The only name I recognized (other than neighbor Jeff Condon) was Cheryl
Pollack. I seem to recall that she was a cutie.
It was kind of long and boring, and I didn't really know many of the
people you discussed.
--J
On Oct 29, 2004, at 5:59 PM, tschibasch wrote:
>
> 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!
>
>
>
>
>
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Received on 2004-10-30 10:38:35