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Don Ray's Blog
Saturday, October 13, 2007
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
Thursday, October 4, 2007
Bob's Carhop Cap
Today I mailed my Bob's carhop cap to David Thomson at Burbank High who is organizing the BHS Centennial next year for their display. So if you have anything to donate, contact Dave at thomson.david@burbankusd.org.
Here is his Oct 2, 2007 email:
Hi Cathy,
Thanks for your note and awesome greeting. You can send the hat to Burbank High School, 902 N. Third St., Burbank CA 91502 care of/attention Dave Thomson. I will archive it and want to use it in the museum display of the school’s history. There is no rush as we will not put the display together until next spring, but I promise to take good care of it whenever you send it.
I will add the Class of 1967 Breakfast on Sunday as TBA, and let me know whenever you have more details. I will check with you before the website goes up in mid-November, but think it’s great you guys are having that event. It should be a very special weekend. I am meeting with a publisher tomorrow to finalize plans to produce a coffee table type book on the history of the school, so I may need some more BHS and Bob’s stories from you.
Thanks again and take care.
Blessings,
Dave
Joan Nobile and Fred Ortega (BHS '65)
Joan and Fred, BIG Congratulations to your beautiful daughter, Officer Kristiana! And we all look forward to the Class of '67 Breakfast at your home next year on Sunday, September 14, 2008. Cheers!
Cathy,
Sure you may post the email I sent to Pam and Jon on your blog (which, by the way, is too much fun to read!).
We are very proud of Kristiana. I know she will be a wonderful officer.
I am looking forward to next years class-reunion breakfast at our house…I believe you and I finally came to the agreement that it would be on the Sunday of all the festivities, correct? As it gets closer, we can firm up the time and let people know more about it. (truthfully, I am not even sure if I told Fredo about it…) but no problem…he’s always up for entertaining…and breakfast is a fun meal to put together for a crowd!
Catch up w/u later…I have sooo much work to do! (wishing I was retired right about now!) jmo
FOLLOW UP EMAIL FROM JOAN:
Hi again…just a quick note…I talked to Fred about it and he seemed excited about a breakfast reunion…I knew he would! (he’s a very social person, in case you didn’t notice!!)
JOAN'S ORIGINAL EMAIL TO PAM AND JON KIRKWOOD (BHS 'LOOPERS'):
It was lots of fun seeing old friends and renewing old friendships at the reunion. I have made a promise to myself not to let such a longtime go without speaking with some of them...We all seem so busy and life is passing by quickly.
I have some news to share...with you; Our middle daughter, Kristiana was sworn in last night as a Police Officer. Fred and I and her sister Nikki and brother Michael are very proud of her. I am proud to say that I did not cry through the entire ceremony, (just part of it) but starting at the National Anthem and Pledge of Allegiance, I was pretty choked up. We had quite a crowd attend Kristiana's graduation, including some BHS grads and relatives, Emilio Ortega '61 or '62, not sure, Chris Ortega O'Neill "68 ~ (Fred's brother and sister ~ and their spouses); Gary and Karen (Shield) Smestad '64 along with their son Jeff, who's a Ventura County Sheriff Deputy. Mickey DePalo '64 attended too. My sister Peggy Nobile Erickson (she graduated from Bell Jeff '60) and her grandson Anthony came too. Kristiana's boyfriend and his two brothers and families were there as well. It was a touching ceremony, something we will never forget. We are all excited about Kristiana's new career as one of Burbank 's finest! Tomorrow's the big family celebration...wish us luck!
Take care. See you sometime!
Joan Ortega
Cathy,
Sure you may post the email I sent to Pam and Jon on your blog (which, by the way, is too much fun to read!).
We are very proud of Kristiana. I know she will be a wonderful officer.
I am looking forward to next years class-reunion breakfast at our house…I believe you and I finally came to the agreement that it would be on the Sunday of all the festivities, correct? As it gets closer, we can firm up the time and let people know more about it. (truthfully, I am not even sure if I told Fredo about it…) but no problem…he’s always up for entertaining…and breakfast is a fun meal to put together for a crowd!
Catch up w/u later…I have sooo much work to do! (wishing I was retired right about now!) jmo
FOLLOW UP EMAIL FROM JOAN:
Hi again…just a quick note…I talked to Fred about it and he seemed excited about a breakfast reunion…I knew he would! (he’s a very social person, in case you didn’t notice!!)
JOAN'S ORIGINAL EMAIL TO PAM AND JON KIRKWOOD (BHS 'LOOPERS'):
It was lots of fun seeing old friends and renewing old friendships at the reunion. I have made a promise to myself not to let such a longtime go without speaking with some of them...We all seem so busy and life is passing by quickly.
I have some news to share...with you; Our middle daughter, Kristiana was sworn in last night as a Police Officer. Fred and I and her sister Nikki and brother Michael are very proud of her. I am proud to say that I did not cry through the entire ceremony, (just part of it) but starting at the National Anthem and Pledge of Allegiance, I was pretty choked up. We had quite a crowd attend Kristiana's graduation, including some BHS grads and relatives, Emilio Ortega '61 or '62, not sure, Chris Ortega O'Neill "68 ~ (Fred's brother and sister ~ and their spouses); Gary and Karen (Shield) Smestad '64 along with their son Jeff, who's a Ventura County Sheriff Deputy. Mickey DePalo '64 attended too. My sister Peggy Nobile Erickson (she graduated from Bell Jeff '60) and her grandson Anthony came too. Kristiana's boyfriend and his two brothers and families were there as well. It was a touching ceremony, something we will never forget. We are all excited about Kristiana's new career as one of Burbank 's finest! Tomorrow's the big family celebration...wish us luck!
Take care. See you sometime!
Joan Ortega
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
Stephanie Castelletti
Thanks so much for your fantastic update, Stepahanie ! And BIG CONGRATS to your daughter - I know you and Jack are very proud parents.
Hi Cathy,
Your blog is wonderful! Since I wasn’t able to attend our reunion, I’ve enjoyed and appreciated all the photos and postings by our classmates. Thank you for putting the blog together for all of us. And thank you to all of our classmates who responded with photos and life stories.
You are probably wondering what I have been up to the last 40 years. Life has been interesting and wonderful at the same time. I feel very blessed to have lived the life I have with the family and friends who have been with us along the way. I have a wonderful daughter Cember, who is 27 year’s old, husband Jack, and a 115# chocolate lab named Koa. We still live on San Juan Island in Washington.
After graduation from high school we moved to Seattle and I proceeded to go to school for business and merchandising which led me to work for Nordstrom as an assistant buyer and then Jay Jacobs’s Washington and Alaska as a cosmetic and hosiery buyer.
By 1972, I wanted to travel and joined Continental Airlines as a flight attendant. In 1973 I married my husband Jack. In 1976, we moved to Laguna Beach to get out of the cold weather, Jack opened a deli and I flew Hawaii trips. Then we moved to Guam where I worked for Continental Air Micronesia flying to Japan, Honolulu, and the Micronesian Islands. Small world, Michael Lewis worked there also.
In 1980, after returning to Seattle, I gave birth to our daughter Cember. We are so proud of her. She is now 27 and graduated from law school in San Francisco in May, took the bar exam in July, and then started her new job in Sacramento at an environment law firm on September 10th. She is very passionate about making the world a better place to live. After the bar exam, she flew to Sardinia for three weeks (she speaks Italian) and then I met her in London for a mother daughter trip to Portugal for ten days. What fun we had! From there she traveled to Copenhagen for a week and I went to Vegas to be with my mother who was going to have breast cancer surgery and treatment. I’m happy to say mom is doing very well.
In 1983 I went to work for Evans Furs of Chicago. Evans owned/leased all the fur salons in the Nordstrom stores and I was the assistant buyer in the Seattle store. I was promoted to the buyer for the San Diego Nordstrom store. Nine months later we moved to Long Beach and I was promoted to the Los Angeles store of Robinson’s as a Division Merchandise Manager for 22 stores. It was a wonderful job and very challenging. Jack had his own successful seafood brokerage business in Long Beach.
July 1985 we quit our jobs and set sail for Hawaii on our custom wood boat sloop rig, “By the Wind.” We left a bit late and ran into hurricane season so we ended up going to San Diego and then to Mexico for the winter. This was the experience of a life time. Cember was five and a great traveler but when she said “it's margarita time”, we decided we had to go back to our old life and get her in school. In April of 1986 we had our boat shipped back to Seattle and purchased our first home. We began buying and selling real estate and working as realtors in Seattle.
In 1989, we purchased a beautiful 82 acre property surrounded by three lakes with a campground located on San Juan Island. It was a great life. For years we had horses but sold them when Cember went into high school since sports took over her life. We became contractors building six deluxe two bedroom two bath log cottages on the lake where the riding arena and paddock had been and converted the stable into a check-in office. Then we were in the lodging business.
In 1997 we built a house for ourselves and then in 2001 a guest lodge on the lake with ten guest rooms with a large great room and dining room. We created far more work for ourselves than we had intended but it was a great success and nice addition to the island. You can check it out at www.Lakedale.com
In 2005 we sold our home, our business, our property and started a new life. Last summer we took our Pacific Trawler to Alaska up the Inside Passage for three months. It was a trip to remember, especially for Koa. We are currently in the vacation rental business and our web site is www.vagabondo-llc.com. This summer we also completed construction on a house we built for resale.
While we haven’t slowed down and still have been buying and selling real estate, I’m ready for the simple life. We love to play tennis and contemplate being somewhere warm in the winters with our dog Koa. We aren’t sure where that will be but look forward to the next adventure in our lives.
So, that’s what we have been doing with our life. It’s never dull and my only complaints are that life seems to be going by too fast and I don’t feel nearly as old as I am. Does anyone else feel this way? I wish I could have been at the reunion with all of our friends and would love to hear from anyone who would like to drop me a line at sl.picconi@gmail.com.
See you all next time!
Stephanie (Castelletti) Piccon
Hi Cathy,
Your blog is wonderful! Since I wasn’t able to attend our reunion, I’ve enjoyed and appreciated all the photos and postings by our classmates. Thank you for putting the blog together for all of us. And thank you to all of our classmates who responded with photos and life stories.
You are probably wondering what I have been up to the last 40 years. Life has been interesting and wonderful at the same time. I feel very blessed to have lived the life I have with the family and friends who have been with us along the way. I have a wonderful daughter Cember, who is 27 year’s old, husband Jack, and a 115# chocolate lab named Koa. We still live on San Juan Island in Washington.
After graduation from high school we moved to Seattle and I proceeded to go to school for business and merchandising which led me to work for Nordstrom as an assistant buyer and then Jay Jacobs’s Washington and Alaska as a cosmetic and hosiery buyer.
By 1972, I wanted to travel and joined Continental Airlines as a flight attendant. In 1973 I married my husband Jack. In 1976, we moved to Laguna Beach to get out of the cold weather, Jack opened a deli and I flew Hawaii trips. Then we moved to Guam where I worked for Continental Air Micronesia flying to Japan, Honolulu, and the Micronesian Islands. Small world, Michael Lewis worked there also.
In 1980, after returning to Seattle, I gave birth to our daughter Cember. We are so proud of her. She is now 27 and graduated from law school in San Francisco in May, took the bar exam in July, and then started her new job in Sacramento at an environment law firm on September 10th. She is very passionate about making the world a better place to live. After the bar exam, she flew to Sardinia for three weeks (she speaks Italian) and then I met her in London for a mother daughter trip to Portugal for ten days. What fun we had! From there she traveled to Copenhagen for a week and I went to Vegas to be with my mother who was going to have breast cancer surgery and treatment. I’m happy to say mom is doing very well.
In 1983 I went to work for Evans Furs of Chicago. Evans owned/leased all the fur salons in the Nordstrom stores and I was the assistant buyer in the Seattle store. I was promoted to the buyer for the San Diego Nordstrom store. Nine months later we moved to Long Beach and I was promoted to the Los Angeles store of Robinson’s as a Division Merchandise Manager for 22 stores. It was a wonderful job and very challenging. Jack had his own successful seafood brokerage business in Long Beach.
July 1985 we quit our jobs and set sail for Hawaii on our custom wood boat sloop rig, “By the Wind.” We left a bit late and ran into hurricane season so we ended up going to San Diego and then to Mexico for the winter. This was the experience of a life time. Cember was five and a great traveler but when she said “it's margarita time”, we decided we had to go back to our old life and get her in school. In April of 1986 we had our boat shipped back to Seattle and purchased our first home. We began buying and selling real estate and working as realtors in Seattle.
In 1989, we purchased a beautiful 82 acre property surrounded by three lakes with a campground located on San Juan Island. It was a great life. For years we had horses but sold them when Cember went into high school since sports took over her life. We became contractors building six deluxe two bedroom two bath log cottages on the lake where the riding arena and paddock had been and converted the stable into a check-in office. Then we were in the lodging business.
In 1997 we built a house for ourselves and then in 2001 a guest lodge on the lake with ten guest rooms with a large great room and dining room. We created far more work for ourselves than we had intended but it was a great success and nice addition to the island. You can check it out at www.Lakedale.com
In 2005 we sold our home, our business, our property and started a new life. Last summer we took our Pacific Trawler to Alaska up the Inside Passage for three months. It was a trip to remember, especially for Koa. We are currently in the vacation rental business and our web site is www.vagabondo-llc.com. This summer we also completed construction on a house we built for resale.
While we haven’t slowed down and still have been buying and selling real estate, I’m ready for the simple life. We love to play tennis and contemplate being somewhere warm in the winters with our dog Koa. We aren’t sure where that will be but look forward to the next adventure in our lives.
So, that’s what we have been doing with our life. It’s never dull and my only complaints are that life seems to be going by too fast and I don’t feel nearly as old as I am. Does anyone else feel this way? I wish I could have been at the reunion with all of our friends and would love to hear from anyone who would like to drop me a line at sl.picconi@gmail.com.
See you all next time!
Stephanie (Castelletti) Piccon
Monday, October 1, 2007
Donna Luce Reunion Photos
Thanks for all the pics Donna - you got some great shots! Happy Trails!
Cathy Nicholls, Donna Luce and Joan Nobile
Joan (Nobile) and Fred Ortega
Cathy (Nicholls) and John Coyle
Kay Rodenberg and Elaine Morton
Joan Ely and Ron Panich
Ron and Joan (Lundigan) Panich, Chris Morris and John Peterson
Joan Nobile, Jay Todd and Scott Bruckner
Freddy Ortega and John Coyle
Patty Hardinghaus, Dona Foy and Marilyn Williams
Donna Luce and Jim Grasse
Anson Heimlick (Williams - you know, Potsie) and Flora Angel
Donna Luce and Mary Brotsis
Don Ray, Neal Hershenson, Ron and Karen (Lundigan) Panich
Cathy Nicholls, Donna Luce and Joan Nobile
Joan (Nobile) and Fred Ortega
Cathy (Nicholls) and John Coyle
Kay Rodenberg and Elaine Morton
Joan Ely and Ron Panich
Ron and Joan (Lundigan) Panich, Chris Morris and John Peterson
Joan Nobile, Jay Todd and Scott Bruckner
Freddy Ortega and John Coyle
Patty Hardinghaus, Dona Foy and Marilyn Williams
Donna Luce and Jim Grasse
Anson Heimlick (Williams - you know, Potsie) and Flora Angel
Donna Luce and Mary Brotsis
Don Ray, Neal Hershenson, Ron and Karen (Lundigan) Panich
Marilyn Miller's Reunion Photos
Thanks for the great photos Marilyn!
Marilyn Miller with daughter Anna
Marilyn and Mary Brotsis
Marilyn with Sue Casimano
Marilyn and Denny Lombard
Hi-Five!
Karen Lundigan (Panich), Mary Brotsis, Ron Panich, Neal Hershenson, Mary Ogle, Alan Singer, Joanne Yoffee and Cathy Nicholls
Reunion Picnic
Dona Foy, Leigh Rugee, Elaine Morton and Cathy Palmer
Sherri and Chris Peterson with Chris Morris
Greg van der Werff, Anson Heimlick (Williams) and Jim O'Dea
Marilyn Miller with daughter Anna
Marilyn and Mary Brotsis
Marilyn with Sue Casimano
Marilyn and Denny Lombard
Hi-Five!
Karen Lundigan (Panich), Mary Brotsis, Ron Panich, Neal Hershenson, Mary Ogle, Alan Singer, Joanne Yoffee and Cathy Nicholls
Reunion Picnic
Dona Foy, Leigh Rugee, Elaine Morton and Cathy Palmer
Sherri and Chris Peterson with Chris Morris
Greg van der Werff, Anson Heimlick (Williams) and Jim O'Dea
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