Bruce Wilson

More here later too, but Kathleen's name wasn't resonating until I looked her up in the CPJHS 7th Grade book.

Lo and behold, no Sorenson in that book. Who knows the story.

Bruce Wilson

May, 1954 - St Rose of Lima Church (near as I can tell that's sixty years).

I know that's me on the right, but not sure of the guy right behind me. I think the guy right behind him is Jim Kidwell. The guy in the lower left on the left seems pretty familiar too.

Don't get me started on Junipero Serra, though I did like the field trip to the museum at The Presidio.

Bruce Wilson

Thought we had another First Communion boy, but probably not. I never knew any Jewish fellers who attended, though he certainly knew how to dress the part.

Terry Lee Maple

I'm going to come clean on the Sorenson story. As Bruce will remember, we showered for the first time together. At least for me it was a first time as I never used the Boys Club Shower. Group showers were necessary in junior high after PE but we had no such showers in elementary school. The counselors taught us to march to the shower with a towel around our waist but boys with something to display didn't comply. Larry was the boy who flashed his pubic hair to the envious masses who lacked same. There was raucous laughter each day he strutted by our beds. Larry seemed to be aware that he was different.

Bruce Wilson

Well as long as things are being revealed.

Here's the answer to the shoe quiz a while back. The guy did not go to Hilltop and was not, as far as I know, ever a patrol boy. He is getting his own bronze statue in San Diego this weekend to honor his contribution to charitable fund raising and a couple other things.

Raquel Tejada is rumoured to be flying in. Michele has been dying to get her photo taken wtih Ms. T for years.

Part two of the quiz. Name the other four guys. Show your work. Bonus points, what team did the guy on the right play for?

A hint you say? OK! Komets are Kearny and Warhawks are Madison.

Bruce Wilson

Like the Jewish Kid who didn't make it to First Communion said:

"The Times They Are a Changin"

Sample of Kearny's b-ball recent results:

They actually lost a game, but had to go to L.A. to do so.

For b-ball maniacs, who have a little extra time when not watching The Warriors.

http://www.maxpreps.com/high-schools/kearny-komets-(san-diego,ca)/basketball/schedule.htm

Terry Lee Maple

My wife is furious I told the Sorenson story. I apologise to all my female classmates. Boys were boys in those days but I know better to reveal such things. Speaking of hoops, my daughter Sally was a pretty good basketball player. When I started watching girls play, I was amazed at how good they were. The best women's college teams would have given our 1963 Metro Champions all it could handle. What is amazing to me is the high percentage of free throws they hit. My mother sent me a clipping years ago about Larry Armbrust's girls team at Chula Vista. I thought he was a great coach for the boys. He coached us on the JV team before he moved on to Chula Vista and later became principal. After that he began to coach girls. With three daughters I understood the thrill of coaching them. One of the most remarkable changes in my life is the growth of women/s sports. All my girls competed in a sport and Sally, our youngest, was awarded the Most Outstanding Female Athlete Award at McIntosh High School. She later played lacrosse at Presbyterian College and played women's semi-professional tackle football in Florida. The national all-star team played for the first women's world title in tackle football and came back from Stockholm with a gold medal. Quite an experience for Sally.

Bruce Wilson

Whilst at UCI, when we ran out of players after a couple of hours, but didn't want to go to the library just yet, Jerry Kaiwi (Ph.D student), Hal Landon (actor who was in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure) and I would play twenty-one tip-in.

I had become like Bill & Ted, an excellent shooter, so I just didn't miss. They (K&L) started requiring that I shoot every third shot with my eyes closed

Funny, I don't recall Hal ever coming to the gym packed. I do recall getting over 100 straight on more than one occasion though.

. 

Bruce Wilson

My old nemesis, the SD Union Tribune Company just published a list of the National Merit Scholarship winners for the county for this year (more than two dozen, I'm not going to count 'em up).

All the schools represented seem to be in the North County with the exception of Saints.

Possible explanations:

1.) The South County is slipping scholastically.

2.) Chula Vista and environs is viewed as part of Baja.

I can't recall, but there must have been at least some finalists, if not winners at HHS in 1964. My first guess would be Nancy Nixon. Apologies if I can't/don't recall you winning. As we're learning on this forum, even the best of us is fallible.

Bruce Wilson

Stay tuned for hi-tech DMV, procrastination, a tree not falling in Allied Gardens (did anyone hear it), and the Ocular Scatter Index.

Basketball players: Bill Walton, Avery Clark, Wilbur Strong, Phil Edwards, Bruce Menser (who played with Bill Walston @ Helix, then went to Stanford, after which I lost him).

Bruce Wilson

Troubled Bridge - No Water - Over and Out

Funny how the original schedule has apparently disappeared from the "Keep San Diego Moving" Website

Just how long will it take Trump to build his wall?

July 5, 2013

A bridge that connects east and west Chula Vista over Interstate 805 will close on Monday for roughly one year as crews build a new span that will allow direct freeway access for carpoolers plus a transit station and park and ride, officials said on Friday. Demolition of the old crossing will require a freeway closure later this summer, they added.

NOT open yet. This project blossomed from one year to at least three.

Linda L. Keating (Keating)

Dear 1964 Hilltop High School Reunion Classmates,

Hi everyone!  Please know how much we appreciate & enjoy reading your super good comments, posts, photo's, pic's, stories, clips, & video's, etc.,, Good work! ~ Great job! ~ Wow!

Truly fun & fascintating to be part of all this wonderful HISTORY we have together & am very grateful & touched by all your amazing posts & comments & stories, etc. ~  Thank you so much for everything & for everything that you continue to share with all of us. ~

God Bless you with love always ~

Your 1964 HHS Classmate,

Linda L. Keating ~

Robert Eugene (Bob) Beckwith

Terry I thought the Sorenson story was insightful and revealing!!! I thought I should add a couple of thoughts and if your wife was furious with you, she will probably even like me less. So I’m listening to my teaching partners who are still in the classroom. My teaching pards are teaching me what students are talking about. And Terry your story pales to what is topical today. So I’m becoming more curious about what I should know, especially with 4 grandkids (3 girls and a boy 2-11). I know what our world was like growing up in Chula Vista, no idea what lies ahead for them.

Then Marcia and I are listening to Terry Gross on NPR, who is interviewing Peggy Orenstein about her book, Girls and Sex. Marcia orders the book and I read it. I taught Biology for 33 years and learned things that were never known let alone considered for curriculum. Did I get an education? So I’m sharing it with one and all because if you have grandkids you just might learn what’s ahead. Sounds like Denmark is way ahead of us with sex education. I hope all can forgive me for my sharing. Any and all comments are welcome-we are in this world together!!!!

The other cord that struck was in regards to girls’ sports. This is a great piece of American Educational History. In our 1964 Idyll Sports were listed from page 130-166 -no girls. On page, 118 was GAA (Girls Athletic Association). What changed the tapestry? -Title IX- what a gift to American Education and girls.

Title IX’s nutshell was for every boy’s athletic event there should be a girl’s athletic event. It was passed into law in the early 80’s. We lived in the small Idaho community of Cambridge (population between 300-400 people) The Student body was 7-12 grade (I was teaching all the sciences), had about 125 students, graduating class of 20-25 students.

Title IX rocked the school’s boat. To get federal $$ you had to be in compliance. What to do with a girls’ basketball team? School board, superintendent, coaches, community did a giant academic knife fight to settle on ½ court for the girls and ½ court for the boys daily practice. But the boys couldn’t be allowed to see the girls practice, not in their basketball shorts-for heaven’s sake!! And so a huge curtain was built to be strung at center court. And no peaking around the edges.

Now fast forward to 1996-97 Eagle High School Annual, Eagle Id, (I helped open the brand new school in 1995-teaching Biology + photography). In the Mustang’s yearbook sports are pages 88-125 and it’s 50-50 boys and girls and there are boy and girl teams in those pages. And not to sound like I’m crowing, but for you baseball fans-you girl baseball fans-Check out the No 1 ranked girl’s baseball team in the Nation-Eagle High School Girls. So girls have come a long ways and so have the guys.

And now-from my soap box- I pine for Title X (actually there is a Title X-I just like to call the idea Title X) Title X, if done right would revolutionize American Education as has Title IX. Title X would require an Academic event for every athletic event. = $$ for Extracurricular Academics, unheard of in Idaho.

Such programs would allow for sciences and all academic areas reach farther that ever thought possible. Fossil Canyons all over the county could be studied and explored. Transects and student work would reach from mountain tops to sea shore

And finally Congress got something done and designated 275,000 acres of new wilderness in Idaho. It’s hard to get a metal image, hands around, grasp, 275,00 acres?? I never talk to students about acres. They have no idea what 275,00 acres are like. I talk football fields. A football field almost = to an acre. Some of us grew up on a football field, marching on them, or running around them. We know football fields. It’s hard to find a middle/high schooler who doesn’t understand a football field. So when I talk about wilderness I talk about 275,000 football fields. That’s a formidable classroom waiting for students to arrive. And no one is second string and no one sits on the bench!!! Title X would help fill empty classroom everywhere.

Okay I’m off my soap box now!!!!

Best to all of you. Enjoy Spring. It’s green here with mountain tops still white. We have seen deer and elk and Todd the fox. All seemed to have made it through the winter just fine.

Bob

Bruce Wilson

Well Bob, you got me thinking about women's sports and my mind went straight to volleyball (that and Nadia's perfect 10 performance at the Olympics). Current NCAA champion is Kansas. Go figger. I'll come back to this later.

So I went to my local Otay Mesa DMV office the other day for a license (expired no less) renewal and a "Senior" ID as long I was there. You know, so I don't have to give out my driver's license number everytime somebody wants to see a photo-id, which, by the way, is happening more and more frequently and IMO unnecessarily.

I paid my fees (no credit cards accepted), was electronically fingerprinted no less than four times, got a new photo (hope it's a good one), and passed a rigorous 18 question final exam. Still haven't had my cataract surgery (procrastinator), so the vision test took some finagling, but I succeeded there too. I should note that the senior ID is a freebee.

From my random sampling I was the only non-Spanish speaker there (porque?, beats me).

Anyway, lotz of interesting stuff out there on the mesa in addition to the auto wrecking yards and drug tunnels.

Did anyone attend the Alta School?

The old Kuebler Ranch House (I don't think Nancy ever lived there, nor did Suzanne Phillips).

The old ranch house restored to "Cafe" status.

Finally, in looking for photos for this presentation, I discovered that the Otay General Store (whose image as nearly as I can tell has never been photographically preserved) was actually the Banks General Store (proprietors Violet and Howard).  

Bruce Wilson

I can't recall exactly when "dude" came into the lexicon, but Bill & Ted certainly brought it  all back home.

I think Hal has six appearances here.

Terry Lee Maple

Wonderful essay, Bob. I agree with every word. I would be more worried about my grandbabies in Charleston, but South Carolina is still reasonably conservative. My daughter Molly is very serious about raising these kids right, so it will be my responsiblity (Grumpa) to spoil them. I will not tell them the Sorenson story, however. I do seem to recall that you had a little hair back then, Bob. Am I right? Mine appeared in seventh grade just as my voice changed. During Iowa testing, when I announced that I was "here" in the classroom, all the girls would giggle at the sound of my new deep voice. When the hair appeared, I was so embarrassed that I cut it off with scissors. It was a very different world all right. I love the idea of giving academics equal emphasis. As much as kids benefit from sports, the academic kids deserve more recognition, and there is so much more that kids will do if you give them a chance to learn about the natural world. What you suggest is actually a combination of athletic and mental wellness. As you know, Newt is a friend of mine. If he gets the VP and if they win, I'll pass your idea on to him. I'd love to see you preaching this idea in DC. That's where it is really needed. One of the great things about growing up in Chula Vista was the after-school program. High school kids came to the school at 3:00 and supervised our play for two hours every weekday. The same thing was done in Stockton where I was one of those college kids. I'm amazed that so many communities lack these opportunities for the kids and the older kids that get a chance to work and teach. I wonder if this is still done in Chula Vista?

Shayne Maree Schuller (Morgan Sledge)

275,000 acres saved in Idaho! The PBS series by Ken Burns "The National Parks: America's Best Idea" is a 10-part series I have watched 3 times. It is remarkable that many National Parks, National Monuments and public lands were preserved and then nearly lost to logging and energy interests over the past 100 years.. I have been to many of them, since a great number are in the West and I plan to see many more.

I like your idea of Title X, Bob.

Bruce Wilson

"I wonder if this is still done in Chula Vista?"

I haven't seen any evidence of it, in my runs around CV.

A number of folks  participated in the Recreation Dept.'s after school program (my sister Diane, Hargrove, Wehmeyer, Bill Kinney, Susan Davis, Claudia Anderson, Mary Cotton, me, Rindone, Phil Bryant, Alan Hayashi, Fay Itami ...).

Now you have to have two photo ID's to get near an elementary school campus (and no dogs or skateboards).

My favorite kid was "Stokes" (I'm sure he had a first name, but I never heard it). I could not beat him in tether ball and I don't think anyone else could either. Two other kids from Fred Rohr Elementary, where Mary and I held court, Forever (male) and Darling (his sister) Q.

They called me "Coach" which put me in some pretty good company, as if I wasn't already.

Rohr school was one of the first to adopt Shakespeare's "schools in the round' approach.

Bruce Wilson

Regarding those gymnasium curtains, they used 'em in both the old men's gym (to separate gymnasts from b-ballers) and in Pauley Pavillion itself (to separate volleyballers from b-ballers). 

As I recall, done without taking heed of the sex of the participants.

In the mid-seventies to eighties there was only one woman who I can remember showing up to play in the three-on-three games in Pauley. She was very good and generally got "picked up" in the basketball sense, after enduring the endless "shirts and skins" comments. 

Hambone was verrrry serious and nobody tried to kid him about anything. He's mellowed considerably.

Bruce Wilson

Bob's points are well-taken. Athletics in schools is way out of control and proportion, as are many of the kids..

Fairly recently, at the Cathedral Catholic High School up in the North County, two students (not that it matters, but a male and female) were videoed having sex in the bathroom. The video was posted on the internet (soon taken down). The guy behind the camera, who was an athelete went undisciplined. The actors were lightly punished. Probably went to confession for absolution.

Is this totally new? Probably not. A similar incident (sans video) occurred in the St. Rose of Lima Church choir loft when we were in high school. Kind of brings new meaning to the phase "throwing a Hail Mary", eh?

And lets not forget Papa Joe and pederast Sandusky.

On a lighter note, two of my buddies, "built" a swimming pool in the HHS showers using bags full of towels. At some point the dam broke and flooded the whole gym. I never checked them to see if they had "matured", but I do know that since they were the backbone of the b-ball team they were not significantly punished. Squirrels.

Bruce Wilson

No Trump hands on deck, eh.

Bill's charity list.

San Diego Hall of Champions, San Diego Sports Alliance, Challenged Athletes Foundation, YMCA, Boys and Girls Club, USO, San Diego Library Foundation, San Diego Symphony, Junior Seau Foundation, Rex Foundation, Lucky Duck Foundation, Tony Hawk Foundation, Star/Pal, Connect, BIOCOM, Clean Tech SD, CommNexus, Adventure Corps, Balboa Park Cultural Partnership, Barrio Logan College Institute, John Brockington Foundation, CCSD, Coronado Sharp Hospital, Educational Enrichment Systems, Feeding America, Brad Fowler Scholarship, Freedom Dogs, Fresh Start Surgical, ISA, Juvenile Diabetes, La Jolla Playhouse, Lions Club Encinitas, Monarch School, Natural History Museum, New Children’s Hospital, No Silence No Violence, Patrons of the Prado, Planned Parenthood, Pro Athletes for Life, Promises for Kids, Resounding Joy, Salvation Army, San Diego Museum of Man, San Diego Police Foundation, San Diego Velo Youth, Senior Community Center, Serving Seniors, Spray Neuter Action Project, Sports for Exceptional Athletes, UCSD Athletic Board, United Way and Voices for Children.

Karen Etsuko Tachiki (Savel)

The historic house tour was very good, well organized. If there is a wish list for future tours, I'd like to visit the Starkey House which I might mention is currently for sale. Unfortunately it is not in my persioner's budget unless I become a lottery winner. It is a great feeling to know that there are people interested in these historic houses and are willing to acquire them and restore them. It is also reassuring to know that our natural environments will be preserved with new parks and monuments established. 

One last thing I'd like to mention is about adolescent development. I think it would have been good for the girls in junior and senior high school to have known that there was as much angst for boys in the area of anatomical development as we all had experienced through those particular develpmental years. Had we known we surely would have felt less traumatized by those life changes? Of course today things are so different, whatever was going on back then would be ancient history for teenagers of today.

And is there any new information about the 70th birthday bash?  

Gail Nisbet (Sutherland)

OK you guys...I haven't been on this site for awhile but, I am laughing myself silly over stories of "hair or no hair", "wife mad at you, Terry", "swimming pool built in gym shower...subsequent flood", "references to Trump", and just when exactly "dude" came into the vernacular. 

I have been busy. My longtime best friend, Kathleen Lambert (Kate Lauren) from our high school days, and I have decided to branch out of our bubble. We retired, sold our homes and moved to Astoria, Or..BAAM!!!! We vacationed here 5 yrs ago and fell in love with Astoria. We are having a "wild" moment in our later years but, why not. The "husband" thing did not work out for us...both of us cannot believe it as we are great women!!!!!

We have bouts of homesickness, especially missing our kids and our friends. The only grandkids live in Japan. Now we are just exploring the idea of moving to Nampa, ID. Real estate is a bit more affordable there and Kate's brother moved there recently. For now, we are enjoying nature at the Columbia River...elk and deer abound. I'm very enamored with all the shades of green here and no water shortage. Conservation is in my nature anyway.

Thanks to all of you for wonderful input and history in this forum. I'll be back soon to readup. 

Robert Eugene (Bob) Beckwith

Shayne Maree I was walking out of the office last night, TV is on by itself, what comes on-Ken Burns’ National Parks. I have spent most of my time in Wilderness- not parks. Wilderness is where Idaho’s rivers flow free. Yellowstone was my best park memory. I drove a bus load of kids across Idaho for a February experience. Cold is measured is squeaky snow. Squeaky is cold, squeaky-squeaky is colder, it was the latter. A snow cat took us with our skis from West Entrance to Old Faithful dormitories. One morning I was up before the day got busy. I skied out to Old Faithful to see how many others were already there. NO one, not even the elk were up yet. As I skied around Old Faithful I wondered if it just might erupt. It did. When the steam hit the dawn’s early light and that squeak-squeaky cold-- steam just exploded, a plum almost as high as the sky- Old Faithful and me.

Terry you are blessed with the magic of voice, from 7th grade. We hadn’t talked for a long time. Again I was in the office, TV noise going, I wasn’t even listening, until the program commentator was talking in voice like no other. You were involved with a documentary and Zoo Atlanta-without seeing, I instantly recognized your voice. You are also right, there was hair. It would take a small fortune to manscape this Teddy bear!!!-except for my head!!

I have always thought that the purpose of athletics (plus lots more) was to get a person into shape to do something. And athletics is the stepping stone to being a lifetime athlete. And if you can blend athletics and academics, a contextual learning experience is created that can last a person’s life time. The best, very best, are those experiences that makes ya wet with sweat, and drives the mind through cognitive dissonance. Field research can do that for a learner. I’m sure you had those experiences with African research Terry. I know I did with students in Idaho’s outdoors.

If time is right for Title X, I just might have one more project in me. I’m not sure my shoulders are brood enough for Washington Politics-but be fun to find out.

Bob

Bruce Wilson

Pretty prose Bob.

Just saw a video showing Dr. J dunking at age 63, like it's a big deal.

63 Isn't old and Dr. J was maybe the premier dunker of all time.

In this one, notice him dunking several times on his friend pictured back a ways, though probably more impressive is dunking on Kareem.