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Carol Cummings Shaffer

This website is great!  I'm really getting excited about seeing everyone again.  Thank you, Dick, for your hard work.

Murlene Wheeler Gillum

Thanks Dick Barr for all your hard work on our Web Site.  It's great and I keep

contacting people to let them know about all that is going on.  I am like Barry

let's get the word out to all...     See Ya, Murlene

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Jerry Spillar

Hey everyone,

I'll be out of commission for a bit because I'm having knee replacement surgery Friday, Aug 27th.  Fishing on the flats will probably be booming since I won't be able to get out there for awhile...but I'll be back after 'em as soon as I've recovered! 

later,

Jerry

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Bobby Jackson

Hey, Everybody!

Glad this site is up and running...looking so good.  Remember, we're all 'really' still about eighteen.

Warm regards,

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Niki Bohn Sanders

Let's get everyone body to post on our site.  You can add pictures, etc.  Also, check out the Missing Classmates and help us locate everyone.

Regards

Niki

Gregg Wallace Jr

Glad to see this great web site. 

I will have to find some pictures to post.  It is obvious that a lot of work has gone into this web site. Thanks! Gregg Wallace

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Cynthia (Cindy) Fanning

How do I add a photo on the side like everyone else?  I tried to add one and it was huge.

Beth Beasley Kohler

Dick,

What a wonderful job you have done in developing our website.  It is fun to receive messages from our classmates.  This is really special.

Thank you very much and Happy New Year.

Beth (Beasley) Kohler

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Cynthia (Cindy) Fanning

I figured it out with Niki's and Dick's help.  At least I think I did.

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Barry Shelnutt

Guys, i can't believe that we do not have more comments on our class mates that have passed. Write alittle about your memorys. I know that some of you remember something about you knowing these people. See you at the REUNION

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Sam Payne

Hi Gang,

The passing of some of our classmates with out many of us knowing much about their lives since school has caused me to reflect.  Wouldn't be nice, if we each wrote a short story about our lives over the past fifty years? After all, we know a lot about each others life in the first 18 years. This would create a legacy, a short story about what we did in this fifty year period since school...Photos too! Some of our favorite moments, including children spouses, vacations, high and low moments, education, businesses, accomplishments, hobbies and passions, would make an interesting read. 

Sam

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Sam Payne

Dick,

Great job on the web site!

Thanks

Sam Payne

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Ronnie Massey

I am very new to all of this technology but I like the site and the info being provided on each of you.  I am looking forward to the reunion and the opportunity to talk with all of you.

Earl Gillum

Richard;

It's Mur again.  Guess what? Jackie Lewallen sent me a message through our site, but again,

it want let me look at it.  Whatta You Do?  Sorry, did not mean to cause all this trouble by

marrying my highschool sweetheart. No Not really!! 

Do you mind seeing what you can do.

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Linda Hoy

I am so excited about the reuntion and seeing everyone.  I told Dick Peterson and Wayne Kramer; all of you are important to me because you knew me when I was young.  We all have that investment in each other.  Those were good times, when we were young, remember?  Linda Hoy

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Cynthia (Cindy) Fanning

Linda, what do you mean "when" you "were young"?  Aren't you still?  I remember when my dad went to his 50 year reunion.  He was so old.  Now here it is for us and I sure don't feel old.  Where should we post our life histories?  Maybe we should have a special place for them.

Cindy

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Wayne Kramer

Thought you all might be interested in this story before our reunion. 1n 1961, our senior year, I wrote an article for The Shield about the seniors getting their senior rings. It was the first public step in our graduation process and an important rite of passage. I remember camping out in front of the main entrance waiting for the rings to arrive. Anyway, after we got our rings, we all headed off to Bull Creek and Lake Austin (as I remember) to celebrate. I rushed into the water and threw up my hands in excitement and the ring promptly slid off my finger and into the lake! I struggled frantically but couldn't find it. The water was too deep. All was lost. I thought of this as a tragic omen. Would my graduation, and all the promise it held, be dashed in future triumphs by the same cruel fate?

Fast forward twenty-two years. That's right, twenty-two years. I am in Amherst, Massachusetts, at Hampshire College, where I taught. I come home from a long day at work and there on my answering machine is a message: "Wayne, they found your ring!" It is from the son of my old McCallum drama teacher and he had just read an article in the Austin Statesman that reported an unbelievable story. The reporter's son had been scuba diving in Lake Austin and found a McCallum high school ring from 1961 with the inscription "WWK." The reporter wondered if someone knew anyone who might have graduated from McCallum High School that year and lost a ring. I couldn't believe it! After twenty-two years, the ring shows up again! I contacted the reporter, the ring was mailed to me and I have it to this day, a real reminder that good things happen and while we may think things couldn't get worse, they often work out for much the better. Important lessons. Lessons McCallum continues to teach me.

Wayne Kramer, class of 1961

Diane Davis Randle

Dick,  just wanted to thank you for all your work on the reunion website.  It's been fun!  see you at the reunion.

Diane (Davis) Randle

Diane Davis Randle

Dick,  just wanted to thank you for all your work on the reunion website.  It's been fun!  see you at the reunion.

Diane (Davis) Randle

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Pat Joiner

 Dick  I don't know if this will go where  it's suppose to but thanks for the web site, it has been great, even for those of us that are technically challenged.  See you all at the reunion,   pat

Margaret Feimster Loep

Dick,  thanks for all your work on the reunion website.  Margaret

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Suzanne Pardo

This message is for McCallum classmates who also attended Baker Junior HS.  I am trying to replace two yearbooks from Baker - 1956-57 and 1958-59.  If anyone has either or both of those yearbooks I would be happy to pay copier costs and mailing costs.  I know it's been along time but I am hoping someone may still have these yearbooks on a shelf someplace.

Thanks,

Suzanne (Sue) Pardo

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Richard (Dick) Barr

Dear Diane, Pat, and Margaret,

It is my pleasure to contribute to our class by maintaining the web site. It has been interesting and fun to see what people have been doing over the years and getting back in touch with old friends. The only part I don't like (but do with care) is updating the profile of a classmate that has passed away. I am looking forward to the reunion and catching up with everyone.

Thanks,
Dick

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Cynthia (Cindy) Fanning

I wish I could see everyone, but I will be too busy Friday and Saturday with my horse rescue fund raiser.  Bluebonnet Equine Humane Society will have their annual Expo at the Austin Expo Center on Decker Lane.  If you have time, come by there and see me.  I'll be at the Art Show booth.  You might even find something you want to buy or adopt a horse or donate some money!  I love reading about everyone. 

Cindy

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Richard (Dick) Barr

How Was the Reunion?

The reunion went extremely well and was a lot of fun. Arriving at the hotel around 8:30 on Friday, I found that the place was packed. Although 150 attendees were expected, we had 220 registrations. Everyone was glad to see each other, having fun, and holding their alcohol well. They had to run us out of there at 11 and people were still in the hall talking at 11:20 when I left.

Saturday morning, we got a tour of the McCallum school building by the operations manager. (My photos are at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rbarr/sets/72157627842983949/)  While the building has changed a good deal, the original hallways and classrooms are still there and everything is well-maintained. The library has been expanded twice, the cafeteria and gym renovated (both stages removed). Added were a new band hall, theater, and arts center with large performance hall where we saw students rehearsing a dance number. ("Hey kids, this is what you will look like in 50 years," some wag called out.) We learned Mac secrets too: about the bomb shelter the length of and running under the main building, the skeleton hidden there, and the sculptor of the A. N. McCallum bust in the library (the father of one of our classmates).

Saturday evening was lively. Some folks dressed up, others were t-shirt casual and everything in between. After a good Mexican food dinner with fajitas, the program started with a Powerpoint tribute to those of us that are no longer with us. Then MCs Barry Shelnut and Earl Gillum ran the drawing for some nice door prizes donated by generous classmates. The Slades — three acoustic guitarists and a lead singer — gave an excellent performance of 50s music for 30-40 minutes.

Then members of the 1961 McCallum Band set up to play and put up a 10-foot-high, 15-foot-wide chicken-wire band shield (like in the Blues Brothers movie); white foam balls were handed out to the audience to throw at the band. That was so funny and the band sounded quite good. After that, it was dance music until midnight, with a mellow crowd that had fun just visiting, looking at old HS memorabilia, and enjoying the evening with old friends.

My hat is off to the organizing committee that put together a most enjoyable weekend. It was great to re-connect with so many good folks.