Thanks for helping connect me with Tom Huber and Nat Soper. We were all able to meet for dinner last Thursday and had a marvelous time catching up. Those guys are doing really well and looked really good! Also, Tom was surprised to learn our class actually had a website and said he had spent hours on it learning about everyone and looking at photos. So, I’m sure he’ll be happy to join our email list.
And thanks to Cheri and Rebecca for their help.
Do we have anyone in Atlanta, GA? I’ll be there 23-27 June.
Thanks!
Patrick
P.S. It turns out I live in North Hollywood not Toluca Lake but everything else is correct on the new address.
John & Jean Spitzer from 1962 have been holding an annual all-school picnic the last Saturday in June from 8am-11am. They provide beverages and ask people to bring food. This year it is being held on June 30 at shelter #6 in lower City Park, in conjunction with their class’s 45th reunion. They have their own contacts list, and would appreciate more attendees. They can be contacted at: john-spitzer@uiowa.edu .
As far as the Reunion itself, it is being held In Iowa City on Labor Day weekend, from Friday, August 31 through Sunday, September 2, 2007. Friday and Sunday we are leaving open for each class to plan their own activities. For example, David Ricci from ’74 is going to arrange for our class to meet downtown Friday evening, and I don’t know what we’re doing yet about Sunday morning.
Saturday is the date for the all-school activities. We have reserved a shelter in lower City Park for a potluck barbeque in the afternoon, and a ballroom at the Marriott in Coralville in the evening for a dance with a cash bar and appetizers. The Marriott will also hold a block of rooms at a discounted rate for any attendees and they are giving us the ballroom for free! Thank Sally Orr for that! This way, we alleviate a lot of the pressure about needing to know exactly how many people will be attending, unlike if we planned a sit-down dinner. There will be a lot more details forthcoming, but the important thing right now is to let people know the dates, so they have time to plan.
The U of I Foundation will also be mailing out a solicitation letter for the U-High IDEA scholorship, which is still in existance, in which we are asking them to include information about the reunion, but believe me, they are not the easiest people to work with!
I want to thank all of you for the time and effort each one of you have put into this, and to let you know that we couldn’t do it without you!
Contact me with any questions, concerns, suggestions and brilliant ideas.
So, I’m up in the mountains of Colorado having a glass of wine at an upscale kind of eating/drinking establishment near Aspen, Colorado, one evening this October. It’s a great place to be on the earth. Near the wildness of the West and far enough from Denver to feel like Jeremiah Johnson may be over the ridge roasting that ‘fine rabbit’ that he and Will Geer quickly dispatch.
So, after a few…more…reflections on by contentment, albeit usually brief at 51 with two teen age sons, unfortunately…
And after a few more (many?) Ferrari glasses of good red and World Series on TV… and not much to distract me in the immediate vicinity, as Dave Kacena only can interpret, I’m wondering who is this interesting semi-unkempt, yet maybe semi-out of place, for lack of a better description, visitor to this establishment, and WHY on earth does he seems to be either someone remembered deep in my past or, an actor selling beef, ‘it’s what’s for dinner,’ Sam what’s his name. Wasn’t that guy also in the Patrick Swayze movie, Roadhouse?
Anyway, so, he sits beside me at the corner of the bar, after his hearing that I’d just been to Iowa City to take my son to an Iowa game in which I had the great fortune to not only see a great Purdue Homecoming Victory, but also to see the 9th wonder of the world, Linda Vedepo, I hear him mutter, that he’d once lived in Iowa. Hmmm….
So, OK, I ask where? He says his parents taught at ISU. So, I say, OK. And I ask him, and it’s like prying some of those western cactus thorns out of my ‘parts’ on a hot Arizona golf day when the cart is parked right on top of a deadly ‘buzz killer’ plant, where did you live?
And he says…again like I’m a DEA agent, “Iowa City.” So, I ask, and where did you go to school? And he says, well, Iowa City West, ‘but I didn’t graduate.’
I’m getting it now. I’m remembering the voice, the mannerisms, the sublime and sarcastic yet honest down to earth real person that I remember that could only be the one and only …
Yes, here’s his picture….do you remember?????
Jim Duke
God Bless Us Everyone…We Had A Great Start There, Didn’t We All?!
Attached is a photo of Kevin Megan and his wife Lynne with us at the famous conservatory in the Belagio Hotel. We met up with them a few times while they were visiting in Vegas a few weeks ago. It was really great to see Kevin again and meet his lovely wife.
Thanks!
Patrick Vaughan
Pat and Selina Vaughan (Front), Lynn and Kevin Megan
Larry Weldon, via e-invite, pulled off the biggest surprise birthday party for Bonnie (Tappan) Weldon last night at La Casa in Iowa City. Karen and I met Bonnie in the parking lot at 6:30 just going to get a “carry out” only to be totally shocked five minutes later to be the guest at a party for approximatley 75 or so guests awaiting her arrival in their party room. This was GREAT!
Bonnie had numerous pictures being taken of her wearing a brightly colored sombrero (is there a solid black sombrero anywhere, maybe if you are Amish!) with this big placard on her back that said 50.
Good food and drink, and local celebrities such as Steve Riggan, Brenda Bradley, etc showed up for the event.
My wife Susan and I will be going out to dinner with Bill Petrak and his wife, Cindy tomorrow night. I found out that you do not have their email address on the list, so Cindy gave it to me so they can start to get West High News updates.
Got to see my brother, Neil at the first week of October when he came up from Atlanta to the Iowa Homecoming game. I brought my saxophone along and went Beer Banding with Neil and the rest of the Alumni band. My two daughters were there, too, one still trying to graduate from Iowa, the other one goes to UNI, but is dating one of the Hawkeye defensive tackles. It was a great weekend getting to see everyone over at Mom’s house.
Next week, I get to do it all over again at Iowa State’s Homecoming, and will be participating in the over 250 strong member Iowa State University Alumni Marching Band, playing Bari Sax. For the first time, there will be more alumni than undergraduates in the combined bands on the field at half time. This year, even Susan will get to participate by holding onto the huge American flag that will be unfurled at half time.
