Monday, June 4, 2018

Some fine tuning ...

We're making some progress on the schedule for Reunion '18 (subtitled unofficially as 45 Years and Counting) - which is now right around the corner.

Here is what we are looking at:

Wednesday, July 18 - Warmup at the Penny Lane Grill, 10255 Main St. in Clarence (near Strickler) on Wednesday night.

Thursday, July 19 - Feel free to drop in for an warmup adult beverage at Brennan's at Main and Transit after the dinner hour.

Friday, July 20 - John O'Hare is willing to lead a tour of downtown Buffalo architectural highlights. Sounds like it would get going around noon at the Washington Square Tavern near the ballpark downtown. Check with John (he's on Facebook, or write us and we'll get you in touch with him) for details. There is talk of golf on Friday afternoon, and tee times are available - contract John Salzyn is interested (he is on Facebook, etc.). The music festival "Rock the Barn" in Clarence gets underway, going 4 p.m. to 11 p.m.. Check out the event here. For those who would prefer a little exercise on a Friday night, there's a four-mile race  that at least one member of the Class of '73 (Budd Bailey) will do - although he expects to do it alone in terms of his high school pals. Afterwards, or in case of rain, stop by Brennan's for a beverage.

Saturday, July 21 - It's a re-run of Rock the Barn. Same story afterwards - meet at Brennan's afterwards and/or in case of bad weather.

Sunday, July 22 - A picnic will be held at one of the shelters at a Clarence Town Park on Main St. (You know, the old one with the clubhouse - where we had the Senior Class picnic about 45 years ago). We have rented the small pavilion (75 people?) that faces the lake. Bring your own food and drink to the affair, and maybe we can do some sharing for variety's sake. We have the shelter for the whole day, but it seems like 12 to 5 would be the peak hours. Yes, all are welcome to this and other events - spouses, children, grandchildren, friends from other classes, even teachers if you know them.

So who is attending? Here are the names (we stuck to maiden names for now) we have from Classmates.com: Marshall Andrews, Budd Bailey, Marlene Bonosky, Joanne Bosard, Dave Campbell, Tim Cashmore, Sue Cavanaugh, Jeff Chudy, Bill Conway, Barb Cutt, Eileen Duffy, Liz Dunne, Kathy Ernst, John Fassel, Greg Hartwig, Tom Herberger, Kathleen Herle, Kathy Hirschler, Kathy Hof, Dale Hughes, Bill Irr, Paul Jacobs, Steve Kies, Joe Kody, Dave Korduba, Bernice Leising, Cathy Lofgren,  Cindy Lyons, Julie Kreher, Sharon Lowry, Colleen Modaffara, Michelle Mangano, Yvonne Massey, Tim McNally, Kim Merrihew, Colleen Modaffara, Victor Myers, Kim Patterson, Harland Pope, Tim Porter, Sue Rosenthal, Karen Roth, Scott Roth, John Salzyn, Bob Schoenthal, Norm Schueckler, Sue Shaffer, Karen Stollsteimer, Craig Tierney, Pat Tunkey, Peggy Whitman, and Greg Wolmering. Maybe - Mike Siracuse and Vicki Zaferakis.

Please let us know if you are coming. You get leave a comment at the bottom of this post, or you can do the same on Facebook's Class of '73 page. We need to prepare spiffy nametags and a welcoming, nostalgic gift for those attending ahead of time.

Our email still works - ClarenceClassof1973@gmail.com. Drop us a note there or on Facebook at the Clarence Central Class of 1973 site, and we'll see it.

Strike up the band ...

Clarence Central High School had a lot of talented musicians pass through its halls over the years. Some of them were from our era, naturally.

Donna Kothen Raepple found photos of some of them, and thought they were worth sharing. She was absolutely right (as usual).

Click on the photo to get a look at a bigger image.

Wednesday, May 23, 2018

The schedule ...

Let's just review what we have coming up in July:

Wednesday, July 18 - Warmup at the Penny Lane Grill, 10255 Main St. in Clarence (near Strickler) on Wednesday night.

Thursday, July 19 - Feel free to drop in for an warmup adult beverage at Brennan's at Main and Transit at night.

Friday, July 20 - The music festival "Rock the Barn" gets underway, going 4 p.m. to 11 p.m.. Check out the event here. For those who would prefer a little exercise on a Friday night, three's a four-mile race  that at least one member of the Class of '73 will do - although he expects to do it alone in terms of his high school pals. Afterwards, or in case of rain, stop by Brennan's for a beverage.

Saturday, July 21 - The schedule for Saturday night is essentially the same as Friday night, without a race. John Salzyn has talked about trying to set up a little golf outing for those interested in the afternoon.

Sunday, July 22 - A picnic is planned at one of the shelters at a Clarence Town Park; we're in the process of firming that up. The guess is that the reunion committee will bring some basics (some food to be cooked, charcoal, whatever), and guests can bring something else (salad, dessert). We'll have more details on this in the near future.

Planning on attending some events? Let us know through the Facebook page (Clarence Class of 1973 or Clarence Senior High School Friends) or via email (ClarenceClassof1973@gmail.com). The only event that a head count is needed is the picnic. Remember, all are welcome at any event if they can put up with constant references to the early 1970s (from President Nixon to Dog 'N Suds).

Coming in from out of town? If you need ideas on what to do, we are here to help. Someone can show downtown Buffalo (it's changed a lot lately) or Clarence (it's changed less), for example. We did a high school tour five years ago - wait until you see the artificial turf on the football field.

Tuesday, May 15, 2018

Reincarnation

We brought a person back to life today ... sort of.

That leads to an interesting story, as you'd expect.

Classmates.com is not the only website devoted to keeping track of high school classes. There are a couple of others, even if they aren't as popular. One of them is called "Old Friends." You can find it by going here.

We stumbled on it while doing a search, and saw that a "Beth Burton" was reported as deceased on Oct. 20, 2013. After searching through the class database we have, we saw that this was Beth Hutchinson Burton.

It took a little while, but we discovered that she is still on Facebook - posting away. It's fair to say that reports of her demise have been exaggerated.

Welcome back to the world of living, Beth. If someone is in touch with her, pass the word along.

You might want to take a look at the site, if only to see the messages. Budd received one that read, "I don't know if you'll get this but I've looking for you for years." There was no name attached, deepening the mystery.

Monday, May 14, 2018

Senior year plans ...

I dug up two pages of lists on what the senior class planned to do after graduation. Wonder how many followed through with those plans? Click on the image to see a bigger, more clear picture.