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…)

We’re getting real close to reunion time and now that I have been volunteered to be the emcee I’m seeking some material. Actually, I always like the emcee who doesn’t say much. Just does the introductions, shuts up and let’s you get on with your socializing.

But, I thought I’d solicit your thoughts and ideas. For example, could you write some things about what you remember the most about high school, your most fun time, things that make you laugh when you remember it.

For example, one I can still see very clearly was when a group of us rebels who were hanging out “across the street” before school started all stormed into school at the bell after we had been threatened with some kind of severe punishment and torture if we didn’t quit loitering. Actually about all I remember of that was a crowd of us hauling booty onto campus and right past a couple teachers, the principal, etc. who were trying in vain to get our names down on a list. I don’t remember getting into trouble over that one.

There are some other things I remember which I hope you have forgotten so I’m not about to bring those up.

Feel free to use the comment feature or just email me.

Just over a month to go. Now’s the time to email in any thoughts, news, announcements, pictures, stories, etc.

My travel schedule slows down a little bit so I should have more time to post here. So feel free to email me whatever’s on your mind that you’d like to share.

I almost hate pointing you to my road blogging but I’ve been doing so much of it that it’s been difficult to find time to post much here. Right now I’m in Tinley Park, IL on a cross country trip with a convoy of vehicles that’s commemorating the 50 year anniversary of the interstate highway system. You can follow all the action here: http://domesticfuel.com/?cat=31. It is a lot of long days but sometimes I get a break like last night at Buddy Guy’s Legends in downtown Chicago.

I went to see the awesome blues guitarist, Carl Weathersby, who was greatly influenced growing up by Albert King. Here’s a video clip of him so you can get a taste of some fine Chicago blues: Carl Weathersby (1 min WMV)

I remember growing up out off Cattlemen’s Road in Sarasota. The house I lived in through early teens was torn down so they could pave I-75 over it. I can still find the exact spot since some of the trees I remember in the fields/pastures nearby are still there (last time I was through). After we moved from there to Longboat Key we moved a number of times around the city before I went off to U of F.

Hi Rams Fans. Just thought I’d post a hello since it’s been a while. The reunion is coming up soon. I’ve already started working on how I’m going to schedule it in. I’ve got an event in Madison, WI that week that I am going to have to sub contract someone to take care of for me in order to be in Sarasota.

Have you registered yet? I haven’t and I hope to get that taken care of soon. Life is staying busy. You saw that I was in Indy for the big race. This week it’s in Nashville for the CMA Music Fest. I won’t bore you with pictures of the stars. You can find my posts from here on my AgWired site. Then starting next week I’ll be travelling coast to coast with the “Celebrate the Interstate” caravan. It’s a group of vehicles commemorating the 50 year anniversary of the interstate system. You can learn all about it on their website.

So, what’s going on in your worlds? Let me know I will share.

Post Update: Well, we’re not going to be “cruisin” like I thought. So check out the next post for more information.

Just to help get you excited here’s a picture from our Reunion Website on the events page. The site says there’s only 145 days to go. I didn’t check it so I hope it’s right.

I’m actually in Ft. Lauderdale today. I flew down yesterday and am driving back to Missouri with my oldest daughter who’s been attending college in Naples. She has a room here with Grandma, Cindy’s Mom.

It’s so nice to feel heat and humidity. Missouri has been cool so far this spring. I was in Phoenix last week though and it was 100 degrees!

I hope everyone who visits is doing well.

This has absolutely nothing to do with our reunion but since it’s my blog I’ll post if I want to. I’m on the road in Phoenix and had some free time so I thought I’d check out the food in this little pub in my hotel. I got some fine Irish stew at Seamus McCaffrey’s. This excellent pub is in the Hotel San Carlos.

If you get to visit stop in and try a draft Smithwick’s which I tried here for the first time. So, let’s hear from you. What are you up to now that you know what I’m up to this week.

Hello Rams fans. I’m writing to solicit news and information about what’s going on in Sarasota that we out of state people might find interesting. I’m sure some of us planning on attending don’t know a lot of what’s going on in our former home town.

I’ve really only been back for very short visits including former reunions. What’s new? How’s the beach holding up? Is the Purple Cow still purple? Where are the best hang outs for 40 somethings these days? What happened to our old ones?

That kind of thing. You can write comments here or send them to me by email. Pictures would be nice. Got any of Siesta Key beach on a nice weekend?

Help me out. I’m trolling for information.

What would be even better though would be for you alumnuses (is that a word?) to send me pics and stories about what you’re doing now. Inquiring minds want to know.

I’ll be travelling a lot in the next month or so but there’s always time to post some news.

I’m glad I checked the reunion website. Bennie’s got some photo albums up. This is one from our 20 year Dinner/Dance.

You’ll find:

10 Year Cocktail Cruise
10 Year Dinner/Dance
10 Year Picnic
20 Year Cocktail Party
20 Year Dinner/Dance

Check it out!

Hello Rams Fans. I have completely moved all my websites to new servers over the past week. Apparently we’ve lost some comments on some of the posts here. Please email me or re-post your comments. My hosting company made the move without scheduling it with me or I would have given you notice.

We’re obviously up and running. I will not remove a comment unless it contains profanity or is complete comment spam.

Thanks for bearing with us in our move!

It’s not quite spring weather here in Missouri yet. But today was pretty sunny so I was out on the Katy Trail. I took a few photos so you can see that the middle of the U. S. isn’t all that bad.

You can see the pics on my Flickr photo album.

Okay folks, you’re making me search here. It’s not easy keeping feeding this blog monster from central Missouri. So I just did what any good blogger would do. I Googled. I did a Google Images search first and besides Ram Cheerleader carwash pictures (no I’m not going to post them) I saw the RHS Planetarium logo.

So you get the Planetarium. You can find lots of information about it on the website, including show dates and time.

The Riverview Planetarium offers educational programming for the whole family. With a 56 seat theater and computerized Spitz A-4 projection system, Riverview can provide a wide variety of show formats. Shows are provided for school children of Sarasota County throughout the school year. Private shows are given to civic groups by appointment. The Riverview Planetarium is a window on the Universe which is made available to the citizens of our community.

The RHS Planetarium currently services over 4,500 students a year and is increasing show times and dates every year. For information about scheduleing a show, please e-mail; Jason Mocherman – Director.

The Riverview High School Planetarium was originally built in 1969 by the Sarasota County School Board. The projector was a Goto “Venus”, it along with the control system and a few special effect projectors cost the county ~ $20,000.

I’ve been doing a little bit of Googling around and found the RHS Cross Country Team Website. That was the only sport I lettered in. Looks like they need a little help updating the website. Gotta keep it fresh you know.

Then I was surfing around the school website. Found the latest issue of the Ram Page. Boy does that download slow. Do not try this on dialup. I see an issue for last September, nothing newer than that. It’s got twelve page but I could only stand waiting for 2 to download and I’m on pretty high speed.

So what’s new in your world? I just listened to the Gators (University of Florida) beat LSU on the web radio broadcast of the SEC tourney. That made my day.

It’s been a long last 2 weeks blogging on the road (again). I got to meet several interesting folks though like Willie Nelson. This was out in San Diego at the National Biodiesel Conference.

Daryl Hannah was another star there promoting this renewable fuel. I also got to meet Luke Perry and at the Cattle Industry Convention I at least got to record Sam Elliott, who uttered these famous words.

It seems like we’re getting the word out since I’ve gotten a couple updates from ClassMates about new members.

What’s new in your world?

Music suggestions anyone? John Lipply offered these:

Jimmy Buffett, Led Zeppelin and the Outlaws

I think we’re on the same page.

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 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.

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

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!