Henry Mendazona

Well, I didn't wander too far away, as I still reside in Oregon. I left Nyssa in 1970 to teach and coach at Central High School in Independence which I did for 5 years. I left teaching in 1975 to go into real estate sales in the Monmouth-Independence area and that led to some developing and building as well as sales. One of the things I got into during that process was a pizza parlor that was built new in 1977, and was called Mendi's Pizza. My wife and I operated that for 27 years, as well as other real estate and building ventures. We sold that business in 2005 and have been retired since then. We now live in Arizona during the winter months and do all the old people stuff they do down there (golf, pickleball, bocci ball--you name it). Anyway, we're having a blast. When I'm home in Oregon I've got a small acreage to keep us busy. I've also got a fairly large shop building that I've put a batting cage in, primarily for grandchildren and local kids, and I'm in the process of building a pickleball court in there too. We keep busy following grandchildren activities, mostly baseball, in the summer. We've got 3 grandchildren locally, and have 2 more in Madras. Our daughter Nancy lives in Arlington Heights, Illinois and has 4 children who get out here to Oregon each summer too.
Anyway, I really want to commend your efforts in your reunion as this website is outstanding. It looks as though things are really shaping up nicely for all of you to have a really succesful reunion. We've got a family wedding in Illinois to attend that weekend so will not make it to Nyssa.
I've occasionally run into some of you in different places, mostly when I've been over there in the vicinity of Nyssa. I see Larry Wilson quite often when I'm in Ontario. I've read some of your bios on your site and pleased to see how well most of you are getting along. Good luck to you all, and have a great reunion.

I still remember all the fun we had coaching some of you guys. Of course there weren't many dull moments when you were around so many characters like Mr. Calhoun and Mr. Schaffeld. I still remember when Mr. Moawad (football coach) assigning Mr. Calhoun to help me with JV football where we had all of 13 players on the JV team. Calhoun and I argued a lot sometimes about who should be playing where, but on that occasion , not much to argue about except when the 2 extras would sub into the game. Boy, some of those games against Ontario, Vale, Meridian,etc. were pretty rough, they all had us outnumbered 3 or 4 to 1. I remember one time crouching down trying to demonstrate blocking technique to someone, when I split the entire crotch and backside out of my pants. I guess we were trying, huh?
I also remember helping Mr. Calhoun with the wrestling team and there a million stories about that. Very interesting and never a dull moment. I will say the success the wrestlers had back then was very impressive. When 5 wrestlers(Darr Jensen, Fred Esplin, Rudy Vendrell, Richard Parra, Chipper Burningham) can win a state championship, that is amazing. Anyway, it was a lot of fun, at least for me. Another memory I have is when Harry McGinley took the head coaching position in football and beat Vale for the first time in 26 years. Harry was great, such a wise gentleman. I could go on, but as I said, it was fun.
Oh yes, and in the classroom side of things, I see that some still remember the baby chick experiments we did. I doubt those could be conducted today, and I'm not sure they were worth it even then. I suppose there are other ways of demonstrating the "scientific method".
Anyway, I enjoyed teaching and coaching at NHS.
Have a great reunion.