George Bracey Gillow

San Francisco Zoo Video

This is a good video by the San Francisco Zoo featuring Dr. Terry Maple:

Bruce Wilson

I hadn't seen the video. Thanks George. Good job Terry.  This guy didn't go to HHS, but he is a friend of mine, hair like this mighta got him a Bob Geyer detention though.

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Terry Lee Maple

When my brother played for "Tiger" Bob Geyer at Chula Vista High School, he never seemed to appreciate the apes who played for him. He was better suited to the role of vice principal.  

Barbara Sindelar (Seagren)

In the message Chery Couch posted to Kris Hoover she mentioned that our 50th reunion may be our last. Say it isn't so!

My mom is heading to Nebraska in 2015 to celebrate her 75th. Of her class of 21 graduates, seven attended their 70th where several did the polka!

Treasa Struble (Skiles)

Barbara--The 50th may be our last, as the effort to keep track of our classmates has become quite a job. If there is interest in gathering for #'s 55, 60, 65, etc, I'm sure something can be arranged, albeit on a much smaller scale.

Sandy-Bring your golf clubs and join us on Friday for the tourney. Cher and I had a great round of golf today at Mission Bay where I --if you don't mind my bragging--sank a 30' putt for birdie on the #10 par4. We won't talk about the other holes. Cher had a very respectible round as well. Looking forward to seeing  you in Sept.

Terry Lee Maple

Based on what I've read on this forum, we aren't getting older, we're getting better. I think the fiftieth will stimulate more interest in doing another one, but I certainly understand and appreciate the hard work organizers are putting into this event. Many thanks to all of you.

Bruce Wilson

The CV quarterback story I remember (poorly) is Jimmy Eschbach's brother Dick, who also played QB. Ended up at Sweetwater.

Speaking of Jimmy. He may still be working for Rohr, which would make him one of the company's longest term employees. He still lives on King St and plays a lot of golf (with Freddy Workman and sometimes Dirk Van Dyke). I ran into Dirk a couple years back (literally I was running, he was sitting). I know I would whip up on him in the battle of the fade-away jump shooters if it was replayed today. Getting better and older one day at a time..

Takes a while to find a photo of a white fade-away shooter. Funny... Dirk has gotten taller through the years.

Terry Lee Maple

My brother Brian played with Dick Eshbach. He was a great athlete but a major squirrel. He was caught peeing on Bob Geyer's porch and kicked out of school. He enrolled at Sweetwater and in 1958 led the team to a win over Chula Vista. How's that for revenge? He was a star quarterback for MCRD but I don't know that he ever played any college ball. In those days MCRD was a west coast power in football and baseball. When I was a freshman at Pacific we played MCRD in their own spring college tournament and beat them on the way to winning the championship in 1965. The San Diego State team we beat featured Graig Nettles who went on to star for the Yankees.

Kathleen Margaret (Kathy) Crusilla (Maloney)

Dick played for Cal Western, Coach Lewis, per my husband who played with Dick. Too bad he threw a career away and ended up with the bottle problem. Per my husband.

Bruce Wilson

The Eschbach story is a complex one and I'm very familiar with it. I didn't mention any details about Dick's behavior deliberately and I won't say anything more now.

For me, Joe Morse and/or Ray Goedecke are a diffenent matter altogether. I guess it comes down to how well-acquainted you were with the families and the severity of the transgressions.

There is an awful lot of dirt in the lemon orchards, tomato and celery fields, and under the asphalt and concrete streets of sunny Chula Vista.

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Terry Lee Maple

I had forgotten that CW played football, but Eshbach was a great quarterback. I don't know what precipitated the Geyer incident but he was not loved by his players. I'm not sure why he was known as "Tiger" Bob; makes me think he might have gone to Occidental. There are plenty of skeletons in our town closet and I agree that we should avoid them. However, I did not respect the town rogues and there were plenty of them. I wouldn't put Dick in that category, as he was a jock, but bullying was common, and I will never forget some of those bullies. They should not be celebrated.

George Bracey Gillow

Bullies

I, also, am all too familiar with bullying.  When I lived in the mining camp in Potrerillos, Chile, as a kid, the oldest boy in town was a bully.   I don't recall him ever physically attacking anyone, but he picked on all the younger kids including the girls.  The bad part of it was that he was the son of the General Manager who was the boss of everyone in town including the teachers.  All the parents and teachers knew about him being a bully, but no one could do anything.  Years later, I found out that he was gay and had died of AIDS in his thirties.  I really felt sorry.  I know now that his behavior was most likely about his frustration with his sexuality.  A small mining camp in Chile in the 1950s was about the worst place for a gay boy.  However, I was told that when he was older he visited the camp with his partner and they were accepted by his family.

My next experience (just after we moved to the US) was at Castle Park Junior High, as I mentioned in a previous post.  I was a skinny kid with glasses and knew nothing about how to play baseball or football because of having lived in the mining camp where we did not play sports and did not even own footballs or baseballs.   I was bullied a lot in gym at CPJHS.  And it was humiliating being the last one picked for teams.   Something that never occurred in other classes.

Then one time while walking home from Hilltop Junior High, I was badly beaten up by a bully.  I decided that was enough.  I enrolled in judo classes and my neighbor--Linda Keating's father--loaned me a set of York barbells.  I bought Strength and Health magazines and began running.  Interesting, after a while I was never bullied again! 

I still have the weights that my father bought me after the Keatings moved.

Also, when I was in 7th grade my father got the sports booklets that were being given away by the 76 Union gas station that was located at 4th and Kst.  The books helped me a lot in gym:

Linda L. Keating (Keating)

Dear HHS Alumni & Team & Staff & Crew,

Thank you ALL for all your fantastic/good work, 'wonderfulness',,i.e., posts, information, research, video's & many-many other special gifts & talents,..etc., & especially for jogging our memory-banks to re-call so many great-fun-amazing-experiences during our years living in Chula Vista.  Have enjoyed all the good-times growing up in the South Bay Area & have always felt very honored, blessed & privileged to have met & know you all because of the sweet/precious/forever/lasting << impressions >> you so generously give & continue to give,,,like 'other' fav teachers & counselors like Mr. Rhodes, (8th grade Science teacher @ Hilltop Junior High School) & Ms. Martha Hassler (English teacher), Mr. John Clark, (Art Guild), Ms. Messina, Mr. Rice, Mr. Whitby, Mr. Fleming, & Mr. Green (HHS Counselor) etc.,etc.,..& plus so many more other memorable wonderful teachers, students & counselors who have surely helped strengthen-encourage-influence & shape many of our lives for the better.

Want you to know that I appreciate all of you very much, as always. "Thanks for the memories!"

Thank you for all the joy & goodness you continually share from your heart.

<< "I was so much older then,,I'm younger than that now." >> __Bob Dylan,,The Byrds,..etc.

We are getting better & younger everyday!

Sincerely grateful, Linda L. Keating.

<<"God Bless Us Everyone!">>___Tiny Tim___(A Christmas Carol.)  >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Frederick (Fred) Longworth, Jr.

Linda, the lines "Ah, but I was so much older then/I'm younger than that now" were written by Bob Dylan in 1964 as part of his song My Back Pages. In 1967, the Byrds released their more elaborate version of the song. Numerous other artists have done renditions of the tune, including Keith Jarrett and the Ramones.

Zillions of times over the years when it became obvious that simplistic certainties I had as a youth had "matured" into the relative, the probable, the complex, and the nuanced, I've recited those lines to myself, or to others -- with an occasional taste of crow. Thanks for recalling them again!

Bruce Wilson

Dad of boy who brought gun to school arrested

Hilltop HS student, 14, taken into custody

Story is another complex one, but an interesting side note is that his mom used to date Jethro of the Beverly Hillibillies (none of whom attended HHS).

http://www.10news.com/web/kgtv/news/police-student-brought-loaded-gun-to-school-052114

http://www.popmodal.com/video/17195/Neighborhood-Bully-Bob-Dylan-Regarding-Israel--30th-Anniversary

Let's see, what was that progression?

The Times They Are A Changin' (1963), Neighborhood Bully (1983), Guns & Roses (1985),

Bruce Wilson

There was some guy, (the name I cannot recall)  who used to bully me at Hilltop Elementary School. I wish I could run into him now.

"Ah, but I was so much older then/I'm younger than that now"

I shoulda told Leon about him. By the time I was heading into tenth grade, as per the quaint local custom, all my hair was cutoff like everybody else. I hand-picked Leon Stallings for the honor and he proved to be a valuable source of backup at times. Unfortunately, Leon, who I believe was fairly bright, took a turn from the bad to the really bad and is no longer with us. (Another complex storyline.)

Ry Cooder didn't attend HHS either. Kinda wish he had. Maybe he could have warned Leon.

Bruce Wilson

Yeah George, it's a creepy feeling to be left out!

Don't want to take up all the bandwidth, but it seems like a slow train day. So, speaking of Dylan covers; two of the best (in the not so humble opinion of ZimmyShelter who tracks this kind of thing), probably better than the originals, though nothing can replace the impact of Like A Rolling Stone coming over the AM radio in my little green VW way back then. Anyway, bullying takes perverse advantage of real or perceived weakness and comes in many variants, no?

... dedicated to everybody here with hearts, any kind of hearts ... and ears ...

Karen Etsuko Tachiki (Savel)

I have been thinking about responding to a number of the other posts but somehow get distracted and sidetracked but now I have a bit of information to share. 

First I want to thank the reunion committee for all the work being done to organize everything, the rest of the class is so fortunate to have all of you willing to do this for us. And keeper of the website another big thanks for all your work. And lastly thank you to all contributors for history, memories and everything people are willing to share.

I have to say that my high school world must have been very limited to a handful of friends with whom I guess I spent most of the non-studying time with and I am amazed at how much in the HHS class of 1964 world I must have missed. It is good to know these other bits of our history that I surely was oblivious to, and now I am slightly concerned that I'm going to have to try to remember more things about our high school experience. I do struggle trying to remember all about those years, but the entries on this forum have helped to jog my memory. This all might be good exercise for the aging memory.

To Bruce and George, you two have incredible memories and so glad you have shared as much as you do. And the history of Chula Vista and all the other bits of history about school and the city, thank you to both of you.

And my inspiration for this message is a telephone call that I just had with a childhood friend Kathy Kamps. I was inspired to try to find Kathy because of Terry Maple's mention of her from elementary and junior high school days. I did have the good fortune to keep in touch with Kathy over the years of marriage/family/children but as things go we kind of lost contacf some years ago. And then Terry mentioned Kathy in one of his entries so I decided to try to find many letters and photos we had exchanged. Well, silly me I realized the wonderful world of the internet would surely be easier than searching my house for old letters and photos so leaped to the 21st century and googled Kathy's name and miracle of miracles found her on the first try. And just finished a wonderful conversation with her and it was like she never moved away, 44 years ago. Kathy Kamps Jenkins is officially found, with one husband, 4 children and 9 grandchildren in Shawnee Kansas. And for this I am grateful again to this inclredible website as the inspiration to reconnect with people from the past.

And hoping that all of you keep sharing your memories, because this has been great to reminisce...hope I've spelled that correctly. And from recently history at HHS and my neighborhood, I think our time was so much better than what it is today?!

Bruce Wilson

The beat goes on:

Hilltop High Suspect Was "Easy Target" for Bullying: Friend

http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/School-Gun-Suspect-Was-Easy-Target-for-Bullying-Friend-260317601.html

For those out of the area there is about 2 minutes of video of the current HHS.

On the other side of the coin is Desiree (HHS 2001, same year as that space odyssey). It's cold sometimes out there in the morning after doing your paper route even in sunny CV.

http://www.runnersworld.com/elite-runners/desiree-davila-has-changed-everything?page=single

Bruce Wilson

Well since I live here, let's hear it for Otay.

Bruce Wilson

Modern day underground railway. Not sure what was being freed here. Otay Mesa.

Side note: It's not hard to resize the images here. Now if you could re-order them simply.

Gail Eileen Dillon (Boone)

I've been thinking about Mr. Rice off and on since someone mentioned him in a recent post, and especially with the anniversary of D-Day coming up.  I was able to visit the Normandy beaches just after the 50th anniversary. The cemetery near Omaha beach with 4,000 or so graves of mostly young Americans was one of the most moving places I've ever visited.  Back to Mr. Rice -- The major project he assigned during our senior year had topics based on quotations he had selected (or invented).  Mine was "Political power is what the ethics of a society make it."  I don't recall what my approach was, but I sure remember that line.  Anybody else remember theirs?

Bruce Wilson

I believe Mr. Rice wrote a book Trial by Combat.

Yes he did.

http://www.amazon.com/Trial-Combat-Paratrooper-Airborne-Remembers/dp/1418491306

Gail: I have no recollection of anything Mr. Rice assigned. I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now. I do remember him claiming that Rice Canyon was named after him, that he ran track and that he did have a sense of humor.

George Bracey Gillow

USA and Chula Vista--A Paradise

"It is what Hell will look like when all the fires go out" was a way one visitor described the copper mining camp in Northern Chile where I lived as a kid.  So when we moved to Chula Vista in 1958 it was like living in a paradise.  I went nuts experiencing the things I had just dreamed about like having a lawn, a sidewalk, trees and a TV set!

The other amazing thing for me was the food.  I grew up on powered milk called "KLIM" and Chilean candy was not good.  So I really enjoyed the Golden Arrow Dairy delivering fresh bottles of milk--sometimes one was chocolate.  And really enjoyed the candy bars.

I enjoyed, finally, being able to eat a good hamburger, especially at Mel's Root Beer at 321 Third Avenue.  Mel's was located near Docks Cocktail lounge which has been there since WWII.   And the ice cream at the Dairy Queen near 3rd and K St (Chilean ice cream in the 1950s was just that iced cream--terrible).

   Mel's Root Beer is the store on the right of the picture.  I think the two stores in the building maybe now combined into one with address 319.

I finally was able to go swimming in the summer.  At first it was the Chula Vista Plunge, but then mostly the beach.

But the thing I liked best was television.  I watched a lot of television, trying to catch up on 12 years that I missed.  All re-runs were first time for us.  Then eating TV Dinners. What an amazing product, I thought at the time.

I still savor a good hamburger and watching TV while eating a TV dinner and drinking milk--well, maybe it's a glass of Merlot.

Here is a TV guide from the week in October 1960 when they had the Kennedy/Nixon debates (It is from Knoxville,TN but very similar to what we got in San Diego.)

Some of these programs are still being shown on cable.  Note the show Coronado 9. A lot of it was filmed in Coronado.

Bruce Wilson

Funny thing, Councilman, that it wasn't the root beer that brought in the customers, but the hamburgers.

I can't remember if I put this one up before or not. Just like Encyclopedia Britannica salesmen, I believe there were Golden Arrow Dairy photograph sellers wandering the neighborhood promising:

 "Your kids may make it into our big upcoming ad campaign."