Washington High School
Class of 1967
What's New
| ||||||||||
Who updates the class site with current deaths of classmates?
Have a happy birthday. Say hi to Bruce. David Myers
Posted on: Jun 27, 2021 at 4:13 PM
Happy birthday. Hope all is well. Every day we are here is a blessing. Hope to see you at next reunion. Flea.
Been a few months now since reunion. Hope all had a nice Thanksgiving and looking forward to Christmas. It was a special 50th reunion for me. I Did not get any reunion pics. Hope some of you would post some of your pictures. Would like to see some. Thanks.
Gene Smiley Johnson here.....gosh its been along time my friend. please write me ok.
Thanks for coming, Pat.
Here is something that I wrote up about Denny quite a while ago:
I came across a photo of me from the Washington Evening Journal, which is the most wholesome-looking picture of me in existence. I am young, with a winning smile, a 4-H shirt, and am leaning on one of my 4-H pigs. It brought back good memories. I had just won the Washington County 1967 Swine Showmanship Championship at the county fair. My good other-farm-kid friend, Denny Marek, had won the award the previous year and I had kidded him quite a bit about the honor and the trophy with the golden pig on top of it. He speculated that I was just being jealous and said that it was his goal to "coach me up" so I could win the award the following year. We laughed about it but then the following day, he brought in the "Top 10 Tips for Winning the Washington County Fair Swine Showmanship Championship". The tips were all sort of funny, toungue-in-cheek things like 1) Wear a 4-H tee shirt, so you look adequately patriotic; 2) Carry a brush in your back, left jeans pocket but don't use it under any circumstances; 3) Master the "earnest, yet above the fray" look and the judge will subconsciously register that you are somehow better than the others... etc...I kept the list and the following summer we had fun dutifully preparing, following the recipe to the finest detail. Lo and behold, I ended up winning, no small deal given there were maybe 100 other exhibitors (this is hog country, after all). I remember going back to the hog barn with my big trophy with the shiny gold pig on top, and laughing uncontrollably with Denny as we made plans to open up a swine showmanship school. Denny passed away way too young (he was 26 or 27 I think) but I think of him often and the great small town times that we shared.
I remember one time standing at attention on our numbers in PE while Coach Roger Harrington (the "enemy", for non-football players) strolled down the line inspecting the troops (did that bad tradition continue?). Bob Harvey had forgotten his uniform for about the 3rd time in a row. Harrington bellered at him, "Harvey, where's your uniform." Bob yelled back even louder, "Harrington, I forgot it!!" It infuriated Coach Harrington and he slugged Bob hard in the chest, knocking him back a few steps. When he got his balance Bob (who wasn't that big but was pretty tough) ran back up and slugged Coach Harrington back, in the chest, knocking him back a couple of steps. Coach Harrington just stood there looking at him for about 10 seconds thinking of what he wanted to do, thought better of it, and slowly continued walking down the line inspecting the troops again. We watched all this out of the corners of our eyes. Doug Hayes was at attention next to me and we both whispered, "HOLY SHIT!" out of the corners of our mouths simultaneously. I believe that if Bob Harvey had returned alive from Vietnam he would never have had to buy his own drinks in Washington for the rest of his life, or at least when I was back visiting.
http://marines.togetherweserved.com/usmc/servlet/tws.webapp.WebApp?cmd=ShadowBoxProfile&type=TributeExt&ID=31146
Oops. Got a little chatty there...
Such nice words for those who died way to young in the war. Thank you for caring and for your service.
I'll always remember "The Clicker"; Doug's nickname from always clicking (by opening and closing) his Zippo lighter. He was my partner in Roger Harrington's gymn class. As such, we had to carry each other in the 1/2 mile carry each month. Brutal! Always a great conversationalist and a good friend.