At our 50th Reunion in 2016, here are some of the comments made by those who attended:

"Why don't they ever let R.D. talk? He actually does that for a living.  Are they afraid they might have to pay him?". "Hell, we don't even pay Kathie..."

"Did anyone actually believe Hogan was going to ever get a job?  Now he's rich and travels all over the world, but what's really amazing is that Daril Cinquanta was a Cop, and he is writing a book about it."

"I am glad there is only one of the Thompson's here...you can't mix them up that way."

"I was flying on Frontier a couple years ago, and I could have sworn the flight attendant was Linda Scott...I would have asked her, but I was always scared to death of her, so I wouldn't have known what to say anyway."

At our 45th Reunion in 2011, even more fun was had by all.

FRIDAY NIGHT (July 8, 2011): we had a wonderful time together at Anita Hostetter's for drinks and appetizers.

SATURDAY NIGHT (July 9, 2011): we met, as we have for many reunions in the past, at the Boulder Country Club outside Boulder. The food was delicious and the company great!

SUNDAY AFTERNOON (July 10, 2011):  We had a picnic, planned informally, but enjoyed by all.

At our 40th Reunion in 2006...

We were blessed by a Baptist minister in absentia, regaled and quizzed by an Alaskan ambassadress, visited by a clone of Kelly Johnston, honored by the presence of a Congressman, who did not openly campaign in his role as a potential Governor, and joined by several of our former teachers and coaches.  We enjoyed ourselves, not just looking back, but we enjoyed who we have become, and we have some future to share as well as all that past, it seems.

Here is a list of some of the people we saw at the 2006 Reunion....

Kathie Collins Wasserman

David Adams                                 Thomas  (Nick) Gautier
Theresa Blanding                          John Meredith
Cyndy Mendenhall Brunk              Bob and Claudia Beauprez
Roger Kirkpatrick                         Jere Waitz Littlejohn
Jim Docter                                     Susan McCallum Seaton
Linda Lillard Ward                         Mike Harroun
Leon Pommer                                Karen Egan Pommer
Peggy Holst Stambaugh                Rob Perrill           
Philena Harrington                        Libby Bartholomew
Billy Williamsen                             Michael Boomhower
Richard Murahata                          Doug Thompson
Susan Simmons Geittmann           Stephanie Simmons
Webb "Hap" Koschene                   Helen Harvat Cooper
Donna Culnan Von                          Ray Ingraham
Marilyn Soland Finley                     Kathy Gross Dugan
Petur Williams                                Kathy Bolme Eff
James Sheats                                 Gayle Goens Nelson
Judy Sieben Lillard                         Linda Scott Stransky
Sonja Swenson                              Carol Holland Smith
Susan Shaddock Cinnamon           Anita Hostetter
Mitch & Georgia Lavelett                Kathie Wasserman
Gayle Paschal Fulton                       R.D. Sahl
Steve Dutcher                                   Bonn Rayer
Patricia Herpel Vasquez                 James Galloway
Pam Kerrigan Shaddock                Jim Shaddock
Dorothy Rupert                               George Hoos

Did we mention Kathie Collins Wasserman

Patty Thompson Culbertson     Jennie Wells Munn
David Mosher                           Jack Vesey                                   
Susan Johnston                       Amanda Johnston
Kelly Johnston, Jr. (K2)             
Patti Coleman Chapman                Jerry Asbury

and many of the people dear to them, whose names we will add to this list as time goes on.....

 
They say, if you lived in the 70's and remember it, you weren't there. 

We hadn't gotten to that point while we were going to school at Fairview and all living in Boulder in the 1960's, though a few of us... who will remain unnamed (Hap, and Petur, and Greg...the rest will remain unnamed...Byron), 

might well have gotten there later, but, then, who remembers? 

Since we can remember the 60's, it is time to "talk story", as they say in Hawai'i where Donna Culnan has lived for thirty years...Donna brought us goodies from Hawai'i for the 40th Reunion in July 2006.

They probably say something like that in Alaska, too, where Kathie Collins Wasserman is in charge of  the entire government of 12 or 14 people, just as she was in charge of Saturday night at the 40th Reunion, in July 2006 and the 35th in July 2001.  She is just, generally, in charge.  And she has to be now that Sarah Palin has left the state...

Let's tell what we remember of where we were when this all started, or where we are now, and where we might be tomorrow.

It all starts with "Once Upon a Time, in a galaxy far away...when I was a student at Fairview High School in Boulder, in the '60's..."   Please tell us a story about you and about us and about then, and about how you got to now.
 

The scarcity of cheap tickets to Rwanda (which are the only kind I buy) means that I was unable to make changes and will miss the reunion with all of you.

I have to say the website certainly makes it fun and I hope everyone has a great time. Seeing the pictures and reading the stories makes it a little easier to miss.

If Bob gets elected tell him I expect to give the invocation or benediction or some such thing at the swearing-in ceremony (all expenses paid of course) unless another minister from our class comes forward. My one consolation about missing this reunion is that we have a three-day photo safari planned so while you're gazing up at the Flatirons I'll be touring the grasslands of the Masai-Mara gamepark.

And now a final word (a statement that has absolutely no meaning to preachers!). High school, to quote Kathy Eff who quoted Dickens in her bio, was the best of times and worst of times for me. That may surprise some of you but I suspect a lot of us felt that way. I felt like a geek much of the time. But "geek" wasn't a word back then and I don't think nerd existed either. Someone help me, what's the right word for our generation? Mosher would know.

Since the possibility of attending the reunion has now been extinguished and since Petur has requested more stories I thought I’d take the time to share some of the thoughts and memories that have gone through my mind since I first became aware of the reunion plans, things I might have reminisced about the night of our reunion were I to be present with you.

I hope more of you will do the same and take the time to share a memory even if only a paragraph. Many of you were such an important part of my life and probably never were aware of the memories I carry, the lessons I learned and the words and events I both regret and rejoice in (preposition is in the wrong place). You were a great group of people to go to school with (oops, I did it again, and me a former English teacher).

I started in the Fairview School District in 4th Grade after attending Sacred Heart Catholic School in Boulder for several years with several other FHS grads.

One of the first people I met was Mike Harroun. But before I get into the memories I should make this disclaimer. Nancy Lough recently wrote in an e-mail to me, "I remember in sixth grade we did a thing with our names. I think we wrote our names on a sheet of paper and then folded it, to make a design. You somehow got the "P's" in your name to look like boxing gloves, coloring them gold. I can't remember my zipcode, but I can remember those "Golden Gloves.’"

Thanks Nancy but I don’t. I’m sure you’re right but my present search engine can’t seem to locate that particular file anywhere on my hard drive although I do remember your birthday party. So my disclaimer is that many of you may not remember what I’m sharing but I do. 

Let me go back to Mike Harroun. When we were in 9th Grade choir with Mrs. Janson,Mike and I had difficulty singing our part since we were tenors and right next to the altos. The real problem of course was we were weak singers so Mrs. Janson didn’t allow us to sing in the concerts. We were required to attend but just lip-synch the words. It took me almost thirty years to overcome my fear of singing in public but I’m glad I wasn’t alone and Mike was next to me with his "Who cares, anyway?" attitude. 

Dave Mosher was always around and we drifted in and out of being close. In 6th grade he wrote such great stories that Mrs. Hughes would let him read them to the class on Friday afternoons and we considered it a great treat. I remember breaking Karen Easton’s trust that year by telling Dave that she really liked him. And nobody broke their glasses more than Dave or had bigger wads of tape holding them together.

In 9th grade we did"The Night Before Christmas" as a skit and at the line, "I sprang from my bed..." Dave cannonballed me half way across the stage - not something our lawsuit-prone society would allow today. 

We also did 1000 sit-ups one gym class and into the lunch hour to get a "A" from Coach Gray. When I received the Outstanding Athlete award our senior year and had trouble getting to the floor because of my cast there was Dave providing me with a piggyback ride as he tromped down the bleachers, that crazy grin on his face.

In those elementary and junior high years I remember riding my bike to visit various friends like Mike Queen and Bob Beauprez and Gary Whetstine. Mike and I use to have sleepovers and we even created homemade Halloween costumes before going trick or treating in 6th grade. Mike was always good at sports and made an effort to include me. When we played football at Burke Elementary sometimes the guys would give me the ball, form a human shield around me and just plow through the fifth graders so I could score a touchdown.

When I would go to Bob’s there wasn’t much play because they had that dairy farm to run. I laughed to see the images of Bob portrayed in the political campaigns because I only know the guy who worked seventy or eighty hours a week and could only go out for certain sports because he needed to be home on the farm. The fun thing about Bob for those of you who have forgotten is all you need to do is mention blushing or give the command "blush" and then stare at him - he immediately turns purple. Of course at our present ages that could just be caused by high blood pressure or liberal legislation. 

I don’t want to overlook the girls but I was intimidated by most of you.
My first date though was with Sandy Frank in elementary school. Our parents took us to a sock hop at the school. She was also the last person I dated in high school. She invited me to the Sadie Hawkins dance and everything went fine until the end of the evening. Then she notified me she had brought the hay bales and we had to load them into that old brown pickup of hers. I died of hay fever and dust under my contacts but I think I got a kiss for all my trouble. After the all-night party at the Elks we went for a drive up Boulder Canyon and had a flat tire. Of course the spare was flat and Sandy was afraid to hitch-hike so we had to walk down the canyon into town to call my brother.

As for the rest of my female classmates I mostly just pined for you from afar. I’ll admit it now - I’m a flaming heterosexual and I found all of you charming and cute and delightful and would have given anything to go on a date with you.

I do remember one other date my senior year that shall go down in infamy. After getting up all my courage to ask you out (you shall remain nameless and probably don’t even remember going out with me) we went to a football game. The evening had started out mild but turned unexpectedly cold. I gave you my letter jacket. A little later you informed me you were still cold so I put my arm around you. You looked at me and said, "I’m not that cold." So I removed my arm, went into a teenage huff, never said another word and took you straight home after the game. For all I know I may not have said another word to you our entire senior year. And that bothered me because I thought you were very attractive and extremely smart. So much for my senior high ego but today I’m sure you had no idea what happened. 

And finally I had a crush on one of you from 4th grade through graduation but never dared do a thing about it.

Other memories: 

In junior high I moved to Martin Acres and Roger Kirkpatrick became a good friend. He taught me how to make model cars and always beat me playing horse on his driveway. I never could shoot a basketball. We bought our motorcycles and sports cars at the same time.

Coach Gray wanted me to take modern dance with the girls because he thought it would strengthen my legs so he recruited Rich Murahata and Chris Rock to be in the class as well knowing I wouldn’t do it alone. So thanks guys. It wasn’t all bad of course - we got to be with all these cute girls in their delightful blue gym suits as we skipped across the gym floor!

Gorilla Bob was just one of the great guys who cared about us even when he gave us "extree" calisthenics or laps. 

Mrs. Carlson’s demanding perfectionism made many of us acceptable if not gifted writers. I used her methods to teach my own daughters.

I was the dumbest senior on the gym team. Mike Triantos and Rich Murahata were both National Merit Finalists and Ben Etheridge received a Letter of Commendation. Mike and I, the Catholic and the Atheist, would argue religion. Rich and I would wrestle, my arms against his legs - I think I usually lost and Ben, well Ben was a Baptist, the first one I ever met and something to be careful of.

The systematic destruction of Winnie’s classroom. She was a nice person and we should have been kinder to her.

Coach White’s puns, owlish, eye-blinking and personal challenges to do our best in every area of life.

Yelling with Mosher and the Thompsons, "SONJUHHH" whenever we saw poor, shy Miss Swenson. I’m guessing we thought she was pretty cool to give her that much attention. Is that why she has a contract out on us?

Pippin and Vesey - Mutt and Jeff.
Fogelberg and Gauthier - Mutt and Jeff.
Holland and Coughlin - Mutt and Jeff. 

The excitement when Kelly Johnston transferred in and our hopes for the football team.

The excitement when (unamed female) transferred in - at least from the boys.

Running my car halfway off the road on the backside of Flagstaff Mountain trying to emulate the Thompson’s driving skill.

Riding my bike then my motorcycle to 6 AM gymnastic practices in the middle of winter with my books stuffed inside my parka - I don't think they had invented today’s omnipresent back packs that far back.

Rope climbing and tricks with Greg Babcock and Gene Erger at the gymnastics shows.

Kathy Bolme was 40 when she was 14 - so much more grown up than the rest of your senior class officers, Johnston, Mosher and me. It was lucky you voted her in or nothing would have gotten done.

Choosing to run for Senior class treasurer because I figured if I got far enough down the list of officers I might have a chance of getting elected to something and it would look good on my permanent record.

Mr. Sampson revealing all the test scores and other administration secrets.

Johnny Rives in engineer boots, jeans and a white t-shirt - the look!
Roger Gapter and his dog, "Dammit."

Mr Hartenstein noticing when I was in a week-long funk and taking time to reach out to me when nobody else even noticed. 

Bob Condon’s skill as a mechanic and building the giant rabbit float at his place with the working foot to stomp our homecoming opponent - I can't remember if we did, so call Ron Maulsby or Jim Charlson.

You’ve already heard about Jim Docter’s antics from other sources.
I was deeply moved by the e. e. cummings (I think) modern-dance
presentation Jo and others performed and was angry when Mrs. Medrick wanted to analyze it rather than just savor the experience. 

And of course I don’t know who was more preppy, Petur or R.D. - I suppose it’s still a contest but Boston may give R.D. the edge. 
Sometimes I wear a suit but never a blazer or a dickey! 

There are others I could list and if I had my annual available I’m sure it would stimulate many additional memories but space forbids. And besides I’m beginning to get self-conscious since so few of you are sharing memories.

My hope for those of us who won’t be able to attend is that more of you will share some memories of our years together. I know it’s been a pleasure for me to sit and remember and then share these memories with you.

Have a great reunion and God bless each of you,

Pat Edwards
Treasurer - Class of ‘66 

PS: I took our remaining senior funds and invested them in a little known startup called Microsoft that Jim Sheats recommended. However Kathy Bolme Eff talked me into giving the $1.7 billion in earnings to some charity she runs for sports-minded, Lutheran Montanans.

The events described occurred shortly after graduation and involve a current gubernatorial candidate in the state of Colorado. The details can be verified by Jim Docter or Pat Edwards and may affect your vote as they involve Congressman Beauprez’s assault in 1966 on a vehicle occupied by four young men.

On the night in question the three young Fairview graduates mentioned above had escorted their dates to a national gymnastics competition at the Air Force Academy. Sparing no expense they then entertained their dates at the Kings Food Host on 28th Street after arriving back in Boulder. As they were exiting the restaurant after feasting on cheese and tuna frenchees, a ‘53 yellow Chevy drove through the lot and the four young men in the car yelled several obscene comments at the couples. At Jim Docter’s suggestion but with Bob Beauprez’s full agreement chase was immediately given in the Docter family auto, a new Plymouth with a big V-8. South on 28th, left on Arapahoe then left again on 30th until the Chevy was finally caught at a stoplight behind the shopping center.

Jim, Bob (sounds like the Waltons, doesn’t it?) and Pat jumped from the car - well Pat didn’t jump - but Jim and Bob did and all three ran (again, not Pat) up to the yellow Chevy. As the three gathered by the driver’s door Jim suggested the driver roll down his window so the crude comments so offensive
to their dates could be discussed. When he only cracked his window slightly Jim suggested Bob move to the opposite side of the vehicle in case any of them tried to escape which Bob promptly did.

Those of you who remember Jim in the hallways and locker rooms will remember he loved to do what was then referred to as “knuckle busting,” smashing your knuckles against the knuckles of any idiot who would go along with you.
When Jim couldn’t find someone to play his game he would smash his knuckles into any available locker. Lots of practice led to the culminating event of the evening.

When the light changed to green the driver attempted to roll up his window
and drive off. Unthinkingly Jim used his perfected, knuckle-busting technique to “rap” the window. The response was that the window shattered.
Stunned Jim looked at his knuckles in wondering awe. Pat Edwards fell to the ground in a fit of uncontrollable laughter and Bob stood blushing on the other side of the vehicle. Eventually Jim and Bob helped Pat up; they returned to their car and dates and sedately drove away from the scene while the ‘57 Chevy remained unmoving as its occupants sat in fear and dread. As far as is known none of three have ever made restitution for damages. Pat has repented of course and Jim moved out of state briefly and never returned to Boulder. Bob Beauprez’s aides are insisting this is a story cooked up by Pam Kerrigan Shaddock and her Democrat operatives.

Dave Adams may be able to shed additional light on the Congressman’s driving habits, especially on Flagstaff Mountain.

"An eyewitness"

This is for "I Remember" and doesn't require my name.  [thanks, Reverend, we won't use it...]

I noticed the mysterious reference to Mike Tomingas and it brought to mind my favorite memory of Mike which occurred as ninth graders at Douglas.  Mike was in the junior high county finals against the best wrestler in the county - a guy from Lafayette I think, who looked about 26 and had a body like Arnold in his prime. When the ref's whistle blew the Lafayette wrestler dropped into the classic crouch but Mike ran onto the mat, hit him going full speed, knocked him flat, landed on top of him and three seconds later the ref hit the mat with his hand to signal Mike had pinned the guy and won the county championship. In ten seconds it was all over and everyone on both sides just stood there stunned while Mike came sauntering back with his typical smirk.

Jim Charlson forwarded this message as part of his penance for Lent or some such religious process....