Notice from Denny March 9, 2005
We had a few classmates that were quoted a lot extra for Fri. night. All nights are $99 per night per our contract. The problem was that the hotel just puts 10 rooms at a time in our block and when the block gets full it was taking them time to add another 10.
Carol talked to Michael Acosta, Hotel Mgr. this morning and he will get the problem fixed and anyone in our class can get the $99 price if it was booked at $139 for Fri. or any other night. Some have made 4 days reservations and some one, two, or three days. We have over 27 rooms booked so far as some booked them over a month ago. They should have plenty of rooms and e mail Carol if any problems.
They will send Carol an e mail on who has booked rooms every two weeks. Carol is having Terry put the list of those coming on our web page. She will have about 50 by Monday so will do it first of week. I get the reservations here and bank the money and send the registration forms to Carol every Sat. and she will get them on Monday.
We are still needing Bio's so have the Pal's people asking the snail mail people to send theirs in. We need you, e mail people, to send in your bio to Carol, or myself. Then we send it to Terry after we record who has sent them. Of course if you don't have an updated pic Terry would like it for the web page also.
Everything is falling in place and Fred booked a 4 piece band, for a decent price, that will be great. They have a keyboard player that Carol will ask for some dinner music.
Regards, Denny JBHS 55 Reunion Secretary
Save the date of Sat. Oct. 29th., 2005 for our Golden 50th. Reunion. We have a get together planned on Fri. evening Oct. 28th. at the hotel plus a brunch on Sun. Oct. 30th. It is at the Hilton Hotel across from the Burbank Bob Hope Airport on Hollywood Way.
Carol will be sending out announcements about the end of Jan. for this big event.
Also our 3rd. annual Las Vegas party is shaping up well. So far these are the ones that have registered at the hotel. Joyce and Dick Lyle Haskitt, Ronetta Scott Anctil, Linda Schofield Baldwin, Barry and Irene Knight, Sharon and Dick Stevens Cox, Fred and Deanna Roth, Earl and Fedelina Williams, Karen and Jerry Lucas, Bill Biewiener, Denny and Rowleen Grossman. We also have Carol and Scott Muscorella Maitland staying in their 5th. Wheel and Patt and Brian Blalock Harrington in their motor home. Many class mates from Vegas will be coming - Donna and Ray Nisbet Hammond, Carol and Dan Sykes Grant, Marilyn and Don Spitz Seckinger, Carol and Gene Handy Yannello. Cal and Barbara Roe, Ellen and Rob Connor Robin and many others will probably be coming.
Reservations need to be made by Jan. 26th. We will send out all information and who is coming the middle of Jan. We will attend the Show Forever Plaid at the Gold Coast on Mon. Feb. 28th. when we find out if it will be playing that long. It starts in Jan. and probably will be there for us.
Las Vegas Feb. 27th
We have till Jan 26th. to reserve our rooms at the $49 per nite rate (plus 9% tx.) at the Gold Coast. I reserved a block of rooms - Gold Coast Hotel, 4000 West Flamingo Rd., Las Vegas. Take Flamingo Road West from the 15 and it is about a half mile on right side. Many good restaurants and we are planning on meeting Sun. nite, Feb. 27th., at 7 p.m. at the entrance to the International Buffet on West end of Casino. After dinner, about 9 p.m. we will meet and Carol Muscorella Maitland will tell us some of the upcoming 50th. Golden Reunion plans at the Hilton in Burbank - Oct. 29th., 2005. Also some of our lady classmates have a JBHS Class of 55 Red Hatters club to tell all about. A great show, Forever Plaid, is supposed to start first of year but no prices for it as of now. I will let all know when I find out about show so we can make reservations for it and sit together as a group.
Just call reservation desk - toll free - 888-402-6278 to make your reservations. Tell them it is John Burroughs Hi School Class of 55 group. You will need to say if 1 king or two queens. Also smoking or non smoking. Need to have credit card handy. Can cancel up to 48 hrs. before date of reservation if emergency. Remember best to make reservations by December to get best choice of rooms and no later than Jan. 26th. to get the $49 rate. Check in time is 4 p.m. but usually we can get in by around 2 p.m. Check out time is noon. Some are staying 3 nites, Feb. 27, 28, Mar. 1st. Some just 2 nites.
We will have a hospitality room and Burroughs 55 windbreakers, Burroughs license plate frames, 54 & 55 Akelas, Carol Gratsos Book, "In the Language of Nature", Terry Wards Web. page CD and other items. in our hospitality room. Already 8 classmates have said they are coming and we just started. Over 50 were at each of our first two Vegas parties. We will have outings on Mon. to see some sites on the strip, Mt. Charleston, etc. Plenty to do in this area plus hotel is first class with free health club and all the pools etc.
Please make your reservations if you plan on coming and bring your bio if you haven't made one yet so Terry can put it in your web page. Also any pictures or class books of Grammer, Jr. Hi, or Burroughs schools.
We all sure had good times at our first two Vegas parties! THIS WILL REALLY BE ANOTHER GOOD TIME AS WE ARE GETTING TO BE REAL CLOSE FRIENDS AGAIN - BETTER THAN EVEN IN SCHOOL! Thanks to you all for your interest and joining in when you can! Denny Grossman, JBHS 55 Secretary
We will get to rooms for $44 per night if we tell them we are member of AAA. Those that have room already can tell them at checkout and they will get the $44 per night.
Remember to check Terry Wards site for our class. New updates all the time. Terry Ward's JBHS55 Web Page
Also check our other web site by Dell and Walt Lilly as it has many articles and pictures on it plus the Alaska to FL. bike trip of classmate Jerry Carson. JBHS55MainWebSite
Regards,
Denny Grossman,
JBHS 55 Reunion Secretary
To all my classmates: I have good news and very bad news which I will save for the end.......
Good stuff:
It was really great seeing those of you who I got to meet after all these years. It was a memorable event for me. The Grossman's, Geraci's and Tev Gray and wife were all great hosts and a great help to me to get on my way.....Tev and Wife were wonderful and we had a great time and dinner with them while we were there. Tev showed us a great time in Austin and we got to really see a lot......What a beautiful city......
The ride was a lot of fun although very difficult for the first 3 weeks as the Santana Winds started about noon on our first day out of San Diego and blew for 3 weeks. Climbing all those mountains with 20 to 30 mph headwinds made for some almost impossible cycling, but we made it through.....We rode all the way, 3200 miles & I might add we did it without a drop of rain.....It rained around us, behind and in front of us but never on us, can you believe????? We had a couple of nights with sprinkles while we were sleeping in our tents but when we arose in the AM all was clear again...We planned a day of rest in Del Rio, TX and about 11 pm that night it started pouring rain and continued until about 10 the next mourning then cleared. We did laundry and went to Wall Mart to do some shopping and then left the following morn on a clear and beautiful day with the first tail winds of the trip. We all had several flat tires, 11 in all for me which was the most of anyone. Once from a piece of glass and the other 10 from small wires left by the re-caps you see shredded along the road ways from the big trucks. When those tires come apart they shred the steel belts and the small pieces of wire are like needles along the shoulders of the highways and they are a real problem....Once we got out of Cal. we no longer had to use portions of I-10 so that problem almost disappeared.
We had a lot of fun and did the ride in six and a half weeks, when we got into St. Augustine the cycling group that left the day before us were just getting into New Orleans. Us old guys really showed those youngsters how to do it!! We camped a lot, moteled it in areas and did a couple of B & B's we all ate like horses and almost got tossed out of a couple of buffets along the way........Most of us lost about 20 lbs and are now trying to put it back on again.....We never learn....Bike problems were minor, 2 of us needing new chains along the way....Before we left we put on these very expensive Stainless Steel chains $50 a crack, so we wouldn't have to worry about rusting chains along the way.....Mine broke riding from the Geraci's to Denny's so I took out the broken link and continued on, it broke 3 more times before I got to Phoenix so I bought a cheap made in China one and it brought me all the way home...Jim, my touring partner had the same problem so in Austin Tev took us bike shop hunting and we found a new one for him......Only serious problem we had was with Jim's bike, his rear rim, the spokes were pulling through and breaking up the rim and we couldn't get a replacement for a 40 spoke wheel so one night while he was in the shower I thought of a fix and when he came to the camp site I had both wheels out of his bike and had taken out all the spokes so I could switch the rims around. He just laughed and said "what the hell are you doing?" I appeased him by telling him he was so strong that he was tearing the spokes out of the rim and that was what the problem was...Everynight the wheel was out of true and several spokes were loose and I couldn't figure out why until the rim finally started to crack in places...I couldn't true the wheel any longer as the rim wouldn't take tightening the spokes anymore. I rebuilt both wheels putting the bad rim on the front and we no longer had any problems......Now he wants me to build him a set of 48 spokers like I have in my bike so that's my next project. We went along the coast in Alabama to Pensacola and the destruction was un-real.....It will be 20 years before the area is back to normal.....Everything blown away or totally destroyed...We had to camp next to a roller rink, with blasting music, that night as all the motels were full of construction workers and repair crews, thank god they closed at 10pm. Tried to find campgrounds but they were all either blown away or buried under 10 to 15 ft. of sand.
Well, enough of the trip, now I will get on with the bad news. One of us 4, Jerry Dambro, who is not only a good friend but a neighbor of mine and a constant riding companion, left the group right after Tallahassee, he headed N/E so he could go north of Jacksonville and to Amelia Island where his brother-in-law lives and then they were going to drive down to St. Augustine, about 40 miles, to celebrate with us...We were setting around the Hostel waiting for them to show up and talking about the trip when I got an emergency phone call to call home. My wife ask me if I was setting down and I said no and she said I better sit.....Jerry was 9 miles from completing his trip when he was hit from behind by a drunk driver and killed...We were all in shock, tears flowing and we couldn't even talk....I had a hard time even telling the other guys what happened. The guy that hit him ran but a witness chased him and got his license # and the police picked him right up...He was 38 years old....Family man who will now go to prison. I just don't know what is wrong with people, drink and drive, how stupid can you possibly be?? Jerry was a retired lawyer from Virginia who had a wonderful family and wife...He was 64 years old and in really great shape, was a real character and a lot of fun.....He will be terribly missed indeed.
Sorry I had to relay this news to you all but it would have been impossible not to. Now you all know why I wasn't on chat Wed. night....We were at viewings and funerals on Wed and Thur so I was very busy......I promise to be on next week...
Trina and I are going to go house hunting in Reno next month from the 5th to the 10th. Sorry the Vegas trip and our trip don't co-inside or we could have made both....Don't think theirs anyway we can make both and the house thing is mandatory.
Bye to you all for now........Jerry
Dan Cassidy talks about his mother Jean. Nov. 1, 2004
She worked at Thrifty Drug store for about 30 years. She retired and spend the next 10 or so years traveling and playing golf. She was president of the Debell Women's golf club in Burbank. She also was a contract bridge expert . Win or lose my mother called me after ever USC football game for more than 40 years. She died 2 years ago at the age of 84 after a lengthy battle with cancer. I have to admit I still expect her to callafter each game and am disappointed when she doesn't.
Jerry mailed this post card Oct. 23 from Houston, Texas.
We have been going thru this hilly country for about a week - really tough riding but making fairly good time. We will be in LA tomorrow, well over half way in a month. Final 4 are all in good shape & will make it all the way. Say hi to all the class
Love ya all, Jerry
Note from Jan Bradbury, 10/22/04.
Hi Terry,
We went to New Jersey for Lee's 50th high school class reunion last weekend and we had a wonderful time. It got me eagerly awaiting for October 2005.
We came home from a fabulous 4-1/2 months in Tahiti and her surrounding islands. It was harder to come home this year than any other. Again we left the boat in Riatea and will return in April to move on to the Cook Islands. The French won't let us leave the boat more than 2 years without making us pay a stiff tax.
I am attaching 4 photos that I thought you might be able to use. I looked and looked through stuff for a photo of JC and I think my brother has most of our old family photos out in Calif. He got everything when my Mom died.
Out of curiosity I would like to know how many classmates we have and how many have died. I see that all but 8 have been found. Lee's class had 278 and found all but 3. They've had 22 pass on.
Hope all is well down Mexico Way.
Take care. Janus Bradbureous
Note from Cal Roe, 10/15/04.
Attached is a photo of Cal & Barb during our Hawaian Cruise on the Norwegian Wind. We returned to LA on Oct 13, but had chores in Orange County. When we arrived in Big Bear Friday evening, I put on my JBHS jacket that I bought at the picnic. Last Friday we were dripping with persperation due to the heat and humidity typical of the islands. I did think about the Wednesday night Chats, but at $0.20 per minute I passed. We spent 3 days in Honalulu, then sailed to Hilo, then Maui, and then Kiwai. We took a bus ride around Ohau, and hilicopter ride around Kiwai. After Kiwai, we were to go to Fanning Island, for our "foreign port." But, after about 20 hours sailing time they had to return to Kona due to a "medical emergency". The man died later. They tried to come up with alternate plans (back to Hilo and Kiwai, and an extra day in Honalulu) but nothing seemed to have any class. Then there was a second death. The food was repetative and about the quality of Denny's. There was a group of 10 friends from Big Bear, and they made the cruise fun. This was our 9th cruise and probabably ranked #9.
Postcard from Jerry Carson Sept. 28th.
Got to Phoenix yesterday after a very hard ride of 95 miles across terrible desert with 100 heat. Decided to take a day of rest here at a hostel. Went sight seeing by city buses today. Saw Frank Lloyd Wrights AZ. Biltmore - wow, what a place - mucho $$. $2500 for a pak of 5 Cuban Cigars. Heading out tomorrow, should be in New Mex. by Friday. Trina said Hurricane Jeanne really wiped out a lof of stuff - our trees are all down & roof got a leak. Looks like our move m,ight be delayed a month or so. Jerry
Postcard from Jerry, Sept. 24th.
We are 4 days out of San Diego and just made AZ. Had 2 days of 8 - 10% climbing with 25/30 mph headwinds - grueling! Were camping tonight on the Colorado River - no fishing pole. We al4ready caught the bike tour that left S.D. the day before we did. I'll try to sedn a card every couple of days so you can post on class web site. Later, Jerry 99 degrees
NO! It is NOT a Port-O-Potti
OK Let's roll
Denny wisely decides to take the train home.
Thank you for positing this message. Our grandson had a reaction about 10-14 days after
receiving a "henna" tattoo from the Aztec Henna given in the Ensenada/La Bufodaro area of
Baja.
The black henna tattoos which are being offered on the beaches and in town by vendors are
not hennas. There is not a black henna and if the so called henna turns out to be black, it most
likely contains a black dye containing paraphenylendiamine or PPD which can be very
dangerous. When the solution is placed on the skin it has a coal black color. Hennas have
more of reddish brown color.
Most likely the vendors do not know of the harm it can cause someone. We gave one vendor
the informatoin in Spanish and he was very receptive and asked to keep the info to show to
others.
A website to review this subject is www.hennapage.com. Click on the section about Black Hennas.
Passing this info to as many folks as possible could save a life or a life of allergic
reactions.
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