House&Son Reunion Photos Are Up

At long last, we've discovered that the many photos that our official reunion photographer and classmate, Rick House, and his son Jeremy took on July 24-25 are now up and available for viewing. A lot of you had inquired about the site and the problems you experienced accessing it, but it seems to be working now. Any questions that you might have about particular photos, send them directly to Rick ( fotoman1985@yahoo.com ) or contact the Houses through the site and hope you get a response. It takes a couple of minutes to get used to navigating the site and the 275 photos, and you can do it by either establishing an e-mail log-on/password, or "as a guest." As Ellen Annunziata Van Skiver said, she spotted "pictures of people I didn't even know were there!"

The Web site is here: http://housemix.lifepics.com/net/Pro/Default.aspx

The code to enter: CR072509

Wasn't It Great To See . . . .

I know the answer is probably EVERYONE! But maybe there's a classmate you'd not seen for years - since graduation. Maybe there's a great buddy with whom you lost touch. Maybe its the person who could always make you laugh until Coke came out your nose, or knows some small secret no one else knows! Perhaps someone you weren't close to then, is closer than you could imagine now.
It was great to see Barbara Scales our friendship goes back to kindergarten at St. Joe's. I always feel the world is an OK place because Barbara is in it. She's like my reality check - always tells it like it is. Why beat around the bush? Barb's here? Yup, life is good.
I was so happy to see Amy Eckert Mian! She always made me laugh til my sides hurt. I still remember her describing sneaking out of detention in a musical instrument case from her previous Catholic school. French horn? Tuba? Cello? Can't remember, but you can imagine her in there being drug, Bugs Bunny fashion, down stairs by her conspirators.
It was so good to see EVERYONE! Class of 74 and friends, you look MAAHVELOUS!

This Started My Reunion Weekend

While sorting out and putting away reunion stuff, I came across this note, given to me on Friday in the high school parking lot, before the tour, from Tom Annunziata Giordano. I sorta knew right there that I was in for a few days of fun.

Carolyn Trout's Newspaper Column

Our high school teacher Carolyn Trout, who came a long way with her husband, Tom, to attend Saturday night's party, is the retired director of the Joplin Public Library in Missouri, where she lives. She writes a monthly general interest column for The Joplin Globe, the local newspaper there. She asked me to give everyone a sneak peek at her August 2009 column (she says she swears she didn't see Ed Rzonca's blog reference to speed dating before writing it):

Going Home Again

By Carolyn Trout

Thomas Wolfe said you can't go home again. He was about half right.

You can go home again. However, you’ll get lost finding it because the highway has been rerouted, and when you finally get there, you’ll find the house painted like an American flag and a dog kennel where the back porch used to be.

We’ve just returned from a trip to scenic northern New Jersey, which we left in 1979 and haven’t seen since.

The little white cottage where we first lived was still there, only it is now a patriotic red with blue trim.

Our second home was vaguely recognizable, but our once-treeless yard is now a jungle of trees and greenery that virtually engulfs the house.

Our third New Jersey house, however, turned out to be the heart-breaker.

It was a company-owned house on company property. The plant is now closed, the houses abandoned.

We parked on the side of the road and contemplated the ruin where we once lived. Shedding shingles and siding, studded with broken windows, the house is a derelict. Wild turkeys roam the yard.

In this particular case, Thomas Wolfe was right on the money.

The houses, however, were just the side dishes to the main entrée reason for the trip.

In a previous incarnation, I taught high school English for the decade we lived in New Jersey. After I finally decided that when I grew up I wanted to be a librarian, I never darkened a high school classroom door again.

So, when the Newton (NJ) High School class of 1974 planned their 35th reunion and invited all their teachers, my husband and I decided that the invitation provided the perfect reason to return to a place where we’d accumulated a decade’s worth of joyful memories.

Everyone who has gone to a reunion knows about the pre-reunion jitters.

As a teacher, I was spared some of those apprehensions – the ones about seeing old crushes or reliving how it felt to be an outsider in the clique-ridden world of high school.

However, I wasn’t spared the biggest jitter of all – the knowledge that I look one heck of a lot different than I did 35 years ago. Back then I was a cute little twenty-something with long dark hair to my (tiny) waist, and my hemline was a conservative 6” above my knee.

It was the Seventies. What can I say.

I was sure my former students wouldn’t know me. And when they figured out who I was, their expressions would reflect horror and dismay.

My apprehensions vanished after the first three minutes.

I’ve never participated in a happier or noisier love-fest. Or a warmer one. Two hundred people can generate an awful lot of heat and decibels.

Thank heavens for name tags. The reunion organizers had thoughtfully put our 1974 student or faculty yearbook pictures above our names.

It was a trifle awkward at first, meeting someone and then leaning in to gaze at his or her nametag.

I overheard one woman comment that it was discomfiting to look at someone’s chest first. The man with her assured her that men were used to doing exactly that.

The whole evening was sort of like speed dating on steroids. Peer at nametag. Shriek. Hug. Jump up and down. Gibberish at high volume for a couple of minutes. DING! Move on to next person. Peer at nametag. Shriek. Hug. Etc.

We spent a weekend surfing on waves of nostalgia, and it was just grand. So, Mr. Wolfe, going home again is indeed possible, even if they’ve moved the highway that takes you there.

Post-Reunion Program Changes

I didn't hear a lot of reaction about Saturday night's reunion program, which makes me think that the Barry Manilow and Michael Jackson photos scared the hell out of everyone.

Anyway, here are some guest list changes, based on a handful of people who decided to come at the last minute, and another handful who didn't come at all.

The total stayed right around 208, because just as many newcomers made up for the ones who -- for whatever reasons -- couldn't make it to The Barn.

LATE ADDITIONS IN THE FINAL WEEK:

Class of '74
John Ford and Penny Ford
Lynn Rosenkrans Meyer and Ed Meyer
Carol Campbell Wydner

Beth Reeves
Roger Steele

Teachers
Madame Milena Miladinovich Lombardi

and Mr. Floyd Lombardi
Miss Emily Robbins

LATE SCRATCHES

(Did Not or Could Not Show):

Class of '74
Mike Scabet and guest
Jan Springer Mulroy
Debra Cooke

Class of '73
Kathy Huff Member and Robert Member

Saturday hike at High Point

This intrepid group of outdoor enthusiasts braved the warm temperatures and blood-sucking insects to take a leisurely 3.7 mile loop hike at High Point's Monument Trail on Saturday. Cheap as we are, we parked at the Ranger Station outside the park and we all crammed into Dave's little car to pay our $5.00 entance fee. Driving past the lake, and up toward the monument, we parked and sought out our trail. Did it start behind the monument - or at the end of the parking lot, hmmm? We saw lots of ripe berries, scouted out some magnificent vistas, and met Stella's final resting place and marker. My personal favorite was the swamp trail, with it's boardwalk and flowering trees and shrubs. Pictured here are Peggy (Dolan) Cordell, Dave Larson, Andrea (Margaret Herman) Harmon, Phil Herman, and Michele (Edison) Leonard.

Friday Night Pub Crawl

Some pub crawl - we never made it past the first one - O"Reilly's on lower Spring St. in Newton! It was a remarkable get-together, but sadly, I have no photos - anyone else out there have some? (I think maybe I've seen some on FaceBook.)
Tom Annunziata dazzled the crowd with his crooning, "After the Lovin'." Cheri (Coe) Kerr had a former student (from the second grade) singing karaoke as well. Does that make anyone else feel a little old?
The bar regulars added some local color to the event as well - that's all I'm sayin'.