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Gary Hesse

Hey Modie,

Tomorrow, 7/20, will be my 66th birthday.  I'm going to try to figure out what I'm going to do when I grow up!

Today I did a stress test.  For my age and weight they said 8 minutes was passing.  I lasted 13.5 minutes and had a recovery time to normal heart rate in 17 minutes!  So, I may have time to actually grow up in the future!

Laurie De Vault

July 29th. Pedicure. Massage. Margarita.

Modie (Martin) Katz

Christopher, Nice Bike!!!  Ride it safely and in good health.

Gary,Stay Heathy as it is the only important think in life that you have some control over.  Be well!!

Laurie, Enjoy the day and many more... still hoping to see you at the 50th.

Maja Morgan (Knighton)

I turned 66 last March. My husband bought me a chainsaw and I used it to cut 45 trees from our hillside because they were 50-60 feet tall and leaning toward the house we just bought in Edmonds, WA. (I hired professionals to cut the trees which actually leaned over the house.) I pulled up the ivy and dug out the blackberry vines. I placed the trunks horizontally to form terracing, driving 4 foot stakes down to keep them in place. Planted flowering shrubs and trees (shorter variety!), put in drip lines and chipped the scrap wood for mulch. Then the Dr told me the shooting pains and prickly numbness in my hands was caused by stenosis (bone growth instruding on the spinal cord) of three vertebrae in my neck. Hand pain was not his concern. My becoming a quadruplegic was. So I had surgery to cut out the bone growths two weeks ago. The incision is on the front of my neck and can hardly be noticed. This morning I felt a marked decrease in muscle pain (from stretching the vertebrae apart.) So grateful the technology has improved so that this could be repaired! Happy birthday to the rest of you trying to catch up with me! LOL

Modie (Martin) Katz

Wow, what a way to spend your B Day. Good use with the chain saw and I'm sure your work was appreciated by your husband. Glad to hear your procedure worked out well. Take it easy so that you can at least make it to the 50th without any pain. Till then be careful and enjoy!

Joe Silver (Silver)

Hi Maja, im a sorta close neighbor to you and your family.  I live in Federal Way.  I hope your recovery goes quite fast.

Janice Koch

Hi Maja, 

Don't think I knew you back at PHS, but I'm sorry I didn't.  Sounds like we have a lot in common - enjoying the heavy outdoor work and love of travel.  My husband bought me a cordless drill for mother's day one year.  I do some woodworking - repaired two balconies on our house, built a one horse barn, and just finished a picnic table and benches.  And we recently split and stacked about 6 cords of eucalyptus that we took out to make way for a solar array.  But I didn't fell those trees myself.  Anyway, glad to are on the mend.  Being able to take for granted your health and strength is a luxury.

Janice Koch

Happy almost birthday Laurie DeVault-

In response to a classmate who went after you for being a liberal - I still remember a classmate - I remember her name but won't mention it here - who yelled at me that I was a "sell out; cop out" for being on drill team.  I was wearing the uniform.  I hadn't realized that being on drill team was a sell out to being a liberal.  I'm pretty sure I could be both.  I actually thought it was pretty amusing.  But I do still remember that.

I envy your time in New Mexico.  It looks like it was stunning!  Come see me again when you're in California.

Laurie De Vault

Wow Janice, people can be jerks on both sides of the political spectrum. I do know I wasn't drawn to drill team, cheer leading, sports, etc. and it did seem to me that those that were into those things were more "straight" or conservative. But, perhaps I'm gulity of making assumptions! (I was on the drill team in 8th grade at Wilson before I got radicalized :-)

I will for sure be back in Mendocino in the winter. Must escape the New England weather. Maybe you can come up for a visit! I'll try to have those pictures of us together as 3-year-olds!

Janice Koch

Sounds great Laurie.  I haven't been over there since it was just being build.  I remember the wood stove that your mom was cooking on.

Keith Anvick

Hi Maja,

I remember you, not from PHS, but PCC.  As I recall we had a general ed class in American Literature.  Although I only got a C in the class, it really opened up my eyes to stories within stories and how people can read the same story and see it in so many different ways.

You must have a wonderful husband to buy you a chain saw!  (A chainsaw is probably the most dangerous, labor saving, and useful tools I've ever bought.)

Best wishes on your recovery.  The medical profession has really advanced since we were young.  It is one area where mankind has really advanced during our lifetimes.

 -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  - 

A "66" birthday seems so unrealistic.  Guys, are we really that old???  I'm going to apply for Social Security and finally get a return on that investment I've been contributing to since my first job.

2016 is a very strange year from a political perspective.  I always go back to my basic belief that we are all from the same gene pool and have the same wants, needs, fears, and greeds.  Big governments, like big businesses tend to be corrupt and self-serving....

Judd Kilimnik

Hi Maja, Glad to hear ur surgery went well. Hospitals r never any fun. Best wishes for ur recovery.

Kenneth (Ken) Marschall

I know, who can believe we're in our mid sixties?!  Totally unreal to hear myself even saying it.  I see people in the news who look like old grandpas, and I think, gads, I wonder if I'll look like that when I get old, and then I find out that that person is my age or even younger!  :-O

Thankfully most of my health quirks/ills have magically healed themselves, or at least tend to.  In Nov. '09 I even had a surprise -- get this -- "spontaneous dissection of the superior mesenteric artery" (kind of to the left of center in my chest, leading from the heart down to the abdomen area).  Long story, but the short of it is that no specialist could figure out why this very rare (and usually fatal) thing had occurred, and no stent or invasive procedure was necessary -- immediate MRI etc. showed that it was healing on its own from the moment it happened.  Go figure.  Specialists looked at me like I was from Mars.  "You're a very, very lucky guy," one said.  I went home after six days resting in Acute Care and have been fine ever since.  But it's creepy to think that this freaky thing happened and no one has a clue why.  Just to be safe I was put permanently on a mild blood-pressure-lowering pill, even though my BP wasn't high to begin with.

Maja, about eight years ago I began to have tingling in my left arm and hand, and then the whole arm and shoulder started an inexplicable dull ache.  Wouldn't go away, wouldn't go away.  Of course I thought "heart attack."  Saw the doc, and he ordered X-rays of my neck.  Surprise -- bone growths/spurs in my cervical vertebra.  But they were relatively minor.  The vertebra had become a little inflamed from some irritation, it affected the spinal cord, and I was experiencing "phantom" pain/tingling in that left arm and hand because of it.  I was asked if I was looking upward a lot.  I couldn't remember any particular straining upward, but I was advised to try a simple exercise -- lowering my head and trying to touch my chin to my chest several times a day for about ten seconds, relieving any compression in that irritated cervical area.  The results were immediate.  Within a day or two (as I recall), no more tingling or ache whatsoever, I stopped doing the chin thing, and I haven't given it a thought since.  Even when I crane my neck back to look at the stars or something, I suffer no ill effects.  Again... go figure.

Ken

Michael Baugh

Paul, I don't know the experiences you've lived with, I only know mine, and I don't hold Modie, Gary, or anyone else in contempt because they didn't go on a Senior Trip.  Let me first state my qualifications for speaking.  I spent 13 years active duty Army as an 11Bravo, obtaining the rank of SFC.  I have several awards and decorations and not just he was there type, the most important to me being my CIB.  I'm not angry at the people that didn't go, but I am angry over how we were treated when we came home and how our service is still belittled to this day.  As for the VC/NVA I respected him as a soldier fighting for what he believed in, even though it was different than what I believed in.  I am honored that I count a couple of people on this forum as friends even though we haven't seen each other in years and we differ on our politics, we are still friends.  I hope all people continue to use this forum as a way to keep updated on the lives of people from our past and the happening in their lives.

Dianne Harris

Paul,

As a classmate that did not serve, but had a dear friend that did,I want you to know that you are appreciated. Living here in Washington, D.C. I feel profound sadness whenever I pass the Memorial to the soldiers that died fighting in the Viet Nam War. We were of the same generation and some of those men and women were people I knew and grew up with. Thank you for your service, for your courage, and your sacrifice. May God grant you peace that passes all understanding.

I wish you the very best that life has to offer. 

Gary Hesse

To Paul Adler,

Paul, I hope that you will find a way to achieve the inner peace that you deserve.  Those of us who served in Viet Nam were dealt a bad deck of cards by our own country, which during the 50's through the 70's still believed in the 'domino theory' of communism and fighting the spread of communism.  We paid the price, as did so many, many Vietnamese who fought and died for their country and it's reunification.  You ought to research Ho Chi Minn's efforts in the 40's and 50's to ask for help from the United States in an effort to free Viet Nam from French colonialism.  Sadly, we got what we deserved (as a country, not as individuals) for not helping Viet Nam when it needed us.  Some of our fellow countrymen went to Canada rather than accepting being drafted into the Army.  We also had that choice.  I went into the military, and during my years of service in Southeastern Asia I always had a valid US passport with me, against regs, should I have ever decided to bug out.  Don't forget, the veterans of WWII were labled the "Greatest Generation".  Well, the Greatest Generation came home, had families, and then drafted their own sons to go/be sacraficed in Viet Nam...   Perhaps, our country needs to look back at the last 70 years and ask why we don't work for peace in the world rather than constantly filling our national cemeteries?

When all is said and done, each morning people in the United States, Russia, Nigeria, Colombia, Viet Nam,Sudan, and Palestine get up and want to make it through the day, feed their children, feel safe, and look forward to the day after...simple denominators which should unify us all rather than divide us.

Hope to see you at our 50th reunion.

Today, Make it a Great Day

Modie (Martin) Katz

Mike, thanks for having my back. Reminds me of our incident at Fort Ord.  I will ALWAYS be your friend.

Paul, I never have, never will and will not stand for anyone else saying anything that would put down our veterans.  Anyone and I mean Anyone fighting for our country deserves our respect.  

Let's all speak about our experienced in the past 30 years with dignity and respect for all our classmates.

Hope to see you at the 50th

Judd Kilimnik

It has been a long time since Vietnam and I am sorry some still have unresolved issues. I spent 12 years in the Marines and lost many good friends in that war but I understand the many feelings held by those who served and those who were against that war. Our veterans deserve respect and support in their efforts to adjust after service. My Dad was in Army Air Corps in WWII flying bomber in ETO. The memories of that affected him for the rest of his life. But he moved on and provided for his family. We all need to do our best to live on and only not forget those we lost. At least today's veterans have received a better reception than we did coming home!

Joe Silver (Silver)

In 1999 my ex  wife and I visited the Vietnam Memorial in DC, I was spat upon, just like i was in 1969 when I ETS out of the Army . In downtown Seattle with five other Vets, we were spat upon.  I feel Vietnam era Vets still dont get much respect for the time served in a much  unpopular war.  When someone thanks me Now for the time served I cannot even say thanks.  It was the worst time of my life.  My adult children have a hard time believing that anything like that happened in the good Old USA. I will never wave an Americaqn flag EVER.

Michael Baugh

Modie, I will always consider you one of the best friends I've ever had in my life.  And yes, I still laugh about and tell the Fort Ord story to people.  I also remember the bear incident in the Smokey Mountains. 

Joe, I also had an physical incident at LAX the day I got back from Viet Nam, just because I had been there.  That's not counting being on riot control in Washington DC and Miami and the rioters we had to put up with, but, I am very proud of my service, and for the most part my country and I will continue to fly the American Flag on holidays, special days and days I just feel like it.  She may not be perfect, but she's the best I've seen, and I have been all around the world.

Laurie De Vault

I must say that I am very impressed by the compassionate and respectful responses to Paul's posting that carries so much rage and pain. I wasn't sure how to respond to the "gooks" and other language, and even wondered if it was satire. I found it disturbing and wondered what the responses would be. Class acts, everyone. 

By the way, I was spat on for protesting the war. My brother moved to Canada and is still there. I'm so glad he left and is still in this life. Like all of you, I lost dear friends who should still be with us as well. One of my mom's closest friends grieved for the loss of her son for over forty years until she herself passed away.

A sad and shameful part of our history, the Vietnamn War. But WWll had so many victims as well. My mom lost dear friends and many who survived still suffered terrible emotional scars. And wars continue to this day. I do feel soldiers and vets are getting more respect now, although the lack of adequate support for their mental and physical injuries is a disgrace.

Thank you all for your postings.

Barry Chisholm

Hi Everyone,

I agree, recent posts have been heartening.

Paul, thank you for sparking a conversation that needed to take place.   I usually don’t talk much about my service time, but since you invited vets to share their thoughts, I accept your invitation.

I missed Vietnam but later on served in two separate combat zones and then became a member-for-life of the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States, in part to honor the memory of my dad, who was a WWII veteran.  My stories about active duty are boring….I was lucky and came back in one piece….but I would encourage anyone to talk with a veteran who suffered lasting physical and/or mental disabilities because of their selfless service.  So many have incredible stories of courage to tell….if they want to…for many, their memories are too painful.

Because of what is called a “service related” foot condition, I have been seeing the World’s Most Amazing Podiatrist at a VA Medical Center over in Vermont for the past 14 years or so.   Because of Dr. Joe Duggan’s care and surgical skills, I can walk and run even at this advanced age.   Yes, I’m lucky….but when I enter that VA facility and walk past other veterans, many of whom are wheelchair-bound, and who will never, ever have foot problems,  I’m constantly reminded about how blessed I really am.  My heart goes out to those who continue to suffer the ravages of combat long after the guns were silenced.

Here’s one perspective that I think of every once in a while:  Gotta hand it to those car designers.   Yes, they put a rear-view mirror in our cars so we can occasionally see what’s behind us, but it’s kinda small.  Those designers really have their act together….they put in a windshield that’s much bigger than the mirror because somehow they knew we should be more focused on the road ahead.

I hope all of us and our friends and family members can have rewarding, fulfilling lives on that road ahead.

Have a great day, and Paul, thanks for your service.  

Clay Werts

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD     AFTERNOON   EVERYBODY !

We would like to thank the following people for making a donation to the

"P.H.S. class of 1968".

1) Barry Chisholm   "In memory of Dennis McCurdy"   $ 200.00

2) Loretta (Parkard) Luskin                                           $ 250.00

3) Ernie Posey                                                              $ 100.00

4) Philip Denslow                                                          $ 100.00

We would like to encourage all of you to make a donation to the 50th reunion. You can do so by clicking onto the "Make a Donation" at the column on the left of this page. We hope to make the 50 reunion the biggest and best ever. As you know, things are expensive and it is going to require that we raise a great deal of money if we are going to accomplish our goals. In return for your donation we promise to you that your money will be used wisely and for the good of all. Thanks again to all that have stepped up and helped so far. You can mail your check to ;

P.H.S. Class of 1968

2212 Paseo Ct.

Las Vegas NV, 89117-2758

Clay Werts  ( My legal name)

Rita Vitale (Weir)

Don't know how many of you classmates out there knew Val Landi, but I just received information that Val passed away Dec. 24, 2011.  I don't know the circumstances of his death but wanted to pass that on to anyone who knew him. 

I met Val in 7th grade at Marshall and have found memories of him.  We hung out together all the way through high school, but lost touch after we graduated.  He was such a great guy!  Sorry to hear of his passing.

Sheryl Dines (Dickson)

Cthank you for letting us know.

I always liked Val, RIP our friend