WHS Reunion

Saturday night was a multi-year reunion for WHS. As it turned out, only 6 people from my class were in attendance. Luckily, they were some of my friends, so it turned out to be very enjoyable. We spent the evening reminiscing about the "good ole days" and catching up with where we have been and what we have been doing the past few years. All of us are grandmas, so there was a lot to talk about. I was hesitant to go, I'm not a very social person, but I'm glad I went. It was good to be with old friends.

Monday's Memory--The King's Choraleers

This past week, I reconnected with some high school friends on facebook and we chatted and shared some old photos. It got me thinking about our shared experience in Choraleers and how wonderful it was. And so, this Monday Memory...When I was in 8th grade, the high school Choraleers came to school to perform. I vowed then and there that I was going to be in that group. My senior year, I was in it! And the entire experience is one of my fondest memories of my growing up years. We sang all over the place and at all times of the day. I actually didn't do very well in my 8:00AM math class that year because of all the classes I missed due to early morning breakfast performances.

Our theme song: " Where ever we go...What ever we do... We're gonna go through it...Together"

I'll never forget singing at the Long Beach Convention Center for the Barbershop Convention. We were the only non-barbershopers there. We actually learned a medaly of oldies for that performance.
One of our last performances was a dinner at Peaks, a mortuary that had a room people rented out for social occasions. As we entered singing, the entire place was filled with our families. They had surprised us with an end of the year party. We sang for them, then we had dinner and partied.
Every once in a while, I'll hear a song that I recognize, and then realize that we sang it in Choraleers. How I loved being on stage; singing and dancing. How I loved being a Choraleer.

Singing "Hello Dolly" at a school assembly

Monday's Memory--Teaching

With all of the talk at school about retirement, my friends and I have been reliving some of our favorite times. I'd like to share two here that I had actually forgotten about until I was reminded.
The first happened probably 20 years ago. Mice and rats have never been my favorite things, especially when they startle you by running in front of you. One day, in the middle of teaching, a child shouted that they had seen a mouse run across the floor. I immediately sat on top of my desk, with my feet up on the trash can! The kids thought I was kidding, but no, I wasn't. The custodian set traps over the weekend, caught the little bugger, and all was back to normal. A week later, again during class, one of the kids calmly told me not to panic, but there was a mouse up on the bookcase in the back of the room. Again, up on my desk I went, and looked toward the back of the room. There was a huge rat, his head poking out from a book! Then the kids started roaring with laughter. They had planted a big, plastic rat, just so they could see me in "action." It was pretty funny.
The other memory is also about one of my fears. This time my fear of heights. Every year, part of the fifth grade curriculum was a fire prevention unit. After completing several weeks of work, the fire truck always came to show the kids. Some of the kids got to dress in the fireman's turnout gear and they all got to walk around the truck looking at all of the cool stuff. Anyway, one year, the firemen offered to take the teachers up in the bucket! The kids were so excited, I couldn't let them down. But oh my goodness. It was really high up there! Katy kept telling me to look at all the neat things down on the ground, but I couldn't. I just kept looking at the horizon until we finally got back down to earth. A few notes about this picture collage: in the Colonial Day picture, that is Jane Calister with me. She was my partner for many years, until she retired a few years ago. She lives in Huntington Beach and we used to car pool often. Katy Grosse, my other partner, is also pictured with me outside our classrooms. Katy, Jane, and I traveled to Fiji to sail for a week on Katy's parents sail boat. More about that in another post. The podium in the upper right was build for mom by one of her past student. When she retired, I took it over, and now it is in Amy's classroom for a third generation. Who knows, maybe Emma will get some use out of it too?

Monday's Memory

The Boy Friend

It's not what you think! My senior year of high school, I was in the play, The Boy Friend. All of my best friends were in it too, so it was great fun. I loved being on stage, singing and dancing, pretending to be someone else. I was the character Nancy, a young English girl, attending a finishing school in France with her friends. And of course, we "hook up" with some local boys. Lots of fun songs, dances, and great costumes from the roaring 20's. This picture is the scene where we were in our bathing suits at "the plage" (pool).
I got some really cool pictures taken of me because the school photographer had a crush on me!