Monday, May 12, 2008
Top of the Hill ( Really )
On the front end of 40 Years ago , it seemed like life would take forever. On the back end of 40 years later , 1969 seems as if it were yesterday. As a youngster, the summer days were like weeks . The weeks were like months . The months were like years until September hit and we didn't want the summer to end . Remember strikeouts at Edgewood park or whiffleball at the War Memorial Rec Center ??? Bike rides to Thornton Beach by ourselves, or when Harvey C. took some of us to the top of Radio Mtn. Road to ride the twisty turns back down Guadalupe Canyon Rd . Do you remember hikes to Indian Head when the Guadalupe Canyon Rd wasn't even built yet ?
I mention this passage of time because I know if I felt this way , others had to have had the same feelings .
39 years ago, who would have thought that Alumni of the OLPH Class of 1969 would spread out to all ends of the United States . E-mails are coming in from Chico and Cottonwood , Calif. ... Southern Ca. is well represented and San Diego too.... San Angelo, Texas and Rhode Island .
Who's in Rhode Island you might ask ? Click on the Classmate blog list with the heading The Three Bucketeers and be surprised. I won't spoil it for this person but we've shared some humorous stories that will keep us chuckling for years to come . One story that comes to mind is when Jeff M. , ( our mystery classmate ) and I ditched school ( Riordan High in S.F.) and went to the San Francisco Zoo. We visited the Llama exhibit and the Llamas proceeded to spit on us. Let me tell you that Llama spit is one of the foulest smells on this planet and it is payback for ditching classes( at least in my mind ) . Our mystery classmate does remember the incident but he doesn't remember ditching school. Dear Mystery classmate . That happened 35 years ago and I think we are in the clear . I don't believe our Riordan High School Diplomas will be revoked .
If you are reading this , you've probably google mapped the Top of the Hill to view the old neighborhoods . I will include some close up pics in the next day or two which brings me to another question . Why would anybody paint their house Alhambra Water Truck ( Sparkletts Water for you So Cal Alumni ) bright green???? . My buddy Paul G. grew up on Winchester , two blocks from OLPH and the house next to his mom's house is BRIGHT GREEN . Now I apologize if any of you have a bright green house but ,come on now . Does the question What were you thinking come to mind ?...................Ooooops , I just fell off of the soapbox, sorry for the rant .
Talk to you soon,
Rick
I mention this passage of time because I know if I felt this way , others had to have had the same feelings .
39 years ago, who would have thought that Alumni of the OLPH Class of 1969 would spread out to all ends of the United States . E-mails are coming in from Chico and Cottonwood , Calif. ... Southern Ca. is well represented and San Diego too.... San Angelo, Texas and Rhode Island .
Who's in Rhode Island you might ask ? Click on the Classmate blog list with the heading The Three Bucketeers and be surprised. I won't spoil it for this person but we've shared some humorous stories that will keep us chuckling for years to come . One story that comes to mind is when Jeff M. , ( our mystery classmate ) and I ditched school ( Riordan High in S.F.) and went to the San Francisco Zoo. We visited the Llama exhibit and the Llamas proceeded to spit on us. Let me tell you that Llama spit is one of the foulest smells on this planet and it is payback for ditching classes( at least in my mind ) . Our mystery classmate does remember the incident but he doesn't remember ditching school. Dear Mystery classmate . That happened 35 years ago and I think we are in the clear . I don't believe our Riordan High School Diplomas will be revoked .
If you are reading this , you've probably google mapped the Top of the Hill to view the old neighborhoods . I will include some close up pics in the next day or two which brings me to another question . Why would anybody paint their house Alhambra Water Truck ( Sparkletts Water for you So Cal Alumni ) bright green???? . My buddy Paul G. grew up on Winchester , two blocks from OLPH and the house next to his mom's house is BRIGHT GREEN . Now I apologize if any of you have a bright green house but ,come on now . Does the question What were you thinking come to mind ?...................Ooooops , I just fell off of the soapbox, sorry for the rant .
Talk to you soon,
Rick
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Happy Mother's Day
Have you ever tried to come back to a place after 22 years ? I did. I expect that when others come back here for our reunion next year they will be surprised , pleasantly or otherwise. My sister Karen was gracious enough to make reservations at a restaurant two minutes from the Daly City BART. I hadn't heard of THE BOULEVARD CAFE Restaurant and sis had said it was the old Lyons location . What !!! You mean the Lyons is gone , the place where one ... use to go at 1 or 2 in the AM....after a night out. Yep she said and sent me the link to preview the food menu ....here's the link
http://www.theboulevardcafe.com/
Now I have to tell you, after this mornings Mother's Day breakfast get together with 11 family members , I have just voted this the new go to place for my 1 or 2 in the AM outings after a late night out . ( I actually better check the time schedule here and make sure they do the wee in the morning hour food fest . ) I found the food and service very much to my liking . Two thumbs up in my book and Mom, I hope your day was Special .
*** Just spoke with a Hostess and was informed that they close at 10 PM but are open until 11 PM on Fridays and Saturdays ........Back to the drawing board for a wee morning food joint ......Maybe the owners will reconsider...MMMmmm ???
This is a shout out to all the OLPH class of 1969 Moms, Hope your day was a Blessed day.
Mom stopped by the house later in the day to pick up her golf clubs ( Yes, she just recently celebrated the 28th anniversary of her 50th birthday and she still golfs every Monday ....You go girl !!! } and I had to show her the new blog sight . Her comment was ..." nice, did you know you misspelled received ? " and she proceeded to correct my spelling on the screen . I had to explain to her that her gesture was appreciated but she couldn't actually edit anything she saw on the screen , otherwise what a mess the internet would be with on screen editing . As a mother , she didn't want anyone that read the blog to think she had raised an illiterate son . Thanks Mom... ( I should've spell checked )
So much to share .....I hope everybody called their mom today....
Talk to you soon
http://www.theboulevardcafe.com/
Now I have to tell you, after this mornings Mother's Day breakfast get together with 11 family members , I have just voted this the new go to place for my 1 or 2 in the AM outings after a late night out . ( I actually better check the time schedule here and make sure they do the wee in the morning hour food fest . ) I found the food and service very much to my liking . Two thumbs up in my book and Mom, I hope your day was Special .
*** Just spoke with a Hostess and was informed that they close at 10 PM but are open until 11 PM on Fridays and Saturdays ........Back to the drawing board for a wee morning food joint ......Maybe the owners will reconsider...MMMmmm ???
This is a shout out to all the OLPH class of 1969 Moms, Hope your day was a Blessed day.
Mom stopped by the house later in the day to pick up her golf clubs ( Yes, she just recently celebrated the 28th anniversary of her 50th birthday and she still golfs every Monday ....You go girl !!! } and I had to show her the new blog sight . Her comment was ..." nice, did you know you misspelled received ? " and she proceeded to correct my spelling on the screen . I had to explain to her that her gesture was appreciated but she couldn't actually edit anything she saw on the screen , otherwise what a mess the internet would be with on screen editing . As a mother , she didn't want anyone that read the blog to think she had raised an illiterate son . Thanks Mom... ( I should've spell checked )
So much to share .....I hope everybody called their mom today....
Talk to you soon
( I just noticed the map visitor location isn't in the right place .....intructions , instructions . Where did I place those instructions ?? )
Friday, May 9, 2008
The First Step is the Toughest
For many of us it started in 1955, for a few, it was 1954, but in just a few short years our paths would cross in this thing that we call LIFE. From 1961-1969 we would share good times and the bad . We would learn things that proved useful later on in our lives , and some of the things we learned just stayed up there in our head never to be used ( never ever !!! ). Our eyes saw things that we thought were awesome and we kept these in our hearts as cherished memories. Sadly we saw things that were tragic and we wished we could erase them from our minds .
While living through these shared times we thought it would never end . For some of us it did. Some of us never saw our 20TH Birthday, or 30th , 40th or the golden age of 50.
That's the reason why I am writing today. For those of us that did make to our 51st, 52nd and soon to be 53rd birthdays, we will also be celebrating another milestone and that would be our 40th year Reunion of our OLPH graduating class of 1969. As Twila F. recounts " Excited , Yes (okay maybe not so excited that I am old enough to have a 40 year reunion of anything ) "
The sentiment has been shared by those who I've been in contact with and many can't wait to see each other after all these years .
I want to take the time to thank Nisa V. because it was in an e-mail to me last year ( 2007 ) that planted the seed when she asked "why don't we have a class re-union ? "........MMMMMMMmmmmmmmm ???? Why not . When Denise D. sent me a note last year ( also in 2007 ) I knew it was time to get this party started. I did contact Ed Mahoney who is the Development Director at OLPH ( He also helps with the Alumni contacts ). He gave some advice , a list of 12 contacts and we hit the street running.
We have broken our class contact list into three categories
1 . Those who have graduated with the Class of 1969
2. Those who attended some of the years but relocated and transferred out
3. Those that didn't attend OLPH but were very involved in our Sports
Programs
Our goal was to have at least 2 positive responses a week and to date we have surpassed our estimates . Our respondents so far include............
Week 1 : Nisa V , Denise D
Week 2 : Patti S , Twila F. , Donna A,( she's a category 2 ) Cathy V.
Paul G ( he's a category 3 )
Week 3 : Brendan R, John S. , Rick S., Dan C ( he's a category 3 )
and we've ended the week with a note from Wayne B. all the way from
San Angelo , Texas
I'm excited for all of us . I've been receiving e-mail notes and pictures as I write, and I will share some of the words of encouragement and pictures that I've received that I'm sure will bring smiles to your faces . Please stay in touch by leaving a comment or dropping a note to Nisa or myself.
Thanks for allowing me to share ,
Rick Pacheco
Class President
OLPH Class of 1969
While living through these shared times we thought it would never end . For some of us it did. Some of us never saw our 20TH Birthday, or 30th , 40th or the golden age of 50.
That's the reason why I am writing today. For those of us that did make to our 51st, 52nd and soon to be 53rd birthdays, we will also be celebrating another milestone and that would be our 40th year Reunion of our OLPH graduating class of 1969. As Twila F. recounts " Excited , Yes (okay maybe not so excited that I am old enough to have a 40 year reunion of anything ) "
The sentiment has been shared by those who I've been in contact with and many can't wait to see each other after all these years .
I want to take the time to thank Nisa V. because it was in an e-mail to me last year ( 2007 ) that planted the seed when she asked "why don't we have a class re-union ? "........MMMMMMMmmmmmmmm ???? Why not . When Denise D. sent me a note last year ( also in 2007 ) I knew it was time to get this party started. I did contact Ed Mahoney who is the Development Director at OLPH ( He also helps with the Alumni contacts ). He gave some advice , a list of 12 contacts and we hit the street running.
We have broken our class contact list into three categories
1 . Those who have graduated with the Class of 1969
2. Those who attended some of the years but relocated and transferred out
3. Those that didn't attend OLPH but were very involved in our Sports
Programs
Our goal was to have at least 2 positive responses a week and to date we have surpassed our estimates . Our respondents so far include............
Week 1 : Nisa V , Denise D
Week 2 : Patti S , Twila F. , Donna A,( she's a category 2 ) Cathy V.
Paul G ( he's a category 3 )
Week 3 : Brendan R, John S. , Rick S., Dan C ( he's a category 3 )
and we've ended the week with a note from Wayne B. all the way from
San Angelo , Texas
I'm excited for all of us . I've been receiving e-mail notes and pictures as I write, and I will share some of the words of encouragement and pictures that I've received that I'm sure will bring smiles to your faces . Please stay in touch by leaving a comment or dropping a note to Nisa or myself.
Thanks for allowing me to share ,
Rick Pacheco
Class President
OLPH Class of 1969
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