Treasa Struble (Skiles)

Bruce-I have my HJHS61 pin and senior key as well. Will break them out for the festivities. Thanks for the memory jog.

Treasa Struble (Skiles)

Oops, sorry Jim, the message was in response to your message. Bruce has posted so many messages, I overlooked the writer of this one . 

Treasa Struble (Skiles)

Bruce-when my family returned from Hawaii in 1955, we lived in the Q-huts for several months in National City until the tenants of our home on Penelope Dr. could find other lodging. For us kids it was quite an adventure. For my very pregnant mom, not so much, as my dad was still in Hawaii and wouldn't return until late summer. As I recall, it was the summer we all came down with chicken pox, and our furniture was delayed in shipping. My poor mother.

Rosalee May (Rosie) O'Day (Mason)

Hey Lancers,

We are trying to compile some information about our class and invite you to help.  

Did any of you become pilots?  We know that Sally Wilson and Bea Price both became pilots. Any others of you?

Do any of you still surf?  

Anybody in the band still play your musical instrument?  

How many of you who were in the military were in Vietnam?  Desert Storm?

We have some fantastic artists in our class -- Robert LaHaye, Carl Ramsey.  Anyone else?

Any other interesting tidbits about you or other classmates?  Please share by emailing me at dennisrosie@cox.net 

Michele Lynette Adney (Aldrich)

Thanks for the reminder of the Senior key, pins & Senior ring.  I will have to go digging .... I know I still have them. 

George Bracey Gillow

Chula Vista Photos

Here are some pictures of Chula Vista 3rd Avenue in the 1920s, 1950s and 1960s.

Notice LaBella Pizza can be seen on the right of the picture with the train.

Richard Thor (Dick) Holmes

Rosie, you asked about military service including Vietnam and Desert Storm.  I served in the Navy during the Vietnam War.  We had two 7 month deployments, back to back, on my Destroyer, USS HW Tucker DD-875, and earned a Combat Action Ribbon for exchanging fire with the enemy.  We had just 4 months at home between those two deployments, so it was really hard on Laurie, including having a baby while I was deployed.  Navy wives are real Heros for all they do!!  I was also still serving in the Navy during Desert Storm but I wasn't in the field of combat.  Tom Hayes and Jim Longerbone were both active duty Navy during the Vietnam War also.

Dick

Rosalee May (Rosie) O'Day (Mason)

Dick, thank you so much for the little bio -- and for your service.  You guys are my heroes as well as your wives. It is so interesting to find out what everyone did after high school, all the different paths we have trod.  I can't imagine being in combat, and I'll bet there are stories to tell. 

George, thanks for the postcards.  A picture is worth a thousand words!  You always come up with great CV history. 

Here is an old picture of one of the parades down the middle of Third Ave.  I was in Lancerettes, so it was 10th grade -- 1961 or 2.  I loved the Leader Department Store.  It had everything there, and we particularly got our Girl Scout uniforms there.  Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think it was the only store in CV with an elevator.  The new Broadway Shopping Center put all the Third Avenue businesses out of business.  The owners of Leaders said that when the shopping center opened, their profits were cut in half. 

Robert Eugene (Bob) Beckwith

Time for Bob Beckwith to chime in.  I have been reading your comments and they bring such a flood of memories.

Most of you might already know, but I will share it anyway.  Mike Swift and I became neighbors and friends when our family moved from 1^st and I to 461 Vista Way. Mike’s family lived at the end of the cul-de-sac.  We both liked to fish and be outside.  Our friendship was a natural.  In our sophomore year, I was responsible for breaking Mike’s collar bone, taking him out of J.V. football.  One-on-one hitting practice - he moved his head just right.   In our Senior (maybe sooner) year Mike started dating Turrie Sturgess (old news).  They married and had two daughters, Kylie (Kylie was a teacher and taught at Hilltop for a while) and Raimee (is a teacher, teaching in the district).  Turrie got a cancer and passed away leaving Mike to raise their daughters ages 4-6.  Mike later married Judy, just prior to our 20^th reunion.  I called and asked Mike if he was going to the reunion.  He said, “No, but I’m going fishing, want to come.”  Of course I did.  We hadn’t seen each other for about 3-5 years.  He picked me up at 4:00 A.M., boat in tow.  It was one of the best fishing days we ever had.  There was lots of ocean, loads of fish, and sunshine-what a day.  It was if we had seen each other the day before.  And then we all did go to the reunion together.  In March of 2005 I was on a 6 day back pack trip with 2 friends in the remote Idaho back country.  We were hiking the Middle Fork of the Salmon River.  The only way in and out in the spring is to fly, landing on dirt runways.  That year we counted 1,200 head of elk, plus wolves, deer, mountain lion and more.  I hiked in to  the Flying B ranch to find a message “ that a friend in California had died”.  I have kept in touch with Mike and with Walt Hess.  I didn’t know which - if it was Mike or Walt.  After I flew back to civilization I got the story.  On a Saturday, Mike’s daughter Raimee got married.  On Sunday morning Mike got up to work in the yard, came in and took a nap and never woke up.  It was an honor to speak at his Memorial at Castle Park High School Football stadium -  named after his Dad, Al Swift.  Al was the person that encouraged me to become a teacher and use the National Defense Fund.

Some of you mentioned good ol ‘3rd Avenue and Yardage City.  Sam and Suzie Rimmler owned the store and they hired me in my freshman or sophomore year to sweep the floors at closing time.  It was a perfect job at the time because I could come home from practice and then get the place cleaned up.  It was also a source of side work.  Mr. Rimmler would ask me to work before school or on weekends.  He would say something like, “Bob you call me at six, I come and get you.”  I would call, wake him up, and he would come, but he wasn’t awake.  He drove a big boat of an Oldsmobile.  The drive to the store was an adventure.  He would stop for signs, but never quite got the car stopped at the cross walk.  The stop was made in the middle of the intersection.  He would look both ways, drive on.  We would work for an hour or so and then he would pull out a wad of cash and instruct me to go the bakery next door for coffee and donuts, fresh out of the oven donuts.  I would come back with steaming coffee and hot donuts dripping with topping and freshness.  He would always get a couple of chairs from the pattern counter, set them on the sidewalk in front of the store.  We would sit, drink coffee, inhale the fresh donuts and watch the sun rise on 3^rd avenue.  When I first started working for them I wondered why he and his wife would tattoo numbers on their forearms.  They were kind generous people.

I’m looking forward to our reunion. I did get to see some of you on the 20^th.  And I’ll be seeing you all again in a few days.

My father, Emery, was on his way to his 50^th class reunion in Fruitland, Idaho.  In Fruitland a reunion includes anyone who ever graduated from the high school-ever.  I asked him how he recognized his friends.  “Oh”, he said, “You don’t look for your friends; you look for your friend’s parents.”  Teaching Biology and genetics I had great fun with his words.  I don’t know of a high school Biology student that wants to look like their parents.  I would share my father’s words to their chagrin, faces going into a pie. I celebrated genetics with jubilation.  It will be fun being with you all soon.

Robert Eugene (Bob) Beckwith

Rosie in answer to some of your questions;

Do any of you surf?  I tried, but realized that the chance of me drowning was really good.  While others floated, I sank.  If wearing a life jacket (can you imagine- on the beach, in your swim suit, got the tan on, waxing the surf board, life jacket on !!!) had been an option I would have taken to it like a duck to water.  Instead I have been rafting Idaho white water (life jackets required) for some time.  In mid 70’s I was asked to lead float trips on the Upper Main Salmon River in the Sawtooth Mountains. That led to guiding most of the Salmon River system.  I’m still a licensed guide.  Today I guide as a guest guide which is just working fun.  There were no guided trips this summer, but did do a private 7 day Middle Fork of the Salmon and 4 day Hell’s Canyon float (4 days is not nearly enough time for a good trip).  Grandson Kace was along for the ride, which made the floats even better.  I always told guests the best way to choose a white water river guide is to ask the person if they like to swim.  If the guide loved the water and loved to swim, might be best to pick another guide.  I love the water, but find it hard to get out of a perfectly good boat.

I wasn’t an artist, but I did teach photography 16+ years.  And can you believe it, I spent 8 years as yearbook advisor.  That was just blatant intense fun.  For our classmates on the yearbook staff thank you.  I still have all three years of the Idyll.  Thank you for the amazing piece of work that you did-thank you.  I had no idea then, how important your work would be now!!!!!   And weren’t deadlines just the best experience ever???  They had to be such a joy, no stress, no frustrations, no cognitive dissonance---- deadlines!!!!!  I sort of thrived as an advisor; it was never boring, action abounded.  Some of those students have become close friends today.  If I had discovered photography at Hilltop no telling how my story would have changed. Some of my students now make a living with photography, far better artists than I.

Flying:  I have always appreciated a good pilot.  The best flights have been in and out of back country air strips or into remote spots.  My cousin is a pilot and ex -crop duster who had his own plane.  He could land a plane anywhere that was flat.  Flying was/is such a celebration of freedom.  Bored on a cold winter day we would jump in his plane and fly into a back country air strip with a hot spring nearby.  Being in hot water up to your neck is a good thing on a cold winter day. And except for critters, no one was around.  If you ever come to Idaho for an adventure book a ride on the mail plane with Arnold aviation out of Cascade.  It might just be the only back country air service in lower 48 states.  You will fly with Walt or Ray and the mail.  Every time you land you are a hero.  People have been waiting for the mail plane and mail all week.  Sometimes your landing is rewarded with fresh baked goodies.  Ray’s career is about done, but he was written up in Time Magazine with Billie Jean King, Muhammad Ali and 7 others as one of 10 great American Heroes.  Flying to me is driving.  I will drive to San Diego.  In Nevada you set the cruise control and just follow the roads.

Vietnam?  Yes for 13 months.  My base was on Monkey Mountain just out of Da Nang.  It was a beautiful spot.  I worked 7:00 in the evening till 7:00 in the morning. Watching the sun rise over the South China Sea was always spectacular.  I was an Army micro-wave radio repairman.  I always felt fortunate that I didn’t have to do the work of our combat soldiers.  Any time in D.C. I make a point to visit the Viet Nam Memorial.  Relating to the statues at the Memorial is easy for me.  Does anyone know if any of our classmate’s names are on the wall??

Deep Sea Fishing:  I still enjoy being on the ocean and the deep sea fishing experience.  If any of you own a boat and enjoy doing the same let me know.  I’m always up to go for a day of fishing.  Friends and I charted the Long Run out of Shelter Island for a 3 day trip a few years ago.  Now that was fun fishing.  The seas were deep blue and were as choppy as I had seen.  It took three people to land a fish; one running the rod and two hanging onto the fisherman so he wouldn’t go overboard.  It was blue ribbon fishing on blue ribbon water.  If you want to go fishing and want someone to go along and help share the costs let me know.

Andie (Joan) Ault (Harvey)

Bob Beckwith:  Great story about Sam and Suzie Rimmler, who lived a few houses down the street from us on Alpine (not the one where Michele, Vicki, Shayne and Bea lived, but the one between F and G). They were very kind people, and great neighbors; as I recall, they had two daughters a little younger than we were. My mom sewed quite a bit, so we were in Yardage City pretty often. Like you, I was curious about the tattooed numbers, and my dad had to take on the very difficult task of having to explain the Holocaust to a 9-year-old who didn’t have a real grasp of the potential of man’s inhumanity to man.

Newt and Bruce: This is a picture of Dave Schuller wearing his “Free Raymond Goedecke” T-shirt at – I believe – their 20^th reunion. He wore it again (under another shirt) for the 25^th, but had to keep his top shirt on because Ray himself showed up with his new wife. My sister was there, and when Ray entered the room all of the classmates were gobsmacked, and understandably at a loss for words.

John Moore

Bruce:  Not sure why you thought it necessary to post McNamarra's quote, but as you know it is very easy to be an arm chair quarterback!  He wrote that book thirty years after Viet Nam actually started.  I don't want to get in to a political discussion, and this is not the place for it,  but fifty-eight thousand young men and  women died in that war!  I served in the Marine Corps, and am a disabled Vet.  I was one of the lucky ones who have thrived in my life after my service but many did not.  Many of your friends served in Viet Nam: Gary Kennedy, Gary Baldwin, Frank Bochansky, Jimmy Hitchcock and more. I  know you have a Doctorate so my debating skills may not equal yours.  A little humor, I saw McNanarra in Da Nang as my unit was going out to establish a firebase in the north.  He was very positive that we were there to keep communism from spreading throughtout the world.  So ,was he a liar then?  I guess so!  I believe he wrote that book and others because he just wanted more time in the lime light and wanted more money!  Remember, he was and is a Polititian!

Sorry if I offended anyone with this rant, but some things are very sacred to some of us!

Bruce Wilson

Rosie:

I disagree. The forum most certainly did turn. Plain as O'Day.

McNamara and his changing opinion of the war are just as much a part of the last 50 years since high school as the things others have posted. Did you ask about active draft protesters and resisters and their experience. Are they not valid?

So  too, for example,  the murders of Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King. They certainly happened and impacted people. Are these topics to be shunned? Did you inquire about the negative impacts that the war had on both those who were and were not in it. Aren't these valid or are we to limit ourselves to the "good" impacts?

Drugs? anybody have some friends or relatives that got too far into them? Anybody go to prison?

I have taken down my posts, not because of anything you had to say, since I see your interpretations as incorrect. I have done so because I consider John Moore a friend and it's not worth it to me to irritate a friend for a pretty insignificant few paragraphs on a forum.

John: I didn't find it "necessary", just informative.

Bruce Wilson

Andie: I've seen the photo. In the one I saw you couldn't make out a face. It did not strike me as great satire. Now if they had set up a website .... oops! .... started advertising and selling the shirts mail-order that would be good satire.

I've done a little checking around and that photo seems to be the only trace left of the Goedecke shirts. Nobody recalls there being any other  photos.

Bruce Wilson

Anybody watch Spin & Marty?

Michele Lynette Adney (Aldrich)

Oh my!   Spin & Marty!   Watched it faithfully and as a typical 10/11 year old girl .... was "in love with" Spin!!!  LOL!    Too funny!    

You asked about anyone close who was affected by the drugs of '60's.  My cousin, David Szabo, was one of the original Cascades.  In their hit "Rhythm of the Rain" he is singing & playing keyboard.  He was not into drugs but sadly the band played in places where it was used (he was actually underage for those places).  Someone slipped him some LSD (so the story goes) and it was downhill from there.  I'm not sure how much longer he stayed with Cascades.  I didn't see him in any of the publicity pictures online.  He has lived a rough life but still has his musical talents.  I know he played for awhile at one of the bars on Third Ave.  He is now doing well.  Through it all he has always just been my sweet, talented, musical cousin.   http://www.rhythmoftherain.com/cascade.html

Andie (Joan) Ault (Harvey)

Bruce, the wearer of the Goedecke shirt was identified by Joe Stetser when he posted it on the Class of '63 website last year, and I remember my sister telling me about it right after their 20th. She said people thought it was hilarious. Last year's forum has some amazing pictures and stories....

Karen Etsuko Tachiki (Savel)

As things go in life we have all certainly had the spectrum of life experiences and developed a variety of views. 
And our memories of almost seven decades have been for me remarkable. In my family we had variety of response to the Vietnam war. I have one Vietnam vet brother and another conscientous objector brother. They seem committed to their view of the war and served honorably for their views, one in military service and one in community service. What I have observed is they seem both to be responsible, respectable contributors to our country. And they both have extraordinary respect for each other. I cannot imagine my life without either one of them just as I cannot imagine life anywhere else in the world but in the USA. We are all fortunate to be alive in our country with the freedom to experience what we have. And I am hoping the reunion experience will be one as memorable as other of my life experiences have been. And I have one other thought that brings a smile to me and that is Jim Hawes' occupation Grandpa. 

Bruce Wilson

From off line communications, it turns out that John was not offended, so for those of you interested in what the discussion was about and/or the history of the war that, with the exception of the Civil War, was the most divisive conflict in U.S. history, here is the original post. Obviously there a huge volume of reaction to McNamara's statement.

What did Robert Strange McNamara, the war's architect, have to say about the Vietnam War.

"We were wrong, terribly wrong. We owe it to future generations to explain why." — McNamara, writing in his 1995 memoir, In Retrospect, on the management of the Vietnam War.

Michele: I'm sorry to hear about your cousin . I've got lots of stories of bad happenings among my former associates. There are some funny and/or interesting ones, but a lot of tragedies.

Andie: I pointed to the 1963 page when I started posting here. There is a lot of interesting material over there. I check it out from time to time. Like anything it has it's ups and downs.

Karen: Thanks for your upclose and personal insights. Around here someone has gotten the moniker "grandma" hung on her.

Mystery Guest:

Sharon Collins (Alford)

Did you all see this:

http://hth.sweetwaterschools.org/alumni/

Miss CA going for Miss America tonight....Hilltop Alumni

Pretty cool...

GO LANCERS!!

Christine Elaine (Kris) Hoover (Sweet)

Thank you all for the memories.  Names of stores that you mentioned came zinging back - even our weekly order at the dairy...who knew that was still in my memory box?  I think that Donna Hobbs Trutna and I took ballroom dance lessons in a wooden building adjacent to the CV pool and then would giggle all of the way home - walking, of course - about who we got to dance with.        

This has been so much fun.  I'm sorry to see it come to an end.  So looking forward to seeing you all! 

Barbara Sindelar (Seagren)

Gail Eileen Dillon (Boone)

Ah, yes, Spin and Marty.  I just loved it.  I was a great fan of Mickey Mouse Club in general, and have never lost my love of all things Disney.  My parents moved from Chula Vista to Anaheim during my freshman year of college (I spent 2 years at Whittier College, 3 at UCLA) and I was very fortunate to land a summer job which kept me happy for many school vacations and the next four summers.  Anybody remember the Hills Brothers Coffee Garden, between the Wurlitzer shop and Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln?  I was the restaurant hostess there, dressed from head to toe in a bright maroon/magenta 1890's dress.  With my hair still a very bright red at the time I was quite a colorful site.  The lobby of the restaurant looked like a turn of the century hotel, complete with floor to ceiling mirrors.  I was forced to look at myself in that color every time I turned around!

Nice to see you weighing in on the website, Bob.  I was glad to hear about your interesting life and I appreciated the updates on Mike and Turrie.  How's this for a fond memory -- Bob Beckwith with a tendency to walk on his toes. . .

Nick and I just got back from Maui, where we enjoyed stand up paddleboarding for the first time. Probably the closest I've ever come to surfing, and to a real surfer it's probably not close at all unless you're out where they're breaking.  A lot of surfers seem to use the paddles with their boards these days.

We probably won't make Friday night after all, but I'm so looking forward to seeing you all on Saturday night.

Gail Eileen Dillon (Boone)

Another thought. . .I believe Gary Schauer also served in Vietnam.  As a teacher, I found many occasions on which to mention what it was like for our generation during the 60's and early 70's.   Lottery numbers, discussions about staying in school or marrying and having children to avoid the draft, 1-A, 2-S and 4-F. all these things as part of everyday conversations.  I'm grateful to all of you who served in the military, whether it was by choice or not.

James Newton Perdue

Again, sorry I'm going to miss the reunion. Here's a pic I found in an old box today. I was musical director of the stage band for our 1964 musical production of "Paint Your Wagon".