Always smiling

Moses Lake woman tries to enjoy every day

MOSES LAKE — "With a laugh" is a description that comes up quite often when talking with Tammy Johnson.

Johnson describes herself as fun-loving, although she allows there are some days she has to be serious at work.

"I enjoy life," she said. "Life is short, and you should enjoy every day. At least try."

A resident of Moses Lake since starting sixth grade in 1977, Johnson's family moved from Spokane when her mother got a job as an X-ray technician at Samaritan.

Johnson has been married 17 years to husband Randy, whom she met at a lumberyard.

"He was working at Able Building Supply, and I was in there with someone else, and they were building us a shelf for my mom," she remembered. "Randy and I started talking. That's how we very first met."

It wasn't love at first sight, she said, but there was interest from the start.

"We definitely had a lot to talk about," she said. Much later, the couple got together.

There had been a time when Johnson planned to leave Moses Lake, but after she got married, she determined that her husband would not be leaving his good job.

"I just stuck around," she chuckled, noting she enjoys Moses Lake for the most part. "If you want to get out and do something, you can, if it's not too hot. I wish I could see it grow a little bit more so we could keep more people in town, but that might come."

Johnson did not feel the need to follow her mother into the medical profession, although she did help out at the hospital when Mom was on call, putting items in bags and cleaning.

Johnson has been working at a branch of a Moses Lake credit union for two and a half years, following several years at a dental office and eight years at a department store, plus experience at an attorney's office, an athletics facility and an automobile center.

"There's a couple of times I've made a career out of something," she said with a laugh.

She knew how to balance her checkbook, but needed to learn the computer side of the job at the credit union.

"I see me staying there as long as they'll have me," she said of the job. "I'm not leaving; they're going to kick me out."

Her favorite part of the job is working with her co-workers, followed by the customers.

"They always say we're having too much fun, we're always smiling, and we are," she said. "And we're always laughing, for the most part. So it's OK to have fun at work."

Outside of work, Johnson loves to golf, and loves arts and crafts, cross stitching and painting wooden ornaments.

"I'm also a TV junkie for 'CSI,'" she said with a laugh.

Johnson is also parliamentarian for women's volunteer sorority group Epsilon Sigma Alpha, to which she has belonged for 17 years, holding several offices.

"I keep the meetings in order," she explained of her role as parliamentarian. That means she reads the by-laws and has a timekeeper that makes certain no one speaks more than twice or exceeds five minutes on one particular subject.

"I keep it in order so nobody gets out of hand. I try," she amended, before adding with a laugh, "We'll see."

The volunteer group has worked for multiple sclerosis, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, and the Soap Lake Senior Center.

"We just try to give as much money as we can, or time, or something," Johnson said. "We just try to help parts of the community."

"She's really caring, and likes to give back to the community," said longtime friend Jeane Hunt. "She's fun to be with. She has a contagious laugh."

"I know she has a little lady who comes in whose husband passed away recently, never has dealt with a checking account all her life, and she comes in once a week, sits down with Tammy and they keep her checkbook balanced," said friend Patty Bernard. "That's kind of the person she is."

"She has a wonderful sense of humor, very kind, would do anything for anybody," friend Cathy Voss said. "She's just a lot of fun. She's such an honest and loving person. I think that's very important."

Johnson said her philosophy has been to enjoy what she does.

"If you're enjoying what you do, then you're going to spread more happiness around," she said. "Not every day is a bowl of cherries. But you do what you can."