Hi Folks,

I wrote this list when I first got the form for the reunion. I have fond memories of high school and was myself surprised by the content of the list. At that time I decided not to send it in ... but now that we're on a roll here ... I look forward to seeing you all in August. No one in my family is still in Peoria. I'm now back to the Houston area where I spent most of my professional life after 10 years at Caterpillar and getting my EE degree at Bradley. In the last 5 years I've lived in Dallas; Rockville, Md; Portland, Or; and Kansas City, Mo.

Some of my memories .... in no particular order:

I remember Terry Fuchs turning pep rallies into drum recitals.

I remember 4 years of high school taking longer than any 4 years since.

I remember screwing up the first two yearbooks by signing their picture instead of mine.

I remember woodshop teacher Mr. Westoff doing my bowling ball and pin lamp project all by himself.

I remember football Coach Corky Robertson saying "we are looking for size, speed, and agility" and my having none of those.

I remember wrestling and seeing the ceiling of most Central Illinois gyms.

I remember four different wrestling coaches in four years.

I only remember one guitar player ... Dave Blanchard.

I remember Jerry Bowers had great hair.

I remember them cutting I74 through and maiming my neighborhood.

I remember Spanish teacher Grazina Stepaitis and thinking the only way to learn Spanish was to be one.

I remember "Mort Canter" announcing sports events on the radio.

I remember "Robin Weaver - WIRL" and "Dick Biandi - WLS" as rock and roll DJ's.

I remember "Bill Houlihan" doing the weather on TV.

I remember Millard Day winning the Merchant Marine essay contest and taking Ed Covey with him on his prize ride down the Illinois on a barge. I remember them saying the food was fantastic.

I remember wrestling with a mouthfull of braces and not being able to cake on enough wax to mitigate a bloody mouth in each match.

Typing turned out to be the most valuable course I took in high school.

I remember Dale (Skip) McCallum's Cushman scooter, shaved and raked '57 Chevy, and '62 Corvette.

I remember putting a "We bought the best ... Mr. Quick hamburgers" sticker on Dale (Skip) McCallum's shaved '57 Chevy where the Chevrolet symbol had been removed from the hood. I remember him not seeing the humor in that.

I remember "Chick Hern" doing Bradley basketball games.

I remember going to the state basketball tournament in Champaign our freshman year and our team getting sick.

I remember 6'10" basketball player Walt Gerard who was huge for those days and very slow getting up and down the court and whose feet never left the court when he jumped.

I don't remember knowing Walt Gerard but he signed my yearbook.

I remember cheerleaders who coordinated cheers with what was happening in the game.

I remember learning signal tracing in Allan Lurie's summer school electronics class at Manual and finding a broken wire in our car radio.

I remember the girls formed "spreads" but don't remember how they formed them.

I remember the girls were generally better students than the boys.

I remember being totally surprised with who turned out to be the top students in the class.

I remember Everett Lyon's Triumph TR4.

I remember Ken and Dick Wellner's Ford Falcon.

I remember walking the halls during lunch hour.

I remember bomb scares emptying the building.

I remember clubs that never met but got you another picture in the yearbook.

I remember the Opinion but I don't remember reading it.

I remember knowing the grade school every kid had gone to.

I remember almost nothing about going to classes.

I remember being assigned homework but I don't remember doing it.

I remember churches trying to create all kinds of places for kids to go instead of cruising ... and none of them working.

I remember spending weekends at the YMCA playing basketball and watching basketball or baseball on the TV in the lobby.

I remember being elected chaplin in High Y but don't remember ever buying into religion.

I remember Pee Wee Reese and Dizzy Dean doing baseball games on TV and advertising Falstaff beer.

I remember wondering when Roger Baumgartner learned how to pitch.

I remember the Student Council but I don't remember them doing anything.

I remember Class Officers but don't remember them doing anything.

I remember the Most Photogenic contest being legal.

I remember walking tours of all the car dealerships on Main street in September when the new models came out.

I remember assemblies of election speeches for various groups and offices but I don't remember campaigns.

I remember Prom Queens and Courts but I don't remember Prom Kings.

I don't remember any standout athletes but I remember Mike Cook being very good at baseball and basketball and wondering why he didn't play football.

I remember lots of kids on the honor rolls.

I remember our teachers being much older than my kid's teachers.

I remember being totally comfortable with mediocrity.

I remember the few disruptive students being pulled out of class and usually out of school.

I remember girls having jobs delivering messages for Mrs. Poschard (sp?) to get out of studyhall.

I remember being excited when issued my first gym suit as a freshman.

I remember wearing gym shorts over our wrestling sweats but don't remember why.

I remember having to furnish our own workout gear for wresting.

I remember hating wrestling head gear and getting a cauliflower ear as a result.

I remember Dodie Hall accidentally shot and killed by her boy friend when he showed her his fast draw.

I remember Judy Quine.

I remember Kramer's Drive-In way out of town on University where KMART ended up.

I remember being a curb waiter (curbie) with Roger Baumgartner at Kramer's Drive-In which is now Jumer's Castle Lodge.

I remember when the first McDonald's was built near Sheridan Village (Sheridan and Lake?) and hamburgers were 15 cents.

I remember Friday and Saturday nights cruising between Hunts Drive Inn and Steak and Shake.

I remember freezing my butt watching the Turkey Day football games against Manual.

I remember having trouble memorizing. When assigned to memorize the Gettysburg Address, I recorded it on an endless tape and played it through a speaker under my pillow theorizing I would pick it up subliminally as I slept. Not having validated the theory, I shouldn't have been so astonished when I showed up for the test and couldn't remember a single line of that speech.

I remember Junior Achievement and Jim Deatherage making soap.

I remember German teacher David Graham and how funny saying an umlauted "O" makes one look.

I remember the shock of first hearing a girl classmate use the four letter word beginning with "s".

I remember the shock of first seeing a girl classmate smoking.

I don't remember any drinking except the flask Jim Deatherage took to Physics class.

I didn't know anyone who was into marijuana or drugs if they even existed then.

I remember girls carrying their books snugly to their breasts and guys carrying theirs by their sides.

I remember carrying lots of books but don't remember opening them.

I remember 1 cent milk and wondering why?

I remember wonderful pies and spending money on them even though I brought my own lunch.

I remember being able to walk to school.

I remember the automobile braking response time demonstration and Garma Kinhofer missing the brake pedal entirely and killing the cones.

I remember the boys locker room smelled real bad.

I remember wrestling practice in the study hall.

I remember anxiously waiting for the sex education session in health class. It never came. We just watched game films.

I remember having to reach up when I danced.

I remember the three prettiest girls in our class and hope it's wisdom that keeps me from saying who they are.

I remember going out for track and not being able to finish the mile before dark.

I remember trying out for the high jump and destroying the bar.

I remember the "Rec" (I74 took it out) but I don't remember the "New Rec".

I remember wondering how big the Committee of 40 would have to be for me to be on it.

I remember running stairs in wrestling practice.

I remember we had no weight training for any sports.

I remember screwing up on stage crew. It was in the play Diary of Anne Frank. Just as Susie Entringer said "Look Peter, the sky", I brought up the light in the window.

I remember projection crew getting me out of study hall to see movies.

I remember Carl Horst and the effect teaching physics can have on one's personality.

I remember monstrous old homes coming down to make way for the new Mr. Quick and Steak and Shake Drive-Ins at the top of Main Street Hill.

I remember Larry Harris commenting that the speech for my second try at Student Council was not nearly as good as my first so I would probably be elected. I was not.

I remember geometry teacher Mr. Van Deventer not buying my willingness to accept the Pythagorean Theorem without memorizing the 26 steps proving it.

I remember English teacher Jane Herke's disgust with my bad guess of "Ellery Queen" when she was looking for "Emily Dickenson".

I remember English teacher Jane Herke making us enter an essay contest. I chose the Merchant Marine; found someone's earlier essay in the library; copied it nearly word for word just to turn something in; and I won. She had to go up to Joliet with me to receive the award.

I remember Garma Kinhofer taking me out of the running for Dr. of Frogology with my third scalpel scrape on that frog's skull.

I remember my advisor Harry Whitaker suggesting I pursue a career in drywalling.

I remember winning a sit-ups contest in gym by doing them the whole hour. I walked around doubled over for two weeks after that.

I remember Lev Wallas covering political demographics in Civics and my wondering why anyone cared.

I remember wiring lights above the auditorium with low voltage relays so I could turn them on and off from the projection booth or from the stage.

I remember Latin teacher Glyda Swisher giving me my first "D" ever and my knowing it was a gift.

I remember Lee Marshall nicknaming me "ubi" in Latin class and my never knowing what it meant.

I remember wondering how they painted that graffiti way up on the smoke stack.

I remember not making the cut with Carla Tetmeyer and admiring her for her good taste.

I remember Keith Carrigan in Elaine Dobrunz' speech class doing his mime on bowling. It concentrated on how hard it is to sit in those slippery chairs.

I remember the best movies came to the Madison and Palace theaters.

I remember the Beverly, Varsity, and Apollo theaters also did a good second tier movie business.

I remember variety stores.

I remember the Peoria Drive In Theater did a thriving business in the summer time but I never took a date there.

I don't remember having a date except for maybe the Junior Prom but can't remember who it was.

I remember fellow wrestler Bill (Mouse) Krause fixing me up with a wild woman from Pekin for the Senior Party and a very uncomfortable evening having no clue what to do with her.

I remember Schmidgal's A&W Root Beer Drive-In on War Memorial and University had the best coney dogs.

I remember the usual mechanical religious convocations before assemblies and sporting events.

I don't remember religion playing an important role in anyone's life.

I don't remember any school conversations about religion or politics.

I remember having no clue what debate was about but they had to wear a suit to the meets.

I remember there being a club for just about everything and anything but sports attracted the most attention amongst the boys.

I remember washing out of Glee club before getting to the 4th bar of the audition song.

I remember Allan Lurie giving me a "B" (instead of an "A") in electronics in summer school because I greased the door knob to his class. He had the habit of leaning heavily on that knob as he unlocked the door.

I remember typing teacher Larry Harris driving cadence by banging a broom handle on the floor.

I remember wondering how Algebra teacher John Deal lost the end of his middle finger.

I remember being kicked off stage crew and nearly kicked out of school for dropping pebbles on people's heads during an assembly. I was in the crawl space over the auditorium.

I remember the girls crying on the last day of school saying "we are never going to see some of these people again ... ever."

I remember Paul Griebel and Rock Carter being really great guys.

I remember Larry Rager being in all the pictures because he was Bob Drake's best friend.

I remember Becky Borland organizing everything.

I remember Linda Reeves calling me the "guy with the windblown look" and my thinking it was a compliment.

I remember how surprised I was to learn that 3 out of 4 students in my class had been doing better than me all that time.

[Ted Williams died today. ]

My dad died the day before (July 4th) 2 months before turning 87.


WithGLEE Todd Marshall
http://www.WithGLEE.com