Sorry I did not respond sooner but I have been extremely busy finishing up a move. We bought a house a year ago, spent months getting it ready to live in, moving, getting my new shop ready to move into, moving again, getting the old house ready to sell, and finally selling it just before Christmas and vacation out of town.

I am glad to be in touch with school mates and happy that you are doing this outside of Classmates.com, which is a mixed bag at best.

I live with my wife Leslie, and 2 daughters, Cora, 12 and Amalia 8, in Boonville, CA. Boonville is in the Anderson Valley in the middle of Mendocino County, in Northern California. it is, or has become over the last few decades, known for vineyards, and some very fine wines are bottled here. WE are about 30 miles driving from the Coast, and 120 miles north of San Francisco.

My wife is a school teacher. I work at l home restoring and building period woodwinds. i do lots of 18th and 19th century flute restorations and have built Mozart period clarinets, bassoon, flutes, and so on. I am now focusing mainly on Irish bagpipes (which I play) and am building sets as well as restoring antique sets.

I have continued to play music over the years and do a fair amount of performing, mostly for my own community in recent years thought I have toured but not much sine the 80’s. I have been playing Cuban and Puerto Rican music for some years and have for the last 2 years been playing with an 8 piece band going by the name IMAMBO THIS! We have recently been working on a CD and nearly have a finished product.

Lucille Grooms 

Ted Duncan 

lives in Hampton, Virginia since 1988. Spent 30 years in the Air Force, retired here and am now working for the Air Force as a contractor. I married in 1973, to a wonderful girl I met in Taiwan, have Five kids ( no grandkids yet). I haven’t run into anyone from our class, except Kathy McDonald, who lives in Boise, ID, I believe. Ted T

 Valerie Carter (Firtsch)  

lives in Colton, Ca and has worked for Pac Bell (SBC) since graduation. She is single and has a son and daughter. She loves to go country dancing and is currently involved in 1890 re-inaction of the old Western days attending such functions in full 1890 gowns. She is always looking for any clothing from that period. Valerie does not have a computer, but you can write her through Elissa at this time.

Claudia Yates (Noble),

 has been married to the same guy for 28 years and has one daughter and still lives in Torrance. No grandchildren, but working in special education as an assistant in a classroom of autistic children for Torrance Unified at the local elementary school.  Cnoble9170@aol.com

Dee Riesler (Elkhair)

I am not sure where to start. I so not remember much about high school, but it would be nice to reconnect. I have some trouble remembering who my friends were; I guess this could be due to the amount of years that have gone by. I guess it could also be due to the amount of years that have gone by. I guess it could also because I had a brain tumor, I had surgery to de-bulk the tumor and radiation therapy to finish the tumor off. Unfortunately, the area of the brain that controls memory was effected (minimally) by the radiation. I have a little trouble remembering the distant past. I am an RN and I work at Loma Linda University Medical Center (LLUMC). I have a bachelors degree in nursing. My main job there is in the Proton Radiation Center; occasionally I work weekends as the Administrative Supervisor for LLUMC. As for my personal life, my job keeps me very busy. I am divorced, have three children and 11 grandchildren with one more grandchild due in June. The grandchildren tend to keep most of my free time busy. During my nursing career, I have worked in several different countries. Working in other countries has helped me travel extensively. I really enjoyed the opportunity to live in different cultures. I have a friend that likes to travel so every year we pick a place on the globe and visit there. Dee Elkhiar@msn.com

Tom Kratville

lives in Denver, Colorado, married with 2 sons who are both still in college. Worked for AT&T for 28 years (retired), then worked as a VP for Qwest Communications for 4 years. Was also in the USCG for 4 years. Earned a BS degree in engineering (10 years of night school - yuk). Tom kratville@pcumail.com

Robert Ott

 currently lives in Lebanon, Ohio and do not yet know where we will be going next. I am married and work on contract to large companies as an engineering consultant. I joined the Marine Corps in October of 1966 and after boot camp did a short tour at Khe Sanh, South Viet Nam. I was med-evacked to Philadelphia and spent the rest of my time in the Corps at Camp Pendelton and The marine Barracks at long Beach Naval Base. I was a single parent for many years and remarried 11 years ago, we have three children all together, a son 32, a daughter 32 and a daughter 30. We have seven grand children ranging in age from 13 to 1.5 years old. We move around a great deal due to the employment and do enjoy meeting new people. I did hear from patty Perlawitz-Peterson a year or so back and then lost touch. I also wrote and received a couple of emails from George Williams but that has been the extent of my contact with the Torrance High classes. “Mouse” who loved to surf!!!!!!  rwott@hotmail.com

 Larry Strouse

This is a blast from the past!!! I am interested in what all have been up to all these years. I am single and looking for the right women. I have one son Michael, and he is living in Hollywood, that’s right, he is an actor, his stage name is Michael Hagerty. He is 32 years old and doing real well. I am in Victoria, Texas, working for the City of Victoria. I would be please to chat or write to any of the class of 1966, just to make new, old friend. Looking forward to more e-mail from ya’ all. Larry las_me@hotmail.com :

TED DUNCAN:

Greetings to all; Ah yes...THE ALBUMS “Did any of us like our hair? Or glasses??” I was too skinny and my ears were to big. I felt awkward in the emerging man’s body. Now I’m getting old, a bit over weight and not only do I still have big ears, but hair has begun to grow on them. I have to laugh because such perceptions of the self disappeared long ago. A couple years ago my father gave me my High School annuals that he had saved all these years. I had thought them extinct! So many roads that have been traveled over the years that much of memories souvenirs have slipped away. As names of found classmates come in, I match them with a faces that I remember, some that sat across from me in homeroom or math, some that were just in passing between bells in the hallway. All of us looking forward into an unknowable future, trying hard not to look back because what was ahead was much larger then what lay behind and the unknown beckoned us to leap into our destinies. I wanted to be a poet and an artist, I wanted to create new realities of the imagination. Somewhere along the way I discovered that I already was a poet because that sensibility was a part of the fabric of my being long before I set out on my fantastic voyage. I hope that all on this list can reflect back on all that lays between the pages of then and now with the satisfaction of living life to it’s fullest, good or bad. There has been for me a bit of both and I would not have traded any of it. To those classmates that did not make the long journey because theirs was to be a short one I would like to say “We remember you well”.

duncante@cox.net