Mariner High School Class of 1976

you may want to pass along this info about their upcoming 35th reunion:

August 29, 2007

Afternoon/evening casual potluck reunion

For more information, contact Cheryl Wunschel (Banta)

“A man walks down the street
He says why am I soft in the middle now
Why am I soft in the middle
The rest of my life is so hard”

“You can call me Al”
Paul Simon

so lately,  the big idea among the nerds I hang out with at work has been the concept of “cloud computing.”  This is the idea — not new, really, but starting to gain some momentum (and moving from vaporware to real applications) that data (and increasingly, processes to act upon the data) serves us best when it exists, not in one place, but smeared out over many machines, distributed across the net, accessible from anywhere….Google is a good example of computing in the cloud. You cannot point to any one server where Google’s document index “exists” — it’s spread out massively — which is why it works so well.
Of course, cloud computing is a more complex concept than I’ve expressed here — computer geeks feel like they aren’t earning their keep if they keep things simple — but at it’s core it’s a fairly simple idea, and a very powerful one.  Thanks to pioneers in cloud computing like Amazon.com, the average person soon will have access — or already does, in some cases — to computing horsepower that was unimaginable in the hands of anyone but superpower governments not that long ago.  Thanks to cloud storage of data, our class list was not lost when my home server crashed a few months ago — because I happen to store a copy of our mailing list “in the cloud” as well, just in case something like that happens.
I’m not usually well prepared.  Chalk it up to a Boy Scout moment, I guess.
So what’s cloud computing got to do with anything?  Well, probably not much.  But humor me…
Anyway, yesterday I attended a fun little “neighborhood reunion” — a gathering of a bunch of us who, as kids, grew up ina neighborhood off of Upper Ridge Road in south Everett WA, back in the 1970’s. (the linked map, btw, is only about half of the kids — I just don’t have addresses for the remainder). The neighborhood back then was much more rural than it is today — “sub-rural” I guess you’d call it because it was in the suburbs but bordered on undeveloped land that has since become the Boeing 747 plant and the surrounding industrial ecosystem.
I mentioned this group of people — a surprising number of whom were in the Class of 1976 — in a post on this blog a few weeks back in case this is starting to sound familiar.
by the way: here they are:

from left:  Dick Nichols (Class of ‘76); Gemma Bell (Class of ‘77); Bill Butner (Class of ‘78);
Brad Meacham (Class of ‘76); Kellee Snyder-Saunders (Class of ‘77); Les White (Class of ‘76)

Most of us hadn’t seen one another for 30 years or more, but growing up, we saw each other daily, hanging out at the bus stops together, playing pick-up games of soccer or football in Apker’s field (across from Darli Lund’s house, btw) all summer, riding our bikes through the woods, playing hide-n-seek in the dark ’til 11 p.m., then playing penny-ante poker ’til dawn. We stood up at one another’s weddings, graduated from high school together (not necessarily in that order), had lives that were tightly connected.
Sometimes we got in fights.
You get over it.  30 years will do that.
This shared history was certainly no surprise — we had a rare opportunity as kids to grow up in a neighborhood where most of us moved into our homes in elementary school, and stayed in the same place for the next 10 or 12 years.
A few of our number STILL live in the old neighborhood, in houses that once belonged to our parents.

But there were surprises to be had:  As we recounted stories and searched our middle-aged memories for names and places and dates, it was striking to realize how much of “self” is not stored in our minds, but smeared out across all those we know –  maybe especially so those who we grew up with, were close to. The mere mention of a name, the recollection of an incident as small as the tossing of a snowball, would quickly lead to a whole flood of long-forgotten associations, of things we had forgotten about ourselves, but that others had held on to.

I’d say it was magical, if I believed in magic.

Oh hell, it was magic, even if I don’t believe.

And it was interesting to see how much of who we are is NOT self-defined, not really:  for all the “me generation” talk of self actualization, of defining one’s own reality — in some ways, it seems to me that who we are doesn’t belong exclusively to us.
Rather, it’s smeared out in the cloud –little pieces tucked away in dozens of memories and lives we’ve touched — constantly being processed, being selectively remembered, reshaped, and reprocessed into something that’s really a lot larger than our own selfish notions of who we are….

Maybe this is where the concept of  karma comes from, of the golden rule….of doing unto others….ideas that reflect our essential interdependence on one another.
Not just interdependence for sustenance, or well-being — but for preserving our very identities — our memories of who we are, who we were.
Almost makes the idea of holding on to those memories of old friends seem like a moral imperative, doesn’t it?
Well, pardon the rant — I am not a particularly deep thinker — as those of you who ARE have figured out long ago.  Just passing along some random thoughts that ran through my mind as I drove home from giving a lecture at the UW this morning, on a wondeful, sunny Seattle day.

Deconstruct them as you wish.
In other, miscellaneous news:
- I had a very enjoyable coffee break with Shawn Hicks a couple of weeks ago — he was kind enough to meet me in downtown Seattle as I was on my way to a meeting.  We probably talked more in two hours than we did in 4 years of high school, but it was surprising how easy it is to strike up a conversation with someone who you share so many common links with.  By the way, Shawn sent me a very special gift following our meeting.  Thanks, Shawn.
- Added several people to the mailing list, including Trula [Hagedorn] Cha,  Donna [Lacy] Lemmon, Sherryl Gene’ Conklin-Holeman (who may win the contest for the longest last name in our class), Terry McStott, Darli Lund and Marion Sogn.
- A REMINDER:  Mariner High Alumni Association Dinner and Auction to benefit the Alumni Association scholarships for MHS students is Friday, May 8.  If you plan on attending, please drop me a line — trying to get a fix on how many people from our class plan on attending.

- A NAG:  if you’re aware of anyone who would like to be added to this list, please have them contact me.  We’re up to nearly 100 people from the Class of 1976 now — double what we had prior to the 30th reunion in 2006.  Most of that is thanks to you guys, ratting out….er, suggesting to your friends that they join the list.

I’m heading to San Francisco May 2-7 for the National Environmental Partnership Summit, so if any of you are living down in the Bay area, and would like to get together, drop me a line.   Will be in the Rosslyn VA/Washington D.C. area May 24-25, so likewise if you live in the D.C. area.

until next time,

Scott “Insomnia is my middle Name” Butner
MHS Class of 1976
living/working in Richland WA

By request of several of you on this mailing list, I am adding a new option for belonging to the MHS Class of 1976 mailing list.

From here on out, you may request to subscribe to the list anonymously.
What this means is  that you will continue to get announcements and late night rambles from yours truly (what would you guys read if I wasn’t an insomniac, anyway?  Viagra ads?), but your name will NOT be listed on the MHS Class of 1976 “found” list or mentioned in any blog posts.

I will continue the practice of periodically sending out the names of the people on this list, because I think it’s a useful tool for keeping my data quality intact.
But you may now request that your name be left off that list, while still being able to get the newsletters.

This is not a huge change in policy, and won’t affect most of you.  As you know, I have always maintained a policy of not sharing e-mail addresses with anybody, in order to protect privacy of  those who subscribe.  This change in policy simply provides an additional level of privacy.

So, if you wish to change  your status to “Anonymous,”  simply drop me an e-mail letting me know that.
Otherwise, because I need to have SOMETHING to write about, I will assume that you don’t mind being mentioned on occasion, unless you tell me otherwise.

As an aside, I am actually hoping that this will encourage a few more people to come out of the woodwork.

Carry on….

“The problem with the youth of today’ is that one is no longer part of it.”
Salvador Dali

So for the last couple of years, a big part of my job is to think about how ideas connect to one another.  More specifically — how do we teach computers to move beyond treating ideas as mere strings of characters, to treating them as statements about the objects and relationships we see in the world?  How do we teach computers to understand relationships — between people, organizations, and places?  How do we teach computers to reason about the meaning of words — things we take for granted with every act of communication?

Much of this work has focused even more specifically on the basic question of “How can we ‘connect the dots’?” — whether those connections are between scientific observation and theory, between the smokestack on the horizon and that nagging cough you’ve had; or (more recently) between violent intent and action.

To me, they are all interesting “dots,” and finding the connections between them is what makes going to work each day worthwhile.
Given that background, I guess it was inevitable that I’d find fascination in the Nexus application in Facebook.  Nexus allows you to generate a diagram of your social network, showing the connections between the people who you know on Facebook.

Here’s what my graph looks like.  You can click on the picture to get a version with added annotations to depict different parts of my life — the upper right are friends from my extended professional network in the environmental community; the bottom right are my office co-workers and fellow research scientists at the Lab; over in the lower left are two different sets of online fly fishing buddies — one made up mostly of Washington State fishermen (most of whom I’ve taken fishing at one time or another), the other made up of people scattered across three continents and 30+ states, guaranteeing me a warm couch to stay on and a boat to float in no matter where I might want to fish.

In the middle, appropriately enough, are my family members — wife, sons, siblings, cousins, etc.

Linking them to the upper left is my brother, Bill (MHS Class of 1978).

The map of Facebook friendships looks a little like a star map, don’t you think — like the ones in one of my favorite books from my youth, H.A. Rey’s “The Stars,” from which I learned enough of the constellations to be able to find my way through the sky at night.

“Everybody is a star
I can feel it when you shine on me”

Everybody is a Star
Sly and the Family Stone

And in the upper left, occupying their own little constellation of memories, are you guys.  The folks I went to school with.

Here’s a close-up of that particular constellation (you can click on it to get a larger view):

Some bright stars, indeed.

Now, point the telescope in the direction of any one of these stars, and you’ll find a whole solar system of memories circling around it.

Indulge in this act of celestial re-creation for too long, though, and time and space can begin to lose their definition….kind of evocative of Dali’s painting “The Persistence of Memory.”

“The difference between a madman and me is that I am not mad.”
Salvador Dali

I love this painting, by the way.  So much so, I even have a necktie depicting it.

A real classy tie, needless to say — reserved for the handful of times in my career when I’ve been able to work Dali into one of my lectures.

A quick aside:  if you think that working Dali into a lecture on finding terrorists doesn’t takes some verbal contortions, give it a try sometime…if only my body were still as  flexible as my gift for bullshit, I’d look like one of Dali’s watches.

Anyway, I digress.  The topic of this post was SUPPOSED to be my childhood friends from Upper Ridge Road.

So look back at the constellation above, with your names on it.  Down in the lower right, connected to my brother Bill, you’ll see a handful of folks that I share a special link with — Linda Stefanini, Les White, Richard (Dick, back then) Nichols….

These are some of the Facebook contingent of the Upper Ridge Road gang.  These are the kids I grew up with.  There were many others — some of whom haven’t really gone online much — but we’ll talk about them momentarily.  First, a little geography lesson.
Upper Ridge Road, in case you haven’t been home for a while, marked the northern part of the eastern boundary of the Mukilteo School District.  In the old days, Upper Ridge ran pretty much due north from Casino Road to Glennwood, which rumbled with the sound of Associated Sand and Gravel trucks all the way down to Mukilteo Boulevard.  That was before the Boeing Freeway cut off Upper Ridge from Casino, and before Associated dug their way through the northern end of Upper Ridge.

The curse of living on a terminal moraine.
As its name suggests, Upper Ridge Road runs along a high ridge, falling off towards Evergreen way on the east side, and into what was then an extensive wooded area on the west.  Each morning the kids in the neighborhood would dutifully trudge up their gravel roads to where they intersected Upper Ridge, where we’d wait for the bus.  I loved the walk to the bus stop, because as I passed Ozie’s house on the right, Sue Stefanini’s on the left, I could look ahead and see the sun coming up over the Cascades, look behind me and see the clouds resting on the Olympics.   What I wouldn’t give for a view like that today.

From the air, Upper Ridge probably looked a little like a fish bone, with little dead-end spur roads running off in either direction (but mostly to the west) from the ridge.  When my parents moved to 78th Pl SW in 1965, I’m sure they felt like they were moving into the wilderness (especially my mom, who had grown up in Manhattan and only left New York City 8 years earlier).  And sure enough, we saw deer, and coyotes, and even a bear (once) in those woods (and sometimes, our yards) over the years.  Much later, when I was about 15, I would follow Merrill and Ring Creek — just a line on the map for much of it’s length — through the abandoned gravel pits and fenced-in back yards, all the way down to salt water, where I emerged from the woods — muddy and nettle-stung and dehydrated, but feeling like Lewis and Clark on reaching the Pacific — just south of where Glennwood intersects the Boulevard.

But this post is not in tribute to Upper Ridge Road, the place — but to the people.  Because lately a bunch of us have been talking about holding a sort of mini-reunion, a get together to celebrate and look back upon the ties that link us all together.

And since there was a whole bunch of us who grew up together through elementary school, junior high, and high school together, there are lots of memories, and lots of ties.

• like riding around with Ozie Greene and Brad Meacham in Brad’s old Impala, listening to Aerosmith’s “Big 10 Inch (record)” and Thin Lizzie’s “The Boys are Back in Town” — over and over and over again.
• like riding the bus to Olivia Park (Bus #38, with Busdriver Judy) with Les White in the back singing Creedence Clearwater songs.
• like being chased through the playground by Darlise Lund in second grade, simultaneously fearing that she might catch me (she claimed she wanted to kiss me!) and hoping she wouldn’t stop chasing.
• like playing all-night long poker games at Ozie’s house, listening to Al Green records on the stereo and talking about girls.  Maybe that association — between Al Green records and girls — is why the good Reverend Green would supply so much of the soundtrack to my wife and I’s courtship…?
• playing football down at Apker’s field, across from Darli’s house, and hoping that the Bennett sisters or the Stefanini’s would show up –  because, at some point in our youth, we discovered that it was always more fun to get tackled — or even just chased –  by a girl
• like riding bikes out in the woods with Dick Nichols and the rest of the guys in the neighborhood.
• or subverting our chemistry sets to make fireworks over at Doug King’s (Class of 72) house, across the street from John and Janet Jaeger and the Bucholz family.
• or (and I hope this doesn’t embarrass anyone other than myself), riding the after school activity bus and hoping that Arlene Bopp would be riding it home from band practice — I harbored a horrible, multi-year crush on poor Arlene (who lived on the part of Upper Ridge cut off from the rest by the Boeing Freeway) through all of junior high and most of high school, and never had the nerve to talk to her.  Looking back, I’m sure that crush kept me out of a lot of other entanglements, for which I’m retrospectively grateful.

If I’ve overlooked anybody — like the Alinen brothers, or Kim Turnupseed, or Gemma Bell, or the Whismans….it’s only out of consideration of how far along I’ve already rambled.  And there’s a whole group of folks from the Class of 1976 — Eric Goodrich, Jerry Scheffler, Chuck Foutch — who were in that same basic neighborhood, just a short bike ride away.

These people, and many more, impart a very personal resonance to the words of Herb Caen, a long-time columnist in the San Francisco area:  “I tend to live in the past because most of my life is there.”

As I’ve heard from so many of you, many of the friendships that have lasted over the decades have been the ones that began in the neighborhood — even though “the neighborhood” may have been nothing more than a bus route, or a shared refuge in the woods somewhere…

And for an information junkie like myself, who spends more time looking at computer monitors than at the sky these days, it’s fascinating to watch the constellations emerge from out of that past — like light from distant suns.

So keep on shining.  Out there, somewhere, someone is enjoying the view.

From the Bellingham Herald comes this story about MHS Class of 1976 Alumni Dave Dickson’s success in coaching the Squalicum High School Storm basketball team to the 2A state championship this past weekend!  Dave’s team beat Burlington-Edison (my dad’s alma mater, at least during his junior year when he was suspended from Bellingham High School for brawling) 60-49 in the championship, and finished the season with a “respectable” 26-1 record.
Last year, the team beat Seattle Prep to finish 3rd in the 3A Division.
Dave has been a very successful teacher at Squalicum, as I reported earlier.

I’d heard rumors though, that he was washed up.  All wet.

The photo from the Herald clarifies those rumors:

By the way, the Herald did an outstanding job of covering the game — their photos made this former yearbook photographer jealous.  Several good shots of Dave in the mix, so check out their online gallery!

Congratulations, Dave.

From out of Port Angeles comes an e-mail from Keith Lawler, who usually sends me pictures of the salmon, steelhead, deer and elk he’s captured for his apparently well-stocked freezer.

This time, the photos he sent looked more like they were taken IN the freezer, or at least a close facsimile — i.e., the WSU campus in December.

(actually, having made many visits to WSU in the winter — they call upon us UW alumni to help mentor their students so they don’t go TOO far wrong…. — I can tell you that Pullman is often COLDER than my freezer is.  But that’s besides the point).
Like many of our classmates, Keith is full of Cougar Pride.

And now, so is his son, Kurt, who graduated from WSU in December with a degree in Civil Engineering.  After a pretty spectacular looking trip to Chile (if the pictures Keith sent are any indication), Kurt’s out doing the job search thing.

Congratulations to Keith and his wife on the milestone — and of course to Kurt.

Got a nice e-mail from Wade Nelson today, the most recent of our classmates to sign up on the mailing list.  Wade offers up the following update on his life since graduation:

I’m currently living in the Denver area (Centennial, CO) working for Lockheed Martin on the Space Based InfraRed System (SBIRS).  Married 20 years with two kids, daughter 18, and son 14.  Love to  hike (especially 14ers), golf, ski, board, and bike ride.  I have lived in Colorado for the last 13 years and before that California, Guam, and Seychelles after leaving Washington in July 1976.

He also included a recent picture of his family — he didn’t specifically say so, but I’m guessing that Wade is the one in the yellow shirt.

As always, I am always ready — no, eager — to pass along any gossip, brags, news, or general news about the lives of our classmates — so if you have news to share, make sure you let  me know that it’s for the entire group.

So, if research out of Carnegie-Mellon University has anything to say about it, it could be that renewing old friendships might keep the cold away???

A paper by Cohen, et al (”Social Integration and Health:  The Case of the Common Cold”) suggests that those who had few social roles were nearly twice as likely to contract a cold as those who had a high degree of social role diversity.  (http://www.cmu.edu/joss/content/articles/volume1/cohen.html).

Look — there’s an actual bar graph.  So it must be science, and therefore true!

So maybe occasionally expanding your social role diversity by renewing acquaintances with old friends can keep you healthy?

If so (and the scientist part of me feels compelled to insert the disclaimer “it’s a BIG if”), then the picture below shows a little preventative medicine at work.

From left:  Dave Van Beek, Ozie Greene, Richard Nichols, Jerry Scheffler,
and some fat dude who wouldn’t get out of the picture…..

In case you don’t recognize anybody in the picture, or any of  the names, this is a statistically skewed sampling of the Mariner High class of 1976, seen at a recent “mini-reunion” (appropriate for a school that had mini-term, don’t you think?) at the Everett Mall Starbucks on March 3, 2009.  Notably absent are approx. 80 other members of our class who are on the mailing list, but weren’t able to attend.

(though, truth be told, if everybody had shown up I think we’d have had a problem fitting them into Starbucks)

A date has not yet been set for the next of our informal get togethers — but I am open to suggestions, and perfectly willing to announce similar events organized by others.

Now, if only diversity of social roles could stop male pattern baldness…..

Think spring!

I have always loved music.  Not playing it.  I have no ability to hum, sing, keep a steady beat, or play an instrument.

I can barely play the radio in tune.
No, my love of music has always been more confined to the act of collecting it and listening to it.  My iPod, for instance, has some 6,000 song titles on it.  To give you some idea — if I started playing my Elvis Costello song list when I pulled out of my driveway, I could drive to San Diego, 1,200 miles away, before I got to the end of the list.

Hell, I have 10 different cover versions of the Bee Gee’s classic “To Love Somebody” including a kick-ass reggae version by Busty Brown, and 90’s-era almost emo version by Blue Rodeo.

And though it’s harder to keep up with music now that my kids are grown, I’m happy to report that my obsession with music isn’t limited to songs from “back in the day.”  Yeah, I’ve got the Grateful Dead — but I’ve also got Deathcab for Cutie.  The Beatles may have hung out with Ravi Shankar, but they disbanded before Anoushka, Ravi’s stunning and musically gifted daughter (and half-sister of Norah Jones), was even born.

I’ve got all three of them on my iPod.
But I’ll admit — many of my favorite songs are those we grew up with.  Which is why I got a kick out of a web site that a friend forwarded to me recently.  The site,  The #1 Song on This Date In History, was built by another music buff, Josh Hosler, and is based on the Billboard rock/pop charts and includes song titles dating back as far as the 1890’s (well before our time, even!) through the current day.   Though my friend forwarded it with the intent of looking up what had been #1 on the day he was born, I actually find it more interesting to look at what we were listening to in those years between ages 12-16, which according to author Daniel Levitin, is a particularly important stage in terms of imprinting the music that will stick with us for our lifetime.

Stevie Wonder, captured live at the Seattle Center Arena, sometime around
1974.  His warm-up act was Rufus, featuring Chaka Kahn. 

Levitin’s book “This is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession” is a great read, by the way — a little tough at times for people, like myself, who don’t understand simple musical concepts like rythm, pitch, melody…but still well worth the read.  Levitin is a former music producer (having worked for bands including Pink Floyd and Steely Dan) who went back to college, got a PhD in psychology, and now does research on how the brain processes music.

The result is a fascinating account of what the brain “expects” from music, why we react to it the way we do, and why some sounds appear musical to us, while others just sound like….well, disco.

What he fails to explain are the larger mysteries that science may never solve, such as “how did ‘Convoy’ make it to the top of the Charts in January 1976?” or “With thousands of songs to choose from, why does the classic rock station play ‘Fly Like an Eagle’ every time I tune in?” or “what was the deal with disco, anyway — was it JUST the drugs, or is there some other explanation?”

Which brings me back to the original topic:  check out Hosler’s site.  It’s fun to see what was playing during our high school years.

And if you have any musical memories to share, feel free to add them to this post!

[DISCLAIMER:  This is another of my usual fractal e-mails, which means that it will take a long time to get to the point, assuming it ever does.
If you just want to skip to the point, scan down the page ’til you reach [THE BOTTOM LINE]]

Anyway, as I began to say:  “I hate to say ‘I told you so…’”

I’ll never get rich at this job, but I also will never get bored.   And every once in a while, I get to say “I told you so!”

Case in point:  In 1995, I helped to organize a conference that was marketed (a bit hyperbolically perhaps) as “The First International Conference on Environment and the Internet.”

So the relevance of the Internet to solving REAL environmental problems wasn’t exactly apparent.   Nonetheless, yours truly begged and bullied his way onto the conference program as one of the keynote speakers. 

(Actually, I rarely bully anyone –  but it sounds more macho than to admit that it was mostly begging, and I’m all about being macho.)

- Thanks in large part to your help, I’ve added a number of names to the mailing list for our class since I last published it in December 2008.  Eleven new people, in fact, if my count is correct — bringing the list to a total of 81, quite a bit better than the 50 we had just prior to the 30th reunion in 2006.

Those of you who have been on this list for a while know the drill:  please review our class mailing list, make sure your name is spelled correctly (or spelled at all — my recordkeeping is far from immaculate).  If you see a notable omission of someone who you think might want to be on this list, but who isn’t — please forward this e-mail to them or otherwise have them contact me at scott_butner@charter.net.  I’ll add them as promptly as I can.

The past few years I’ve been offering to post links to people’s Christmas letters (or you can leave a comment, and post your own!).

Just a simple way to keep people up to date with lives of others (who they haven’t seen in 30 years).

I’ll start, as usual, with a link to mine:  http://christmas.scottbutner.com/

Take care, and Merry Christmas/Happy New Year!

Scott

In a decision that has been been more eagerly awaited than the outcomes of either major party’s “veep-stakes” — the crowning achievement of extensive focus group sessions,  telephone surveys and  longitudinal demographic studies (not to mention extensive reading of tea leaves), it has been decided:

The Mariner High School All Classes Campout — aka “Old Farts Weekend” — will be held at the Big Pines Campground, located near milepost 9 of State Route 821, also known as “Canyon Road.”  Big Pines is a Bureau of Land Management campground approximately 16 miles southeast of Ellensburg, WA.

This is a marginally improved campground, with very nice new concrete-walled pit toilets, fire pits, paved roads, and ample tent sites — no power, no RV pads, no running water except the Yakima River, which runs alongside the campground but would probably kill you if you drank it.

Still, it supports a nice strain of super-trout which have hardened themselves against the farm run-off, and the whole scene is very — well, scenic.  In mid-October, expect to see many, many bighorn sheep, some of them practicing the unique mating rituals of their species (”hey, baby — what are ewe doing?”).

Ah, but you want to know the DETAILS, right?  Like, what is planned?  Who will be coming to this grand affair?  What will it cost?  Who is — ahem — “organizing” it?

OK — in order, here are the answers:

1) Like, what is planned?  Nothing is planned.  Show up, and invent your own reality.  I can provide you with reasonable assurance that there will be firewood, friendly people, family-friendly environment, and at least a couple of your age cohorts from that big white concrete block that served as your home away from home for four (give or take a couple) years.  Bring some food, bring some drink — and bring a bit of extra to share.  If we each adhere to this, the rest will take care of itself.

2) Who will be coming to this affair?  Whoever you invite.  So take it upon yourself to invite the one person you’d most like to sit around a campfire with for an evening.  And then invite one more, because….well, you know.  Sometimes you gotta have a “plan B”  I will say that I’m focusing my efforts on folks who graduated in the 1970’s, because I don’t want to feel TOO old….

3) What will it cost?  Nothing.  The $5 camping fee for Big Pines is suspended from Sept 15 - May 15, so you’ll be using public land at taxpayer’s expense.   You’l have to buy gas to get there, but I understand the prime rate might be dropping soon, so maybe you can get good financing.

4) Who is - ahem — “organizing” it?  Think about this for a second.  I’m suggesting it, but I don’t “do” organization.  This is ad-hoc city, baby.  Living on the edge!

This is, as has been mentioned in previous posts, a spin-off from our recent annual oldfarts fishing trips.  Fishing may still occur — catch and release only in the Yakima Canyon, by the way — and I’m happy to provide some tips for visiting anglers.  But the primary focus will be on a nice night under the stars, huddled around a camp fire, eating camp food and looking around innocently when you fart.

Timeless stuff, that.

I will post occasional updates at this location, so please send the URL for this page to your MHS friends.  If you’d like to advertise the fact that you are planning to attend, post a comment on the MHS Class of 1976 Blog site entry for this event (i.e., this post!).

Hope to see you there.

Laura and I just got back from a combined business/pleasure trip to eastern Idaho and NW Montana, where we ALMOST (but not quite) had a chance to visit Lynne Haley (MHS 1977) and drove past Keith Knol’s neighborhood along the way. I especially enjoyed photographing the Craters of the Moon National Monument (pictured), and fly fishing on the famed Harriman Ranch section of the Henry’s Fork of the Snake River.

(for the record, I landed three trout, and lost two that were well over 20 inches).

More pictures, here:

So, how are YOU spending your break? Post a comment and tell us!

Note: due to spambot comments, I need to moderate all comments. This means that there could be a delay of 1-2 days between you posting the comment, and it showing up on the site. Sorry about that, but if I didn’t do this we’d have nothing but porn ads and Viagra commercials on this site!

The Mariner Alumni Association is planning the 2nd Annual Dinner and Auction for Friday, May 2, 2008 at The Manor, which is located at 13032 Admiralty Way, Everett.  The Dinner will be held from 6-10 p.m. and all alumni and their friends/guests are invited.

More information can be found on the Alumni Association web site, or by e-mailing to John Lengenfelder at mhsaa@ix.netcom.com.

If you plan to attend, it would be nice if you’d add a comment to this blog entry, so that others from the Class of 1976 can keep an eye peeled for you.  Last year, a few of us from the Class of ‘76 were in attendance, and it seemed like everyone had a good time.
The proceeds of the auction are used to fund scholarships and related activities of the MHSAA.  Please plan on attending and supporting this worthwhile event!

Scott

For the second year in a row, I decided to suspend common sense even more than usual, and participate in the Polar Bear Plunge to benefit Washington Special Olympics. Each year, approximately 100 of us from around the Tri-Cities jump into the January waters of the Columbia River in Kennewick, then swim or dog paddle our way back to shore in search of a warm towel and a hot cocoa.

Last year I did my first plunge, and raised nearly $1,700 for Special Olympics. I also found out that it’s a lot of fun.
So this year, the big day dawned, foggy and cold (27 F) but not bitterly so. Still, not a day you’d normally hope to jump in the river.

Laura and I went out for our usual Saturday morning routine down at the bagel shop — I read the local paper over breakfast of an “everything” bagel for me, toasted with smoked salmon cream cheese, Laura reads whatever book she’s working on while nibbling on a raisin bagel. We did so with a bit more urgency than usual, since I had some errands to run before heading down to registration at 10:30 a.m.

Time flies when you’re having fun.

By the time we got to the park, the fog had burned off, and the thermometer read 37 degrees F (where it pretty much topped out for the day). The sun broke through a high overcast and I felt almost like I was getting away with something, especially knowing that it was probably colder in Atlanta than up here at 46 degrees N latitude!

Here’s the scene we found when we arrived:

This year, I jumped as part of a team — “Team Battelle,” made up of co-workers from the Laboratory. We gathered in the sidelines during the preliminary festivities, and I tried to reassure them that this would all be a lot of fun.

Thereby assuring that I’ll have even less credibility around the office than I do already.

In our region, the Plunge is co-sponsored by Law Enforcement agencies, so they are out in various forms and functions, both as polar bears and to keep the polar bears safe:

Some of them even did a little impromtu line dance in the water. Got to get that blood moving!

As the time neared, I always have a brief moment where I wonder WTF I have gotten myself into. This is what that looks like:

At around 11:50, they announced the costume contest. I didn’t wear a costume this year, but this guy did:

Then, around noon, Santa paid for his elaborate costume by being the first to jump — er, get pushed, into the water:

The next group in was, I think, local law enforcement (the badge taped to the guy’s chest is a clue).

The guy getting carried in is the chief of police, if memory serves me…

The little girl on daddy’s back is our youngest polar bear cub — only 4 years old. Don’t worry — ALL of us felt like she looks for a few minutes. You get over it quickly.

Finally, it was time for Team Battelle to jump in. Somehow, I always get stuck at the deep end of the dock, even though I’m a poor (slow) swimmer.

I wasn’t about to take the Nikon into the water (besides, my son Sean was very capably using it to take these pics) but I did bring along a disposable waterproof camera:

which afforded me a view from the dock:

finally, the count down came: 3 - 2 - 1….

Remember I told you that we ALL looked like someone had taken our candy away?

Proud to say, though, that I still had the presence of mind to stop when my feet found bottom, and take a picture. But I’m a slow swimmer so it’s mostly of butts:

But by the time I got my feet on dry ground, it was all smiles!

All in all, our group raised more than $4,000 — not bad for a bunch of nerds!
That’ll keep you warm.

The endorphin rush was every bit as good as I remembered from last year. What a great time! And the timing was perfect — 4 hours later, the rain started, the wind kicked up….and of course the sun went down. In fact, here’s what the morning looked like on Sunday:

Thanks again to all who donated. Remember that the fundraising site remains active until mid-February. So you can still donate if you want to!

Well, the holidays are over with. My kids will be heading back to college soon. I’m back at work. Might as well get the blog updated!

Just a few updates on things:

• I’ve added a list of Mariner High School Class of 1976 alumni for whom I have up-to-date email addresses. If you’re not on this list, but would like to be, please contact me

I’ve gotten holiday letters or news from one or two of you, and promised to pass these along. So here you go:

• John Webber’s holiday blog from Munich. Interesting stuff — would you believe that John recently finished his first half-marathon? John will be visiting the US in May 2008, by the way, and we are discussing the possibility of some sort of get together for his friends at that time, since he doesn’t make it back to the US all that often.

• Daneen Dustin has published a novel! Here’s what Daneen has to say about that:
  

  “…the title is Secret of the Covenant and the ISBN is 978-0-9783483-5-9 *smile* It is available at Barnes and Noble, Amazon.com, Borders Online, Ingram, Bakers and Taylor etc…. I do have some available if anyone would like one that has my signature *smile* I have been so excited about this book and now another author from Canada and I are working on a sequel to it. That one will be called Highland’s History. You can give my email address for anyone who would like to get ahold of me for a copy of Secret of the Covenant *smile* I am donating 10 percent of the profits to the Ronald MacDonald House. My daughter’s son was a couple of months premature and while he was in the Neonatal Intensive care unit, my daughter stayed at the Ronald MacDonald House. We are SO grateful to them for that and I was amazed at just how much they help the families of loved ones who are in the hospital.

• Sharon (Verg) Johnson reports that she has, at age 50, obtained her Master’s degree. Here’s what she has to say about that:
  

  “I finally, after so many years, have completed my MBA and will be accepting a blank peice of paper to symbolize the diploma granted for that acheivement. After all fees are covered they will send me the “real” deal.
  
  Of course there will be the obligatory photo opportunity with Secretary Donna Shalala who is now the President of the University of Miami. Available for purchase at a nominal charge - of course.
  
  I am excited to have hit the milestone. BS at 35, MBA at 50, at this rate I’ll be 65 before I get my PhD…”

  I had to remind Sharon that she’ll still get her PhD before I do….

• Steve Conlon sent a brief update, and asked me to share it:

• “…If you are doing a Class of 76 holiday update, here is a picture of my family at my oldest son’s HS graduation in June 2007. He is now a freshman at University of California Santa Cruz, major undecided with an emphasis in surfing and lacrosse. My younger son (the one that looks a lot like I did at Mariner) is a HS freshman (surfing and lacrosse as well), and my daughter is a 6th grader (playing clarinet in band, just like the old man, but she is a swim-teamer and not a golfer). My wife Vicki and I will celebrate our 25th anniversary next year. See what happens when you paddle up to a surfer girl and start up a conversation!”

• I have, as usual, put a family Christmas letter online on another corner of this bizzare collection of stuff that is scottbutner.com. If you’re interested in meeting my family, or seeing lots of pictures of people fishing — well, that would be the place to do so!
• As I announced late last year, a reunion planning committee meeting was held at Zippy’s in Everett, on December 14, 2007. Despite some no-shows and last minute schedule conflicts (one of the perils of planning something like this during the holidays), a few intrepid souls showed up — specifically Kevin Hayes (who was also very involved in the planning of the 30th reunion) and Chris Huddleson. My son, Ryan, also sat in on the meeting, as did Zippy the Dalmation.
• Chris is teaching in the Edmonds School District these days, and plans on being at the next reunion. I’ve included a photo (below), demonstrating yet again that you can dress me up, but can’t make me pretty.
• Basically, it’s too early to do any serious planning for the 35th reunion, but we all agreed that developing the mailing list was a priority. Chris came up with the idea to post the list of people we DO know about, which I’ve now done.
• I should note: we will try this again once or twice per year — but will avoid trying to do something close to Christmas, as people’s schedules are simply too busy. Several people expressed an interest in attending but couldn’t due to family obligations. Live and learn.



That’s about it for now, boys and girls. Expect to hear back from me sometime around late April 2008, with an announcement of another informal “planning committee” meeting (as always, just an excuse to get old friends together). We’re kinda-sorta-maybe thinking of something in the second week of May, to coincide with John Webber’s visit to the US.
And as always, if you have anything you wish to share with your former classmates from Mariner High, feel free to send stuff to me to pass along via this blog.

take care of yourselves….

Scott Butner
Deputy rabble-rouser and improbable cheerleader
MHS Class of 1976

First of all, if you are attention-limited, here’s what you need to know:

WHAT:  MHS Class of 1976 35th Reunion Planning Committee Meeting
WHERE:  Zippy’s Internet Cafe, 1804 Hewitt Ave, Everett, WA
WHEN:  6:30 - 8:00 p.m., Friday December 14, 2007
WHY:  If you have to ask, then keep reading….

For those of you who are foolhearty enough to brave an e-mail I’ve written in one of my manic spells, read on.

I don’t know where this will take us either, so it’s as much a surprise to me as to you.   And adventure, if you will.

Anyway…..

As one who has been transplanted to the dry, dusty side of the Cascades for most of the past 24 years, I don’t find myself in Everett very often, especially in the winter.  Blame it on a self-preservation instinct that makes me dislike slipping across I-90 in a car that barely reaches the top of the wheels of most semi-trucks.

I wrote about that instinct in a different context, here:  http://webpages.charter.net/lstephens6592/scientific_method.htm

But a series of personal errands and fatherly responsibilities (to wit:  picking up my son from the UW for Christmas break)
has me coming to the wet side on Friday, December 14.

So, faced with the need to drive up to Everett to deal with some family business, I thought I would take the opportunity to hold what I hope will become a periodic occurrence for the next couple of years: a “planning committee” meeting for anyone interested in helping with the 35th reunion of the Mariner High School class of 1976, tentatively planned for summer 2011.

“Now wait jest a gal-darned minute!,” you might be saying to yourself.  “2011 is still 4 years away!  What’s this crazy-assed feller think he’s doing?”

Or at least you might say that, if you talked like a miner in an old black and white western.

We’re old enough now, that might be a distinct possibility.

But here’s my rationale (sans miner dialect):

- by all accounts, the 30th reunion was a great success.  A smashing succes, even.  For those who attended.
- unfortunately, due to my less-than-wonderful planning skills and marginal social networking skills, “those who attended” represented a measly 16% of the 320 or so folks who graduated with us.
- my current mailing list - which you are apparently a member of, since you’re reading this e-mail — comprises some 100 people; this is better than we had in 2006 but still a mere 1/3 of our class.
- while we need spend little time worrying about the logistics of an event that won’t take place for another 3 1/2 years (after all, by then we may all be sending our robotic avatars in our steads, necessitating a meeting facility with ample battery recharging stations in lieu of a wet bar) it doesn’t hurt to begin working on the mailing list.
- besides, it’s an easy excuse to have an informal gathering for those interested.

Now, I am not very familiar with places to meet/things to do in the greater (can I use that term in describing Everett?) Everett/Mukilteo metroplex.  But because my rare visits to the city have often brought me to one particular location, I’ll toss out the suggestion that we could meet at Zippy’s Internet Cafe, 1804 Hewitt Ave, Everett.  This is immediately next door to my sister’s apartment, but since few of you know my sister, a more fitting landmark might be the Everett Events Center, which is 1 block east.

Zippys is a little gem, in my opinion, offering good coffee, better sandwiches, and a nice artsy-fartsy setting.  Since I have recently re-engaged the artsy-fartsy side of my brain, that’s appealing.  To me anyway.

However, I can be persuaded otherwise — I suspect that given the season and the fact that at least a third of the people on this list live even further from Everett than I do (241 miles, for those numerically fixated among us), just a handful will show up.  So if anyone who plans to show up has a better idea, please let me know.

Now, because Zippy’s is not a large place,  it would be appreciated if any of you who think you MIGHT attend, would drop me a note.  That way, if we appear to be exceeding a head count that would fit in Zippy’s comfy but cozy setting, we can find an alternate venue.

If you do elect to come by, please come prepared to help add some names, phone #’s, e-mails, or other contact info to our master list of Class of 1976 alumni.  I’ll be bringing the list to the meeting.

Whether you attend or not, I hope all of you have a __________________ (insert seasonal greeting of choice here).  And a happy 2008.

I’ll try not to bug you again for another 6 months or so.

BTW, it’s Christmas letter time again for a lot of us. If you have a desire (compulsion?) to share snapshots of your kids, grandkids, latest toys, adventures, or that ugly cyst that the doctors removed last month, drop me a line and I’ll put them on the MHS Class of 1976 Blog site, which, believe it or not, still exists and still gets hits from week to week.

That site, you may recall, is http://mhs1976.scottbutner.com/.   I’ll try to post something new on it in the next few weeks.

I’ll also post pictures of the committee meeting on the 14th, assuming anyone other than I shows up.

Scott Butner (scott_butner@charter.net)
Self-annointed Chief Instigator, Mariner High School Class of 1976
1319 Stevens Drive
Richland, WA  99354
(509)-943-6592
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rs_butner/

This announcement from the Mariner High Alumni Association:

It’s time again to support your Mariner Marauders during their Homecoming events. Let’s get together and support the Royal court and rally the team!Tailgate Party is on October 12, 2007 and starts at 5:15PM with game at 7:00pm. The Alumni Association is holding a raffle and selling tee/sweat shirts.

Mike Conley sent along a copy of this profile from Dealer Principal Magazine, an auto sales trade magazine.  Seems Mike has become quite successful at arranging those big “tent events” you see some car dealers doing at malls, etc.

Look forward to putting his marketing genius to work on the 35th reunion, too!

SB

Remember our reunion last year? It was fun reconnecting to the past, wasn’t it? Maybe some of you even rediscovered something about yourself — for many of us, reunions are a way to reconnect with people who have known you since you were small, who were present while you became the person you are today. Maybe even helped to create that person.

Well, last year a few of us got together a few months after the reunion for a fishing trip — you might remember seeing something about that (if not, scroll down this page). We had so much fun that we decided to do it again this year.

And thus was born the “Mariner High School Old Farts Fishing Reunion” — what we hope will be an annual get-together for people who went to Mariner High School in the mid-70’s.

The event is small, informal, and pretty much unorganized — like the rest of my life. This year’s participants included Ozie Greene, Dave Van Beek, Keith Anderson (Class of 1977), Jim Roberts and myself. We arrived in the Yakima Canyon, traveling from points west, south, north and east to converge on the Canyon this weekend for two days of fishing, and a night around the campfire, retelling old stories and catching up to speed on the new ones.

Between the five of us, we had accumulated approximately 9 marriages, 8 kids, and maybe 200 pounds under our more expansive belts since high school. We all feel our 50th birthdays breathing down our neck. But most of us had known each other since grade school, and certainly all through high school. So that extra baggage tends to be of secondary importance, and we spent Saturday night in front of the campfire and under the stars. We told stories, exchanged gossip, showed battle scars, and just watched the fire until, one by one, we drifted off to our tents, campers and SUV’s to sleep.

Being sleep-challenged, I roamed around the campground until 2 a.m. taking pictures in the dark. See photos below.
We also came to fish — I will admit, the fishing was not terrific, but not half-bad, either — we ran into nice PMD hatches both days and a decent baetis hatch on Saturday. Both hatches seem to overlap to a large degree, and from one spot to the next it’s hard to know which will get the trout’s attention. In general, I had more luck with PMD’s in the slower, froggier water, baetis in the slightly faster (but still no more than walking speed) stuff.

Jim had never fly fished before, but he didn’t let that stop him! We had to go into town to buy him a fishing license, but he was rewarded with the largest fish to hand for the day, a fat 17 inch trout taken on an October caddis.I’ll let the pictures tell the rest of the story.

Saturday we met up around 10:30 a.m. and after a little farting around, were ready to get on the river before noon.

when 5 middle aged guys try to tie on tiny little dry flies, there’s a lot of squinting going on…..

OK, I hardly ever take fish pictures, so I don’t have any photos of the few fish we did catch — but believe me, we DID catch a couple. Eventually though, we got back to camp, and settled in around the campfire….

From left around the fire: Keith Anderson (Class of 1977), Dave Van Beek, Ozie Greene, and yours truly.

we talked until the embers were low.

The best thing about getting outside the city is remembering what the sky looks like.

—

Jim came up Sunday morning from Yakima, and joined us around the fire before we all headed into town for breakfast.

Sunday, we went fishing again.

Late on Sunday, the clouds started coming in over the canyon walls, but we escaped before the rain hit.

Ozie and Jim share a river bank during the brief PMD hatch on Sunday.

I tried to concentrate on coaching the other guys, but did manage to cast a line from time to time. Shortly after this shot was taken, I broke off a large trout under the red bush, victim to my over-eagerness. The resulting cursing was audible in the next county.

We didn’t catch that many fish, but we saw tons of bighorn sheep in the distance, and lots of herons up close (the bighorn picture was from earlier this year, by the way).

–

Oh, and even though I don’t take many fish pictures, Keith Anderson does — here’s Jim’s first trout ever on a fly rod!

Planning for next year’s Old Fart Fishing Weekend will begin — well, probably next year. But if you’re interested in coming along for the camping trip or the fishing, drop me a line.

Scott

this ain’t it. But here’s a link to the Mariner High Class of 1977 reunion page.

There’s also a Mariner Reunion page on Classmates.com and a photo gallery of Mariner High Class of 1977 photos on Flickr.
I will try to keep this post on the front page for a few months (won’t be hard — I’m not exactly putting much time into this blog now that our reunion’s over) and you should feel free to add comments if you know more about the 1977 reunion.

Good luck, you youngsters.

SB

Got an e-mail the other day from Jennifer Mantooth, who taught photography at MHS during our junior/senior years there.  These days, she’s still teaching but also helped to set up the Mariner High Alumni Association.

She asked if I’d be willing to pass along the attached invitation to the Mariner Alumni Association 1st Annual Dinner and Auction.  The attached form has all the details, but the key things to remember are (1) it is being held on Saturday, May 5 in the MHS Commons; and (2) the proceeds go to scholarships for MHS students.

After checking out the organization, it seemed like a good cause, so check out the announcement, and hopefully we’ll see you there!
Scott

…and those sent via e-mail are doubly so.

Still, some of us enjoy catching up with old friends and family even if it’s only through the annual Christmas newsletter.

So if you’d like to share your holiday newsletter or greeting with your friends from the Class of 1976, feel free to add them as comments, below.

Note, due to spammers, I’ll have to approve each one before it will appear, but I’ll try to do this promptly.

merry Christmas, and I hope 2007 is a great year for you and your loved ones…

Scott Butner

It was the nicest fish of the weekend.

it was far from my finest hour.

We’re 2 miles into the second day of a 16 mile float down the Yakima river, four middle-aged men in an 18 foot drift boat filled with 800 lbs of memories.

The passengers on this trip are Keith, myself, Dave, and Ozie — four friends who have known each other since we were 7 years old:

The fact that we’re floating down the river in a rented drift boat on this cloudy October day is the result of a nostalgia-fueled conversation at our 30th class reunion this past summer — and the realization that 25 years of living largely separate lives does not unravel the threads that have tied our lives together.

In this boat are two of my groomsmen from my wedding; I’ve fallen off of mountains and been chased by bears with Keith; braved swarms of yellowjackets and hunted coyotes with Ozie, flashlights taped to our BB guns so we could hunt at night.  Dave and I set up filmstrips and risked being labeled nerds as A/V boys at Olivia Park Elementary.  At one time or another, I’ve sworn allegiance to each of these guys as “my best friend” with the sincerity that only an 8 year old can imbue those words with.

Back in the boat, I’ve been trying to do my best guide imitation — though we’ve fished together as kids, none of these guys has fly fished much, if at all.

On day one, we floated 10 miles from Ringer Road down to Red’s, and despite the bright autumn sun managed to find a few pods of rising trout, and everyone in the boat caught at least one.

After a night under starry skies — or, at least, what would have been starry skies had the clouds not moved in, thankfully keeping the thermometer above freezing overnight — we hit the river for a second day, taking our time in breaking camp and timing our departure for the leading edge of the mayfly hatch.  We’d stayed up ’til nearly 1 a.m. the night before, talking around the campfire of friends who had passed, or triumphed, or both.  We talked of crushes we’d had on girls in junior high (finally able to admit them after 35 years of keeping them hid), of our families, of stories and scandals long since forgotten.

In rehashing these shared memories, we realized how much each of the others had to add to the telling — details lost or never known,  another point of view on tales that had started to grow stale from retelling to our kids and our wives, and other people who weren’t there to witness.

Which is why I’ve come to think, as I row downstream against a brisk autumn wind that seems to have come from out of nowhere, about how cherished this cargo of 800 lbs of memories really is.

Which brings us back to the start; to the nicest fish of the day, and my hesitance to admit to catching it….

We spent the first hour of the morning fishing with indicators and nymphs — way out of character for me, but I thought it might help my friends get into more fish.

It didn’t.   But hey, we tried.

But about a mile downstream from the camp, we ran into a pod of rising trout in a swirling whirlpool and backeddy — tucked up against  a cliff face, with foam lines that intersected at crazy angles and current that was moving upstream one moment, downstream the next, it was not easy fishing, but the fish looked to be worth catching.

Keith hooked up first, a big fish from the look of the pull on his 5 wt, but it stayed deep and kept its secrets.  Dave hooked up next, a little fish that stayed on the line a bit longer than Keith’s but still didn’t make it to hand.  I tried my hand at a couple of persistent risers, tucked up in the brush where the current doubled back on itself, and came away with 14 and 16 inch rainbows to hand.

Ozie had gone downstream, around a bend where I’d mentioned a good feeding lie could be found that was a bit less technical.  Unfortunately it was occupied by a couple of folks in another drift boat, who had pulled at least one fish out of there.

Still, we decided it was worth working it once they left.  Ozie tried his hand at a high degree of difficulty fish, rising steadily six inches in front of a log snag, and had it up once or twice before loosing his fly and heading back to the boat for a tippet transplant.

Dave fished a nice foam line that ran parallel with, and about 3 feet out from the bank, and eventually hooked up a nice trout.

Meanwhile, downriver where Dave’s foam line ran into the bank, Keith and I spotted a gorgeous specimen of a fish, rising steadily in front of a rock which was about 6 inches out from the bank.  We waded as near as we dared, and I stood by and coached Keith as he took his casts at it.

Getting the proper drag-free drift was not easy, but no one said that big trout should be easy.

Still, after Keith had casted for about 5 minutes and had a couple of snags on nearby brush, I (politely, I hoped, but in my lust for big fish, I fear not) asked Keith if he minded if I took a crack at the fish before it got spooked.

Keith, gentleman that he is, said “sure, go ahead” — and on the second drift, I tightened up on a legitimate 18 incher which may, or may not be captured on Dave’s digital camera — it squirmed loose just as I removed the size 18 CDC baetis from its lip, and I won’t know until Dave sends his pictures to me whether he has immortalized the moment or not.

And hence the source of my shame.  In all candor, I’m not sure that Keith would have caught the trout even if I’d given him another 20 minutes to work on it; but in all fairness, he deserved the chance.

But at the end of the day, we all had a great time, and everyone went away agreeing that this ought to be an annual outing.  Keith and I hope to hit the St. Joe’s river next fall — as an avid backpacker, he has fished its source on multiple occassions, and left me drooling at the tales of overeager cutthroats.

And maybe — just maybe — when we do, I’ll “let” him steal a big fish from me.  To balance out the scorecard, just a bit.

OK, this is a short post, but that’s OK — here at the MHS Reunion Blog, we’re just glad to get mail that isn’t spam.

Judy Vaders Lundgren is alive and well in Everett — well, Mill Creek, but “back in the day,” that was just another name for south Everett .   Or the suburbs of Bothell.  Somewhere in that basic convergence zone.

Anyway, here’s what Judy has to say:

I’m an Registered Nurse (RN) at Providence hospital in Everett.  I have a 25 year old son and a 21 year old daughter, both are married with babies on the way, my first grandbabies!

My husband, who works for Bartell’s, and I enjoy golfing, tennis, hiking, biking, and working out. We also love to travel. 

I’ve been encouraging Judy to send us a picture — after all, if I can fess up to what I look like after 30 years, anyone can.

When I first set up the Frappr Map of the Mariner High Class of 1976 (which shows the current location of quite a few of our classmates, as well as pictures and text from quite a few as well), Daneen was one of the first people to put her pin on the map.

She was practically a neighbor, just a ways down SR 12, in Lewiston, Idaho.

But while I remembered her name, I could not for the life of me conjure up a face in my fading middle-aged memory. So I did what anyone would do, and went to the yearbook.

No senior picture.

No junior picture.

Heck, I couldn’t find a picture at all.

But as shy of the camera as she appeared to be in high school, she doesn’t seem to be nowadays! Daneen has been very generous in posting pictures of her and her family on the Frappr site. Here’s a couple of Daneen:

Hmmmm…at the risk of getting slugged by my wife, you think I’d have remembered.

She was also kind enough to provide an update on her life:

In 1983 I moved to Alaska with my three children. I raised them there for 14 years and then moved to Wallace, Idaho. In 1997, I moved back to Alaska with my youngest son and by 1999 we came back to Idaho. I now reside in Lewiston Idaho.

The kids and I have so many wonderful memories of Alaska that will stay with us forever. We had the chance at one time to actually live as the pioneers would have and those are some of our fondest memories.

I am a song writer and singer and spent a lot of time singing in Alaska. [editor’s note: here’s a recording of Daneen singing a song by The Judds] I sang for the Martin Buser victory parties for the Ididarod, both public and private. Which started me singing for the next few years of victory parties in the Big Lake area. I not only love to write songs but also poetry and am working on getting my first book out, ‘Secret Of The Covenant’. In September of 2005 I went to Reno to receive the Shakespeare Trophy of excellence and Famous Poet for 2005 award. I have always loved to write and sing.

Right now most of my time is spent writing and studying for exams. I am going for my Bachelor’s in Psychology. This is the best time in life to go to school (at least for the learning part *grin*) The greatest part of my life though, since school, I would have to say is the almost 31 years that I have spent with my three children (Taralynn, James, and Daniel) exploring, together, this wonderful life.

I have some of my writings on http://daneend.tripod.com. I do hope to see everyone on the next reunion, wish I didn’t miss this one.

A few of you might be wondering where the guestbook went (for those who didn’t notice it, you can ignore this).

Unfortunately, the page which allowed people to sign up was being spammed unmercifully by online casinos, which had a software program designed to create entries with links to their casino (they do this in hopes of improving their Google ranking).  I was having to delete 4-5 such entries per day, and in recent days it was getting worse.

Since it was not a real popular feature on the site, I decided to eliminate it.  I may restore it later, but we’ll see.

In the mean time, members of the Class who wish to make their whereabouts known to future reorganizing committee members can simply e-mail their contact info to me.

scott_butner@charter.net

No doubt about it, the blog format of this site is not always the best for showing some kinds of information.

Specifically, large collections of photos are a bit problematic, unless you’ve got lots of bandwidth.

So Kevin Hayes has graciously set up a photo album of reunion pictures at the following URL:

http://www.purplesplace.com/mhs1976/

You’ll find all of the reunion pictures from this site — plus some that aren’t here. And Kevin also plans to put larger resolution versions of the pictures online as well.

SB

John Ames was kind enough to send me some pictures from the Saturday gathering at Diamond Knot, which I’ve posted below.

from left: Kelly Marx, Dave Losvar and Dave Furnas discuss weighty matters.

Jon Haugen (l) and Shawn Hicks illustrate a strategically placed baseball cap can cover up the signs of age; oh, if it were only that simple for the rest of us!

Paul Novak greets Principal Ames (John’s dad) who dropped by to visit with the many Rose Hill Elementary alumni who attended the school when he was in charge.

Linda (Armstrong) Varner and Michele Waggoner play another round of “hey! isn’t that ____ who just walked in the door?!?”

Paul Novak and Dave Van Beek exchange secret hand signs

at least, til more show up in the mail.

By the way, am working on getting some decent album software up and running on the site, so that you can browse these more easily. Should have something (with a little help from Kevin Hayes) up in the next few days…

As before, you can add your own comment/caption!

Picture 1

Picture 2

Picture 3

Picture 4

Picture 4

More pictures from Steve Conlon. Again, the captions have been left as an excercise for the reader.

To add a caption to these photos, click here.

Picture 1

Picture 2

Picture 3

Picture 4

Picture 5

Picture 6

Steve Conlon sent some great pictures from Saturday’s get-together at the Diamond Knot and from Sunday’s picnic.

I think I’ll let you guys write your own captions! (now, be nice…)

Hold your mouse over the photo to get some hints about who it is you’re looking at.

Add your own captions by referencing the picture number, and submitting it as a comment.

Picture 1

Steve Conlon made the trip up from San Diego, for some of the reunion events. Clearly, Steve is enjoying the California lifestyle…

That’s Wade Nelson standing next to him, by the way…

I haven’t gotten a bio quite yet; but I do know that Steve’s been flying commercial jets for American Airlines after flying the other kind for the US Air Force for many years.

Will add more about Steve in the near future.

SB

I expect I’ll have more to say about the reunion soon. For now, suffice it to say that everyone who showed up seemed to have a great deal of fun — I know that I did!

To those who didn’t find out until too late, or weren’t able to attend — my apologies. We tried to notify everyone we could find, as soon as we found them.

To those who did show up — my sincere thanks. Your presence was the most gratifying thing I’ve seen in a long time.
To those who helped with various aspects of the reunion — Kevin Hayes, Dave Cernich, Zoe Leonard Acheson, Janet Carlson, Kristi (Holtgeerts) Rosenberger (in absentia, but absolutely invaluable for her help in contacting people), Keith Lawler (great smoked salmon, Keith!) and all of you who sent pictures, personal updates, and the like — thank you so much!

For anyone I’ve forgotten — oh my gosh, I hope I haven’t forgotten anyone! But I’ve slept about 4 hours in the past 3 days, so anything is possible!
Finally, though they were equal partners in setting this thing up, I’d like to especially thank the other two members of the “disorganizing committee” — Sharon (Verg) Johnson and Ozie Greene. You guys turned this from the late night ramblings of a marginally sane computer geek, into an actual event that dozens of people clearly enjoyed. We all owe you a big debt of gratitude.

Among other debts.

I’m probably going to take a day or two away from this site, but I’ll leave the lights on. I’ve also left information on how to send your classmates a short update on what you’ve been doing. Please send us stuff to post on this site!

There was considerable enthusiasm for another reunion in the not-too-distant future. I don’t know when that will happen, or who will organize it - but I am confident in asserting that you won’t have to wait another 10 years this time!

We’ll start posting some information about how to make sure you get adequate notice for the next reunion sometime in the near future. We’ll also start “trickling” the reunion photos onto the site over the next few days.

Take care, friends…

SB

A few preliminary pics from the Friday night get together at the Oxford Saloon in Snohomish (thanks to Dave Cernich for putting that together!).

More will certainly be coming. And if I’ve goofed up any captions — mislabeled people or forgotten people — please let me know; it’s late and I’m operating on very little sleep.

Oh! And don’t forget — there’s still time to attend the Sunday family picnic at Martha Lake County Park, Sunday July 16 starting at 11:00 a.m.!

From left: Dave Cernich, Brad Meacham, Syd (LaRue) Hudson, and Darlise Lund look over a yearbook 

From left: Janet Carlson looks — dubious? incredulous? — while Kevin Hayes weaves a tale…

From left: Paul Novak reviews the yearbook with Dave Van Beek.  I believe Paul’s exact words were:  “dated her.  dated her.  dated her.  can’t remember…oh yeah, her too!” 

From left: Mark Schwehm, Brad Meacham, Sue (Anderson) Schwehm — and I believe Syd (LaRue) Hudson’s husband, whose first name I regretfully failed to write down…

If memory serves properly, Ron Reis got his Chemical Engineering degree from WSU — great degree…

Great degree. yup. those chemical engineers know their stuff.

well, heck — I’ll let him tell his own dang story (via Keith Lawler)!

Here’s my brief history of the last 25+ years:

While coaching youth soccer I was introduced to a beautiful friend of a soccer mom, who I married in 1989. Julia and I have three great kids (doesn’t everyone say this, even about their teenagers). Danny is 15, Lindsay is 14 and McKenna is 10. (Picture of us on the Space Needle this past month attached, something my oldest daughter always wanted to visit).

Some of you may remember that Chevron took me to California. After 12 years I left to join an environmental services company running projects and the operation’s crew. We re-aligned it for sale and I took a position in engineering with a Moses Lake chemical company that refined silicon for computer chips. By 2001 they divested that site and I moved to their other site in Montana. The circle of work is unbroken as the Montana site was bought out by a Norwegian firm (Renewable Energy Corporation) this last summer, the same company that had bought the Moses Lake site. They refine silicon for photovoltaic energy cells. They kept me on in my role as Director of Technology and Quality, and now we’re headed back to Moses Lake.

Looking forward to hearing from everyone else, and seeing you all soon.

Ron

My most lasting impression of Keith Lawler is this:

falling!!!

And landing. hard. on my butt.

OK, let’s back up a few steps. Because that’s where it started…a few steps back.
I haven’t always been the rotund computer jockey I am today. I’ve never been thin, but there was a time, during high school, when I hiked, and biked, and could even sort of keep up with the likes of legendary hikers like Keith Knol and Keith Lawler.

Which brings us to a descent from a ridge in the Cascades somewhere, dropping into a small mountain lake that I, and the two Keiths, were making our base for an overnight trip.

Rounding a cluster of scrub pines, the first of our party (I think it was…Keith) suddenly let out a “whoop!” and vanished from sight. Then the next (that may have been Keith, also). Finally, it was my turn.

One by one, we hit a muddy patch on the “trail” and slid onto our behinds, and continued sliding over a small drop onto a ledge several feet below. No one was hurt, but for some reason that trip made as colorful an impression on my mind as the rocks did on my ass.

Well, I have since drifted away from the trail heads, gravitating (with considerably more gravitas, I might add) towards the boat launches.

But “the Keiths” both continue to log the miles on the trails, and stay in good shape.

Here’s Mr. Lawler then (actually this was taken at a WSU function in 1978):

And here he is now:

Here’s what he has to say:

We’ve lived in Port Angeles going on 14 years now. After graduating from WSU with an engineering degree, I spent some time working for Chevron in the oil fields near Bakersfield, CA.

These days, I work for a small industrial dewatering Company called “FKC Screw Press,” where I am the Engineering Manager/ V. President. I get to travel all over N. America and sometimes overseas, Spain, New Zealand, Japan, and S. America.

From the Frappr “Map of the Class of ‘76″ web site:

I keep busy traveling for work, making home brew, bee keeping, fishing, and backpacking.

Based on the pictures that Keith has sent me, he also does a lot of hunting and fishing. Keith has sent me a few notes bringing me up to speed on his activities these days; we haven’t been in touch for years, but anyone who offers to take me fishing on the Elwah River (as he has) will find a place on my Christmas Card list for years to come.

Keith Knol and I were best friends through elementary school — we shared a fascination with tearing stuff apart, and sometimes even building stuff from what remained. I think (though memory is mischevious in such matters) that it was Keith who showed me how to cook a hot dog by sticking a nail through each end, and hooking the nails up to a lamp cord.

Keith responds: I recall thinking that the hot dog cooker was a technological break thru at the time. When we weren’t using it for hot dogs we would turn it upside down, stick it in the ground, and use it to bring earth worms to the surface for bait. It’s amazing we survived childhood…

I just love the smell of ozone in the morning!

Keith was also the first person I ever knew — way back in 7th grade — who was interested in environmental issues, and who seemed concerned about this crazy notion known as “global warming” we had been hearing about.

Keith and I continued to be good friends in high school, occassionally making expeditions to Seattle for concerts and oddball movies (I think it was Keith who I saw Luis Bunel’s film, “That Obscure Object of Desire” with, and definitely know it was Keith that I went to see the Eagles — pre-Joe Walsh — with; indeed, I still have a photo or two of that concert!).

Keith was even in my wedding party as an usher, as a matter of fact — but school and families took over our lives, as they are wont to do, and these days we’re down to the annual exchange of Christmas letters (usually sent by our wives) and the occasional phone call (including one just moments ago).
So, in any event, Knol is one of those guys who will, apparently, never age. He hikes too fast for time to catch up with him, is my theory. He lives north of Spokane with his wife and two kids, who as you can see have inherited his love of outdoors.

According to Keith:

Well for those few Mariner High folks who remember me and might have questioned whether I could have survived into adulthood I’ll give you a brief recap.

I’m still alive!

I graduated from Washington State University with an electrical engineering degree in 1982 and went to work for Bonneville Power and have been there ever since.  We control the federal dams on the the Columbia River from Grand Coulee down to Bonneville, along with those on the Snake River. In fact I am frequently referred to (affectionately, I believe) as “that dam engineer”.

Frequently as I’m walking down the hall or people stroll past my office I’ll hear them say things like “there’s that dam engineer” or “what’s that dam engineer up to now?”.

So it’s been a great place to work and I hope to finish my career here working with this great group of folks. In fact I was encouraged when I overheard several of my coworkers saying again just this week that they also were looking forward to my career coming to an end here.

Outside of work I’m married and have two kids. My wife, Pam, has been putting up with me [editor’s note: just barely!] for over 20 years now. She’s a speech therapist for the Mead school district. We both are WSU grads so, living in Spokane, we go to a lot of WSU football games and even went to the Rose Bowl a few years ago.

My son will be in 8th grade next year. His life revolves around music, running and bicycling. He loves music. He plays piano, guitar and drums (oops I mean “Percussion”). Lately he’s been pestering us for a Saxaphone. When he’s not making some sort of noise he’s running or riding his bike (he’s a big Tour de France fan). He does cross-country and track at school. His fascination with bicycling reminds me a lot of myself when I was that age. I remember you, Ozie, Brad Meacham and myself went through a period of several years when we were really into bikes. We rode around Whidbey Island, out to Snohomish and into Edmonds and Lynnwood. I remember that long grind of a ride up the winding hill from the Snohomish Flats. Oh man that was a killer. I think I’m still sore from that one.

I also have a daughter who will be a junior in high school next year. She’s also into track and cross-country. She’s also very involved with the Debate team. The skills from which she has been applying at every possible opportunity at home. Actually I’ve pretty much been living advanced debate with her for the past 15 years so I’m getting accustomed to it.

I still spend a lot of time honing my skills at putting one foot in front of the other. I learned early on that it was one physical activity that I could be relatively consistent at and have actually been able to improve at over the years. In fact I’m proud to say I’ve attained a level of proficiency at walking where I can now go for extended periods with few major mishaps.

I drag my family along and we’ve been hiking in Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Central America. Of course my favorite place to backpack is the Olympic National Park and we try and do at least one extended trip there each year (in college, as you might remember, I worked a couple summers as a backcountry ranger in ONP so it has a nostalgic appeal to me). We’ve had a lot of exciting experiences backpacking (my kids prefer to say we’ve “dodged a lot of bullets”). I recall doing quite a few hikes with you, Ozie and Brad. Especially in the Verlot area. I remember skipping school to go hiking to lakes in the Verlot area like Pinnacle, Boardman, Bear and Evan’s Lakes [editor’s note: kids, do as we say, not as we do…er, did]. Lake Valhalla was another good hike I remember us taking.

I read your description of the hike we took with Keith Lawler. It’s been a long time since I thought about that one. I believe it was called Lake Helena and it was near Darrington. My recollection was that it was probably not a well conceived trip. There was no trail and we hiked cross-country with an old Forest Service map I had dug up and wound up essentially walking off the edge of a cliff. I remember the big fall you described. We landed in a pile at the base of the cliff. I landed on top of my pack which cushioned my fall and probably kept me from breaking my neck. Like you said, it was amazing we didn’t wind up on the injured reserves list, or worse. I don’t think our folks would have had a clue where to start looking for us. I suppose my family would say that my route selection abilities haven’t improved all that dramatically over the years.

I took up snow skiing about 25 years ago and I do a fair amount of that during the winter months. We live at the base of Mt. Spokane which has a nice little ski resort so it’s easy for us to access. My son pretty much lives at the Mt. Spokane terrain park during winter weekends. We take a few ski trips to Canada each winter also, with Big White Ski Resort being our favorite. The kids usually bring along a group of friends and we spend 4-5 days skiing and hot-tubbing.

So, sorry I won’t be able to make the big party. Tell Ozie and Brad I said “hi”. Also if Tim Thorp shows up and has any particularly good one-liners or unusually over-the-top offensive jokes (I guess I’m assuming he hasn’t changed much) please take notes and forward them to me (and tell him I said “hi” also). Actually, feel free to say “hi’ to anyone who says they knew me. Thanks Keith

I have since learned to read his Christmas letters carefully - when he recommends a place to visit, such as the Badlands National Monument (pictured below from my trip there last year), it’s worth visiting.

Zoe (Leonard) Acheson sent me the following picture — how many faces can you name?

(click on the picture for a larger version)

SB

now I sort of miss the lighthouse! 

(thanks, Zoe, for the picture!)

Precious little information about Venecom online, and the anti-spam features of his e-mail account seem to keep me from reaching him that way.

But there’s no question that this is the Venecom we grew up with, all grown up himself.  The photo is courtesy of the Trout Unlimited web site – Venecom being the president of the Bremerton chapter.

Well, being a trout fisherman myself — a pretty fanatical one! — I know that TU does some great work on habitat protection and restoration.

I also noticed, while looking for more info about Venecom, that there was a “Venecom Griffin” on the honor roll of Central Kitsap Junior High last year.  So unless Venecom decided to go back to 8th grade , sounds like there’s a little Venecom about, as well.

Hopefully Mr. Griffin shows up for the reunion.  I need to have at least ONE person who doesn’t mind listening to fishing stories….

SB

One of the things I always look for in the mail, around Christmas time, is a card from Judi Hallenbeck. For many, if not most, of the past 30 years I haven’t been disappointed.

Today, Judi sent me an e-mail, providing a bit of an update for this site. That was a real treat, because it helped fill in the gaps that just don’t make it onto the Christmas cards. Besides, she included a recent picture of her with her twin sister, Juli (they’re both still cute as buttons, but don’t tell Judi I said so).

Here’s what she has to say:

So, yes I am really into Scottish Dancing, Scottish Country Dancing in particular. Juli and I founded the Skagit Scottish Country Dancers club based in Anacortes about 13 years ago. I became a certified RSCDS, (Royal Scottish Country Dance Society), instructor about 7 years ago. I started teaching classes in Skagit, and now do so in Houston.

Through our group Juli and I organized serveral Midsummer Masquerade (Scottish Country Dance) Balls. We had lots of fun with the group over the years. One event we co-chaired about 5 years ago was a Christmas dance where I met Jim Fraser, (yes, he’s originally from Scotland), my S.O.S.,
(Significant-Other-Sweetie). He was working in Port Townsend over the next year for his company in Houston, Texas. A couple years later we decided I should move to Houston, which I did in 2003. I’m working here as a graphic designer.

Houston is not a city I would choose to move to although it is very green compared to other Texas cities. Jim is the only reason I am here. I don’t care for Houston: the traffic drives me crazy, its HOT and HUMID, mosquitoes are fierce, its FLAT and I could go on!!! But our little bit of Houston is quite pleasant.

Judi’s twin sister, Juli, was always a bit more shy, as I recall. But they were both sweeties, and they lived with their sister Mary and brother-in-law Everett, just down the street from my good friend Keith Knol. Keith and I spent a fair amount of time there, but mostly rummaging through old electronics parts that Everett would let us salvage. Later, when we were at Mariner, Judi and I spent a lot of time working on the yearbook together, and of course, hanging out with Ozie Greene.

Anyway, I digress. I was going to let Judi tell you about Juli:

Juli still has a little house in Oak Harbor which she is in the process of fixing up to sell. She recently remarried, (last fall), a man named Don Johnson who lives in Kent. Other than a horrible commute to Anacortes for work (as an illustrator) she seems quite happy. I miss her terribly as well as the rest of my family and friends.

Here’s another picture of Juli, from the Scotish Dance group’s web site:

One of the best parts of helping to organize this reunion has been the opportunity to reconnect with old friends.  And one of the first people I reconnected with — dating back a couple of years, now, via Classmates — is Sharon (Verg) Johnson.

Sharon and I have emailed each other once or twice since high school — and once, a long time ago, even had a couple of iced teas together in Miami, when I was in the city on business and had looked her up.

But this time around, we’ve had a chance to talk quite a bit more, and I’ve enjoyed it greatly. I’ve also greatly appreciated Sharon’s generosity — here’s a woman who survived not one, but two hurricanes last year, and yet has still taken an active role in organizing the reunion, and fronted the money for the catered food at the picnic on Sunday, July 16.

I nagged Sharon to send us an update, and here’s what she had to say for herself:

 Moved to Miami and went to Technical School.

Became a  Medical Technologist - first worked on animals them moved to people for more money.  (The quality of patient definitely diminished in that move.)

Worked for Coulter Corporation in various Hematology functions for 15 years until the privately owned company was bought out by Beckman, and became Beckman Coulter in 1998.  Max still at Beckman Coulter.

I met Max at Coulter Corporation and had the good sense to say “YES!” when he asked me to marry him.  I married Max Johnson 7/23/1988 in beautiful Sibley, Iowa.

Finally finished my BS in 1993 at Nova Southeastern University.

We moved to Salt Lake City in 1993.  It turned out to be a bad move- but we did learn to brew beer there.

We moved to Battle Ground, WA in 1997. That turned out to be a good move, but at the wrong time — the economy was bad at the time.

Finally, we moved back to Miami in 2002.  The jury is still out on that one - however we finally hit the housing boom at the right time.

My job is as the Director of Laboratory Operations for Quest Diagnostics.  I run two excellent, high volume, clinical laboratories in South Florida.  I also chair the team that decides Hematology Best practices for the company.   Love the company - hate my commute!  I drive 140 miles roundtrip from my home in SOUTH Miami-Dade County to the Northern edge of Broward county at least 2 times a week.  My alternate office is still a 76 miles round trip from home.

Must be mid-life crisis - but I just traded the Black Volvo Station Wagon (soccer mom-style) for a Bright Orange Mini Cooper convertible.  Now I enjoy the commute much more…

Earned my Six Sigma Green Belt (Quality Improvement) certification (yes, I truly am a nerd.)

I am in the process of earning my MBA at University of Miami.  I really like being back in school, and I am enjoying the environment.

We share our home with three dogs ranging from 18 to 96 pounds. Our adopted dogs include a Black lab, a malamute, and a terrier mix. They definitely have the clout in this relationship.

We just bought property in Ocean Shores, WA and someday hope to move back to the Northwest FOR GOOD! We love the climate (both political and weather wise), the people, and the wines!

See, I told you guys that this is a lot easier when you simply write this stuff yourselves!

for me, anyway.
My old yearbook pal Kevin Hayes has anted up the following:

Might as well add my life story. I can’t stay in the witness protection program forever! J

So…after High School and a very brief run at Everett Community College I continued with photography and firefighting – sometimes at the same time, but never at the cost of someone’s life or property.

I worked for a few years at the Everett Herald, and then the Seattle Times as a photojournalist. I also did what was called ‘stringer’ work (paid part-time) for Associated Press and United Press International as well during that time - mostly to get into local sporting events (Scott - remember the Seahwaks game with the AP Press Passes?). I won several awards and have been published in numerous trade journals, newspapers and magazines. Anyone remember the flood of 1977 around the Snohomish Valley? I won the prestigious Sigma Delta Chi award for spot news from the Society of Professional Journalist for my flood coverage – that was a career high for me.

I had been a volunteer/part-paid firefighter with Snohomish County Fire District 1, serving along side with Brian Zelmer as night duty aid personnel; since 1976 and still had not yet decided if I wanted to be a firefighter or a police officer when I grew up. In 1979 I decided to test with both fire and police agencies and whoever called me first, got me! Well in June of 1979 Boeing Fire Department called me one day before the Seattle Police Department and I’ve been with Boeing Fire ever since. I currently hold the rank of Captain.

My duties are unique for our department. I do IT and web systems — (internal and external http://www.boeing.com/fire) development and masterminded the on-line training system that we currently use to verify our firefighters, like Ozie Green; are still learning, retaining knowledge and legally capable at provide emergency services to our customers. I am also responsible for our rescue boat program in Renton, supporting international fire prevention issues as well as providing assistance with hands on training in Puget Sound. I stay insanely busy!

As weirdness would have it, I still wanted to be a police officer and decided that being a volunteer firefighter and a paid firefighter was a bit of a professional overkill so I quit my volunteer firefighter duties and in 1981 strapped on the badge and uniform of the Everett Police Department as a reserve officer. I had the distinct honor to assist with Sergeant Butner’s memorial services, and ferried many distraught department members from the Son’s of Norway Hall in Everett to their homes. I stayed with Everett for 10 years and when an option for retirement came about, I retired at the rank of Sergeant.

I was briefly married in the mid 80’s and from that un-holy union (long story) my son was born – Scotty. Scotty, who turned 23 this year; works for Ram Technologies in Mukilteo and I see him as often as two busy schedules allow. He’s a wonderful young man and to date has simply avoided all the trouble I seemed to get myself into while growing up.

I am single and live out by Granite Falls in a gated community called Rainbow Springs with my 1 year old French Mastiff name Huey. We live right on a private lake where the bass are so huge ducklings don’t last but a few days after hatching and Mergansers can’t choke the bass down! J

Two years ago I finally finished college and attained my Bachelors of Science in Business Management from the University of Phoenix. I am toying with the idea of going back and getting a masters….toying is the key word here folks! I’m not sure I want to devote another 2 years to go to work, come home, pet the dog, read the mail, do homework or go to class, eat dinner, do homework or go to class, go to bed and then get up and do it all over again.

My current hobbies are my motorcycle, Huey, relearning parliamentarianism as the newly appointed President of our community association, movies, cooking, home improvement, computers and web development, and graphic design.

My High School nickname, bestowed upon me by Mike Smoody and Joe Little; has continued on and ‘Purple Hayes’ (‘Purple’ for short) will get my attention just as easily as using my real name.

Well, in the “ya (re)learn something new every day!” department, I had forgotten completely that Kevin was involved with my mom’s (the aforementioned Sergeant Butner — she had nearly 20 years service on the Everett PD) memorial services.

Kevin, I’ll buy your first beer at the Diamond Knot on Saturday.

SB

As already detailed in this previous post (and this one!), the Mariner High School Class of 1976 is having a reunion in July, with three different kinds of nostalgic goodness to participate in:

• Friday Night, July 14.   6p.m. — 10 p.m. or later…. An informal gathering for alumni at the Oxford Saloon, which is at 913 First Street, Snohomish, WA. Dave Cernich has arranged for a private meeting room from 6 p.m. til 10 p.m, but people are free to remain afterwards.   There’s a $7.50 per person charge, which covers hors d’oeuvres.  The Oxford will feature music from the Oxford regulars, blues band Miles from Chicago.
• Saturday, July 15.  2 p.m. - ??  There will be an adult (alumni, spouses, significant others, etc) get-together at the Diamond Knot Brewery, 621 Front Street, Mukilteo.
• Sunday, July 16.  11 a.m. until whenever people go home.    Family picnic at  Martha Lake Park just off of 164th near the I-5 exit.     A Google Map link is provided here. Look for signs for the MHS Reunion.  Families are welcome.   We are having Big Bam’s BBQ cater the event, and are asking each family that plans on attending to chip in $20.

We are attempting to make all of these events low-key, low-cost, informal and fun. Rumors that those attending the picnic will be required to wear formal wear are just that, rumors — started by John Webber, who clearly hopes to get more use out of that Tuxedo that is sitting in his closet.
Your organizing “committee” is going out on a limb by not requiring registration or pre-payment for any of this, but we would like to get word from as many as possible of you who plan to attend, so we know how many mouths we’re expecting to feed on Sunday (the other events are no-host). If you plan to attend, drop me an e-mail.
Be sure to share this web site address with as many of our former MHS classmates (or their brothers, sisters, parents, or parole officers if you don’t know how to reach them directly). The easiest way to refer to this site is just this:

http://mhs1976.scottbutner.com/

See you there!
SB

Dave and I both went to Olivia Park Elementary together — if memory serves correctly, he was one of the other “A/V boys” (I think it was mostly boys, back then) — you know, the kids who skipped out of class to set up projectors, audio equipment, and the like.

These days, those same kids would be rebooting computers and showing teachers how to make the DVD player stop blinking “12:00.”

You know — like this:

Well, I don’t have a picture of Dave handy — not a recent one, anyway.  But I do know that he was named “Firefighter of the Year” by the Marysville City Council earlier this year, which is a neat accomplishment.

Like a blinking 12:00, I’ve heard from Dave off and on since graduation — more off than on,  but still, it’s always nice to reconnect.  Hopefully he’ll be at the reunion.

OK, this one was just too darn easy — even at 3:30 in the morning (I really do need for this reunion to get over with, so I can stop spending my waking hours tracking you people down! ).

It should come as no surprise that the less common a last name, the easier it is to track someone down. It also helps if you look at least something like you did when you were in high school.

Well, Donna fits the bill. Add to the fact that she is shown at a Science Fiction Trivia Contest (shown here as the reigning champion — a victory for us fellow nerds everywhere!) and it’s practically a no brainer:

Donna is the reference librarian (hey! I could use her help tracking some of you down!) at the West Atlantic Avenue Branch Palm Beach County Library System. Actually from what I can tell through her many posts on library list servers, Donna has perhaps one of the cooler jobs of anyone I’ve run across so far — tracking down obscure pieces of information about all nature of things.

If I wasn’t doing what I’m doing — which isn’t that much different — that would be a cool way to make a living.

Although — quite honesty? — having to be an expert on Harry Potter, as Donna apparently is, might be enough to scare me away….

In any event, that makes two of our classmates in South Florida (Sharon Verg Johnson is the other). .

Dave was easy to find…coaches usually are. Successful coaches even more so.

See if you can pick Dave out of this shot (this is his team, Squalicum HS, near Bellingham, at the State Tourney in 2005). I’ve given you a tiny clue:

Dave has racked up a pretty impressive record as coach — here’s what the Bellingham paper has to say about that:

Dave Dickson, who guided the Storm in its inaugural 1998-99 season, has replaced Mike McKee as coach.

Dickson, head of Squalicum’s history department, has been McKee’s assistant for the past three seasons.
“As difficult as it is to find good coaches, we had Dave in the building,” said McKee, Squalicum athletic director. “We had the personnel we wanted right here.”
Dickson has 12 seasons of head coaching experience, compiling a record of 157-126 at Oak Harbor, Bellingham and Squalicum high schools.
He has been to the state tournament four times as a head coach. He is the last coach to take Oak Harbor to state (1989).
While at Bellingham, Dickson took the team to state in 1993, 1996 and 1997. The Red Raiders placed fourth in 1997.
As an assistant at Squalicum, Dickson has been to the state tournament in each of his three seasons.

When he’s off the court, Dave is head of Squalicum’s History department (he was selected by this year’s graduating class as the school’s “Most Influential Teacher”!), and is on the advisory board of the Northwest Center for Holocaust, Genocide and Ethnocide Education.

Dave adds:

[There are…] a couple of things about me you might not have learned on Google……. Like Jamie and I celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary this summer.  We are also facing the empty nest (in a year) as our youngest of 3, Adam, readies for his senior year at Squalicum.  Our daughter, Allison, got married last October and Aaron just finished his freshman year at The Master’s College, a small Christian school in Santa Clarita, CA (right by Magic Mountain).  You probably won’t be surprised to know Aaron earned a basketball scholarship to TMC.  The picture you put in the web page includes Aaron (holding a ball, next to #15). 

Dave’s team has a basketball tourney this weekend, but he hopes to make it to the Picnic on Sunday, July 16.  As Dave says:

I’m sure you’ve read one of my favorites, A River Runs Through It.  In the MacLean family you couldn’t distinguish between fly fishing and religion; in the Dickson family the lines blur between basketball and religion.  Scott, I hope the reunion goes well and I would love to see you and others.  We’ll see what happens. 

OK. I didn’t know Rosanne very well — but with a little help on married names of a few classmates that Kristi Holtgeerts Rosenberger was able to provide, I tracked her down — right here in Everett!

Turns out, Rose is quite active in the Everett Rotary — we know this from “The Log” — the newsletter of the Everett Rotary (and one that might have been designed by graduates of Bruce Burns’ “Tabloid Newspaper” mini-term class, from the looks of it!) that she was selected as President of the Chapter in 2006 — she took the reins on July 1 :

Particularly near and dear to my heart is the fact that Rose is a contributor to/supporter of the Everett Children’s Museum — while my Children’s Museum Days are over, my wife and I spent some very fond years organizing a similar non-profit museum over here in the Tri Cities, and I recall many a long night building exhibits, writing grants, and preparing for press conferences so our kids would have a fun place to play. Rose is also an active supporter of the Arts Council of Snohomish County as well as Catholic Community Services and Camp Fire (no wonder her fellow Rotary members selected her to be their leader!)
Rose graduated from Gonzaga in 1980, after spending her junior year in Florence, Italy and is working for the family business (Rubatino Refuse Removal).

Rose adds:

“I’m married to Larry Goulet and we have two sons; Denny 21, who will be a senior at Boston College (who just spent his junior year in Florence, Italy) and David 18, who will start his collegiate rowing career at UW in the fall.“

I grew up in a Rotary household (my dad spent many years active in the Lynnwood Rotary) and know the sort of committment to public service that the organization embodies. Rose should be proud of being selected as a leader among leaders.
SB