Dennis Morse

Does anyone know the correct number of graduates in our class?  There are 494 pictured in the annual but 576 listed in the HHS Alumni Directory 2000. I think both are in error.

Dennis Morse

Sorry, I was wrong.  There are 564 grads in the annual  and 576 listed ib the Alumni directory.  I know the directory has omitted some grads. Does anyone know why there is a discrepancy?

Waynne Blue (James)

Ted--Were the names on the back?  Or did you remember all of the names???  Good job in any case.  Brings back a lot of really old memories.  Thanks again. 

Patrick Calkins

Wow, our house burned down in Burien in 1966 when I was in the Army, stationed in Fort Polk, Louisiana, so all my class photos and year books were lost. I still miss them. These pictures bring back such memories, I remember 90% of these kids. I was in the Cub Scouts with Ted Comstock and, I think, Al Peffley. I loved drawing cars and still do. Lynn Britton was my best friend. We spent a lot of time together after school playing and watching Our Gang comedies on TV, also later, the Mickey Mouse Club and Roy Rogers. I remember going to Wayne Boggs house, also Gerald Charlshe's and Richard Handley's, Ted's and Al's. Susan Storey let me ride her bike on the playground on Saturdays. I still have a crush on her. I remember making model airplanes with those guys.

Mrs White had us do projects about the pioneers coming across the country in the 1870's and 1880's. We cut up apples and dried them on the top shelf of the cabinet for a week or two and then ate them. They were good. I wrote a story about my great great grandparents coming over in a covered wagon and I drew a flintlock musket for the cover. I wish I had every class picture because I've been studying memoir writing for the last six years and all I need is little boost (like a photo) and I'm off.

I turned 70 in November and just retired on New Years Eve. I'm filling my days doing artwork, learning new things, going to different classes, writing, cooking, golf, and, my wife Rosemary and I are planning trips we can take in the coming year. Thanks, you guys!

Ed Hesner

Here are some class photos from Gregory Heights, 3rd - 5th grade. Hope you enjoy them. Sure would appreciate it if anyone can help me out with any errors or missing names.

Gregory Heights 3rd Grade

1st Row:  1. Pat Shaw, 2. Jerry Nygren, 3. John Robbin, 4. Carol Tucker, 5. Claudia ?, 6. Marty Ellison, 7. Harley Gunion, 8. Tom Venable, 9. Dwayne Delongchamp

2nd Row:  10. Karen Owens, 11. Aaron Jones, 12. Terry Kirkpatrick, 13. Phillip Leopold, 14. Gary Parsley, 15. Mike Connor, 16. Vickey Broadhead, 17. Patty Shaw, 18. Ardene Magley

3rd Row:  19. Lorraine ?, 20. Carol Rockafield, 21. Margaret ?, 22. Martha Tuckness, 23. Diane ?, 24. Danny Hill, 25. Bill ?, 26. Sharon Wall, 27. Robert Warren

4th Row:  28. David ?, 29. Dick Hancock, 30. Ed Hesner, 31. Jack Adams, 32. Tim Buckley

Teacher:  Miss Sweeney     Principal:  Ralph Peters

Ed Hesner

Gregory Heights 4th Grade

1st Row:  1. Bonnie Klann, 2. Francis Bruce, 3. Carol Smalley, 4. Kathy McKinley, 5. Marjorie (Muff) Jones?, 6. ?, 7. Audrey von Thun, 8. ?, 9. ?

2nd Row:  10. Sally Raichle, 11. Martha Tuckness, 12. Nancy Bloomquist, 13. Patty Shaw, 14. ?, 15. ?, 16. ?, 17. Jerry Nigren, 18. Pat Shaw

3rd Row:  19. Bill Hamilton, 20. Greg Yeakle, 21. Steve Conrath (sp?), 22. Pete Wilde, 23. Dave Gwinn, 24. Rex Sorenson, 25. Gordon Langston, 26. ?, 27. Ed Hesner

4th Row:  28. Eric Anders, 29. Tom Gustafson, 30. Mike Sheridan, 31. Dick Leisy, 32. Robert Warren, 33. Bruce ?, 34. ?

Principal:  Ralph Peters     Teacher:  Miss Martin (Mrs Sorenson after she got married) 

Ed Hesner

Gregory Heights 5th Grade

1st Row:  1. Barbara Morrison, 2. Carol Pattison, 3. Betty Jean (B.J.) Bus, 4. Jeanine LaBrenz, 5. Dorothy Judy, 6. Norma ?, 7. Carol Smalley, 8. Jeannie Sue Scott, 9. Kathy McKinley

2nd Row:  10. Carol Rockafield, 11. Katie Welch, 12. Claudia ?, 13. Sharon Wall, 14. Lorrie Lane, 15. Chuck Chappel, 16. Terry Kirkpatrick, 17. Tim Buckley, 18. Eric Anders

3rd Row:  19. Danny Hill, 20. Dwight Smith, 21. Bruce ?, 22. Ed Hesner, 23. David Read, 24. Ross (Phillips) Hillmon, 25. Jerry Nigren, 26. Bruce Lair, 27. Robert Warren

4th Row:  28. Marty Ellison

Principal:  Ralph Peters     Teacher: Miss Konsa

Cathy Hewitt (Corrie)

Oh, my gosh, how fun to see everyone as they once were!  My granddaughter is now in second grade.  Can't believe we all once were.  Sue Storey is just as cute now as she was then!  Thanks so much Sherry, Ed, and others for sharing these precious class photos.  I know I have ones of Sunnydale 4th grade and 5th grade, but they're under the house in a rather nasty environment.  When I get up the nerve, I'll go diving for them.  Having just turned 70, it is becoming more and more fun to reminisce.  

Al Peffley

Ed,

Those scanned pictures you posted have amazing clarity. I don't think I have any class pictures left to view from Chelsea Park, but I may find some in my mother's estate boxes that I stored in our basement inside an old cedar chest my dad built for my mother. I get more sentimental and look for pictures of the past as I get older. I took some pictures of the Chelsea Park building a few years ago when I visited Burien in the winter of 2011. Chelsea Park has some new siding on it and is now a Burien Community Center. We played marbles in that corner of the old gym building where the porta-potty sits (I assumed is there for use by people using the baseball field to the left of the old gymnasium and out of sight in this picture.) Incredible to think the Chelsea Park facility is now over 60 years old! Classic, post-war architecture, and very modern in the day. The room with the row of tall windows, I believe, was my third grade classroom...

Thanne Winterer (Summerson)

First thing Gary said when he saw the picture was that he played marbles in that corner.:-)

Thanne and Gary Summerson

Dennis Morse

That is correct. We played marbles there in the spring.  It was out of the way and of course was played for keeps. There never was grass like that there , mainly just dirt. I do remember a kissing game was played on occassion between two large trees that were on mounds,  The girls ran from one tree to the other and if the boy or boys in the middle could catch them they got a kiss. I now think some of the girls wanted to get caught.

Gregg Wilson

Yeah,

That's where I lost most of my marbles.

John Davis

I sell those antique marbles in spokane at the antique gallery on Monrow street.

Eddie Roberts

Hey John, I'd like to pick up some of those cool old antique marbles. Do you have a website?

John Davis

Eddie, I just have the antique store cabinet no.10,but I have 50lbs of marbles at home 509-292-5091.

Lynn Britton

The tetherballs were to the right of the marbles corner and the hopscotch squares were up this side of where that car is parked.  On weekends and evenings we used to race our bicycles around the gym.  Aaahh, the "good old days."

Gregg Wilson

Who was the first grade teacher, who was Spanish or Italian or Mexican? I remember her as being very pretty. My mother has all of these school pictures buried in one hundred boxes and she can't remember anything at age 93.

Thanks.

Patrick Calkins

This is Patrick Calkins. My first grade teacher at Chelsea Park was Miss Visentine.

Dennis Morse

Where were you on May 18, 1980 when Mt. St. Helens blew up?

Linda Pompeo (Worden)

We were on our way to church in Auburn, and coming off of the east hill we could see that something was radically wrong in the sky towards Mount Rainier.  It was the most ominous looking sky we had ever seen. Didn't know what it was until after we got to the service and were told what happened.  My sister and her husband were in Eastern Wa.  Their car quit running due to the dust and grit and blowing ash.They had to stay in a motel for 3 days before they could make it back home. A scary time for all of us Washingtonians.

Thanne Winterer (Summerson)

Living here in Vancouver, Wa. Later that afternoon Gary went with a pilot friend and flew around the mountain before the airspace was restricted. An experience he will never forget. We now have a cabin about 20 miles from Cougar which is southeast from Mt. St. Helens and our cabin is 7 miles (as the crow flies) from the mountain. Here in Vancouver we had a neighborhood ash clean up that went on for days:-) Gary & Thanne

Gregg Wilson

I was inside flue gas scrubbers at a power plant in New Mexico. Did not see or hear a damn thing.

Dennis Morse

I guess I should answer my own questiion.  We were living in south Tacoma at the time but that morning we were at the Bell Telephone office in Burien at 8th Ave. SW and 150th having a retirement party for my mother.  It was held in the parking lot with a good view of St. Helens.  Almost surreal to think we were celebrating while others were dying and struggling to survive. We only got a little dusting of ash in Tacoma.

Al Peffley

The day Mt. St. Helens blew I was sitting on my friend's cabin cruiser top deck in his driveway on the east hill of Renton above Boeing. We were repairing his bridge controls on his 25-foot fiberglass boat and facing south. We had an unresrticted view of St. Helens from his driveway on that clear and sunny day in May. The mountain had been spewing narrow plumes of black smoke for days.

As we were looking south and talking about the mountain the primary eruption started. The top of the mountain imploded in a giant ball of brown ash and gray rock fragments. You could even hear it from Renton where we sat watching it! Small clouds and lightning formed around the ever-expanding mushroom-lke cloud of rock, ash and extremely toxic hot gases blasted from the mountain's top mass. The majority of the ash fallout and plume headed east (there was a southwest wind at the former summit's altitude at the time.)

My wife's first husband, Ralph (he died of brain cancer 15 years later), had an aunt and uncle who were camping near Spirit Lake on that fatal day. They died almost instantly from inhaling the extremely hot gasses in the first overpressure wave after the blast. Their gray & blackened truck and hunting camper were found weeks later buried in deep ash. They died quickly, inside and outside their pickup truck camper.

We retired in Kelso, just 10 miles from the road up to St. Helens. What a memory! It forever changed southern and eastern Washington. The Three Rivers Mall we see out of our living room window was built on fill from Mt. St, Helens ash dredged from the Cowlitz and Toutle rivers. Fishing has never been the same in either river since the eruption.

The Cascades Range is still quite active. Baker and Rainer both have sometimes active steam vents. It has been estimated that if Rainier blows like St. Helens did, a mud plasma flow from the northwest side's largest glacier area would take just thirteen to fifteen minutes to reach the south end of Lake Washington at Renton (after quickly traversing the short upper valley paths and raging down through the Kent Valley.) I have seen the computer model simulation pictures and route map at an emergency management exercise hosted by WA Emergency Managment and PNWER. They have plans in case another big eruption occurs in our lifetime.

Virginia Wolfe (Scheffer)

We were in Yakima racing horses at that time.  It was a beautiful sunny day and when the sky turned black, I though it was the end of the world.  We had to leave the horses there because we did not want to chance driving with them and getting stuck.  Poor things, they had dust in their noses for weeks.  We kept damp kerchiefs in their halters covering their nostrils so they could breathe.  Yikes! what an awful experience.