John Mark Carney

Retired from Allstate after 34 years in the claim department. Currently working as a substitute aid for the Claremont Unified School District. My wife is a special Education Teacher at Danbury. I enjoy riding my mountain bike up in the Claremont Hills about 40-50 miles a week, Camping, and still enjoy playing the drums. I play in the Orchestra and Worship Team at Purpose Church in Pomona. I also play in a small swing band called Swing Shift that plays for special events. During the month of September 2016, our band Played for the Village of Claremont Wine Walk at the packing house plaza.

Update-since last post my wife has retired and we are spending a lot of time with our 5 grandkids. Camping and still playing the drums We have played the city of Claremont for their Friday Nite live events during the summer. Bought a Trek Mt. E Bike. Really enjoy exploring all of the hills above Claremont as well as Chino Hills State Park. God has been good to us. Life is good.

2020/2021 Update. Both Jana and I are now fully retired. We bought a second home in North West Bakersfield about 3 years ago so we can visit our daughter/husband and 3 grandkids more often. Main home is still in Claremont as our son and daughter-in-law and two grandkids live in Upland. This past year has been very interesting. Our daughter went back to teaching but the kids had to distance learn. So my wife and I go up to Bakersfield every other week and distance zoom our three grandkids. A Nanny comes in and takes over the following week. We have doing this the entire school year. Schools are starting to open part time. Looking forward for this school year to be over.

Both my son and daughter are Claremont High Graduates. My two brothers and sister also graduated from Claremont High.

During a band practice for a half time show three of us were goofing around. Rowland Withrow took the American flag from the band room, put it down his pant leg to conceal it. Another person had a wooden flute and I was carrying a marching drum. During a section of a patriotic song that we were rehearsing the three of us broke formation and began marching up the middle of the field as a joke. We looked like the three wounded soldiers that you see in an old civil war picture. The band director actually liked our little skit and we added it into the overall show at our next football home game field show.

Larry Pitcher. He was a good band director with a lot of energy. He built the music program up from a small unit to over a hundred people performing. He was able to have the jazz band perform with other great musicians such as Frank Rosalino, Bobby Brant and Doc Severenson from the tonight show.