Mike Endsley

When I boarded the airplane that would return us to the States after our 3 years in Brasil in August 1970 I cried and I cried for hours until mercifully I dozed off somewhere over the Atlantic. I left a piece of myself behind that night and I think I knew I would never get it back.
I'm fine in fact more than fine. I'm healthy and happy which is something never to be taken for granted but ever since my brother Steve forwarded the link to this web site a couple of days ago I've literally been overcome with a serious wave of nostalgia coupled with regret at not keeping in touch with people and doing a better job of hanging on to such a precious time in my life. I literally tore apart storage to find my 1970 AQUILA and have spent hours reminiscing and pouring over profile after profile from this site. I anticipate doing much more of the same in the days to come and hope to do some reconnecting. As for this website...SIMPLY AWESOME! Sharon Crane whom I remember as if it was yesterday and Dan Waters who I'm regretting not having known better have done SUCH A FANTASTIC JOB...THANK YOU!

So we returned to California for my sophomore year and despite the fact I had lived in Stanford/Palo Alto my entire life except for the previous 3 years I was treated as 'the new kid" and even "the foreign kid" which they probably wouldn't have if they had ever heard me butcher the Portuguese language. For the most part initially I found the kids were pretty cold at least not overly friendly with a few exceptions mainly the guys and girls I had known before. Then sports started and after I showed what I could do on the playing field all of a sudden everyone seemed to want to be my friend. Bunch of hypocrites I felt. Graded had been a place where people sought out the new guy or girl with welcome and interest and it taught me so much about how people deserve to be treated. Okay enough cold water.

Turns out I did enjoy my high school (Gunn) in Palo Alto. It had a beautiful campus with lots of trees, had excellent and challenging academics and of course I was always playing one sport or another and loving the competition. I played Varsity football, ran track, played baseball and basketball but interestingly enough it was soccer where I went the farthest. I never played soccer at Graded so I must have learned by osmosis or something. My senior year I broke the scoring record and was recruited by several colleges to play for them. I chose to play my first two years at a local Junior College that had just won the California State Title the previous year and even had a game against Menlo College where my old friend Mark Ary had "matriculated" to. Saw Mark quite often during those years. He had surprised me the summer after graduation simply showing up at my house unannounced along with the Wyman brothers...what a kick that was. My final 2 years I went and played at San Diego State on a nationally ranked team. The highlight was when I scored the winning goal against USC in overtime as a junior. Had dreams of playing in the pros but despite a couple of good camps I never got signed...awwww. I actually got back into soccer a few years ago as a referee and now chase 18 year olds up and down the field wondering where MY youth disappeared to.

In between I've worked in various industries ranging from retail management which I hated to working as a contractor and even crewing on yacht deliveries and a half dozen other things. Suffice it to say I got out of the rat race to work for myself several years ago and it was the right choice. No heart attack for me...please. I'll try and upload some pics in the near future.

As I said...I left a piece of myself behind. Brazil was wonderful. Graded was wonderful. I'm so glad for this chance to reconnect with my Graded classmates...the memories and your stories. I feel like I might be getting just a little bit of that missing something back.

Did I mention Graded was wonderful? Such warm and friendly people. Great caring friends...Eduardo Gentil, Jerry Holmlund. Mark Sepanski, David Sage, and later Mark Ary became my brother from another mother. Lisa (now Lysa?)James, Leslie Sagar, Paula Friedeman and so many others. Upper class men like Rick Ary, Danny Woods, Tina Koschman, Bob Thiesen, Mark Lund...Quincy who could forget Quincy. My brother of course, Paul Gruppo...

Teachers: Well Mr. Bobbert hated me. He made me wear that hot heavy and smelly paper mache asshead (read donkey) in class for a week straight when we read "A Midsummer Night's Dream". The Bard my ass...literally. On the other hand I loved Howie Westfield. He was very cool and also very oblivious... I remember Mark Lund once forgot his uniform for a softball game and he surreptitiously used magic markers on his white t-shirt to approximate our uniform colors...Howie never noticed.

Memories that stand out: Running the 800 meters against EA in Rio on the track adjacent to the famous Maracana Stadium...very cool. Guaruja of course. Ubatuba staying at the Sage place. Hanging out at Ducas'. That awful smell when running the Big G behind the school...oh my god! But the most indelible memory I have was that incredible Braniff Meet in 1970 when our softball team took down the mighty supposedly unbeatable Buenos Aires team. This was simply not supposed to happen and we shut them out. That would have been enough but I have to say one of the great moments of my entire life came at the conclusion of the tournament at the awards ceremony in the packed and overflowing gymnasium when I was called up to receive my award for making the All Braniff Meet team. A pretty heady and surreal moment for this 14 year old freshman. Don't think I would trade that night for anything.

So...does anybody remember me?