Subject: Class of l962
Date: Sun, 28 Jul 2002 19:57:12 -0700
From: Simpson [simpson@sonic.net]
To: PHS62@WithGLEE.com

Todd--A few thoughts/memories/pictures

--Frank Simpson
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TO PHS Class of '62 The "American Graffiti" Class

Wow! Skimming the web the other day and I discovered that the 40th is coming up. As usual, I'm a day late and dollar short :-)!

I had to rack the little gray cells for memories but the posts from some of you helped in that process.

The most enduring memory for me was Emily Rice's English class… and the punishment she exacted for punctuation/grammatical errors. Chuck Teeter did mention this in one of his posts. It was great preparation…not for college…but for law school where capital punishment was the norm :-)!

I do share some of the memories mentioned by others but for me High School was just something to get through. Frankly I did not have much of a clue during that time. Think of the Richard Dreyfus character in "American Graffiti." I made up for lost time in college but I'll skip over that period; I'm not sure that the statute of limitations has run. Except for one item--in 1965 (I was ostensibly going to school in Mexico City) while sitting at a table in a small café in Oaxaca, Mexico, Judy Quine and her husband (Bill Voelker) walked by. My first "contact" with someone from school since graduation.

After college, law school, and the Army I worked as a lawyer at Caterpillar in Peoria until 1985. Then I did something really crazy by quitting and going to work for American Express in California. By that time I had married Barbara who, as circumstance would have it, was a cousin of Carol Schmidgall. My second "contact" with someone from school since graduation.

Working for American Express was, shall we say, "interesting" and kept me bouncing from San Francisco to NYC and back on a regular basis. So much so that at times I wasn't sure if I was a Californian or a New Yorker. But it was nice to have a touch of "Peoria" in NYC where Bob Jamison (sp?) was one of the local TV reporters. My third "contact" with "someone" from school since graduation.

My present status is, according to popular vernacular, "retired." I prefer to think of it as the first time in my life when I could, for the most part, do what I want. A goal I had been striving for since adolescence. It wasn't a sudden decision but came over time-- perhaps inspired by a job offer that would have taken me back to Chicago. (Hint: never make January job offers to anyone living in California.)

So, here is to the Class of 1962. It is heartening to see that you all are doing well at the business of life. For reasons peculiar to my mental processes I think of it as the American Graffiti class. If you get a chance, take another look at the film. As I now live in the town where it was filmed, I can report that the bank and street scene with the blonde in the T-bird is still in place. Frates Road (the scene for the drag race at the end of the movie) is still there and looks pretty much the same except for the omnipresent vineyards that are taking over the county.

Best Wishes To All

Frank Simpson
P.S. DISCLAIMER

Dear Miss (Dare I say Ms?) Rice:

The foregoing is merely a rough draft not intended for final submission. Any errors contained herein are solely the responsibility of Microsoft and Dell. That's my story and I'm sticking to it :-)!