Tom O'Brien

Happy Birthday to the Birthday Girl, Gayle.

Hope your day goes well and happy for you. I'm sure it will with cake and ice cream and your favorite libation.

Stay warm, safe and healthy in Chi Town and best for a great 2023. 

Tom O'Brien

Tom Scott.

Wishing you a happy and healthy Birthday.

Did not see the notice till tonight and I couldn't wait till tomorrow.

I hope your day was great and enjoyed with the family. Also hope the cake and ice cream flowed freely.

Stay safe and look forward to the next one.

Tom O'Brien

Happy Birthday Loretta and many more to come.

As we get to these days, they seem to go by faster. seems like it was just a year ago when you had your last one. ha,ha

Hope your day is filled with joy, cake and ice cream.

Mike Young

Thank you, Lucia for your help in getting me back into the Forum.  I got a new computer and this marvelous labor-saving device wouldn't communicate with my old device and dropped all my files, address book. etc., etc. ETC.!!!!!!  (Last time I was that frustrated - I got a divorce.)  Lucia to the rescue.

I hope that all is well with everyone and that we'll see each other at our 60th Class Reunion in August

Tom O'Brien

Welcome back Mike.

Glad to see it was only the computer that gave out.

See you back here soon.

Janet Flick (Stickel)

Mike, I'm sorry to hear about your computer problem but your explanation gave me my daily chuckle! 

Good going Lucia!!

David Unger

Mike,

I feeel your pain!   AOL forced me to use their "NEW" email platform.  I did not like it but tried to adjust my attitude to see if I could get it to work.  In order to sign in I had to change my password.  After 2 hours of agrivation and not being able to find the super secret combination that would accept my new password, I utilized the option to force the system back to the old email setup.  

Because my old password had been shutdown, I spent another 45 minutes getting it changed, or so I thought.  This morning, I had to use the original password to sign in and hopefully went through the change process again.  I am confident that AOL did not appreciate my input on their new "EMAIL" system and the the lack of basic funcunality that makes it nearly imposible to use.

I cannot wait to see what happens when I sign off and try to get back on.  At least the sun is shinning brightly through my window and I don't have to go to work.  Enjoy the Super Bowl everyone and may the best team win. 

Lucia Lenhard (Johnson)

I

hate

updates

! 

Tom O'Brien

Mike, Dave and Lucia.

I'm glad I'm not the only one that has the same feelings about this new thing they call a computer.

As we say in our house, Change is never Good

Mike Young

Happy Birthday, Jayne.  I hope that all is well with youand that, not only your birthday is terrific, but the year as well,  We hope to see you this August at our 60th Reunion.  I shall never forget (and shall always be grateful for) when you "saved" me from Sister Elizabeth Louise, whether you recall it or not.

Tom O'Brien

A Happy Birthday to Jayne.

May your day be happy and loving and the year be good to you and your family.

Enjoy the day, year and many more to come.

May you receive a large cake and plenty of ice cream.

Mike Young

A Merry Unbirthday to one and all.  We hope that this finds everyone healthy and happy.  Spring is just around the corner.

Meanwhile, we are trying to put together our 60th Class Reunion and we could use a little help from anyone with some knowlege.

Kathy Poeppe, Bonnie Ellison, Tom Hughes, Diane Hosanna and Janet Meininger, we have 2 addresses for each of you, could you please enlighten us, either in the Forum or contact Janet Flick Stickel.

If anyone knows the whereabouts (or any clue to lead us to them) of Dick DuCharme, Sandy Gryb, Diane Ledwidge, Colleen Malone, Margaret Szybko, and/or Pete Turnbull we'd be most appreciative.

Thank you one and all and we hope to see all of your smiling faces this August for our 60th Class Reunion.

As Soupy Sales would say - be true to your teeth and they won't be false to you.

Janet Flick (Stickel)

Yes, Mike and I are trying to update our classmate roster by melding the database from 10 years ago with the information Shrine High School has just sent us.  We want to reach as many classmates as possible when we send out information for our 60th Reunion.

Please contact me at janetstickel@outlook.com.

The dates have been decided.  So please mark your calendars. Join us for whichever events suit.

Friday, August 25, 2023 - Golf outing at Pontiac Country Club.  Non-golfers can assemble on the patio.

Saturday, August 26, 2023 - Casual get together for drinks, food and chat.  Place TBD

Sunday, August 27, 2023 - Mass at Shrine. either 9:30am or 11:30am

Mike Young

Happy Birthday, Kathy Kehoe with the quick wit and even quicker warm smile.  May you day be filled with love, laughter and weather as pleasant as you always were.  We hope that you don't deprive us of your laughter and teasing humor at our 60th Reunion this August.  Lizzie Lou won't be there so you'll be relaxed.

Tom O'Brien

A Happy Birthday to Kathy. Wishing you a happy and healthy day with many more to come.

Hope you have a full and rich day with your family and enjoy your cake and ice cream.

Try to get over in august for the 60th reunion bash to Pontiac.

Enjoy your day.

Arlene Vachon (Forrester)

O.B., did you get to experience Michigan snow recently where you live in California?

Lucia Lenhard (Johnson)

Ran into the delightful Marida Murry (Murrey?) at lunch the other day. Hopefully she will join us for our August gathering. Always love the unexpected blast from the past! 

Tom O'Brien

Arlene,

Unfortunately, I need not see the snow here,

We just had loads of rain. they say the state is over 2 inches above normal. The probably is they never built reservoirs  to collect the rain in California. so the rain just runs into the ocean. then, because it picks up everything along the way, they tell you you can't go into the water for 72 hours.

You guys got a good amount I have been seeing. Hope everyone made it through.

We have had the coldest winter ever. Days highs are in the mid 50's and nights get into the low 40's and we have been having 28 to 40 mile an hour winds from Canada which have been very cold.

So it hasn't been all peaches and cream. LA area has had it worse than here in the San Diego area.

Arlene Vachon (Forrester)

O.B. How often do you go into the water? 😉 I remember being in San Diego and the weather was exactly the same every day we were there. It was so gorgeous! I felt the weathermen had very little to do on their shifts! 

Tom O'Brien

Arlean,

You're  right, the weather here is always the same. Just that this year we have been cold every day. Imagine, complaining it's cold with the temps being in the 50 and 60's.

I have never been a swimmer until Viet Nam. We had a pool on base and the guys taught me how to swim. Problem being I can only do it underwater.

We are 5 miles up from the ocean, but we never go down there because of the crowds and parking is difficult. We would be better off walking there than driving and trying to park.

When my wife was a teen, she and her friends would take the bus from near Pasadena to Hunting Beach and spend the day. We are now paying for that with the Dermotolgy visits for the cancer spots,

Arlene Vachon (Forrester)

O.B. - A pool on base in Viet Nam???????  Are you sure it wasn't a rice paddy?  My husband also never learned how to swim.  As an entrance test for MSU, he had to jump in the pool and swim the length.  He paid someone to pretend it was him, otherwise he never would have been admitted to MSU!!  After graduation, he joined the army and was on a ship from San Francisco to Japan.  Those ships didn't have much in the way of balancing mechanisms.  He was glad he played the piano, he would go to the lounge and pretend he was on stage somewhere rather than on a boat bobbing in the ocean!

Bob Sullivan - Wow a birthday two days before St. Paddy's Day and living in Ireland.  I'm sure you will find some friends to help you celebrate!  My niece is in the Purdue Marching Band and they will be marching in the parade somewhere in Ireland.  My brother (her grandfather) and his wife are there to cheer the them on and see the sights.   Happy Birthday!!

Mike Young

A Happy Birthday to Mary Strauss, a favorite member of our golfing gallery, still with the quick and impish smile.  We hope to see you this year for our 60th Reunion.

OB, our hearts go out to you during this "cold" snap you're toughing out.  You had to go half way around the world to learn to swim.  I don't float either, so water was for drinking or bathing.  It would be great to see you too this August.

Arlene, so how much snow have you had this Winter?  I recall you telling Scotty and me that you would pray for us during our "snow crisis" a few years back.  We were expecting about 2 more inches on top of the 2 we already had, meanwhile you had had about 120 inches of snow in Traverse City.  See you in August. 

Tom O'Brien

Ok Arlean,

It wasn't a rice paddy.

Actually, my job in Nam was with the 1st Infantry Division, (If you have to be one, be a "Big Red 1".I was on the division base camp, just outside of Saigon. My job was typing all promotion orders for all enlisted in the division.

We worked 6 and a half days a week, starting at 8, broke for lunch at 12 , came back to the office at 1 until dinner at 4:30 then came back at 6 and worked until 9. 10. 11 at night.

Some days another guy and I would go play tennis (we had 2 courts) during dinner time than stop at the pool to cool off then stop at the Dairy Queen to get dinner. When you go back to work at 6 you could wear shorts, t-shirt and flip flops. We had two refrigerators in our office of 55 guys, you could either bring sodas or beer and keep them cold and enjoy while working after 6.

Once a month we had a bar b q outside our office for the guys who were going home that month. We all chipped in, including the three officers, and had a good time.

It was tuff duty but somebody had to do it. Also, Thanks to Shrine 9th grade typing class. where I learned my typing.

I actually enjoyed Nam better than my 10 months in Germany.

Mike Young

Lucia - we're wishing you have the best birthday that a "Homemaker of the Year" can have.  Do you have cake or Pi on this Pi Day? Whatever, I hope you enjoy.  Looking forward to seeing you this August at our 60th Reunion, and thanks for the work you're doing to make it successful.  Many thanks for putting this Forum together.  You make a difference.

David Unger

Tom,

Sounds like you had a lot of long days.  I am glad we both had the foresight to take typing in high school.  I am sure that it helped me get in Signal School and end up as a teletype operator with the 304th Signal Batallion in Korea.  Our Batallion Headquarters was in Soul which is on the North side of the Han river.  My company was stationed in a suburb of Soul, on the South side of the river.  If a war started, the bridges over the river would be destroyed and it was our job to move to a field location and set up communication for 8th army.  

While it was necessary to have us in that role, we had a lot of days of trying to find things to do.  I am greatful we did not have to execute our assigned mission, but you can only wash a truck so many times.  I still keep intouch with 3 other guys who became good friends.  Those were trying times for all who served and all the loved ones who could only wait and pray for our safety.  Looking back, I realize that we all helped create history.  I am happy so many things turned out pretty good.

On a lighter note, at least today we have sunshine and no new snow.  Stay safe.  Looking forward to August.