November 6, 2007 |
| Kathy's Story |
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Mrs. Reinmuth
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Submitted by Kathy Rutherford (Layman) on November 5, 2007
One classroom experience was so funny to me that I have always remembered it & told it to my kids. And reminded Tom Kean when I saw him at the Yakima fair that I would be contributing it to this blog.
It was in Mrs. Reinmuth's English class and I think it was our junior year. She was holding her ground on some assignment issue. Making a tough one or not giving us more time on one or something. She finished her comments by pursing her lips and saying, "I know you must think I am an old witch."
Without a moments hesitation Tom Kean spoke up and reassured her, "Recognizing your problem is half the battle." The entire class cracked up and I must say Mrs. Reinmuth was a good enough sport to laugh with us.
I have many good memories of our English class through the years. Mrs. Paschen and her love of the Civil War. And I still remember (and use occasionally!) the vocabulary words we learned in her class.
I have so far found it fairly difficult to work 'intersticies' into my conversations.
One time Mrs. Carson hauled me out of her class to talk to me in the hall. As we came back in I didn't want everyone to know I was in trouble so I smiled real big at her and thanked her as if she had just patted me on the back for my good efforts instead of giving me a lecture that I had better quit doing my algebra in her class or she would fail me!
I wish I could have been with all of you to share memories at the reunion and I am looking forward to seeing all of you Aug 2012.
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October 19, 2007 |
| Just Some Thoughts... |
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Vice Principal Rosin
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Submitted by Janie (Bayles) Gallaher on 10-19-2007
This week I have really been thinking about all of you. When I heard about Jesse’s death it really hit home. I went to school with him all the way through school. It brings back all the good, bad and laugh out loud times.
Some things I had first hand knowledge of and some not. I remember somewhere sprinkler pipes ending up in building two’s hallway. Sleeping over night on the football field with several other senior girls during senior’s week. We were really worried we would get caught. Putting newspapers in the Vice Principle’s office. Anticipating the school newspaper. Seeing a Ford Mustang for the first time when Marilyn Weller drove hers to school. Boy was I impressed. I think I somehow had knowledge that *DP and some of his buds may have had something to do with the library being spray painted. Also some word that *MC may have been responsible for a skunk being placed in the book deposit slot. Knowing that Jill Peterson was just about the funniest person around. (And probably still is.) Being young enough to think that those high school romances would last a lifetime. Being aware of the world outside of Yakima and the political scene (really for the first time) while sitting in U. S. History (Mr. Carlson) when the announcement that President Kennedy had been shot. And then twenty minutes later the announcement that he was dead. The earthquake during freshman year. Getting out of school to go pick apples. Several of you came to my dad’s orchards to pick. What fun we had. I remember a tree frog jumped down someone’s shirt. I think it was Julie Wisner (Hansen). How cold the nights were at football games. Wondering how the cheerleaders, song leaders and drill team kept warm. Trying to remember the school song. Does anyone remember the words? A week long trip to Seattle with Julie Lawrence. Grown up girls hanging out in the big city. Hanging around with Carol Bailey, Barb Stein. Carol loved the Rolling Stones. All the good times with Nancy Stewart, Susan Olson and too many more to name. You have all contributed to a week full of memories for me.
We have all been sharing what we have been doing recently; it would be great to hear about some of your memories of the past. Can’t wait. Gay, Lyle, Herb and gang, thanks for all your efforts and a week filled with fun memories for me. Its all most like being at the reunion.
*initials used to protect the innocent
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October 16, 2007 |
| Memories of Jesse and Bruce |
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Written by Chris Newbill on October 15, 2007
Jesse Aganew came to Ahtanum in the fifth grade. He's in the Ahtanum 5th grade picture, fourth from the left, middle row. He was by far the smartest kid in class, scoring 107 or something on the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills.
When the classroom windows were tilted open, from outside it appeared that the courtyard was tilted. During recess Jesse and I would look at our reflections in the windows and stumble backwards, flailing our arms, pretending we were falling down hill. We were silly.
In the sixth grade we were assigned different classrooms, and we drifted apart. I wondered why Jesse didn't have better grades after the 5th grade - - probably not challenged enough or became disillusioned. He was extremely bright. And he was a very kind and gentle person.
While I'm bawling and crying over departed friends, I just as well mention Bruce Rennie. Bruce and I were pretty close friends in the seventh grade. I was in awe of the guy - he was smart and capable. I stayed overnight with him once on his Dad's 400 acre farm on Slavin Way. He had a 45-lb bow which I could draw only part way, but which he was strong enough to draw fully. He'd shoot the arrow in the air, and I'd fall down running in circles wondering where the arrow was going to fall! See how smart I was? If I'd stood next to him, I'd have been alright, since he wasn't going to shoot himself! We shot at water skippers, climbed the tree, looked through the microscope, and generally kept our distance from the three-foot wide carpenter ant hill swarming with a million ants. Dad was disappointed when he came to pick me up and I didn't really want to go. Bruce and the farm were fun!
Bruce and I both had a crush on Kris Johnson (Vestad) in the seventh grade. Kris liked Bruce better than me. She's always had good taste.
Bruce was positive, energetic, and always willing to help. I heard that Bruce drowned trying to save his Dad, when his Dad capsized in a canoe. His Dad survived, but tragically Bruce didn't. That was Bruce - if he thought you could use some help, he didn't hesitate to jump in and help you out. Bruce was selfless that way.
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October 7, 2007 |
| Note from Andy Braff |
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I want to thank you Gay, and Lyle (and any others that are involved) for all of your efforts putting together the class reunion. It's been fun "catching up" and learning where our classmates are and where they've been and getting a brief glimpse into their lives. The website is a great idea and provides a "reunion experience" even for the bums like me that aren't coming. It is interesting to read about your friends and also about those you didn't know very well because we were too shy, or busy doing other things. I guess that's what reunions are about. I want to commend you for taking on such a project. I would encourage everyone to submit a brief "bio" to share. I'm jealous to see the number who are already retired but was surprised to see the number who are no longer with us. I was particularly jealous of Denny's bio - - - I, along with several friends and our boats, pass by Nanaimo annually on our way to a remote spot on the west coast of Vancouver Island (one of our favorite places in the world). I attach a picture - - just for the fun of it (the big young one is my boy).
Thanks again,
Andy
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September 29, 2007 |
| #5 Karl's game |
submitted by Karl Baker on September 29, 2007
Where was this picture taken?
A year or two ago Karen and I had time to kill in Seattle so we tracked down this world famous landmark and had our picture taken in front of it. A box of Armadillo Droppings (chocolate covered pecan clusters) to the first person to identify the landmark.
To be fair, I have to explain that I think only the eight people listed below could possibly know. But the contest is open to everyone because the list was compiled from memory and therefore may be incomplete (or the list may have people on it who shouldn't be there, you know how that goes......)
Doug Anderson Randy Bowles Tom Ewing Tom Kean Ron Nystrom Dale Peterson Richard Skelton Brad Weller
A bigger box of chocolates to the person that provides the funniest speculation about how these eight diverse characters ended up on a list together.
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September 29, 2007 |
| #1 Miss Freeman |
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written by Susan (Thompson) Ransier on September 22, 2007
Gay stopped by my desk the other day and we got to reminiscing (and giggling). I remembered when we were REALLY young (freshman).....I am sure everyone remembers our Home Ec. teacher, Miss Freeman.....One day in HOme Ec. class Carol Bailey and I found some plastic blouse forms in a storage closet. We stuffed them up our sweaters (we were quite voluptuous then) and crawled in the display case outside the Home Ec. class and pretended to be mannequins....we fooled a few kids, but we didn't fool Miss Freeman!!!!
There is another funny story involving Miss Freeman and Susan Olson!!! We had an assignment to sew a blouse. Well, Susan made a beautiful blouse!!!! It was perfectly sewn, pressed and folded and she had it in the backseat of her car ready to be turned in the next day...... Her brother, Ken, used the car that night and it broke down. He jumps out and does his stuff under the hood, but has a greasy mess all over and finds a rag in the back seat to clean up with!!! You guessed it, he used Susan's beautifully handmade blouse!!! But, it is due the next day and Susan turns it in, grease and all. In fact, I think she got an A...... I think she was Miss Freeman's favorite!!!! Carol and I weren't!!......
response by Susan (Olson) Henderson on September 22, 2007
I've never done a blog before, so I hope this goes through w/o a hitch. Sue Thompson - you really opened up a flood of memories for me. No, Miss Freeman DID NOT like me - remember when we let those frogs lose in her classroom? I think we got them from the Biology lab or something. AND, do I dare mention all the things we did to Mr. Nieuwsma (aka Nosema). And to think I became a Business Ed. teacher! That involved Renee Thomas, Donna Frick, Joyce Massey plus many, many more. Remember when you, myself, Donna Frick and Paula Williams tried out for cheerleader our junior year?? Remember how we ended going into the splits? OUCH!!!! I have to honestly say that high school was some of the funnest years I've had. I could go on and on - but I will leave you with one last memory that I can't go into - E D W I N !!!!!!!
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September 26, 2007 |
| #2 Haitian Vacation |
Written by Steve Hull
During the last decade BJ and I have made numerous trips to Haiti with medical and dental teams setting up clinics in remote villages. In February 2001 fellow classmate Gay (Lange Scott) served with us as nurse provider treating patients and with the help of a translator diagnosing all kinds of illnesses she would not normally see. While she is a crack infection control nurse at Memorial Hospital, leprosy, malaria, intestinal parasites, and scabies are probably not part of her daily routine.
You would have been proud of her, watching her work alongside the doctors, doing minor surgery, delivering babies, or asking old men about their bowel movements, and I’ll bet if prodded she would show you her leprosy pictures. Nurse Gay diagnosed an outbreak of giardia and she thought that given more time she could have, by asking people where they were from, traced the disease up the local stream to its source. I never considered for a moment that she might be high-maintenance, and she proved her adaptability by sleeping on the floor in tents, taking showers under a cold trickle, and riding the brutal dusty roads of this 3rd world country in the back of a truck. She spied the glowing eyes of a large tarantula on the wall of her room and didn’t even scream.
Non-medical people like me work in the pharmacy or assist the doctors and dentists with their patients. One day I got to assist nurse Gay with her work.
“Farm boy,” she would call, “Fetch me four chloroquine tablets for this sick lady.”
“As you wish,” I would quickly reply.
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September 11, 2007 |
| #3 Gay Most |
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submitted by Jim Lindsey on September 25, 2007
Like one of you said, high school was indeed a funny time for us. I laughed a lot during my West Valley High School days. But I had to be careful with what I did while there. My father seemed to have a"mole" working at the school 'cause he knew exactly what I was doing at any given time during the day! He was the one I worried about the most!
Did any of you know that I worked a whole summer for Gay Most and her husband at their home on South 38th Ave? Yep, I got to be inside their house as well as work in the yard. There are some interesting things about those two that I would be glad to share at the reunion. Like the trap door in their bathroom and the underground passage that led to another trap door in their bedroom!
And those horrid accounting classes engineered by Mr. Nosema! I remember changing the numbers on the chlkboard so his columns no longer added correctly! He would spend class time trying to figure out what was wrong. Yes, Coleen Knoble did throw fresh eggs at the chalkboard AND at Mr. Nieuwsma while he sat at his desk. She had those eggs hidden in that huge woven handbag from Mexico!
One time we put scotch tape on the movie projector lens in Bilogy class. Mr. Burnside spent half the class period trying to bring the movie into focus! Jerry Tatro stuck a screwdriver in the outlet plug on the lab table during lecture time. Fireworks everywhere! I remember Mr. Burnside making a "bee line" for Jerry yelling all the while, "I wish you got electrocuted!"
I carried the key to the room where the popcorn machine was stored. I remember popping corn during class time. I would forge Marge Carson's signature on my hall passes and go wherever I wanted. Tally, didn't I popsome corn for you one time? I think so!
Marla Thomas, you used to turn in bogus book reports! Books that were never written, titles and authors were of your own making! And you got better grades than I did!
Small wonder I had to take an extra year at YVCC to make up for what I did not learn at good ole WVHS!
However, Mr. Craig was an excellent grammar teacher and I learned a lot from him. Hmm, was that the time George Ruff put alive mouse in Karen Thornton's purse..........?
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September 11, 2007 |
| #4 My "Mr. Holland" |
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submitted by Gay (Lange) Scott
High School reunions create strange emotions. I cannot tell you that I really enjoyed high school. I got good grades and participated in some events, but I always felt like everyone else was having more fun. Interestingly, though, I have attended all the reunions.
It is an interesting connection that we all share. With some of you it started in grade school......sitting on the school bus with Linda Vanderhouwen and then burying small treasures in the playground with Linda during recess. I remember when Linda, Maria Sanchez and I tried out for cheerleader in eighth grade, and won! Me..................a cheerleader?
My best memories are of my fellow choir members in high school.....Tom Kean, Steve Hull, Phil Gray and Kris Johnson were my constant daily music companions. I was so excited to start the day with choir, especially when Jerry McManus was our choir director. He was my "Mister Holland".
I will never forget how much fun I had with my friend Tally. By my Junior year, Tally, my cousin Diane and I would take turns driving to school so that we didn't have to ride the bus. I was so proud because my Dad had just bought a new 1965 Dodge Dart. Diane, on the other hand, drove an ancient pickup (fondly named Emily). You could hear us coming on the days that Diane drove! What great memories also of the time spent at Tally's house. Once her Mom helped me write my English essay. I'm surprised that Mr. William's didn't question me because it was so much better than my usual work!
Tally, I will never forget that you set me up with Jim Lindsey for our Senior Prom. My parents did not allow me to go to dances, so you told me to sneak a dress to your house and tell my parents that I was spending the night. It all went off as planned, but I was not prepared for the overwhelming guilt felt by betraying my parents.
There are lots of other fond memories, probably too many to write down. Writing them down, though, is therapeutic. Looking at these memories on paper makes me wonder why I thought high school wasn't much fun...................
response from Tally VanEaton on September 29, 2007
I enjoyed your memoirs - we definitely had some good times and trust me, you DID have some fun in high school!! I remember laughing with you a LOT!! Do you remember when my brothers put that smoke bomb in your car engine?
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2007
Kathy's ...
October (3)