William S "Bill" Eickhorst

2010 was a momentous year. Kristin got married in April, Edie retired in May, and Kristin announced she is expecting in July. Bill took Edie to the Mayan Riviera for a week as a retirement present, Eric bought a townhouse in Overland Park, got a promotion at work and bought his first new car.

In 2011 Bill went through 43 radiation treatments for prostate cancer which were effective. Bill and Edie celebrated their 40th on an Alaska cruise and a romantic dinner on top of the Space Needle in Settle.

Bill was busy in 2011 self-publishing photo-essay books about his life as an artist, his travels around the US and the world, and one on "The Car as Art."

In 2012 Bill & Edie toured Italy: Venice, Florence, Assisi, Pisa, Rome, Isle of Capri, Sorrento, Almafi Coast, Positano and Pompeii. in 2013 we visited London, Amsterdam, Heidelberg, Lucerne and Paris.

December 2013. Bill and Edie visited Bill's cousin and his wife in New Smyrna Beach on the Atlantic Coast of Florida for a few days. Then it was on to Tampa, St. Petersburg and Clearwater for a week of fun!

In 2014 we spent two weeks in Greece. 1 week on the mainland, 3 days on the Island of Mykonos and 3 days on the Island of Santorini. In 2014 Bill was also designated as a Professor Emeritus by the Board of Governors at Missouri Western State University where he taught for 28 years. In December we spent two weeks in the Everglades, Key largo and Key West. Saw lots of alligators, rode some airboats and did some deep sea fishing. Wonderful trip!

2015: Son Eric got married in May; Spent two weeks in Hawaii in July - visited all four Islands. Pearl Harbor and the Arizona Memorial was really special. Took two helicopter flights, one on the big island and one on Kauai - the views were spectacular!

2016: Spent a week in St. Augustine, Florida this winter; there are a million things to do, places to visit and great restaurants everywhere. In May we spent two weeks touring Ireland and Scotland. Spent the Xmas holidays in Cabo San Lucas walking along the beach and soaking up the sun under the palm trees.

2017: In May we were off for a couple of weeks in Spain and Portugal. The food was excellent and the sightseeing was spectacular.

2018: Spent a few weeks in France visiting Normandy, Brittany, the Loire Valley and Paris. Visited Utah and Juno Beaches at Normandy and the Memorial Cemetery (very emotional).

2019: Spent a week in Scottsdale, Arizona. Lots to see and do and lots of great restaurants. NJ finally unsealed adoption records and I was able to get a copy of my original Birth Certificate. My birth name was Anthony Burton LaChance and my parents were immigrants from Canada. I have a living sister in Vermont and I had three older brothers and a younger sister, all of whom are deceased. Edie & I visited my sister in Vermont this July - it was wonderful! We also took the grandkids to Disney World in June.

2020: Visited Bill's Biological sister in Vermont. Bill discovered his biological family after 79 years. We also visited his niece in Florida.

2021: Spent a week visiting many of the parks in the Colorado Plateau area: Arches, Zion, Bryce, Grand Canyon, Monument Valley and others. Took a 3 hour pontoon boat ride down the Colorado River - it was fantastic!

2022: Planning a big trip to VT, NH and Maine in September to see all the fall colors and visit long-lost relatives. Missed out on all the Fall colors - we were 2 weeks early for this year!

2023: Travel to Eastern Canada last week in June. Niagara Falls, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal & Quebec City. Should be lots of photo ops. Still active in the studio - had several exhibitions this year.

Remember wearing the brightest, loudest socks you could find for the "Sock-Hop" dances in the Gym?

Remember eating the "Battleship" and the "Pig's Dinner" at our two favorite ice cream shops?

Remember swinging across the gym on the climbing ropes and driving coach Talamo and coach Pilatowski nuts?

Remember when we had to run laps on the track during gym class and we would hide behind the far side of the track when it was foggy out?

Remember when we had "Gangster Day" and we wore dark suits with light ties and brought water pistols to school and we all got sent home?

Remember Mr. Hannah always wearing that same shirt with the iron-on patch? Why do I remember that?

Remember Mr. Wyckoff wearing those shoes with the noisy leather heels and soles walking down the hallway?

I had Ms. Reid ("Old Stoneface") for Biology - one of the few people I have met in my life with absolutely no sense of humor! We were having our practicum on the frog , one at a time, in the lab supply room. When it was my turn, I walked in and there was the frog all nicely laid out in the pan. She pointed the probe to the frog's ovaries and asked, "Okay Eickhorst, what is this?" I responded, "It appears to be a frog." She threw me out of class and gave me a zero on the test. Stupid woman!

At one of our track meets we bandaged the head of one of the guys. When Coach Talmo got back on the team bus and asked what happened, we told him that he got hit in the head with a shot put. It wasn't too funny when Coach instantly turned an ashen white - guess some pranks just aren't funny.

Herb Davidson, Bob Gray, Louise Sibi, Dick Hadley, Pete Jacobsen, Joanne Goldweber, yours truly - we had quite a few artists in our small class - I think Dr. Wyckoff had something to do with it. Seems like we also had a lot of acting and music talent as well!

Remember how much fun we had playing with the gigantic "Cage Ball" in gym class until too many people got hurt and we couldn't play anymore?

Stu Kelly pole vaulted on our track team and he was the first to try out one of the revolutionary new fiberglas poles. The first time he used it he completely missed the pit when landing. He threw the pole aside and went back to the old one.

Remember the girls who sat in the window row in History class. It was in the afternoon and the sunlight streaming through the window provided provocative silhouettes of what was inside their blouses. Our hormones were raging, our brains were migrating South and it was very difficult for the guys to concentrate on History! If Mr. Keating had asked us who the 1st President of the U.S. was, I doubt if we could have answered. I often wondered if they really knew... and thats why they sat there?

Everyone probably remembers that we were a football powerhouse, but who remembers how absolutely terrible we were in basketball? I think its called selective memory.

I remember getting to dance with all the prettiest girls at the dances because I liked to dance and lots of the other guys could only do the slow dances. I always reminded my son that girls like guys who can dance! Edie and I still love to dance whenever the opportunity arises - but don't expect to see us on "Dancing With the Stars" anytime soon. :)

Remember the first day that Jack Falk showed up with his turquoise blue '57 Chevy convertible with the continental kit? I bet he wishes he still had it now! I thought that it was the coolest ride in the parking lot.

Hey, who dug all the Red Garnet stones out of the rock facing surrounding the entrance doors to the school? Okay, I'll fess up, I was one of them. Who else felt that they also needed to have one?

Why did we torment, without mercy, at every opportunity, those poor unsuspecting substitute teachers and student teachers we had? Yeah, it was fun, wasn't it?