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Laurie Higgins (Dunkerton)

Hi Bob.  Please tell Linda hello for me as well.  I would love to hear more about what you're doing these days.  Do you remember hiding Mad magazine in our literature books in class?  How I laughed.  It was amazing we never got caught.  

Robert Haslach

Linda says ... awww! ... and also hopes you will make an appearance in August - as we intend to make the  LFHS reunion an August turnpike event.

Our best 

Bob and Linda  - and also from our poodle, Rowley

Betsy Wentworth

Joanne Zimmer McCammon and I both live in TN, about 2 hours apart.  Just like Carroll and Beth, we had lunch last Wednesday half way between in Cookeville. We had a ball - spent 2 1/2 hours in the restaurant.   We asked the waitress to take a picture of us to post, but decided we were both so much more beatiful than the silly photo suggested.  So, we are not posting that picture (ha-ha)!

Beth Shoulberg (Johnson)

Betsy and Joanne, I am so happy that you had a chance to get together.  Isn't it amazing how 50 years just disappear before your eyes?  Come on... post your picture!  Carroll and I did.

Beth Shoulberg (Johnson)

Bob and Linda,  Congratulations to your son, who is graduating from SU (in Shepherdstown) in May.  Beautiful place.  Although in West Virginia and close to Maryland... it is a distance from Carroll and me, who are up in the Appalachian mountains of MD and WV.

James Kahle

Just registered.  Looking forward to seeing everyone again at the reunion.

Jim Kahle

Tim Feemster

Just saw my picture in the freshman homeroom pic posted by Beth.  Looking forward to seeing everyone at the reunion.

Beth Shoulberg (Johnson)

The old classroom photos were all submitted by Jane O'Neill.  I only downloaded them onto the website.  If anyone else has old classroom photos to share... just let Tom Jewell or me know... and we will help you share them on PHOTOS.

James Kahle

Can't believe the talent show has been cancelled. I had been practicing for months playing the saxaphone while standing on my head and juggling three bowling balls with my feet. Maybe for the 75th reunion.

Skip Justice

James:   Better than me and i bowl and average over 200 for 30 years,  LOL
 

Tom Jewell

Jim,

Although the "official" Talent Show is canceled, there's really nothing to stop you from performing your head standing saxophone and bowling ball juggling act if you want to. I'm looking forward to it. 

Tom

James Kahle

Great, I will keep practicing.

Tom Jewell

The Talent Show is back. See the home page for more information.

Thanks,

Tom Jewell

Thomas Boese

Hey Gang,  Here's another opportunity for a good time at the reunion.  We are planning a GOLF OUTING at Deerpath Golf Course on Friday, August 8th.  Dave Terlap is arranging tee times starting around 1 PM.  Dave is planning to play, as am I and Ron Boggs.  Jim Stang planted the golf bug in my ear, so I know that he and his wife Lydia are playing as well.  Come join the fun.  Let's get a good group together.  Just send me a message that you are interested and I will keep you posted on the details.  See you in August!  Tom

Carroll Wetzel (Wilkinson)

Hi Everyone-I just paid my registration fee and will be there Friday and Saturday night. I am looking forward to seeing all of you again.

I want to say publically how much I appreciate the hard work of our classmates who have put the program together, created the website, and corresponded with so many of us. Hats off to all of you!!

Carroll

Michael Hall

Am echoing thanks to all the event planners!  What a lot of effort!

Here's a photo from a recent '64 Scouts VanPort Chapter meeting.  VanPort = Vancouver, Washington & Portland, Oregon...right across the Columbia River from each other.  That's Carey Smith in the middle, flanked by Walter Schaefer on his left and yours truly on his right.

We met at a local restaurant...ate, drank, told stories & laughed a lot.  When we settled up the bill, I asked the young waiter to take our photo.  He raised an eyebrow...I said "Yeh, we haven't seen each other in fifty years!"

The look on the kid's face was priceless.  It took him a moment to wrap his mind around it.  Don't think he had ever thought of such a concept...getting together after half a century.

What fun!

Tom Jewell

Great photo! I'm with the kid who took the photo in that it's hard for me to get my head around the concept that it's been 50 years!

Kathryn Karsten (Rushing)

I can't wait any longer to write about how touched I am by the stories, poetry, comments, photos, and life stories our classmates have shared over the past months. Walter's poem incapsulated the feelings of loss, disillusionment, futility, and utter sadness that we all felt and continue to feel about Carl's death. Jake's story of Carl and him sitting around a campfire talking about girls evoked the innocence, charm, and awkwardness of that time of our lives. And Kathy's story about her rekindled relationship with Bob evoke the yearning for a time before doors had closed and our eyes were open to the heights and depths of life's experiences. Roger's catalogue of world travels and rich family life point to the joys and freedom of older age. The In Memory section has been a poignant reminder that some of us were deprived of years they should have had and of how nothing should be taken for granted. To read about the full range of life experiences, professional accomplishments, and geographical diversity that our class represents has been inspiring and sometimes surprising. Coincidentally, I've been reading Middlemarch, by George Elliott, for my  book club discussion next month. Middlemarch was a book I read as part of report I made in Mrs. Thorne-Thomsen's English class sophomore year, and it had a profound effect on me as a young girl of 15, affecting the way I viewed myself, judged and understood others, and made moral and practical decisions in my early adult life. Reading this book, getting together in person with Margaret and Pat, and learning about the lives and passages of our other classmates has been a way of reconnecting with that time of life that was so full of wonder and pain, possibilities and new ideas, fear and excitement, innocence and exploration. I've been wondering why this website and my interest in people I haven't seen for 50 years is so compelling, but  it should not be such a mystery after all. In reconnecting with each other, we are also reconnecting with that unique and magical time and place that formed our characters and that bring back our strongest memories. In the latter part of our lives, we are coming full circle together. Thank you to Beth for making this website possible and to all of you who have shared your stories with the rest of us.

Susan Jane O'Neill

I agree with all that Kathy wrote so eloquently.  I lost both my brothers last year which means I have no one who knew me when I was young. As I look at old class pictures I realize that early memories of people don't really fade.  Most of you are as real to me today as you were 50+ years ago.  A lot has happened in between those years but the shared memories are still there.

Beth Shoulberg (Johnson)

I just ordered the novel "Backfire" by Ron Boggs... through Amazon.com.

Beth Shoulberg (Johnson)

Carroll Wetzel (Wilkinson) and her husband, Chris, were at our home this afternoon.  The time flew by!  Such a great visit.  Can't wait to be with them again in August.  (Chris will be dropping Carroll off in LF/LB as he continues to head for Cedar Rapids, Iowa for his 50th HS reunion.)

Here are Beth and Carroll...

Betsy Wentworth

I can't wait to see the two of you either.  Joanne Zimmer McCammon and I are flying in on Thursday.  I'll rent a car and drop Joanne off in Antioch (she's staying with Carole Koopman), then head to Ft. Sheridan.  Leaving Sunday.

Carole Koopmann (Delany)

Kathy, thank you for for putting into words your thoughts and insights. I have felt so much of what you expressed about our collective past, present and certainly look forward to our celebration. They were wonderful years, thankfully most of the years since have also been wonderful and I'm looking forward to the next adventure. There is an ache for those that have past or those that will not be attending our celebration but shared memories as Jane stated will be healing. 

Some of the guys have made an effort to connect yearly. Great idea and I hope that as a class we can gather more often. There is a informal reunion every year at West Park on the afternoon of Lake Forest Day for all LFHS classmates. I believe it was started by Biff Theile (Class of 67). Don't know exactly when it was originally put together though. It has been listed as part of our reunion activities.

The reunion committee has worked very hard! I'm proudly part of the committee but have played a very minor role. Thank you all for working so hard to put this together.

See you soon! Carole 

Chip Webster

This didn’t seem to get posted the first two times. Forgive me if it is redundant.

I’ve enjoyed catching up with everyone virtually can’t wait to do it in person.

A few weeks ago I spent some time in Lake Forest on business and had some free time. I was lucky to catch Ron & Judy Boggs when they were in town. We had a great dinner. Having friends like them is a gift. Thanks to Mickey Johnston in 1986, who pulled some of us together for what has become an annual boys trip I’ve stayed connected to Lake Forest / Lake Bluff and had my friendships have grown deeper.

My visit brought back memories of a journey that changed the direction of my life for the better. Pulled up by my California roots two weeks before my senior year, was dramatic to a 17 year old who thought Palm Springs was the center of the universe.  After driving across the desert over the Rockies and through the planes. I exited 41 and drove down Deerpath for the first time, I felt at home.  I arrived a Desert Rat in a Preppy Forest. You guys; dressed funny, talked funny and acted strange.  You were nice, cared about going to class and getting into college and I learned why the Midwest is so special, the people. You made me feel at home. Chip Hixson led the way. He included me in everything as if I had grown up with all of you. I miss him. I made lifelong friends who I cherish so much.  And, I became a “preppy” with Midwestern roots.

I was the last one of us to see Bob Manning alive. He was in the VA hospital 20 minutes from my home. We spent several times together. On the Saturday before he passed we had a long discussion about life and death.  He was at peace and ready to go. They had turned off his pace maker and defibrillator, he knew what was next for him.  Bob had a huge impact on my life. He taught me to sail. His love of boating was contagious.  He, Randy Holt (another classmate I miss terribly), and Wendy Thomas commuted to Kendall College together. We had so much fun. Later I saw Bob on boats in Florida from time to time.  His passion fueled my imagination, and I have enjoyed boating ever since.  And, oh yes Bob and I got kicked out of Sunday school because we couldn’t stop laughing.

PS. he died at the Bay Pines VA Hospital in St Petersburg FL not in Alabama.

(With apologies to all my English teachers)

Chip Webster

(AKA California, Alex & Flakey) 

Patricia Dunn (Elder)

I won't be able to attend the reunion so I thought I'd share one of my favorite photos.  This John and I and two of our granddaughters Sabrina and Sydnie.