaken for game.
 
 One humorous incident occurred when we were hiking an isolated stretch of the AT in Pennsylvania. We noticed another hiker approaching from some distance, and as he drew nearer, we turned to each other in surprise. "That guy's either wearing a flesh-colored body suit," I exclaimed, "or--" But when we looked back at the hiker, he was carrying a large hat in front of him! We met on a narrow dirt road--with no vehicles or other people in view--and nodded and spoke as we passed each other. We didn't turn around to get a rear view!