Colleen McCabe

Patricia Runnels (Perry)

This is very funny.  I do remember your gym suits and feel the same as you do.

Pat Runnells Perry

Tom Webb

Great set of memories, Karen. I don't remember much about gym classes at West and have to infer that by running cross country in the fall and playing tennis in the spring I got out of gym by being on those teams.

I was recently reading some letters written by my mother when she was in high school in 1935 in which her Los Angeles girls school was up in Santa Barbara for a day of competition and she played tennis, basketball, volleyball and softball during the day. So women's sports were alive and well at her school, and she was an avid participant. Was anything other than gym in those stupid blue suits available to women at West?

Tom

Tom Webb

What can I say, John, about having no memory of gym classes at West?  If you didn't get out of them for playing varsity hockey, then I guess I can't claim that cross country or tennis got me out of them. I have vivid memories of gym at Nakoma School. Next to recess, gym was my favorite activity.  And some memories from Cherokee, but none for gym at West. Plenty of memories of the locker rooms with the added odor of whatever it was we smeared on our aching muscles. Wintergreen? The muscles went on aching but the smell took our minds off the aching and gave us something else to worry about.

Our running shorts may have been short but, boy, could we move. I have an old clipping from the Capital Times in October 1985 saying that "25 Years Ago, West High wins the annual city cross country meet at Odana Golf Course. Mike Riegel, West, is first, followed by Bill Aldrich, Central, and Tom Webb, Bob Bray, and Don Adams all of West . . . ." That makes it 50 years ago this October 18. Mike was one hell of a good runner.

Mary C. Erickson (Post)

Jeanne Dewey (Vasquez)

 HOW ABOUT THOSE MAKE UP SHOWERS! THE TROUBLE I HAD EXPLAINING THOSE TO MY PARENTS WHEN I WAS LATE HOME AFTER SCHOOL. CRAZY.

Michael E. Cox

Today 1-5-2012 would have been Al Andersen's 68th birthday.

I sure do miss him. He was by far one of the most liked and friendly people that we have ever known. I hope that you all feel as I do.

Mike Cox

Karen Tanner (von Heimburg)

I want to say thank you to each person who has done a wonderful job these past years in getting this website together with all videos, information from past reunions, and organizing for the big 50th celebration.  I'm sure none of us know how much time and effort has been dedicated to this occasion, and yet I for one of many would like to congratulate you all on your efforts.

  I look forward to seeing you in July! 

Karen

Michael E. Cox

Today Jan 5 would have been Al Andersens 59 th birthday. We all sure miss him. I know that he will never be forgotten.

Michael E. Cox

Today would have been Al Andersen's 70 th. Still miss him

Suzanne Lautz (Machan)

Randall School peeps, I am cleaning out "stuff" and found a class photo from 1953, 3rd grade, Mrs Parker. In the photo are: Hannah King, Jane Nelson, Paul Grimstad, Tom Hunter, Chuck Ellis, Susan Anderson, Judy Rush, Carol Loy, Jean Marks, Sue Laugen, Cindy Mannering, Claire Eising, Sandy Buck, Linda Ferguson, Mike Reierson, Phil Schuler, "Jimmy"  Haugsland, Joey Lightfoot, Bobby Gugle, Peter Dykman and me.  I also noted that Kay Schwalbach was "out of school."   We were all pretty darned cute!

Madeline J. Wright

Can you post it someplace for all to see?

Jeanne Marie Bokina (Christie)

I would love to see the photo of so many when they were then so young. Must have been a cute bunch. As per gym uniforms.... Sounds like office work was better then taking gym classes.

Mary Halpin (Herr)

Even worse were the swimsuits we had to wear for gym class. They were not what you might call "stylish"!

Kathy Markstrom (DiSantis)

I couldn't decide what was worse   the swim suits of the swim teacher and some of her issues     

those were some weird days   but the other memories make up for it!

Michael E. Cox

At least the girls had swin suits. The boys swam with nothing on

Sue Grady (Fullmore)

I didn't have to take swimming.  Did it become mandatory?  I would have much preferred to do office work.  Maybe working on the yearbook filled that time for me?  I never knew the boys didn't wear swim trunks.  Was that legal?  I loved choir and my office classes.

Mary Halpin (Herr)

Good thing we weren't co-ed!?! Do they still have swim classes at West?

Suzanne Lautz (Machan)

Marjorie Grant

Sue, Sandy Buck did belong to St. Andrews if I recall correctly but I haven't a clue where she is now.  Sounds like you are having lots of fun going through old school things.  I am not a saver and neither was my mother. 

Suzanne Lautz (Machan)

Thanks Marjorie. I think that's where the funeral was. I will try to contact them to see if they have the latest info. Both of my parents saved way too much. Clearing out their 3500 sq ft house was no picnic. At least I had 3 sibs plus lots of family to help.  My brothers wanted to just dump everything, but my sis and I insisted on at least looking at stuff.  Of course, that has come back to bite me.  At least I'm finally getting to the stuff in my basement.  Unfortunately, Jim is an "only" which means we have lots of his parents' stuff to still go through.  My husband is a saver, but I am not.  I will feel much better when all the clutter is gone! Just to add fuel to the fire, Jim's cousin called yesterday to say she had family albums she had just received from an aunt. My first reaction was to run away screaming, but i will be polite and let Jim have a look next week.  ha!  Hope you are doing well. Looking through these pix reminds me that we had a pretty nifty group of people in our lives.

Claire Cassidy

Hi Suzanne,  I much enjoy your stories of going thru old stuff from school days, and sharing with us. Thanks!  I do remember the 6th grade play, though not as well as you (I'd like photos if you have some to share, such as online).  My mother made me a kangaroo costume, my favorite animal, and I loved it, but I don't remember much of anything about the play and don't know what happened to the costume.  I do remember a quite wonderful party at your house--perhaps it was 6th grade graduation--at which there were lots of kids and music and dancing and laughter and all of us sort of nosing into adolescence, still too young to quite 'get it' but certainly on the cusp--that was a Great Party!  As for not liking to keep old things--I get it since i am also downsizing, but also, think about how valuable an old thing is once it disappears!  As I sort, if I find something that doesn't hold memory i pass it on to (Purple Heart is coming tomorrow!), but if it does stir memory, I think, write about it,and keep the item, or at least photograph it, as my daughter does, before tossing it.  Sometimes commonplace things from our childhood are completely unavailable today: the Historical Society would likely be interested in your old High School newspapers, also photos, and maybe other stuff.  Historians and museum curators are good people to contact to put historical items, even 'silly stuff' you think has no value, into context and into shows.  We gave quite a few of my parents' things to the Historical Society--they won't take what they can't use, so you get a sense of what is valued that way. I have even put 'archival' bequests into my Will.  It is lucky, for example, that I saved my father's college letter-sweater and the wooden sign they put on their house in the 1920s, because Oberlin College would like to honor him now, almost 100 years later, with a show, and what could be better than real objects from his life?  When my mother-in-law died, her grand-daughters were casually dumping all her papers saved since the 'teens and '20s.  As they dropped them into the wastebasket, I fished them into a cardboard box.  Later we went through them, and discovered that some of their ancestors were buried in near-by cemeteries (forgotten), and where the family had come from originally--also forgotten!  So, even if you don't have much of an historical bent, it may be worth sorting and sending things elsewhere to others who would be interested...because, once things are gone, they are gone-gone, irreplaceable.  Only one Shakespeare signature remains--saved it all this time--and today its value is incalculable.  We are not as important as Shakespeare but we are still important and can, if we wish, offer something of value to the Future.  I hope this doesn't bug you, my saying this stuff, but i guess I love the idea of providing the future with 'notes' on the near-present, such as our childhoods.

All my best, it is really good to hear from folks on this website!

Claire Cassidy

Suzanne Lautz (Machan)

Claire, thank you for your response.  Would you believe I had a couple of postcards you sent me from Jamaica?  I sent all postcards to my daughter-in-law in Miami because she is having fun going through them and researching them.  I like all your suggestions.  i have been sending "stuff" to museums, schools, fraternities...wherever. I read somewhere that, if you have something no one wants, esp photos, take the time to look at it and honor it before throwing it out.  Still hard to throw out!  I am happy to share pix.  I am going to see if one of my boys can help me digitalize some of them.  I wish i had had them organized before our last reunion.

In one of the Randall Ramblers, your mom was mentioned as a French teacher.  I loved her, but the only thing I remember is singing "Il est nee" (or however it's spelled!)  When I got to be a senior at UW, for a lark I took conversational French, which met twice daily. I ended up with an A and felt your mom, somehow, did implant a seed somewhere!!

Loved your dad, too.  How wonderful that his U decided to honor him. Well deserved!  He was an incredible man.

Trust all is well in your corner of the world!

Claire Cassidy

Hi Again,Suzanne, and others who read these postings--

Yes, all is well in my corner of the world!  About 1.5 years ago I had major surgery and a kidney transplant, and so now, with Spring springing, I feel terrific.  Tell your friends: kidney transplants change lives!  I had a living Donor--the best thing--and maybe one of you, my long-ago class-mates, would consider offering one of your kidneys to someone in need!  Recovery for the Donor is quick; post-donation one is healthy. And those transplant organs are REALLY needed!--so if you are so moved, learn some more, or even, consider a donation yourself (and I don't mean after you die)!

That is obviously not the only thing I'm doing.  Part is down-sizing as mentioned before.  Part is our daughter has moved to Nevada with her work (she works in management in resort hotels), so now we have to travel there too, not my greatly desired destination.  Part is we have a nice little condo in Canaan Valley WV, which you've never heard of, but is a lovely community in the mountains with much of the land given over to conservation (national forests, 2 wilderness areas, the 500th Wildlife Refuge, a stacks of people dedicated to Earth's health).  If you like the outdoors, contact me for details, or check the 'net--you ight like to visit!  Together, John and i keep our regular house and huge garden, and travel when we can.  I am retired from treating patients, but I continue to write and publish and edit, currently a book on Polycystic Kidney Disease, and shorter articles.  The book is for a popular audience; for some 10 years i had an acupuncture column in the local health magazine, so i suppose i more or less mastered popular writing.  I also help edit a major medical journal called the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine.  For fun, I make miniatures.  I am just about finished with a 1"-scale conservatory, which i hope will sell this spring to benefit a Foundation in West Virginia.  

Re, the archives issue that you brought up, Suzanne, I am sort of 'in charge' of my US family's geneology, which is naturally too big a job.  This AM i was talking to my cousin in France who does the same for his family, and he'd just put back together a 10 second film from the Honeymoon of his wife's parents in the 1930s--they werre traveling in a horse-drawn carriage which I assume was for the romance of it!  He' also found all the details of his world-circling trip of the mid-1970s, which piqued his memory and mine since he spent some of that trip with us.  This Fall my cousin from Curacao contacted me and we are writing a bit of a book together on that side of the family.  Families grow all these branches, and it's impossible to keep it all straight, but--with the help of internet archive websites--it's a whole lot easier than in the past.  

OK, obviously i talk too much!--but i love reading the posts that include personal details.  So, Suzanne, thanks for asking!  And i'd love to see copies of those postcards, and hope you can digitize those old photos and share the best.  All best,

Claire