I forgot that I took a picture while I was at Siesta Key Beach on my phone.

I didn’t take my camera out on the beach so this is all I got.

The beach looked great. Same old white sand.

The homes and condos looked different though. I guess it just keeps getting built up and old ones get torn down to build new ones.

Going on a cruise when we turn 50 years old seems like a good idea right now. It was discussed around and plans are being made.

I got a note from Bennie who’s on top of it (of course). So I’m going to let him talk now.

Ok, so you’re not quite even recovered from our big blowout this past weekend and here comes another temptation to let your hair down (for those of us who still have it anyways). But do not be alarmed, we’re talking about an event that’s at least a year and a half away, an eon of time to consider the ramifications of such a foolhardy endeavor as planting your feet on a seagoing vessel (also plenty of time for a new-fangeled remedy to get that hair back).

So here’s what happened this past weekend… Everyone who got together in Sarasota had a great time, they saw old friends and universally said it had been too long. Talk of time ultimately brought up the fact that everyone was fast approaching the Half Century Mark (50 years for you non-math folks) and conversations quickly lead to ideas about celebrating everyone’s 50th birthday. Now two honest facts about this is that it was some of the girls who got this started and they had intentions of making it a real “Girl” thing but that quickly got squashed by some of us guys who thought that our Half Century of Life on this good earth was just as worthy of celebration as theirs. The second fact of this celebratory coalition is that it is not unique. There are many classes who have these 50th Birthday Bashes so we can’t claim originality, but by god, by the time it’s all over and done with, we will be able to claim superiority!

A little known fact is we first tested the waters for a cruise for the 30th Reunion and met with some favorable responses. Ultimately we decided that the land based option would provide for a better turn-out and we certainly did have a good showing. Some of those who knew of the original plans still had a hankering to cruise the seven seas though and thus was born the Birthday Bash Cruise idea. I have all ready heard from at least 10 people to count them in, so in effect, this email is the start of the flushing out of this idea. (more…)

I just uploaded some more photos to the online photo album. Like this one of the beach hotties sent in by Jeff Swain.

There’s now 339 photos in there. You can watch them as a slide show or individually.

There’s also photos from Mary Kinney, Jim Hoffman, Dixie Martinez and Liz Barton. Feel free to send yours and I’ll add them.

Bennie is at work still. Here’s his latest note:

They say that all good things must come to an end, and it is true that our official 30 Year Reunion Activities have come to a close. But the end is no where in sight, you could even say that we have only just begun…

On behalf of the 30-Year Reunion Committee, I would like to extend our thanks to everyone who made the journey, be it near or far, to attend the festivities here in Sarasota over the past weekend. We started out on Thursday night with an informal get-together and went right on through to Sunday afternoon with our Picnic Finally!

To everyone who would have liked to have joined us, but for any number of reasons could not, we say that you were sorely missed, but not forgotten. Throughout the event we showed everyone’s photo on TV screens so that we could reminisce about absent and present friends equally. The photo collage above shows the beautiful cake that our classmate Ron Zammitt made for our Friday Cocktail Party and the group photo was taken at the Saturday Dinner/Dance.

The group shot does not do justice to our actual attendance as we had to take it very early in the evening on Saturday as we were losing the sunlight to take a good photo. I estimate that 30 to 40 classmates that attended the Saturday event did not make it into this photo. But it at least is a nice representative sample of the happy group that we had. All together, we had a little over 200 people attend the weekend’s events.

I’ve got to get some real work done this week for my clients but by next week, I’ll have photo albums set up on the
Reunion Web Site www.rhsspiritof76.com and also information about
our upcoming Memory DVD that everyone
who attended will receive or if you did not attend you will have a chance to buy for a minimal cost.

I somehow missed the moon on Friday night. But Mary Kinney didn’t. I think Mary sent this to me. If it wasn’t Mary, then I don’t know who sent it.

Follow up: This was Mary’s picture.

This would be outside the Mote Aquarium.

I had several people mention it later in the weekend. Glad we got a picture of it.

Bennie and Liz Barton weren’t afraid to take their camera along on the canoe trip.

I followed along in another canoe and got to take this picture.

If you didn’t come out to the picnic on Sunday you missed a very pretty day, especially on the creek.

Bennie steered while Liz did all the paddling.

I was very happy to see Mr. Bauman and his wife at our reunion on Friday night.

Thanks to Liz Barton for sending me this picture. I have had to travel in several spanish speaking foreign countries and the little bit I picked up thanks to this man has come in very handy.

I told him I never became fluent in spanish and he said that was okay because he understands english.

Mr. Bauman, you haven’t changed one little bit!

You should know this by now but just in case. . .

I took almost 300 pictures you can browse through, download, print, send to friends, etc. Use the following link to open it up. Feel free to send the link to anyone you’d like to share it with:

Riverview High School Class of 1976 30 Year Reunion Photo Album

Here’s the link again:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/zimmcomm/sets/72157594314720380/

I may not have much new posted for a couple days while I’m travelling home but check back, I’ve got some more things I’d like to post when I get the time. It was a great reunion and I’ve really enjoyed sharing it with you.

Our last reunion event took place today at Oscar Sherer State Park.

As has been normal this weekend, the committee did a great job of planning and preparing. The meal was ribs, chicken, slaw, etc. from The Oaks BBQ.

We had a lot of food left over but fortunately someone brought zip loc bags so we all were able to do take out.

I just got into my Mother-in-law’s house in Ft. Lauderdale and had it for supper. Mmm good.

I think we had about 50 people show up today and it was a really nice and relaxing way to wind down the weekend. The park was beautiful.

Bennie had arranged for some canoes and a number of us were able to go out on the creek and paddle around. I didn’t bring my camera in the canoe but Bennie and Liz had there’s. I’m counting on them to email me one.

Rick Rothman was definitely born to be a wild man.

He sang “Born To Be Wild” with the band last night as we rocked out the last set.

Rick came to the reunion from the Netherlands.

I hope they’re ready for him over there!

We had a one of a kind award tonight.

You remember Dennis Quigley?

Yeah. We had the DQ award. It has something to do with a Dennis Quigley look-a-like doll.

Where did we find this?

BTW. It does look like Dennis. From high school. (Has a lot of hair).

This is a very wide shot of us tonight before dinner.

BTW. This is not easy to do after getting back to the hotel room at “What time is it?”

We had us a great party tonight and you can see some photos from it here.

After hours on the water we spent hours at the Turtle Beach Pub.

Here’s (left to right) Rich Wray, Me, John Marshall, Dennis Quigley, Jeff Swain and Larry Stults.

Yesterday I had a blackened grouper sandwich. Today it was a really good blackened mahi sandwich.

You can’t get this kind of food in Missouri.

This is your reminder to check out the online photo album. There’s about 165 photos in there so far since Thursday.

Spear fisherman Rich Wray had a little bit of luck this morning.

He came out from Denver with his weapon and got a chance to use it.

I wish I had a picture of his first fish. Ask him about it

Larry and I had to make him get out of the water. I think he’s part fish himself.

It’s time to get ready for our dinner/dance tonight. I just got back from a day on the water thanks to Larry Stults.

Here’s Captain Stults taking Rich Wray and me out on the bay.

Could we have better weather? No!

I want to thank Larry for taking the day to go out on his boat. He and Nancy have just recently moved back to Sarasota from North Carolina.

I’ve got lots of pictures from tonight’s party but I’m just way too tired to post anymore this evening.

Here’s Margaret, Laurie and Karen. Don’t they look great?

There were just way too many people to even try to mention them all. But I’m going to upload all my pictures into the photo album next so visit and see who else was there.

Gary Antonellis and I were the last ones out of the parking lot after standing outside and talking for an hour. Then a group went to Tommy Bahamas on the Circle before calling it quits.

The Mote Aquarium was the site of this evening’s activities.

We had a great party there and lots of friends, including some of our teachers.

This was my first trip to the new Mote. Nothing like the old one we went to for oceanography classes.

Let’s hope tomorrow night’s party is half this good!!

The Bahi Hut, the Bahi Hut,
The Bahi Hut is the spot. The intimate spot to meet all your friends, The Bahi Hut!

The friendly cocktail lounge at the Golden Host
With the island charm you love the most.

On Sarasota’s famous North Trail you’ve got The intimate spot to meet. The Bahi Hut!

I drove by on my way to the Mote Aquarium event this evening and just had to stop in.

And what do you do at the Bahi Hut? Drink Mai Tai’s. That’s not pronounced May Tay.

So Kip here was tending and agreed to a picture as he made me one of their world famous (only 2 served to a customer) drinks.

Nothing has changed and there are more pictures in the online photo album.

I don’t think I’ve been in this place in 30 years. Looks exactly the same.

Elaine is not just any chick. She’s one of my great friends that I’ve kept in touch with over the years. Elaine as in Elaine Russo, now Elaine Lemmer.

Tom, Rob and I met Elaine for lunch at Siesta Key Village. Speaking of getting kicked out of places. We started out trying to go to the Siesta Key Oyster Bar but just as we were walking up the sirens went off and we had emergency vehicles and were told we’d have to vacate due to a gas leak.

So we went next door to the Daquiri Deck, sat down and ordered beverages. Then we got kicked out of there due to the whole gas leak thing going on next door. They cleared about a whole block, including blocking the road.

So we headed on down to the Old Salty Dog and finally got to eat a great grouper sandwich and visit. What a great morning.

Here’s the sign out on Proctor Rd. at the corner of Lords Ave.

There’s a whole bunch of temporary buildings in front of the school now so you really can’t get a decent wide shot and see the old school.

Behind the sign here though are all the old pine trees outside those huge glass windowed classrooms.

We spent quite a few hours sitting under these trees once upon a time!