OHS Newsletter
Archived Copy

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

August 23, 2004

IN THIS ISSUE:

Well, another July 4th came and went. Seems like it was just New Years and the Christmas decorations are already coming out. Mike is planning another Christmas display already and it's 5 months away!

As some of you already know, a few weeks ago we found out our old apartment complex was on fire. Had we not been lucky enough to find our mobile home and be let out of the lease, I guarantee we would have still been there! It was a total loss. The original Party Porch is gone. On the up side, the new Party Porch is coming along nicely. Got a new Barbeque, and porch furniture, and had a fair turnout for the 4th. Started out with just us, and by the time we were done, we had about 16 people. Since our mobile home park is near but not next to the fireworks, like the apartment was, we took lawn chairs to the softball park and watched from there. Just something missing. Maybe it was the 50 people we usually get at fireworks time! Afterwards I took all the grandkids swimming until midnight. Heated pool, so it was really nice. Hope all of you had great holidays too!

Class of 66, STILL WAITING FOR REUNION updates. Hint Hint.. Meanwhile, here's some updates from Diane Rhodes Fisch and her newsletter that I “borrowed” to pass on to you. Thanks, Diana……..for this, and for the plugs in your newsletter about what Bev and I have going on. Darlene Jang '66 contacted Diane Rhodes Fisch to let her know that another classmate, Jim Carleton '66 will be featured in a PBS Broadcast sponsored by National Geographics to be aired sometime this year on his background and work in marine biology relating to endangered species by foreign induced species into our waterways crating serious ecological imbalances. Great work Jim!  Darlene is an architect in her own firm Barcelon-Jang.  Her firm is a joint venture with EHDD Architecture on the CCSF Chinatown North Beach campus. Nancy Meyer Neal '66 says that her youngest, Tracy, will be going to college this Fall - either Occidental or UCSB.  She is still a Social Casework Specialist with Contra Costa County and her husband, Howard, has a law practice in Montclair.  Their son, Travis, is in his first year at Hastings Law in SF. Tom Bandy '66 and he is now retired and living in the foothills of Calaveras County.  His wife, Kathy, is still working and they have two grandchildren this year.  Congrats to both of you!!!!!

Betsy Lim'66 says that she and her daughter took a vacation to Paris last year and had great time.  She says they toured all the museums and ate their way through Easter week.  Her daughter has just graduated from Piedmont High and has been accepted to Occidental. Sharon Mora Van Meter '66 is opening her own business called Bead Designs by Sharon.  She will be developing a catalogue and setting up a website.  She designs her own jewelry.  Sharon is still trying to locate Karen Kennedy. Nora Moore '66 took a Mexico Cruise in May. Virginia Brown Keyder '66 is also losing her youngest son to college at Cornell this Fall and joining his brother there.   Steve England '66 has been very busy traveling with work but was still able to attend the Tour de France last summer with his wife, Mimi.   Don Stabler '66 will be retiring this year after 34 years of public saafety dispatching.  He is a Senior Fire Dispatcher with the Contra Costa County Fire Dept. in Pleasant Hill. Don has served on various committees, state and local, and has assisted at OES Fire and Rescue Hdqtrs. in the past doing resource coordination during major fires and floods.  He has served on the California  Fire Chief's Assoc, Northern Division, Communications Section for over 10 years and is the lead instructor in the "Incident Dispatcher" program. Happy Retirement Don! Diane Rhodes Fisch is lucky to have several classmates in Texas.  However, this is a biiiiiiigggg state so she hopes that one of these days they'll get to visit.  Yvonne Wainwright '66 has moved to Texas in 2001 and has now retired.  Looks like we were on the same track in 2001, Yvonne.  She has a daughter  who works for Policy Links in Oakland and has 2 grandchildren, Taylor 9 years and Joseph 2 years.  She's enjoyed traveling would love to hear from her classmates.  Her email is yvonnewainwright@sbcglobal.net.  Alison Windsor Johnson '66 is also in Texas and she and Yvonne have already contacted each other.  She's close to kids and family.   Welcome back to Texas, Sheila Yee Lau '66.  She's moved back from the west coast with Verizon where she is the Verizon Region President for Texas.  Way to go, Sheila!  Congrats on your new position!

YEARBOOK CD's. We now have a website for the yearbooks. Visit it at http:\\yearbooks.50megs.com\index.html. Yearbooks are more if you order them through the website, we are trying to keep them at only $10 for Oakland High and newsletter people. As we are buying yearbooks on Ebay now, we are charging more for them on the site. Available now, and for reunions, are the below listed books. I'm not including books outside of Oakland in this list.

I'm also doing schools out of Oakland as the books become available to me. I can't thank Bob Chan '71 and Craig Hansen '62, for all their help in the past and hopefully the future. Bob tells me 1970 is done, and several other older books.

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REGULAR REUNION BLURBS:

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New email addresses and additions. Welcome Walter Newberry, class of 64. His email is wnewberry@comcast.net. Sandy Dietz Walbert '68, re-affirming her email address as sdwalbert@comcast.net. Dave Tracy, '65, is now dtracy48@comcast.net. Hmmm, Comcast seems to be doing quite a business these days!

Also Linda Kenneally Stock is looking for Shelley Kushman. They went to school together at Crocker Highlands. Linda is a sister of Kathleen Kenneally '65. Linda's email is weebear@inet.net.nz. She is living in New Zealand and is a beauty therapist in the South Island. Also welcome to Patti Grondona Bernardino, Skyline '73, who is looking for Ida Jacques, OHS '73. Her email is Pattib118@aol.com . And finally, Graig Cahill, '64 former member of the Blue Echoes and the Off Beats, who used to play school dance gigs, and had a record out called "Surfin' Elephant", which I bought at Duo Records years ago. It was recently available on a CD called Surf Creature, on Romulan, if you can find it. Graig now has his own Real Estate Company in Castro Valley, and has a son, who lives in Castro Valley, and two beautiful granddaughters, and a daughter who lives in Capitola with her husband. Graig can be reached at cahillandco@juno.com . Welcome to all the newcomers and if you know where to help them find their friends, they will eagerly await your emails!

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As you all know by, our Skyline adoptee Biff Gudmundsen passed away. We will miss him, and his trivia. Biff was also Mr. I'll-take-any-photo-of-Oakland-for-You, and has supplied many of us with photos of our old homesteads and stomping grounds. Thanks to all of you who attended his services in Orinda. I've made several new email buds through Biff.

Another set of condolences are being sent out to Louise Watson who just lost her husband Wendell. Our love and prayers to you and your family, Louise.

And also to the friends and family of Larry Cassou, class of 1954, who passed away since the last newsletter. Thanks to Irene Fiebelman Krohn for letting us know of his passing.

I always hope that there aren't going to be any condolence offerings in the newsletter, but I suppose it is a part of the growing old process.

Names added to the Memorial Pages since the last Newsletter:

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Bonnie Goes To The Store

As most of you that have been reading my adventures know, I gave up driving several years ago for the public good. Now that I have lost a whole person, weight-wise, and gotten glasses to see with, I put myself back on the road. Now, I ask you, why can't others do the same? By that I mean take themselves off the road…….

Last week on my flex day off, I went shopping. I selected 5 items, and got into the “Express Lane”, My first mistake. The lady in front of me had an entire basket of groceries. It came to over $100! Then she pulled out her checkbook, and began writing a check (one word per minute, I swear) in the Express Lane. Let's think about this. Express Lane, 15 items or less, NO CHECKS PLEASE. This lady is a regular at the store, like me. She knew better, but did it anyway because the line was shorter. This is my biggest peeve when I shop. Idiots who don't care about anyone but themselves. I purchased my 5 little items, and pulled out of my parking space, then turned out of the lot onto the main drag, where I got into the turning lane to make a left turn.

I was casually sitting there, listening to my tunes on the radio, when I noticed a lady in a white car next to me on the left…………facing the same way I was. Yeppers, she was standing still, facing east in a westbound lane, with her left blinker on. The drivers coming at her kept honking and one person even got out of his car to call her names…….She looked at them and, can you believe it, smiled and waved, then turned left. Deaf as well as blind?

Since the light turned green and she turned, I of course followed since I was in the PROPER turning lane………

I followed her over the hill, and Holy Crap, she did it again at the next corner!!!! Got into the oncoming lane, signaled, and turned left again. Out of curiosity I turned and followed her ……and she did it AGAIN. Got in the oncoming lane, put on her signal and turned into (of all places) the DMV!!!! I thought, may the Universe protect us if she was there to renew her driver's license. I tell you, she didn't have a clue.

I followed her and watched as she parked (in two spaces of course) and she totally ignored the mile long DMV line, and went right to the window. I sat there and watched as they stamped her paperwork and issued her a new license.

Let's review here. She drove in the oncoming lane, she used two parking spaces, she cut in line, and they gave her a license without a test! Why, you ask, didn't I go in and say something? Well, if you've read my previous adventure, Bonnie goes to the DMV, you would understand why I refuse to ever, ever go in there again.

Okay, back to the story. I left, not believing what I had seen, and went to Del Taco, a place known mostly in southern California, and got into the drive-thru lane. As I got almost to the window to pick up my order (which would have been strawberry Margaritas if I thought I could get one!), I found myself face to face LITERALLY with the babe in the white car again. She was facing me, going the wrong way in the drive-thru lane, and , Holy Crap, she was HONKING at ME to get out of her way! I only wish I'd had a camera with me. The worst part of this story? A Barstow cop drove by, LOOKED, and drove away. Maybe he knew it was a hopeless situation.

The girl at the window gave me my order (Mike's dinner…I'm such a wonderful cook) and the people BEHIND me were nice enough to back up so I could get out of the line.

It was 114 on the temperature sign as I passed the bank. It's always hot in Barstow in the summer, and as I continued on Main Street to go home, I noticed a guy dressed in nothing but white bikini trunks and untied army boots, standing by the freeway entrance, carrying a backpack and a sign that said “ Need Ride to Feenix”, a place not listed in MY road atlas…….The sign should have said “will work for clothes”! He waved at me and smiled……I'm serious. Like in a cartoon, you could almost SEE the little lines in the air as the body odor escaped into the atmosphere. What's worse is that the car behind me pulled over and let him get in, and they got on the freeway heading to “Feenix” on I-40 East……..

Do I attract these loonies? Probably. It's been proven that if I am in a crowd of 250 or more the nearest loony will head straight for me. I must have a tattoo on my forehead, or maybe there is a book loonies carry with pictures of easy marks……I'd be in chapter one. Mike proved it once at Pier 39. I would have thought he made a deal with the guy, but I know he couldn't have. We parked over a block away, and Mike bet that the weird guy in the heavy coat standing in front of the entrance would come right up to me. Sure as heck, he came right up to me in the crowd and asked for money.

Now, you would have thought that was all the loonies I'd see in a 20 minute trip to the store and Del Taco. HAH! Surely you jest.

It wouldn't be a cruise on Main Street if I didn't pass the lady in front of Winchells, waiting for the Venutians to pick her up in their space ship. She's been there at least twenty years. Or seeing Crazy Carol trying to escape from the library. She says the books trap her inside and she shrinks as small as a mouse and can't get out…………She, too, has been around for about twenty years. The difference is I know them both, and they are quite nice except for a few, uh, problems. Then again, you'd think by now the lady waiting at Winchells would realize there aren't any parking spots big enough for the space ship at that corner. I waved to them both, and kept going.

Next to Taco Bell was a family, holding a sign, saying “ Need money, Need Food”. I went into Taco Bell, and ordered four burritos and four cokes, and took them back to the family. I'm a sucker for little kids. Well, those little kids had the nerve to whine “I don't like that. I want McDonalds! “ And they threw the food on the ground. They also complained they wanted Sprite and not coke. Then one of the parents ACTUALLY asked me for the money to take them to McDonalds.

I drove away asking myself what the heck is wrong with people? Especially the person that picked up bikini-man. I just don't understand it.

I headed home. Just as I got to the driveway of the mobile home park, ready to turn left, yep, you got it. There she was! The Bimbo in the white car, going OUT the IN driveway of the park. What's funny is that she probably went home and complained about me to her husband because I was always in HER way!

Either I'm getting old and cranky or people are getting weirder. I got home, took my hormones and my prozac, and prayed for a Margarita.

Some days it doesn't pay to even get out of bed.

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Pictures this week include:

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If you have trouble with the graphics in the email version, go to www.oocities.org/ohsnewsletter

Mail your news, comments and suggestions to Bonnie at HULSEBE@barstow.usmc.mil.

Copyright © 2002-2003 by Bonnie Burke Hulse '65 and Bev Shulster '65. All rights reserved.