--------------------------------------
Subject: How's it going?
Date: Wed, 8 Jul 1998
From: "Teresa (White) Contreras" <rtczbcon@lemoorenet.com>
Hi Brad!
I was just browsing through the internet and came upon our 20 year
virtual page. Pretty neat!!
Hope everything is going well with you and your family. As for mine,
the kids are keeping me really busy.
My oldest son, Casey is 16 and driving!! Boy that makes me feel old.
Anyway, my middle son, Zachary is 13. He's my sports fan. Oh how he
loves sports!! Especially baseball and basketball. This is his first
year in baberuth. Right now they are in a tournament at Lemoore High
School. If he wins tomorrow they will travel to Santa Maria. Very
exciting!! My youngest, and my only daughter Britney is 11. She too
loves sports. She has been attending the Michael Jordan Basketball
this week at Buchanan High School.
As for myself, I am remarried to a wonderful man. His name is Raul.
We will be married 5 years in October. I work in Visalia for an orthopedic
surgeon. Great job!!
Well gotta go for now. Hope to chat more later.
Bye for now, Teresa White Bettencourt Contreras
ASB Secretary (what year was it?) HA!
-------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Baby Names?
Date: Sat, 11 Jul 1998
From: "Dan Burgess" <halfdome@gte.net>
Wish we could be at the reunion, but Nina is expecting very soon-August
5. This will be the third boy for us. Anthony is five, James is three,
and baby ????-we haven't decided on a name yet. Any suggestions? Send
us your top five names to: halfdome@gte.net.
Go bananas b - a - n - a - n -
a - s!
Go bananas b - a - n - a - n -
a - s!
-------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Reunion Review
Date: Tue, 14 Jul 1998
From: Maria (Costa) Hernandez <khernand@kings.k12.ca.us>
Hi Brad!
I meant to write you earlier and then didn't get to it.
Just wanted to let you know that our Reunion was great fun. We had
approx. 180 persons in attendance. There were a few who came in late
and didn't check in so I'm not really sure of the exact number, but
that's pretty close.
The dinner was great. We had tri-tip, chicken breast in an orange
sauce, rice pilaf, green beans in bacon, green salad, a variety of
rolls, and for dessert a choice of Marble cake or Peach cobbler. We
took some pictures. I'll make copies and send them to you to publish
on the web site.
From my point of view it appeared that everyone was having a really
great time. I did notice one very pronounce difference from the other
reunions I've been to, including my husband's. It looked to me like
everyone was making an extra effort to speak to everyone else. The
dinner hall was full during the meal time but for the most part everyone
sort of gravitated to the bar area afterwards. You remember how that
usually seems to happen. But this time, it was very nearly everyone,
going to the bar instead of the sort of quiet separation that you
feel sometimes, with 50% in the main hall and 50% in the bar, with
a sort of low hum in both areas. So it was, of course, very crowded
in there throughout the evening. But it was great. Towards the last
couple of hours more people came out and did some dancing, and so
the dance floor began to fill up also. It just seemed to me like a
lot of the reserves and shyness' had been done away with and everyone
was really enjoying visiting with each other. I know that's a generalization,
and only my point of view, and so I'm to be conservative in reviewing
the evening, keeping in mind that all persons may not have enjoyed
the evening as much as I did.
Now for my own personal feeling about the evening . . .
I had an absolute blast. I've never enjoyed a reunion more. The 5
year was fun, but I don't remember much about it other than I enjoyed
myself. Our 10 year was more elaborate, and we had a larger turnout,
I think, so it was a lot of fun too. But we were younger and more
people were probably either around or able to get back here. However,
I don't remember everyone mixing on such a large scale as we did this
time. I didn't go to the 15 year but I heard it was nice, although
smaller than this one was. But the 20 year was what I think they all
should be. I believe that the credit goes to time and maturity. Everyone
was friendly, sociable, full of laughter. There didn't seem to be
any prejudices or preconceptions in the air, and it was a very festive,
noisy atmosphere, from so much conversation. I don't think I stopped
smiling, or talking, or laughing, all evening. It was great. Some
people looked very different, only because it was hard to recognize
them due to it had been so long since we'd seen them. In many instances
we heard people saying this was their first one. But everyone looked
so good. Some of our classmates looked down right fantastic, as in
"You're not getting older, you're getting better." I hope that most
of the people there enjoyed themselves as much as I did.
We had a new Yearbook from our year that had been donated to us and
we raffled it off to whomever wanted to put their name in the hat.
(if they hadn't bought one, had lost theirs, or their book had been
destroyed) Lonnie Owens was the winner.
We blew up pictures from the yearbook and posted them throughout
the hall, including each set of class pictures from our Freshman to
Senior Year. I also printed out some of the web site pages and posted
them with a letter explaining how you had developed the virtual reunion
and the address they could find it on. I noticed several people looking
at that. Maybe you'll get some more responses. It just occurred to
me to go look at it now. . . . .Doesn't look like anyone's written
to it yet. Colleen Beck Toft was down also and she said she saw the
notice and browsed it after the reunion.
We enjoyed the reunion so much a few of us met for lunch today. The
"us" were Colleen (still down from Redding), Sheila Yanez DeLaCruz,
Chris Pereira Avila (still here from Idaho), Teresa Morisson Coltra,
and I. While there Julie Simon Tos came in with a student she is tutoring
and joined us. It was great fun.
I'm going to try to find some time soon to write directly to the
web site with my view of the reunion. I think we're going to have
some memory books available to sell so perhaps we could post that
on the web site. I'll confirm that and let you know.
I passed along your good news regarding the arrival of your daughter
to several persons who I thought you might have been closest to. Celine
Gonzales, for one. She came from South Carolina. Jerome Rosa was there,
from Oregon, I think. Randy Cardoza too, from Carlsbad.
Wished you could have made it, but 5 years rolls around fast. Hope
to see you at that one.
Bye, for now!
Maria (Costa) Hernandez
-------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Filling in the gaps . . .
Date: Wed, 29 Jul 1998
From: "Celine (Gonzales) Lerner" <MLTazMan@compuserve.com>
It was a dark and windy night . . . and I flew off to my new home
in South Carolina. I've been out here with my husband, Mark, and 2
girls, Jocelin (born '90) and Siovean ('94). I'm enjoying being a
full time mother and wife. We have a dog named Mindy who is a Shi-Tzu
with designer genes..... Jocelin is into riding English, showing several
times this summer already. Siovean seems to like Daddy's sports better,
golf , soccer, and baseball. Mark's family and family business is
here, so here we'll be!
After COS, I went to UC Irvine and majored in Biology and Art. After
that, I worked in the hotel industry, at Marriott and the Four Seasons
Newport Beach as a corporate sales manager. During that time, I met
Mark thru a sorority sister, (Alpha Chi Omega) who introduced us with
good recommendations. We married in May of '87 and lived in Aliso
Viejo, CA, until destiny called Mark back to SC in '92. We did attend
the 20 reunion, and both of us thouroughly enjoyed it. I'm sorry to
see that some weren't there, but this is wonderful to fill in the
gaps.
My mom, dad, sister, and nephew still live in Hanford, so we usually
get back each summer. We'd love to see old freinds when we're back
there.
P.S. (From Mark) She's been driving a suburban for the last few years,
so now she's a certified "Porch Dawg," and is close to getting membership
in the Royal Order of Bubba-Ettes. when she masters the spittoon,
granny say's she's in there!
-------------------------------------------------------
Subject: My three sons
Date: Wed, 29 Jul 1998
From: "Dan Burgess" <halfdome@gte.net>
We gave birth to Ryan Alexander today at 4:48 A.M. He weighed in
at 7 lbs. 4 oz. and stretched to 21 inches. Total laps time from leaving
home to having Ryan was 48 minutes. Both Nina and Ryan are doing fine
and plan to spend another day at the hospital. "Drive up baby deliveries"
are not uncommon for us. James was born 45 minutes after leaving the
house.
Bye for now. Dan
-------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Wish I was there . . .
Date: Thu, 30 Jul 1998
From: "Brad Lakritz" <blakritz@earthlink.net>
I read Maria's story about the reunion with great interest hoping
to catch a glimpse of the event in her description or even hear the
name of someone I'd been thinking about. I was touched by her sense
that everyone seemed to come together with interest in each other.
That's what this web site is all about for me. I am one of the (lucky
or unlucky?) people who moved away from Hanford long ago. Even though
my family remains there to this day, and I visit my dad as often as
possible, I rarely get the chance to see more than a handful of my
best friends from high school.
For me high school was about becoming friends with all of you. I
think about my life since then and realize that being "grown up" is
much more complicated than it was to hang out with my high school
buddies. So, of course, my memories will be positive.
But those fond memories are more than just thoughts viewed through
rose colored glasses. I find in this complicated world that it is
very difficult to be appreciated in the work place. As a family we
find it hard to make close friends in the community. That was never
the case in Hanford. Each time I come back the reality of that difference
is made clearer. Even though I can't come back to live there I can
always think about my friends when I want to. If I'm lucky, they'll
contact me and let me know about the wonderful (or even difficult)
things they have going in their lives. In that way, I will remain
a part of that world which I left in 1979.
On July 5th, just before the 20th year reunion, Dena and I had a
beautiful baby girl named Mia Rachel. She was born at 5:52am weighing
8 lbs. 14 ozs. and measuring 21 inches long. She's a bit of a fussy
baby and can be difficult to calm at times. I suppose after two other
"perfect" babies I deserve a bit of a challenge. We're hoping it's
just a short phase she's going through so we can get some good sleep.
On the night of the reunion I was thinking of my high school life
and how different things are today. It's been a long, strange, trip.
As I look into Mia's eyes I realize that perhaps my greatest challenge
in life was not getting to this point in time but to raise my children
to be able to experience the world like I did. When I watch Emily
ride her bike down the road or see Noah hit a baseball I know I've
got an amazing responsibility toward providing my children with safe
and happy lives. It's hard to imagine being in this position when
just a few short years I was doing all those silly things in high
school.
I feel like the luckiest person in the world. Lucky because of what
I have today, and lucky because I got to spend my youth with all of
you. Growing old this way is not so bad after all.
So, all I can say now is that I'm looking forward to 25 years and
the chance to see all of you together again. Oh, and don't be too
suprised if I show up in town to show off the kids in a few weeks.
If you see a rag tag family walking aimlessly around town and that
looks like it doesn't belong. That'll be us. Honk your horn, whistle,
or just say hello. It's always nice to hear from friends.
Love Always, Brad
--------------------------------------
