The First Re-Union Photos

Danny Salas came through and emailed me these photos last night. The first is of Danny and me at the Finleys. Last night I noticed that my smile was off to one side. This morning I was trail running and crashed into a rock, face first. Now my smile is worse. For those who are on Facebook, Danny says he's posted more photos on his page. I never got into Facebook but it seems like a much more up-to-date approach than this blog.

Let's see, I think I can identify Tana Marx, Brian Mann, Jeff Genet, Vicki (Conway) Kincaid, Ann Haymond, Tom and Carol Baldwin with John Kulisich.

One of the reasons that this reunion seemed like the best was that at our age our memories are fading and we tend to forget the bad parts of our high school experience and remember the good. Yet high school is such an intense time for many that some of those negative memories will be with us forever. A couple of classmates said they'd had quite enough of the football team and tales of their derring-do. That wasn't really the point in inviting Tom Baldwin. He was the most motivating teacher I had at SAHS and I just wanted to see him again. ( Also I was wondering how he could still be playing 18 holes a week at 85). Even though 1968 was pre-title 9 maybe we can do something next time honoring GAA.

As I mentioned the emails are flowing in to Patti and the committee. I was going to email them back to get permission to post their comments but that would conflict with my life goal of doing as little as possible, so here’s a summary. Among those who enjoyed themselves and thanked Patti and the committee for their efforts are Linda Weber, Efren Lozano, Scott Baird, LouAnn (Vanderloop) Hansen, Jane Pershall, Stephanie (Storm) Williams, Kathy Goddard (this would be the time to thank Kathy for her help in getting things ready), Heidi (Carlson) Coombs who had some kind words for the blog, and Sue (Rychener) Weisshaupt who also lives in Arizona and mentioned the deluge they had to navigate on the return trip. It was smooth sailing for me until I left Kingman and then the rain really came down. Apparently all the heat went to Southern California last week and the greater Phoenix area had a respite from our typical summer of over 100 days of over 100 degrees. (But, as they say, “It’s not the heat, it’s the stupidity.”)

This is Patti explaining the raffle, congratulations to the winners and thanks for the contributions.

We were lucky to have some nice shade but still the heat took its toll. Tom Baldwin cut his half-time speech short and I really felt for Brian Mann who had to play the accordion standing up. Special thanks to Robert Null for his excellent work on the tambourine.

I believe I see Lou Ann Vanderloop to the left and Deb Juratsch to her right. 

For me it was great to shoot the breeze with Tim Bynon, Byron Ryono, David Aldana, Frank Belk, Don and Nina Daniel, as always. This reunion I talked with classmates I haven't kept track of including the handsome and tan Bruce Kermott, Jon Greene, James Cooper, Janis Gardell, Mike McLean, Robert Morgan. Jane Pershall (Steve Hill went to the USC game), the committee members, Jimmy Gonzales, Leslie Hill and Gary Gorup, Donna Townsend, John Nicholson, Darlene Graner, Ann Haymond and Sue Rychener, Paul Swanson and—direct from Peru—his cousin Heidi Carlson, Robert Null and others I'll remember as soon as I post this.

Send me your photos and memories to sahs68@gmail.com Also let me know if you can identify other classmates in these photos and I'll add their names to the captions.