Saturday, July 30, 2011

Oak Trees Grow From Little Acorns

We've been getting some emails from classmates who like the idea of homeroom based photos, and of course, that begs the question of who the teachers were who had homerooms? In my experience, they are usually newer teachers first, then the tenured ones last. Anyway, everyone who has emailed us has struggled with their memories, and it made me think of the Reflections project which started all of this in the first place.

As you may remember, we had, well, still have, plans to republish the yearbook digitally, for those classmates who no longer have one but would like to again. Additionally, it might be useful for those of you who can't remember all the teachers. Well, needless to say, between the class directory, the April Get together, and then the Great 2010 Condo Drawing, the Reflections project got set on the back burner a little bit. Well actually, a lot. Well truthfully, it came to a dead stop half way through. In the interests of helping out with the homeroom memory situation, I will be posting the faculty pages on the website as soon as I can. With that little memory push, maybe we'll be able to compile the senior homeroom teachers and their students and their alphabetical breakdown a little more completely so we'll be prepared for the Reunion photos when the time comes.

For those of you who have only recently found out about the Condo drawing, $10 for a $2500 Condo for a week in Orange Beach AL, donated by Gary Malin. The tickets are available from Linda, Nancy, Patti and Tom and Bob Willis. But sales are almost done. Tickets must be bought and paid for by Monday August 1. The drawing is August 7, 2010, at Parkway Pizza, on Broadway just a little west of the levee. The winner must make arrangements with Gary to book the specific time within 60 days or forfeit the prize.

Shake those memory trees. Somewhere in there is the name of a homeroom teacher! Now close your eyes. Open your memory. You are sitting in homeroom. It is 1967. Let your memory look to the left and to the right. Who's that sitting there? In front of you, whose head are you looking at. Whose passing notes to you from behind your back?

Use this link if your memory truly fails: http://www.reitz67.com/html/reflections_1967_33.html

Thursday, July 28, 2011

Panther Pride

Speaking of pride, the Reitz Class of 1967 should be proud to know that the Condo fundraiser, the first fundraiser in recent memory, will go a long way to help defray the cost of the upcoming Fall of 2012 45th Reunion. The generosity of the class seems to know no bounds, plus the desire for a sea breezy Gulf vacation seems mighty attractive when you step outside your door in the Evansville summer ozone alert enhanced heat. Remember, that's August 7, not this coming Sunday, but the next Sunday, 4PM. We've got a condo to give away at Parkway Pizza on Broadway.  I for one am celebrating with an ice cream sundae regardless of the outcome.

Gary Malin may have to revisit Evansville soon because his mother, who was recuperating from a heart attack and seemed to have made a rapid recover, has taken a turn for the worse. This on the heels of a nice evening with him and some classmates at the Westside Hacienda. Our thoughts and best wishes for a good outcome go out to him and his family.

I thought it might be a good time to start thinking about activities for the 45th. At the 44, I think everyone had a great time getting themselves into feeder school groups. I know I want to get a photo of all the attending vets, which, I had intended to do but for my own forgetfulness, we did not do at the 44. Homeroom photos? Maybe? And we'll also have an updated directory on disc with the most current contact information. Hopefully there won't be that many changes in a year and change.

Anyway, Linda has been thinking about how many teachers are still around. We know that Mrs. Martin from Centennial days will be there. We invited her personally the other day when Linda ran into her at lunch, I think at the westside Applebee's. Anyway, if any others are around, either feeder schools or Reitz, it might be a fun time for all....No Linda, no one will rat you out over that skipping school incident back in school. I think your parents already administered their own brand of justice for that anyway.

We're also thinking about setting up a telephone tree so that a working group of people helping the committee will be contacting each and every class member to personally invite everyone to the 45, regardless of how unlikely attendance may be. It doesn't matter. It's also a chance to catch up on any additional contact information changes too so the directory will be updated plus I know that Linda doesn't want to get a repeat phone marathon performance from the 44. We know how hard it was to sell condo chances. It's much easier to invite someone to a reunion for a good meal with friends.

Sunday, July 17, 2011

The Drawing

The first class fundraiser, the Orange Beach, AL condo drawing will be held:

August 7, 2011 at 4PM
at
PARKWAY PIZZA
(Proud sponsor of the 2010 Student Directory)

Please let Linda know if you plan to attend the drawing. Call her. Facebook message, Text, Email. We should probably let Parkway know if we're takin' over da joint. (As in, We're da Reitz class ah 67 and we're takin over da joint, see?)  Remember, you don't have to be president, uh, present to win; that if you don't make arrangements with Gary within 60 days, we will redraw. Gary wants the thing to be used for the benefit of a classmate.

In the meanwhile, the sales are going briskly. It has been a great success so far, so be the one to take it over the top! Every ticket goes toward keeping the 45 Reunion reservation price as low as possible so the most number of classmates can afford to attend. As they say, you can't win it if you ain't in it and ticket sales end with the end of the month of July.

Still two weeks to go till the end of sales. Good Luck to all. If you want to buy tickets, contact Linda, Nancy, Patty, Tom or Bob right away quick. Times running out!

Well, seems like no matter where you go, there you are. My own class does not have a directory. They have lists representing everyone that attends reunions, but no complete listing. 621 graduates give or take. Can we do it? You know Linda. Of course we can. Well, you'd think it would be as simple as getting the committee to provide the existing information. Nothing is simple.

Our website classmate information is not as public as the Reitz site. The committee made that decision a while ago apparently. Privacy. This privacy concern is much like parental controls. It may be intended to protect, but what it does as perhaps an unintended consequence, is prevent friends from contacting friends with whom they have lost touch. Just like preventing Google from finding all references to "breast", which makes school reports on cooking chicken breasts an exercise in frustration.

So we are starting from the beginning, the yearbook, adding the lost people we found, and then adding lists for the 40th and 30th after verifying.  A lot of folks are on Facebook so that helps a lot. You know what they say about idle hands. When she's not helping find classmates, Linda is cooking up the next fundraiser for later on this year. I'm not at liberty to say how well we've done with the condo drawing ticket sales, and we're not done yet anyway, but suffice to say, it's been a great success so far.

And finally, thanks to all of you for proving that after 44 years, there is such a thing as class spirit, that friendships can span that many years and miles, and that it is possible to think of doing the get togethers and directories and everything that your class has done. You should all be very proud of yourselves.


Monday, July 11, 2011

Another Classmate Remembered; A Decision is Made

As you may know from the previous entry, Linda and I met Gary Malin in Pensacola. Gary mentioned, along with several others, that he thought that Robert "Bobby" Greenwood had passed away. So Linda took this as  incentive to do a little searching and found that he had passed in April of 2004. He is interred in Sebree, KY.

Even though Bobby did not graduate with you, like many others in the Reitz community of classmates, we have included him in our website on the Memorial page.

Sales of condo drawing tickets is suddenly heating up as though people are finally realizing that August 7 is just around the corner. Remember first, paid tickets only will be included in the drawing; next, we truly want the winner to be someone who wants to make use of the condo. We know now in advance that some classmates are buying tickets as a donation to the class; that the Gulf Coast is not really their cup of tea. We also know many who are buying tickets because they really want to take advantage of the opportunity for an Orange Beach vacation either this year or next spring. We have talked about this and we have decided that if arrangements are not made by the winner with Gary in 60 days, that we will redraw, sort of a second chance drawing. Besides, it's a good excuse to have another Parkway Pizza ice cream sundae.

Ticket sales conclude on Sunday July 31.

Sunday, July 10, 2011

A week away; a visit with a Classmate

We just spent a week away from Evansville. A trip to Destin with Minnie (Winnebago, that is), Missy the little black dog (Who had been under the weather and needed some one on one TLC) and Linda, who needed to decompress from her continuing mission to get so much fund raising done before the 45 that reservations will be free! Seriously, it was good to get away, and now was a good time to do it because Nancy Layson Burke and her family were going to be down there at the same time.

Additionally, we made arrangements on the way back to Evansville, to see Gary Malin who drove up from Orange Beach to Pensacola where we shared one of those great Cracker Barrel breakfasts. We told him about the current state of the condo drawing fundraiser and raised his eyebrows at the same time. We were double the level that he thought was achievable. The Reitz classmates have certainly stepped up realizing that this was as much a fundraiser as it was the possibility of getting a free stay in an awesome condo on the beach in Orange Beach, AL, a far less populated vacation getaway area than Destin, which is now wall to wall condos and beach umbrellas. Seeing sand is surprisingly difficult if you don't reside in a condo. In fact, the only pristine (or anything remotely like my childhood memories of the gulf coast, of which I have many) was Henderson Beach State Park, where they are doing the best they can to preserve a little piece of natural beach and a modest but nice RV campground with electric and water hook ups. We also had a great visit, Linda and Gary covering all the topics that old friends cover anytime they can get together; who's doing what and what's going on in Evansville, and how and when we are going to do the drawing, and what if the person that wins the draw doesn't intend to go, and on and on and on.

The bottom line is this: We have raised enough money to more than cover the cost of renting Echo Valley for the Reunion. Once again, we will try to keep the cost of reservation as low as possible. It'll be a little more than the 44; just the nature of the food provided by Echo Valley, but it's the principle. The lower the ticket, the higher the attendance. My own class seems to be going the other way, less attendance, higher reservation costs. I guess when only one person attends, that poor soul will have to pay for the whole thing.

So what about the drawing? Here's what has been decided:  Sunday, August 7, Parkway Pizza, 4PM. Parkway was one of the local businesses that contributed to our 44 and they are Westside through and through. They have great thin crust pizza, and hot ham and cheese and stromboli sandwiches to die for. We won't even talk about their 2 buck ice cream sundaes. It's walls are also festooned with school memorabilia and photos from all the Westside schools.  We had been thinking about Aztar, but I didn't feature getting the bum's rush from the Hoosier lounge meeting area by Aztar security for holding a condo drawing for a non Aztar sponsored event. At Parkway, we can stay for pizza and other food if you want. It's up to you. Should be fun anyway.

Now don't you think that just because this event will be over in August, that we don't have other things in the great Reunion Committee Collective Brain. We're still plotting the Cruise to Somewhere, destination unknown as of now, and there are other things in store before the 45 next September. Idle hands, you know. Still a few weeks to get your condo drawing ticket! Get in touch with Linda, Nancy, Patty, Tom or Bob.