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.
 

Lauren Dieterich

A few years ago, I got courious and asked Gieco and Progressive for quotes. Both were higher than what I was paying; and, Progressive had the nerve to ask me if I wanted to switch.

Jim Cejka

See, we get the pretty white covered trees, and the white covered ground too.

Lauren Dieterich

That's the way that I like my snow; in pictures. My knees and back won't let me shovel any snow more than an inch deep. And, since I've had my fingers frost bitten a couple of times ( not major, because I still have all of my fingers ) they hurt whenever it gets below 35 degrees. I don't care what anyone says about the golden years; getting old is not fun.

Terri Levenhagen (Hoornstra)

Ahhhh! California Snow! Right now it is everywhere! When the flowering pear trees bloom over the Kindergarten playground, you should see the little ones frolicking, throwing it in the air to watch it float down, and stuffing it down other kids' backs. They even lie down on the ground and try to make snow angels. All this with short sleeves, and no hats, mittens or boots needed!

Jim Cejka

Not all drones are bad.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/mOBQXuu_5Zw

Garry Sellers

I started writing a notice for the homepage that was going to say that the reunion committee had selected a theme song for our next activities.  I had very clever nominations purportedly sent in by various anonymous classmates like "My Way", "Twilight Time", "Sleep Walk", "Is That All There Is", "September Song" and others.  But it was all a sham to share with you a song somebody sent to me that seems so appropriate to our age group.  However, some people will take exception to it so I don't want to put it on our homepage.  I don't need any more nastigrams!  So here's the song ... take it or leave it!

Kenneth Pallaske

I will just have to take your word for it, Gar(r)y. However, it is a cute song.

Kenneth Pallaske

Does anyone remember this bridge?

Jim Cejka

I remember falling through the ice underneath it.

Terri Levenhagen (Hoornstra)

It was hard to see the condition of the ice underneath it at night! But I remember it well. Such a nice memory of skating there. I don't want to give it away, but if it's the place I'm thinking of, we could take a nice LONG walk from 51st and Congress in the winter. And back, too!

Lauren Dieterich

I remember walking on the ice and seeing turtles and frogs frozen in the ice.

Jim Cejka

Was listening to an old-time radio stream tonight and a guy came on singing, "I found my thrill, on blueberry hill..." Then I remembered this picture of Mr. Pautsch mimicing/singing that in class. My wife couldn't figure out why I was laughing.

Jeanne Zinser (Gottschalk)

Jim--Who's Mr. Pautsch?

Terri Levenhagen (Hoornstra)

Mr. Pautsch might have been at Edison. He was my math teacher, and I remember that he had a rule that whenever you were caught chewing gum, you had to write an essay about gum, and read it to the class. Each subsequent time, your essay had to be longer - and longer. I became an expert on the cultivation and production of chewing gum!

Garry Sellers

Mr. Pautsch was the basketball coach and I think math teacher at Edison as Terry said.  He was a nice guy, until you crossed him.  I think John Griebel and I were cafeteria cadets or something and Mr. Pautsch was the faculty assigned to it.  We were sitting around after everybody left and I said something kidding to him of a derogatory nature ... I don't know ... maybe about his hair or something.  He grabbed my hair and pulled my head back and said I'd better never say anything like that again.  He got my attention!  Two minutes later he was laughing with us.

Garry Sellers

Doug Krueger Passing

I was just informed that Doug Krueger (H. Douglas Krueger) passed away Saturday March 19.  His full and wonderfully written obituary is on the website below.  I remember Doug at our 50th reunion having a great time.  Services are tomorrow, March 30.  I'll post more on "recent passings".

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/wisconsinrapidstribune/obituary.aspx?page=lifestory&pid=178505341

Mitchell Heinrichs

Thanks fot info on Douge. Was going to send a message a couple weeks ago that Barnra Bissel's husband Don Rank had passed 3 weeks ago. Thei lived in Door Co. Mitch

Jim Cejka

Anyone have any robins pop up through the snow back there? I'm not sure if we have any harbingers like that out here. I think after the rains stop, and the tekmps crash 100, the vultures start circling, but that's about it. 

Jeanne Zinser (Gottschalk)

Yes, the robins ARE here, but they're wandering around dazed and bewildered--as am I!

Lauren Dieterich

What's a robin ? e, we have sparrows, some type of finch or wren, roadrunners, and, as Jim said, vultures. Although, I'm used to calling vultures, turkey buzzards. 

And, it's raining, here. It's rained all night, too. the last rain was 5 weeks ago; and, then we got about 2 hundredths of an inch. The fire fighters will be glad to see a farmers rain like this There is a brush/wild fire in the Needles, CA area that has burned about 3,000 acres, so far. Needles is about 25 miles from us.

Back to Michigan at the end of May.

Jim Cejka

Lauren - I've been to Needles. The only thng they have there are rocks, sand, and more rocks. Oh yeah, and a river. Which is burning?

Jeanne - good to see you back on the site. After much more thought, I have come to think that here, instead of robins, we have fruit flies that come about this time of year. And, considering my experiences with them in a genetics class in college, fruit flies aren't nearly as cheerful as robins.

Lauren Dieterich

Jim,    The fire started ( it may have set intentionally ) in the marsh just north of Topock, AZ. If you're looking on a map, it's near Exit 1 on I-40 in AZ. We don't have a Saturday edition of the paper, here. And, the internet was down all morning; so, I haven't had a chance to check the news on Facebook, yet. We've had a 'farmer's rain for the last day and a half, which should really help with the fire. First real rain that we've had since the middle of February. 

Terri Levenhagen (Hoornstra)

Here in the Bay Area we are in for several days of rain. The Giants and Dodgers played yesterday in the rain, and AT&T Park doesn't have a nice roof like Miller Park. But I have to tell you about our robins. They arrive usually in February in marauding hordes, looking for ripe berries on the bushes. The berries have fermented by that time - speaking of dazed and bewildered robins, Jeanne. People are kept busy taking care of the bodies of drunken robins who have tried to fly through our glass windows. Now in April, after they have helped themselves to all the berries, we see them one at a time.

Jim Cejka

Terri,

That explains it. You get the robins drunk so they never make it out here to the valley. We never see any.

Lauren Dieterich

,Terri,   It could be a lot worse than robins. About 12 years ago, one of my daughters had a duck fly into a picture window, surprisingly, it didn't break the window. But, she never could get the smudge off of the window.