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Tim Tucker (1965)

Robert, I thought you lived in Oregon !

James Crandall (1961)

I'm a little jealous of those of you that had the "Cotillion" experience.  For 3rd thru 8th grades my family was living in a great little neighborhood in Sacto.   During the 6th grade most all of my classmates took social dance lessons to learn the "graces"    My mother I guess was quite the flapper during the twenties and knew all the dances of the times.   She insisted that if I wanted to learn to dance that she would teach me.  You already know where this is going.  I mean what good was the Charleston, Black bottom, turkey trot during the 50's?  When she finally realized what I had missed, she signed me up for a commercial dance school teaching the swing for pre-teens.   I was so elated to have those lessons but still felt I had missed an oppurtunity to better bond with my classmates.  I was a dancing fool during my high school years.  Went almost weekly to the Saturday Night Dances that the Mormon Church put on in Sacramento, and the frat dances at the Govenors Hall at the old fairgrounds.   Sadly at WHS I only went to four dances.  Two Sadie Hawkins dances asked out by WHS girls and two Proms with my then current Marshall High School girlfriend.  In college I took a folk dance class to meet a PE requirement and of course to meet gilrs.   The instructor recruited me into the performance troupe and I have been hooked ever since.   My wife and I have been active in local folk dance like groups and have run the gamut from Balkan, Israeli, Turkish, Irish, and the best and most enjoyable from a social standpoint, Scottish Country dancing (those folks know a thing or two aboot fine ales and a wee drift of single malt whiskey).  

After the 8th grade my father decided to move us all out to the "farm" to save him the commute each day.  So that is how I ended up at WHS ripped out from the comfort of classmates I had known and into a rural high school (that is scarey enough by itself)   with long established cliques.  The only person I knew at school that first day was Danya Maier.  But I survived.

Richard Branscombe (1963)

Wally, I honestly don’t remember who I sold it to.  Bought it from Campus Chevrolet in Davis for $3200.

It was a half year production and only 200 were made with that engine.  It probably is in the junk yard but Oh what it would be worth today!   It suffered from low-end torque.  They made a lot of 396 s  but never at 425 Hp again.   66 saw the 427 @ 425 Hp.   

We promised Mom we would never race each other.  So, we didn’t exactly.  We started one behind the other, the Pontiac couldn’t keep up.  We were done.  That Pontiac left a lot of Dodge 413’s in the dust though.  It was a lot better built car then the Chevy.  It just weighed about 2000 lbs more.

Theresa, That would be a great car to have today.  Life doesn’t let us hold on to much of the physical past, which I’m sure is a good thing.  But most of us still have our memory’s.

We have been blessed by God!

Joan Richter (Lucchesi) (1960)

@Robert: I think that your yellow parriot is a bunch of yellow pansies! ;) I think that Bill Bush lives in Montana. Some of my friends that played MahJong with Cecil went to visit her there before she passed. She was living with or near him at the time. I remember her beautiful roses in the backyard. I hope the new owners have kept them up.

Walter J. "Wally" Summ (1967)

Hi Rick,

Yes, it was John Somero, class of '67, who bought your 1965 Impala.  Regarding the Pontiac, are you referring to your brother Lee's 421c.i.  Bonneville(1964?) with 3 two barrel carbs?  I can truly say that I traveled through the quarter mile in both vehicles.  They don't make 'em like that anymore.

To Robert Cowing:  I'd always mistakenly thought that it was David Bush who had built the trains.  I believe that he moved to a state like maybe Montana.  David moved Cecile there too.   I believe that they have both passed on now.

Richard Branscombe (1963)

Thank God,  4 miles to the gallon and 120 octane.  Not good for the environment! It was very stupid what we did.  I got smart when I had Bee Line balance the tires at 120 MPH.  Back then they use to turn them at that actual speed.  Do you have any idea how much the diameter of a tire changes at a 120 MPH.  Tires back then weren’t that good. I was done racing.

Again, thank God for looking over us.

James Crandall (1961)

Craing Mayfield said:

Wonder who Lackey had play the Treasury cop??...lol

Reply:  Yeah I wonder.  I don't remember if he showed a badge or not.  I was probably too scared to really check it out anyway.

Robert Cowing said:

Here is James Crandall's school story of intrigue from his Reunion Profile page, City boy comes to the country and makes it big!:

Reply:  I eventually did learn to make it big.   Money too big that is.  Federal prison is a great place to learn a variety of useful things, like things to never try.   

After I graduated from dental school, I joined the US Public Health Service.  Most of my classmates were joing up with the military, 1974 Viet Nam big time.  I had already served in the Navy but was still unsure of my exposure to being recalled as a dentist.  The USPHS is a uniformed service that qualifies as military service, some times called the "yellow beret".  First they wanted to send me to a residency in Norfolk, but I turned that down after talking to some of the residents.  Next they offered Federal Correctional Institution Marion, Il.   It was then the number one bad guy prison, only 300 inmates they said, and I would be the only dentist with brand new equipt. etc.  Oh and by the way the inmates will always be shackled.   

No way on that one, so next the offered El Reno, OK., a kind of a reform school.  Again no and why am I now getting only Federal Prison positions?  I asked for Merchant Marine.  Okay I told the recuiter guy give me anything in Calif. and I will go for it.  They called back the next day and offered Terminal Island, CA.    I thought they were joking, like the end of the line--terminal.    Turns out it was quite nice, a good experience for a green dentist.  Maybe not so good for the inmates.

Back to big money.   You know the old joke,  the con says "but I made some big money on the outside.  About 1/16 of an inch too big"   One of my inmate technition's racket was counterfieting bonds and securities in  Aruba.   And next door in the medical dept. was Stanley G******m,  head of Equity Funding, at the time the biggest securities fraud ever in the States, who used a small army of forgers.  

They were all what seemed to be really nice guys, charming and persuasive.  Then there were the Charles Manson girls (the prison then had 300 females), the LSD guru TL, Bonano mafia head and brother, Watergate sacrificial lambs, and presidential attempted assasin.  Enough stories to fill two nights of campfire talk. 

Tuni Gravink (House) (1964)

Well, in response to no new entries so to say, i have been busy doing certification testing for 12 service dogs which, all past their tests. The three weeks prior, training every night, in the academic circle it would be called craming for finals. This is with people that have hearing and ones that do not. It is really a different world out there with disabilities and dealing with them, and trying to help them pass their tests too. But they all did.

Not too meniton going to court many times lately to defend the service dogs of handlers. So many people are purchasing service dog vests and printing their ID Cards from the computer, it is causing problems with the dogs that go through training and testing legally. Then there are the cases of owners not caring for their service dogs due to their addictions, and trying to fight for the well being of that dog, or one that is senior who thinks he is still a journalist, and in the working force, but does not realize he suffered two strokes, and a heart attack back in December of 13, and we have been tending to his needs and his dog, and now he is being very unreasonable, and wants to leave the facility he is in and go somewhere on his own, and he really is not well enough to do that, and take the dog, and he cannot care for himself, much less the dog. Having found a foster parent for the dog, and the dog is being trained daily by this person, and loved, and the gent does not see past "me" and last year. It is sad, and i know eventually all of us end up in some state of mind that our family /friends will question our ability to care for ourselves.

Now i am headed to court to defend another service dog whose neighbors have harrassed and brought the dog to barking and acting out (which in 4.5 years i have never seen this dog do any agressive, much less postioning of behaviors), so i have to go there to let the judge know that service dogs are allowed to bark , and be dogs in their own yards, and people should not tease them or intimidate the owners, and get some sort of harassment order put in place, and figure out away that they have to live on the same street, and get along, doesn't mean they have to like each other, but live on the same street and at least acknowledge each other lives there, and respect that fact.

Then tonight intitaion for my other half into the Elks , and i have training tomorrow and the next night and Saturday then i blast off to Utah and Colorado, back home for one day after being gone a week and a half, two meetings, then off to Young, AZ. for two days at the cabin and relax. NO phones, TV, or Radio, just peace and quiet. 

LIfe goes on, and we all get into to our rut patterns, and summer coming up, and school out people are busy. But here is one to think about, the red moon did anyone see it? i did it was neat. But then i went to bed, and Z land and woke up and life goes on. Off to court.

Tuni

Dana Lynn Hoover (1967)

Hello Tuni,  yes I saw the "red moon".  I was still awake at 1:30 had a great view...but couldn't get my camera to catch the photo and my significant other wouldn't get up to take one with his extended lense.  Oh well that was not on my" bucket list"  but I've now added it.  Do you have a "bucket list" or do others besides Mayfield.

Sherry Bailey (Westland) (1968)

If you missed the "blood red moon" on 4/15, you will have a chance to see it again 3 more times between now and Sept. 2015.  And there will be a total eclipse in between the set of the 4 blood moons. The dates of blood moon occurrences fall on Jewish Holy Days....interesting happenings!  :)  

Joel Childers (1966)

As for my bucket list, I'm a simple man; all I need is a 1960 MG-A Roadster. I know it won't beat a Corvette, but there is simply no more beautifully designed car ever made. When the doctors tell me I have 6 months to live, I'll drive the blue highways* from here to Maine to Talahassee to the Grand Canyon where I'll pull a "Thelma and Louise**". (*Blue Highways are the secondary highways on the map, as apposed to the freeways which are marked out in red). (**Spoiler Alert! After a young Brad Pitt hustles the ladies out of all their money, they take the car for a test flight over the Grand Canyon. The results aren't good.) 

Tuni Gravink (House) (1964)

Bucket list, i don't have time to construct one, and at this point in my life i have pretty much done what i have always wanted to, and i live each day, and thank God when i wake up the next day for yet another day. Each day deals me out challenges, and sometimes something very new. I had a great cruise on one of our local lakes here last week. It was and early evening cruise. I was treated to seeing a heard of Rams up on the top of the mountains, and they were walking all over , and there were these cute little baby ones too. Then about 20 minutes later i thought i saw a bald eagle sitting on this rock on the shore, and about five minutes after i saw it , it blessed all of us by flying right next to us on the lake. What a treat that was!

I have always wanted to go to space, and explore, and i figure some think i am already in space, some don't, but i figure when i pass; i will get that privelege to explore space.

I really do not have any things i would really like to do. I am happy to greet each day, and be alive, and that the air we breathe is still free, as not too many things are anymore.

I know my girlfriend from the Bay Area, had this bucket list about twenty years back, and while we were antigue shoping, she said i have always wanted to do and oldfashioned cash register. I thought what? i had used one in the Bakery for several years, and that got to be old real fast. This shope had one for their own personal use in their store, and i asked the lady if my friend could try it. They were so nice and said sure. I showed her how to do it, and she got so excited when it worked for her! Then she wanted to always drive a golf cart, that we got handled right away. Her wishes were all simple, and now she is working on a new one.  I think many do have a list, and they try to do some of the items on thier lists. My mother in law said on  her 80th birthday she had always wanted to walk across the Golden Gate Bridge, so the family did with her. I waited at the other end with the car, as i had walked across it many times. To think that was one of her things to do in her life time. Now she is 86, and i am not sure what is still on her list. I will find out in a few days when we head to Co. to go see her. Tuni

Becky Knight (Tobitt) (1961)

A bit late to the conversation but I do remember and loved Cottilian, although I was scared to death being a "country kid' in with all of those "city kids". Mrs. Santoni was a Marine drill sargent! Can't remember my dance partner but I remember we looked over each other's sholders to see if she was "on the prowel". She would walk up behind a couple and put your hands where they were suposed to be. And the boy had better have a strong right hand to lead because she would try to move his hand from your back.

Dr. Fisher was in the Porter Building along with my dentist, Ottis Bennett. Dr. Bennett and my Dad graduated from WHS in 1930 and were old pals. 

Theresa - I remember that car! It was what your Dad drove when he (and you and Mary) came to Cacheville School.

Being a member of the Class of '61 was fun, miserable, exciting, scarey. It was hard being a country kid because we had to take the bus home, so after school activities were difficult with no ride home. My Dad had a major heart attack the October of my freshman year (1957). We had come home on the bus Friday night without breaks and the driver had taken the bus to Sacramemto for a football game without reporting the problem. He had one of the boys ride the emergency break! When Dad found out, he went into town to talk with Bill Laughlin who was on the school board at the time. That night he had his heart attack. He was in the clinic for almost six weeks and had a very long recovery. Mom saw to it that I got to MYF and Job's Daughters (but that was in Yolo and I could walk and get a ride home) but that was about the only activities I did. Friday night football games and after game dances were about it.

James Crandall (1961)

Becky--Gary Santoni was in our class of '61.  Was his mother the Cotillion instructor and did he attend the classes?

I was one of the bussed in country kids too.  We lived out on Rd 117 five miles north of the old Elkhorn ferry.  We had one of the smaller busses because our group was fairly small.  In the winter when the bypass flooded we had to first drive to  West Sacto and cross the bypass on highway 40 (interstate 80) to Davis, then Woodland.  Had to catch the bus in the dark and didn't get home until nearly dark.  Those were NOT the days I like to remember. There were a core of kids on that bus that were more or less rooted and many that were migrant and we would see them one day and they would be gone in a month or five.  Kent Lang, Eleanor Gomez, Danya Maier, Leroy Coulter, John Castleman were rooted.

JoAnn Kergel (Wirth) (1965)

Joel, please don't trash the Grand Canyon!  I just spent three days there & it is so beautiful.  Instead give the car to Dan Wirth as he has always dreamed of owning one.  Then I will suggest a perfect place for you to jump!  Kidding of course as I know you are.

Becky Knight (Tobitt) (1961)

James - Yes, Gary Santoni was in our class and, yes, he was in our Cottiian class. I remember you, Danya and Eleanor very well. Our bus route varried over the years. One year we went over the old Stevens Bridge over Cache Creek by the Fliers Club. There was flooding all over. Our driver was Willie Blizzard, either CHP or sherriff (can't remember). We were stopped on the north side of the bridge, Willie asked the men patroling the levees if they thought it was safe to cross the bridge and they gave him the "go ahead". Twenty minutes later the bridge washed out! Winter of '58.

Those of us who rode the bus were a special group. I remember those early mornings waiting for the bus, huddling under the roof of either the Yolo Town Hall or the County Library building in the rain or on foggy mornings. Did see some amazing sunrises!

Tim Tucker (1965)

zzzzzzzzzzzzz

Joan Richter (Lucchesi) (1960)

James Crandall: do you know what happend to John Castleman? He was in our class (60) and we have lost contact with him. We'd love to get him to a reunion.

Don Gray (1962)

Hi,

I'm in the class of 1962 but used to double-date with Bob Brown, class of 1960.  He moved to Sacto after HS graduation and we lost touch.  His dad was manager of the savings and loan on the SE corner of Main St & College, and owned a distinctive pink Edsel car (Ford made them in the early '60s) which Bob wasn't allowed to drive, except once to the Jr Prom. I think he had a little sister who was in my brother Malcolm's Class of 1964.  Bob might have gone to Sac State or UCD, but as the family moved away, there was no one to ask.  I don't think Bob went to elementary school in Woodland but if he did, it would've been Dingle.  He was about 6' tall & a husky build but not a jock.  Bright guy but definitely not a "socsh" (social butterfly-type , remember?)

Anybody know/remember Bob Brown & where he lives today? Contact info?

Don Ian Gray, Fairbanks, AK .   

James Crandall (1961)

Joan:  I lost all contact with John Castleman (Casselman) after WHS.   We hung out together quite a bit.  He was I guess one of the richer kids.  If I remember correctly his father/family either owned or managed the hopyard on the old river road upstream from the Sacramento wier.   I remember he dorve a late model Ford, a convertable I think.   We would frequently cut class and head to Berryessa or Sacramento.  I hated to see them tear down all those hopyards in Yolo and Sacto. counties.  

Joan Richter (Lucchesi) (1960)

Don: I don't have an email address for Bob but I do have the address from our last runion. In 2010. I sent an invitation to him for the all 60s and got the answer that he was in ill health. He and his wife did attend our 50th and it was the first he attended.  He, I'm sure you have guessed, did well and was an judge.  If you want me to message you the address I have, let me know.

Carol Dunton (Stone) (1968)

New subject:

This is an article in the Daily Democrat. I don't know how to put on a link but I hope you will find it and read it.

One of Woodland's oldest restaurants given 60 days to leave bowling alley
By Elizabeth Kalfsbeek/ekalfsbeek@dailydemocrat.com
CREATED:   04/18/2014 06:04:52 PM PDT

This is the Corkwood Restaurant, which has been there for years. New bowling alley owner, or building owner, is kicking the restaurant out - 60-day notice.

Craziness.  Can we help?

G. Gilbert Yule (1966)

My wife and I are taking off tomorrow to attend the 138th annual Sacramento Valley Scottish Highland Games at the fairgrounds in Woodland. It's always interesting to visit the old town and see what has changed and what remains the same. The games are huge fun. Anyone else attending?

Theresa Eve (1964)

Nice to read the whole story about Elliott Hull's life.  I thank the Forum for providing this message page.  I was able to contact Elliott before he passed and wrote to him about our times at Woodland High School.  He wrote back and it was just a joy to hear from him and to share those thoughts.  My prayers to his family on this loss.  Also, I read again about Arthur Miramontes, a lovely young man.  Gone before his time.  War is a terrible thing.  So rewarding to read the comments written so proudly about Arthur's  life. 

Tuni Gravink (House) (1964)

Craig,

I do not live in New Mexico, I live in AZ. , and Tim has never been to this residence.  I really like it here, and it is nice to have two acres to myself, and enjoy the peace and quiet after living 20 years in the Bay Area. I like the open space, the wildlife, and the peace and quiet is well welcomed. Our only real commute problems are the "snowbirds" winter retired people, and the quails. LIfe is good. Tuni