This is not George Abbot, who is pictured on page 33 of the 1976 Tartan (yearbook). It is, of course, the distinguished Charles Curry.

How many of you knew that he pulled a fast one on the yearbook photographer and also pretended to be junior, George Abbot? He also made an appearance on pg. 201 (The wittiest)

I just noticed that Charles is one of the new people in Classmates with a picture. So here’s his “now.” He also says “Living in Valrico Florida for the last 4 years. Spent the previous 20 years in Atlanta. I am married (19 years) no kids. I spent 4 years in the Marines and got a BSEET from DeVry. I have worked for HP for the past 21 years. Currently as an Sales Consultant. I love to golf.”

I hope we get to see you and maybe play a round of golf.

Music suggestions anyone? John Lipply offered these:

Jimmy Buffett, Led Zeppelin and the Outlaws

I think we’re on the same page.

I also got an email from Sue Ovenauer (Farrington). Here’s what she had to say:

. . . I didn’t see Mr.Yost’s name on the list (she’s speaking of this post & comments), however I see Mr. Crew and not the chorus director??!? Wassup with dat!??? HAH! I just spoke to David West a couple days ago and asked him if anyone was going to invite the teachers we liked and he said he thought maybe so– so i’m seeing the blurb on the reunion website but wondering is someone trying to contact these folks? I’m thinkin Mr. Yost was in his 30’s — he’d be around 60 something i’m thinkin now.. and still in town? where would he go?? HAH! It sounds like it’s gonna be a fun reunion! Will be looking forward to seeing everyone again! the website looks great! Thanks for taking charge here and keep us posted!

Take care! Sue

Here’s one way for me to keep you “posted” Sue. Thanks.

I don’t have a now picture of Pam yet but she did send in an email I’ll share.

You have done a great job getting this all set up! I have really enjoyed looking at everyone’s photos. I will get it togther and promise to post something to my portion. Look forward to seeing everyone in October!

I think she means the reunion website (Bennie has done an awesome job).

Here’s a new Now & Then with Tom Paulk. That’s because I was looking around the reunion website and found him. He’s already been an active commenter on the blog. Hi Tom.

Here’s Tom now. He’s definitely trying to outclass the rest of us! Here’s his message from the reunion website: “Hey Everybody! Hope to see you at the reunion, each time I’ve attended, it’s been a fun & fantastic time. My career has changed from being a jet fighter jockey in the Navy, to owner of a Snelling Franchise. I’ve lived overseas a few times, Japan and New Zealand, but now live in Chesapeake, VA, for the last 10 yrs. I hope 2006 is a fantastic one for you, and yours. See you at the reunion!

See you there Tom.

Here’s a new Now & Then with Jim Hoffman. He updated his listing on our reunion website and emailed me. Thanks a lot Jim.

Here’s Jim now with his wife Paola. He says: “I just sent in my bio and new picture finally. Thanks for being on the comittee. I missed the 10 and 20, but plan on being there this year. Can I help out with anything? Jim Hoffman (they used to call me Hopper kid).”

Jim I remember you but I just don’t remember the “Hopper kid” thing too well.

Just in case you missed the fact that you can subscribe to RamsReunion2006 I created a page which hopefully will help. If you’ve had any trouble subscribing you might want to try again. Some information on how to subscribe can be found here.

Let me know if you have any questions.

I just thought of this idea while driving to Des Moines this evening. What else do you do when you’ve got 6 hours of driving? Think about ideas for our reunion right?

I’m sure our committee has probably discussed music and songs as they’re planning things. I thought it might be interesting to find out what songs you’d like to hear at our reunion. They wouldn’t necessarily have to be from our high school years although I can think of a lot of good ones. I’ve set up a page in the sidebar as a reminder to “Submit Your Songs.”

Use the comment feature to submit your song ideas or just email me. I subscribe to Yahoo Music Service (Unlimited). I could try to find and download the songs you submit and play them from my digital audio player during one or more of our functions. It’s just an idea.

I’ll get the ball rolling. A couple of songs that I would like to hear would be:

Blue Sky, Allman Brothers.
La Grange, ZZ Top.
Freebird, Lynyrd Skynyrd.

Oh my gosh there are so many more. How about you? What would you like to hear?

One of the latest emails I got was from David Hunt. He says I probably won’t remember him and he’s right. Sorry Dave. Dave says he only went to RHS for a little while so there’s no “then” photo but he did send along this “now” photo.

Thanks for sending in the photo Dave. Maybe we’ll see you later this year! Even if you didn’t graduate with our class we still love you.

I didn’t get a picture but I did hear from Patrick Cronin. Remember him? He’s certainly been applying the “thinking” cap in his career. You can see some of that on this staff bio page at the International Institute for Strategic Studies. That’s in London, by the way. Here’s an excerpt:

Dr. Patrick M. Cronin was appointed by President George W. Bush and confirmed by the Senate to the third-ranking post at the U.S. Agency for International Development—Assistant Administrator, Policy and Program Coordination. He has served as a director of studies at three different think tanks in Washington, D.C.: the National Defence University’s Institute for National Strategic Studies, the U.S. Institute of Peace, and, most recently, at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies.

If you want to send him a message just email me and I’ll forward. I won’t publish email addresses unless I have permission.

Let me know what you’re up to. We all want to know!

I don’t know if this is a good logo for Sarasota or not but it’s all I could find today. My brother, Mark, lives in Birmingham, AL and emailed me yesterday to point out that Sarasota is a “mean city.” So I did some checking and you can read a story about it here. Basically some homeless advocacy group claims that the city’s anti-lodging ordinance makes it the meanest city in the country.

What I’m very impressed with is the fact that the Sarasota City Manager, Michael McNees, is blogging and has already written about it. You can see his post here. Responding to the story he writes:

We tried to engage this agency in a conversation over the actual state of the issue here in Sarasota, but they did not respond to me at all. If they want to label us “Most Persistent City in America in Adopting a Practical as Well as Constitutional Ordinance to Protect Private and Public Property from Destructive Trespass” then I’d say we’d gladly be #1. But Meanest City? Please.

I’ll get better at this “now & then” thing. Give me time. Here’s Diana (Wilcox) Layman as she was then.

I just got some pics from her. So, here she is now.

This is her family and what she writes.

. . . our family has recently moved to temporary quarters in Bozeman, Montana. We are moving again in 30 days into our permanent home on a mountain just outside Bozeman. I will provide new address, email, etc. as it becomes available. We moved to Bozeman from New Jersey, where we had been living since being married 16 years ago. My husband is a psychiatrist who just took over the major mental health facility here in Bozeman. We have two children, girls (10 and 5) adopted from China. Along with a partner, I am a nationally syndicated newspaper columnist. We are known as the Small Business professor and write for Scripps Howard News Service under the slug, BIZPROF. Go to : http://www.shns.com/shns/g_index2.cfm?action=detail&pk=BIZPROF-01-04-06 for my latest column about Sam Adams Beer. I am also working on a book and The Small Business Professor commercial website which will support the book.

Thanks Diana. Got some spare time to write for our website? If so, I can set you up with a user account.

This is to notify everyone about the current plans for our 30-year reunion and how to “stay in the loop” without having to pay website fees.

First: the reunion will take place in Sarasota from October 6-8, 2006. Second: in order to register for future updates, please make note of and visit the following websites, which will serve as the official information vehicles for reunion information: rhsspiritof76.com and ramsreunion2006.com. (The first site listed is our official reunion site where we will be providing all details about the reunion and ultimately be able to take credit card payments for events. The second site is our web blog.) Currently, the reunion committed has set the date, is working on ticket prices for the various gatherings, and beginning its HUGE classmate search. Also, everyone’s senior portraits from the yearbook have been posted on the first site and we want everyone to “sign in” with current contact info, life news, and photo.

Please spread the word!

It’s obvious that our brain cells aren’t working very well since some of us seem to remember “something” about a time capsule but not the specifics. This is not good. If there’s no record of it with the school office and we’re depending on people who graduated almost 30 years ago then we’re in trouble.

Does anyone know anything about a time capsule? Here’s a message from Sharyn. Anyone able to help us out? Post a comment or email me.

Hi! Happy New Year everyone! I just learned that RHS will begin building a new school (same location) sometime next year. They are aware of a time capsule that was planted, but don’t know where to dig it up. Wasn’t that planted our senior year? Anyone remember where?

Sharyn Quiros

Nancois Tatom thought you might enjoy this:

George Carlin On Aging – (Absolutely Brilliant)

Do you realize that the only time in our lives when we like to get old is when we’re kids? If you’re less than 10 years old, you’re so excited about aging that you think in fractions.

“How old are you?” “I’m four and a half!” You’re never thirty-six and a half. You’re four and a half, going on five! That’s the key.

You get into your teens, now they can’t hold you back. You jump to the next number, or even a few ahead.

“How old are you?” “I’m gonna be 16!” You could be 13, but hey, you’re gonna be 16! And then the greatest day of your life . . . you become 21. Even the words sound like a ceremony . . . YOU BECOME 21. YESSSS!!!

But then you turn 30. Oooohh, what happened there? Makes you sound like bad milk! He TURNED; we had to throw him out. There’s no fun now, you’re Just a sour-dumpling. What’s wrong? What’s changed?

You BECOME 21, you TURN 30, then you’re PUSHING 40. Whoa! Put on the brakes, it’s all slipping away. Before you know it, you REACH 50
and your dreams are gone.

But wait!!! You MAKE it to 60. You didn’t think you would!

So you BECOME 21, TURN 30, PUSH 40, REACH 50 and MAKE it to 60.

You’ve built up so much speed that you HIT 70! After that it’s a day-by-day thing; you HIT Wednesday!

You get into your 80s and every day is a complete cycle; you HIT lunch; you TURN 4:30; you REACH bedtime. And it doesn’t end there. Into the 90s, you start going backwards; “I Was JUST 92.”

Then a strange thing happens. If you make it over 100, you become a little kid again. “I’m 100 and a half!”
May you all make it to a healthy 100 and a half!!

HOW TO STAY YOUNG

1. Throw out nonessential numbers. This includes age, weight and height. Let the doctors worry about them. That is why you pay “them ”

2. Keep only cheerful friends. The grouches pull you down.

3. Keep learning. Learn more about the computer, crafts, gardening, whatever. Never let the brain idle. “An idle mind is the devil’s workshop.” And the devil’s name is Alzheimer’s.

4. Enjoy the simple things.

5. Laugh often, long and loud. Laugh until you gasp for breath.

6. The tears happen. Endure, grieve, and move on. The only person, who is with us our entire life, is ourselves. Be ALIVE while you are alive.

7. Surround yourself with what you love, whether it’s family, pets,keepsakes, music, plants, hobbies, whatever. Your home is your refuge.

8. Cherish your health: If it is good, preserve it. If it is unstable,improve it. If it is beyond what you can improve, get help.

9 Don’t take guilt trips. Take a trip to the mall, even to the next county; to a foreign country but NOT to where the guilt is.

10. Tell the people you love that you love them, at every opportunity.

AND ALWAYS REMEMBER:

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.

In the spirit of the blog I’m posting some personal pics for you.

This is just to encourage you to send them in and load them onto the Reunion Website.

As a bonus picture here’s the last time my whole family was together this summer before 2 daughters went off to college. In the picture (l-r) is my wife Cindy, Carly, Me, Caitlin and Chelsea. The dogs are Crash and CJ.

The house is a little quieter with 2 of them gone. We’re getting used to it. It just means there’s more time to work!

And another one from Jeff. Keep them coming. His description of the photo is:

This is Ed Wilson in 1976, apparently after graduation, proudly sporting his RHS cap & tassel. He’s also wearing a “Groucho Marx” T shirt, in which we used to do a poor imitation of the “fig newton” dance for puzzled audiences. Ah, misspent youth. But whose hands are those coming from behind? Is that Scott Mackie in the background?

Thanks Jeff!

Here’s a New Year’s eve photo submission from Jeff Swain. His description of the photo is:

This is Doug Vaughan (and I think Linda Laudano in the foreground), I believe outside the old Brewmasters where we would go for a meal and a few Cokes, which were all you could drink if memory serves. Doesn’t he look dapper in his polyester shirt? Too bad the weather was warm or I’m sure there would have been a leisure suit in this picture!

Thanks Jeff!

Here’s part of a message from Nancy Tatom, our organizing leader:

Hello, Everybody!

I hope you have had a nice holiday season and are looking forward to the upcoming New Year. I’ve recently taken a position in Sarasota and will be moving back “home” in the next few months, which will certainly be more convenient in terms of getting to and from work as well as working on our reunion. The local committee and I have been making a lot of progress and are very excited about the plans for this big event.

The reunion dates are set and we’ve got a good lineup of events and venues, too. The reunion will take place (for the most part) on dry land from October 6-8th, 2006 (we do have a cocktail cruise set for the initial kickoff event on Friday evening). We are currently working on: 1) determining ticket prices for each event, 2) assembling the master list of classmates which we’ll be dividing up among volunteers for the purpose of locating as many of our 630+ classmates as possible, and 3) getting everyone’s senior photos (!!!) placed on our website. Our next meeting is planned for Saturday, January 7th and at that time we’ll be assigning the second task to whomever wants to assist us. If this is something you can help with, please let me know.

Nancy

Hopefully you’re up and at ’em on this New Year’s day. Take a couple of Tylenol if you have to and post some comments or email in your pictures. Give me something to do!