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Michael Coates

Thanks for the heads-up, Nancy. And thanks, too, to Janet Bettencourt for giving me some information on Nina Beijer.

Loretta Packard (Luskin)

Janet,

I too fondly remember the Toy Loan in Sierra Madre park. It was really special. I remember a doll house I believe!  And I remember the bulding being in the middle of the park. How wonderful that your mom started it and that she is still remembered! They also had egg hunts there as I recall. I remember an older child snatching a "golden" egg out of my hand to win a special prize. I have such fond memories of growing up in Sierra Madre. Hiking the mountains to our family cabin in Big Santa Anita Canyon below Chantry flats. That cabin unfortunately burned down during one of the fires I think in the 1960s.

My dad owned a fish market near the corner of Sierra Madre Blvd and Baldwin across from Kersting Court and next to Happy's Liquor Store. He did a great business there as Sierra Madre was such a Catholic community. Sadly, once the Pope said it wasn't a sin for Catholics if they didn't eat fish on Fridays, he slowly went out of business. It was ok. They retired from smoggy Sierra Madre to Balboa Island. A very good thing.

 My husband and children ,when they where young, had a family tradition of hiking the Canyon between Christmas and New Years every year. Made mom (me) very happy to share the mountains with them. Especially as we live on the water in Naples. We still go hiking there when they're in town for the holidays.

Sierra Madre still holds a very special place in my heart.

Janet Bettencourt (Owens)

I don't want to seem like I am taking full credit for my mom starting the toy loan in Sierra Madre by herself. She was very active in the Sierra Madre Civic Club and I think the club probably started it as a group. Sorry if I gave that impression at first.

Margo Feinstein (Connolly)

Dear California-Resident Bulldogs,

Tragically, I lost a sister to non-smoker lung cancer—likely from secondhand smoke. She really suffered physically; nobody deserves that.  Many of you have also lost friends and relatives to terrible tobacco-related diseases over the years.

 I volunteer many long hours to fight cancer. Today, I ask a few minutes of your time to read the following, and then I ask California residents to please email your California State Senator and Assemblymember, asking them to VOTE “YES” on 7 pending, life-saving tobacco-related bills.

Many state legislators accept campaign contributions and “gifts” from Tobacco (over $60 million in past five years!), so we must be persistent.

 SAVE LIVES CALIFORNIA, a coalition of American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, American Heart Assn., American Lung Assn., state medical and dental associations, and many, many individuals are lobbying our state assemblymembers and senators to pass these tobacco-related bills in the current EXTRAORDINARY session.  The final votes will take place this week.  It would be most effective if you could please contact your district legislators today!!

http://www.savelivescalifornia.com/

My letter asking for voters to contact their reps regarding the $2/pack cigarette tax that could save so  many lives and the general pool of taxpayers billions in Medi-Cal bills over time appears in today’s Contra Costa Times (scroll down to see letter):

http://www.contracostatimes.com/opinion/ci_28758269/sept-7-letters-to-the-editor

Here are summaries of the other endorsed bills:

Notes:  The names in parentheses are the legislative authors.  SB is a Senate bill. AB is an Assembly bill.  If you want a voice, please email your legislators via their websites NOW. Thanks for caring!

Talking Point for Each Bill

SBX2-5 (Leno) / ABX2-6 (Cooper), which would add electronic cigarettes to the existing definition of tobacco products;

This bill is critical to keep kids from getting addicted to nicotine and to prevent the public from inhaling harmful second hand e-cigarette aerosol

SBX2-6 (Monning) / ABX2-7 (Stone), which would add hotel lobbies, small businesses, break rooms and tobacco retailers to the list of smoke-free workplaces under state law;

Californians deserve to breathe smoke-free air at work and should not have to choose between a good job and good health. California passed the first smoke-free workplace law in the nation twenty years ago. But since then, 24 states have passed stronger laws and the CDC no longer considers California a smoke-free state. It is time to update our law and remove its loopholes.

SBX2-7 (Hernandez) / ABX2-8 (Wood), which would increase the minimum age for purchasing tobacco products to 21 years old;

The Institute of Medicine reports that implementation of this policy nationwide would result in a 12% reduction in smoking prevalence.

SBX2-8 (Liu) / ABX2-9 (Thurmond), which would require all schools in the state to be tobacco-free – including e-cigarettes;

Our children should not be exposed to tobacco use in their place of learning. Currently only school districts that receive state funding for tobacco education are required to have tobacco free campuses. This means that almost half our schools are not tobacco free. All schools should be completely free of tobacco – including e-cigarettes.

SBX2-9 (McGuire) / ABX2-10 (Bloom), which would allow local jurisdictions across the state to place a tobacco tax proposal before the voters

Local cities and counties throughout the nation tax tobacco. In fact, there are more than 600 localities that raise more than $430 million nationwide through local tobacco taxes. Unfortunately, in California, state law currently prohibits local tobacco taxes. Citizens in our 58 counties should be able to decide for themselves whether or not to tax tobacco.

SBX2-10 (Beall) / ABX2-11 (Nazarian), which would revise the state tobacco licensing fee program so that fees pay for the program and no longer raid tobacco control funds. The existing tobacco fees on retailers and distributors do not generate enough revenue to pay for the costs of administering and enforcing tobacco sales laws. To make up the deficit, that state has been raiding tobacco tax revenue that pays for critical tobacco prevention and education programs. This bill would raise the licensing fees high enough to pay for the cost of the program and avoid diversion of tobacco tax funds (Proposition 99 and Proposition 10) intended for other purposes.

Tobacco Tax:

• An increase in the tobacco tax of  $2/pack of cigarettes would save lives—please see letter-to-the editor in CCTimes in above link for more facts

Below is a link to find your California District Senator and Assemblymember.  Once you see the name, click on the link, and then look on the legislator’s website for email link. Make sure you fill in your address to indicate that you are a constituent.  You can probably email them both in five minutes, and your voice may help to save thousands of lives and billions of taxpayer dollars.  These really do get read and tallied!

Also—if you have healthcare industry credentials, or if you are a veteran, please mention that in your email, as this has an impact.

http://findyourrep.legislature.ca.gov/

Thank you ahead for your attention to this very urgent task!

Sharing this request for action with others on social media or other Californians who care ASAP would help our cause.

Sorry this was so long! It is so important!

Margo (Feinstein) Connolly 

Barry Chisholm

Margo Feinstein Connolly, best wishes on the Save Lives California campaign.    The very notion that just about all of us know someone who has succumbed to a tobacco-related disease speaks volumes about the significance of this effort.

As part of my high school teaching experience, I gave anti-drug presentations in health classes for a while.   I included nicotine in my list of drugs to steer clear of.   My own experience, after smoking for about 7 years in my 20s, was that I never could have imagined what a physical/psychological hold nicotine could have.   Quitting was one of the hardest things I've ever done.  But I realized around age 28 that if I was to have an active lifestyle the cigarettes had to go. 

Wow incredible that it's still OK to smoke in hotel lobbies in CA?......can't do that here in New Hampshire.

Barry Chisholm

Janet Bettencourt Owens, no worries, I read your original post about the Toy Loan, and didn't get that impression at all.  

I don't remember using the Toy Loan....but given that I was a frequent flyer at the Sierra Madre Public Library, I probably saw it!

Clay Werts

PLEASE Do Not use the P.H.S. web site to promote causes.

Pamela Melvin (Mandel)

To Paul Adler, and other Francophiles --

For many years I was seeking a residence in the South of France.  I particularly like the Var, and sought out abodes in Claviers and Fayence.  Alas, I am able to have only one home, and it's difficult to become a permanent expat.  While I've lived abroad for much of my career, it's stabilizing to have a home in the States.  I guess I should start buying lottery tickets!?!  Where are you thinking of settling?

In any case, I wish you well in your adventure!  Let us know where you find your mas, and we will vicariously enjoy the good life in France.

                                          Pam

James Gruber

Why not Montreal as a sort of compromise for you francophones.  I moved here in 1978 and still love it.  My life is half french, just like the city.  I originally came because of a nice job, training in pulmonary medicine, and partly because they had a national league baseball team (expos); ended up falling in love with the city and my wife, and still love them both....Too bad about the expos though, although the Blue Jays are something this year, and their announcer Jerry Howarth is a dead ringer for Vin Scully.

Michael Coates

Clay, let's not take political correctness to absurd levels. Margo is a legitimate member of the PHS community, and she made a reasonable request for consideration of a health-related cause. I fully back her efforts. We're all (allegedly) adults, and we should be able to decide for ourselves whether such a request merits our support.  I didn't want to be told how to think in 1968, and I don't need to be protected by the thought police in 2015. This website can have some greater good than just serving as a place to post cloying recollections.

Laurie De Vault

To Michael... well said.

To Pam and Paul... our classmate Ron Piller is married to a French woman and lives there part time. Perhaps he can also weigh in?

Laurie

Modie (Martin) Katz

To All,  As the site administration has deamed our PHS Reunion site to be political, religious, and social issues neutral 

I would hope we can do that and continue connecting and reconnecting with our fellow classmates. That is what we all want out of this web site so let's keep it moving in that direction 

We only have 350 or so members out of 1,200 classmates registered.  Let's find the rest of them and get them to join.

Have fun and see you at the 50th

Christopher Bragdon

To Mr. Coates, couldn't say it better!  Hit the nail right on the head.  Back in '68 we were on the verge of the "PC" movement and I truely believe we sensed it coming and fought tooth and nail to fight against it.  No need to see where this has lead us!  Just a way to kill the first amendment of our constitution.  But I also agree with Clay, we should have some control, otherwise the forum would collapse with the weight of special interest causes.

Barbara Bell (Dwyer)

We seem to have several Francophiles in our class, myself included. Are we all the product of M. Cesar Kersten's French classes?  He is one of the few teachers I remember from PHS, probably because I had him as a teacher for more than one year and also because he was so "unique". Does anyone else remember him?

Michael Coates

No, Modie, neutrality is not what we ALL want out of this site. It should be a forum for all sorts of thoughts from 1968 PHS grads. We don't need the "administration" to determine what might offend our sensibilities. The website already is full of topics and memories that have nothing to do with PHS. Not all of us spent our elementary years in Pasadena, and we don't all share common histories or the same golden memories.There should be room for other members and other subjects too. Or is this website intended to cater only to the cliques that excluded so many students so many years ago?

Michael Coates

I spent my entire news career in defense of free speech and the first amendment. There should be nothing to fear from the free exchange of thoughts in the marketplace of ideas. I would hope all PHS graduates are mature enough to embrace disparate opinions and that this website can be inclusive of everyone.

Stephen Davis

Did anyone faint while standing on the Rose Bowl field at graduation?  It was hot that day and there was much revelry the night before.  I recall one person staggering out of line and going down face first.  Don't know who.

Kenneth (Ken) Marschall

Two snaps taken by my parents (or brother?) at our Rose Bowl graduation, June 14, '68.  The sun is lower than I remembered it, and I hadn't recalled the excessive heat.  If someone passed out, I think I wasn't aware.  What I do remember is being very hungry, my stomach growling and feeling light-headed.  For some reason I hadn't eaten anything since breakfast, I guess. I just remember thinking, WHY didn't I eat something before this?!

Barbara Brandstetter (Ower)

Anne Hassell (Nelson)

I remember deliberately staying last in line to enter with our class, instead of previously standing in the stands with the choir students to sing while all our classmates entered without us. Many of us Madrigal singers snuck in at the end of the procession. We figured we only graduated once, and we wanted to enter with our class. We received a "talking to" at the end of the ceremony because we had messed up the look of all the colors on the field filing into the stands and looking so pretty in their order according to their school color. How many other Madrigals remember that?

Ruth Klein (Gillmore)

Speaking about the Rose Bowl. Pride of Pasadena members, do you remember that FABULOUS feeling while performing during half-time? 

Margaret Hansen (Bruce)

Thanks for posting graduation photos.  I had none and to explain a Rose Bowl graduation really needs photos.  My son's graduation class was a little over 100 with the whole school around 400 9th grade to 12 th grade. What a difference!

Kenneth (Ken) Marschall

For all former students of Rollie Younger's art classes:  I came across these three 8x10 photos, a Xerox and two printouts that Rollie sent me 15 years ago at the time of my 50th birthday.  He shocked me by showing up at the surprise party that was thrown for me.  I was completey blown away; hadn't seen him since our senior year.  (My mom had tracked him down, in Cambria, and invited him.)  I just have to share these, for all of you who took a class or two (or more) with him.

The first one, at top, is his note to me referring to the "commercial art class photos" that he had told me (at the party) he had, along with an example of his unique ceramic pottery:

The three glossy 8x10s have tack holes at their corners, and I wouldn't be surprised if they were pinned up in our classroom for a time.  I told him I was honored that he wanted to gift them to me.  Whom can you recognize?  Is that Bruce "Rosey" Rosenthal slightly turned away from the camera in the top picture?

The shots appear to have all been taken at the same time. I remember the Allied Van Lines assignment!  I think I designed/painted a futuristic truck or monorail with their logo. And then there was the Russian Leather cologne assignment....

That's me, just left of center, reading seriously, apparently.  I'm not exactly certain what year/grade these were taken.  I think 12th.  I vaguely remember one day when photos were snapped in our class, probably for the yearbook, but I don't think these made the cut. 

[Later addendum:  I tried dragging one of these photos to my desktop, hoping that it would be the same full resolution that I uploaded, but alas, no joy.  The images are greatly reduced in size here.  So, if any fellow classmate wants any of these in full res, just drop me a note at TADesigns@aol.com.]

Rollie included these two portraits of himself:

He and I haven't corresponded in some years now, and recent e-mails to him have gone unanswered, but the "eddress" is still good because they didn't bounce.  An April 2012 Google Street View shows that his pottery studio was still active at that time, with a sign at his driveway that says "Visit Cambria Pottery" and an "OPEN" sign visible at the doorway.  So that bodes well.  I'll let you know if I get ahold of him.

Joe Silver (Silver)

Thank you Ruth for memembering our half time performances. the " Pride of Pasadena" band was always very  special for me.  During  the half time playing that damn Tuba, and doing those moves.  Watching the crowd on the east side of the Bowl not move a lick, watching us, you couldnt hear a pin drop, and then at the end the crowd explode . IT was something specal always for me, and the band.

Ruth Klein (Gillmore)

Joe, I was remembering the Pride of Pasadena drill team. Talk about precision. The band was amazing as well.