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Rodrigo Marin (Marin)

Hello Michael,

I want to praise your thoughts and comments over the past comments about internet advertising. You would think that being older that we would also be wiser. We all have values that we have either modified or changed over the years as we have tried to seek more fullfillment in our lives. Sex, politics and religion will always be part of our cultural landscape. Ads on the internet are like billboards on the highway. If it helps keeps our cost down so we can all enjoy our postings with our classmates so be it.

Thanks for your wise insight and comments.

FROM THE LONE STAR STATE,

ROD MARIN

Modie (Martin) Katz

To All,

Great Discussion on our Democracy.  If you want to have an ad free site, just go on to the Make a Donation button on the Left side and make a $97 donation and specify that it is for the Free Advertising Web site for One Year only or $194 for Two Years of no ads.  Your choice.

Or if you just want to help with the 50th class reunion, you can donate to that by simply putting a check in the mail for the PHS Class of '68. (details on the Make a Donation page)

We are open for business and are looking forward to your donations, and/or help and to seeing you all at the 50th.

Lets keep this forum active and find new classmates to communicate and share with.

Michael Coates

Sometimes this site reminds me of why I've never missed high school, why I've never bothered to attend a PHS reunion, and why I never will. There's always someone willing to go out of his way to exclude others.

Laurie De Vault

Michael, as I have expressed on this site before, I share your feelings and experiences about PHS. I had wonderful teachers and made many friends (some with whom I remain close), but also endured hostility and harrassment for my liberal views. I did not really enjoy PHS and when I went off to college it was a relief to be in a more inclusive environment where more thoughtful discourse was encouraged.

As I have mentioned earlier here, at our last reunion I did confront the classmate who had harrassed me in high school and he seemed very sincere when he expressed his apologies to me. I don't think he had a clue. This was quite healing for me, and I felt we were all moving on to a more mature and inclusive class as a whole.

Some of the recent comments here make me wonder how far we have progressed. I, too, have no real desire to attend any more reunions. 

Modie (Martin) Katz

I am saddened by your stories of PHS where I had a wonderful time and a great experience even as being a new immigrant and adjusting to the people, language and custom. My teachers were great and the admin. was helpful. 

Your stories should only give you an inducement to come to the 50th reunion and see that people and times do change. In fact that is the only constant thing about getting older, change!!  Hope to see you all in a couple of years  Till than  

Gary Hesse

Modie, I can still remember when your family emigrated from Israel to Hastings Ranch around 1960!  What a culture shock!  You were fortunate to have a cousin the same age in the neighborhood!  All of my ancestors emigrated to the United States right after the Civil War from Northern Germany!  Our history is part of the fabric of who we are; so are the results of the choices we have made and how we choose to view life and our fellow man.

Not all of the choices I have made in my life provided the intended results, but they are mine, and all is well.  Fourteen years ago I chose to retire from a successful career in aerospace to take care of my mother, who just turned 97 years old; she is hard to keep up with, and still goes to her Strength & Weight Training classes twice a week which Bonnie Olney Smithson teaches – she’s still making choices.

I enjoyed my years at PHS; they were busy ones – classes, sports, a job, boy scouts, restoring my Austin Healey, etc.  I was into so many things that the years flew by; so has the time since then.  My two Llewellin Setters (hunting dogs) presently keep me very busy with workouts every morning and long walks every evening; I’ve even dropped 30 lbs from the added exercise!

I look forward to the future.  While I may not enjoy the present political climate in our country, or how we are handling some of the current social issues, it’s going to take all of us to respect and communicate with one another to move forward!

Everyone make it a great day!

Modie (Martin) Katz

Paul

looking at your profile, it looks like a lot of people have remembered you. As for the reunion, I for one would love is to see you there and rekindle our acquaintances, as I am sure the rest of those folks that wrote on your profile. See you at the 50th. 

Keith Anvick

Speaking of trivia questions --- Does anybody remember who taught "Personal Finance & Retirement Planning" or "Taking Care of Elderly Parents"   Best classes I never had.....

Gary Hesse

Things that I miss (or not) from our PHS years:

• Friday nights at Pizza Hut after football games

• Watching the Home Economics teacher (Ms. Harding?) measure girls skirts with a ruler

• Seeing our lockers being searched for cigarettes

• The Fuhrman brother’s VW Bus with the passed around change jar which read "this bus doesn't run on friendship"!

• Getting rides to school in a neighbor’s Mercedes 300SL roadster (now worth ~ $1M)!

• Those god awful cheeseburgers sold in the pergola

• The 6-inch rule at dances

• “The Observer”

• Getting ‘busted’ for a bag of chervil

• Mr. Craft

• Gasoline at 17 cents a gallon

Modie (Martin) Katz

Your memory is much better then mine.  I do remember the bathrooms always smelling like smoke and having to shave my mustach.  Mr. Snyder's office where I spent a lot of time for not being a good citizen.

But all in all I have fond memories of PHS.

Barry Chisholm

A good memory:   Living in Sierra Madre, I wasn't eligible for a bus ride to PHS (lived too close I guess)......so the first 2-3 years at PHS I often walked along Sierra Madre Blvd to get to school in the mornings.....and very often, some uppersclassmen, who I did not know but I would recognize as going to PHS, would stop their cars and say "hop in".....they really didn't know me either but just wanted to be helpful to someone who didn't have a car yet.   A small thing, I know, but a fond remembrance of kinder, simpler times. 

A not-so-good memory:   Taking both Latin and Spanish during junior year:   What was I thinking.

Kenneth (Ken) Marschall

Paul Adler:  I remember the song "Woolly Bully," of course.  "In what song is 'shorts' used?"  The only one I think of off hand is the 1950s tune with the lyrics, "Who wears short shorts? She wears short shorts...."  "L7" doesn't ring a bell.

Keith Anvick:  I wholeheartedly agree that "Personal Finance & Retirement Planning" and "Taking Care of Elderly Parents" are two classes that would be extremely beneficial to anyone.  I have no memory of them even being offered and am frankly a little surprised they were.  At the tender ages of 17-19 I can't imagine we had much "reality" about ever getting to retirement age or taking care of elderly parents.  I was 17 when I graduated, and my turning 65 and retiring was the theoretical stuff of the distant, remote future.  I was never going to get old, my parents would always be there.  I was indestructible and would surely live forever.

Speaking of parents, a class in parenting should be almost mandatory, in my view.  What is more important in our world than responsibly raising/teaching/guiding our children?  Look what happens when unfortunate kids have absent or stupid parents who have no business making babies.  Tragic for them and tragic for all of us.

Another class that all kids need is "Critical Thinking" -- learning to rise above emotion and "mob rule" and understand that what we are told -- and even what we see -- may not be the truth, that there are agendas afoot, how advertisers get under our skin and sway our thinking, and so forth.  It's sooooo important to realize when we're being manipulated, and just think how few of us do.  When I was 17 I basically just assumed that anything that was in print had to be true; if it's published, surely the powers that be must have approved it, right?  The "powers that be" are adults, and, in my world, I respected adults and thought they all were highly educated and had to be "right."  A Critical Thinking class may have been offered in the late '60s, I don't remember, but I know I never elected to take advantage of it, and high school would have been THE time to learn these hard lessons.

Gary Hesse:  Things that I miss from my PHS years?  I was very quiet, didn't join anything, tried to be under the radar and never attract attention.  Very few friends, a complete bore, I'm sure.  I'll bet virtually no one remembers me in the slightest.  I'm not a "group" guy or team player (preferred the more solitary sports like track, swimming, handball, etc.), so the whole school thing wasn't the most "fun" experience.  The enjoyable moments were in Mr. Younger's art and commercial art classes, learning fascinating English, journalism and grammar tricks in Mrs. Kearny's and Miss LaRue's classes (don't know if I spelled their names right), including learning the very valuable Latin roots of so many of our words.  A lot of this was eye opening and VERY helpful.  And the impressive band and drill team events were high points.  I did feel like part of a "whole" then, and it did feel good.  I was proud.

Ken

David Fuller

409 of course if you were a beach boy's fan....me...no

Christopher Bragdon

Hey Paul, I don't remember "chopped" cars,  Motorcycles got chopped and bobbed.  Cars got "hot rodded".  Please also spell your old class mates name right!  I was not that popular back then and I don't plan to be popular now!  

Sometimes I should just keep my mouth shut!  I'm editing this post since I "Googled" chopped cars.  Cars can be "chopped short, slammed, and just customized in many ways.  I stand corrected.  Won't be the last time!

Barry Chisholm

Hi Everyone,

Looking at some of the more recent posts, it saddens me to see that some classmates are reluctant to attend reunions, perhaps because of some bad experiences at PHS and/or past reunions.    I don’t pretend to know or understand the reasons why.  But I would like to offer a perspective (not advice, mind you, I’m not a psychologist or therapist or anything like that) based on what has happened recently in my life….

One of our close family members had, of his own volition, become estranged from the rest of our family for several decades.   Initially, we had tried to stay in contact with him, but eventually we realized that he just wanted to avoid any family ties, so to speak, so we finally gave up and left him alone.  

Just over three years ago, he died unexpectedly at age 64.   We only found out about his passing months after his death.   Subsequently, we were able to contact his widow.   One of the saddest days of my life was when she told my sisters and me that her late husband had plans to eventually get back together with us…..but death caught up with him before he had the chance.

Perhaps this is a stretch, but I’ve looked upon that experience as a lesson, at this point in my life, to make sure that if I have ever have any ill feelings, or regrets, I want to put them to rest in a way that achieves closure.  Even if we live to a ripe old age, we don’t have forever.

I fully admit that I was not the most involved student at PHS…..good grief, I tried out for the choir and didn’t even make that cut, my voice was so bad!  And my somewhat casual approach to my classwork probably held me back some.   But I do look back upon the time at PHS with a great deal of happiness because of the friendships and fun.   Plus, there is no doubt in my mind that what I learned at PHS provided the foundation for four college degrees and two highly rewarding careers.  I’m grateful for the time there.

So what will probably happen is this:   my wife and I will plan to travel the 6,000 or so mile round trip from New Hampshire to the 50^th reunion in a couple of years so we can enjoy some time in California and experience a memorable reunion that many never get the chance to attend.    And, if there is a 55^th and a 60^th reunion, and so on, Lord willing, we’ll be at those too!

I hope all of us can achieve closure on anything that may be affecting us.  If any of you are on the fence about attending the upcoming reunion, perhaps because of unfortunate events that happened at PHS or other reunions, I can guarantee you this:   If I’m at the reunion, you will have a friendly face to talk to.   I’m sure there will be many other friendly faces as well, but you can look me up….I’ll try to post a recent picture on the site so you can perhaps recognize me. 

Once again, thank you for posting all your remembrances and thoughts.  They are meaningful to me. 

Miriam Wegener (Jeffrey)

Barry, I'm looking forward to seeing you and your wife at our 50th.

Question for everyone: Who's living in Humboldt County? Since high school I've gone "back to the land" in Arkansas, loved living on Orcas Island in Washington, got closer to home at Big Bear, came down the hill and lived in Altadena and Monrovia, moved north to Woodland, and now we're in Eureka. Eureka! We've found it! I'm pretty sure this is it. To put it as I would have in high school, it is bitchin here!

See you all in a couple years.

Judd Kilimnik

Lots of interesting posts from everyone! Looking fed to 50th reunion. Hope by then some of past bitterness about PHS time has healed or been resolved. Still trying to locate Jom Leing who played clarinet in band along with me, Joe Silve, John Thompson to name a few. Trying to relearn saxophones now since it was let go for some time. Eureka always catches my attention by being 30 degrees cooler in summer than Apple Valley. Good to hear from Judy Cox Gotfeld. My older brother Randy is still married to Beth Markov and lives in Atascadero.

Laurie De Vault

I'd like to respond to the a few recent posts, especially to Barry's. Although it is true I'm not enthusiastic about attending more reunions for the reason I previously expressed (the conservative and at times repressive and offensive culture I experienced there, some of which seems to still linger), there are other more practical reasons which I will explain.

First, though, I want to share that I have attended several reunions and enjoyed them as much as I could, considering I hardly knew anyone in attendance.I found everyone to be warm and welcoming, and I always find it fascinating to see how my classmates have changed (or not), and to learn about their lives. At every reunion someone has approached me to say they admired me in high school, but either didn't know how to say so at the time, or didn't appreciate this until later on in life. This has always been surprising and rather healing. 

As I have written before, at our last reunion I confronted the main classmate who had taunted me in school and he was very kind and apologetic. This was a very satisfying encounter, and a pretty respectful, honest, and friendly exchange that meant a lot to me. So, I have no unfinished business or "closure" lingering in my life as far as high school is concerened.

The other reasons for possibly not attending future reunions are simply practical ones. I live 3,000 miles away. Also, the people who tend to go to the reunions aren't the people I was close to in high school. I'm in touch with those people already, most of whom live far away from Pasadena and, like me, have little interest in reunions. Furthermore, I was not really involved in the social life at PHS. I never attanded a game of any kind, nor a dance. The only activity I recall was having a small part in "Bye Bye Birdie".

The focus of my life was outside of school. My boyfriend John Meza and I hung out in other places and my friends and I had our own parties, interests, and activities that had nothing to do with PHS. I belonged to a group called HELP and we did things like paint houses in Watts. We were involved in politics, music, poetry, and art. On some weekends I'd fly up to Berkeley to visit my sister who was in college there. Her boyfriend ran the Avalon Ballroom and I enjoyed great music, meeting various folks such as The Doors, Janis Joplin, Grace Slick, and others. I did an hour-long radio show with James Brown (KFWB), went to concerts, and traveled. High school just wasn't that important to me, other than the academics.

I enjoyed many of my classes, especially Anthropology, English with Joan Bouvier, and Civics with Raul Teilhet (both of whom went to at least one of our parties!). We were encouraged to think critically and when John organized that rally after the assasination of ML King, there was some strong support for those of us who needed a forum in which to express our anger, fears, and frustration.

So, if our class had been smaller and I had been involved in the activities at PHS, I would be more inclined to go to a reunion. But, as an essential outsider, there really isn't a lot of motivation to travel far to attend a gathering where I know so few. What has interested me more was being reunited with my Sierra Madre classmates. Sierra Mesa was a small school and I became quite bonded with my childhood classmates with whom I spent five very important years. I was able to meet up with some of them, and it was very satisfying. I remember feeling like I was with my "litter mates" again!

Keith Anvick

Hey Paul Adler,  Hugging everybody you meet is probably going a little too far.  Personally, my roll models were George Carlin and Monty Python...

(Growing up in Sierra Madre from the 5th grade through PHS was quite helpful.  The Sierra Madre Gang turned out to be a good group of people to grow up with.)

Christopher Bragdon

Oops! I stand corrected!  Seems cars can be "chopped short" after all!  Learn new stuff everyday!  Also learned that cars can be "slammed" or lowered.  Googled it after that last message.

Modie (Martin) Katz

So I just turned 66 and am going through my mid life crisis.  Not really... I just wanted to get a more comfortable bike to ride so I traded my BMW 1150GS for a Honda Goldwing.  Wow what a differance!

Rod with my brothers for approx. 2,000 miles in Northern Cal and Oregon.

Barry Chisholm

Ride on, Modie, being "midlife" at age 66 is a good thing!

Joe Silver (Silver)

Congrats on your B/ D, Modie and your new midlife.  I just turned 66 also, but I spent my midlife crises in the hospital with another heart procedure...... on 2nd thought may I have yours instead?

Modie (Martin) Katz

Barry, Thanks

Joe, Hope all goes well and you recover quickly and completely

Paul, this is a 1800 model with all the power I will ever need.  Out ran my brothers New Harley and way better on the twisties.

What else is everyone doing on their 66th?

Christopher Bragdon

What?  Midlife crisis?  Who me?  Nah!