Judy Symon (Hanson)

Hi,  An informal reunion in summer 2017 sounds like fun. No conflicts yet-- just let us know which weekend is most convenient for the most people.  Always glad to read good news about classmates, but, of course, we have also lost too many.

Susan Blomgren (Sawdo)

I would like to come as well. Just name the date!

Deborah Smith (Parker)

I'd love to come to a 55 year reunion since last minute work crush kept me from the 50th. Please keep us all updated.

Suzanne Lautz (Machan)

I'll plan to be there, too!

Mary Halpin (Herr)

I haven't been to one of these since the 25th! I would love to see everyone again! 

Roy Weatherwax

A 55th birthday celebration sounds wonderful, and I think that an informal Friday night event, (perhaps at a park), is a great idea.

I would suggest the weekend following July 4th, (July 7-8).  This is a time when many might plan on a Madison trip anyway for a holiday visit home.  Further, it is generally the weekend chosen for the Art Fair on the Square which would add a local event of interest.

Michael E. Cox

Another reunion sounds great to me. I haven't missed one yet. I plan on being at the next one too.

Patricia Runnels (Perry)

55th Reunion?  Not me, too far to come and too many other places to go.  Pat Runnells Perry

Marilyn McKnight (Erickson)

Great!  I will be there!  And I would like my Highlands class of '58 to have a reunion during the same weekend.  Many of us "grew up"  as classmates together from kindergarten through high school graduation!  Some us of got together one  morning during the last reunion weekend and decided it was time for a Highlands Class of '58 reunion.  Please let me know by email if you are interested, and perhaps we will do it this time!  marilyn@ericksonmediation.com  

Hope to hear from you!

Tempy Dell Burress (McCombe)

Reunion in 2017? I will be there. I was living in Ecuador for the 50th but have since moved to Kentucky and we can drive up in a day. Just need to know the dates. Looking forward to it!!

John D. Rouse

I'm afraid we won't be able to get to the 55th; we just about died the last few times we were in the Midwest in July ... 110+ all the way ... mosquitoes as big as birds …. Also, between our garden, which goes berserk in the summer, and people coming to visit (and to escape heat and mosquitoes) we seem to be pretty tied up in that season. 

BUT I'd love to send some fun CDs, such as the novelty songs from our era and some of the music we never hear anymore. Who should I send them to (of course to share around with anybody who's interested)?

Madeline J. Wright

Claire and Sue,,,,I loved reading about your archival adventures and wish you luck with it. I would love to have another reunion and would do all I could to attend. I have nothing scheduled for summer 2017 at this time.

Priscilla Lail (Parrish)

I would love to come to a reunion (finally)  and will look forward to seeing many of you in 2017.

Priscilla Lail Parrish

Jim Maraniss

I'd be interested in Marilyn's fancy of a Highlands '58 reunion. I never attended that school, but Gigi did, and I have gone there vicariously over the past 43 years. I think I know about the demographics, the various neighborhoods, the politics, the teachers, the principal (Mr. Blackman, in his three-piece suits). It's the inheritance of our children (although they may be a little bored with their parents' histories).

I came to Madison in eighth grade, after having gone to eight schools in five cities before that, and was too old to go to Randall, but my siblings did, and I always wished that I had, because of the very cool students at West who had gone there, and the stories I heard about how they knew each other at a young age. My father-in-law Bud Kaeser attended Randall School in the twenties, where he knew Uta Hagen, the actress.

I can't say that I was exactly welcomed entering West Jr. High, but I was more or less accepted, especially after I talked back to Mr. Byam (regarding his historical assertion about Japanese war aims that doesn't seem so wrong to me now). When I took a seat on the first day of class, Dale Johnson said to me: "You can't sit there; that's Pat Kelly's seat." So naturally I moved. Later in life I've taught Dale's nephew Eric at Amherst College, and I married Pat's first wife Gigi, who is his sister Kathy's best friend. They travel together to Ireland, along with my stepson Michael Kelly (age 51!). Gigi never married out of the third row of Mr. Besant's homeroom 202C at West (Kaeser, Kelly, Maraniss). And I've always envied the experience of her first boyfriends at Highlands-Mendota Beach School (especially Robbie Bray, archetype of the beautiful athlete dying young). This sort of imagining (a la Poe or Nabokov) would be disparaged by my daughter Lucia, but she didn't grow up in the benighted fifties, as we all did.

Suzanne Lautz (Machan)

I just wanted to add one more remembrance that I found in a Randall Rambler. I had totally forgotten that Susan Anderson was quite the speed skater.  Evidently she won several medals. Cool.

Suzanne Lautz (Machan)

Hey, Jim Maraniss...i was always nice to you! I had to be...you walked past my house every day on the way to school and then, because of the teachers' love of putting everyone in alphabetical order, you often sat behind me!

Stephanie Beck (Knighton)

I'd definitely be interested in attending a 55th in 2017 after missing our 50th.  Last time I was there was back in 1994 when we all celebrated our 50th birthdays.  None of my family is up that direction anymore, so coming back would be enjoyable but a long haul from home in Texas or NH if I'm up at the lake for one night's activities.  I appreciate all the postings and updates. It would be wonderful to see everyone -- especially with all the connections on Facebook.   

Nancy Gorsuch (Levi)

Hi All,

I think a 2017 reunion would be awesome!!!  July/August works for me.  Would love to see everyone again! Hope it happens.  Keep me posted.  Thanks Colleen for making this work!

Nancy Gorsuch (Levi) 

Suzanne Lautz (Machan)

I am having some "fun" pilng through old papers etc.  I was delighted to run across a folder from 12th Grade English.  I have some original poetry and then about 14 pages of poems selected by class members...all done on the ditto machine!  Original poems were by Nancy Guggenbuehl, Marilyn McKnight, Karen krueger, Jim Liska, Jim Jondrow, Anne Taylor, Karen Nielsen, Nicki Isabella, Dick Smith, Jill Myers. From the 14 pages of poems I have only first name and last initial: Ralph R, Sue G, Jill M, Elizabeth I, Polly Brodie, Linda ?, Rod S, Kris B, Norma G, Tom W, Priscilla L, Bill B, Anne B, Mary P, Tom H, Barbara B, Bruce R, Tom S, Judy G, Dick S, pam R, Shirle Beker, John H, Jim M, Sue L (yours truly), Ed L, Rick R, Tom O, Dave E, Ulrich L, Margaret R, Rick G.  The folder also has book lists, book report suggestions, books on reserve in the West library...  Wow, what one doesn't hang onto. There are some really good reading suggestions in there that I may try to revisit.

Chuck Ellis

I'm shocked you didn't come across some if my manuscripts....but then again...not so much...🤓🤔😂

Joan Albrecht

Hi Susan,

What fun that must have been.  My dad threw out a lot of things I was saving, mainly
the colored pamplets the Audubon Society used to give us in elementary school.  I
have only two left.

See you at the reuntion!

Joan

Suzanne Lautz (Machan)

Well,  Chuck Ellis, if you had been in that particular English class, you, too, would have been included!  I am trying to remember who the teacher was... Mr Bessant? ...skinny man with dark hair who would often stand in front of the room with one leg up on the chalk tray like using a ballet barre.  He also taught a speed reading class in the rec room of our house.  When Liddle's were off somewhere, he lived in that house until they came back.  Very interesting man.  Another English teacher I remember was Mrs Knabel (sp?). She was a hoot. I remember one class when she was late in arriving. We were all sitting there looking at each other when she came swooshing in wearing a toga and quoting Shakespeare.  Does anyone remember Speech teacher Mrs McCarty? She was another one.  She loved outlining.  As long as I live, I will never forget when she held up my paper and said, "Now this is how it should be done." I wanted to crawl under my desk.  She looked at me and said, "What's the matter?  Just because you did someting well...for once."  Jim Maraniss was sitting behind me and, although I'm quite sure he doesn't remember this, he almost fell out of his chair laughing and said something to the effect of,"Well, that's a backhanded compliment."  We really had a strong group of teachers. I know we all have stories we could tell about each one of them.  My absolute favorite, however, was Don McCloskey. I cherished his friendship for decades after graduating.

Judi Weissmiller (McGee)

Mrs. McCarty was my all-time favorite teacher!  Remember how she insisted we say "far-ed" instead of forehead?  And when Miss. Huxtable (choir) would throw a tantrum and stomp her feet?  Or when Judy Pederson, Sharon Stark and I got the giggles in Mr. Klatious' (sp?) English class?  Or when the substitute for Mr. Antonie (an older woman) was dissecting frogs and flipped frog eggs into the hair of all the girls in the front row?  And much, much more . . .

Marilyn McKnight (Erickson)

Wow!  Such memories being conjured up!  I'd lve to see the poem I worte in Mr. Bessant's class as I have no memory of that.  I did find the script for the class night skit -- "West Side Story" however.  

As to a highlands reunion, Jim, I have always hoped we could all get together.  Many of us were classmates from kindergarten through eighth grade, and several through 12th grade!  I have all of my classroom pictures which I'd love to share.  I have great memories of each teacher -- Mrs. Mattoon being my favorite.  And then Miss Jones, music teacher.  She was very strict yet taught us a lot.  I think she and Miss Huxtible were good friends as she often suggested that she was preparing us of high school choir.  We sang such songs as "The House I live In"  and "When You Walk Through a Storm", our eighth grade graduation song.  

Mrs. Wendt was our sixth grade teacher and she had a reputation for being very strict.  One day she was going to punish Jimmy Bonner for talking to much and disrupting the class -- he was very funny!  She told me to go down to the lunch room and get a pepper shaker so she could put pepper on his tongue!  I was very upset so I instead went to the office to tell what I was asked to do.  That was the beginning of the end of Mrs. Wendt!

Our phy ed teachers were challenged teaching us in a large room that was an auditorium, the lunch room and the gym depending upon the function being carried out at the time.  The "gym" was where we had phy ed classes when we were inside.  Outside were the basket ball courts and the "battle field" where football and baseball were played.  Despite our lack of a gym, (the only school in the league without one), we did quite well defeating Allis, and Nichols -- the tough east side schools.   

Remember eighth grade and our April Fool's Day hike?  We didn't like the new rule that we could not get into school before the bell rang so we decided it would be a great lesson for Mr. Blackman that when the doors opened, no one was there!  We all went on a long hike, but were finally caught by Mr. Blackman as we crossed the tracks by Merrill Crest and ordered back to school.  All of our parents were called, and we were all held after school until someone ratted on who started it.  But no one told, probably because no one could remember!

Those were just some of the Highlands memories!  A great school, great classmates!

Rod Shaughnessy

Hi to All:

Several of our classmates were raised in the Westmoreland neighborhood.  I ran across this site recently and thought it might be of interest to them, or to those of us who enjoyed the neighborhood, the park, the July 4th parade and so forth:  http://westmorland-neighborhood.net/wm_pdf/HistorySlideshow.pdf .

Enjoy,

Rod