Jim Anderson ’63

At age 10, about 5th grade, I was the smallest, scrawniest boy in the class and may have volunteered for this event because I lived next to the Texico Station and had access to their pile of used tires.

Anyway, I’m at the starting line (in the area where the new school stands) with my tire. (I wonder if the rules said anything about tire size) and standing next to me is a giant by the name of Clifford Kinsley. This is the same guy who just a few days earlier got a big chuckle as his pet hog took a liking to me and who 70 years later loves telling anyone who will listen just how fast Jimmy Anderson got out of that hog yard and by how many feet he cleared the fence getting to safety. Could this be the same rally day where in the morning spelling competition I could not spell the word “above” correctly? My excuse to this day: maybe my hearing was already headed south at age 10, because I had never heard of that word! So, after spelling it “abofs” I was looking for any rock to crawl under. Now I was about to be humiliated a second time by someone I thought was my friend.

When we heard the word “GO” to start the “roll” Clifford planted his size 12 boot on his tire which sent it half way to the finish line, while I just stood there in awe at this flagrant violation of the rules. But the officials let the game continue and the big guy got the blue ribbon (I don’t recall if there were participation ribbons then) while I started looking for that rock.

Some 70 years later, Dr. Kinsley and I discussed this life altering event over coffee. He claims that he was not at the starting line next to me that day because he was a grade ahead of me. The more I think about it, that giant next to me was Paul Thomas who was in the same grade. Man, those country kids were big!!

Jo Anna Poppe Warder ’56

I am not sure of the year, but I think it was 1955 when the Auditorium was built adjacent to the high school. I was a junior then and my class raised enough money to buy the popcorn machine purchased the year of the opening. To raise funds my class members sold magazine subscriptions and Christmas cards and accepted monetary donations. I have been informed that the machine is still being used and is operative after 70 + years. It might have had a few parts replaced and retired, but is basically the same machine.

Aka Valerie Halla

Travel Broadens Your Horizons and diminishes Your Bank Account- by Valerie Halla

I recently started out on an overly ambitious road trip with my trusty companion, Nincompoop, my bags overstuffed with clothes and a grocery bag stocked with unhealthy snacks and sugary drinks and my new SUV gas tank full. I was ready to drive and listen to lots of 60’s and 70’s and 80’s music. I was going to visit friends and family in Southern California.

I headed out in the late afternoon a few days before Valentines Day, ready to spend one night out on the road before arriving in Palm Springs to spend three nights with my friend I had known for three decades and taught with at our kids local school. Of course my friend had been asking me for 7 years to visit her and her husband at their lovely home in a gated community. It was finally happening. I was excited to drive there the next day and made it out to the desert and their country club estates house by early afternoon.

As I drove the freeway seeing beautiful CA mountains and giant energy generating fans, I drove on the Sonny Bono Memorial Highway and exited where GPS guided me going past Gerald Ford Street and seeing signs for the Betty Ford Center and Bob Hope Road. It was like going back in time to the 1970’s.

I finally got to my friend’s community and got through security making all the right moves. All the houses looked the same. I passed lovely lawns, tennis courts, the clubhouse and greens and fountains. My friends waved at me from their front yard and helped me unload my luggage and carefully get Ninny settled in their house with dog pads in key locations around in the kitchen and my private guest bedroom and bathroom.Their house was gorgeous.

We started talking immediately. Her husband mostly just listened. We had so much fun gabbing and laughing. In the past, we had taught third grade at our local school together for years, and we both had gone through personal issues and trauma in our lives. It was a blast catching up and seeing their house and patio right on the golf course. After cleaning up, we went to the clubhouse for drinks like her husband suggested. I had a weak moment and ordered a Long Island Iced Tea, not really knowing that it contained 5 liquors and should be called Long Island Punch because it packed a punch and then some. I only drank half of my cocktail and felt like the walking dead. I’d better check my pulse when I get back. They both ordered itsy bitsy drinks so they were sober. They knew what appetizers to get which helped me since I was hungry. Actually I was more like drunk and dippy which means I was out of it. I tried to concentrate on what they were saying but my brain was misfiring— badly. I’d better check my brain when I get back.

The food helped and guzzling water eased the problem, so we went outside onto the clubhouse patio and chatted with other people who were enjoying the torch lights bordering the big patio. My short circuit of a brain started to perk up as I got into a disagreement about Canada with some older bolder guy sitting there. It was time to leave. I was drunkgry- sorta drunk and sorta angry.

Back at their house we had a great three days watching the Winter Olympics and sitting on the patio drinking coffee and tea each morning talking. Nincompoop had managed to poop on their carpet in the master bedroom and she also peed on their white tile while we were gone so I helped clean that up, apologizing profusely.

Also we two ladies went to Zumba at their gym and walked around their lovely neighborhood. We went out to their favorite restaurant one night and while her husband dog sat, we went to lunch at a Belgian restaurant for valentines day then shopping. What a fun time. Ninny started to use the pee pads thankfully.

It was hard to leave come early Sunday morning.

I said my goodbyes and put my LA hotel address into GPS and headed for my hotel to visit my son for three nights.

In LA I checked into my hotel in Korea Town, and waited for my son to pick me up. We were going to open houses for some pretty old and relatively cheap fixer upper’s. What a day! After seeing 4 dilapidated houses we went for food and then to my son’s girlfriend’s house where her Dad fixed us a sumptuous Lunar New Year Dinner and his gf gave us brownies she had baked for dessert. Her brother, wife and daughter also were there and we enjoyed getting to know them.

It was such an honor to be invited to a special dinner like that with homemade Korean dishes.

Matt drove me to my hotel, where I went to bed exhausted from the long day. The next day I drove myself and my dog about 90 minutes south on the freeways and in rain to my High School friend’s house in Mission Viejo. My friend made us a hot cup of tea and she had salmon salad sandwiches for us which were very elegant. Her table was still set beautifully from a luncheon she had that weekend for her Bible Study group. It was all done in pink with napkins folded in rose shapes. She gave me a pink cloth napkin and showed me step by step how to fold them into a rose. It was pretty easy. I forgot how to do it about five minutes later.

Then I gave her two pink candles as a gift. Perfect!

Our other high school friend came next and we sat and talked a long time then decided to call another old friend in Texas! What a flashback in our memories did that bring on. Old stories were flying like bats in a cave fire. We decided to meet up with her sometime if she ever got to California again.

My trip was great and it was tough saying goodbye to my son the next day. He took me out for breakfast and we did a couple errands together. I felt blessed to have such a good son and special friends in my life. Being 70ish can be a challenge but it’s real, much fun at times and it’s a privilege.