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Bulletin |
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2/22/2004
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John Miller
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Thanks, everyone, for the kind words. However, the credit for this website goes to Kat Majors and Glenn Byron.
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4/26/2004
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John Miller
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Hi, everyone,
I’ve received a lot of inquiries regarding how much the Saturday Reunion event (on July 17) will cost and whom to send the money to. The Reunion Committee plans to send invitations to everyone we have an address for by May 16. If we have your e-mail address, you should get an e-mail; otherwise, you should get a letter or post card. The invitation will include information about the cost of the event and how to make the payment. The same information will be posted on this website before the invitations are issued. I look forward to seeing everyone at the events!
Best Wishes,
John Miller
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5/4/2004
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John Miller
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Looking for Janet Ekstrom: Janet, your voice mail message to me was cut off, so I was not able to get the information you wanted to pass on (I presume it is your contact info – please provide it, since we have nothing for you in the data base). You can try calling me again, or e-mailing the ReunionCommittee at reunion74@edison74hb.com.
Thanks!
John Miller
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6/27/2004
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John Miller
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Hi, everyone,
I'm pleased to announce that the Reunion Committee has reached a verbal agreement with a professional video production company on the creation of a DVD for our Reunion. The company is Bulldog Studios of Aliso Viejo, California. The DVD will include (among other things):
- a video tour of Edison High School
- personal interviews with our classmates
- a video memory book
- a look back on how things used to be
- candid footage of us being ourselves
- activity on the dance floor
- interviews of former teachers and staff (at least the ones we can locate!)
All of the footage is carefully edited and accompanied by music of the period.
There is no upfront cost to this service. In other words, none of the $70 per person fee for the Saturday Reunion event is being applied to this service, and no one is being required to purchase a copy of the DVD.
The DVD will cost $35 per copy, including shipping and handling. Purchase must be by cash or check. Checks should be made out to Greg Bowman. You can order a copy during the Saturday Reunion event, or by mail at the following address:
Greg Bowman
77 Sprucewood
Aliso Viejo, CA 92656.
You can learn more about this service by contacting Mr. Bowman at (949) 360-8790, or by e-mail at BulldogStudios@cox.net.
Sincerely,
John Miller
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6/28/2004
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John Miller
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Hello, everyone,
I've received some inquiries about the multiple invitations and reminders that I've sent through the Classmates.com website about our Reunion. I apologize for any annoyance this may have caused. The only way I can communicate with everyone registered on the Classmates.com website is by issuing either an invitation or a reminder. Well, perhaps I should say, "The only way I know how to communicate with everyone ...." I sent out quite a few invitations before I discovered that there was a "reminder" option. Anyway, the frequency and subject matter of the communication are directed by the Reunion Committee, and the content is reviewed by at least one and often more people before anything is sent. Knowing that your time is important, we have done what we can to avoid sending flippant or redundant messages.
I'd also like to take this opportunity to express how profoundly gratifying it has been to me personally to see this website develop into the wonderful communication tool that it has become. The purpose of the Reunion and the website is to bring joy and connection to people's lives: connection with long-lost friends and acquaintances, connection with an increasingly distant past, connection with our former teachers, coaches and counselors, who brought such light to our lives, connection with the community that we once lived in, and connection with Edison itself. I can see that this purpose has already been partially fulfilled by the discussion that has taken place here on the bulletin board. I appreciated Steve Scott's statement early on about the website being a touchstone for years to come; I certainly hope that will be the case. It was nice also to hear from other persons I hadn't spoken to for decades, like Cal Beisner, Debbie Fenell, J.D. Elmquist, Eric Postle, and Janet Ekstrom (hello to all of you in case you read this!). Bob DeSola's e-mail was profoundly moving, and among the most inspirational messages I have ever read. I've also appreciated the supportive comments made by John Upp, Bob Gundry, Susan Cross Friesen, Tammy De Lillo Morris, Vince Carey, Cal Garo and others.
I wanted to let everyone know that I invited Ms. Eiswerth to the Saturday event, but that she cannot attend since she is living out of state. However, she wanted me to let everyone know that she has very fond memories of being our teacher.
I look forward to seeing everyone at the Reunion events!
Best Wishes,
John Miller
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6/29/2004
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John Miller
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Hi, Madonna (and everyone),
The dollar sign next to your name in the “Alumni Area” (i.e., the yearbook photos on this website) does indeed mean that your payment for the Saturday Reunion event has been received. After you send your check, allow some time for the check to get to the Reunion Committee and for the payment to be registered into the electronic account. After that, the dollar sign should be shown next to your name.
Thanks also for the positive remarks about the e-mails I have sent through the Classmates.com website service. There will doubtless be more before the Reunion weekend arrives.
Best Wishes to Everyone for the Reunion.
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7/2/2004
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John Miller
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Hello, everyone,
Yes, IT IS DEFINITELY STILL NOT TOO LATE TO SIGN UP!! Fill out the registration form on this website and submit the fees of $70 per person as per the instructions on the registration form. The more people who register and pay in advance, the better it will be. Please don’t show up at the door with your payment; just register now, and mail your checks in!!
See you all at the Reunion
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7/2/2004
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John Miller
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Hello, everyone,
After reviewing Chedly's posting above, I thought the following excerpt would make interesting reading for the class and and whoever else stumbles upon our website. The excerpt is from a letter that I sent to Peter Mattaino on March 13, 2000. The letter makes reference to an earlier communication that I had with Peter, which was a phone call I placed with him around January of 2000. Peter, incidentally, was a fellow alumnus, a very bright but humble person with a wonderful sense of humor. It is with great sadness that I must announce that Peter passed away in Corpus Christi during the summer of 2002. May his soul rest in peace.
Here's the excerpt from the letter.
... by far the strangest encounter with a former high school classmate that I’ve ever had was with arguably the most remarkable person I knew in high school (and that says a lot): Chedly Sahab-Ettaba. I don’t know if you knew him. He had a spontaneous, Dionysian personality, and all kinds of wild adventures and even gardens seemed to grow from his very footsteps. He was just about my closest friend during the fall of 1973, but then I lost all contact with him after January 1974.. For a while, I thought I’d never see him again. As I mentioned earlier, I went to Sacramento in 1976 and studied various topics, finally completing a degree in philosophy in 1978. I had odd, temporary jobs in Sacramento for about a year after that (e.g., working as a parking lot attendant, and busing dishes for a restaurant), living off practically nothing and spending most of my spare time reading or dabbling in artwork. I also spent some of this time brooding about the vocational morass I was in, finally deciding to return to school and complete a degree in math and obtain a teaching credential. However, I dropped that idea in favor of joining the Peace Corps. The Peace Corps took me into a teaching program in Nepal, where I taught math and science in a remote hillside village about 200 kilometers west of Kathmandu. At one point, around April of 1980, I had to go into the village of Pokhara, about 50 km east of where I taught. I stopped into a shop to purchase some refreshment, when I heard someone call the name "Shedly" (for so it is pronounced). "How coincidental," I thought; "it must be someone with the English name Shedly." And so I turned around, and there was Chedly Sahab-Ettaba, looking exactly as he did in high school, with shoulder-length black hair. I thought I was dreaming. "Chedly??" I asked, incredulously. This seemed to scare the heck out of him. Then I explained who I was; he couldn’t recognize me. It took us about half an hour to get over it, that we should meet there of all places, after what had seemed to be such a hiatus. He was living in a way that only he could: entertaining people all over Europe and Asia on the road with a Czech friend of his, with magic and song, dance, skits and silliness, like some troubadour from medieval France. I remained in Nepal till 1984, teaching, translating and engaging in small-scale engineering and health teaching work in the same village. Chedly and I would run into each other unexpectedly about once every 6 to 12 months, almost always in Kathmandu. Then of course we would catch up on what was going on. There always seemed to be a ton of dramatic things going on with him and me, despite these brief and infrequent encounters.
After I left Nepal in 1984, I would wonder what he was up to, and I began to doubt that I would ever hear from him again. However, wonders will never cease with him. I completed another degree in San Diego in 1987, this time in civil engineering, as I related to you during our phone conversation. I started working for the public water agency in Los Angeles in 1988, and have been working there ever since. One day, a little less than a year ago, I got a message at work from the Peace Corps that someone named Chedly was trying to reach me by e-mail from Thailand. Sure enough, it was Chedly. He runs a big traveling circus act, has a lucrative TV show in Thailand, is married to a Japanese lady, and has two children. His adventures dwarf most of the epics I have read; his travels probably surpass those of anyone I’ve ever met. When I try to think of someone like him, I can only think of Baron von Munchausen, or the Comte de Saint-Germain. He’s always having the strangest adventures, not the least of which must have been our weird, almost supernatural encounter in rural Nepal 20 years ago. We continue to exchange e-mail occasionally....
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7/7/2004
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John Miller
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Hi, Ken,
Although I have no doubt that I comfortably met almost anyone’s definition of an eccentric, I hope I won’t disappoint you by confessing that I never wore my clothes inside-out. Nevertheless, I’m sure you’ll be pleased to learn that I’ve matured considerably since high-school days. It used to be that people thought I was eccentric because of my behavior. Now they just think I’m eccentric regardless of my behavior.
Anyway, kidding aside, I was very sorry to learn of your sister’s passing. I didn’t know her, but I saw the messages she left on Classmates.com, and realized that she must be your sister. Her messages were so cheerful and full of life, that I found myself filled with deep mourning when I learned of her passing, even though I don’t think she and I ever met. I learned last autumn of her passing from a posting left by another alumna, and I informed the Reunion Committee shortly thereafter. I feel grateful that I was able to witness a glimpse of her remarkable character through her postings. It’s such a loss. I hope we can all feel uplifted by the memory of the many who are no longer with us.
I look forward to seeing you at the Reunion.
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7/10/2004
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John Miller
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Hi, Ken,
Thank you for your highly complimentary remarks. There is no need to apologize. I was being facetious in my previous discussion about eccentricity. However, truthfully, I find it neither offensive nor flattering to be perceived as eccentric. Biologists are always telling us that every individual is unique, so being eccentric must be more common than custom and fashion would lead one to believe. As I tell my co-workers, it’s normal to be weird. More importantly, it’s weird to be normal.
Enjoy the Reunion,
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7/10/2004
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John Miller
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Thank you, Kathy, for your remarks about Peter. I’ve had some correspondence with his brother Vince (EHS Class of 1976) since I learned of his passing. I’m sure Vince will appreciate your comments; I’ll let him know of what you said.
While we’re on this subject, I also wanted to acknowledge another classmate of ours who is no longer with us: Christina Christofferson. Many of us knew her as Tina Christofferson, although I always called her Chris. Early last March, while working with the other Reunion Committee members to update the Alumni Contact Database (so that we could notify everyone about the forthcoming Reunion), I learned from Glenn Byron that she passed away, apparently in the early 1990s.
As I mentioned in some recent correspondence with our former English teacher, Ms. Eiswerth, a part of oneself dies when one learns of the death of another, especially the death of someone close. If it were otherwise, perhaps grieving would not occur, at least where the deaths of others are concerned. I had been hoping to make contact with Chris again in this Reunion, and it came as something of a shock to realize that that was not to be. Here, as in past experiences of death, I find that memory and gratitude temper the anguish of loss.
I had some brief correspondence with her while I was in Nepal. She had become a nurse, and was working near Desert Hot Springs as I recall. However, I had lost contact with her after that. It’s odd in retrospect how blithe I was about the prolonged lack of contact. That’s part of the reason for having this Reunion, and for having this Website: to allow contact to happen again sooner rather than later.
In talking with so many of our classmates, I’ve been impressed by how many of us experienced at least enough loneliness and alienation in high school to be having a pretty difficult time at times. For all I know, perhaps all of us did. But even if only many of us did, it seems almost comically ironic in retrospect. It’s like the Steven Sting song, “Message in a Bottle”: “I guess I’m not so lonely being alone.” At any rate, going through periods of loneliness and alienation, whether illusory or not, one becomes all the more joyous to discover the oasis of friendship in a sympathetic heart. Chris had just that kind of heart. May she be in peace and happiness wherever she now resides.
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7/10/2004
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John Miller
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By the way, everyone, I wanted to let you know that I’ve been in contact with Mr. Garland, one of our history teachers, who later became principal of Edison and only retired several years ago. Unfortunately, Mr. Garland is having surgery on his knee July 16, so he will not be able to attend our Saturday event. However, he said that he might be able to attend the Sunday event. All the more reason to go on Sunday! Mr. Garland wanted the Class to know that he wishes you the best, and that he has wonderful memories of teaching us. In fact, he stated that the US history class that he taught during our junior year was about the most “high-powered” class he taught during his entire career!
Best Wishes
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7/16/2004
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John Miller
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Hi, Johnna,
I wanted you to know that I invited Ms. Carpenter to the Saturday Reunion event, but she had to decline for personal reasons. However, she indicated that she might be able to make our Sunday picnic event. So you might want to join us for that. Thanks for your posting!
Sincerely,
John Miller
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7/16/2004
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John Miller
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Hi, Ken,
I’d say there is a greater than 50 percent chance that Ms. Carpenter will show up Sunday. That’s about as definite an answer as I can give. No, it’s not too late to show up Sunday; please come.
Thanks
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7/16/2004
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John Miller
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Just got an e-mail from Ms. Carpenter; she said she would be at the Sunday picnic (across the street from EHS) around 1:00 pm.
Ciao
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