MERRY CHRISTMAS!  Wait a minute...check the calendar.  What’s the date?  I thought so...you’ve still got time to make a last minute Christmas order from Amazon via our web site.  While you’re thinking about what gifts you’ve forgotten...the Court will come to order.

DAN SHOTWELL’s got a new E-mail address...and sent in a quick update when I had some minor operator error reaching him: “I'm spending my three days off replacing the head gasket on MIDGE's little Honda in the rain with a tarp draped over the open hood.  All ready to button 'er up, but then of course, I damaged the intake manifold gasket enough to require replacement, and I don't have one.  MIDGE and I are planning another pre-retirement scouting trip to Costa Rica this November.  We know a guy who is willing to let us use his 146 acre farm to live on and continue our wildlife rehabilitation activities and we want to check it out as well as some other areas of the country.”  DAN, how ‘bout some photos of the scouting trip?

Both PETE BARRETT and CHUCK BECK sent in a photo of a Presidential Advisors meeting at Commodore VANN’s Niantic Bay Yacht Club.  PHIL, PETE, CHUCK, CHRIS and PANCHO look to be enjoying steaks, shish kebabs, and some liquid libations.  CHUCK notes that it’s a Beck's beer can.  Nothing like a house brand!

Hey, got an update from Knoxville!  No, not from the Ol’ SEADOG, but from TONY HART: “I'm doing fine.  Work keeps me absolutely covered up.  I head up the Emergency Management program for Bechtel Jacobs Company in Oak Ridge, TN.  Our company has the environmental cleanup contract for the Department of Energy Oak Ridge site plus the DOE sites at Paducah, KY and Portsmouth, OH.  Seems like we are in constant change-if we do not have some sort of internal reorganization, then DOE will make a change.  And, everything they do affects us.  JUDY is constantly after me to take off some time and says that I am a workaholic.”  Agreed TONY...take a couple of days off and go “do lunch” with SEADOG!

TOM MARHEVKO reports around from Chicago: “A few months ago you asked the whereabouts of STEVE WALLACE.  ZERO visited me in New Orleans in the early 90's when I lived there.  He mentioned that he worked at a NavArch firm in Annapolis and gave me his work number.  About a year later I called the number and found that he no longer worked there, and no one knew where he was nor did anyone have any forwarding information.  Last year I tried a locator in the MOAA magazine, but had no response.  (A Naval Academy grad told me to check with the alumni association - Duh!).  I haven't heard from him since New Orleans.  As for me, I am still working at the National Marine Manufacturers Association in downtown Chicago, where I am VP of Engineering Standards.  I have lunch with RAY COYE once in a while.  We went to RON SILVA's Change of Commend and had a great time.  I remembered STEVE ST. PIERRE because we were both in remedial swim class during swab summer.  I work a lot with PHIL CAPPEL and the Coast Guard.  My daughter, Susan, works for the American Chemical Society as an assistant editor for their trade journal and recently became engaged to be married next summer.”  TOM, we expect wedding photos in time for the August ‘05 edition!

Speaking of weddings, the SWEDBERG family expanded by one on 4 September.  Number One son Carl married Amber Ann Racine at the Columbia Winery in Woodinville, WA.  We really lucked out with the weather the entire week.  Wedding day was overcast and we actually had a bit of rain on the windshield as we left Casa de Swedberg at 3 pm.  But the skies cleared and weather was perfect for a beautiful evening ceremony.   Amber’s folks live in Spokane, but since she’s never lived there and most of their friends are here, they decided to get married on this side of the mountains.  That decision was great for MARY JANE as she was able to play a little substitute mother of the bride in helping with some wedding plans.  Amber’s a terrific young lady who is currently working at the U. of Washington on her Physical Therapy doctorate.  Carl is still doing very well as a personal trainer at the ProSports Club in Bellevue, supposedly the largest health club in the country.  They’ve bought a very nice condo in Redmond, about 15-20 miles north of Issaquah.  Great looking couple...good thing he got his mother’s good looks!

I sent BRAD TROTH an electronic birthday card and he replied with a quick update: “Got the birthday card, Thanks.  Since my birthday is 9/11 , I seem to get more cards than normal.  Still in Kodiak managing a Law Firm with offices in Anchorage, Seattle and Kodiak.  Firm was a major player in the Exxon Oil Spill so if it ever settles, they may all retire and so will I, again.  Got to admit it is kind of fun bossing a group of lawyers around.  Low stress environment with the dress code of T-shirts and stocking feet.  Our only daughter is married (Oct 2002), living in Minneapolis, no grandchildren yet.  BONNIE and I are doing fine.  Don't leave the Island much, crowds of more than 10 people are hard for me to endure for long.  Don't have any stoplights so when I go south I forget they are there and go thru a bunch of red ones until the local authorities ask me to leave.  Still do some guiding, fishing trips and brown bear hunting, play a lot of golf.   Very busy with the church, treasurer and Sunday school teacher.  Enjoyed all the pictures from the last reunion on the Thames, had trouble figuring out who all the old guys were though.  Hope to make it to one someday.”  Start planning BRAD, only 2 years to our 35th!

Call the Coast Guard, Cap’n BARNEY’s underway!  “Here's LINDA and Ol’ Cap’n BARNEY on the mighty Kennebec River along the Benton shoreline.  Yes, we got a pair of "beginner" kayaks this summer and have been out several times a week.  There are several boat landings on the Kennebec and the Sebasticook Rivers that are within 10 minutes' drive of our place in the big town of Benton, Maine.  By the way, LINDA selected her kayak first and we later found out that the color scheme is called "Sea Foam."  I had to go with a different color scheme, so I picked the 'other' color scheme they had in stock.  When we looked up the color scheme on the internet, LINDA was quite chagrined.   She is a die-hard sipper of margaritas and the color I unknowingly chose is called "Tequila Sunrise."   Way COOL!   They were all out of "Guinness by the Sea."  So these are beginner kayaks  --  wide with a large opening ... [insert your own joke].   We stay on calm water so we haven't bought the skirts to go with them.  Some folks asked us if we could roll the kayaks over.  I inadvertently tested the roll-over capability of the kayak.  I found that when the kayak tips over, the kayaker just falls out and then he stands up.  Oh, and the portable bilge pump does come in handy.  Although we got the beginner model, the padded seat DOES come with a cup-holder.”

I’m still trying to track down KEN COFFLAND and MIKE CONWAY’s working Alaska for me: “Ken used to live in Sitka.  He does live in Fairbanks.  I'll try again.  I spent a day on one of the Alaska ferries last week, where JOHN WOOD is the Master (I'm a company security contractor to the Alaska Marine Highway System and was "working" that day on a beautiful trip to Skagway.).  I gave him a pep talk about staying connected.  He changes email address regularly to avoid spam.  JOHN still lives on Whidbey Island, and seems to be doing well.  Without solicitation from the crew, I found that JOHN is one of the well-respected and liked masters in the system.  I think he'll be retiring within the next year, if I read his comments correctly.”

Did our esteemed President ever mention that he has his son-in-law, Mike Lane, is working on a longevity drug for the Class?  Well, a critical update is needed!  Just got my annual Packer Season Tickets update ... and I only moved up 335 places to 30728.  Sure hope the research is moving along quickly, because I now have to live to 146!  Mike reports: “Drug was tests on very high class laboratory rats and unfortunately the rats did not succumb so well to the drug.  They were given the dose in front of a wide screen flat paneled DVD complete with a New England Patriots game to keep them amused and occupied. The result? The Pats won and the rats lost all of their hair.  That doesn't seem to give a great outlook to the class of '71 based upon the classmates of your that I have met (no offense, but many of them are a bit lacking in the hair dept - except for MIKE LEONE who seems to look the same as your yearbook picture...with a tad more gray).  Hopefully test # 2 on the monkeys will provide more positive results than test #1. Maybe this time around see how the Red Sox are faring in the play-offs and see if we get the reverse effect?”  Red Sox are World Champions, must mean the longevity drug is just around the corner!  And did Mike say a ‘tad” more gray?

MARY and TOPPER went beachcombing on Elbow Beach on Bermuda while enjoying a great cruise with friends and family in September.  TOPPER thought this was a much better way to travel the high seas.  Fortunately we didn't run into any hurricanes and had great weather the whole trip.  Know who else was traveling?  Apparently Lake Cuomo wasn’t enough...HAP and MARLAYNE were in Paris on Labor Day week.  “Great weather and Paris was beautiful as always. I’m the blind guy in the picture.”  Must be contagious...after the new Alumni Center Groundbreaking during a hectic Homecoming Week, JIM and PEG SYLVESTER were off to Ireland.  

And did MARY say hurricane?  JAY TAYLOR wasn’t traveling and reports on Ivan from Pensacola:  “Greetings to all from post hurricane PNS.  There are trees and electrical wires still down all over the place.  The new house is missing some shingles and 3 of the shutters blew off the front of the house.  A huge pine tree fell across the fence in the back yard from Vance's house next door but missed both houses.  I awoke from the wind about 2 AM the night of the hurricane and turned on the radio.  All the local AM stations were off the air.  I was able to find an FM station which covers MOB and PNS.  The announcer said that the eye was passing over Gulf Shores and PNS would be walloped in the next 20-30 minutes since it was on the east side of the eye.  The wind sounded the same to me so 30 minutes later I went back to sleep and woke up the next morning.  I was surprised to see all the trees, electrical poles, and electrical wires down.  The water pressure was very low and toilets had to be flushed using water stored in the bathtub.  There was no electricity and telephone service.  Just about every store I know of was closed for at least the next 2 days.  A 7 PM curfew was imposed to help thwart looting.  The water pressure returned to normal one day after the hurricane, but had potential for contamination.  Electricity and telephone service was restored to the duplex 5 days after the hurricane on Monday night.  I was surprised to get electrical service so soon since many electrical lines are still in the street 10 days after the hurricane not too far from the house.  I spent the first few days after the hurricane with my chain saw cutting limbs and trunks of downed trees and placing them at the front of the houses.  Many folks at the beach and in Gulf Breeze have lost everything.  We were blessed.  I am fortunate to be able to now return to remodeling the house.”  

CONGRATULATIONS to new grandparents BERT and SUSIE KINGHORN.  “After what seemed forever to Rachel, she finally had a 8lb 1oz boy about noon September 24th, just hours after we arrived in Ann Arbor.  Grandmother is doing well.  Oh, mother and child are doing pretty good also, though Rachel is very tired from a long and rough labor session and baby is a bit sore.  Rachel was too fatigued to pick between the narrowed field of names today, so she and Nate will flip that coin tomorrow.  Nate, with the hardest job of all, was a true champion and what a beaming dad he is today!  Photo and name to follow.  P.S.  Baby is beautiful.  BERT caught six nurses out side Rachel's room with one telling the others that this is the room with the awesome cute baby.  Imagine, BERT married to a grandmother!”  BERT followed through with the photo: “This photo is of Justin James Everett and Rachel, my oldest daughter at day 10.  Rachel and Nate both work for Ford Motor company.  She is an electrical engineer, Nate is a mechanical engineer.  Rachel is working on the design of the next generation of SUVs. Nate recently graduated from the Sloan School at MIT and is working a project to better integrate company business lines.  Justin was determined to wait until we arrived to be born.  He was born two weeks late and on the morning we arrived in Ann Arbor.  SUSIE has a new man in her life and, even though this one is a bit young, I really can't complain!”

What was it really like at the Permian High of “Friday Night Lights?”  RALPH LEWIS was there: “The rabid support of football has been that way for generations.  I was there when Permian won state the first time in ‘65.  It was really exciting and we loved going to the pep rallies and to the games.  In fact, the character played by Tim McGraw (the alcoholic father), was on the 1965 team that won state.  It was a strange experience seeing my home town in the movie.  The stadium was not there when I went to school.  Though we did have a large stadium in which it was not unusual to have 10-20 thousand people at a game!  The movie is modified a bit from what really happened, but not to the extent where it changes anything substantive.  The stadium is actually used by all the high schools in the district, not just Permian.  Also, the practice field, field house, locker room, etc. is actually at the high school and not at the stadium which is a couple of miles north of the campus.  The final game, as you will read in the book, was actually the state semi-final game, not the state championship.  Carter did go on to win state that year, though.  I am sure they changed it just for dramatic effect.  It doesn’t really change the impact of the overall story.  As an aside, it was only about 3-4 years ago that my parents finally gave up their season tickets to the Permian Panthers games!  I enjoyed reading your epistle about the class happenings in the latest Bulletin.  My daughter and son-in-law are doing fine.  They live in Uncasville, just a short way up the road from CGA.  Both are school teachers.  Chad teaches middle school English and coaches a HS girls basketball team.  Jennifer teaches kindergarten in the same school she went to in Mystic.  My son Brent, is in the same area, moving from job to job and taking care of my 4 year old granddaughter, Kaylee.  DEB and I enjoyed a couple of visits there this summer, one for the wedding, and a more recent one where we drove down east from there. Spent a couple of days on Cape Cod, then on a two day windjammer cruise out of Camden, ME.  Wow, what a great trip!”

The infrequent WENDETTI checks in with another “Complete SITREP.”  “First off, I really appreciate LOOMO remembering that the Biker Man still rules, perhaps unopposed anymore.  It’s been many years since LOOMO on his Norton, RAGS on his BSA, and MARIO on his Triumph terrorized the streets of New London.  Marlon Brando and the best screenwriters couldn’t have touched us.  Well, nothing wrong with a little embellishment, is there?  At least I didn’t start out saying “Now this ain’t no $#!&.  Hope LOOMO checks out the pic.  Like ACID, I thought about buying an old Triumph and maybe restoring it, but six bikes later, I do remember what they were like.  Modern technology rules.  But wait, far more importantly was Heidi’s graduation in May.  Can’t believe so much time has passed.  Heidi did us proud!  Bears follow me everywhere – CGA, Brown, at Cal where I work.  We had a wonderful graduation week complicated some by the fire in the house that Heidi and her girlfriends/teammates rented in their senior year.  All got out and were OK, but what a mess.  Heidi spent some well-deserved time in Ireland, then on to summer school at UCLA and back to Harvard for graduate school.  The east coast seems to agree with her.  It appears she has slightly more dedication to academic pursuits than her father.  Well, maybe more than slightly.  As for me, I am really excited.  By the time you read this, I will have retired for the second time!  Yes indeed.  My actual retirement date form the University of California is January 31, 2005, but my last workday is December 23, 2004.  I was always burdened by a heavy unused vacation balance.  Now it’s worth something, and something to celebrate.  Don’t ask me what I’ll be doing in retirement.  Haven’t figured it out.  But the first two months are dedicated to that end.  I will follow one rule – if it ain’t fun, don’t do it.  BARNEY looks like he lived by that rule.  As always, if you’re in the San Francisco Bay Area, think about stopping by and seeing us.  But call first!”  Is the BIKRMAN really riding a Beemer?  And if you are in the Bay area just before Christmas, ROBIN mentions the possibility of free eats: “Yes, some may be planning a retirement luncheon for me.  I'm not involved.  If I get wind of it, I'll pass it on.  On last day, will crank up car stereo (yes, on that day I will drive not ride) and play EB & The Animals - "We gotta get out of this place."  Gee, I still sound and act like kid, no?  This time, retirement will really be a retirement.  Heidi, honey, YOYO (You're On Your Own).”

As noted above, BARNEY is having fun and provides a kayak follow up with the magic work...icebreaking! “We made some local kayak trips to see the fall foliage, but the kayaks are in storage, hauled up to the rafters in the garage.  It's getting COLD here and we got the beginner kayak models which don't have the reinforced icebreaking bow (which should be a REQUIRED feature in Maine from early September to late June).  The skis are ready, though.  We (my lovely bride LINDA and I) continue to keep busy with THREE grand-kids livin' at "home" with us.  To paraphrase Robert Duvall's line in APOCALYPSE NOW:  "I love the smell of poop in the morning."  The bright side; I have a fully functioning Fisher-Price Geo-Trax train in my computer room complete with 379 yards of track and 934 auxiliary "pieces" of buildings, trains and scenery (aka "tripping hazards").  And to make it more fun, this model has the 157-decibel operating siren and train whistle!  It's no wonder I'm further contributing to the local economy by personally keeping the local package stores in business.  Note: Fisher Price does not endorse operation of its trains while sloggin' down Guinness.  Check out WMHB radio <http://www.colby.edu/wmhb>  on the web and search the on-line program guide for ODD ROCK with Cap'n BARNEY at the helm (this particular helm is not actually connected to anything important).  Rock on!”

THAD and PAM provided a quick ALLEN update: “PAM is currently the Assistant Dean for Student Services at the George Mason School of Management. Oldest daughter Mandy (27) is working as a teacher at Edison HS in Fairfax County and working on her Masters at George Mason.  Her husband John Foley recent completed his masters in Instructional Technology and works for MANTECH a firm that is providing training in the new Homeland Security Information Network for federal, state, and local responders.  Their two sons Zach (3) and Andrew (1) are Grandma’s joy.  Meghan (25) just accepted an HR position with a pediatric HMO in Phoenix. Her husband, Vinnie Altobello is an operations manager for Sherwin Williams auto paint.  Lucas (23) is working on the Delta IV launch vehicle program for Boeing in Huntington Beach, CA and is working on a master in aeronautical and astronautical engineering from the University of Southern California. He lives in Irvine. Some of our classmates had the chance to see my parents (Bill and Wilma) when they visited Washington in August.  They still consider all of ’71 to be their children. My Dad, as many know, is a CG WWII vet who served in Coast Guard manned army transports in both the South Pacific and European theaters.  We were able to visit the World War II Memorial and attend the annual Coast Guard Band concert at the Navy Memorial on 3 Aug.  The Commandant was kind enough to recognize my Dad and the WWII vets who were present.  My sister Wanda and Tom Yearout (’72) are in Tucson with my parents.  Tom recently accepted a financial management position with TSA.”

I heard from both MARY CORNELL and NORM SEALANDER in response to my question on the date of DON GILBERT’s death.  MARY said that he died the same day Lucas Allen was born in July 1981 and thought of it as passing on the torch from one generation to another.  Norm responded: “I noticed in the Bulletin that all of our Classmates may not be aware of the passing of DON GILBERT.  DON went to Heaven early after a challenging and totally agonizing bout with prostate cancer.  Typical of the DONNY that we all knew and loved, he faced his last earthly ordeal with tremendous and inspirational courage, optimism, humor, and overflowing love for all who were around him at the time.  MELODY and I were fortunate to have him in our home in California a couple of times after he was diagnosed, and I believe that THAD and PAM, CHUCK and CHERYL, FRANK KLINE, and others were in touch with him as well. MELODY and I visited him at a cancer treatment center in Houston where he was hospitalized during his final days on earth, and he “escaped” from his room one night to sing and reminisce with us in a public park late one night.  Maybe we drank some cheap wine from a bottle in a paper sack - - - I can’t remember. What I will always remember is the bright, shining spirit of DONNY GILBERT that will never be duplicated if the Earth endures a million more years. I’m sure we all feel the same way.”  DON crossed the bar on July 2nd, 1981.  The Court has an additional request...does anyone know when KEN BICKNELL died?  We’re adjourned.