This Bulletin should have
arrived just as you were finishing your taxes. If you haven’t
finished, take a break and grab another cup of coffee ... the Court will come
to order.
Lions and tigers and...well, unfortunately not. MARY JANE and I had an
unbelievable time touring South Africa. We really had a great time at the
Jock Safari Lodge within the boundaries of the Kruger National Park, but
didn’t get to see any lions or leopards during our safari-ing. But
we but did see plenty of the other Big Five...elephants, Cape buffalo, and both
white and black rhinos. Add in plenty of giraffe, impala, kudos,
waterbuck, wildebeest, and an occasional hyena or two and it just begins to
describe an absolutely amazing park and experience of a lifetime. But
more on the trip later...but in the mean time, who else has checked in?
RALPH LEWIS is still teaching school and although enjoying the kids, some of
the administration stuff is getting a little long in the tooth. “I
am not sure what next school year holds in store for me because I am seriously
considering a change. I may stay in teaching because of how much I enjoy
being with the youngsters, but I must admit I am becoming disillusioned with
the public education milieu. DEBORAH has finally relocated back to the
home front, but is still very busy in the Reserve. She currently has the
good fortune of working for CHARLIE WURSTER out in CGD14 with her assignment as
senior reserve officer. She says he keeps asking when I will accompany
her on one of her trips out to Honolulu. I went out to Alameda over Labor
Day weekend to help her drive back home to Texas. I took a couple of days
off from school and we made it a bit of a pleasure trip rather than the usual
“grip the wheel and stare straight ahead until you have 16 hours of
driving done before stopping” routine. We stopped for a night in
Vegas and saw the “Blue Man Group”. Don’t really know
how to describe that experience, but it was a real kick. Then we drove
through Zion National Park (awesome!) on the way to Mesa Verde in Colorado.
We managed to squeeze in a half day tour of the Cliff Dwellings,
partially fulfilling a long-time dream of mine. We are planning on a 7
day Caribbean cruise over Christmas as we celebrate out 20th wedding anniversary.”
Ralph sends the following invitation: “Pass along to ’71 that
we have room for guests if anyone passes through Texas via I-10. The
welcome mat is out.”
AL DUJENSKI sent out an E-mail wondering if there were any other ham radio
operators in the class. Are there? AL’s call is KB7MBI.
WAYNE and RITA VERRY are enjoying life in LA ... that’s Lower Alabama to
the uninitiated. “RITA and I pulled the plug on our federal govt.
jobs in June 2002 and we’re now in the small-but-growing town of Foley,
AL, about 10 miles from the Gulf Coast, halfway between Mobile and Pensacola.
We bought two acres down here in 1997, and soon after we arrived we found
a contractor to build our new house. We moved in last April, and
during the rest of the year we re-learned what it’s like to take care of
a house and a yard. A cat and a dog joined us during the summer, adding
both complications and comedy to our lives. Houseguests began arriving in July,
and RITA has had fun proving that her kitchen is big enough to feed the crew of
any WLB. I’ve been busy with Habitat for Humanity, church
activities, and I managed to get myself elected treasurer of our
homeowner’s association. I’m also drawing sea pay again, with
a 2-person kayak as my first command. Speaking of paychecks, RITA and I
have come out of semi-retirement, and we are now genuine US government
contractors. We’re working out of our home as consultants for the
Navy, doing a project as a follow-on to RITA’s old job in international
military training management. Overall, things are very good indeed for us
here in Alabama. And our door is always open – y’all come on
down!” Another invitation...how far is it from Foley to visit RALPH
in Kerrville?
TOMMY CLARKE has retired ... for the second time. He retired from the
American Red Cross last September and has easily made the transition to
househusband. He’s enjoying playing tennis and hiking and getting
Katie to her every growing list of activities. Susi started working
part-time for the United Way which quickly became full time, but should be back
to part time...you have to have time to travel to Connecticut to visit
granddaughter Gwen! Great photo of Katie, Wendy, son-in-law Andy, Dan,
and Gwendolyn Rose!
Got a great Christmas letter from BRUCE and PATTY PLATZ with the news that son
Billy married Anna last April in a beautiful ceremony on the beach in North
Carolina. Billy is playing professional soccer as a goal tender for the
Wilmington Hammerheads <http://www.hammerheadssoccer.com/>.
Son Mike recently moved from Houston to Washington, DC and daughter
Christine is majoring in speech pathology at James Madison University.
Not sure why I didn’t get a wedding family photo? Must still
be in the mail!
CHUCK BECK reports that BOB GONOR was in Hartford a couple of weeks ago on
business and had JIM SYLVESTER with him. They met up with CHRIS VANN, PETE
BARRETT and CHUCK for lunch in Hartford at Hot Tomatoes. Speaking of
PUBA, he’s working a new job as an engineer. Yes, I said engineer. BOB
reports that he at least says he’s got an engineering degree.
He’s working out of his office basement for Flextronics, an
electronic manufacturing company. BOB sent along a new photo of the
expanding GONOR clan.
Speaking of new job, CHARLIE HARRIS sent a quick update: “Left Northrop
Grumman in December for a new position with AgustaWestland Helicopters, after
working Deepwater for the last four years. I know now that I will be
going to heaven as it has been hell here on earth! MARLAYNE and I have been
accumulating toys and furniture for a while and now I have to figure out how to
pay the bills; MARLAYNE never met a furniture store she didn’t like and I
deal only in “Boat Units”, not dollars. Anyone who has a boat
will understand.” CHARLIE E-mailed BARNEY: “I’m still
trying to get to my sister’s before the snow melts but I’m so out
of shape I’ll probably make one run down the hill and go directly to the
Emergency Room. How are Linda and all the little Turlos?”
How are those little Turlos...and was it a good ER? Don’t know
about the ER, but BARNEY’s alive and well and COLD in Maine.
“LINDA, daughter Dee, grand-kids (Leah, Ally and Jake) and I spend
a lot of quality time together when the weather gets THIS cold. Lots of
yelling and fighting about who was playing with which toy...and the kids are
noisy, too. Little ones are fun...most of the time. But they
know "Grampy" means business. Drives LINDA and Dee crazy
that they will "listen" to Grampy. That's fun, too! Doing three
radio shows a week for the "Jan-Plan." Jan-Plan = student
DJs are on hiatus/ internships/ binge-drinking. I'm also running for Town
Clerk again. It was just so much fun gettin' a whuppin' last year
that I'm gonna do it again. Campaign slogan: "Vote early and
vote often."
JB and KIM and doing well in West Virginia! “I'm enjoying my work
as Deputy Director of the National Conservation Training Center, working for
the Fish and Wildlife Service just two miles upriver from our house on the
Potomac in West Virginia. Training always was my second love--next to KIM
of course. This year I even got KIM involved in our
work. She's completing her Doctorate in Organizational
Leadership this year and she helped us design and analyze a 5-level evaluation
of the USFWS mid-level (GS-11/12) leadership program as her dissertation.
This evaluation goes all the way up to ROI (Return on
Investment) and the early numbers look very promising indeed. Last winter
and this winter have been so cold here in the mid-Atlantic that KIM and I have
been spending her school 'breaks' in Key Largo and Key West to take the chill
off the bones. Our 'new' favorite watering hole is the Hog's
Breath Saloon in Key West, with slogan "Hog's Breath is better than no
breath at all". My official 'leave' balance is hovering
somewhere around 'zero' but we're having fun.”
OK, back to South Africa ... We arrived in Johannesburg, South Africa on 8
December and spent a couple days recovering from our 26 hours of flying from
Seattle to London to J’burg. We stayed at a great B&B in
Sandton and enjoyed a tour of the Cullinan diamond mine outside Pretoria, but
were extremely disappointed that they didn’t give away samples. The
Cullinan is where the largest diamond, 3100 carats, was discovered. Once
split, the two largest pieces are in the British crown and royal scepter.
Our first night we met our first wildlife...MARY JANE came out of the
bathroom with an “Oh my God!” A baboon spider, the biggest
spider we’d ever seen outside a zoo, was just visiting. Welcome to
South Africa! Did you rent ZULU? After our Kruger safari-ing, we
spent a day touring the Zulu Battlefields of Isandlwana and Rorke’s
Drift. Isandlwana is the sight where on 22 January 1879 approximately
20,000 Zulu warriors wiped out a British regiment of approximately 1500.
The battlefield site is very sobering...mounds of white painted rocks
marking the mass graves of the British soldiers. On the same day, about
4000 Zulu warriors held in reserve at Isandlwana, attacked LT Chard and the 100
or so able bodied men he had to defend the mission at Rorke’s Drift.
With virtually every man having been wounded, 11 Victorian Crosses were
awarded the defenders. They lost 15 men and 2 more later died of their
wounds and are buried within the stone walled enclosure at the battle site.
MARY JANE and I stayed outside Elandslaagte at a great B&B, a cattle
ranch with a couple of pet St. Bernards...the natives call it the ranch with
the two lions. We had a ground floor room looking out on the gardens and pool.
We went outside and I saw the large male St. Bernard playing with
something in the grass...something moving. A snake...and Toby had killed
the banded cobra! Welcome to South African B&Bs! Our 600 mile
trip across the Transkei, a native homeland between Durban and Port Elizabeth,
was very interesting...and fortunately uneventful. We were warned to make
the drive in daylight...lots of cattle, goats, and people walking along and
on the two lane highway. Our impression was one of disbelief...hard
to imagine the extreme poverty and destitute living conditions so many people
exist in on a daily basis. We enjoyed the rest of the drive to Cape Town
with our B&B stops in PE, Knysna, the wine country of Stellenbosch, and the
Cape. Hardest part was finding things without street signs...too
difficult looking out for traffic while driving on the wrong side of the road
and at the same time trying to read the curbs for the street names. Took
us about 30 minutes to find our B&B in Stellenbosch even though we had a detailed
map...only works if the streets can be identified! We made a quick stop
in Sedgefield and visited with Derrick and Liz Mills, very good friends of
CHUCK and CHERYL BECK. After enjoying morning coffee with them, we angled
down and visited Cape Agulhas, the southernmost point in Africa.
Cape
Point and the Cape of Good Hope south of Cape Town offer impressive scenery and
Table Mountain, with a revolving cable car, is a must for magnificent views of
Cape Town. Twenty five hundred miles from J’burg to Cape Town and
sites in between...and we’ll have to go back to see those lions and
tigers!
My Antarctic cruise aboard ROYAL PRINCESS was excellent with 9
days crossing the South Atlantic to the Antarctic peninsula (ROYAL PRINCESS
anchored off Tristan da Cuhna but no passenger landings), 3 days of beautiful
Antarctic scenic cruising, and then another couple of sea days until we finally
got ashore in Stanley. About 25 miles north of Elephant Island, I saw one
of the largest tabular bergs I’ve ever seen...a good 5 miles by 5 miles,
25 plus square miles in a single ice cube! Had excellent cruising
conditions while in the Antarctic even though ice conditions stopped us from
getting to Hope Bay...very hard for an icebreaker sailor to turn away from
relatively open pack ice! After the Falkland stop, we rounded Cape Horn
and then stopped in the South American ports of Ushuaia, Punta Arenas, Puerto
Montt, toured the Amalia and Pio XI glaciers in the Chilean fjords, and arrived
in Valparaiso 24 days after departing Cape Town. Tough duty, but someone
has to do it!
Have to remind you guys about keeping me posted on ISP changes.
I’ve been successful in tracking down a couple of the recent MIAs,
but still looking for BO JOSEPHSON. BO had a @hotmail address, but that
accounts closed. Anyone have a new E-mail or snail mail address for him?
Take a look at our Classmates page <http://www.oocities.org/CollegePark/Campus/7184/classmates.html>
and then look through your address books and Christmas mailing lists and see if
we can track down those 19 who still haven’t reported around. While
you’re searching, we’re adjourned ... almost!
CHARLIE BILLS was one of the recent MIAs I tracked down via his old business
E-mail. Where is he? "CHARLES & DI" still in
Petaluma, CA ...couldn't convince DIANNE to uproot & move up to Seattle
while "geo-bachelor'ing" with Elliott Bay Design Group. Now
with Hornblower Cruises & Events in San Francisco corporate offices, Pier 3
on The Embarcadero ... managing capital projects and company security officer
("new normalcy" and "maritime domain awareness" & all
that). Kids (3) and grandkids (3) all in SF Bay area ... and I thought
DIANNE might move; what was I thinking? No Hummer yet, but with Arnold in
Sacramento & bowflex on order, not sure what's in the future?”
The future? The Court will entertain Classmate comp cruise
packages...now we’re adjourned!