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.
 

Carol Albers (Pederson)

As to Romper Room and Ding Dong School, they were not on my top 10.  I think you had to have younger brothers and sisters, though I could be wrong. 

Gretchen Colnick, hosting a local show, had people on promoting various events.  My mom, being a PTA member,  talked me in to going to the station and perform to promote Custer's PTA Family Fun Fair.  I was glad it was during the day and no one at school saw me.  No taping or DVRS either.   Otherwise I am sure Garry would have found it by now!

Garry Sellers

From a "Don 't Bee" to all you "Do Bee's", here's some more magic mirror.

Oh my goodness, it does work!!!  I can see all of you ... and I wish I couldn't!  That's pretty disgusting Leopold!  Sally, you really should keep the shades closed.  Terri, it's definitely time to paint those walls!  Jim, there's just some things we'd rather not know about!!!  We'll put the magic mirror someplace safe ...  in a gallaxy far far away!

(We thought our new TV's were so wonderful, didn't we?  It looks comical now.  Well what could you expect from people who watched test patterns?)

And Eileen, welcome to the deep end of the pool, Custer's own version of "Cocoon", where we're all 17 again ... and apparently regressing further.  Glad to have you join us!

Terri Levenhagen (Hoornstra)

Eileen,  THANK YOU! It's  so maddening when you can't remember something, even something as insane as the Romper Room rhyme. Garry, the video of Miss Frances and the Wheaties box is PRICELESS! I can't wait to show it to the teachers. "Can you SAY it? -- Wheaties. That's right!" Such blatant manipulation of innocent little kids to get their parents to buy Wheaties!!! Shocking!  

I haven't watched the Romper  Room video yet, but this is getting scary. I've been procrastinating on painting my walls forever!  Lucky guess.

Kenneth Pallaske

I remember going to lots of Brave's games when I was a kid. It was sad to see them go to Atlanta after such a short time in Milwaukee. Remember the pile of rubble even while Miller Stadium was being built? The hill behind right field allowed the veterans to watch the games.

Oh! Remember the guy who sat on the flag pole (somewhere in Milwaukee) until the Braves won 15 (Not sure?) games in a row. Didn't he die a short time later after it was  thought he had gone insane?

Kenneth Pallaske

Carol,

I don't remember Miss Freshwater, however, I do remember Miss Wentworth. Very nice eye candy. I just don't remember if she taught at Edison, Custer or Granville.

Garry,

Even though you speak in a foreign tongue, we can still greatly under-appreciate you and your California style.

Gretchen Colnick had the Gingum table cloth and napkins, as I recall.

That was a "Test Pattern" I was watching?

Jim Cejka

Hey Marines - Happy Birthday!

Barbara Blair (Brenzel)

Hi,

Don't know if this is appropriate to post this here but I'm going to.  My granddaughter, Brittany, was diagnosed with Crohn's Disease when she was 9 years old - now is 18 & in remission due to Remicade infusions every 6-8 weeks.  Crohn's is a particularly ugly disease, causing the inflamation of the digestive or GI tract & can involve any area of the GI tract, most commonly affecting the small intestine and/or colon.  Brittany has never let this disease win.  She participated in gymnastics & took first place in Vault at State in 2006.  After gymnastics, she started Powerlifting & took the American record for Powerlifting in 2010.  Presently she's a cheerleader at So. Milwaukee High School.

On December 2nd my daughter, Jackie, and my oldest granddaughter, Tori, are going to be Part of Team Challenge, completing the Half Marathon at the Las Vegas Rock N Roll Half Marathon to raise funds & awareness for research leading to improved treatment options & a cure for Crohn's Disease & Ulcerative Colitis.  A minimum of 80 cents per dollar raised by CCFA goes directly to research & patient support & contributions to the Crohn's & Colitis Foundation are tax deductible. 

Jackie & Tori were going to participate in the Half Marathon in California last July but then Jackie broke her ankle!  I told her that Tori should put her in a wheelbarrow and barrow her for the 13 miles.  Jackie failed to see the humor in my suggestion!!  And Tori just rolled her eyes!  The Crohn's Foundation was good enough to roll their contributions to the next Half Marathon in December.

So now I come to the point of this.  I'm asking you to open your hearts & your wallets and make a tax deductible contribution.  If they can find a cure for these diseases, our joy would know no bounds.

Thank you.

Barb

online: http://www.active.com/donate/WisconLV12/LV12JBackes

checks to be made payable to CCFA and sent to 1224 Williams Av., So. Milwaukee, WI 53172

Garry Sellers

Here we go with the Corps again.  When do the photographers show up?  This song is dedicated to all my buddies in the Corps!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-DuC0tE7V4

BTW - The Chordettes were from Sheboygan and "discovered" on Arthur Godfrey's radio program.

Jim Cejka

I knew that would get you Garrrry.

Nice song. Touche'

Jim Cejka

Just got my letter from the 55 year committee asking for suggestions for the next reunion. You're always welcome to come out here and have it on the USS Midway. We do lots of events like that, and...such a deal I can get for you. (LOL)

How about it CA contingent?

Kenneth Pallaske

Jim,

Gar(r)y can't get over being rejected by the Marines. Semper Fi, Marines.

Thanks to all who contributed memory clips.

I received my 55 year letter yesterday, too! S.D would not be my choice......maybe up in Nort Cal.

Nancy Davison (Boerger)

Having the reunion close to the majority of probable attendees makes sense. How thoughtful of the committee to solicit our feedback on this and all the other pesky details.

Sandy Wachs (Oldham)

If you ordered a Reunion DVD, I have been promised that it will go in the mail this weekend.  I can't wait to see everything I missed!

We have a limited number of reunion books still available if you would like one.  Please contact me through the web site, and we will get one to you.  Cost is $20 with postage.

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

Jim Cejka

Awwww. Com' on Nancy. Just think - dancing under the stars up on the flight deck, you can even stay right on board, sleep in a nice Navy rack in the crews' berthing compartment with 200 of your friends, eat good Navy chow on the Mess decks on those nifty metal trays, use a genuine Navy head - all that fun stuff. And, the weather is guaranteed to be nice.

Karsten Boerger

Okay, Admiral Cejka, don't try to scare me with your salty tales, for I have lived aboard for months; sat the midnight to 4am watch more than any other; gone below to cook while three shipmates sat looking pasty in the cockpit; cooked with a strap around my waist on a gimbled stove, with items bouncing out of the cabinets on a starboard tack even though I opened/closed as fast as possible; used the head with feet braced, back on the wall and sliding down to the seat; hotbedded to get the most coveted spot; done laundry in a bucket with a washboard, hanging t-shirts from the outhaul of the mainsail; made more things out of a dorado than you could imagine; slept, litterally, on the wall on a hard tack; and clambered onto some of the most incredibly disgusting piers you have ever seen. So, all I can say is: BRING IT ON!!

Karsten Boerger

Admiral : Just to clarify, the previous was written by me, yes, Nancy - to whom you addressed your challenge - but coming out of Karsten's laptop, as we are en route to Colordao

Terri Levenhagen (Hoornstra)

Okay, I have to throw in my 2¢ about the reunion. I like the way the dicussion is turning toward a visit to California - if not the actual reunion, a sort of "mini-reunion"I  If you've ever been around a bonfire in San Diego, the water is like a bathtub in summer, the breezes are almost tropical; I don't know if there is wine tasting around S.D. (Jim?)' but NorCal has a place in almost every town, large or small.

I do love the idea of going back home to Wisconsin for the reunion, though. There are  many things to offer, When we were in Wisconsin, we tasted Fume Blanc and others at the Wollersheim Winery in Prairie du Sac. I hope all the California emigrants had a chance to see how beautifullyl downtown Milwaukee has been restored. If we reunited at a hotel there, it would be fun to take a walking tour of Wisconsin Ave. to the lake with the Discovery and Art Museums. When we were there in Sept. we went to the Milwaukee Public Museum, and it still has many exhibits that I remember from my childhood, but many more. 

Nancy/Karsten, loved your description of life on board.  

Nancy Davison (Boerger)

Thanks Terri, and I resonate with your nostalgia for the Milwaukee Public Museum, as also would our older daughter. She still speaks about the excitement of the buffalo hunt diorama (whose rattlesnake no longer rattles, I'm told) which we used to visit in between chapters of Little House on the Prairie. 

Garry Sellers

I start with an apology to anybody who got a bizarre email from me (don't say all my emails are weird Ken).  I was hijacked ... and I think it was through the email address I use on this website.  That means they got into my email list, which may have been the class list and sent spam out under my name, phishing for more names through your email contact list.  Sorry folks.  One of the hazards of this "labor saving device'!  More password changes!

Now, is it Nancy or Karsten advocating a buffalo that was stuffed 93 years ago as a centerpiece along with his non-rattling rattlesnake friend for some kind of reunion?  You guys have a strange sense of fun!

Marilyn Griffith (Bauer)

RIP Twinkies, Ho Ho's, and Hostess Cupcakes  Fond memories of discovering a Hostess Cupcake in my lunch while eating lunch in the Edison Auditorium, thinly disguised as a cafeteria. 

Terri Levenhagen (Hoornstra)

Yep - that poor wounded stuffed 93 year ol buffalo STILL flees from the pursuing Indians on the second floor. Streets of Old Milwaukee is still there, ( always wish my great-grandfather's cigar store was there!) as is something I've never seen - the European Village. You walk around and peer into the windows of homes from all the villages in Europe from which our ancestors emigrated. The live butterfly exhibit is also very cool. They SIT on you!

Garry Sellers

Amen Marilyn!  Can they actually eliminate an entire food group?  Next they'll be closing the hockey season ... ooops too late!  They better leave baseball alone!  I loved opening my Lone Ranger lunch box and finding Twinkies or Sno Balls  ... especially the pink ones (don't any of you Marines dare say a word!)!  God ... I've got to make a run to the store right now!

Marilyn Griffith (Bauer)

I plan to make a killing on Ebay!! I bought 12 dozen Twinkies from a Mrs. Karl's day old bakery in 1965 and they're stored in my pantry - fresh as the day I bought them! Oh happy day! 

Karen Gerstl (LeDuke)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qf0k8sACrTU&feature=youtu.be

Here is a preview of our 60th Class Reunion!!!  Enjoy!

Karen Gerstl (LeDuke)

Sally, when someone emailed that to me, I thought of Sandy and the girls.  I too could not stop laughing, had to watch it more than once.  It is priceless!