Karen Sue (Suzi) Denton (Merritt)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DIANE!  HOPE YOU HAVE A WONDERFUL DAY!

         🎂🍦🍰🍧🍨

Karen Sue (Suzi) Denton (Merritt)

Allida, we are flying out Monday to Laughlin, Nv.  I sure hope the weather is nice.  I hope you had a nice visit with your sister.

i have a lot of family in Southern California.  We were there at Thanksgiving last year.

Melvin (Mel) Theobald

Rod, well you're question isn't exactly what I expected. Hoverboards have not played much of a role in my life. Even so, your concept would certainly have altered the dynamics of our schoolyard behavior. Bicycles played a much greater role since they gave us mobility beyond our limited confines. You are so right about the number of kids one could find on any given day. It is hard to remember a day during the summer when there weren't enough boys to put together a couple of teams for baseball or tag football. We had a great time. Back to the Uncle Al Show, anyone in Brownies or Cub Scouts - which was pretty much everyone - was on WBLN's Uncle Al Show. So, I'm guessing you were too. Maybe this little sound clip will bring back some of those memories. I always associate this music with that experience, because this was the theme song. It is Leroy Anderson's "The Syncopated Clock." (Link on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IboyHfL2jno) DeMent's grocery is a totally different story which we can talk about later in more detail. Hoping to see all of you who can make it to the mini-reunion on Thurs. May 18.

Karen Sue (Suzi) Denton (Merritt)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SUZY AND KEN!  HAVE A FUN DAY!🎂🎂🎂🎂

Rodney (Rod) Hayes

Well Mel, your right.  It wasn't an earth shattering thought.  But since a large number of our class has mostly older Grand Kids, and ours are much younger, I thought about how the effect would have been in our generation.  Sometimes I think back and realize how wonderful it was to grow up in our generation.  I also have to take a step back and know that if you never experienced something, you can't really relate.  With I-Pads, phones, social media, and all that, kids think life is great.  But, they have no idea what it would be like to have so much freedom, fly model airplanes, ride a bike almost anywhere, have a hangout, and many other things we did.  But most of all, we did these things without the fear of what I call, the bad man waiting around the corner.  We actually live in a very corrupt and dangerous world.  But, it's still the best in the world.  The song was great and yes, I do remember it.  Pretty cool that you had that.

Hey Jack, haven't hear from you.  I'm still trying to recover from the Bear's pathetic draft day.

I'd comment on few more things, but I'm getting tired.  I've had a minor set back with some medicatons and I've had a few rough days.  But, things are getting better.

Gotta go.  Rod

Allida Frisch (Altemus)

Suzi have a great time in Nevada. I had a great time in California. The weather was perfect! Couldn't have asked for better. Unfortunately came back to a lot of rain.                                                                                        

Rod, I hope you will be back to your old self soon!

Marvin Theobald

To all of you poster children (those class of '64 members who post on this site regularly), it is always great fun to tune in to the website and see what is going on the minds of old people (that was supposed to be funny). My winter has been pretty busy with a month in the Florida Keys and just back from two weeks in Texas visiting family and friends. Your posts from the last few weeks have inspired me to respond with several comments. I will break them up into multiple posts since I am often accused of getting too long winded. It is common for me to leave a phone message and run out of recording time - hummm - maybe that should tell me something!

First - It is always nice to see posts from new comers and those who have not posted anything in ages. It is also nice to be aware of what is happening to those of us who have been struggling with health issues so they can be assured that we still care about them and are able to tell them so. I think Suzi should be the official "Class Well Wisher" because she is so consistently on top of birthdays and get well wishes.

Regarding a comment in a recent Mike Franks post noting his realization that there must be a lot of classmates that check on the posts but do not post, I have compiled some statistics verifying his assumption. Since the website was introduced on July 15, 2009 a total of 175 classmates have joined the site and the site has logged 92,317 visits (only 1 visit per member is recorded in a 24 hour period). We have 164 current website members and 56 of those have posted photos at various times. During the past 30 days 34 have logged in to the site, 69 since Jan 1, 2017 and 106 since Jan 1, 2016. Of the 69 in 2017 only 23 have posted messages. Since it is not necessary to login to view the postings, more than the 69 have probably looked at the website without logging in.

It would be great to see messages from those who have been quietly on the sidelines. To those of you who check in occasionally but rarely or never post this is an invitation to let us know you are paying attention. Let us hear from you.

The Message Forum has logged 5987 posts as follows: 2009: 3 (all by Jack Keefe)   2010: 157   2011: 2387   2012: 981   2013: 672   2014: 602   2015: 463   2016: 510   2017: 212 to date

This info may be of little or no interest to anyone, but as Mike pointed out, it proves that there is a lot more visibility and inactive website participation than the Message Forum would suggest.

Marvin Theobald

Between Linda's 35# loss and Milan's 72# reduction the rest of us will not recognize you the next time we see you. Hopefully you will both be feeling far better when all of the trauma and healing is behind you.

David - Hope you are getting around OK by now! Keep us posted. Any chance we will see you at any of the Mini-Runions this year? It is always a treat to have you here.

I am encouraged by the number of comments that suggest we may have better turnouts for the Mini-Reunions this year. They are always so much fun for those that come. Let's keep them going.

For those that had Mary Selk for choir you may be interested in knowing she joined Judy Winquist-Neal, Pat Rosenbaum, John Waddell (class of '60 I  think) and I to celebrate her 96th birthday Saturday and she is doing very well. She is amazing. Did you know she loves carrot cake? She took what was left home to share at Westminster Village but I am not so sure she will share it since it is her favorite. I am just saying ...... who knows! After all it is her cake.

Marvin Theobald

Regarding Mike's fitted sheet problem - your comments were the cause of 15 minutes or so of conversation and laughter between Judy and our friend Susan in San Antonio. I think they got a little carried away with the mental images of guys attempting such imposible feats.

You had several helpful suggestions but I have long been aware of a method that was far to difficult to explain so I turned to youtube to see if there was help there. I found several videos that were consistent with the method I use. One is a Martha Stewart demo which was pretty cool to find I do it the way she recommends. The other is a guys kind of guy demoing the same process which I think you would relate to far better than Martha. I do think Rod had the best suggestion though - kind of like no assembly required. Good luck.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QXrZtXfo58

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-a2FR1iwqg

And Mike - do you really cheat at old Maid let alone with your 6 year old G'daughter? You must be related to W. C. Fields who when told poker was a game of chance replied by saying "Not the way I play it".

Marvin Theobald

Discussion regarding Oakland School yard always brings back great memories of growing up. We lived just 200 feet south of the school yard and Mel and I lived in that school yard taking turns hitting flies and grounders or throwing and catching long leading football passes to each other running as fast as we could to try and catch those long leads. There was an asphalt walkway from Cloud St to the back of the school with a low area where water formed a large deep puddle at times.  We would get a running start on our bikes and coasted throught the puddle with our feet raised while water sprayed out from the tires. We did not always make it through and usually got soaked but what fun it was.

Do you Oakland School attendees remember the big (PTA I think) chuck wagon bonfire cookouts they used to have? My memory is of a massive pile of burning logs where we roasted hotdogs and marshmallows. The fires were probably not more that 8 feet in diameter but my memory is that they were more like 20 gigantic feet. Laesch Dairy always had a truck there serving milk in those half pint glass bottles with the paper caps. I have one of them (see pictures below). If anyone has pictures from these cookouts, I would love to see them.

Besides the pickup baseball and football games one of my favorite memories is the huge snowball fights before and after school. Unfortunately there are few if any pictures of those events. A picture below is of Mel and I with our brother Jim and neighbors Greg and Doug Holey in a snowball fighting fort we built.

A DeMent Store story some of you may have benefitted from around kindergarten or first grade in 1951 or 1952 is when I broke into my piggy bank and took about $5 (probably equivalent to $50 today) to DeMent's to buy candy. As you can imagine, in 1951 or 1952 $5 was a lot of money for a 5 or 6 year old kid to have in his pocket. I stood at that glass display case and proceeded to order penny candy from Mr Dement until I had spent the entire $5. I walked out with a huge bag of candy and started sharing with everyone. When I got home there was still a plentiful amount of candy left. Mom and Dad found out what I had done and took me and the remaining candy back to DeMent's and made Mr DeMent give my money back. They were furious that Mr DeMent would not have questioned how I came to have that much money knowing that I never had more than a nickel or dime before. Can you imagine a five or six year old today walking to a local store any given time to buy candy without any supervision and parents not worried about where they are? Those were great days of freedom that sadly will never be again. It would be fun to hear others memories and stories from those days.

Marvin Theobald

One last post to get caught up!

Linda - Your Dole soft serve recipe is similar to the Pina Colada recipe I use. Cut the banana, replace the coconut milk with coconut cream and add coconut rum and ice. There you have it - a refreshing Pina Colada!

Jack Habich

 Sorry, Rod, haven’t been on here in a while.  Ironically, I just came back from Steak ‘n Shake where I was reading a massive March 12 Tribune article about Cutler’s time here.

I actually don’t know much about Trubisky except that the Bears gave up a lot of assets for a guy who's not even slated to start this year.  It’s like they threw all their chips in the middle.  They feel like they have the “perfect” environment to develop this guy.?????

And, by the way, that’s not Machine Gun Kelly in the picture you mentioned.  Kelly operated more south, like in the Memphis area.  For many years, Outfit guys seemed to be everywhere I went.  That’s pretty much just a part of history now.

Linda Bristow (Elias)

Marv:

Maybe others will use your recipe!   The soft-serve ice cream is tasty too!  Forgive me for not trying your recipe, but I don't touch alcohol.  Not even in cough medicine.  I have enough Cherokee blood that I refuse to tempt my fate.  They are severly reactive to alcohol.   I give chocolate enough of an addiction.  Perhaps I'm allergic to it though.  It makes my hips swell! 

Love ya,

Linda

David Long

Hi All Y'all,

I'm sorry for having missed so many Birthday wishes to everyone.  Hope to do better in the coming year.  Happy Birthday / Happy Anniversary / Happy St. Patrick's Day / Happy Yom Kippur /  Happy Cinco de Mayo / Happy End of Tet Offensive / Happy Ramadam / Happy anything else I've missed!!!  Hope I've been politically sensitive enough.....

Not a whole lot going on in Kansas - the requisite amount of funerals , the requisite number of weddings, (don't know why the funerals number more than the weddings), not many road trips as it's still somewhat difficult to travel.  Envious of my buddies and the golf leagues I in which I used to participate - and will again one day.  

Hope to make at least one of the Mini-Reunions this year and look forward to seeing you then.

All the best to everyone,

Dave

Melvin (Mel) Theobald

Hey Dave, glad to see you sticking your LONG nose back in here. Better be careful, some people seem to have a thing about noses lately. Anyway, it'll be a great day when you show up at the mini-reunion again. Maybe we can get Ed there to give us the low down on which is proper Southern, All y'all or All y'alls.

Allida Frisch (Altemus)

Mary I forgot about the chuck wagon cookouts at Oakland. Always looked forward to them!

Karen Sue (Suzi) Denton (Merritt)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GAREN!  HAVE A GREAT DAY!

🎂🍨🍰🍧🍦

Karen Sue (Suzi) Denton (Merritt)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY RICH AND PAT.  HAVE A FUN DAY.

🎂🍦🍧🍷🍺🍨🍰🍻🍹🥃

Karen Sue (Suzi) Denton (Merritt)

HEADING OUT TO GO TO SPRINGFIELD TO CATCH OUR FLIGHT TO LAUGHLIN, NV.

Linda Bristow (Elias)

Suzi:

When you find that flight of Snow Birds, start flapping your wings in V formation!  Careful!

Love ya, Linda

Allida Frisch (Altemus)

Suzi have a great time!

Linda Bristow (Elias)

Hi everyone!

Before I get busy and forget to .......................Happy Mother's Day this Sunday to all mothers!

Bless us one and all!

Love y'all!

Linda

Linda Bristow (Elias)

Hey............where did everyone go?   I just wished everyone happy Mother 's Day........and then dead silence............!

Start talking to each other..........NOW!

Love y'all,

Linda

Michael (Mike) Franks

I can only speak for myself. I check our site daily and I agree that conversation has fallen off. I enjoyed a fantastic Mother's Day, celebrating all of the women in my life. They range in age from 90, to 4! How exciting!

Congatulations to all of the women of "BHS Class of '64" I sincerely hope that each and every one of you received all of the love that you so richly deserve.

Marvin Theobald

Reminder

Tomorrow - Mini-Reunion

Cheeks at 6:00 pm

Hope to see you there