OHS Newsletter
(Archived Copy)

A Summary of Events and Topics of Interest to OHS grads and friends

December 13, 2002

Please feel free to forward this newsletter to other alumni

IN THIS ISSUE:

The holidays are getting closer and I've still got cards to mail and a couple of presents to buy. All in all, not bad for me! I'm the one you hate on Dec 24 that can't make up their mind and keeps the store open late!

We've just been informed of the passing last Saturday of 1961 classmate Ginny Oas (married name Johnson). The Contra Costa Times carried the following notice: "Service on December 12, 2002 at 2:00 p.m., at First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley".

My Brother, Tom, (graphicsdoc) wishes to extend his thanks to all the hundreds of condolence emails he has received and contributions sent thus far, regarding the death of his oldest son, Thomas James. The independent investigation has lead to the fact that he was beaten and tortured while in custody in a single holding cell for a misdemeanor violation awaiting a court hearing. Words cannot express the comfort that came from all of you. A memorial was held in the park attended by friends and family, with a BBQ following for those of his friends who were homeless. Tom suggests that those of you who still want to contribute send it to him at Tom Burke, 5046 Bonwell DR, Concord, CA 94521. The investigation costs are soaring and he says all contributions are welcome.

First of all, before Warren Miller kills me, I mistakenly put Candy Blackwell as his Santa's helper instead of his wife Linda. I'm sooooo sorry! Of course I'll never live this down. I apologize to Warren, Linda, Candy and Steve!!!! Their Santa night went off great and Santa left a lot of smiling faces behind when he left. Attached below is a picture of Linda as the Elf. Linda, Linda Linda, not Candy! I keep trying to get it right!!

The Oakland Public Library is offering a new service. You can ask them anything (with in reason, folks!) and they will get you an answer within 2 days. I will include a link for you. I tested it out by asking a question that I couldn't find an answer for. How Deep is Lake Merritt? Within 2 days, I got a reply saying "Lake Merritt is 8-10 feet deep on the average. Some parts are as deep as 14-17, depending on the time of day. Lake Merritt is a tidal lake and rises and falls twice a day. It is also fed by storm drains and creeks flowing in from the Oakland Hills." The site is located at OPL's Online Reference Service. You just fill out the form.

As I sit here in my office, listening to Christmas carols and enjoying all the colorful decorations that have been put up, it makes me think of being a kid again, driving around Oakland to look at Christmas lights with my parents. One place we always used to go was by Elston Avenue where the court and street decorated, and lights were literally strung from house to house with no break in between. I try to continue that tradition with my kids and grandkids, taking them all over Barstow to see the beautifully lit homes. Do you recall doing that as a kid? I can also remember the Christmas Pageant at Glenview School. It was probably like most schools, but it was such a great moment when you are a little kid, waiting in the hall for your turn to enter the auditorium. The auditorium was dark, filled with anxious parents. Only the stage was lit, waiting for the classes to enter. It was such a magical moment. You knew you were part of something really really special. It was exciting to have the spotlight on you as you walked in, knowing your parents and grandparents were sitting in there waiting to catch a glimpse as you walked into the room, your heart would beat faster, your palms would sweat, but you would feel such a feeling of warmth and love. Everyone giggled nervously, even the boys. The teachers marched us in and sat us on bleachers, facing sideways along side the audience, where we, the choir, dressed in our little white smocks, would sing our little hearts out with well practiced Christmas songs. Four lucky kids were chosen to play the zither. I know now that by the time the pageant got there, my parents were near insanity from hearing the same songs being practiced day in and day out and probably in my sleep, but come Pageant night it was as if they'd never heard any of those carols before. I remember one year I was chosen to be an Angel on stage. I think it was because I had a white dress (that was a must). Being on stage and facing the audience was such a rush, even at 6. It all added to the mystique of the ever-nearing visit from Santa. The Sears and Monkey Ward Christmas Catalogs that we all KNEW were sent directly from Santa were a MUST in writing your letter to Santa. Of course you'd include the size, price, and page number for each item so Santa wouldn't make a mistake! I can't remember ever falling asleep on Christmas eve, altho I know I did. I was so excited it seemed as if morning would never get here! Every sound or unusual light was Santa flying by waiting for me to fall asleep, which made it ever so much harder. I love seeing my grandkids with the same excitement for the season. I'm such a schmutz (is there such a word?) for Christmas that I watch everything on TV even slightly related to Christmas! Everything from Charlie Brown's Christmas to the 24 hours of Christmas Story on Christmas Day. I watch Family Channel 25 days of Christmas....... I even watched a rerun of an old Andy Williams Christmas special. It was a magical time to grow up when we did, and I wish we could get that magic back. We're so blessed to have experienced such memories.

Not a lot of news stuff here this week. I did hear from Louise Shepard, '65. Louise recently moved back to the condominium she lived in before moving east. She's all settled in and planning parties with friends on her balcony. Louise recently got back from a trip to Atlanta for her job and was delighted to see how nicely Atlanta downtown has developed. Louise wishes to extend all of you wishes for a joyous holiday season. The same to you, Louise. Enjoy all the love and friendship this season brings with it!

SURGERY UPDATE: Well, I'm scheduled for January for the surgery. Exact date not yet know, but possibly the second week. All tests are done. I flunked the Sleep Apnea, although how anyone could flunk sleeping is beyond me. It was an, uh, interesting Evening at the clinic. More in this week's story.

The 65 yearbook sits with the last quarter still unscanned! I will probably get it done this weekend. If you are interested in a copy of the yearbook on CD, write me (as many of you already have). I can include 1964, the whole book, and 1963 Seniors and 1961 Seniors, the McChesney '62 yearbook, and the photos from the past weekly letters.

Hugs to all,

Bonnie

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THE CLASS OF 66. Check out the Class of 66 website at www.ohs1966.org. Arnie's address is stoof@alum.calberkeley.org. Arnie has posted some wonderful reunion photos from their reunion of Oct 18-20. Cameras were set on tables for classmates to take pictures with. Check out the Friday Night Cocktail Party, the Saturday Night Reunion Dinner-Dance, and the Sunday Morning Brunch.

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Good news for the class of '62. There may be a reunion in the planning stages. Craig Hansen is looking for all alumni from 62, and can be contacted at chobhans@aol.com. If you have any names, addresses or updates for 1962, or you just want more info, please contact him as soon as possible. You may also contact Jeani Golish Mills at shehana@thegrid.net. She has set up a web site for the class of 62 at www.ohs62.com . It's really a great site. If you can get out there to check it out, you will enjoy it.

The class of 63 reunion chairperson is Veronica "Roni" Johnson Jennings. She can be reached at Vjjennings962@cs.com. If you have questions, write to her! The reunion will be held October 11, 2003, from 6 to midnight at the Waterfront Hotel, 10 Washington Street, Oakland CA 94607. If you can help find LOST Wildcats please contact tuba2ter@email.com. If you want to volunteer to help, contact Roni at the above email.

THE CLASS OF 1964!! for all of those interested in helping with the 1964 reunion, Call or write Mun Wah (Gary Lee) home, 2311 8th Street, Berkeley. Call him at 510 704-1986.

The Class of 1967 For reunion info write to Judy Gee Sue at jkgsue@aol.com.

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NEW MISSING FRIENDS: Still looking for Roy Keck, '58. If you or anyone knows his where abouts could you please write and let me know? Also looking for Leigh Evans, Class of 64. Cameron Meeker would like to get in touch.

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I have to admit, testing for this surgery has been, if nothing else, interesting. I've never had to do so many different kinds of things.

They had me do a PFT. Now, in the Marine Corps, a PFT is running 3 miles, 100 crunches and a certain amount of pull-ups. I knew they were NEVER going to get that out of me. So when I asked the nurse what a PFT consisted of, and WHY I wanted to know, she had to call in all the others to hear about it. To them a PFT is breathing into a tube. You'd think that would be a simple thing to do. Ha. It took 45 minutes for me to blow 20 different ways into this tube.

Blow blow blow blow blow blow blow blow blow blow blow BREATHE!

Now, Blow, breathe, blow, breathe… Before I knew it I was blowing, breathing and snorting into this tube like some kind of cartoon character. By the time I was done I felt like I'd done 20 laps in the pool.

Then they sent me for an EKG. The table was 4 feet off the ground and I, at my size, have no center of gravity. Stepping off a curb with no equilibrium can be very scary, and more than once I've wound up on my butt, only to be helped back up by paramedics with an industrial crane. Once I get on the ground, it is no easy task to get back up. Getting on and off the table was an impossibility for me at the moment. I had a Standing Up EKG.

There were more tests, and ultrasounds, and I think I provided enough blood for the Red Cross to cover next Fourth of July holiday! And with every test, I worried I wouldn't be healthy. I passed them all.

All, until the Sleep test. This was the one test I was sure I could pass. Sleeping. Dang, I was great at that!

The nearest clinic is 30 miles from here in Victorville. I grabbed my pajamas, my pillow, and a bottle of water, and Mike took me to the clinic. How hard could this be, sleeping? He left me in my room, which, while trying to appear homey, contained breathing machines, hoses, and closed circuit TV for monitoring. They provide a tiny 13-inch TV/VCR combo mounted on the wall as far from the bed as you can get. It has a remote with 220 buttons on it, all as small as the head of a pin. I guess this is to test your stress level. It worked. I couldn't see the buttons, so I freaking sat on it, and whatever came up on the screen, I left it there. It was a weird collage of colors at that distance anyway. I did manage to figure out it was Monday night football and the Raiders won. The tech had me get dressed for bed, then he sat me in chair and showed me about 2 dozen wires he was going to hook up to me. It was at this point he mentioned the glue. Yes, glue.

" It shampoos right out!" he assured me.

With that, he proceeded to GLUE wires to my scalp, generously mixing the glue with my gray hair. Then he glued 10 more on my face, and more on my neck, arms and legs. The he put two belts on me, one on my waist, and one around my chest, and ran wires through the belts. Last of all he attached a little box around my neck that held the plugged in wires. All this time, he "lets" you watch a video about Sleep Apnea, acting like I would order this video on pay per view on my own. Idiot. It's 25 minutes of people snoring, snorting, and gasping while they sleep. Ah yes, I will sleep well after that!

A second patient, a man, who was also being studied, came in. The tech sent me off to watch TV while he glued the other guy together. NO problem. I waddled off to my room. It was there I got a view of myself in the bathroom mirror! Holy Crap. I looked like the Bride of Frankenstein! My hair was glued and smushed upward like a punk rocker, and all kinds of wires protruded out of my face. There were wires under my eyes, over my eyes, in my nose, on my cheeks, under my mouth, on my throat, and every one was glued down.

I prepared to get into bed, but the bed was higher than usual, so I had to jump for it to get in. I didn't know the bed was on wheels and not attached to anything. The bed took off across the room right into the sliding glass doors. CRASH! BAM!

The tech came running in. Oh yeah, I looked like an idiot. He pushed the bed back over to the wall, told me to get comfortable (!) we'd be starting soon. Then I saw the other patient go into his room. He was equally as hideous as me. The tech must revel in that. The techs probably have a contest as to who can design the silliest looking patient. This guy, who was about 60, had on heart covered pajamas, and, yes, I swear, Bunny slippers. He, too, weighed over 350. His hair was sticking up like mine. We must have looked like some kind of monsters from the Sci Fi channel. We didn't speak.

The bedroom is soundproofed to ensure a good nights sleep. In the bathroom, which I shared with bunny slipper man, there is a big sign that says "DON'T lock the door to the other person's room. It locks them out, and makes a horrible sound that wakes them up when you unlock it."

I got into bed, and the tech hooked up all the wires to a machine, and then went into the other room to test the closed circuit TV and the intercom. "Just relax and go to sleep." Oh yeah, like that's gonna work. I lay there, wrapped like a piece of wire filled conduit, my eyes wide open. I was certain the video of me sleeping was playing on all 60 TV's at the local Circuit City. I could picture shoppers standing around laughing, thinking I was on some reality show. My smushed up gluehair probably looked REALLY good on the Big Screen! Popcorn anyone?

Surprisingly, in about 20 minutes I guess I drifted off.

Suddenly, out of the blackness was this "CLACK CLACK"! In the darkness, it sounded like Big Ben chiming at midnight, it was so loud. I jumped up and the bed skidded across the floor pulling the wires loose! It was the guy next door locking and unlocking my bathroom door! Can't he read?? It scared the crap out of me. Kind of like something out of "The Shining". I settled back down, moved the bed back, and the tech hooked me back up. I was sure the people at Circuit City were applauding.

About 20 minutes later, I could hear it. SNORT, SNORT SNORT, BRRRRRRRRR! The guy was snoring so loud it was shaking the bathroom door! I'm sure his bunny slippers were hiding under the bed, terrified. And it was not just a snore. It was loud enough to wake the dead! The tech finally came in and closed both bathroom doors. I again drifted off to sleep.

An hour went by, and I awoke to see the tech standing next to my bed, holding some Friday the 13th looking mask over my face! OMIGOD, I'm in a Horror movie! What the heck is going on? I looked for Freddy and Michael Myers, but the tech was alone.

He told me he was going to have to have me wear the dang mask!

OH Sh--! I'm claustrophobic! He tried to put the mask on me with no luck!

Finally, he gave in and gave me tubing to wear. It's like oxygen tubing only thicker. It blows air and oxygen up your nose so you have to breathe through your nose. Your mouth won't work. It's like it disconnects from your brain! The air coming in totally blocks you from breathing through your mouth. After a few minutes, it's actually very relaxing. I fell asleep, but still woke up every couple of hours, and drifted right back to sleep. Twice during the night, bunny slipper man again locked my bathroom door. And unlocked it.

By morning I was exhausted. Mike came early to pick me up. I thought we'd have to call an ambulance. He laughed so hard at the way I looked, he lost his breath and choked. Served him right.

The tech had me in the chair again, and he was disconnecting the wires and ripping them off my face and hair as if I was immune to pain. After he was done, I tried to run a comb through my hair, but it got stuck in the glue. I rode all the way to Barstow like that on freeway, hair sticking up in little spikes, a comb stuck to my head. Just because he thought it was funny, Mike went to the drive through at the local Burger King for breakfast………. Oh, he'll get his!

Once I got home it took THREE shampoos to get rid of most of the glue in my hair! I was afraid to blow dry it, since it might set the glue in some way, so I let it dry naturally, then rewashed it again. What fun. My face had obvious spots of missing skin from where it had been yanked off earlier.

Now, finally, I'm done with the tests. I'm healthy but in heart failure, my body doesn't want to breathe while it sleeps, and my center of gravity does not exist. Once the surgery is over and I become Christie Brinkley, it will all have been worth it.

By the way, if anyone asks, the LAST thing I want for Christmas is BUNNY SLIPPERS!!!

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No Trivia this week. It will resume. I'm asking Santa for Trivial Pursuit the new edition for Christmas!

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Photos for this week include Linda Miller as an elf on Santa's night (NOT CANDY! Yes, I know!!!) Never live it down..... and a photo of Alan Wheeler and his wife (not Candy) relaxing in the hot tub. Last of all, a photo of Glenview School taken by Carol Breilh Vercellino '61.

Linda Miller

Linda Miller -- Santa's elf
Linda Miller -- Santa's elf

Alan Wheeler and his wife

Alan Wheeler and his wife
Alan Wheeler and his wife in the hot tub

All I want for Christmas is....

Jim Montalvo '65 sitting on Santa's lap (Warren Miller '66)
Jim Montalvo '65 sitting on Santa's lap (Warren Miller '66)

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This newsletter is available in both HTML and ASCII text email versions, as well as this web site. If you have trouble with the graphics in the email version, and you wish to switch formats just email me at HULSEBE@barstow.usmc.mil.

Copyright © 2002 by Bonnie Burke Hulse '65. All rights reserved.