About the 25th Anniversary Samohi Reunion

From: tschibasch <tschibasch_at_yahoo.com_at_hypermail.org>
Date: Sat, 30 Oct 2004 00:59:12 -0000

To whom it may concern: Here is a description of the 25th anniversary
Samohi reunion. If you are not particularly interested, please skip!

###

The reunion was held at the FantaSea Yacht Club in Marina Del Rey on
Saturday, October 16th, 2004. It started at 6:30PM and ended around
midnight. A buffet dinner was served at 8:00PM.

The event was hosted by "Elegant Reunions". They were charging $90
online and $100 at the door. To my knowledge, I was the only person of
our extended group of friends ("Olives") who was attending.

I arrived promptly at 6:30, and it was already dark and sprinkling
rain. After giving my car to the valet, I went inside and stood in
line. Just like the last reunion, there were people behind tables
checking our names. After finding mine, they gave me a very unsticky
rectangular nametag to put on my jacket. Besides your name, the tag
included your 1979 yearbook photo, which for me was blank since I left
in 1978. There was a second line after registration, now for photos.
These were going to be put on CDROM. Brad Wheeler and Jeff Condon, the
first two folks I recognized were at the back of the line, and I
joined them. Photos were $20/$30, depending on what kind of framing
you wanted. None of us were thrilled at having to pay out any more
money; a lot of folks opted for the "no frame / no pay" option.

I enjoyed speaking with Brad and Jeff. Brad is an architect, and lived
for a while in Italy and New York. And Jeff is an attorney whose kids
have gone to Franklin Elementary School. Brad, Jeff, and I had a good
laugh waiting in line for the photos. They very much seem like people
that I would like to stay in touch with, more often than just at high
school reunions!

After the photos were taken, I started to mill about. There were so
few familiar faces! And yes, this was a repeat of the last reunion I
attended in 1999. I would see someone who was basically
unrecognizable, and then look at the nametag. Again, I would not know
this person. The old graduating photo stuck on their jacket didn't
help either. Who was this person?? I would see them doing the same to
me: studying my face, looking at my name, frowning... A fear started
to come across me - - was I maybe at the wrong reunion? Well no, since
Brad and Jeff were here! I was at the right place...

I then came up to Laura Karst and her husband. She asked me how many
people I was recognizing, and she was relieved when I told her it was
so few! She was with Ann Van Winkle and Kathleen Keane. At last I was
among people that I knew, though not terribly well. They still live in
the area. Kathleen told me she went into law enforcement. We all
talked for several minutes, and I turned out to be a valuable memory
resource. They remembered a few teachers and bullies from Samo and
Lincoln. Who was the short bully? Fred Redman, as it turned out. And
who was that other troublemaker who got expelled? David Boring was the
answer. I was able to recall names for them as long as they asked the
right questions. Overall, my trusty memory for names and dates came in
pretty handy during the course of the evening. One of the women said
that she had heard of Fred Redman moving to Oklahoma. Nobody had a
clue where David Boring ended up, but the suspicion is not good, based
on information we had.

Jon Arenberg was the chief organizer of this event, just like for the
1999 event. He was the next person I bumped into. Over the evening, he
seemed to spend a lot of time with Annette Herbst. Maybe she had been
involved in coordinating the event with him? It was nice to speak to
them both. Jon asked me if I had any news on Greg Turk, since he had
been looking for him some time back. I updated him on Greg's
whereabouts. Jon is still an engineer, involved in research. Annette
now is in LA, but had lived in Colorado for a few years. She works
with children.

I then met Douglas Gunson. He is now a lawyer living in North
Carolina, and has 7 (!) kids. The oldest is 21 and wants to go to
UCLA. It was nice to speak with him. I never knew him too well back in
school. In fact, the only class I had with him was Art in 8th grade.

Next came Jane Grafton and husband. She did not remember me very well.
I don't hold that against her, since we only had one class together,
in the 10th grade. Remember Mathematics with Harry Pappas? Jane had
lived in England for a few years in the 1980s, but now lives back here
in Venice. While were talking, Cheryl Pollock came over. She was in
another class with me in 10th grade. Neither of them remembered being
in these classes, or names of other people at that time. I was able to
come up with a couple other names. This did not help them any...
Anyway, Cheryl is still living locally, involved in computer graphics,
and is unmarried.

I next saw Mark Swartz, who looked the same as at the last reunion.
Talk about dressing down! He looked like he had come over to paint the
place, all in work clothes. While I studied him, he cheerfully pointed
out that maybe I had overdressed for this event. I think he did have a
point, since not every guy there was wearing a suit and tie! Mark now
lives in Mar Vista, happy with his bachelor lifestyle.

Then I saw Shauna Lockett. I had a super-8 film class with her in
Lincoln. Her recall of this was extremely good. She recalled that she
liked Mr. Wexler, the teacher. We both remembered other characters in
that class. Shauna now lives in Montana, where she manages a dental
clinic.

Then a strange thing happened when I bumped into a certain Mike Smith.
Friendly fellow. We did not know each other. Mike told me he took
Latin at Samohi... There was just one Latin instructor, a brilliant
linguist by the name of Michael Quinette, and I assumed only one
class. How many people study Latin?? I suggested some names of people
who were in the same Latin class, such as Robert Baker, Caroline
Sauls, Robert Tarquin, Lisa Greenwood, and of course Karen Elizabeth
"Bisbee" Jerome Shepherd Goldfarb! Mike did not remember any of them.
I now suspect there were two Latin classes at Samohi. Or maybe Mike
Smith never took Latin. Or maybe he never existed at all!?! The mind
wonders if maybe HE was at the wrong reunion... Well, whether Mike
took Latin or not, he told me that he became a plumber. Latin is not
needed for that.

I went outside to get some fresh air. The rain had temporarily
stopped, and the night air was fresh. I was joined by a bunch of
friendly smokers. Craig Allen was one of them. He works now in
entertainment, and often visits Las Vegas. I do not know exactly what
he does. Then I spoke with Richard Cardenas at length. A very nice
guy, and definitely someone I never knew in high school. He told me
that he had been involved in track/long distance running, and at 17
years of age, he was hit by a car! He was in a coma for a week, and
after that, the doctors told him it was unlikely that he would walk
again. He managed to beat those dismal odds. Right after high school,
he got married and moved to Houston, Texas. He bought a house and had
three children. Richard went into the printing business, since he
enjoyed the shop class with Mr. Little at Lincoln so much. He is now
on marriage #2, and his oldest son (20) is married with kids of his
own. Anyway, Richard still lives in Houston, caring for his ailing
mother. He was not going to attend the reunion, and then at the last
minute got in his car and drove directly to LA.

Richard Cardenas asked me if I remembered Nick Trifunovich. Yes, I
recalled a few classes with the guy at Lincoln – he was tall, skinny,
with blond curly hair. He was a prankster! Apparently, in 1984 Nick
went to the hospital for some exploratory surgery on his stomach. They
put him under and he never woke up again. How awful.

I went back in and milled around some more. It was now as full as it
was going to be. There were all told about 200 people, maybe less. It
was noisy and cheerful, and people were sitting at tables enjoying
dinner. I again looked around, and I don't think that I missed anyone.
Some other people that I noticed and barely remember: Mandy
Kamibayashi, Chris Kolodziejski, Frank Lempert, Glenn Sato. A woman
named Bonnie Kanner was overdressed, if I might say. Maybe too early
for Halloween, if you get the drift.

Everybody was really nice, I must say. And they looked good – happy
and healthy. As I made the rounds, I usually managed to strike a
conversation as long as there was some other student or teacher that
we both mutually remembered. Even in cases where nothing was found,
there was still interesting information about someone's current job,
or where they are living. I was doing fine and enjoying meeting people...

Well, almost.

I then met Alison Raeder. The poor thing seemed a little off... After
the perfunctory "hello" and "how are you", she asked if I was married.
She was genuinely sad to hear I was still single, and hoped I would
get married soon. She said she would pray for me... She then told me
that since the previous reunion, she had at last found her soul mate.
She now summoned her husband, Dave over to meet me. After a warm
handshake, it was his turn to ask if I were married! No, I responded,
I guess you might say that I am "married" to my work. And much happier
about that now, by the way, compared to 1999! Dave explained that he
was from the Samohi graduating class of 1975. He was unkempt and also
a little off. He was also very big and loud! He looked exactly like a
character you might meet at a Star Trek convention. (Not that I would
know about such things.) Dave now launched into his obvious favorite
topic: comic books. Alison fell quiet, looking on adoringly as Dave
explained that he is an expert on "comic book technologies"; he
matches weapons used by comic book characters with the correct genre.
He cited an example in Batman, where the Joker used a laser gun that
could not possibly have been invented yet. He told me that he writes
angry letters to publishers to protest such inaccuracies. He was very
knowledgeable about this subject, and would not stop talking about it,
in fact. At a convenient pause I managed to excuse myself. I later saw
Dave talking to Mark Swartz, giving him the same treatment.

The dinner was superb, I must say. Very enjoyable.

After dinner, more milling about, drinking good coffee. No new faces.
However, I heard the following names of people who were reportedly
doing okay but who did not attend the reunion: David Early, Tom
Erspalmer, John Vidor, Jason Hoffs, David Kearney, Sandra Loh, Damon
Moore, Ted Lee, Dave Newdorf, John Nolind, Brian Yori, Ralph
Slaughter, John Drexel. I have no other information about them. Also,
Michael Perlmutter did not attend.

Many people commented on the low turnout of this reunion. It was
suggested that the really big ones are 10-year, 20-year, and 30-year;
the 25-year is generally low. Really? I would not have expected that...

Anyway, that's all, folks!
Received on 2004-10-29 17:59:23