Your Incredible Neighbors: ALWAYS ON THE MOVE

Green Valley woman walks 10 miles every day

Who around town has not seen Julie Sissons in her cowboy hat and jeans, walking the streets of Green Valley?

The intrepid walker goes 10 miles every day — five in the morning and five more in the afternoon. Sissons walks one mile in 10 minutes, she said, and does five miles in an hour.

“We were built to walk from the day of our birth; walking is the best thing you can do,” Sissons said. “I really think my good health stems from all my walking and exercise.”

Sissons exercises at home a half hour in the morning, and then goes on her five-mile walk “right after I exercise.” In one year, she walks more miles than she drives her yellow Volkswagen Beetle, “Charlie.” (Sissons gives a name to all her possessions.)

Sissons was born and raised in Emporia, Kan. She attended Emporia State Teachers’ College, majoring in Physical Education.

“One day, I wrote a thesis in class on airline stewardesses, and became so intrigued, I became one!” Sissons said with a chuckle.

United Airlines sent Sissons to training classes in Cheyenne, Wyo.

“It was wonderful at the time,” Sissons said. “We wore long white gloves with our blue uniforms. The restrictions were great on height, weight, hair length. You had to be single, and if you were divorced, no children. We were even checked before every flight to make sure we wore a girdle! Also, ours was the first class to graduate wearing the then new “scoop” hats.

“In 1972,” Sissons said, “the airlines began hiring males. That is when our job description went from stewardess to flight attendant.”

One humorous incident while she flying in a chartered plane filled with football players from Raleigh-Durham N.C. Sissons, being very petite, described how some of the team members took her and threw her in an overhead bin.

Sissons said planes at that time were either strictly coach or first class. Combining first class and coach came into being with the advent of jet planes. She flew on domestic routes for five years, then, went back to Cheyenne as an instructor. She taught there for eight months, then, was sent on to O’Hare Airport, Chicago, where she taught another class.

“I flew 37 years on the mainland and Hawaii. In all this time, I never had a car so, on layovers, always in cities, I walked everywhere or took the bus. I then retired back to my hometown, near my parents in Emporia,” Sissons said.

“In 1998, after my father died, my mother moved to Green Valley,” Sissons continued, “which brought me here.”

She added: “I’ve had a wonderful career, and a wonderful life, so I feel I want to give back.”

Under her cowboy hat is another Julie Sissons people do not know about. Her “giving back” includes community involvement.

“I really feel everyone needs to be a member of some organization,” Sissons said. “It makes you feel you’re doing more for your community.”

Sissons works two to three days a week at the Lions’ Bin. (Of course, she walks there from her home in Fairways II).

“The Green Valley Lions and the La Canoa Lions are like one organization; we all work together. All of our proceeds go to various charitable organizations,” Sissons said.

“It’s a wonderful organization; I dedicate a lot of time to them. Her particular job is recycling the Joyner-Green Valley Library’s paper. She feels our library is an exceptionally fine addition to Green Valley.

In her Fairways neighborhood, Sissons is a pet sitter extraordinaire. She pet-sits, on a regular basis, nine dogs and three cats for owners off on a trip. She said pets left alone when their owners are gone are very lonely, so she brings the dogs home, warms their blankets and sleeps them in her bedroom.

“The pets are company for me,” she said with a hearty laugh, “My home is dubbed “Four Star.”

She said she wants no remuneration for her sitting services, but pet owners insist and pay her. She gives all monies to PAWS and The Animal League of Green Valley.

At Christmas, each of Sissons “pets,” receives a Christmas stocking filled with treats and toys.

Sissons home in Fairways is impeccably decorated to the last detail in a Southwestern theme. Last year, her home was on Green Valley’s Tour of Homes. She has a great home library, and when not walking or doing her community work, she is reading voraciously.

“I love talking to the people here, I think of our wonderful library, and when I come home, I see the beautiful purple mountains. I love Green Valley,” she said.

Lois Weinert is a freelance writer. Comment on this story online at www.gvnews.com.