Friday Baseball Game

John Shable and I bought 4 tickets to the Cardinals game Friday night. Wondering if any out of town Alumni would like to go. We have one ticket unclaimed. Cost $50. Normally a 70 dollar ticket. We will be sitting in Section 139 Row 3 right by Albert! May have another ticket if Shannon Glasgow can't make it....

ap

Dennis Turck

Following graduation, I attended SIUE, and then joined the US Coast Guard, where I served for 12 years (in Kentucky and Virginia as a Search & Rescue Instructor). I got married and had two boys (Josh, now age 23 and Matt, now age 21 – currently in Navy Boot Camp). Shortly after leaving the Coast Guard and returning to the Granite City area, I went through a divorce. The best thing that came out of that situation, was reuniting with an old high school friend in the grocery store (Mary Paterson), and then marrying her on Valentine’s Day in 1998. Mary has three children (Amy, age 29; Donny, age 26; and Phillip, age 17). So, our combined family consists of 5 children, and now 5 grandchildren.
Our family enjoys camping, swimming and vacationing – we’ve been on 8 cruises together, have went on two all-inclusive vacations (Negril, Jamaica and Puerto Vallarta, Mexico), several trips to Gatlinburg, Tennessee, several trips to Las Vegas, a couple of trips to California (Long Beach, Ventura, San Francisco and Sacramento), a couple of trips to Miami, Florida, and a couple of trips to New Orleans. I have also traveled for work (to Washington, Indiana and Kentucky).
When we’re not working or vacationing, we are usually attending Granite City High School sporting events (football and track). We even went up to Chicago, Illinois with a group of parents and teachers for the Varsity Football Playoffs in 2007.
I previously worked as a Branch Manager for a temporary labor service, until I had two heart attacks and started having seizures which keep me from being able to work/drive. I am currently under doctor’s care, but hope to regain my health soon.
I attended our 10 year and 20 year class reunions, but was not able to make our 25. I am looking forward to our upcoming 30 year class reunion, and being able to see everyone again.

Attending

1. Lisa (Waltenberger) Maurer
2. Mignon (Moerlien) Fetterhoff
3. Lorraine(Peach) Knox
4. Cindy (Kofahl) Lamkin
5. Shannon Glasgow
6. Rocky Lupardus
7. Shawne Duenning Justine
8. David Oliver
9. Becky (Foote) Havener
10. Lori (Jones) Weber
11. Tammie (Newton) Brewer
12. Angie (Griffey) Bigham
13. Carla (Francis) Synak
14. Karen (Doty) Beasley
15. Mark Whitehead
16. Mary (Earney) Whitehead
17. Greg Altenberger
18. Kimberly (Dittrich) Deist
19. Cherie Hahne
20. Jodi (Alexander) Bennett
21. Joseph Petty
22. Susan (Prokopich) Montgomery
23. Kathy (Hadly) Rozycki
24. Margaret (Lovins) Brandt
25. David Throne
26. Eldon Hubble
27. Richard Buecker
28. Pamela (Roberts) Roberts
29. Cindy (Mueller) Milton
30. Glenda James
31. Vicky (Barnstable) Tognarelli
32. Lynn (Blum) Wilson
33. Jan (Purkey) Cook
34. Kit (Walmsley) M0rrissey
35. Ed Knowles
36. Chris Coleman
37. Donald E. King Jr.
38. Elizabeth Mullen
39. Anita Fernandez
40. Pam (Brokman) Stein
41. Dana (Harris) Ponder
42. Dianna Conley
43. Sherri Diller
44. Ronnie Langford
45. Vernon J Thomas
46. Christina (Mink) Humphrey
47. Lydia (Crews) Rohn
48. Lenora Gaye Norris
49. Paul Blattner
50. Kathy (Lawson) Hart
51. Jodi(Harrington) Arnett
52. Scott Arnett
53. Greg Laub
54. Beth (Worthen) Parente
55. Sherri (Walker) Austin
56. Keith Malench
57. John Six
58. Brenda James
59. Cheryl (Conaway) Balsai
60. Fred Schuler
61. Judy (Hartman) Mudro
62. Laura (Werths) Buehrer
63. David Mendoza
64. Gina ( Johannigmeier ) Dowdy
65. John Prazma
66. Jerry Harrington, Jr.
67. Carol (Lange) Macios
68. Ron Downs
69. Janet (Hartman) Werner
70. Todd York
71. Laura (Kelly) Harris
72. Elaine (Kayich) Sneed
73. Kirk Potillo
74. Thomas Hansen
75. Jeff Blasingame
76. Christy (Hayes) Lackey
77. Kathy (Barnes) Wehling
78. John DeRuntz
79. Gary Vogeler
80. Colleen McCabe
81. Bob Stegemeyer
82. Robert O'Bear
83. George Whaley
84. Al Yount
85. Darren McGovern
86. Shari (Gosnell) Schafer
87. Deborah (Pfeiffer) Henke
88. Barb (Wood) Moore
89. Sharon( Guenther) Gonzalez
90. Sandra (Weathers) Batiste
91. Jackey (Chapline) Timman
92. Melinda (McCallister) Duniphan
93. Dennis Turck
94. Kathy (Longos) McKinney
95. Alex Paz
96. John Shable
97. Marilyn (Moehu)Weissman
98. Michelle (Reznack) Fitzgerald
99. Paula (Bogosian) Costillo
100. Andrew Costillo
101. Karen (Teitloff) Buzzell
102. Kris McGovern
103. Doug Cook
104. Beth (Smith) Kovach
105. Daniel Mendoza
106. Joyce (Mangan) Heiman
107. Vicki (Johnson) Royce
108. Ken Fuller
109. Sandy Dietz
110. Sandy Robinson Kovalik
     

Larry Johnson

I've been living in Belleville with my wife Kris since 1985. We have 2 boys, freshman and junior in university. They are brilliant, like their mother. Kris knew what her future career would be as of junior high school and she attained it right on schedule. In contrast, I wandered from field to field. In GCHS, I decided I would become a pro-musician due to 4 fun-filled years in the band. Not being one to blaze a trial, I followed two of our class's true musicians from school to school. After a year in music schools, I eventually realized the talent and dedication required and that I was short on both counts.

So I took the road for which I was more suited, and followed another friend into engineering. After working nearly 10 years at McDonnell Douglas in electronic engineering doing kind of sciency stuff, I jumped on the internets bubble for another 8 years as a 'consultant'. Which is a high faluttin' word that really means 'contract laborer'. For the last 6 years a couple friends and I have been working under our own company. Life's been good.

Wish you all well,

Larry Johnson

Susan Prokopich Montgomery

Life after High School

Let’s see, after high school, I had BIG plans. I was going to sponge off my folks, get a job, buy a really cool car, and go clubbing with my best friend Mary. Five months later Mark Montgomery motioned for me to pull over and invited Mary and me to join him at Pere Marquette. While there, he was trying to move a big log and his pants split. I was a goner and a year later, we were Mr. and Mrs. Mark Montgomery. We were financially independent, Mark was happy since he got to drive my cool car, and I went clubbing with my husband, his brother and his brother’s wife instead of Mary. I was still on track.

When I gave birth to our first child Benjamin in May 1983, my job and clubbing lost their appeal. As the youngest of four who never babysat, I had no idea how to be a mother, but I was determined that he would survive. A friend told me I should have named him Velcro because he was always on my hip. As if motherhood wasn’t enough of a challenge, I found out the man I married was an atheist. Who knew?

Foolishly, I decided to become June Cleaver. I cooked exactly like my mom, burnt fried chicken, roast as tough as a hockey puck, and tuna casserole so dry you had to pour milk over it before it could be swallowed. Mark decided to teach me to cook and I was the world’s worst student. Plus, he was frustrated because he really wanted me to set Ben down every once in a while.

Okay, I decided I would take on the task of seeing to Ben’s spiritual education. Mark wasn’t too keen on the idea, and he promised to boycott any children’s program in which Ben participated. Like the housewife challenge, I rolled up my sleeves and committed myself 100%.

Pretty soon I could crank out a weekly menu’s worth of meals that were fairly edible so I started teaching Mission Friends to children ages 2 – 5. Mark was true to his word, boycotting Ben’s baptism and he also shared his beliefs of evolution with Ben. As I got a little better at this homemaker stuff, I became more involved in the church, teaching both the 1st and 2nd grade class and children’s church. With my 30th birthday around the corner, it was time to add to our family. In January 1991 during a horrible snowstorm, our daughter Rachel was born.

Now we had two beautiful children, I was lucky enough to be able to spend all my time with them since Mark was an excellent provider, my meals were still improving, and I began what would become a long run teaching 5th and 6th graders at church. On the home front, I was ready to tackle flower gardening.

When it was time for Rachel to go off to school I discovered your children could go to parochial school even if you weren’t Catholic. Rachel started Holy Family School and I did something I hadn’t done in 16 years—I got a job.

I chose a gas station down the street because I could start after I took Rachel to school and end my day when I picked her up. I was close to home so Ben could stop in to see me whenever he wanted, I didn’t have to invest in a wardrobe, and when Rachel was on school breaks, I could switch to evenings so she could be with daddy--no babysitter worries.

Trouble takes many forms. As it turned out trouble came to us because I was competent at something--ordering inventory, stocking shelves and waiting on customers. Who knew?

In a fairly short amount of time, I became a shift supervisor, then got a promotion and began working in the oil offices in Edwardsville as the administrative assistant to the CEO. Rachel went into daycare after school, Mark took over the cooking (thank God!), I managed to keep up with the laundry, but the house fell apart. As the result of pressure from my job, an unhappy family, the loss of my father, and the adjustment of my mother’s new marriage, I suffered from a lot of stress and an enormous amount of guilt.

Quitting my job a year later, I went to work for Vicki Johnson Royce and her husband John answering phones and setting up house showings—no pressure there. Unfortunately, it was too late. The die had been cast, the ill-feelings were still there, and by then I was completely miserable and terribly depressed.

In October 2001 I walked out of a 22-year marriage, leaving behind my beautiful garden, my clean home, and even my two kids. My best friend Mary took me in, and I began the pursuit of the fastest divorce of a long-term marriage in history so I could get my kids back. In January we were officially divorced, and I found a house to rent on St. Clair Avenue that was close enough to school that Rachel could walk. I was sleeping on an army cot without a single curtain on a window, my food was kept fresh in a cooler outside my kitchen door, everything I cooked came off a camp stove or an electric skillet, and my son Ben was so angry with me that he stayed with his dad. Talk about tough times.

Leaving Royce, I went to work for a temporary agency. The pay was good and the benefits were non-existent, but I desperately needed a work history. I bought a mattress and springs, a refrigerator, a stove, curtains, and a dryer. Eventually I got my current job working for a federally funded program at a local community college. My house was becoming a home, but Ben still angry with me. He went from being a wild child to a man living dangerously.

Time is the great physician and, in time Ben got the help he needed. He now owns his own home, has a wonderful job, and recently began school. In three years he hopefully will complete an apprenticeship program and become a machinist. Rachel graduated high school and will begin her freshman year next month at Benedictine University. She has decided to use her artistic talent to work with troubled kids as a career. After I got my present job, I bought my rental house and earned my associate’s degree in management. I started my bachelor’s but I stopped when I started focusing on Rachel’s college life.

At present I’m trying like the dickens to get a government job in Springfield, but that is proving to be more difficult than I thought. Rachel will be living with my mother until I can get a job there. Along with Mom, I have other family members living in Springfield waiting for me. In time I hope to join them.

So, as it turns out, there was life for me after divorce. Who knew?

Donna Smallie Klopfer

The last 30 years- I worked at National Supermarket until they sold to Schnucks in 1995. I then back to school and got a Associate Degree in Hotel/Motel Management and for the last 12 years I have been the manager of the Hampton Inn/Collinsville. I was married for the first time in 1983 to Tim McGrath and had daugher,Whitney who is now 21! We divorced in 1995 and I remarried in 2001 to Jack Klopfer from Alton. He had a daughter who at that time was 24. We all now live in Glen Carbon with both daughters and a 2 year old granddaughter. Picture attached is in front of my nephew's tour bus when they openned for Santana last year.

Bruce Monahan

Hello fellow allumni of GCHS South! Alex was kind enough to send me an e-mail directing me to the reunion blog (Thanks Alex!). It appears I was part of a list of missing allumni (funny I don't feel missing). You probably will remember me as being the guy in class sitting in the next to the last row .. you know? ... fourth one from the left? ... the knucklehead facing the wrong direction (story of my life!). So, thirty years since graduation .... Wow! Where has all the time gone? It seems like it was only yesterday ... I remember ... I was doing my laundry ... oh wait a minute that was yesterday (cue rim shot). It's actually been great reading some of the blogs that were posted here. It's good to see that with all the trial and tribulations some of you have encountered, that you have all come out on top. I guess since Alex asked for more blog entries that I would add my "life story" to the mix as well. Warning ... the following is full of lame attempts at humor ... read at your own risk.

My Life Story
I am originally from my mom (I'm sure we can all relate to that) and forcibly evicted from my first home after just nine months and sent to live in a grand old place called "the world". So I ventured out on my own with nothing more then a bottle, a rattle, and a god-awful smell coming from my diaper. I spent my formulative years at Parkview Elementary where I excelled at eating crayons and banging erasers. And yes, all at the same time. Somehow I graduated from there and moved on to Coolidge Junior High. Crayon eating was highly discouraged by them, so I had to move on to something else. I tried sniffing glue but almost drowned a few times (I guess they didn't mean Elmers) ... so I excelled at eating paste and licking my fingers. Somehow I also graduated from Coolidge and moved on to GCHS. I spent the next four years dealing with pimples, random body hairs, and the embarrassment from the pitch of my voice fluctuating three full octaves everytime I said something. Good times ... good times indeed. I guess I was a middle-of-the-road student. Was I athletically gifted? - Nope. How about academically inclined? - More declined then inclined I would say. Popular? - I guess many people thought my last name was "who" because they would always say "Bruce who?". Perhaps I was a "ladies man"? - wait, wait ...let me catch my breath because that one cracked me up. So what did I do in high school? Well, somehow I ended up in the theater department. This was strange because my acting talent was once compared to Keanu Reeves trying to do Shakspeare, but somehow I stayed with it. After graduation I then did a stint at SIU until it came to my second year. I was trying to prove the theory that pure osmosis could be used to gain a higher degree of knowledge withough actually attending classes ... um? ... I'm still working on trying to get that theory to work. I sure wish they would have offered a degree in "Student Center". Shortly after my abrupt college run I moved to Florida where I have been ever since. About ten years ago I doodled some cartoons and staked my corner on the world wide web with a site called "pencilwedgees". For about the past five years I have been a freelance cartoonist/3-d animator. As soon as I make another 999,999 more dollars I will become a millionaire. But for right now I guess I can be labeled as a "dollaraire" (before taxes). I guess I will shut up now. If you have read everything to this point then I must say congratulations and I'm sorry that you are having a really slow day. I won't be able to attend the reunion this year unfortunately. Maybe in another ten years I will have the opportunity. By then there should be flying cars and teleportation pods scattered everywhere ... and perhaps my osmosis theory will be perfected by then. Best of luck to everyone and have a great time at the reunion party ... oh and if anyone takes any photos of allumni highly inebriated and passed out in the corner or any of them dancing with lamp shades on their head, I would really like to see them. Take care everyone ... Bruce

Ronald P. Cline

Don't know If I'll get to attend the 30 year reunion this year, but would love to hear from some classmate of GCHS class of 1979. I currently live in Houston TX, and still come back to Granite from time to time either to see family and/or on business. Now here is a little about myself and what I've been up to.... After high school I went into the US Army as a Military Policeman. I spent the entire time (3 years) in Germany, and loved it, while traveling and seeing most of Europe. Then after my Military service I went back to college and completed a Business Degree. I then went to work for Conoco Oil, which has now merged with Phillips Oil, so it's ConocoPhillips Inc. these days. I'm currently a Statistical Analyst for ConocoPhillips and travel throughout the US on business. I spend a lot of time working in Los Angeles CA and Savannah GA, which is where we have 2 large lubricant facilities. Anyhow..., its really not all that exciting, but it pays well, and I enjoy the travel. I stayed single until age 33, when I finally got married for the first and only time, we had no children, therefore I continued to be the child. Still enjoying outdoor activities and sports with a little adrenaline rush, such as motorcycles, flying, white water rafting, snow skiing, and scuba diving, back packing, horseback riding, etc... Anything that keeps my heart pumping so I can feel young again. In fact..., I just got back from Breckenridge CO, where we did some hiking and horseback riding in the mountains. Love to hear from you...

Guess who's car.....

Just liked the vanity plates of one of our alumni......

Amazing what you can find by Google.....

http://www.pencilwedgees.com

Bruce Monahan's website. I emailed him.....

Missing Alumni List

Please email me (lxpaz@yahoo.com) any information you have on our missing Alumni.
I found we will bold and italicize the name in red.

Carol Renee' Abbott - Thanks Angela Fink
Robbie H. Arms
May E. Arney
Gary W. Arnold
Karen Sue Arnold
Ann Christine Baker
Cindy L. Baker
Robin L. Barnes
Joseph A. Barren
Diane Lynn Barton -deceased
James Everett Belcher
David Wayne Bell
Sandra Lee Bellar
Rose Michelle Boelling
James L. Borth
Sharon K. Box
Timothy Brodeur
Tony F. Broyles
Paula Kay Bryant
William A. Bullock
Tracey M. Burcham
Diana Burns
Phyllis Anne Burns
Elita L. Cionko
Lawrence Lee Clay
Tracy Lynn Clutts
Tammy F. Coleman
Curt Joseph Collins
Vicky B. Colp
Ronald D. Converse
Sheryl L. Cook
James A. Cottrell
Terri A. Curtis
Gerald M. Davis
Martin L. Davis
Bill R. Dixon
Sandra Kay Doss
Grant W. Douglas
James R. Down
James A. Ellis
David Leo Elmore
Richard Donald Elmore, Jr.
Kimberly L. Flaugher
Barry Eugene Forshee
Gena Fox
Steven Ray Frederick
Alfred Edward Fuller III
Jamie L. Garrison
Jeffrey Gass
Dwight Jeffery Gassett
Mickey Lee Gerstner
David B. Gorsich
Joseph G. Gorsich
Steven Dale Grady
Robert Christopher Graf
Cindy Marie Granger - deceased
James C. Griffin
Patricia C. Griffith
Rebecca G. Grimes
Sharon Sue Guenther
Joyce Ellen Gushleff
Ruth Ellen Hagen
Jerry A. Hall
Kathy Lynn Hall
Walter L. Hall
Evelyn Loretta Hardester
Stephen Scott Harmon
Kennet Dean Harper
Randall Wade Harris
Thomas Hugh Harrison
Sandra Colleen Hash
Eugene A. Hatfield, Jr.
Christopher Jay Hillmer
Robert Douglas Hinds
Joyce Marie Hogue
Charles D.Hozian
Keith R. Hudgins
Mark F. Huelsmann
Terry Eugene Hunter
Douglas James Hutchings
Dennis Jeffrey Ishum
Deborah S. Jacobs
Phillip J. Jaime
Tony Lee James
Robert Kevin Jarman
Kimberly A. Johnson
Gregory S. Jones
Lydia Helena Kachigian
Dana Lynne Keeling thanks Brenda
John Kelly
Donald E. King, Jr.
Richard Alan King
Richard John Koishor
John A. Kwiatkowski
John Paul Lance
Helena Marie Langley
Erik A. Larsen
William Fredrick Laswell II
Tammy Ann Lazar
Floyd Y. Lee
Alan W. Legate
Robert E. LeMaster
David Aaron Lilley
Lawrence L. Lockhart III
Kenneth R. Mains
Sherrie Lynn Mank - Thanks Shawne
Robert James Mann
Steven Allen Marlett
Danielle Antoinette Mathenia
Christina Linda Mathis
Jeffery A. Matzen
Melinda Sue McCallister
Glenda Joan McClanahand
Kimberly Ann McKinney
Vicki Lynn Meador
Ten Lynn Meagher
Barbara L. Miller
Jill F. Miller
Kevin R. Millsap
Anita Marie Milton
Scott Alan Mitchell
Linda Modlin
Bruce Alan Monahan
David A. Moore
Judith Lyn Moore
Robert D. Mosby
Muriel E. Moseley
Michele Marie Mudd
Angela C. Nance - thanks Susan Montgomery
Debra Lynn Nation
Jack Nelson
Janet A. Nelson
Nancy Sue Nieciecki
Gary L. Nodine
Dallas E. Nunn
Sherry Lynn Olsen
Randy Dwayne Owens
Charles H. Pabst, Jr.
Thomas Alan Parrill
Karen Jean Paschedag
Rhonda Marie Patton
Charles K.Payne
Tammy Elaine Payne
Brian Keith Pemble
Paul M. Perdue
Jed M. Perkins
Floyd Duane Peterson, Jr.
Michael Anthony Pickett
Laura K.Pinnon
Martha A. Portell
Tammy S. Pounds
Regina K.Proffitt
Dennis Pryor
Patricia Jean Pulley
Michael Randall
Dawn Renee' Ray
Rebecca Lynn Rea
Rebecca Elaine Rice
Jeffrey Alan Rill
Leslie Joan Roberts
Leah Ellen Rogers
Mary E. Romine
Wayne P. Royer
John Rodger Ruhl
Cheryle A. Rushing
Tammy Lynn Russell
Dale W. Sanders
John A. Schafer
Anita Gail Schmidt
Judy Ann Schrieber
Connie Lee Scott
Michael Joseph Sertich
Annette Setzer
Starlene Anita Shemwell
Conrad Allan Shepard
Debra F. Shepard
Kenneth P. Shepard
Gwendolyn S. Simpson
Donna L. Smallie - found Ron Downs
Jacqueline Smith
Lisa Marie Smith
October Eve Smith
Vernon D. Smith
Joseph Spain
Louis J. Spohr
Donna Lynn Starbuck
Linda Kay Starnes
Robert A. Stephens
Karen Charleen Steward
Peggy Sue Stuart
Twynette Sweet
William W. Talley
David Alan Taylor
Lori Ann Taylor
Michael Dean Thomas
Gary Wayne Thomason
Kathryn June Tongay
Kathryn Anita Towery
Rose Ann Trester
Lisa Ann Tripp
Kerry Dean Trobaugh
Elizabeth G. Unfried
Theresa Susan Van Horn
Sandra Marie Vasiloff
Mark A. Vizer
Deborah A. Ward
Ronald D. Ward
Bryan K. Warren
Roy A. Weathers
Sandra Ellen Weathers
Merna Kay Webb
Rebecca Wells
Mary E. White
Jeffrey Eugene Whitten
Dale L. Whittenburg
Dawn Alicia Wood
Dale R. Worley
Susan Wrischnik
Aaron L. Wuehler
George Gregory Wyatt

John Six

As you all know I was born a poor black child. I went to a school that was so bad (McKinley) that they wanted to tear it down first, but instead the hospital bought it. That will tell you a little about our hospital. Hanging around with friends like Todd York, Mignon Morlien, Steve Burns, Randy Owens, Cheri Hahne, Bob Stevens, Terry Hunter, and the list goes on..... the future looked pretty grimm. But somehow most of us turned out alright, even though we were raised sucking fumes from the mill, even on our playground. Between the mill and partying with Lefty Linhart through the years, I now only have 3 brain cells left. (BUT THEY ARE THE GOOD ONES!) Now I am very happily married to my wife Jean. with 2 crazy boys named John and Joe. I own my on small business called Creative Concrete Design and it is finally good to be king (at least at work).

Unable to attend

Unable to attend:

1. Jeff Parker - kids in school
2. Robin Pilch Kasten - son in baseball tournament
3. 
   

Attending

Attending:

1. Alex Paz and wife Diane
   
2. Shanon Glasgow and Christiane
   
3. Ron Eaton and wife
   
4. Lee Champion Conrad
5. Rocky Lupardus
6. Johns Six
7. John Prazma and wife Diane
   
8. Karen Doty Beasly and Husband
9. Joyce Mangan Heiman
10. Mignon Morlien Fetterhoff
11. Shawne Duenning Justice and husband Darrell
12. Danny Mendoza
13. Lori Jones Weber
14. Lisa Waltenberger Maurer and husband Gene
15. Ed Knowles and Fiance'
16. Sherry Diller
17. Sheri Walker Austin and Husband Mike
18. Susan Prokopich Montgomery
    
19. Keith Malench
20. David Oliver and wife Lisa
21. Cherie Hahne
22. Kim Dittrich Deist
23. Mark Whitehead
24. Mary Earney Whitehead
25. Becky Foot Havener
26. Tammie Newton Brewer and husband Randy
    
27. Angie Griffey Bingham and husband Dave
    
28. Carla Francis Synak and husband Mark
29. Joe Petty and wife Laurie
    
30. Jodi Alexander Bennett and husband Robert
    
31. Kathy Hadley Rozycki and husband Tim
32. Margaret Lovins Brandt and Juan Jose Ortiz
33. David Throne and wife Rose
34. Eldon Hubble and wife Maggie
35. Richard Becker and wife Kristi
36. Cindy Mueller Milton and husband Alan
37. Glenda James
38. Vicky Barnstable Tognarelli and husband Joe
39. Lynn Blum Wilson and husband Mark
40. Pamela Roberts Roberts and husband Bobby
41. 
    

Meeting at the Elks Club June 28th, 2009 (We need your help!)

We will have an envelope stuffing pary at the Elk's Club in Granite City on Sunday the 28th, 2009 at 6:00pm. Click on the link below to view a copy of the flyer we will be sending out.
Reunion Flyer
Feel free to stop by to help out or just to say hello....
Also if anyone needs a recent photo for facebook I will have my camera with me.
ap

Cindy (Kofahl) Lamkin

My blog is probably going to seem a bit boring to some. I have not travelled to exotic places or had exciting jobs. The furthest we have traveled is Disney World. I married my high school sweetheart, Steve. This August we will be married 26 years. I worked in the banking field for 13 years. When we had our daughter, I wanted to stay home with her. A few years later we had a son. Sunny is 16 and Steven is 13. When Sunny started kindergarten, so did I. For the past 11 years, I've been a kindergarten aide at Mitchell School. Most days I love it, some days not so much. The hours are great from 9:30-12:30. I'm off on all the holidays that the kids are. Steve has worked at GC Steel for over 31 years. This April he was laid off. We are hoping he'll go back within a year. He keeps busy hunting, fishing, golfing, and bowling. I have kept busy taking care of the kids, the animals (we have 2 dogs and 4 cats), the house, and Steve. My mom is 81 so I spend a lot of time with her, doing errands and such. I enjoy reading, listening to music, and yard work. I volunteer at a soup kitchen 2 nights a week. I really enjoy it, though it's not for everyone. This year with my mom's help we have been cooking there once a month. We serve anywhere from 40 to 60 people a night. I'm happy to say that 2 of my best friends in high school are still my best friends today. They are Stephanie (Hetherington) Davison and Lynn (Blum) Wilson. I'm sure we will be attending the reunion together. I've enjoyed reading the blogs. I wish there were more.

Greg Altenberger

Nyaaa!, who’s da guy wit da hang-glider lapels up there? OK, I guess now that Alex has posted, we all need to turn in our assigned essays.

How I Spent My Last 30 Summer Vacations

By Greggers

What have I done since graduation?! Hold on, I didn’t study for this quiz, let me look it up. After graduation, I seriously considered entering the military, but joined the Air Force instead (!). I got to see Texas, some more of Texas, Scott AFB, and finally Germany! I pretty much fell in love with Europe, so when I got out of the Air Force, I got a job for a civilian company supporting the military, and by the summer of ’84 I was in Scotland! I stayed there 4 years (!), met some great people, but by 1988 I was ready for a change. My next stop was Vicenza Italy, which is about 30 miles from Venice. Northern Italy was great! Nice people, nice weather, and great food!! Oh, guess I didn’t mention what my job was. I worked on telecommunications terminal systems, but by the time I got to Italy, we were also working on PCs, and I finally started to sorta kinda enjoy my job, but I still had to work on those old terminals too, and be on call 24/7, which sucked! In 1991, the Reagan-years-military-overspending-boom started cutting back, so my company started laying off. I came back to the Granite City and started looking for a job again.

I got hired at A.G. Edwards in June of 1992, and have been there since, although we’ve gone through 2 mergers in the last 2 years, and we’re now Wells Fargo. I started out as a terminal/printer/PC technician again and spent quite a few years on the team specializing in installations and moves, which I enjoyed. Worked up to team lead and spent most of my time in that position, but when I tried my hand at leadership (YUK!), as assistant supervisor, I got out of that right away! Something about having to answer for why other people do things, just rubs me the wrong way (“I don’t know! Ask them!”), so I moved to a team that administered network accounts, Access Control, and stayed there for a couple of years, and really enjoyed the work, but what I enjoyed more was maintaining the documentation and making sure our procedures and processes were up to date. That led to my current job, supporting the Help Desk with documentation and helping maintain our knowledgebase, and occasionally help out with training.

I met Cyndie not long after starting at A.G. Edwards, and we got married in February 1996. No kids, she’s ten years older and already “been there done that”. Her son Jay and our grandkids are out in the Bay area, California, so we don’t get to see them as much as we’d like, but the internet helps! We started out living in Granite, but we bought property in Farmington MO, back in 1998, so when Cyndie took early retirement and we found ourselves down to one income, we decided to move to Farmington! I make the 80 mile commute every day, but I’m used to it (no, really! ..and, thank god for music CDs!) We have 23 acres out in the country, and I love it! It’s worth the commute to be able to live here.

In November of 2007, Cyndie went in for a routine colonoscopy, and they perforated her colon. We got her up to St John’s after a couple of days down here in Farmington, but complications from that led to her being up there in ICU for 5 months!! She went through rehab, and finally came home in July of 2008, and she’s still recovering and trying to get her weight back. (If you want to read more, her Caringbridge site has the whole story: http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/cyndiealtenberger ) It’s been an emotional roller-coaster ride, but thankfully we’re past all that, and Cyndie’s glad to be home and getting a little more self-sufficient every day! I’m trying to convince her to go to the reunion with me, but she’s not sure she’ll be up to it. I’ll be there, though. I’ve been really enjoying reconnecting on Facebook with classmates from high school and especially from grade school (Frohardt)! Some folks I hadn’t heard about for … well, for 30 years! It’s great to read all of these posts, too! Looking forward to seeing everybody at the reunion!

Comment by Mary (Earney) Whitehead

Mary left this as a comment on one of the post. I thought I would re-post so everyone could see it. Also just a side not I tried to reach a favorite teacher of mine and one that Mary mention's. Mr. Ethridge passed in 2000 according to his wife. I wish I could tell him how much he meant to me and what an influence he was on my life. I know all his students of the class of 1979 will miss him dearly....

Mary's Comment
I know at least a couple guys who benefited from Jerry Ethridge's class! :) It sounds like you have a full, fun life and are very happy -- that is great! Thanks so much for all you've done to bring us all together online and hopefully even more people at the reunion. It's been a lot of fun already on Facebook (a first for me) & reading the blog. I see a lot of life experiences, love, loss, and happiness again for many of us in all of the postings. I hope anyone who needs a litle nudge to post something on the blog will take a leap of faith & do so. Peace.

Alexander Paz Jr. (just Alex or some friends call me Al)

Like I had mentioned on the post earlier......Warning this is long, possible TMI and like I said before you can always walk away if you get bored or tired of reading it. : ) ap

Where did 30 years go??? Doesn’t seem so long ago but to make things surreal my daughter and step son graduated last weekend. So there is no denying the 30 years. Hmmmm…..where to start. Here goes nothing. It seems that I wasn’t a good high school student and my only savior was vocational drafting. My Vocational Drafting teacher Jerry Ethridge was so influential in my life and helping me make it to graduation. With my vocational drafting skills, I was able to land a job to co-op part of my senior year to gain some drafting experience. Then right out of high school I landed a job with Granite City Steel as an Engineering Design Draftsman. I thought wow what a dream job and salary for right out of high school but within 6 months the bottom fell out of the steel industry. I was one of the first to get laid off. Then, I tried to go to college and school just wasn’t for me. I sucked at it. I would be all A’s up to midterms and then try to coast on that till finals. I could never break that pattern and to this day I don’t know why I did that. I was even approached by the BAC soccer coach but fell to the same pattern. I was able to stay eligible for one season, a very successful season I may add, but fell to poor study habits once again. So then I turned to the military to bail me out, give me some direction and see some of the world.

So with the Navy I spent 9 years, 10 months and 27 days seeing the world, training young sailors right out of boot camp and yes PLAYING SOCCER! I enlisted in the advanced electronics field and became an electronic warfare specialist. Some of the highlights during my time in the Navy were getting married, my daughter was born March 13, 1991, lots of travel and getting selected two years in a row to the All-Navy Soccer Team. Although the marriage didn’t work out, to Patricia Black from Granite City, we did have a beautiful baby girl Alexis Marie Paz who was born while I was doing instructor duty in Pensacola, Florida. Even though Alexis’ mother and I didn’t see eye to eye, we have always been a team when it came to parenting. We put all differences aside and made sure we were there for Alexis. I think Pat is an excellent mother and my hat is off to her for raising Alexis Marie. Don’t get me wrong I was there doing the every other weekend, Wednesdays during the week and paying child support but it was nothing like being there full time 24/7. Thanks Pat! Sorry for the tangent but stuff I felt I had to mention. Back to the Navy, I experienced cruises on both coasts, east coast that took me to the Mediterranean Sea and a west coast that took me to the Pacific Sea on to the Persian Gulf. I served on three ships, one nuclear cruiser and two aircraft carriers. (USS Texas CGN-39, CVN-68 USS Eisenhower, and CVN-69 USS Nimitz) The last thing I’d like to mention is that at every command I was attached to I played soccer. While I was at one of my training commands I had a very successful soccer season and was nominated for the All-Navy Soccer team. I had to leave that training command for the USS Eisenhower and while I was headed for a training exercise near Cuba I received a message to immediately report to Little Creek, Virginia to try out for the All-Navy Soccer team. Next thing I know I am on a rickety old cargo plane being catapulted off the deck of an aircraft carrier!!!! Talk about a crazy ride….. I made the team two years back to back and was the closest I came to being a professional. I guess technically I was because all I did for 2 months was practice three times a day to prepare for the All-Service soccer tournament.

After an honorable discharge, I joined the work force in the IT field as an entry level pc technician. The Navy exposed me to computers but all my pc skills were self taught. But as anyone knows who has worked in the IT field you need to jump from shop to shop to get those pay increases. I worked at A.G Edwards, Washington University, Bryan Cave, and PMSI Consulting. At PMSI as a consultant I had assignments at BJC Health Care and an automotive parts company called Federal Mogul. Almost everywhere I went I took an interest in email systems and wound up specializing in a system called GroupWise. So when my contract was up with Federal Mogul I applied at BJC Health Care as a full time employee and was hired on as their GroupWise Email administrator (BJC has one of the largest GroupWise systems in the Midwest) which lasted 8 years from 1999 – 2008. At BJC I expanded my resume by tacking the task of learning and deploying the BlackBerry solution. My Blackberry experience and contacts made while supporting the product led me to my next job. My new found Canadian friends, BlackBerry is made in Waterloo, Ontario, were eager for me to join their team. So after a couple years of being scared to leave a safe job, I made the leap of faith and applied for a position at Research in Motion (RIM) the makers of BlackBerry. I accepted the position at RIM right after the New Year of 2008, my last day at BJC was the 18^th of January and had to be at a conference to meet my team in Orlando on the 20^th. Nothing like hitting the floor running! I have never looked back and am kicking myself for not making the move sooner. I work from home, no commute, some travel and work with some great people. For the most part, I have been only traveling to Canada and Utah on a regular basis. A new program I over see had me going to India and may add a potential customer in Columbia and one in northern Italy. Hate to see that happen. Also the other project I over see will take me to NYC, England and more than likely Northern California.

Last, I’m sure I didn’t mention Alexis’ mother and I were separated for quite some time. I was in no hurry to re-marry so never pushed for the divorce but finally got the paperwork completed in December of 1996. I wandered through relationships and always had those commitment issues. I dated some wonderful people but could never seal the deal and truthfully I had issues from childhood that needed to be dealt with before I could let anyone really in, if you know what I mean. Yes there was therapy involved but doesn’t everyone need a little??? Well it’s always a little hard to say but these days it is becoming more and more common I met the love of my life over the internet. I saw her first on match.com and saw her again on myspace. I never published my profile I just read a lot of profiles. Hers stood out of the crowd and we started posting emails on myspace. We hit it off and had so much in common. The truth of the matter is I had never met anyone like Diane. Her love for her children, family and friends were like no other. She has the biggest heart and as a single mother she deserves mother of the year. Luckily, her heart had enough room left for me and Alexis too. I am the luckiest man on this earth to have met and married such a wonderful woman (Oct. 24, 2008). My only wish is that we would have met sooner so we could have had a beautiful little Mexican baby but we are both too old to have another. We have four children between us, Josh and Alexis are 18, Jacob 15 and Jordan 13. Diane and I spend most of our evenings at baseball, cross country, soccer, track, and the occasionally award ceremonies. Our kids keep us very, very busy. Our oldest two are headed for college Josh is headed to Washington University and Alexis is headed to DePaul University. We couldn’t be prouder of the two of them. When we aren’t at events with the kids, I play indoor soccer 3 nights a week and Diane rarely misses a game. I couldn’t be happier and feel blessed to have a wonderful wife, great children and a challenging job.

I look forward to seeing everyone at the reunion…

ap
lxpaz@yahoo.com