Classmates,
First
of all Thank You, Thank You, Thank You!
That
goes first to everyone who made the effort to make the reunion a success by
coming and sharing your time and energy with those who, as we all learned
shared a brief but very emotionally powerful time for all of us “High School”.
We had
a long list of thanks on Saturday and each very deserving of thanks for those
efforts, starting with the group of us that is large who planned, etc. but
specifically to Clark whose efforts went way above and beyond and Barb without
whom, we may not have every had such reunions. To everyone who spoke on
Sat, for our program, including, Jeff, Micke, Gary, Cindy, Barb, Lenny, Laurie,
Diane, (hope I missed none) Thanks, Thanks, Thanks!
For
those who for whatever reason missed the reunion, I want to tell you I
overheard some say it was the best ever, but you missed over 100
classmates/others on Friday met at the Starlite at 7pm where we had snacks, and
drinks from the cash bar, and a few nice surprised rolled through and we hope
even more of our mates will be able to take part in the whole w/end or part
next time.
Saturday
morning around 35 of us went off to Fort Dodge’s forgotten wonder, the Des
Moines river for a two hours canoe float to Russ Clark’s, (BIG THANKS) where we
enjoyed a wonderfully prepared lunch (THANKS TO Russ’s, Clark’s and my wife for
a wonderful job. From what I heard from the feedback, this trip was a
huge success and Clark single handedly pulled off (with help from his wife and
dad and others) a new twist that was for some a favorite of the w/end.
Doug
Brand stepped up to help with the golf outing and sadly we were missing a
number of golf loyalists for various reasons so small as it was, Doug kept the
tradition alive so next time we hope they can get back and be with us again.
Then
off to see the city of Fort Dodge from the eyes of Clark Fletcher, who gave us
a tour and great perspective on the past present and hopefully future of our
old stomping grounds. (By the way, we learned of a few nice projects
that FD could use if anyone has a few million that they are not using they
could make the city and our class proud as a donor to one or more of many very
worthy causes.)
Final
leg of the tour, we got, was FDSH 2008. We learned that we had asbestos
that they are removing in the building, and that now with 4 grades they have
1200 students, (we had 3 with 1500) and they believe they are cramped!!!
The
final leg concluded with a trip back to Starlite on the bus and (I think I
overheard a few say something about a nap).
Saturday
night we had an hour prior to our meal, and then after eating, we had our
program. This started off with Jeff Carlson, who by the way was class
president, and he was joined during the night by all of the officers (ALL of them
made it back) who each welcomed us in their own way. Lenny made me proud
to be a Dodger, Jeff served well as MC and showed he can still come up with
em! Barb of course welcomed us all and reminded us that in 5 years, this
same w/end will serve as the 40th so mark your calendars early.
Micke
Svanstrom who was one of our foreign exchange students from Sweden made it to
this reunion and gave us his impressions. He lived with Larry Osborne who
died many years ago in an accident, but Micke through our class was able to
sync up with his host family and shared his feelings and thoughts about
graduating so very long ago. Also he treated us all to a Swedish song and
without missing a beat, Jeff voiced many of our thoughts with a joke that
lightened the moment and we truly appreciated Micke’s contribution to the
night’s and w/end festivities.
Former
Dodger, and adopted graduate, Gary Uecke came back for the 30th and
35th and treated us again this time with his rare and genuine comic
relief that was worth the ticket alone. I am still sore from laughing so
much. When it came to the serious side, Gary reminded us all of those we
lost and that life sometimes doesn’t play fair with our futures. Gary’s
heartfelt explanation of how it for a young man of 17, wanting so much to
continue to be a Dodger took I suspect quite a few of us, from rolling on the
floor laughing to fighting back the tears, and back again so quickly, it would
have been tough not to be proud when some pep club members broke out later in
the high school song. Then Gary show a funny video that could not help
but say how far from High School we all have really come. Gary being a
northerner, we got the south perspective from Cindy Green (West) who also
worked hard with a trophie auction offering many 1969 and greater trophies to
classmates to bid on during the night. I suspect if anyone wants more, I
think she may still have a few or know where they are going to be auctioned.
For
those of you who did make it to the Starlite, first, if you have some good
pics, email them to me and I will make an effort to get them up on our
site. Better yet, if you have an online picture viewer that you can send
me links to, I can email everyone the links which saves me time and I don’t
have much space on my free site.
If you
don’t know about online pic viewers, google it. If you don’t know how to
google, forget it, email them please! J
Also, I
am soliciting anyone who feels that they can voice their impressions, (check
the link below for the impressions from the 30th) and is willing to
write up a few paragraphs that sums up the w/end for you. Word document
is good, if not, text is fine, I will convert anything to put it up for all to
enjoy. If it was not a good time for you, I am sorry but I am looking for the
positive here but send your email to me anyway, I will enjoy reading
them.
If you
have any suggestions about things that work, things that don’t, you name it,
please step up and be a part of what we can do for the future. As
mentioned, this w/end takes a lot of work, and any of our classmates who want
to contribute to make 40 a success we want to hear from you and welcome your
suggestions, and participation if you desire.
And a
number of people have asked me about names, emails, etc. I will put together a
listing of what we have for those willing to give that to us, and I will email
an Excel spreadsheet type listing and a listing similar to what I had done for
the updates in a few days. If you don’t want anyone to have your
information, you should not have given it to me, no just kidding, let me know
right away and I will not include you in listings that are sent only to the
classmates.
Personally,
I missed out talking etc. either night to so many people I have emailed here so
I will try to keep up via email, as many of you were busy or I just did not get
a chance to say hi like I would have liked. (You know who you are)
And
thanks to everyone who told me thanks for sending out these emails, and
everyone else cause nobody was overheard or asked me who was the idiot sending
out these annoying emails! For me, I was happy to help out, I never
worked on a float in H.S. I never server on a committee, I did not join
anything except track and Cross Country, so it was my turn is my story.
For
the 15 or so people I promised to send out this link, here is the link to the
website I built some 10 years ago, below is the link, it is a free site, so you
may get an annoying popup but I did not have a great free site so if anyone is
hooked up ??? Let me know we can put it on a better site someday.
Up there is the yearbook, and pics from reunions, and more. For those who
can help with this, I will gladly let you clean it up, etc. Just email
me.
Dave
