Be aware, the "Message Forum" is NOT password protected.  Unlike profiles that are password protected, anybody who gets to this webpage can see what is written here.  Nobody can contact you directly based on this forum unless you reveal your personal contact information.  Use the "Message Center" for sharing personal contact information with another classmate.

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.
 

Jim Cejka

Keep the Thought - - -

From your "Down South" classmates.

Lauren Dieterich

In the last 20 years I''ve spent Christmas in Deming, NM ( 30 miles from the border ) for 6 years, then 3 Christmas' in Milwaukee and the last 11 Christmas' in Bullhead City, AZ, across the Colorado river from Laughlin, NV. This means 11 winters without below freezing temps. This should be interesting,because, especially with COPD, I don't handle cold very well. And, my back won't let me shovel more than a half inch of snow.

Jim Cejka

Garry,

12th floor office in San Francisco? Did you skip the class at Custer that taught us that the ground in San Francisco shakes and buildings fall down?

Jim Cejka

Actually Garry, I have to confess that we do get earthquakes here in "down South" land. We've actually been having a series of quakes centered about 10 miles from us here for the last couple of months. They've been making the local news. One got all the way up to a 2.4.

Barbara Blair (Brenzel)

Thanks again, Garry, for all your good humor and your good thoughts.

Wishing you & yours and the Custer classmates a very Merry Christmas from frigid Wisconsin.  The snow and cold have just begun!

Barb

Jim Cejka

Garry, around here the 1.7s make the news.

And, Christmas is about Family and Friends.

So, I hope our Custer "Family" has a Wonderful and Blessed one.

Terri Levenhagen (Hoornstra)

Merry Christmas to all from sunny Los Angeles! After weeks of lows in the 40°s (shockingly cold to most Angelenos) we are having an un-Christmas-like 77° today. With the rest of the country in the deep freeze, it just doesn't seem fair. I guess we must be due for an earthquake.

Jim Cejka

Hey California Contingent - 

Is there any truth to the rumor that the most popular name for newborn boys this year already is "Noah?"

Jim Cejka

Garry,

Sounds like you've been having fun with something other than the weather.

Enjoy the colonoscopy - you'll be exposed to a whole different kind of "software."

William Nelson

Gary,

I believe I know the answer to your question about who would want to be a gastroenterologist. I heard somewhere that they're the doctors who wound up in the bottom of their class. Enjoy the search! Hope they don't find anything unusual, like the remains of that toy you tried to eat when you were four years old.

Kenneth Pallaske

I found out a couploe of days age, from my brother, Jim that Sandy Wachs passed away. I'm sure her star is shining brightly in heaven.

Gar(r)y: Thanks for all of the hard work you put in for this website. It is fantastic.  BTW, my laptop is in its final stages, as well.

Gordon "Allen" Mitchell

Sorry for late reply. I think your family did an outstanding job. There are a few places that really flood. And those probably should never have been built up areas. They were probably old lake areas with no drainage to begin with. 

so all was ok here water wise. We did have some seepage because water backed up against the fence gate. Now that gate has been trimmed at bottom so water can pass. 
 

Jim Cejka

Phew. That Super Bowl thing is finally over, now we can get down to the real fun season of the NFL - pundits prevaricate, rumors rule, and every team is going to that Bowl next year. So, saddle up and lurch along with your most, or least favorite team, it’s a long season of improbable reason.

Starting with - The Packers are trading Aaron Rogers to nine different teams (but he only likes eight). Enlightenment may arise from the darkness. 

That K.C. coach may retire now that he’s won the SB. Or, maybe he won’t.

This year’s draft is deep/thin at the one position your team really needs, but someone else will take him two places before you get to pick. 

Your team will trade up to get “the man,” and the picks they give up will actually produce better players for someone else. 

This year, this time, the new coach is the one. Out of all the one’s we interviewed, he said all the right things. We’re excited and fortunate to get him.

Tom Brady will end up with as many retirements as he has Super Bowl rings. 

Think of all the news to come between now and the start of the regular season. Enjoy.

Jim Cejka

And,

Already, today, Mary and I are sitting at the bar at a local establishment, enjoying our fried pickles, and the talking head panel on the sports tv are predicting the NFL power rankings for 2023. And, we're off. . . .

Bonnie Buck (Walter)

Garry - as you can see, I am once again able to login to the website - appreciate it, you, and the amazing website you made and continue to add to for all of our classmates,.

Thanks for all of the laughs everyone.  The way 2022 ended and 2023 started for me I really need to laugh, and not just  hysterically!

Although we don't get hurricanes, we now get the dreaded "atmospheric rivers".    One hour before my 12 guests arrived for Christmas dinner, my roof & ceiling decided to give me a pool smack dab in the middle of my front hallway.  My house is 2 stories high and has a turret.. I was upstairs changing into something more festive when I heard plop ... plop ...plop ...plop, then plop,plop,plop,plop, then plopplopplopplop!!!!!  I ran for towels and buckets.  Grabbed more towels, threw the wet ones in the dryer.  When my guests arrived the rains mercifully ceased, but I was a mess.    Oh well, they are all family and we enjoyed a wonderful afternoon and evening!  

A month later, yes an entire month, the roof contractors were still trying to find and fix my 6 month old roof to stop the leak.  I figured I should decorate the buckets since they were becoming permanent fixtures in my hallway.  At last, my regular contractor, not a roofer, found that the rain was coming in through the grout in the turret.  For 6 days I endured constant drilling & hammering while the mason chipped out the grout and put in new.  Finally, no more leaks!!!  Hooray!!! 

Jim Cejka

Garry,

An astute observation on our extended life spans. I'm sure it can be attributed to our Custer legacy - pure thoughts and clean living.

Jim Cejka

And I thought I remembered that saying etched over the entrance to the "bicycle" room at Custer. 

Jim Cejka

耳聽為虛，眼見為實/耳听为虚，眼见为实

(Seeing is believing.)

Jim Cejka

Fake news. This really can't be Southern California.

Jim Cejka

Garry,

Are you proposing that politicians authorize and spend money on something that is an actual benefit to their constituents? That they'd plan on something beyond the next election? 

Us senior citizens shoud be enlightened by experience, not be so naive. 

Terri Levenhagen (Hoornstra)

Snow is all around us in LA as depicted in that photo. And it's staying because night temperatures are in the 30s down here in the valley and much lower up in the mountains. There's a snow emergency at Big Bear (favorite ski destination for Angelenos) with the little towns buried in 7 feet of snow.  Two grocery stores have had their roofs cave in and there's only one grocery store left for people in the small villages to somehow make their way to through the snow. The last I heard helicopters had arrived with rations. 

Terri Levenhagen (Hoornstra)

In the meantime, our Spring flowers are determined to grow. Probably astonished at the huge, and unaccustomed amout of water they just received, they decided to make the most of it.

Jim Cejka

Terri,

I have a cousin who lived in Crestline. She moved here to SC a couple years ago. We're having a good time going back and forth about the snow there or WI, and how neither of us is missing it. 

Enjoy it. It's a nice change of pace from being on fire.

(BTW. She now operates a 5-star B&B a couple of miles from here in Camden, if anyone is interested in horses or Revolutionary War history.)

Jim Cejka

Garry,

Did you tell the world that we're coming up on that 80 mark? You must have leaked the word because I am now getting a steady stream of mail with offers for life insurance (no physical required, interesting), pre-funeral planning, estate planning, creamation services, and oh-yeah, hearing aids. 

Thanks.

Barbara Blair (Brenzel)

I was having computer issues so just now saw the video on the 50's.  Sure did bring back some wonderful memories!

Winter really began in March for Wisconsin.  We just had another dandy snowstorm.  Our robins are back but they sure were not chirping happily this morning!  Supposed to start warming again so hopefully the snow will begain melting   It is beautiful but enough is enough - we want Spring now.