The Word is Out about that Class of 1967

I received an email response to a request I made of Beth Carnahan, Head of the English Dept at Reitz. Now I think the world of Beth. She is savvy and she's a great teacher and leader of teachers. It seems like a long time ago, but I asked Beth whether she could help me get Linda a replacement yearbook. She promptly got to Bob Hammonds, media specialist (that's librarian extraordinaire, to us old folks) at Reitz who discovered that they didn't have a 1967 yearbook. Well, Bob is a man of the world and gets around and has a prodigious memory. He discovered a website and sent me an email to help me in my quest:

Mr. Yuan: Last school year Beth Carnahan had mentioned that your wife had lost her 1967 Reitz yearbook in a fire. During the school year I tried to locate a copy for the Reitz files since our copy was missing. Since that time I haved learned that one of the members of the class has posted the entire yearbook on the Internet. The location address is: reitz67.com. The posting is very nice and is complete with additional information. Hope this is of some help.

Bob Hammonds- Media Specialist Reitz H.S.

Imagine my delight in being able to reply to him:

Thanks Bob. I really appreciate your thoughtful follow-through.  We have since located a copy, scanned it and put it on CD and had my Grand daughter, Aniesa Ricketts (Reitz 2014) deliver it to the media center and Willard so that the school and the library (their copy was missing too) would have a copy. It apparently didn't get in your hands. If you don't locate it, let us know and we will get you another copy. Apparently the free wheeling spirit of the 60's overwhelmed honesty and person or persons unknown borrowed both copies and neglected to return them.

By the way, thanks for the kind words about the website. Linda Lively Yuan (Reitz 67) and I did the website.

Linda located every member of the class (over 360 less 4 and contacted them all [all that were alive, that is]). We used it to act as a nexus for an unofficial 44th reunion of the class scheduled for this past April 8 originally at Howell shelter but we outgrew the shelter and had it at the Cottonwood Center on Hitch Peters Rd. We had 180 paid attendance. There is a blog too, which begins on the website and continues at reitz67.blogspot.com which documents that process and our official preparations (we and several others became the reunion committee)  for the 45th reunion scheduled to take place in early September 2012. Not bad for old farts, eh?

Bob Hammonds is not just a media specialist (librarian). He is also a historian and a man of letters, a rare quality these days. Now he knows what we have done. Yup, the Class of 1967 is holding events that rival, no surpass, those of later Evansville high school classes, some of whom have cancelled their reunions from lack of interest. Lack of interest?!? What is the matter people? Is the Internet and texting and life on Facebook more important than getting together with your classmates in person? Are you to busy with busyness to wake up and smell the coffee? Will it take another 40 years for you to realize that the ship has already sailed and that you have missed the boat? What is so important in your life that you can't spare one night out of 10 or 20 or 30 years to see your classmates? Let us, the class of 1967, 44 years out of school, explain to you what it means to be one with our classmates, happy to share stories about everyone doing well, sharing the pain of losing some along the way, but sharing. The operative word is sharing. And that's what we're going to do again in September of 2012.

Condo drawing chances are still available. We're trying for an even grand and we're within striking distance. Be the one who puts us over the top. Contact Linda Lively Yuan, Nancy Layson Burke, Patty Qualls, Bob Willis, or Tom Waterman for tickets. We're 6 weeks away from the drawing.