Phyllis Willhite

Thank you Gary and Mark for the stories of Ron.  What great memories to hold on to.  I have some really good memories of long time friends also.  This has been a time for me to thinks about those good times with wonderfullong time friends. 

I hope that now that everyone has begun posting on our forum that we will keep it up.  It is great to keep in touch with you all, if even in this small way.

One other thing,  please welcome Dave Wright who has joined our site today.

Lynne Scales (Thurman)

Phyllis,
You are so right this is the perfect place for us to all stay connected in some small way.  It's great for those of us who aren't still in So. CA and can't seem to get to all the gatherings.  I sure do miss all of you, and will never forget the 40th reunion.

It's nice that we can share the good times as well as the sad times. Losing another classmate just made it all the more real that we need to take the time to stay in touch while we have the opportunity.

Today I am heading out in the boat with my dad to watch the Hydro plane boats on Lake Coeur d' Alene, we are packing a picnic lunch. It should be a fun day. The weather is beautiful and will be in the 80's today.  I hope to be able to load some photos tonight.  
Hope everyone has a great day.

Love to all,

Lynne

Lorene BuSteed (Householder)

Good Evening Classmates!

I am so sorry to hear the news of Ron. Mark, Gary & Mike your stories, your kind and thoughtful words are a blessing to each and every Priate. I have not been on the site in awhile just been extremely busy - lots of things going on. It's hard to hear of one more fellow classmate gone, and I suppose as the older we get there will be more. So Phyllis we can't thank you enough for the time that you have given to all of us so they we can stay connected in one form or another.

Cheryl, my daughter and son-in-law live in Beaumont. In fact I will be at her house next Saturday. Do you know a retired teacher by the name of Nancy Morgan? She lives in the same community as you do. Small world huh.

Looking forward to our trip to Riverland on the Parker stretch over Labor Day. It will be great to have some time with family to relax. It's been awhile since we have been there, so much going on at my work with changes.

Take care one and all,

Love  Lorene Here is the latest picture of my granddaughter Abbey.

Lynne Scales (Thurman)

Hey Lorene,

DO you think Abbey can get any cuter? She is so adorable, I can't wait for the day to meet her and hug her.

I hope you have a great time at the river.

Love you

Lynne

Mike Lampman

Hi guys. Can anyone comment on what Ron did after PHS. Mark, you mentioned the colleges he attended. I'm sorry to say that I pretty much dropped off the PHS map after graduating and lost track of what everyone was up to. Mea culpa!! I would like to know what Ron did for the years after college. I only attended two PHS reunions. I can't recall if Ron was at the first one I attended in Long Beach near the airport, I don't think so. I know he wasn't at the Las Vegas reunion. Can anyone fill in the gaps a little bit? I would appreciate that.

Mark Overstreet

Hi Mike,

In the early 70's he worked at a Paper Mill in Cudahy along with an number of our classmates, I believe, Larry Roadabush, Tom Farina, Art Salazar, Richard Martinez, myself (tell me who I left out). A lot of the guys for PHS kept in touch and hung out, going to dance places until we started to go our separate way, usually due to marriage. He worked at a few other jobs and attended college. He worked for the Brandel's plumbing for awhile.  It was in the mid 70's that he was at CSUN, often living out of the truck with a camper, on campus.  Then he worked off an on at the loading docks, good pay but back breaking work.  He got married in the late 80's, the reception was at Knott's Berry Farm, lots of laughs all night long.  He worked in construction for awhile.He called himself Mr. Mom for a few years, as he pretty much stayed home and took care of the kids and the house. Then got divorced. As Ron put it," Wound up starting at the wall for a year at the Seahawk Cocktail Lounge. He worked for one of the oil companies in the Wilmington area for a number of years, then his hip started to go out on him, his knees were going out ever since high school. Surgery fixed his hip but damaged his knee, but that seemed to heal the last couple of years.

That's sort of a snapshot.  I hope others who kept in touch with him add to this. Randy has some more to add.

Thanks for asking, Mike.

Mark

Lorene BuSteed (Householder)

Mark,

What was the name of the paper Mill that all of you worked at?  Roland worked for Crown Zellerbach right out of high until he was drafted in the Army, then went to Fullerton College. It would be a small world if all of you worked at the same place. The Tasty Freeze that a bunch of you worked at was owned at one time by my neighbor, he started another Tastee Freeze in Bellflower on Alondra right by the roller skating rink. That is the one that my sister's and I worked at. Oh we have lots of good memories there, that is where I met Roland. He lived in Bellflower, but graduated a year ahead of us from Dominquez High. There was always a crowd of kids hanging out after the Tastee Freeze closed at night.

Lynne, yes I can't wait until you can see Abbey. Are you guys still going to Laughlin in November? If so, we have all been waiting to go to Laughlin, who knows if you are there we can head out that way since it really is not to bad of a drive. Then when you get a chance we can make a connection at some time to meet. How does that sound?

Yep, I am so looking forward to the River, it has been 3 years since we have been there. Gotta use the motorhome, can't just sit there. I have not really been able to get away from work during this time. Hopefully I will be able to take some much needed time off. I am still waiting for my vacation request to be approved for 2011-2012. Roland and I still would like to cruise to Hawaii, never been there before. Since we like to cruise 15 days will go by fast. That is next on the agenda to do, then Alaska or visa versa.

Take care one and all,

Love Lorene

Randy Farina

Hello everyone, I still can not believe that Ron is gone, he was a very good friend since 1957 when we moved to Poppy Street.  As Mark said and I think everyone will agree, he was,  "a good guy" He was always  a joker. We had so many good times over the years, grade school, Junior High, high school and after. Trips to Lake Success  by Porterville, Mission Bay in San Diego, Lake Elsinore and the Marine Stadium in Long Beach. To the Mountains, we went everywhere, some wild times, some not so wild. Good times, we should not have to be looking back on these times without him.

 Some of Ron's work history as I remember it, after we left school.

Ron and I worked at United States Gypsum in South Gate, Fred Tortellini also worked there. I did not know of the others working there except for larry. This was right after we got out of high school. Then he did construction work with his brother in law, that was when he got the new 69 Chevelle ( bad ass car) Then we would cruise Tweedy Bl in South Gate, we would cruise Whittier, Van Nuys and Bellflower. South Gate is where we met  Mike Konyak.  After that I believe he went to work for Brandell Plumbing and went to pipefitters/plumbing  school at night  in L.A. near where I worked.

We did a lot of running around in the early 70's, everyone turning 21, oh boy,  we can now drink leagally, never stopped us before that. 

After that, around the late 70's I lost contact with him until sometime in the 80's after he got married.   I stayed in contact with him for about the last 15 years, called him twice a year, once in early  summer and then near christmas to wish him  a Happy Birthday, his birthday is  December 25th.  Ron will be missed by so many people.

Take Care 

Randy Farina  

Mark Overstreet

Hey Randy,

Good work!  U.S. Gypsum, I was trying to remember the name (age is setting in). After working the floor there I didn't think I'd ever forget that place. Art (Tudy) worked at the roofing plant part of the company. One of the Shaw brother's (my brother's class) worked there too. Richard Martinez stayed on for many, many years and was working there when we had our 40th reunion. 

Rosa and I were on the way home from the Long Beach Antique Faire on Sunday. We stopped at Chris and Pitts on Artisia Blvd. Wow!! It's still the great BBQ taste that I feel in love with back in the 1950's.  It's still the little restaurant it was back then. About the only change is that there is no sawdust on the floor.

We leaving for Davis to visit the kids tomorrow, then we'll drive over the Sierras and visit Gary and Lorie. It's old man Buice's birthday.

Talk to you soon,

Mark

Glenn Black

Geez! You guys are dis'n me for being one letter off.  (Although my golf game might improve if I could use the excuse that I didn't see the ball.)  

Someone reminded us of the Dynamic Duo, (Ron and Don) going on to bigger professional careers in some sports capacity.  When Don broke his leg in the last game of his senior year and the last of his and Ron's three year's of varsity football at PHS, it was pretty much over for Don.  He did go onto CSULB where he played 3 years of Baseball.  He told me the last year he was there would have been to much to manage baseball and academics, so he graduated on time and went on to teach math at Downey High School for 35+ years.  We have seen more of he and his wife (Rama) in the last 2 years than I had in the prior 40! Go figure.  They have recently moved into their new home in Prescott AZ.  Our plans are to visit them this year when we are out in Sedona for Thanksgiving. 

I felt Ron held onto his dream longer than any of us and that is what made Ron unique and also the type of person your could rally around in a competitve situation.  I was glad he was on our side as opposed to the other team.  I can only hope he is drawing up some X's and O's for all of us somewhere up on heaven's team.

Mike Lampman

I was just kidding about the golf Glenn. But, when in comes to Southern California just about anything can be an option. I seem to recall a golf course off the Long Beach freeway that had lights. So you could play 18 holes any time of night. I don't know if it's still there. You could also hear the dragsters on their strip on given nights. Some of you guys were talking about jobs in a paper mill. I had such a summer job in college at the Fintkoat paper mill in Los Angeles. It was a brutal job, especially when the paper broke off from the large rollers. When that happened, they didn't want the rollers stopping. So rookies like me had to crawl below to the pit below the big, noisy, hot rollers to flatten the paper as it collected. The last thing they wanted was to stop the rollers. Loss of production. So, the lead foreman would do his best to grab the paper by hand to feed it back into the fast moving rollers. You could tell who the foremen were because they had fingers missing from doing this very thing. Over the summer, I can't ever remember the rollers having to stop. But I do remember the paper piling up in the pit to the point where I must have been a foot away from the rollers on my back. Ready to make a mad dash out of the pit. When all hell wasn't breaking loose, it was a pretty good paying union job. I managed to work there twice during my college summers, never having to join the union. They never seemed to catch on that I never went to the union shop to join even though I was a full time temp. My previous summer job was working for the phone company installing phones in Marina Del Ray. Boy did I like that job. All the flight attendants lived there, probably still do. Trouble was I had to drive to Santa Monica to load up before taking off for the daily installations. But, everyone commutes long distances in LA. Enough said about summer jobs in college. My best to one and all.

Mark Overstreet

Hey Mike!

You described the job at the U.S. Gypsum paper mill. The paper we made was for plaster board. It was made from recycled paper (we'd call them a green company now days). I was a on a rotating shift.  I'd work a week on days , then shift to nights, then the midnight shift. The 11:00PM to 7:00AM was horrible. Our last break was at 4:30 and all I wanted to do was go to sleep. The clock seemed to move in slow motion after 4:00AM.  The roller never stopped and had steam in them in order to mold the paper into sheets. It would be 102 degrees and, like you said, I'd crawl under the rollers trying not to touch them as they were hot and spinning. It reminded me of a scene out of "The Jungle". I had to pull an old cart, that looked like it was built in 1910, and carry a large metal hook that weighed about 40 pounds  under the rollers to hook onto the pile of paper. Then attach the hook and chain roller to collect the paper and put in the cart. Then there was the conveyor belt that took the huge bales of paper up to the "vat" where it was mixed into a liquid solution to make pulp. I'd walk along the side of the conveyor belt extened myself over it with a huge pair of wire cutters and cut the bale wire before it reached the top and drop into the "vat".  I lost 8 pounds the first night of work. It was a non-union job and didn't pay very well, but it was work.  I worked there after being discharged from the Navy and was waiting for the Spring Semester to get back into college.

I'd like to hear about some of our classmates and the jobs that they had over the years. Seems that young people now days feel that they are "above" manuel labor or just putting in time to make some money until a better job or situation arises.

Mark

Marianna Brown (Schechter)

Hey Mark!

Your posting of your work experience brought back memories of a job that I had many~many years ago.

I was living in the Southern Utah area where the summer heat is often over 110. I had a friend who owned a chicken farm with thousands of the dirty little birds. They also had a plant where they candled eggs.

My day started about 5:30am. I would lay down plastic all over my work area and tear a large garbage bag to put my head and arms through so I could cover myself (as best as I could). I stood at the end of a conveyor belt on a small wooden box (I needed the height). I had this suction tool that would pick up 3 dozen eggs at a time. I would pick up the eggs off of the flats that had just come in from the coops. I would press the button to release the eggs onto the conveyor belt. The eggs then went into the washer. The steam from the washer...the smell of the detergent used...

This was OK as long as everything was working as it should be. What would often happen was this...one or even several of the suction cups would get stopped up (with some other stuff that chickens produce). I would be in mid air with all these eggs, I would lose suction and the eggs would all drop. Sure glad that I had put plastic down!

To this day when I smell powdered dishwasher soap I think of eggs!

Mark Overstreet

Hey Marianna!

Good to hear from you! 

I hope you don't think of detergents when you eat eggs!!

That was a very interesting job.

Tom Fordum asked me about some of Ron's past and the jobs he worked at. It got me to thinking about some of the interesting jobs other classmates worked at.  As I said before, I believe that our parents and grandparents brought us up with a strong work ethic.

Mark

Glenn Black

It seems the work ethic took a 'vacation' for a couple of generations.  At least one for sure.  I worked a summer or two at the meat processing plant with Safeway Stores on Bandini St. in LA, just off the Long Beach Frwy.  I had several jobs there from running the "frank-o-matic" machine to running the slicers for some of our favorite lunch meats, like Olive Loaf and Head Cheese!!

But the one job there I will never forget was the cleaning of the lines that allowed the hot dog meat, (yes, it is everything that you have heard about.) to push through to the frank-o-matic machines before they went into the smokers.  Anyway, English being the second language spoken on the site at Safeway, I worked with several older gentlemen that used hand signals to communicate with me.  Well one day at the end of our shift one of the older guys was up on at least a 12 foot ladder letting me run the controls that pushed the last remnants of this hot dog meat through the lines which was being moved by water pressure, a lot of water pressure.  The idea was to have the water pressure and the meat come to zero out at the end of the process.  Well, as you would expect, I was the new guy on the controls and with this bespeckled old man up on this ladder in his white cover all jacket and boots with his white hard hat on, he was flaling about trying to get my attention to shut the water pressure off.  Everyone on the floor was going to get a kick out of what was about to happen.  With his last words, "No wano, No wano!"  I let the water with the meat ahead of it come ripping out of this 8" tube to nail him right in the face.  He had some choice words for me, (in Mexican that I won't repeat.) As he ripped his glasses off to find his way down the rungs on the ladder, storming out the door ripping his hot dog imbedded clothes off as he hit the time clock and left for home. I still LOL when I think about it.

Lorene BuSteed (Householder)

It's great to see the line of communication once again. Keep it up.

Ok I will tell you my first job ever, our dad went to Signal Hill where they were tearing down red brick homes. My dad had this great idea, that he would give my sisters and I one cent for every brick we cleaned and chipped away cement. We thought that was a lot of money.  I had a summer job working for my dad at one of his construction sites. He needed someone to count the loads of dirt that entered and dumped at  the job site. I was about 19, he told me I want you to wear nice shorts look good and count the trucks for me. Well the trucks kept zooming back and forth, he never had some many loads of dirt as it did during that week I worked with him. It was fun, it was by a railroad track and the same train came by everyday, one guy through out a paper that said, "will you marry me".  Ah to be young again. Oh I also worked for a summer at Black Meadown Landing waiting on tables - then skiing the rest of the day.

While in high school I worked at the Tasty Freeze in Bellflower on Alondra. I worked there until it was shut down, the owner was running illegal horse trading. Hey I was young I did not know, I just ran the fast food place. I worked there until I was 19. Then I took on two jobs while attending college, one at the library and one at a department store on Alondra in Paramount. I had the most weird thing happen, of course I was so shy and naive. This man comes into the store - wants to go into the dressing room to try on ladies undies & etc. I said hum what is this? Never heard of a man doing such a thing like that. I grew up fast after that. The owner of the department store said let him do what he needs to do, he is a paying customer. I still remember that man to this day, a big man, a really big man. Ah to each his own.

After graduating from college, I worked for a law firm for a few years until I had my son, well at that time you could not be pregnant and work, they frowned upon it. I stayed home, delivered the throw away papers while pushing a baby stroller. Then a friend of ours had a hot truck, I worked for them for a short while - that was enough for me. Worked at Gemco for a couple of years in the office and down stairs, worked for a roofing company, worked for a dental office and worked at my current job, Corona Norco Teachers Association for the last 27 years.

Mark you are so right, todays kids think of entitlement instead of working their way up. Ah they need to get back to the grass roots once again. It is coming because there does not seem to be enought jobs around for kids so they are going to have to think of things like their grandparents did searching for job.

Oh that's it for me.

Thank you for all of your stories, comments. It's great to keep in touch, with even a couple of words, lines or just say Hi!

Love to all,

Lorene

Lorene BuSteed (Householder)

Happy Birthday Gary!

Lorene

Lynne Scales (Thurman)

Happy Birthday to my old flame and now my good friend Gary. I hope you have a wonderful birthday, thanks for all the memories of talking on the phone till all hours of the morning when we were kids.  Life is short we have to remember to tell others of the good times as well as the bad.

Have a wonderful birthday with your beautiful family.

Love to you all.

Lynne

Pat Kuester (Bowen)

Hey, just to prove your point on our generation's value of work ethics and the current generation's lack of said, here is a quote from Time Magazine:

"...an increasing number of Americans see no virtue in holding jobs that they consider menial or unpleasant.  More and more reject such work-even if they can get no other job......Young adults are particularly choosy, many have little interest in the grinding routine of the assembly line or in automated clerical tasks..."

This was written in 1972.  You guys are really showing your age.  Did you also walk 2 miles to and from school in the driving snow (up hill both ways)?

Phyllis Willhite

My first job was working as a telephone operator for Pacific telephone.  it was in compton on Compton Bl and Santa Fe.  I was a rate a route and intercept operator and a TWX operator.  (Ever heard of those).  This was before eerything was automated. If you wanted to get rates for calls, I was the one who calculated it for you.  The intercept operator was the one who came on when a number was disconnected or changed and told you so and asked you to please make a note of the new number if there was one. TWX was for conference calls. I worked there from October of 1968 until my first daughter was born in April of 1972.   There were different shifts, bit I like the 6p, to midnight the best.  You got paid for eight hours.  Ususally only the women who had been there for a long time got those hours. I was making a whopping $120 a week when I left there.  There were a couple of other girls from our class who also worked there, Connie Wells and Mary Gaskill.  Connie stayed with the phone company and retired from there.  I'm not sure about Mary. 

I lived for a short time in Arkansas in 1978 and worked in a shoe factory.  I was at the end of an assembly line where I had to cut strings off of racks of shoes that had been sewn and were ready to go into boxes.  There were four rows, I started at the top and squatted lower for each row.  In just a couple of months I had lost 20 pounds just doing my job.  I also brushed the leather soles of mens shoes.  It was all piece work and I had to clock in and out each time I started a different task.

Another time I worked for an electronics company and ran a laser trimming machine an electronic. But my last job was working for Allstate insurance.  I was only looking for a part time job when I was hired there.   The person who interviewed my told me that it was a dead end job because I did not have a degree.  Ii told her that was fine, I needed a job.  I worked there for 25 years and was promoted over and over  and over again.  It definitely was not a dead end job.  If you are willing to work, you can be promoted.   I loved working at Allstate.  I can honestly say that it is a company with integrity and that the employees are treated and paid very well.

Mike Lampman

Happy Birthday Gary. You've got Mark coming your way.......a very nice present.

Have fun on your +- 61st b-day???  

Glenn Black

To Gary B. -  "Happy Birhtday!"

To Phyllis,  Terri is currently working with Allstate as a Benefits Specialist on the Allstate Worksite Division side.  She works with EA's and Independent Agents like me.  She has been with them for only a couple of years but has been around that side of the business for about 17 years. 

Small world huh?  And now you live in Visalia.  Go figure.

Marcia Kraft (Barringer)

When I was 19 I went to work in the front office for a company called Rolled Alloys in Santa Fe Springs - heat resisting steel.  I was the only girl in an office of guys but they were very nice to me.  I was like their little sister.  I worked there for ten years until we moved to Lake Havasu.  My boss Chuck still calls a couple times a year to see how we are doing.

I do have to say though that our boys have great work ethics.  Damon has been with Metro Police Dept. in Las Vegas for ten + years and Jeff works for a biotech company in San Diego. 

As a side note, my husband just told me it was 122 here today.  Yikes!! I just talked to Pat B. She is coming to Havasu Labor Day weekend for our granddaughter's first birthday. Pat said she was invited to an event but said she wasn't available, she was "going to be in hell that weekend."  Don't forget your bathing suit, Pat!

Lynne Scales (Thurman)

My first job out of high school was working at Kentucky Friend Chicken in Long Beach. After about three months of school at Compton College I got married, and am still married to the same wonderful guy.  I then worked as a receptionist until I got pregnant with our first son.  When youngest son turned two I went to work as a Dental Assistant in Sun City, CA where I loved my job working with elderly people.  I still to this day love working with the elderly.

When we moved to Idaho, I joined the fire dept. and became a firefighter for a number of years. Once my body got old and tired, I decided to run for an elected position, and ran for Fire Commissioner. It was a great job and I learned a great deal about politics. I retired from the fire district after 18 years.

Once my mom became sick I got very involved with the care of the elderly again. After my mom passed they offered me a job as their Marketing Director and I took it. I do believe it helped me with the grieving process of the loss of my mom.

So,that's about all I can remember of my journey's in life.

Lynne

Pat Kuester (Bowen)

My 1st job was at A&W Root Beer on Long Beach Blvd & Tweedy.  I worked there a couple of years then got a job at American Finance Co. in Long Beach.  I actually worked 2 jobs the finance company full time and part time at the A&W until I met my husband.  I left the finance company and went to work for a furniture manufacturing company in their credit department.  After I had my son I got a job at Home Bank.  I worked there for 17 years.  After I was laid off from the bank I sort of job hopped a couple of years at one job then another.  I worked 6 years at a roofing company during that period.  Every company except one are no longer in business.  What does that tell you about me?  I'm either a jinx or I just run the companies I work for into the ground.  During the last 7 years I worked two jobs.  My son now does the work for my 2nd job as his 2nd job. 

I am now officially retired.  I just started collecting death benefits from social security from my ex-husband.  I can still earn a little bit of money and collect social security, but with the economy the way it is I'd just feel so guilty taking a job away from someone with a family.  At least that's the story I'm sticking with.  I used to say that work was interfering with my social life.  I'm not going to let that happen any longer.

I have several trips planned including the one to Hell.  In October I'm going to Eastern Europe for a week and in April I'm going to China for 17 days.