The directory

Only several weeks after the reunion, I have managed to compile the class information you sent in or that EMHS provided. Theoretically, if you click the link below, you will see a PDF of all our stuff. Please, please let me know if there are errors and I will update it right away.

Nov. 12 update: Heard from Angie Boyers Whitehead in comments. The PDF is updated under the link with her current information. After four boys, ages 8 to 2, Angie and Paul had a baby girl named Veronica about nine weeks ago. They live in Alpharetta, GA.

Class Directory

 

EMHS wins state soccer tournament

Sounds like a thriller. You can read about it here.

You know, we had a touring choir reunion earlier this year and it was almost enough to make me think I could do that all over again. I know that if I hear a song from tour, I can pretty much still sing my part along with it, and more, I can remember certain times we sang it somewhere, what the whether was, who I was standing by, how we travelled to get there that day. And this soccer title is a lot the same way. Those players are where we used to be, and when I get a chance to play, I can feel like it wasn’t that long ago, that I could do that again, and just like songs, remember certain games, exactly what the light was like and the color of the uniforms, a goal I gave up, exactly where it went and what I tried to do about it, or one that I actually got my hands on.

You don’t quit playing for a team when you quit playing for them. I was at EMHS a few months back, and it’s a long story, but Coach Martin, in a pre-season talk once, said that goalkeepers have to be ready at all times, and for the whole season and probably until we graduated, Kevin Eshleman and I used to sneak up on each other and attempt to punch each other in the stomach. Got to be ready at all times, right? The upshot being that, I’m 38, walking down the EMHS hallway, and wondering where Eshleman is hiding.

So with this state title, we didn’t win it and nothing we did made it possible for these guys to win it, and they probably don’t even know we ever played. (Some of them probably remember lighting me up in recent summer league games, however.) But I have to think we won, or helped win part of it, somehow. Good for them, regardless.

UPDATE: The Windsock story on the game, with video of the post-game celebrating, is here.

 

One more person

As I was putting together the stuff to give back to EMHS after the reunion, I found a few e-mail addresses of people who were not at the reunion and sent out last call, as it were. Most of the e-mails bounced back, but as you can see in the comments on the picture post below, one found Cotton Bryant.

Another reached Albuquerque, NM, and Christopher Taylor. He writes:

Wow, what a surprise. Opened the Monday morning calender and email and got this reminder of the years gone by. Sorry I missed the get together. Got me thinking about the past 10 years. Finished my neurosurgery training in 2001.

[My wife] Mary and I moved to Dallas. Spent 3 years there. She taught school. I did specialized work in cerebrovascular neurosurgery. Practiced for a year and a half in El Paso after that.

We moved to Albuquerque in January of 06. We like the mountains and constant sunshine. I think we have settled down for a while. I’m in the Neurosurgery Dept. of the University. I do surgery and see patients. Lecture at the Medical School once or twice a year. I have a technical book being published this year. I shoot skeet on weekends and mess around with the guitar. Mary and I like to hike the desert and go scuba diving.

Mary has a jewelry business. She’s online at www.mhershberger.com. She’s been at it a couple of years and has earned enough this year to send herself to Italy next summer. I got all of the Europe I need bumming around with Chris Thompson. I think Mary is actually going to be in Washington, D.C., and in Harrisonburg in a couple of weeks doing trunk shows.

We tried to have kids for a while and gradually kind of gave up. Neither of us really felt strongly enough to go the adoption route. Otherwise we have mostly avoided tragedy.

More as it I track them down, and I’ll get right on that class directory thing.

 

Photo-blogging the reunion

OK, let’s see if this works…

Ed and Brent have no hair, and if they don’t mind, maybe the rest of us should just get over it, too.

Left to right, Rodney, Pam, Craig, Karis, Rick (Suzanne’s husband), Amy (back turned), and Mark.

There were lots of kids, who pretty much amused themselves. The younger two in this one belong to Brent and his wife, Heidi (holding Ian on the left). The big ones appear to belong to (or at least feel comfortable talking to) Craig and his wife Charity (in the sunglasses).

Rod and Bitsy try the food. (By the way, Hank’s was great and all, but not necessarily quite as good on the third day of eating leftovers. Note to self, re future reunions: A “Hank’s person” does not necessarily equal “one actual person.”)

Ed, his daughter Madeleine, and his wife Kim, eating with Valerie.

Your author, Patty, Shawn, Patty’s husband Jamie, and Ed (again. It’s his prize for helping Saturday morning, and for being the leading commenter on this here blog.)

I’d love to make some “children of the corn” joke here, but you know what? The kids were all right. It was amazing how they all just started playing together like they’d, I don’t know, gone to high school together 20 years ago or something. The hay bales were allegedly seating for people, and I can’t believe it never crossed my mind that they were be the greatest of all play things that I was genius enough to envision the play possibilities as well, and indeed planned that out in detail.

Perhaps not as exciting for the spouses, like Winston (Rene’s husband) or Jeff (Debra’s husband), even though they do have the same last name.

…or for these. That’s Laura, Mark Conrad’s wife and Michael Ann, my wife. Michael Ann is sitting down because I made her clean up the garden and stuff before the reunion by complaining about my wounded knee. (Michael Ann also took all these pictures. Thanks, dear. I love you.)

Deb appears to be having a decent time.

Amy, Karis, Mark Conrad, and his wife, Laura recall something or another.

And finally, after all the chairs and stuff were loaded up, three old guys stood around taking stock.

 

What we look like now

I don’t think we aged a bit. Looks exactly like our senior class trip picture. Check out this distinguished lot:

Class Photo

Left to right, Row 1: Jeremy Nafziger, Amy Rush, Suzanne (Kiblinger) Kratz, Bitsy (Anne) (Fries) Miller, Shawn (Yoder) McDaniel, Cindy Brenneman

Row 2: Karis Engle, Debra (Lehman) Rhodes, Rene (Emswiler) Rhodes, Brent Yoder, Conrad (Mark) Zapanta, Jenny (Shenk) Mahone, Pam (Moseman) Groff, Patty (Matheny) Baisden, Valerie (Brunk) Hertzler

Row 3: Craig Boyers, Rod King, Ed Bollinger, Christopher Thompson, Steven Gerber, Mark Showalter, Monica (Ross) Compagnari

 

More news

Two more people had e-mailed me just before or just after the reunion, and I didn’t know it until I checked my e-mail today:

• Pam Brunk Fahndrich wrote from Oregon to say she just couldn’t make it to Virginia right now, and that she hopes to make the next one.
• Lisa Yoder, who I may or may not get used to called Ana Lisa one of these days, wrote: “We are so sorry not to make it for the weekend but are thinking about all of you. There is a memorial for our son Javid, who died in April, on Sunday [October 21]. Many thanks to everyone who wrote in to our website and if anyone is interested in an update on our lives, my husband, Tony Lapp, started a blog a bit ago which includes information about our son.” The blog is at www.weeplanet.com. For those of you that didn’t know, Javid was born in October 2006 at only 24 weeks. Ana Lisa and Tony live in Philadelphia. I have to admit, I wondered whether to say something about Javid at the reunion, but decided that since I hadn’t heard from Ana Lisa about the reunion, I wouldn’t. After looking through their blog, I wish I had–it’s a terrible, wonderful story they tell there. Go look and send them your best.

By the way, those of you who were just at our house might like to know that Ana Lisa’s mom, Anne, was the realtor who helped us find and buy it. One of those old connections that comes in handy; when we were moving here, I was never sorry I’d gone to EMHS, what with all the people I already knew who helped us out. Anne was great, even after I dug up a picture of her daughter and me at Junior/Senior banquet.

More coming soon, including pictures from the reunion. 

 

Late-breaking news

In the e-mail today, the following news:

• Craig and Joy (Cline) Heatwole and their two kids won’t be able to make it after all; Craig cites a “soccer game, company party, and Indian princess camping trip all colliding on the same day.”
• Chris Thompson lives in Dayton, so I sort of figured he would make it. Turns out he has a good excuse: his wife, Jennifer, had a baby, Isabelle, on Oct. 9, and he’s been a little preoccupied. He says that, “depending on the newborn,” he, Jennifer, their daughter Eliza (2), and the baby might put in an appearance, however.
• One of our long-lost classmates found this blog and contacted me through it. Go figure with this technology stuff. Faben “Fofi” Assegid lives in Brussels, Belgium, where she coordinates microfinance projects. Before that, she worked for the UN for some time, and spent two years in Kurdistan. “Did I miss it again this year?” she wrote. “Oh dear.” She also says: “Miss all of you…. Big kiss.” I’ll have her contact information at the reunion.
• I invited our class sponsors, Mr. Hartzler and Mrs. Hertzler, as well as the principal from back in our day, J. David Yoder, but it does not appear that any of them can make it. Jay Hartzler wrote: “It would be great fun – especially since I remember your class most fondly of all the classes I’ve been with.  Please give my greetings to them and have a great time.”
• My mom has graciously been railroaded into picking up the food from Hank’s, so those of you that know her can say hello.
• Also, I bought some mums.

This flurry of activity means I have heard from 31 out of 69 of us (45 percent). Counting the Heatwoles and Thompsons as a push, we expect 70 people in our yard, 36 of which are adults.

 

Menu

Having conversed with Hank’s today, I am now at liberty to reveal the menu for the reunion:

• Barbequed beef
• Juniper marinaded chicken
• Colorado baked beans
• New potato salad (They tried to slip in some old potato salad, but I insisted that this was a pretty discerning crowd.)
• Drinks
• Dessert assortment of the “bars” variety

If you’re coming and there’s nothing on this list that you can eat–for example, if you’ve gone and become vegetarian–please let me know and we will arrange an alternative.

 

Got another one

Stuck in my junk mail folder, which is surely no reflection on the sender, but on Hotmail, was another RSVP. The R in the RSVP was favorable: Debbie Lehman Rhodes will be attending with her family.

It’s still not too late to at least hear from more of you, even if you can’t come. Whatever you send in, I’ll pass on here and at the reunion.

 

Spoke too soon

Yep, as soon as I claim “responses have slowed down,” I get three more people coming. I think I will try that again: boy, responses sure are slow. I’ll bet no one else is coming. Heh. The three most recent additions to the list are:

• Bitsy Fries Miller, all the way from Chesapeake
• Brent Yoder, all the way from Harrisonburg. Thanks for making the big drive, Brent.
• Karis Engle, all the way from Belle Glade, Florida, which according to Google maps is way down there by Lake Okechobee and Fort Lauderdale.

That puts the stats at:

• Heard from: 28 people (41 percent)
• Class members attending: 22 people
• Total people coming: at least 65

I forget–was I supposed to be getting the food, or were you guys going to bring it?