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This message forum is an ongoing discussion about anything and just about everything ... within reason.  One thing our class was good at was having opinions.  Almost 70 years of life experience certainly qualifies us as experts on most everything!   Ask a question ... give an opinion ... share some insights ... it's our web site, it's our forum.  That said, it's probably not a good idea to get into arguments about politics, religion, and the like.  While we're experts on everything, we also have a wide range of values and beliefs. This site belongs to all of us ... the whole range ... and we are not here to isolate, alienate, or subjugate anybody.  Of course insults, humiliation, sophomoric barraggadocio, and demented humor is expected behavior among some of us less mature people.
 

Bonnie Buck (Walter)

Gordy - To not be on the police report after the accident I said I was with the next Custer car that came along.  I know the cop looked askance because it was happened to be 5 guys & me (that Ken knew & I did not)!

Klara – Wondering how many of our Custer women read 50 Shades of Grey?  I read all three, but think only one movie can be made – unless they make porn movies.  Very exciting and, ah, interesting at first but eventually too repetitive and became boring.

All – see why we laugh our way through card night with these crazy guys.  Bill Bailen occasionally joins us from SoCal.

I always admired our cheerleaders and Sandy, your fantastic gymnastics!  Women's sports, what we could have been! Track would have been the sport for me, 400 & 800 & others.  I won Jr. HS Baminton Championship in 7th grade, played softball & bowled, marched w/championship drill team with Jobies in my teens, and water ballet and drill team at Custer.

Garry Sellers

Ken and Bonnie, are you guys getting paid by the column inch?!?  Man, see there are some downsides to living in California,  Ken is one  ... and a little thing called the San Andreas Fault is another!  Of the two Ken is by far the most dangerous!  We all have earthquake insurance but there is no "Ken Insurance"!

Terri Levenhagen (Hoornstra)

Klara and Bonnie, I haven't read 50 Shades of Grey, and here my BROTHER (Bob Custer '60) is sitting tellling me it's the hottest book, that all the chicks are reading. So you said there are three?  

Klara Ruppert (Grigg)

Yep,  50 Shades of Grey is a trilogy.  I have not actually read any of them yet.  I'm still working my way up to purchasing them.  I know one thing, I will be downloading them to my Kindle--don't really want to be seen with them in my hand!!  Our daughter-in-law gave me some pages to read in case I didn't want to read the books.  Had to laugh out loud as it reminded me of the olden days and the book Summer Place (?) which was SO risque then.  Bonnie, friends who have read the series said exactly the same thing:  the books became repetitive and ultimately boring.  I know I will read them anyway because they are the hot reads of the season--I don't want to be left out. Reading was my profession and continues to be my passion.

Terri Levenhagen (Hoornstra)

Mine, too, Klara. The last trilogy I read was "Hunger Games" - and I read that on my iPad/Kindle, for obvious reasons. Am I allowed to get serious for a minute? I was really shocked at the amount of violence in those books (and I imagine, the movie too). In spite of the violence, there is a good "Brave New World"- type message. A teacher friend of mine is actually teaching those books in 7th grade Language Arts.  But after what happened in Colorado, I'm thinking the kids are just too accustomed to violence in books and movies. I remember a long time ago taking my stepdaughter and her cousins to see a movie "all their friends were seeing" - "Friday the 13th" - and I was hiding under the chair, while they lapped it up. And the movies have only gotten worse. Next to today's movies, "The Creature from the Black Lagoon" - which scared us to death back in "the day" - seems like a kiddie cartoon. But most guys I know love those "action" movies. 

Nancy Davison (Boerger)

Klara and Terri - If I keep hearing about "Fifty Shades...." I'll have to figure out how to get it. Go to the library and request it? OMG, this is a tiny, tiny town.....do I dare? Or perhaps go through Amazon and have it mailed in a brown paper bag.

Terri, I hear you regarding violence in movies. When "Pulp Fiction" came out, I lasted five minutes and quit, only to listen for years about what a great classic it is. Finally gave it another shot last month. Gritted my teeth for the first five minutes, then thought it was a gas. But then there was "Saving Private Ryan".....watched five minutes, went to bed and sobbed myself to sleep. Still haven't made it through that one. Movies aren't what they used to be.....but then, a lot of them weren't really that great either. So beware the trap of moaning about the "good ol' days".

Terri Levenhagen (Hoornstra)

I don't like to listen to anyone moan about the good ol' days either. Many things now are so much better, especially  movies  (the good ones - and yes, "Saving Private Ryan" is supposed to be good, but I couldn't watch it either. ) Time does giive us a good perspective - like being able to stand on top of a mountain and see as far as you can see. So when you're at the top, you can point out all the things you see to the ones who aren't there yet -- not that they even CARE or want to listen ! :-) :-)

Garry Sellers

It's my belief that movies and literature of the current day are always the best ... regardless of decade or century you're living in.  I'm catching up on all the recreational reading I never had time for while working.  I've probably read 75 to 100 books on WWII alone in addition to 3 tons of fiction.  Do you realize those  WWII heroes were all around us as kids and do you think we would ask them even one thing about it? (Michalak was a Colonel in WWII and Korea!)  Of course the original "Star Wars" trilogy beats everything ( I did have two boys) ... even "West Side Story" and "The Birds"!  But Tom Hanks might be the best actor of all time and I'll take anything he's in, even "Cast Away" where he played an employee of that horrible company FedEx!

Bonnie Buck (Walter)

The movies of today are the best because of the technology, but I enjoy the old and new books, movies, and plays - cannot say one is better than the other.  I will never forget my first incredible play "The Sound of Music" at the Pabst Theatre in about 1962.  Terri - I debated & then read the "Hunger Games" on my Nook, feel the same way you do.  Nancy - I got through the movies you mentioned, but had the same reactions.  My parents divorced when I was very young and my father was not around, I am just now learning that as an Air Force pilot he flew over Germany and Belgium during WWII.  You're right Garry, wish I could have heard his stories (I think). 

Klara Ruppert (Grigg)

I have not seen any of the movies like Private Ryan, Pulp Fiction, No Country for Old Men, etc.  Can't deal with the violence and I especially don't like torture.  That leaves a lot of good movies I haven't seen.  Dale & I did read the Hunger Games trilogy and loved them.  Just went to see the movie this past weekend--the only place it was still showing was at an old threater near the university--$4.  Yesss! We felt the producers did a credible job with the violence as it was toned down.  I don't particularly like war movies.  The year Dale was in Vietnam dodging bullets with his plane was not the highlight of our marriage!  Don't need reminders.  We enjoy going to operas and stage musicals.  For years we took our kids to New York and/or the  Kennedy Center for productions, and the latest outing we took the kids, spouses and grands to see Wicked.  On our recent family cruise we saw Hairspray-a musical that takes place in a high school in the early sixties.  Dale and I kept poking each other-remember?  remember?  We are truly getting older, but we will never grow up!

Terri Levenhagen (Hoornstra)

Thanks Klara,  Hunger Games is still playing at our Blue Light Cinema, and I can't find anybody who wants to see it. I'm just going to see it by myself, if they've toned down the violence. But I still think the books were too violent for the young people they are directed at.  But you're right Bonnie and Garry about the quality of the good new movies - production values and cinematography.  They do a really good job of researching the costumes, settings and often the facts, too, in historical movies. It makes you just chuckle at the sets of some of the old movies, where you can see they're made of cardboard and all filmed at a sound stage.

Bonnie Buck (Walter)

Agree - Hugo is a marvelous movie!  Hair was among one of the first plays I saw (shocking then!), and it came around the second time years later.  A book I found absolutely fascinating and could hardly put down was the autobiorgraphy of Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson.  It happened during our time and occurred in our backyard in California, and we all use Apple's products or similar.

Just saw that Chad Everett, star of Medical Center, died.  He was the reason I chose Chad for our son's name!

Terri Levenhagen (Hoornstra)

Speaking of ther WWII heroes among us, my husband Jon is editing a WWII memoir of an 87-yr. old San Mateo  CA friend. He enlisted as a 17-year old Italian-American, and was in battles all over Europe and into Germany. It is just fascinating. I get to give the book a 3rd set of eyes, and Mario Ricci is now one of my heroes. I hope he sells a million copies. 

Kenneth Pallaske

It is really great hearing about the movies you are mentioning, classmates. I remember taking a trip to Sheboygan...remember the 2 and 3 lane roads back then? My dad would give each one of us (me and my brothers) 50 cents to go to the movie theater on Saturday afternoon. We would see previews, a serial - usually Ma & Pa Kettle or, let me see, the one with the phony spaceship, oh ya, Flash Gordon, a double feature and several cartoons. We bought several kinds of candy - my favorite was Good and Plenty.

Do you remember the mind numbing thriller, the Blob? How about  Lon Chaney and Boris Karloff?

But, as great as those movies were, they still do not hold a candle to the movies made today. Unless you are talking about some of the classics like, Oklahoma, Ben Hur or ......Psycho????? No, I mean the James Dean movies.

Nancy Davison (Boerger)

Yes, Ken, and one of those 2 lane roads went to Chicago. Karsten and I would go there to listen to jazz (Oscar Peterson) at the London House.  Have you taken that route recently? What a change!

Terri Levenhagen (Hoornstra)

Good'n Plenty were my favorites: no matter if you got the pink one or the white one, they were all delicious licorice inside!  Then the malted milk balls that melted in your mouth! Ken, we just saw the colorized "Blob" yesterday with a very young Steve McQueen. Bonnie, I saw Hair too, after moving to California at the Circle Star Theater in Redwood CIty - but our seats were so far away from the stage, the shocking scene wasn't so shocking. I'm going to have to wait until my husband is finished with Steve Jobs - the book, but our big neighborhood excitment was that  we had the crew from Steve Jobs - the Movie filming a couple blocks from our house at Steve Jobs' childhood home. Our  corner Starbucks baristas were thrilled when Ashton Kutcher came in for a coffee (nothing fancy, they said).

Barbara Blair (Brenzel)

Mmmmmmm - candy!

James Gibbons

Movies suck!  Haven't been able to sit thru an entire movie since the 20th Century!  They all seem to be geared to desperate women or 12-year-old boys...sorry, but someone had to say it...

Garry Sellers

That's our boy Jim!  Northern California's holdover from the Haight-Ashbury days.  Like wow man!  Jim comes up for air and to view old Roy Roger episodes on the library's computer every 5 or 6 months.  He always had a thing for Dale Evans. Or was it Trigger ... which is also a pub in The Castro in San Francisco ... according to Ron Willman.  Jim is liviing the life of Forest Gump but has never made it out of the running days.  He just can't stop.

Patricia McCarthy (McCarthy)

Well, it hasn't been ALL bad,  but I think "special effects has been used too many times as a substitute for a plot.

AND, I loved Forrest Gump.

I was too chicken to see Saving Private Ryan,  wouldn't have made it thru the first 5 minutes. Kinda liked Doris Day living like a queen on a secretaries salary.  Talk about unrealistic expectations!!!

Terri Levenhagen (Hoornstra)

Ohh Forest Gump, Patricia! It kind of covers the history of US, the Class of '62, doesn't it? It's like a spell - evey time the channel goes by it, I have to stop and watch.Tom Hanks never made a bad movie, did he?

Patricia McCarthy (McCarthy)

Terri,

Spellbinding is a good description!!!

Mmmmm, wasn't too crazy about the Lost on the beach thing, but at least no one was dismembered.

I read, and didn't care for, DaVinci Code. (We left about 15 minutes into the movie. Having been a B-52 pilot during Vietnam, Russ's tolerance for violence, these days, is even lower than mine.) 

Other than that. Tom's Thee Man!!!!!!

Kenneth Pallaske

Gibby,

Is Garry telling the truth about you? I always thought you were a cool dude in HS.

If I can be so bold as to "cast" my vote, I didn't care for "Castaway." I finally registered for the reunion and booked the hotel. I am really looking forward to seeing all of you

Nancy Davison (Boerger)

Hey, guys - give "Gibby" a break! What do you mean "WAS a cool dude"? What's not cool about sailing around and building your own house?

Terri Levenhagen (Hoornstra)

 I can see "Gibby's" poiint about movies - I have been trying to catch up with all the "old" movies (basically those that were produced after my son was born,  except for Disney) - and I find I enjoy about half of them, or fewer. I am an alien creature here in the land where movies are made, and are the "go-to" topic for conversation. I am finding myself enjoying the comedies the most. Watched "The Couch Trip" last night, courtesy of Netflix and almost fell off the chair laughing. Dan Akroyd was at the top of his game in that movie. But I really loved Castaway. I still cry at the part where Wilson floats away.