Past Newsletters (Earliest first)

**Admin** Fri Jun 12, 2009 8:01 am

Helloooooooo 69'ers!

Well, the reunion day is fast approaching and things are shaping up nicely. We have a nice list of "for sures" but there is no doubt that this is a "the more the merrier" situation. I do believe that Denny put down June 1st as the RSVP deadline and that is still just fine. However, if you are coming for sure but have not yet let us know about it, please drop me a line so that I can post your name on this list for others to see. The more names on that list, the more exciting this adventure becomes for all of us.

It's been 40 years since our graduation and for some of us it's been that long since we've seen each other. It's now time to make those plans for what would be a minor historic event. This is not putting a man on the moon or anything, but it is a chance for us all to meet and talk about the past 50 years; especially those that we shared at SMHS. How many memories do you have? Of course there were the ear pullings and wrist slappings, the berating and deprecation at the hands of our beloved but aging faculty. And then there were the bad times!

Also remember the Rumbles, Flippers, Fr. McAlpin (sp) with each eye being a different color, Fr. Yetmar who smoked cigs and wore cowboy boots. Who was our Geometry teacher that was around 400 years old and thought that she was so "with it" because she knew the newest word for cool? It was "camp" but to this day I've never heard anyone use that word in this context. Maybe I'm just not camp enough to know. What classmates did you dance with at the Cobb? Who did you have a crush on in high school? Yes, you too can be a part of this glorious occasion where we drink to the point of losing our inhibitions and let 'er rip!

A tour through the school makes it more exciting as we pair the exact locations to the torturous events we went through as Catholic students. If everything they taught us was true, I'll be in hell only seconds after I die. But Pascal's Wager aside, it will have been fun. And even more so if we all can get together to share some of those memories.

I hope to see you all there!

-Mike McCormick
macster51@yahoo.com
https://smhs69.board-directory.net
www.macandjoan.com
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Hey folks,

I now have the menu for our Saturday night dinner at Kings Pointe in Storm Lake. I will either post it or put a link to their website on the forum. The menu on their website is out of date and I'm hoping they update it fast so I don't have to scan the thing and post it. (It's a very strangely shaped piece of paper that's not conducive to scanning.) I'll give them a couple more days. :-) Also, I don't know if we have any (other) winos out there but they do not have a wine list on their website. This probably means they don't give much of a shit about it so you may want to BYOW. Let me know if this matters to you and I'll try to get a wine list from them before-hand.

We have a decision to make as well. As of this time there are no hard plans for Friday night. Denny and Mary have graciously said that if we wish, we can just hang at their house for an evening of bullshit and alcohol. Or we can find a place to meet and all have dinner/cocktails out somewhere like the Martini place or Boswell's if those places still exist. Please drop me an email and let me know how you vote. (Yes Fitz's, your vote counts as two votes.)

Well, we're getting more and more replies all the time meaning that the list of attendees is growing. For an updated list you can always check here: https://smhs69.board-directory.net/welcome-smhs69-grads-f1/latest-news-about-the-reunion-t1.htm .

There are a few people that we have heard nothing from as of yet. As far as I know we have not heard from:

Dale Launderville (Vow of Silence?)
Mark Christianson
Nancy Farrell
Randy Demars (I'll try to contact him)
Mary Scott
Linda Murray
Beverly Sampers
Pam Behm,
John Strandlund

Some of these people did attend the last reunion so I'm hoping they will RSVP to this one too. But if you've kept in contact with any of them please give them a call or drop them a line and let them know the details. And make sure they attend. Remember, for the next reunion we'll all be around 68. Ahhhhh! We'll be in wheelchairs and carrying oxygen tanks for Christ's sake. So this may be the last one where we are all independently mobile or even remember each other! The class was not that big and everybody knew everybody else (And probably dated them as well!) so let's try to get everyone there.

Also, here are a couple of fun things to check out from that era:
The Notorious Noblemen (remember them?) website is at http://noblemen.20m.com/

See a cool Flippers video here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaiyiYvJrNQ

There are also many Flippers photos on the Noblemen website from their (and our) induction to the Iowa Rock and Roll Hall of fame in 1998. Speaking of which, you can visit the IRRHOF web site at:
http://www.iowarocknroll.com/

The Rumbles have a website at: http://www.rumbles.com/

As always, feel free to contact me any time at mac@macandjoan.com or macster51@yahoo.com. My office phone is 651-762-1716. My cell is 651-245-1432.

This is going to be fuuuuuuuunnn!

-mike
www.macandjoan.com
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7-4-09
"Let's go back to those thrilling days of yesteryear." That's exactly how I felt when posting the new Senior Sketches of our class. So many new ones; Kathy Keefe, Jim Fitz and Mary Sipple, Ken Jansen, just to name a few.

See them here:

https://smhs69.board-directory.net/welcome-smhs69-grads-f1/senior-sketches-t12.htm#22

Yes, Mary Dahm (Lord, whatever…) came through with shining colors and sent some more of those clips from the Storm Lake paper. Really, I think we all look just the same now as we did then. Don't you? It was truly surprising to see how we all looked back then. Fun for us guys to see the hot chicks we went to school with and I'm sure, fun for the girls to check out us handsome dudes too. :-) OK, enough bullshit. (Probably not)

It's getting really close to the time when we will all be in total bliss with each other somewhere within the boundaries of good old Storm Lake. I can't wait to see you all. The list of those who are coming is simply staggering. We have at least twenty 1969 SMHS grads attending which, when you think about it, is probably more than we even had in our class! Yes, we were large and in charge and we still have the best graduating year (69) to claim as our own for the next 60 years.

It will be so fun see how we've grown over the last 40. I'm sure that many of us have changed and some of us? Not so much. Our views change with time and I would imagine we include Dumbocrats, Rebumblicans, Independentz, and Anarchists. We probably include everything from Catholics (Maybe not!) to atheists/agnostics. How about Protestants? I remember we weren't even supposed to talk to them or we'd go to hell! (BTW, I wonder what happened to all those people who went to hell because they ate meat on Friday when it was a mortal sin. Do they just get out of jail free now that it's not a sin anymore?) It will be fun to see the path that each of us has taken since that graduation day 40 years ago and discuss such tantalizing questions.

So, here's the plan:

Friday: We will all meet at Martini's Bar and Grill at 6:00PM on Friday evening. (The location is across from the old Pizza House on Erie St.) We shall eat, drink, and be merry and let the evening take us wherever it leads… Dinner is optional but we will have access to the menu.

Martini's Bar & Grill
523 Erie St
Storm Lake, IA 50588
712-732-7852

Saturday: Since we may need to sleep in on Saturday ;-), Denny is in the midst of arranging for us to tour good ole' SMHS at 1:30PM to discuss those memories from yesteryear. (I'll write another newsletter to let you all know about that for sure.) After that, Denny and Mary have graciously invited all of us over to their abode for an afternoon on their lawn. Saturday night we have reservations at the Regatta Grille at the new King's Pointe Resort on the East side of the lake. I do believe there will be a band there that evening so it's party time again.

http://www.kingspointeresort.com/

Regatta Grille
1520 Lakeshore Dr
Storm Lake, IA 50588
712-213-4500

Here's an idea: How about we all bring whatever high school memorabilia we have to this reunion? Remember those pseudo yearbooks we had? Those are the ones we all signed for each other. Bring 'em! Old photos? Bring 'em. And of course, cameras and camcorders and anything else you can think of too.

For photos, senior sketches, and the latest on who is attending please visit the SMHS69 forum at https://smhs69.board-directory.net/welcome-smhs69-grads-f1/ .

See you in SL!
-Mike McCormick