warhawks78.org

Diane (Cruger) Finley is in charge of the postcards, and she sent me this email which cracked me up:

Rick,

We had a postcard returned from Japan -

Dodero, Donald

To Japan and back for $1.17! Not bad.

Diane

Well…I guess it wasn’t that funny, but it made me laugh.

Two more returned postcards:

(Deane) Torti, Dana
Godwin, Keith

It seems that the Return to Sender returns are tapering off. We had one more return over the weekend:

Sue, Steve

Also on the upside, we’ve had well over 500 new visitors to the website since we sent out the mailer. Of course, there is no guarantee that all the new visitors were classmates, but it’s a pretty good bet that the majority are.

Very cool.

Sadly, we learned today that yet another of our classmates, Gary French, has passed on.

Someone close to Gary has set up a very nice memorial site in his honor.

Return to Senders:

Brennen, Walter
Doody, Carol Ann
(Kanoff) Sanchez, Kim
(Schumacher) Haro, Jeannie

I found this very thought provoking essay written by our classmate, Linda (Gonzalez) Flower and received her permission to reprint it here:

Do you share my dilemma?

04/11/03 11:59am PST

Hello all.

I would like to address the class of 1978. It’s funny how three short years of our lives have such a lasting impact. In High School I was pretty insecure and shy…didn’t have a ton of friends (never in the popular crowd. Funny though, I’ve grown immensely and achieved as an adult and I am confident and secure now…comfortable in my skin so-to-speak. But each time I attend the reunions (I was at the last two), I seem to fall right back into that uncomfortable feeling I used to have as a kid in High School. That same old angst and insecurity that I haven’t felt for decades comes rushing back. I don’t know who remembers me, though I may remember them.. and have found it difficult to approach old friends thinking they may not remember me since I haven’t maintained contact with most high school friends. Does anyone else run into this?? Three short years does not determine who we end up being as adults….albeit, it does present baggage that we tend to overcome. But I am bewildered at the phenomenon of having some of my unwelcome feelings/memories of old come rushing back and to a certain extent, prevent me from totally enjoying the reunions as much as I should. Please share your thoughts. And by the way, do YOU remember me??

Linda

04:41 PM 05/21/2007
To: mhs78@warhawks78.org
From: Bruce and Pat Becker

This communication is to advise you that Scott Alan Becker passed away on August 23rd last year. Perhaps you could include this information in a future communication with your classmates. Bricks in Scott’s memory have been ordered by family and friends for the wall at the entrance to the Madison auditorium. Scott had a successful 29 year career with Mercedes Benz at the time of his death. He has been very much missed by his family, friends and colleagues.

Thanks for remembering Scott.

His parents,

Bruce and Pat Becker

More Return to Sender postcards:

Anding, Ken
Donath, Charlene
(Fernandez) Wren, Maricela
Knowlton, Pete
Oostdyk, Geri (found our site and updated)
Watson, Roderick

A few more of our classmates off radar:

Ingold, John
Laurio, Brian
(Loya) Farrar, Sonia
Madrid, Ed
(Nelson) Ellis, Collette

09:06 AM 5/16/2007
From: “Gonzales, Diana”
To: mhs78@warhawks78.org

Sadly, I Report that your Classmate “Caroline Pierce” passed away on 2/18/01

Her loving sister and best friend,

Diana (Pierce) Gonzales

The second wave of Return to Sender postcards has arrived, bringing the number of out-of-date addresses to 110. Any assistance you can give us to get the word out to the folks below, and any of our other classmates will be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Returned postcards May 15, 2007:
(67 returns)

(Albach) Reid, Deborah
Arrvizu, Yolanda
Balliett, Steve
Bauer, Cary
Bianchi, Tony
(Bonner) Rocha, Rosemary
Bronson, Carrie
Brooks, Marc
Butterfield, Cheri
Carpenter, Patricia
Clark, Susan
Courcy, Sylvain
Crow, Steve
Cunningham, Joann
Dale, Martin
(Davis) Munson, Daphne
Davis, Myron
Dowda, Jayne
(Duke) Carroll, Judy
Edwards, Dennis
Edwards,Jr., James
(Eggen) Eide, Paula
Garstang, Linda
(Gill) Terrian, Melinda
Gomez, Robert* (info updated by Geri Oostdyk. Thanks!)
Guillory, Joseph
(Hebert) Rice, Melanie
Herdt, Pam
Hollansbe, Lance
Huff, Stephen
Jones, Carlette
Kirk, Derrick
Klinefelter, Tim (found our website and updated)
(Knop) Roddy, Karla
Kripton, Bruce
(Lafferty) Drago, Theresa
Maanao, George
(Margiotta) Tocco, Roseann
Martens, Michael
(McKee) Baker, Susan
(Mitton) Decourt, Teresa
Morrical, Henry
Overdeer, Robert
(Pagan) Jones, Suzanne
(Peterson) Citriniti, Cheri
Piper, April
Plummer, Roberta
Prim, Christopher
Rocha, Jeff
Sloan, Cris
Smith, Lawrence
(Snow) Devoy, Laura
Sortino, Vicki
(Stephenson) Wenman, Mika
Stipp, Kathleen
Strunk, Jeffrey
Telfer, Jim
(Tidwell) Murray, Kay
(Treantenou) Starke, Victoria
(Vinas) Kiel,Therese
(Wall) Latorre, Laurie
Watson, James
(Whyte) Tucker, Angela
(Wilcox) Wright, Laurie
Wilson, Suzanne
Wright, Charles
Young, Bryan

I’m thrilled to see the response to the mailer. Good job!

I ran into a classmate last week - one that I haven’t seen in almost 30 years - but I recognized her smile, and asked if she went to Madison. She told me that she runs into classmates here and there, and mentioned a few names. My point is that we all know someone on the ‘missing’ list.

Thank you to Rick Okuni for managing and updating this site and keeping the contact list up-to-date.

The first wave of “Return to Sender” postcards have just come back to us. If you know any of these folks, we’d appreciate it if you’d send them our way. Thanks!
(43 returns)

Anderson, Denise
Anderson, Steve
Barger, Bill
Baron, Ann
Bednarski, Fred
Bold, Vicki
Botts, Jeff
Brindle, Richard
Brownell, William
Cleary, Bob
(Defenbaugh) Corlett, Barbara
Dominguez, Annette
Fonte, Ellen
Garwick, Rex
Goldsby, Philip
(Gosnell) Hayden, Deborah
Greer, Glen
Harper, Judy
Henry, Tamara
Hough, Michael
James, Steven
(Laport) Labella, Diana
(Mayville) Breen, Barbara
McKaig, Mark
Mendoza, Roxanna
(Meyer) Olmsted, Tracey* (found our site and updated)
Miller, Mark
Mills, Katherine
Ordonio, Glenda
(Paige) Driver, Sabrina
Pattison, David
Pierce, Denise
Pluff, Robert
Saldivar, Anthony
(Schurr) Rumbaugh, Suzanne
Spears, Ron
Squires, Charles* (found our site and updated)
Stevens, Dominique
Stokes, Paul
Taft, Kenneth
Teachworth, Glenn
Tocco, Tony
Welch, David

We’ve had over 200 new visitors to our website this week which is fantastic.

Also, there are over 200 people expected to attend our reunion (120 classmates and guests). If you’re planning on attending our reunion, please let us know. It will really help out for planning purposes.

Thanks!

Great new, more and more folks are finding the way to our website. In fact, we’ve already had more traffic on our site this year, so far, than all of last year.

This is cool because it makes the website a readily accessible place to disseminate reunion info.

Thanks for visiting. As more info becomes available, you’ll find it here.

Well, the postcards are definitely starting to reach our classmates. We’ve had almost 40 new visitors to the website today and several folks have updated their contact info and/or joined the classmate email list.

Cool.

We’ve had a great response from our initial emailing (and word-of-mouth) about the reunion. So far, we’ve heard from 142 classmates. To date, 187 folks are planning on attending our reunion, 111 of them are classmates.

So far, so good.

The first mailer regarding our 30-year reunion was dropped in the mail this morning. We have sent out almost 600 postcards. (We’ve tried not to send postcards to folks that have already responded). Again, we’re trying to direct everyone to the website to get the latest info about the reunion and a place to keep contact info up-to-date.

Please keep spreading the word. You’ve all been doing a great job.

If you’ve already made contact, we don’t want you to feel left out if you don’t receive the first mailer. Check it out below:

Well, my big plans to keep this blog really up-to-date fell to the wayside after a couple of week long business trips. Reunions are fun and all, but still have to pay the rent…

Our next Reunion Committee Meeting is this Thursday, April 26th at 7:00 pm. We’ll be sticking on mailing labels for our postcard mailer and getting reports about reunion planning companies and possible reunion venues. But mostly, just having a good time.

If you’d like to participate, please drop us an email. We’d love to see you.

(UPDATE: Meeting was postponed due to intrusions of real life. Next meeting in about a month).

In thinking about the fact that we have so many folks to try to contact/find, I was thinking we might try a “birds of a feather” strategy. If we could find at least one baseball player, soccer player, drill team member, band member, drama person… you get the idea… who might want to take the lead for their constituent group we might be more likely to have someone who is in contact or can more easily find that person because they know something about him/her.

How’s that for a run-on sentence?

Folks also might be more interested in coming if someone they know/remember/maybe kinda liked actually is the one to contact them.

Anyway, just an idea.

We’ve been receiving more contact info updates from classmates that we had not yet contacted. As I’ve said before, this makes us really, really happy because it means that you are spreading the word.

When we received a contact update from classmate, Kathy (Ducker) Sly, I asked her how she found out about warhawks78.org, because she was one of the classmates we didn’t have an email address for. I’ve known Kathy since elementary school. We weren’t close friends or anything, (you know, the whole cooties thing) though, I hope, we were classmate friendly (of course, all bets are off on the behavior of a 7 or 8-year old boy). When I think about Kathy, even today, what I see in my mind’s eye is a class picture of her wearing a Brownie uniform with a big smile on her face, so I’m guessing we’re talking 2nd or 3rd grade.

Dude, should my mind be wandering like this? (And remember, you’re all the same age as me).

Anyway, I guess Kathy is unfazed by the cooties thing, or finds the chances of contracting cooties via the internet to be minimal, and thus, was kind enough to reply to my inquiry:

3/24/07 14:30:00

Kathy

So, I want to send out a big thanks to Gail (Keiser) Baiocco for passing along the info to Kathy, and, another big thanks to Kathy for passing the info along to a few more classmates. We really appreciate it.

We also received an update from classmate Kent (Kaz) Zboray with this note:

Sun, 25 Mar 2007 11:07:00

Kent (Kaz) Zboray

Cool.