ND
49/50/51 REUNION GROUP NEWSLETTER, JUNE 2000
ndal1@juno.com
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For
many of you this is the last orange letter you will get. We are going to
continue to write, print & mail, but unless you have paid dues,
(subscribed) you are out of the loop. That is the way we are going to
know you care enough to keep up with us. (“#”
on your mailing label shows you have sent dues $) Those
who sent e-mail addresses will be able to print it off the Juno address.
And further: Bob McCauley, 55, will post it on the http://www.NorthDallasHigh.com
web page. We are going to encourage you to check the web
regularly for info & tidbits. This can keep you more up to date. We
hate to lose the data base, but we will turn over our records to GNDAA
& leave keeping up with your moving about to their tracking systems.
(Learned there are still many errors in GNDAA new directory. Check with
us.) We
know that lots of you don't really care that much about the newsletter,
or perhaps our little efforts to keep in touch, & if we cut the
stamp purchase from 600 to 200, we are spending considerably less $$, as
well as using less than a ream of paper. We will rely a lot on the
Saturday lunches to keep us socializing. And regards the email. Make
sure we have your correct address. Some of you change carriers, but do
not let Juno know, so mail we send is returned.
We
had the March 3rd Saturday lunch out at Lee Cowley's new driving
range in Prosper (ever been out there? Boondocks!), but two folks went
to Luby's anyway. The March Saturday weather was raw, but a few hardy
souls made the journey, & Lee & Marilyn were glad to see
us, fed us hot dogs & brownies, then Rufus Burleson & John
& Johnnie Hunt went over to Rufus's place, just down the
road apiece, to exchange notes & conversation about their respective
art activities. We were joined in April by Roy Wyatt & Roger
Hart, Juanita Ferguson Cole, & Frances Hagg Perkins, who looks
like she may become a regular. Marshall Tunnell, '48, has found
us entertaining enough to come again. Rest assured, we talk about the rest of you, usually inquiries whether anyone knows anything about this or that classmate, or who we happened to see at the book store or the shopping mall or the symphony. Remember,
these lunches are on the third Saturday, 12:30 at the Valley View
Luby's. Upcoming dates are June 17, July 15, Aug 19, Sept 16
& Oct. 21. There
will be another newsletter in Oct. for future dates, & they will be
posted on the web page. Many at the reunion asked if these lunches were
going to continue. By all means! This is our primary connection now.
Come when you can. Smaller group, easier visiting. Put this on your
calendar! We
had a few notes returned with the News to Share, one from Ronnie
Bowdich's brother in WA telling of his death from cancer. That
address went into GNDAA directory, as we did not get the note back
before the directory went to press. And a wonderful letter from Jeddie
Mack Terrell's wife telling about his death, & the great life he
lived. Learned from Stewart Bonnett at the reunion of the death
this spring of his sister Muriel from lupus.
Now
about that PARTY! It was grand. We started on Friday afternoon with an
open hospitality room where folks could congregate, visit & look
over a myriad of stuff. Lucy Lisotta Hight had put together some
notebooks & poster boards of pictures from the dark ages, some
correspondence, & with help from Marjorie Vogel Condron, 51
& Tommy Lovin Bosler, 49, got the news-to-share pages in
order fit for you to read. The hospitality room schedule was arranged by
Doug Johnson Newsom & we were cared for by Conoly Cullum
Hester, Bettie Sherard Miller, Orville & Marty Jamison Lonvick,
Virginia Festervan Ridley (& husband. Al), Bobby &
Carole Weir Bohne, Bill & Carolyn Covey Bonds, Robert Allison, Wayne
Dortch, Barbara Albrecht McDaniel, E.M. Fulton & Faye Kornegay Baker
over the weekend. Jack
Duncan
& Ed Cardwell were liasons to the hotel catering staff. They
had done a remarkable job getting the menus, room arrangements, dinner
plans, & parking perks set up. Jeirenne Able Moorman, with
help from Pat McKnight Hartin & Norma Carlton Shipman provided
table decorations for the dinner. They had a decorating session on
Saturday afternoon. Nancy Chewning Farrell & Emily Bennett
Mitchell did the book-keeping job & recording your payments,
depositing your checks & chasing down a few who were slow getting
their commitments in. David Doggett helped locate missing
addresses, & we did finally run Kay Francis Hall Sabrah to
ground, after having her missing for about 10 years. Your
generosity enabled us to give a $5000 gift to North Dallas, which we
presented to principal Lynn Dehart at the Saturday night dinner.
The committee voted on a wish list the school provided us & the
money is to be spent for a new auditorium curtain & switchbox, and
classroom sets of thesauruses & dictionaries. This benefits the
school as a whole, with new auditorium facilities, and the educational
process in particular with the books. Labels will be applied stating
that they are gifts from the classes of 1949, 1950 & 1951. We also
posted the wish list in the hospitality room so that anyone who wished
to make a personal donation toward an item would know what was needed.
We have also put that on the web page. Send your checks to us & we
will forward on. Specify what they should go for (as follows).
E.M.
Fulton has
a friend who draws The Dinette Set cartoon, which runs in a number of
nationwide newspapers. She drew one with a banner across the top with
info about the reunion, to run at some time the last weeks of May. We
tried to email this information to you-all, but even with addresses
which later proved OK, many of the forwards did not go through. E. M.
had sent a copy to us, which we displayed in the hospitality room. (We
will try to send it to the web page.) There were so many wonderful
artifacts there ·
Some pictures of
a birthday party attended by many of the Jan. 51 class, ·
The 7th grade
pictures from Bonham, ·
Ernest Cerda's
laminated copies of the Compass, 49, 50, 51, · Graduation announcements from 50 & 51. Charles
Sanders had to leave
right after the luncheon, but he hung out in the hospitality room for
the morning Sat., giving many of us a chance to visit. The email list
was there, but few of you picked one up. And Joe Slocum had
brought Texas road maps for you too. We had bandanas for all, but have
too many left over. If you didn't get yours, or want one, let us know.
And we will send them. The
Mixer Friday night was attended by about 225, that included spouses. And
46/47/48 were having a to-do on another floor, so several of them came
up & some of our group went down. Darrell & Beverly
(Alexander) Keathley were in that 48 group, as were Willie &
Joanne (Smith) Guy. We had a number of 52's join our party: Joan
Price Miller, Joanne Rogers Brown, Duncan Porter (he grew up
to be so tall), Mary Ann Martin Mitchell. and Mary Frances
Myers Palmer, who went to Milam with some of us, came from MN. Jim
Metcalfe, who should have graduated in 50, but went to the service,
showed up from PA. Clifford Goss came with the express intention
of attending the S.J. Haye breakfast, but was around to visit with us
during the Mixer & Saturday. The
Saturday GNDAA luncheon was looooong. But the awardees got their
plaques. Wayne Bodensteiner was unable to be there as he has been
fighting cancer for several years & has to put up with fever &
his doctor’s concerns about infection, be temporarily hospitalized
& generally has his life style interfered with. Fred Hight
tried to contact him by cell phone to allow him to hear his speech, but
got a busy signal. After a career in the Navy, when he rose to Admiral
status, Wayne retired to become a professor & has been at UTA,
UT-SA & is now at U of Houston. Don Ratterree made the
presentation to Julius Dasch, a geologist who has examined the
moon rocks. Julius
had brought along some old stuff including a piano recital program which
listed about 6 of us, including Betty Jane Coppedge, Charlotte
Carlisle, Bobby Cason, Barbara Buchanan & Emily Jo Bennett. Robert
Allison did the honors for Charles Sanders. Sue Willard Olivier's
award was presented by Carolyn Covey Bonds. The
Service Award went to Stanley Knapp, which was accepted by
daughter Betty Bob Knapp Smith, ND '44. We found out afterward that Bebe
Knapp Platzner had been there, but she ducked out immediately to
return to Kerrville, speaking only to Susie & Carolyn. We
were very disappointed that she did not give others a chance to talk to
her. We will highlight Charles & Susie in the next
newsletter. No space this time. One
thing we learned: the Mixer format is a better opportunity to get
visiting done. If ever we do anything like this again we shall not have
a sit-down dinner. Our food was delicious. The hotel was great. But once
we sang the Alma Mater folks moved off to either visit somewhere else or
go home & the Saturday crowd didn't have the same visiting time that
the Friday night group did. 49 says "We're done. No more."
Don't know if 51 will try to get together again or not. It
does take several someones willing to organize & shove it on the
way. 50 expects to have some kind of get-together next year, but at this
point is vague. The treasury funds will be depleted, except for mailing
expenses, & given to ND. Since
we must quit, look to the web page for names of who came. We will
attempt to list all of them, but there is no room on this letter. We
paid for 230 on Friday night & 267 for Saturday night. The mailing
label data is to be discarded by Sept. 1. If you wish to stay on, get in
touch NOW, send mailing expense money & /or email address.
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