MARY-LOU SWEZEY '66

Graduated class of '66 at Randolph High. Went on to attend the University of Hawaii, but lasted only a few weeks as I met my husband to be the second day after I arrived in Hawaii in June. We were married in February of '67 in Michigan (I was too young for Ohio). Five pregnancies from eighteen to twenty-three and three beautiful children. We will celebrate our 43rd anniversary this February! Worked for the Erie County Clerk of Courts for almost nineteen years (fifteen as supervisor of the Erie County Auto Title Department). Had to retire ten years ago with a medical retirement and have just been taking it one day at a time since. That's my life since graduation in a nutshell. Hope I didn't bore anyone.

Mary-Lou Swezey DeWitt

mlouinoh@aol.com

JERRY BALL '65

Gloria,

I got to travel with my sister Janet (RHS, '67) to Fort Benning, GA this month to give the oath of office to Jan's daughter Lori Montgomery as Lori graduated from Officer Candidate School. I also swore Lori into the Army in 2003 when she enlisted so this was a special treat to be asked to participate again.

This picture was taken right after I administered the oath next to the flagpole. I was signing the paperwork while now-2Lt Montgomery beamed in the background.

I am so proud of her - and all the men and women who wear "the Nation's cloth."

Jerry '65

THE BEACH BOYS KOKOMO REMIX

This is very well done ... The Beach Boys Kokomo Remix

This is what happens when you have U.S. soldiers and Marines with a little free time on their hands with audio-video equipment with a great sense of humor. You just gotta' LOVE our young servicemen working in those horrid conditions and still have this GREAT sense of humor ! Turn on sound click on attachments and enjoy.... SUPPORT OUR TROOPS
Submitted by Carol Turnipseed Haberle '64

WOODSTOCK STORY

I don't know if this is true or not - but it could have been. DID ANYBODY HERE GO TO WOODSTOCK? - I know I didn't because I was having a baby. I guess I could have had her there at Woodstock but instead I opted for San Antonio. Read on ~~~ Peace

To Be Old and in Woodstock

By GAIL COLLINS
http://www.nytimes.com/ref/opinion/collins-bio.html


Forty years ago this weekend, I was at the Woodstock concert, and now I am getting alarmed about all the retrospectives. They’re beginning to make me feel like Frank Buckles, the 108-year-old last surviving veteran of World War I. Although I will never come up with a line as good as Frank’s secret to a long life. (“When you start to die, don’t.”)

Also, it has brought back my concern about the fact that I do not have any memory whatsoever of having heard any music. Woodstock-wise, I am the walking definition of anhedonia.

I spent a lot of time trying to talk a state policeman into helping me charge the battery on the car I had borrowed from my boyfriend. And, having left the picnic basket behind on the front porch, I was in charge of finding food for myself, my brother and the six friends who came with us. This took a great deal of time, and involved making my way to a little town down the road, where the store shelves had been stripped nearly bare and the people seemed to feel as if they were living out an episode of “The Twilight Zone.”

Fortunately, it turned out that eight people could live on peanut butter and marshmallow fluff for much longer than you might imagine.

But it was still a great adventure. The lesson I took away from it is that whenever anybody asks you to do something off the wall, you should really try to do it — unless it involves being unethical or a two-plane connection. You might not enjoy it while it’s going on, but somewhere down the line the anecdotes will always come in handy.

When I was actually at Woodstock, it never occurred to me anybody was going to want to discuss it 40 years down the road. In fact, the only time I envisioned the concert having any impact on my future was on the way home when I decided all of us were going to die in a massive traffic jam.

It was already dark when a girl walked up to my car — which was easy to approach, since we hadn’t moved for several hours — and said something like: “All the people ahead are going to sleep, so you might as well just settle down for the night.”

Then she gave me a flower and walked away. This was a sweet gesture, but I was so overwhelmed by the wish that the flower was, say, a saltine cracker, that I didn’t really respond.

As the hours slowly ticked by, I decided that the cars were never going to move again — and that months later rescuers would find our desiccated bodies, some collapsed behind the wheel, others slumped over the glove compartment where they expired while searching for a stray cough drop.

I fantasized that this mass tragedy would cause all the people over 30 to regret the terrible way that they had ignored the wise advice that the younger generation had been offering on how to run the world. Then the much-discussed revolution would finally occur, the world would achieve peace and harmony and we would be remembered as the Woodstock Martyrs who made it all happen.

Or, you know, we might just decide to get out of the cars and walk.

The Woodstock-mania must drive young people crazy since it is yet another reminder that the baby-boom generation is never going to stop talking about the stuff it did, and that when they are old themselves there will probably still be some 108-year-old telling them how everybody slept in the mud but that it was worth it because Janis Joplin sounded so awesome and the people were all mellow.

Current younger generation, I know you would be equally good-natured if you found yourself stranded in the middle of nowhere, cut off from the world with 400,000 other people and a bunch of bands. But it will never happen because although you will have many, many fine adventures of your own, you will never be cut off.

My sister-in-law Laura just got back from the Lollapalooza concert in Chicago, which was the exact opposite of Woodstock in the sense that it was an extremely pleasant way for a middle-aged person to spend a weekend.

The thing that struck her most — besides the misting tents, the lobster corndogs and the truffled popcorn — was that “at any point you could look around and 50 percent of the people were texting or reading a text. Which is fine for keeping in touch, but I wonder how truly involved you can get with the music.”

As the person who went to Woodstock and didn’t see the concert, I can’t really comment on that last point. But 40 years ago, I knew eight people who would have killed for that lobster corndog.

FOR AIRPLANE LOVERS

The airplanes in the attached video are all airplanes like the one I just built & fly. I watched this as it was taking place over Oshkosh Air Adventure 2009. It makes me very proud that I could build & fly and airplane of this caliber.

Chuck Elsey, 67'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWIMXXXRYro

ROBERT ('65) and JAN DEMOTTA

August 12, 2009
Hi, Gloria,

Took a little trip to Colorado to get away from the Texas heat. We drank a couple glasses of wine and decided to go to the top of the mountain on horse back for dinner even though we don't ride! At the end of the night we thought we were Roy Rogers and Dale Evans!

Small world! As we were leaving the Denver airport we ran into Bill B. and Mike W.! Should have taken pics but were trying to catch the plane!

Jan and Robert DeMotta ('65)

LIEBERMAN, BOWERMAN and BUEKER

John Lieberman came to visit his mom and dad in San Antonio and asked me to facilitate a lunch for him and try to find a few of his friends.... voila! (the only French I know after two years of French). Lunch at Macaroni Grille in Selma.

These guys hadn't seen each other in 42 years! First we found Jeff Bowerman who had been hiding in Schertz all these years. Jeff '66 married Jan Bueker '67 forty years ago. Jeff enlisted in the Air Force right after graduating high school. He eventually became an air traffic controller and was actually stationed at Randolph for 7 years. Jeff was medically discharged after 22 years. Jan (a nurse who works at the VA Hospital in San Antonio in the spinal cord injury ward) and Jeff have 2 sons and 6 grandchildren. Through Jeff and Jan we found Jan's brother, Bob Bueker '66 and his wife Terese (a retired oil and gas analyst) who have also been married 40 years. Bob graduated from Texas A&M as an architect and is semi retired. Bob and Terese live in Houston, have one daughter and 3 grandsons. We spent 2 hours catching up and taking pictures. Many thanks to Kathy and Linda for being there ... and for being very dear friends and thanks to John for notifying me of his trip here from Shreveport, La where he resides. (Click on these pictures to see emails for Bob, Jeff and John).

WOW! What a great gathering. I can't thank you enough, Gloria, for helping to put this together. It was the first time I'd seen Jeff since our mini-reunion at the Officers' Club back in '85 and the first time I'd seen Bob and Jan since Graduation in '66. It was great to see you and Kathy and Linda again, too, after our big gathering in New Braunfels last September. I'm hoping to make it home again somewhere around Thanksgiving. I'll let you know as plans come together. Maybe we can do it again -- with a few more additions! 8<{)John Lieberman

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

John,

I am elated to have made contact with a few of my fellow Ro-Hawks and begin to reconstruct some of the past, the memories of which I have misplaced somewhere in my addled brain. I have little capacity to recall past events by my own efforts, but the recall of others seems to stimulate my ability to recall those specific areas of loss. In a way it's a little funny - I didn't lose any limbs or organs in the wreck, but I did lose portions of my memory.

I am looking forward to the next get together and will stay in touch.

Bob Bueker

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DAILY QUESTIONS ON AGING CARE

http://www.agingcare.com/?utm_source=DailyQuestions&utm_medium=Email&utm_term=July+31%2c+2009&utm_campaign=DailyQuestions%2B-%2BJuly+31%2c+2009

This link has helped me a great deal on caring for and understanding my parents as they've aged.

Gloria

JUKEBOX MUSIC FROM THE PAST

http://www.upchucky.com/

Check out this web site - some cool things - Especially the Jukebox.... music for any era. Enjoy!!!