Burbank High School Graduating Class of 1967 blog. See photos and read messages from the past and present!
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After bringing in the new year with my neice and family in Los Gatos , I met up with with Jeanne Barron Aikman for coffee and brunch. We walked through this charming town located just south of San Francisco chatting and laughing in the rain. Thanks Jeanne for the fun day and a great start to 2009!
In the following video clip, there are 4 BHS alumni and 1 who went to Muir then moved to Catalina Island and graduated from Avalon High. Can you identify them?
Burbank volunteers work to finish Rose Parade float By Connie Llanos, Staff Writer Updated: 12/30/2008 12:30:55 AM PST source
A 30-foot-tall snorting dinosaur, laser-blasting spaceships and oversize popcorn containers complete with butter scent.
These are just some of the elaborate features that volunteers with the Burbank Tournament of Roses Association were trying to complete Monday afternoon as the deadline to finish their floral masterpieces for this year's Rose Parade drew closer.
To get the moving pieces of art done on time and in top shape, seasoned volunteers like Ginny Barnett have made 24-hour shifts on the days leading up to the event a tradition.
"It's a lot of work but I wouldn't know what to do with myself during the week between Christmas and New Year's if I didn't come here," the Burbank resident said.
Like Barnett, thousands of volunteers across the Southland have been working for months on their floats, submitted from all over the country.
Since 1890, the annual Pasadena Tournament of Roses has rung in the new year for parade spectators - now including millions of television viewers - who wait every year to get a glimpse of the elaborate floats, as well as marching bands and equestrian teams that compete for accolades at the event.
Others look forward to the annual event for its athletic action. This year the Rose Bowl will host a showdown between the University of Southern California and Penn State - true to the Rose Bowl's old tradition of matching the Pac-10 and Big Ten champs.
Still for volunteers like Barnett, who has been working on floats in Burbank for 17 years, the real satisfaction is found in getting your hands on the float.
"It didn't take long for me to get hooked," the computer technician said as she glued crushed and sifted marigolds onto a foam road - mustard for a three-foot hot dog that sat nearby.
The feat of putting together the bigger-than-life floats - this year Burbank's float tops out at 43 feet long, 28 feet tall and 18 feet wide - is the ultimate arts and crafts project. It tends to hook people like Beth Weinstein, a stained-glass artist who Monday delicately placed white flower petals onto a giant soda-cup lid. A Miami resident, Weinstein volunteered with the Burbank float team three years ago, when she came to visit family. This year, Weinstein persuaded her husband to take the 3,000-mile trip with her to work on the float again.
"It really is an amazing experience," Weinstein said.
But not every volunteer is a natural-born artist. Thirty-year float volunteer Pat Wilson said she always shied away from painting or drawing.
"It's the sense of starting a big project and watching it come together that I enjoy," Wilson said.
As the warehouse buzzed with the sound of drills and welding, the blue eyes of first-time volunteer Katelyn Bauer, 9, stood wide open as she stared at the float.
"I am so surprised by how big everything is; look at the popcorn tubs - they're huge," Bauer said of the 4-foot-high vessels.
At a cost of about $100,000, putting together an impressive float is not easy for a nonprofit corporation.
The Burbank entry will go up against $400,000 and $500,000 floats produced by professional float builders.
But for Steve Edward, design chairman for Burbank's float team, the challenge of finishing an ambitious project every year, relying solely on volunteer hours, is exciting.
"Those floats are more consistent," Edward said.
"But in our float you can see the different techniques employed by different people ... You can see the community's work."
Thanks for the update, Diana... WOW! Here is the snow level in front of my house on December 22. It continued to snow through December 26!
What a storm!
Snowbound from the 19th-27th! Was snowbound the week before as well from earlier storms when I was able to get out twice, briefly for med. appts. Schools closed Dec. 15 due to snow.
I wish I could figure out how to send you all the pics on the same email and don't want to send you one after another so this is it folks!
Thanks Carol! It is now 12:03am, so I am officially 60 yrs old *** sigh *** and currently, I'm waiting for my flight which has been delayed one hour. So I will celebrate after I arrive in Panama City, FL. Btw, did you know that in Germany, people plan and prepare their own birthday parties? Pretty good idea I think.
I am so glad to have had you as a friend for all these years.
You truly are aspecial person.
May you have a wonderful 60th year and have many more to come.
Thanks Cathy for remembering & for the great photo. I'll be on a plane taking the red eye tonight to Florida to see my children and grandchildren for Christmas and am waiting for the airporter even now. My daughter told me on the phone earlier today, "Yes, you are old but you don't look 60 nor do you act it" and then my 11 year old granddaughter got on the phone and "You're not old, Grandma!" Hahahaa! Carol Nicholls Lebrecht, Jeanne Sproul, Cathy Nicholls Coyle, Cathy Palmer, Cynthia McCarthy and Jeani Crichlow
Hey CP:
Tomorrow you will be celebrating your 60th Birthday!
I have attached a photo of some friends celebrating your "19th" Birthday at our house on Olive Avenue in Dec. 1967!
I hope you have a wonderful birthday and Merry Christmas with your Family!
