Ground Rules

(By posting in this forum, you acknowledge that you have read and will abide by these rules.)

Forums work when people participate - so don't be bashful.  But be respectful.  The administrators reserve the right to refuse service to anyone.  Access and participation on this forum is not a right, it is a privilege and abuse may result in suspension or revocation of WHS60s site access at any time.  

 Posting involving politics or religion are prohibited as they typically and quickly become offensive/demeaning.    

We don't actively monitor the forum, but respond to complaints and take action as deemed appropriate.

V/R, Co-site Administrators Joan Lucchesi ('60) and Gary Wegener ('66)

Click the "Post Message" button to add your entry to the forum

(you always have the option to edit or delete your post). 

JoAnn Kergel (Wirth) (1965)

Interesting Tim!  Wash it well.

Janice Bell (Killian) (1966)

Hi, all.  The Woodland Chamber Singers returned from New York City on Wednesday, March 19.  We had a fabulous trip and a wonderful response at Carnegie Hall.  There were two high school choirs that had won multiple awards over the years, as well as the Cal Poly Polyphonic Choir and the Arab Music Ensemble from Cal Poly.  We were privileged to hear the world debut of a choral work composed for one of the high school choirs and the composer attended the concert.

Performing in Carnegie Hall was a dream come true for many of us.  We never would have made it on our own, but through the direction of Lenore Turner-Heinson who pushed us to excellence, and the recommendation of John Abigana, who taught at WHS for many years, we were able to live our dream.  So many of our members were active in music through school programs and developed our talents there.  But after school, it is through community music programs such as WCS that allows to continue enjoying the gift of music and to share it with our community.

If you are interested, you may visit our website woodlandsingers.org or attend our next concert, May 24th and 25th at the Pioneer High School. 

Janice Bell Killian, Secretary

Woodland Chamber Singers Board of Directors

Harriet Shamshoian (Giles) (1964)

I think I remember attending concerts with my Mom.  Did they sing at the Christian Church on College St.?

Or perhaps at Shakespere Club?

On another topic, I received a post card regarding a mini reunion for the Class of 1964 at The Woodland Hotel in September. Since a medical crisis in my family prevented my attending the Big Bash, I am seriously considering attending this one. What about the rest of my classmates?  Any takers?

Harriet Shamshoian Giles

Cheryl Matter (Fowler) (1963)

Oh,yes, Tom I remember the old State Fair Grounds - it was such a beautiful place.....with real grass.   I remember the first year of "Cal Expo" State Fair - the summer of 1969,  I was pregnant with twins, it was so hot and there were no shade trees to sit under and no grass - all concrete!   It was so disappointing - I didn't go back there for many years.

The Almond Festival is still going strong - this year they celebrated thier  99th year.....and my youngest granddaughter, Makayla Shera, was the Almond Queen!

Connie Long (Brace) (1963)

Congratulations to the Woodland Chamber Singers!  What a wonderful asset to the Woodland community.

Theresa Eve (1964)

It was great to read about the Woodland Chamber Singers!  Nice to see Woodland with such an active group in such a positive way.  Good posting.  Yes, the Class of 1964 is having their 50th Class Reunion at the Woodland Hotel this September 20, 2014.  It should be lovely in the historical building we all remember.  It looks so lovely after the reconstruction.  I will be there for sure!!

Janice Bell (Killian) (1966)

Thanks, Robert, for posting concerts, etc.  We are hoping to upload pictures from the New York trip in the near future.

Carol Dunton (Stone) (1968)

Just thought I'd throw in a little history about the Chamber singers.  My father and I were original members of the Wdld Chamber Singers. The original group had two singers on each part, therefore, 8 members. I think some parts took on another singer, cause I recall the altos had 3 singers after a while. They were myself, Lilly Hayes and Carol Dahnke. My dad, Jack Dunton, sang tenor with Dr. Buren Krahling. Pretty sure Dr. Edmondson sang bass with Mr. Page and Mrs. Page (Katherine) was a soprano.  I think Doris Warden was our director, although later Dr. Edmondson took over. It was a nice group and we all loved what we were doing!

Theresa Eve (1964)

Great picture of the singers and I really like the history of when they started.  Can someone list the names of those in your group?  That would be so nice to know.  Great group.

Janice Bell (Killian) (1966)

I joined the Woodland Chamber Singers in 2006.  At that time there were about 35 members and Bob Edmondson was the director.  A year or so later, Tracia Barbieri became the director and stayed for 3 or 4 years.  When Lenore Turner-Heinson took over 4 years ago, the choir almost doubled in size to about 70 singers.  About 50-60 singers when to New York.  I will post those names when I have a little more time.  Nice to read the memories you have.  A couple of years ago we were able to honor Doris Warden at one of our concerts.  She still enjoys the music.

Walter J. "Wally" Summ (1967)

Besides all the wonderful styles of music that Lenore Turner-Heinson is known to teach and conduct, she has yet another side to her arsenal of talents........Rock.   Yes, Lenore came to me to learn such "new standards" as "Smoke On The Water" and other rock and roll numbers.  She was using these songs so that she could instruct her students at the Yocha Dehe school in Brooks............Go go.....Go Lenore go!!!!!!

Tuni Gravink (House) (1964)

I remember the state fair grounds in Sacramento, both the old one and the new one Cal Expo. We spent a lot of time at the old one, and went to several Octoberfests at both.  It was hard to do the state fair at Cal Expo due to cemment all over, and no real shade (trees had not established themselves yet, so we became the shade for each other so to say.

Green Pool yes, and what about Cannon Ball , that rock had been painted red for years. Senior skip days used to be held there till that young man dove in and broke his neck, that ended senior skip there anymore. Does anyone remember some of the guys driving their cars off this small cliff into the creek out by the gravel pitts? I thought they were nuts, and would drive by them in VW and wave at them, as some were stuck and my VW just putted right on past them. It had the hardest working squirrel in that engine. Shooting the rabbits, and some farmers paid a buck a pelt on the nutria that were tearing up their crops off the sloughs and the Sacramento river area. I could not kill them so i did and do target shooting instead.

Were i live in AZ. they have the dark sky provisions law, and i can say we do not turn on our porch lights much at all because the moon lights up so cool, and you can see stars fro miles and miles away. I believe i found the Milky Way again. In the bay area we used to go up on the Skyline and say look at all those diamonds. You could see nothing but city lights from San Francisco to San Jose, and across the bay also for miles and miles, and not break between. Here you can see some lights far away, but mostly stars. Most of us have soft yellow lights with a front that have to point downwards, and to tell you the truth during the summer most of the time that ole moon lights us up pretty naturally, and when the monsoons come, and that lightening you see the cactus, the mountain, and you do not need any lights at all!

I remember the tunnel under the road for the frogs, and many thought that was just silly, of course, the many of us were Woodyville people. But again, farm land is usually conservative, and college towns usually liberal. I used to ride my bike over to Davis and see my cousin, whose dad taught at UCD. Would i do it now? Nope, do not know that town at all now, it is not small like it was then! But then neither is Woodland anymore. We grow up so do the towns, and life goes on. Tuni

Janice Bell (Killian) (1966)

Here are the names of the Woodland Chamber Singers who went to Carnegie Hall.

Sopranos:  Katherine Abele;  JoAnn Anderson;  Ellen Covell;  Mary Elizabeth Danforth;  Gayla Erdman;  Pascale Fabiani;  Hillary Garrett;  Linda Hamer;  Stacie Hitchcock;  Lana Kazakova;  Lola Kraft;  Rebecca Pratt;  Deborah Raven-Lindley;  Mahrokh Shooshtari;  Hazel Stangis;  Farzaneh Tabnak.

Altos:  Janice Arnold;  Louise DeLateur;  Marsha Toy Engstrom;  Debra Lynn Fabiani;  Cathy Fleming;  Marie Gillingham;  Silvia Hillyer;  Paula Joyce;  Janice Killian;  Ruth Miller;  Barbara Mills;  Pat Moore-Pickett;  Lori Olvera;  Sally Rooney;  Mary Sandy;  Joy Schutzman;  Nancy Van Sant;  Karen Velas.

Tenors:  Sean Covell;  John Glenn;  Ryan Gordon;  Steve McWilliams;  Christopher Olvera;  Daniel Reagin, Jr.,;  Jason Wilmot;  Jose Zavala.

Basses:  Lawrence Birch;  Milt Blackman;  Steve Burns;  Matt Franck;  Kenyon Heinson;  Steven Millett;  Stew Patriagnani;  Robert Ramming;  David Yeroshek.

Of course, we could not be such a success without our fabulous accompianist, Lori Jarvi, and Lenore Heinson.  Also, Katie Carlson, who sings with the San Francisco Opera, went to Carnegie as soloist, and Jon Anderson, who now lives in Florida, played French horn for us during a couple of songs.  Steve McWilliams, played a flute solo for one of the songs as well.

Singers range in age from 19 - 80s and have varied backgrounds and interests.  There are no auditions to join, just a desire to participate in singing.  Hope to see many of you at our next concert in May.

Joel Childers (1966)

What's all this talk about stars and moonlight? All there is is a big gray dome above us where the water falls from the sky. Sometimes so much water falls that half a mountain of soil turns to mud and collapses. And sometimes people get caught in the path of that mud. God bless the people of Oso. Now on a happier thought, did any of you fellow 1960s Woodlanders enjoy the food at the Tip Top Cafe (great milk shakes) and the best Mexican food in town at El Charo, which we called Jose's? Both were on East Street. Did you know anyone who bought groceries at the Yolo Grocery on First Street, a block south of Main? Every family I knew was either a Nugget Market family or a Raley's family. Remember when everyone's doctor and dentist worked in the Porter Building? (I still remember going to Dr Blevins and Dr MacInally.) And you C M ; do you remember almost jumping out of Tom Kelly's car on Hwy 113 when Tom was pulling one of his delayed passing stunts? Re-mem-mem Re-mem-mem-mem-ber...

Theresa Eve (1964)

Joel:  Oh, my the name Tom Kelly is so in my mind.  Mother had him in school.  I cannot remember which grade she was teaching, however, it was at Gibson.  Mother had a story every night about the actions of Tom Kelly.  It was always a very wild story!!!  Did Tom eventually grow up?  If you knew my Mother, Gwendolyn Eve,  she could tell a story and have everyone laughing for hours.

Carol Dunton (Stone) (1968)

CHAMBER SINGERS - WHS Alumni

Jack Dunton - Class of '42

Betty Dunton - Class of '46

Carol Dunton Stone - Class of '68

Tim Tucker (1965)

Robert, it was Stephen Colbert that did  the interview with Davis Mayor Julie Partansky. She also wanted  to build the police station out of bales of hay and campaigned for the City of Davis to plant fruit trees wherever possible for the homeless, so  they could  " graze on them for food. " " She lived by her principle of , we should leave the world a better place than when we arrived."  ( Julie Partansky died in 2009 at the age of 61.)

Tim Tucker (1965)

Robert, I also know Google and Wiki.

Tim Tucker (1965)

Robert...Kinda.

Theresa Eve (1964)

FROGS?  I did not realize frogs and toads were such a popular topic.  The only real story I recall about frogs and toads was when Alfred Catalan put frogs into the Woodland Library Book Drop.  Mr. Lacky, Principal at the time, had a long talk with Alfred.  We all thought it was so funny.  Wonder what the librarian did when the Book Drop was opened that morning!  It still remains a funny story.  That was Alfred, always making us laugh at life!!!   Thank you Alfred, I still laugh at you!!

Theresa Eve (1964)

So much for the Wind and the Willows, nice book but Beatrix Potter had a wonderful Toad who went  fishing and had a terrible experience.  I will stay with Beatrix Potter on this one!   

Becky Knight (Tobitt) (1961)

I've been out of the out of the loop for awhile and have a couple (few) observations.

The Elliott Building on the cornor of Second and Main was such a beautiful old building! Bard Martin's dad had his photography studio down stairs where I had my senior picture, along with other "formal studio" pictures taken as I was growing up. Still have most of them.

I think I saw in some of the old photos of Woodland a picture of the Byrnes Hotel. My great-uncle Chris Knight was the manager there, I think in the 20's or 30's. He was the old white haired man on Main Street who used to give children lemon drops in the 40's.

The Girl Scout Cabin was on Grand Avenue just south of Main Street. My Mom, Ida Knight, was our troop leader with Phylis Cooper, mother to JoLinda and Mike. With the exception of me, everyone was from Dingle. Her philosophy was for us to have a good time and not worry about badges. If we earned our badges along with having fun, that was fine too. I know that many girls learned to cook under her supervision.

Loved the picture from Dingle with Mary Davis. She and her sister Betty Cooper were my first cousins; our dad's were brothers.

The Hershey sisters were something else. My Dad used to say that if a field still had trees in the middle of it, it probably belonged to them because if "Pappa" didn't cut them down, they wouldn't! They sort of reminded me of the Baldwin sisters on "The Waltons" without the recipe!

I still mourn the old Ritchie house that was there on Main Street. I know that the family tried to get someone to take it over for a museum or home or even offices but no takers. It was still in pretty good condition at the time. All that beautiful stained and cut glass in the windows, the wrought iron fense and the "animals" in the beautiful front yard - gone. I remember seeing all that clear cut redwood lumber in the ruins. What a loss!

I think that the ice house was part of the Sanitary Dairy over on Lincoln near the train station. We used to pick up blocks of ice to take home and make ice cream.

I donated a number of old Ilexes to the Yolo County Archives, as I am running out of places to store "stuff". They date from the teens and 20's.

I loved the old State Fair grounds on Stockton Blvd.! My Mom took me there for the first time about 1948. I had my picture taken on one of the big golden bears. We stayed for the fireworks that night because I think that it was one of the first times that they were used after WWII. I was all excited about the prospect but when the fireworks actually went off, I was scared and hid my face in Mom's lap! In later years my aunts would take me too. We saw a couple of "live" radio shows; I remember "Surprise Package", I think and got to meet Charlie Marshall who had a country music show on KFBK.

What a great time to grow up!

Theresa Eve (1964)

Mr. Robert Cowing:  Maybe there are some toads with goodness hidden within, but I have not found one yet.  I am still staying with Beatrix Potter's frog, Mr. Jeremy, who was working hard to fix a dinner for all  his friends, before running into many problems.  Now that is a sweet Frog!   Mr. Alfrend was a sweet frog!  So much for frogs and toads.  Thank you Becky for all your added history of Woodland, lived by you and your  parents.  All those pictures of Woodland past and present are wonderful!!

Anne Douglass (Loud) (1964)

Toad Hollow and Tunnel, Davis.  Today.

Sherry Bailey (Westland) (1968)

wait for it...

.....because they eat whatever bugs them....heh heh