GHS Alumni News: November 2012

Reminder that the monthly, 4th Monday GHS ’70 Luncheon is right around the corner, noon November 26 at Auburn’s Peking Buffet (@Grandstaff&SR8, 260.925.2746). Put this on your calendar now, and while you’re at it, fill out the year’s remaining 4^th Monday dates.

The October luncheon saw 20 classmates including me, too many to show, though we did get everyone seated together around several tables arranged in a large rectangle. To the right you can see Lauren Fike, and proceeding clockwise, Steve Tullis, Steve’s son Michael, Vickey Markley Bishop (Bob Bishop’s sister-in-law), Jama Payton Campbell, the top third of Bob Woodward’s skull, Stephen Rowe, and Bob Bishop …

While on the opposite side of the rectangle you see Brian Custer, Dave Kobiella, Greg Weller, Arnie Placencia, and Pat Casey

That accounts for 12 of the 20 …

… and here you can see Penny Evans Wolf and Cindy Nodine DeWitt at the car back with Vickie and Jama.

John Jinnings took the photos (thank you John), and also unseen but there and having a good time were Tom Refner, Mike Rhodes, Hal Hippensteel, Dan Yarde, and Kathy Creager VanAllen, making 20.

This was a red-letter occasion – Steve Tullis’ wife (Anita Fetter Tullis, GHS ’72) had a surprise birthday cake for Steve, and you can see the Peking Buffet hostess cutting more cake while Steve looks at a card signed by all, just after everyone sang Happy Birthday!

Just after the singing, Randy Brumbaugh called in to the Peking Buffet’s phone, he wanted to say he couldn’t make it but hopes to attend in November.

From the beginning this was an excellent, high-vibe/high-spirited affair – surely the best to date, but surely many more ahead. So come when you can, continue to spread the word, and when you do come, bring a camera.

Other News and People

Pat Casey and his wife Debby Neukom Casey (GHS ’71) are moving (have moved?) to Eugene, Oregon to be near their daughter Lisa and grandson Ethan – Pat said the move date was in three weeks, so I’m guessing they are all together in Eugene by now, just before Thanksgiving.

Linda Runion Treesh has retired or is retiring from the DeKalb County Hospital by the end of this month. Congratulations Linda! Hope now you can make some of the monthly Luncheons?

Doris Sleek Jarnagin informed me that the October newsletter’s In Memoriam page did not include Patricia Snook Brown, who died while undergoing surgery for a brain aneurism around 1972. I did not recognize the name (though several others did). However, Jama Payton Campbell and Cindy Nodine Dewitt had brought yearbooks to the luncheon, and I remembered Patty instantly by her photo. Patty, you are remembered by many.

New Additions to the GHS ’70 Cyber-Gathering

The last newsletter noted seven new additions to the newsletter distribution list. New additions will slow, but I can report five this month: Robert (Bob) Woodward, who also came to the luncheon (photo on right, thanks to Doris Sleek Jarnagin); Randy Thomas; Karen Freeze Stoltz; and Karl Kearns.

The last time I saw Bob was 1982, when he stopped me for driving too fast in Garrett (just a warning), so it was good to see him again under better circumstances. Bob had a good time and said he intends to make the monthly luncheons regularly going forward.

This makes 51 on the newsletter email distribution, and it is gratifying to know how many classmates unable to attend the luncheons (still working or living afar) nevertheless enjoy these monthly newsletters. Still, a good many coming to the luncheons do not use email, so please consider bringing a copy of your newsletter to share whenever you do come.

A Special Collection

Lauren Fike and Hal Hippensteel took up a special collection ($170) for Angie LaTurner Smith (Sam LaTurner’s sister), who suffered a brain aneurism and has no insurance. It was a thoughtful, generous gesture that will surely be appreciated, even more than the money.

Need More Photos

This is me in the first or second grade, the costume had something to do with a school Thanksgiving program, I believe related to Mrs. Flora’s Music class - so if you attended JE Ober, I’m thinking you may remember having a get-up like this as well?

Anyway, I’m hoping YOU will send me additional photos from back in the day that I might use if not immediately, then sometime along the way, as these newsletters unfold.

Doris in the First Grade

Doris Sleek Jarnagin has sent some first and sixth grade classroom photos (thank you very much!), but not everyone was in her classroom (and no one from the Catholic school). There is SO much material “out there” that I could ultimately use in this newsletter, so please send whatever you might like electronically.

Garrett Streets

I needed a “model” so this is my wife and

former GHS teacher Kathy Koons Rowe

Do you remember Simon and Garfunkel’s poignant 1968 song,

Old friends, old friends, sat on the park bench like bookends …

Can you imagine us years from today, sharing apark bench so quietly? How terribly strange to be seventy …

Garrett’s Mayor, Tonya Hoeffel

Click on the above link to play it, and know that Garrett’s Mayor Tonya Hoeffel is planning to provide downtown park benches, so long absent, so that people can indeed spend some pleasant, idle time downtown, talking with a friend, or just taking in the town’s pulse as time runs its course. And if someday you see me sitting thus, won’t you please stop and join me for half an hour?

Downtown Garrett Murals?

Have you seen the murals painted on Ligonier’s downtown brick buildings?

They are really fabulous, these are just two of many … And there is a movement in Garrett to do something on the same order.

Pat Kinsey (our old study-hall teacher) and Pat Weimer have met a few times with a committee from Ligonier, and these two are planning to charter a non-profit corporation dedicated to such a project in Garrett. Can you imagine that?

Special News Bulletin (Doris Sleek Jarnagin)

I generally try to write these newsletters soon after the preceding luncheon, but this unfortunate news came 23 days later, long after I had written all the above and the ending below – writing to which Doris had contributed much (by reminding me of Patty Snook Brown’s passing, and by providing the photos of Patty, Bob Woodward, little Miss “Guess Who” farther below, and the very cute photo of Doris' first grade self).

Doris Sleek Jarnagin (GHS ’70) and her husband Gary (GHS ’68) were displaced from their home by Saturday’s Indianapolis subdivision explosion which destroyed 2 homes and rendered 29 uninhabitable (Doris herself took the photo you see here).

Neither was harmed – I saw the story on KPCnews.com, written by Matt Getts with a Wednesday, November 14, 2012, 1:00AM time stamp.

Quoting from KPCnews: They’ve had to rely on the generosity of others for everything from toiletries to winter coats. “People have been very good,” Doris said. “There’s a lot to be thankful for. It’s easy to help someone, it’s very humbling to receive.” And “We’re safe, God was protecting us. We’re OK.”

Those helping to date include their Indianapolis neighborhood, church, and the appraisal management company where Doris works in quality control. Gary was forced to retire due to health issues shortly after their move to Indianapolis about 3-4 years ago.

As I write “today” (Nov 14), having just spoken with Doris on the phone, Doris, Gary, and their dog are staying at a motel arranged by the American Red Cross, but their tenure is just one week and they are uncertain of where they will stay afterward. Nevertheless, they are planning to spend Thanksgiving in the Garrett area, though again, lodging arrangements are uncertain.

Anyone wishing to contact Doris may call 260.235.0709 (a number she maintains so that her grandchildren can call toll free); or send email to doris.jarnagin@gmail.com (she has not yet retrieved her computer, but hopes to soon); or you may write to her address, 8339 Andrusia Lane, Indianapolis, IN 46237.

Another GHS ’70 Profile

Lucy Curtis Cumston

After living in Garrett from the age of three my parents and I moved to the West Coast of Florida in the summer of 1968, as I turned 16. As fate would have it, I met my husband, Paul, our senior year of high school (He had just moved from Ohio). We married in 1972 and lived in the Ft. Lauderdale, Florida area where we raised our two sons, Jonathan Paul and Christopher Adam.

Paul worked at Motorola, Inc. in electronics and I ended up with a career in Early Childhood Education as a Christian Preschool Director. As we experienced the “empty nest”, we decided to move to the Asheville, North Carolina area in 2002. We spent nine years in Fines Creek thirty minutes West of Asheville; and now we have purchased a home in Hendersonville which is thirty miles South of Asheville. Our sons are both married. Jonathan lives in Noblesville, Indiana where he has a wife and two daughters; Samantha Jean (5) and Mackenzie Jane (2). Chris lives in Royal Palm Beach, Florida with his wife.

After a number of years off with early retirement, Paul went back to work at Home Depot. I continue to be retired due to health issues. However, I do volunteer at our local library and enjoy traveling, reading, cross stitching and knitting. We have always been active in our United Methodist Church.

This year we celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary.

Lucy in 1968 (her last year in Garrett)

We are blessed! I hope to see everyone in Garrett again one day. I have wonderful memories of growing up in that community.

Thank you Lucy.

There are a couple more profiles in the pipeline, people I have asked to contribute, but please don’t make me ask – whoever you are, people would like to hear what you might say. You could follow the examples set by Trudy Watson Boyd, Mike Barcus, Sandy Wilmot Wise, and Lucy, or simply express what it has meant for you to have been in our class, and perhaps how your feelings have changed through the years. Your writing need not be polished, what really touches people is what comes from the heart … so please step up and send me a note I can share (males especially needed).

In the mean time, can you guess who will appear in the December GHS ’70 profile???

We all grew up together in the Sixties …

And now that we have arrived in our 60s, it is indeed time to get know each other better!

In Memoriam

(alphabetical order, not sure of dates)

Calvary Cemetery

Angie Muzzillo

Ben Hatton

Bob Pickleseimer

Chuck Bergner

Dolan Boyd

Ed Schlotterback

John Yarian

Christian Union Cemetery

Patricia Snook

Peggy Chisholm

Randy Haffner

Rick Hyde

Sue Kirkpatrick

Calvary Cemetery and Christian Union Cemetery are the two Garrett cemeteries I know best. (Are there others?) Certainly not all Garrett natives are buried here, but still, driving by I always reflect, if just for a moment, on the many generations that made Garrett what is was and is. And when I do take time to stroll through them, I am always moved: so many Garrett names, so much we shared, whether or not we ever met, just having lived in the same place.

Last month I suggested that we undertake a larger In Memoriam project. Are there any volunteers to collect birth/death dates and photos (an early grade school and a more senior year photo) for each, now and going forward?

$5.62 with tax for the buffet if you have water …

In Closing …

An ice cream toast …

I discovered a soup bowl works

better than the smaller desert bowl.

That’s just about all for now, except please help spread the word: share this email and help get other classmates “signed up.” Anyone wanting to be added directly to the distribution need only email or call me [voice, not text – my phone options are set to not receive text, even though the text may seem to go through] at 630.251.6931, and I will add them. And please share your newsletter with classmates not using email – perhaps print off a hard copy to pass along to a friend?

If you want to share class news, photos, etc, just send it electronically to me (along with descriptive text and perhaps your phone #). The idea is to make these bulletins interesting whether or not you want to or are able to attend the luncheons. You all out there know a lot more about what is going on than me, myself, and I, so please know that your input will be welcome!

Presently the direct email distribution includes 51 classmates, and so far 20 have elected for their email address to be shown (in alphabetical order):

Bill Fetter, Bob Bishop , Carolyn Myers Kowal, Delana Runion Kantzer, Don Campbell , Gery Barry , Jama Payton Campbell, Jeanne Hockaday McNeal, Jim Burns , John Jinnings , Karen Freeze Stoltz, Karl Kearns, Lucy Curtis Cumston, Mike Barcus, Pat Casey , Paulette Swank Kobiella, Phil Wheeler, Rick Elder , Ron Gall , Vicki Miller Hodge

The others listed below are on the email distribution as well, but email addresses are hidden per the Bcc option:

Arni Placencia , Barbara Tustison Smith, Cindy Nodine DeWitt, Clyde Handshoe , Dan Yarde , Dave Ashenfelter , Dave Kobiella , Doris Sleek Jarnagin, Doug Smith , Gary Fike , Greg Weller , Jack Clark, Kathy Creager VanAllen, Lisa Englehard Murphy, Marisa Kennedy , Mary Yoder Weeks, Mike Rhodes , Nancy McKee Ireland, Paula Johnston Fike, Penny Evans Wolf, Randy Thomas, Sandra Wilmot Wise, Sarah Haynes Sweitzer, Sharon Heitz , Steve Tullis , Sue Rhetts, Teresa Koehl Thorne, Tony Janueski , Trudy Watson Boyd, Wayne Smith