DUHS Class of 1953 -- 50-th Anniversary -- September 6, 2003
In case you are
starved for news -
Hurricanes have come
VERY CLOSE to the Florida Peninsula and
to Bermuda
The Disneyland Big
Thunder Railroad ride had an apparent equipment failure causing an engine to
jump the track -- injuring 10 and killing 1.
Illegal aliens can now apply for California
divers’ licenses; which may assist them in voting against the recall of the governor who signed this into law
yesterday.
The next time that
you go to McDonalds, be sure to ask for the California Special -
for a mere 79-cents extra, you can run for replacement governor.
-- An anonymous
quote ___
Old age is
when former classmates are so
wrinkled, gray, and bald,
that they don't recognize you.
Your committee has
struggled long and hard to decide between picnic /vs/ catered affair, chicken
/vs/ beef, park /vs/ Hotel /vs/ country club,
tux /vs/ suits /vs/ Hawaiian /vs/ casual, Maroon /vs/ Cardinal /vs/ Red, DJ /vs/ Boom-box, loud /vs/ soft-so-we-can-talk-without-shouting.
I voted poorly on one matter and lost several
preference arguments, but I’m glad to see that so very many of us
managed to get here and enjoy each other’s company. In the process the
committee got to know each other more than we ever did in school, and in some
cases TOO much more; but we’ve survived.
We sure hope that
you enjoy this event; if you’re offended by other folks being over- or under-
dressed, then I figure that’s TOUGH!!
‘cause we’re NOT here to compare
wardrobes and bankbooks, but rather to meet, greet, reminisce, and chat over
QUIET background music.
Many who are NOT
attending expressed a preference for something simpler - like a picnic.
But our hope is that
tonite’s format has MAXimized the attendance.
PLEASE pass along
your comments about the future to Mary Varela
by tearing off the last page of the program packet and getting it her.
Be careful not to smear the remainder - it just came from the copier.
Finding everybody
for THIS reunion was a long and arduous task begun five(5) years ago, waaaaay
back in the prior millennium, specifically in 1998, involving multiple search
operations and even RE‑finding some who moved and forgot to keep in
touch. The initial driving force was that I discovered that the School had an
alumni directory published in 1995 and I was listed as “missing”; in fact there
were only 58 of us listed as “found”, and some of those were bogus addresses
and even bogus people.
Eventually I got a
peek at the original info that the School gave to the publishing company; my
address there was the one from which we moved while I was in 8th grade; so much
for accuracy and currency.
At this time I
believe we have just over 200 street addresses and 125 email addresses, and my
DUHS E-Mail box from this 5-year period contains just under 10-million bytes in
just over 2100 messages.
Such searches will NOT be done
in the future, if you get "lost" from the committee's "Radar
Screen" after this event, then you will just simply miss out on part of
the future.
In order to keep track of everybody for any future reunion events,
PLEASE keep the committee informed of any change of name, address, telephone number, area‑code,
or E‑Mail by forwarding that information as requested on the “Keeping in
Touch” page in your program packet. Likely significant stuff will continue to
be posted on the website noted there. There is nearly no such thing as e-mail
forwarding; the post-office forwards mail for a short while; the phone company used to offer number
changes for a short period but seem to have gotten away from that service; the
area-code changes (most of which are political rather than necessary -- but
that’s another subject we can chat about off-line) seem to give NO notice to
the caller whatsoever.
I’d like give a big
thanks to thank Margie Morrow for her insight of who might know about whom and
untiring help in finding folks and in using her phone card to call a lot of
long distance folks. And also to Alex
Petrie for his paid “gold” membership
status in Classmates.Com -- enabling him contact all of those who showed up on that somewhat awkward
over-commercialized website.
If any of you have
Unlimited calling and might like to help for the future to make calls, then
please let me know.
Also it should be
noted that ...
* Margie and Mary Varela made
the MAROON-RIBBONED Norseman extracts which are at each place; there are
two “editions” placed alternately, so
each couple should end up with one each; please make sure that you do. There
may be some extras for you singles who want a matched pair.
* Myra Murray has done a super job with the
pics of those no longer with us; do look at her work of the Volsung images and
also the recent images which she was able to obtain from surviving relatives.
* Mike Stelzer capitalized the investment in
the class caps, so please do patronize the table over here where Margie’s
grandkids are holding down the fort to sell them.
* Bob Siemann’s wife made the main door-prize
quilt; we all owe her a BIG THANK YOU!!
* I forget who made the other door prizes,
but our thanks to them also.
* Ben Rogers put together the Trivia Quiz
* Mary Varela created the stuffed Vickie
in the corner.
* Sally Harris’ husband, Ralph Lawson, has
made an excellent notebook of the pictures which I’ve posted on the WebSite –
together with the names of those which have been identified so far; please stop
by and look at our “original” selves from FIRST GRADE onward, and give us names
for the blanks.
* Darlene Conte has graciously agreed to
sight-read and play our Alma Mater, but we don’t have a piano.
Regarding
the size of the class; well, as June Allyson says, "That Depends".
As
of a short while back, the counts are as follows ...
280
Yearbook pictures
271
Grad Nite program entries
281
In 1977 list from the reunion
program
(187 found + 94 lost)
277
In 1995 list from the School's
published Directory
( 58 found + 219 lost)
but
they do not precisely overlap each other;
there
are only 236 on all of those lists (i.e.,
most of us);
then
there are 76 on some but NOT ALL of
the lists
then
there are 16 which have been added
(e.g., Shirley Bergman)
‑‑‑‑
for
a total of 328.
There is a list of
all of the class near the back of your program; it is coded for missing and
deceased.
There is a list of
the last known addresses of everybody on each table; please share it around and
flip a coin to see who takes it home.
There were lotsa
gals who obtained recognition as Life Members of the Calif Scholarship
Federation, but only two guys: Jerome Holland passed away recently, and Carl
Kardinal was just inducted into the School’s Hall of Fame. The two youngest
guys in the class are now gone: Jerome and Jack Potapov.
In our day there was
“Mad Magazine” which boasted “Our Price
25 Cents Cheap”;
well, I still have a
few good Xerox-like copies of the ‘53 Volsung senior portrait pages, available:
$10 - cheap.
As I can reckon
things, there were SIX(6) couples from the class
[ Blackmore, Agnew, Mannino,
Kearns, Smith, Garrett ]
but only two survive, and only one is
present -- Tom and Joanne Pearson Blackmore
Please let’s have a
show of hands of ...
... those members of OUR class who are
married to School-mates from other
classes ____
In both cases there
used to be more, but circumstances have taken a toll on some.
How many of us still
live in Downey? ____
There are 43
confirmed NOT coming for reasons of Health, Weddings, Cruises, Vacations,
Conflicts, lack of interest. Some took the effort to send their regrets, wish
us well, and ask to be remembered ,
e.g.,
PhyllisBierbower,
FeliciaCarhart, NormCollins, KenCopeland, SallyDever, JimHorn, JohnMarxmiller,
RichardMcGuire, HenryOranMitchell, DougPhillips, AltheaSand, MargaretWallar, MaryAnnWatts&JerryM, BerylWilliams,
EdWissler, FredZeuthen
Imagine that the
long range notations go to MaryJo Gobel and Joan Wintermute for distance
traveled to get here (they coincidently live a few blocks from each other in
Florida), to Arlis Arnold for distance
traveled when leaving (she’s moving to Hawaii) , and to Sheelagh Jennings for
distance from here at the moment (in Italy with some of her sons who live
there).
For those of you who
do already have E-Mail addresses but have not been getting stuff about the
class, please let me have your email address or simply email me when you get
home, and do note my email address and the Class’ website address in the
program.
For those of you who
have not yet gotten connected to the internet to explore the wondrous world
wide web and E-Mail, I urge you to get with it and step into the third
millennium. Your kids or grandkids will be glad to help you, and then email me
your address. Many of you can even get your feet wet a good deal at your local libraries.
Learning does not
stop with graduation or retirement.
Besides finding
class members, I’m also into genealogy a little; let me share with you the
origin of some customs from times gone by. The “wakes” held for the deceased, stem from times when
they would lay them out at home for a few days to see if they might wake
up. The phrases
“dead ringer” & “saved by the bell”
are from when people
would die (way back when ~ before they embalmed people) and to make sure that
they were dead they would tie a string
attached to a bell around the toe or hand ~ if the dead person woke up in the
casket (in the grave) the string would pull -- thus ringing the bell ~
notifying the graveyard attendant that there was a "dead Ringer"
meaning dig the guy up! “Saved by the bell” meant that the dead person was
saved by the ringing of the bell and was not left to die in the casket.
And I’m glad to note
that contrary to RUMOR, Don Hocker is alive and well and with us tonite.
Tried to get an
actuary friend of mine to tell me what percentage of us should statistically be
deceased, but apparently the calculations took too long as he never got back to
me.
Classmates Bill
Prahm, Barbara Whitmore, Robert Wilkerson, & Jim Sharp have been RUMORED to
be deceased, but as I'd prefer to confirm such things (to avoid the Mark‑Twain
syndrome), would VERY MUCH appreciate anything that anyone might know about
them.
Patsy Steere has
snuck out from under the 53Viking radar; G. Martin Wright never came onto the
radar; any info appreciated. Have heard from some that they would come if
certain others were coming; never did hear of any that would NOT come if certain others were coming.
-----------------
Bill O’Neill of
DUHS’52 (one-time Volsung editor) has written some excellent remembrances of
life around DUHS; some are included by permission in your program tonight; am
sure that they will bring back fond memories of your time there; so DO contact
Bill thru his class’ webpage & tell him how much you appreciated reading
it. Also on their WebSite, Bill has
placed a very good article about his classmate Jim Hearn.
Also in the program
is a pitch for the School’s Hall-Of-Fame, please check it out.
Other items there
about our time and the years since, have been sent to me in Email over the
months.
‑‑ A quote from Lee Iacocca ‑
on Teaching___
"In a
completely rational society, the best of us would aspire to be
teachers and
the rest of us would have to settle for something less,
because
passing civilization along from one generation to the next ought
to be the
highest honor and the highest responsibility anyone could have."
It’s too late for us
now, but do remind your kids and grand-kids to make a point of returning to
campus and thanking those teachers which had a positive influence.
Speaking of
teachers: those of whom I’m aware are
still on this side of the sable curtain are ...
WallyKincaid, DeanKrebs, GusShiney,
JohnMilam, and JaneWalta to whom I owe the concepts of using the
possessive with the gerund and never ending with a preposition - about which
Churchill once said "This is the sort of English up with which I will not
put.".
I was planning to
announce a BYO-everything picnic
tomorrow on campus, but it will be locked, but last week they offered me a key
because mine won’t work any more - they changed the locks, but with all of the
construction going on, I couldn’t find a suitable spot.
In our day, the old
bleachers which had been built by the WPA and stood N.E. of the Chem/Physics classrooms, were moved on large rollers
to the what became Burbeck field in our year.
That area has just recently been demolished. The football field (which
will be replaced by two baseball diamonds) will be moved to the west, and the
new grandstand/bleachers will be enclosed underneath and have classrooms
located there. Have heard that the field will be artificial and
less-destructible and thus will be able to be used for other events without concern for its playing quality. I’d
like to suggest that we all write to the School Principal, the District
Superintendent, and the Board of Education and request that the new field
retain the name “Burbeck Field”.
At one time in
Downey there was a large Bean field/OrangeGrove at Alameda and Lakewood which
became, in turn, E.M.Smith(EMSCO), Vultee, Consolidated Vultee, Convair, NAA,
NAR, Rockwell, Boeing,
But
since the world is now such a friendly place these day that we no longer need
good defense machinery, that has all been dismantled in favor of
City-REdevelopment into
Retail Warehousing, Hospital, School, Park, etc.
There was a NASA-to-Downey turnover ceremony last week, but my understanding is
that Governor Davis is somehow still sitting on the official paperwork due to
some strange twisting of a “Desert
Reclamation Act”; it’s rumored that he is waiting for a contribution to his
quash-the-recall campaign fund to sign off on the deal.
-- A Quote from
Ralph Waldo Emerson on SUCCESS___
To laugh often
and much;
to win the
respect of intelligent people and affection of children;
to earn the
appreciation of honest critics
and endure the betrayal of false friends;
to appreciate
beauty
to find the
best in others
to leave the
world a bit better,
whether by a healthy child
a garden patch
or a redeemed social condition;
to know even
one life has breathed easier because you have lived.
This is to
have succeeded.
Surely we’ve all
succeeded in our own way.
To those of you who
are not yet interested in your family history, I’d suggest that you make time
now to take an interest before it’s too late. In either case my first
suggestion is to sit down with those in your next older generation -- whether
parent, uncle, cousin – and interview them with a Camcorder, like
David Frost would do. If you are already the oldest generation, then sit down
with the next younger generation in a similar setting. The object should be for
no one to take with them the only copy of some vital information in family
history.
In the business of
tracking down folks, you learn a lot about inter-personal relationships and
rumors, too, -- sometimes more than you ever wanted to know, e.g.,
Why some abhor
reunions.
Whose email
addresses are based on the family pets
Who’s left reunions
with more different mates
Which family has the
greatest sibling rivalry
Which local
popular-ite has the least interest in the reunion.
Who’s lived in more
places since we started tracking.
Who has worked for
the same company the longest - there is a tie here:
Richard Beck and Merle Eide
both with NAA/NAR/Rockwell/Boeing for 50 Years
If you’re interested
in the low-down on anyone or would like to contribute to the rumor mill, I’ll
be sitting over there somewhere with my notes --- and also willing to talk
genealogy and area codes, too.
Do watch the class’
WebSite for future stuff. My thanks go out to Fred Brossmer for looking over
soooo many of the links that he even
asked questions about some, and to the gal this evening (whose name I’ve
stupidly forgotten already) who correctly identified the two mystery pictures.
Who was that? Please raise your hand.
NOW - Would like to
leave you with a few final thoughts ..
- Life is a partial derivative.
- Ever remember the unique and wonderful
meaning of the
Square root of Two and the Square root
of FIVE as applicable to architecture, construction, etc.
- May you all have safe trips home --
especially if over the date of 9/11.
- Long may the Flag of Our Country ever wave
--
Thank you for being
here...... Please _DO_ Keep In Touch.......
---------------
That’s “30" at our
50-th ----------------