Santa Ana High Class of 1968 : The 2011 All Saints Picnic

Cheryl Jones and Vicki Kincaid

Cheryl Jones and Vicki Kincaid were early arrivals. They both came from Riverside, the cultural hub of the Inland Empire. I talked with Cheryl about home improvement and complained about a remodeling project at Casa de Joslyn that had gone awry. Cheryl topped it with a story that ended, "so they had to rip the whole thing out and start over again. It cost more than twice as much as it was supposed to." That made me feel better. Vicki was there with her daughter, we talked about Lake Havasu where the Kincaids recently bought a vacation place. Vicki told me about the Bill Medley Show with Larry Hansen and Bob Gulley. I found a video on Bill Medley's site and the most shocking part is Bob's beard, he seems to be going for a Billy Gibbons look. Scroll down to the first video, he shows up during "Little Latin Lupe Lou."

Tim Moore

Two blasts from my past made a surprise appearance, Terry Leonard and Tim Moore.Terry used to live on the same street as Chuck Johnson, north of that major street, the one I can't remember. Wait! That's it, Memory Lane. Now he's living near Santa Barbara. Tim is living in Cincinnatti but wants to get back to where he once belonged, Orange County.

Mark Finley

Mark Finley and his older brother Jock showed up. I think Mark has been living in Orange County ever since graduation. Jan Gardell lives not far from Irvine Park and we talked about the "freak" hail storm that morning which pelted the county. We had one in Arizona a year earlier. My brother was supposed to make a grand entrance at the picnic in a classic Chevy Nomad with four of his classmates, but owner of the car cancelled. He didn't want his pride and joy dinged. (If you've ever had your pride and joy dinged you know how painful that can be.)

Jan Gardell

Gary Stenberg, Terrie Phillips, Gary Mangun, and his sister Cindy were there. It turned out to be a great afternoon. It's kind of fun to take a trip down (what's the name of that street) Memory Lane with classmates you may not have talked to much in high school as well as people from different classes. A lot of my time was spent exploring the subject of food with David Martinez (class of '69, kicker and Bachelor). David's family does a cookout almost every weekend, with a big family there are always birthdays, annivesaries, and holidays to celebrate. They've got it down to a science. They brought some great side dishes and BBQed brats and burgers. You only had to throw a few bucks into the contribution bucket and chow down.

Terrie Phillips and Terry Leonard

Mark your calendar if you're going to be in the greater Irvine Park area the Saturday after Labor Day. This year it's September 8th, come hail, rain or shine. In the meantime Jeff Genet has set up a class of '68 group on Facebook with a growing list of members. (Sorry about the delay in getting this posted but the drug store was late developing my snap shots.) Email your photos my way and what you've been up to. Enquiring minds want to know!