Christine Jones Probett. . . she’s told me her real middle name, but I don’t remember it anymore. I just know she was once a Jones.
She’s one of those relatives you don’t get to see too often because you live on the other side of the country (or world), but she’s always fun when you do hang out.
When I was younger, I remembered her as the airplane aunt. That’s what she did for a living. Now that I’m a little older, well, I still think of her in terms of airplanes, even though she’s a professor now. Old habits die hard.
How I met Christine Probett
I have no idea. I’m sure she was around when I was born or shortly after. She’s another one of those people I’ve just always known.
Who Christine Probett is
- Business professor at San Diego State University
- Former president of Goodrich Aircraft Interior Products
- My dad’s sister (my only aunt by blood)
What Christine Probett likes
- Corny jokes
- Good wine
- Teaching
One fact about Christine Probett
She worked for NASA. As a kid, and even now, it’s pretty cool to have relatives who worked at NASA. After NASA, she helped design airplane parts. So in all the books I read as a kid, I’d see airplanes and ask my mom if those were the ones she worked on.
One reason I like Christine Probett
Okay, this will actually be two, because I need to get these stories in here somehow.
First, when she and my dad were young, she told him that cookies need time to sit after they come out of the oven so the poison goes away. That’s the fact.
The rest of the story is a little hazy. My dad seems to say that he always knew she was joking. My mom says even when she met him, he still thought cookies needed time to de-poison.
Second, again when Aunt Christian and my dad were young, my dad decided to dress as Dracula for Halloween. Aunt Christine hooked him up by greasing his hair down with Vasoline, which evidently stuck around for weeks.
That’s Aunt Christine.
One memory I have of Christine Probett
Trying to get a decent picture together. I’m not sure what it was, but we always got pictures where we had our eyes closed, weren’t looking in the right direction, or just somehow messed up the photo. I think the same happened with my brother too. It turned into a tradition.
Christine Probett in one word
Aunt.
