My Bio: Gale Ambur

I was born in Los Angeles and lived in Southern California till I was 17. My parents met on a boat right before the war, both returning from Argentina. My mother lived there with her parents (her dad worked for RCA Victor and spoke 13 languages and was raised in Europe). My dad after graduating from college saved money for a travel adventure after getting his degree and working in the oil/gold fields in Alaska. He was the oldest of 6 and at 100 years young plus was the last remaining of his immediate family to pass in 2014. He started working on the farm in South Dakota at age 3 (Swedish and Norwegian). My mother (hungarian) an only child was raised in the NY area and was Jimmy Durante's private secretary during the war. She was a rascal (a little bit like I Love Lucy & my dad was like Jimmy Stewart). So the two very ying and yang fell in love, married and wrote duffle bags of love letters for two years, while my dad was overseas. They had 3 daughters (I am the middle child). We were raised with respect, honesty and discipline, but nothing was ever pushed on us and we felt loved and well taken care.

My favorite memories of childhood were sleepovers with friends and relatives and camp every summer and scouts. My biggest goal as a child was to be a camp counselor. I was a candy striper, scouts and joined every club I could get into in high school. Since I always took extra credit and went to summer school, I found I had enough credits to graduate from high school a year early, so I did. I wanted to go to a 3 year college (Woodbury) and study fashion design, but I had a wonderful opportunity to live on my own and start school in Madrid Spain for a year (when Franco was still in power), so my love for travel started at age 17.

After returning to the USA from Europe, I attended Mt. Sac jr college and then San Jose State University and received my B/A in Graphic Design. After college I choose Aspen Co as the place to live and work, but the jobs I sought did not happen, so I was only there for 6 months and ended back in Los Angeles, obtaining a job with an advertising firm, then the County of Los Angeles and then a production company. My long time boyfriend who I met at Mt. Sac and I after years of being in love, separated and a few years later, I married another and had my son. That marriage was short lived due to his drinking (I never knew an alcoholic till I married one) thank god I knew to get out a year later with a 3 week old baby in hand. I was a single mom and ventured into real estate (Real Estate Broker) so my hours could be flexible and I could be there for my son too. I retired from 34 years in real estate 2012. When my older sister's two girls were teenagers, my older sister (Joy Ambur) passed away from ALS at age 47 and I then had 3 teenagers under one roof...what fun...but sad too. My mom passed away the same year.

So after the 3 kids were off at college and the school of hard knocks I moved to Capitola Ca and continued selling real estate and started seriously dating (hard to date while tending to 3 teenagers and working). But a year later I met my future husband - an Air Traffic Controller in the Bay Area. We married a year later (2000) and he promised when he retired we would move to Portland, where my dad and younger sister lived...and we did. Update, separated since 2016/divorced 2018. I now reside in Rio Vista, Ca full time and since 2017 I’ve been living with my love mate who I met when I was 22 when I worked at the Los Angeles County in the personnel dept and he was the D.A. Manager for all the attorneys under the Mayor. We are enjoying our golden years together.

Places i have lived after West Covina: Madrid Spain, San jose, Aspen CO, los angeles, Maui, manhatten beach, buena patk, lake arrowhead, couer d Alene Id, santa cruz ca, Capitola, Fremont, Downtown Portland and now Rio Vista, Ca. Now your turn!