50TH REUNION A HUGE SUCCESS
Thanks to all of you who attended the 50th Reunion this past weekend in Kansas City. A great time was had by all, including Ted Koutsoubos, who flew in at the last minute from Hawaii! We had 190 at the Saturday night dinner, our most popular event and huge crowds on Friday night and at the Saturday breakfast and tour. It was so much fun, seeing everyone again even though recognition was greatly aided by our Sachem photo name tags. What a thrill it was to gather once again in the Southwest auditorium, walk the halls past those same grey metal lockers, sit at the North door, peak into the gyms (there were two - one for girls, one for guys) and wonder about all that crepe paper it took to transform it and to re-visit the pool where the pole that fished out a drowning Barbie Alport still resides on the wall. For those unable to attend, you missed out on a great time and we're sorry to have missed you. However, you can still recapture some memories if you hurry and purchase the 50th Reunion Book which comes with a Barbara Finkel-produced DVD featuring photos from grammar and high school days to our recent 50th soiree. Just send a check for $33 made payable to Southwest 50th Reunion and mail to Steve Melcher, 6955 Overhill Rd., Mission Hills, KS, 66208.
Overheard at the Reunion:
"All the girls I slept with in high school are dead."
"The second floor landing, isn't that where all the cool kids gathered in the morning . . . or was it the third floor?"
"This is also the 50th anniversary of the Jag XKE."
"Where did all the trophies go?"
"Where is Jerry Arni? Jim Goar? The Leavitts? Judy Boyce? Mickey? Jackie Rashbaum? Moriarty?"
"At the last reunion, that guy over there hit on my date and afterwards they went skiing together."
And some observations:
People didn't dance. Despite the valiant efforts of Melcher, Tom Galley and Chuck Page who put together special CDs of "our music," very few hit the dance floor. They were talking too much.
We don't sing either. Kudos to Patty Eisberg who spent a lot of time putting together a whole book of songs from former Southwest productions, got all of her former casts up on the stage and what came out was tantamount to a funeral dirge except when it came time for "Southwest! Southwest! We are faithful, proud in victory's song. . . . " That was a hit! Did you know it was Patty who got the Reunion ball rolling when she went to her husband's 50th for years ago and called Carl Helmstetter on the way home and told him to get going on ours?
The true unsung heroes of the Reunion are the spouses - George, Charlie, Wayne-O, Gretchen, Penny, Brian, Lloyd, Mary Lou, the Steves, Lauren Helmsetter who also hosted our reunion meetings at their house, Adrienne Melcher who worked hard to make our name tags easy to wear, and all the other husbands, wives, significant others, daughters and doctors who stood on the sides of conversations so patiently as we classmates talked of how good we look, our health issues, our children, where and how we live. Special thanks to all of you for putting up with us. That was tough duty.
Finally, some housekeeping:
The website https://myevent.com/sw61reunion will continue for the next two years so if you don't have a profile and feel inspired to tell us what you've been doing, go right ahead. Also, Ron Jon Frey is working on a photo tab on the website where you can dump any photos you took to share with all.
Best Teacher was won by Mr. Sanders followed by Miss Atwood although I have to tell you, the voting was pretty crummy participation -wise.
If you have costs from the Reunion that need to be reimbursed, get them to Steve Melcher asap.