Reunion, San Diego  10/12-14 2001
by Don MacLagan

The following thoughts are mine and subject to my impressions...deals with the people who attended the reunion of 2001, marking the 45th graduation anniversary -  Rich Township HS, Park Forest, Ill.

Bob Wainwright and Bobby Joe Chambers (Bobby was part of original class but did not graduate from Rich) did one hell of a job putting together a reunion and dipping deep into their pockets to provide F & B for two days of hospitality. I am guilty of contributing little more than my presence. No fees were charged or suggested. Should have been something collected...maybe we who were there should do that!

Bob W. was gracious and upbeat. Bobby has a keen sense of humor and I can see why he is so well-liked by so many who remember him as a freshman. Bonnie Wainwright looked great...she says she’s lost 26 lbs and working on more. She’s very good with making everyone  feel at home. Ralph Forlenza and his wife showed up a day early and ended up staying up 'til 5 a.m. on the first night along with Tom Lockwood, Bob Wainwright, Bill Hawkins, Bill Sedlacek and Barbara Teissler. The guys all got boozed and little Barb ended up being duty driver as they went out to Wainwright’s boat for part of the party. She drove them all back to the hotel at 2 a.m. or so.  “I haven’t driven a 5-gear car in years but knew it was my duty to get them all back to the hotel,” she said with a smile. I personally did not know Barb well in High School, she seems to remember my brother Bob pretty well and asked that I send her greetings to him.

Many people asked about my brother Bob. I assured them he is well but a little shy about attending any reunion. His High School sweetheart, Sonny Berghage, was at the reunion. She and husband Bob are good company. Sonny loves to talk, asks many questions of people about their lives and family and occasionally she even waits for an answer before telling all about her kids, etc. She is always happy to see everyone.

Ralph Forlenza’s wife, Bobby Joe’s wife, and Ken Werk’s girlfriend, Ruth, spent a ton of time in the suite kitchen cooking up pasta, sausage and salad for the group the first night. Everyone pitched in running for ice and sharing clean-up duties. June Swift showed up Friday night as refreshing as Spring rain: sweet, caring and friendly. Her daughter, who lives in the San Diego area, came later. It was great seeing and chatting with June, if only for a short time. Her daughter seems as gentle, caring and sweet as she.

Tom Lockwood and I were not friends in HS. Tom was big jock ... I wanted to be a big jock but was more a big joke. In the ‘60’s, Tom and I became friends and had many, many fun times laughing and drinking, which I no longer do, not for 11 years or more.  Tom’s wife Vicki is very supportive, they have a two-year-old son, and Tom, retired, calls himself “Mr. Mom” while Vicki leaves the house for her day job.  She’s in charge of taking photo’s of all and she does a great job. They’re a good match.

I was sooo anxious to see Bill Hawkins, another big jock and a friend from those days, who attended with his wife, Holly, who is attractive and friendly.  I met her in the hospitality suite while Bill and the jock-gang were still out golfing mid-day, on Friday, October 12th.

Bill Sedlacek is a delight. Older, yes. balding, yes (like me) with white hair and beard. (I dye my circle of scruff ‘round my head or I’d be gray or white too). Bill teaches educators how to best design tests so they are fair and meaningful. He enjoys his career and will stay with it until he decides to retire. He’s easy to talk with, a gentle giant of a guy. No pretense.

Ken Werk is another guy who did not finish at Rich but he has kept up with classmates. Kenny, as he is called, lives in Florida, and has been under the knife several times for heart bypass operations. He looks good. He’s determined to enjoy his life and is newly engaged to Ruth who sticks to him like glue. Good on them.

Mike and Marc. God Bless. What Mike has gone thru after her stroke 9 years ago can only be understood by her....and, of course, Marc. Mike speaks a bit, is in a chair and enjoys what is happening around her. Everyone is very attentive to her. Marc cares for her with love and compassion and only they can know how deeply their love goes to have carried them thru her health challenges. He speaks to her gently and with reminders of certain people and events. He is a giant. I love Marc. He looks well...has a wonderful head of white hair. I wish them the very best of the future. They have earned it.

Lee Stanfield. Hi Lee, I remember you...nice lady, good to see you again.

Ron Nelson and wife Eloise: Ron showed up on the last night for a farewell dinner. Good looking as ever, quiet as ever, and charming as ever. Wife Eloise is a good match. She’s funny, upbeat and a strong lady, methinks.

Sonny and Bob. When I was living in San Diego area for the last couple of years I would speak with Sonny fairly often and had lunch with her and Bonnie. We always had good chats. She is very attached to her children and has 7 grandchildren in Hawaii. Her youngest son works for a hotel on the island of Kauai. Sonny and husband Bob go visit once a year and she just radiates being with her grandkids.

Barb Teissler works for Tennessee Tourism as Public Relations Director.  She’s smart. (She sent out a hilarious e-mail just before the reunion illustrating the dance of those trying to fit into their teenage memories ... and then the hell with it; just enjoy the reunion. Barb’s a sweet little lady with a wonderful smile and disposition.

Diane Pettingell (Staes) and husband Jim: Diane was the first person I saw when I arrived. I recognized her facial profile as I was standing in the check-in line. I yelled hello to her; she turned and came for a hug and greeting. This was the first time I met Jim, a former Naval aviator. Diane looks real good and was funny telling all the former ushers at the Holiday theater, Tom, Hawkins, Wainwright, Werk, about how they used to ignore her even tho she worked there too. She said she lusted for all these good lookin’ guys and they never gave her the time of
day. Lots of laughs about that stuff.

Joe Brooks and his partner Doug: Joe is very trim; full head of gray hair and beard to match. He’s a charming guy and Doug is quiet and friendly. It is always good to see them. I saw them a couple of times over the past years as they too live in the San Diego area.

I left out no one, I hope. I loved being there, sharing laughs and memories. Next time we all should be so healthy and happy.  That would be 2003 in Park Forest, as they celebrate the 50th anniversary of Rich....some argue it should be 2002 as the pioneers began school in the Fall of ’52.  Others say they should wait to celebrate in 2004 as the Rich campus opened in ’54. Whatever.

Love to all, Don MacLagan

From Diane Staes, October 20, 2001

I want to try to fill in some of the things that Don didn't mention in his summary.  He didn't say he is a warm, witty, musically gifted man who is still a HUNK!  He wouldn't tell you that as he's much too modest.

Saturday evening at the dinner there were a whole bunch of awards presented, thanks to Marc and Mike Eisner and Ron and Eloise Nelson.  They did all the shopping and I am sure will never be welcome at Target in San Diego again!

I can't remember all of the awards, so maybe others can fill in the blanks. Barbara Teissler Parker, Bonnie First Wainwright, Michele Kearney Eisner, Lee Stanfield Reed and I all got tiaras as the "Margene Swanson Honorary Prom Queen" award!  June Swift Ewing had to fly back to DC, so wasn't at the dinner, but she would have been included in this group.  We "prom queens" also wore our tiaras to breakfast the next morning.  Tom Lockwood got a coloring book and box of crayons for having the youngest child, a three-year-old.   Bill Sedlacek got a ball (shot put)-----the guy who gave up appearing on the Ed Sullivan Show to stay home to prepare for a meet.  I, the choir "wanna be", got a fish that sings and a promise that Jay Hoel would now allow me in the choir and on the trip to NYC.  Damn choir.  I think Bonnie Wainwright will keep me out FOREVER.

Ralph Forlenza got a damaged condom representing the "strongest sperm" award.  Ralph and Ann have 7 children.  Bobby Jo got a certificate as the "I don't like my middle name" award as he now goes by Bob.  Ron Nelson got the "most often married" award----4 wedding rings!  Joe Brooks, who is a Kenny Rogers look alike, got the "best beard" award which was a matching gray wig. Sonny Berghage Benz got a wand representing "the most titles in high school".  She waved it over those of us in tiaras!

Bill Hawkins got a rather X-rated pump and some lotion representing the "newest married with the youngest spouse". Ken Werk got the "living in sin" award which was a very racy pair of thong underwear.  Marc Eisner got the "best head of hair" award.

I have seen a lot of Marc and Mike over the years as they live close to me here in California.  Marc is my hero, an award he has earned.  I have watched Mike struggle back after her stroke and I have seen Marc rise to meet the many challenges this has presented.  Mike has such courage, warmth and humor.  They both get my vote for hero.

The great thing about this reunion was that it was small so you had a real opportunity to talk to everyone.  I sat across the table from Bill Sedlacek and Tom Lockwood and found them both to be warm and full of humor.  Barbara Teissler Parker sat next to me and I am still laughing about the story of her first kiss told in her sweet Southern drawl!  It was in the 8th grade and she knocked the guy down, sat on him and beat him up!  He didn't try again until Senior Prom, and that time with much better results.

We all owe a huge debt of gratitude to Bobby Jo and Ann and Bob and Bonnie Wainwright.  They did such a great job.

The big question was WHY is the 50th anniversary of RTHS in 2003?  We all know very well that the school opened in September of 1952 in the United Protestant Sunday School Building.  This must be a 50th anniversary for the opening of the building NOT the beginning of the school we know and love.

"Hail to thee Rich High All Hail" -- I'd sing it, but you know I never made the choir!

Diane Pettingell Staes

I Love You All
by Barbara Teissler Parker

Relationships weave and bob and change like an eddying pool fed by an underground spring. At the magical "some place and time" in our lives, we begin to seek our former selves, as we were when still we were children and reflect on how we’ve dealt with the days that led us to where we are today. My sixty-two-year-old Barbara began a reflection on the things written on the pages of her book of life, and to wonder if the seventeen-year-old Barbara would approve, or even like the elder one. Seventeen-year-old Barbara stood there on graduation day in 1956 with the book of life open before her, everything possible at that moment. Of what things were her dreams made? What did she expect from life, and most importantly, did she realize those dreams and aspirations? Returning to one’s roots often helps to clarify thoughts and seal that moebus strip that is the never-ending circle of one’s life.

In 1995, a heart attack and bypass surgery nearly took my life and the 11 hours of surgery left me with great gaps in my memory, much like missing clusters on our computers before defragging. I saw this as a journey to reclaim some of what I had lost. Barbara Cederquist Messler was the first classmate I found a couple of years ago and it was she who graciously wrote snail mail to me and shared her 1986 reunion photograph along with all the material that Michele Kearney Eisner put together for that reunion.

My sister, who attended Rich Township five years after we did, discovered "classmates.com." It was with trembling hands that I first clicked on the site, very unsure there was even one person who would remember a shy, quiet girl they’d met 45 years ago. How awful it would be, I thought, to have no one remember you. One of the first responses was from Elaine Umland Brownlee who has proven to be a true delight and soul mate in so many aspects of our lives. When I contacted her, we easily picked up where we left off 45 years ago. We found we had so many things in common. Elaine went to the Chicago Art Institute, a dream of mine not realized. We both write and enjoy reading the classics, and have found many ways to release our pent-up creativity. She’s a computer whiz  who created this wonderful site. Through her, all of you began to come to life, and my longing to see you again grew by leaps and bounds. Two of you even admitted having high school crushes on me and my spirits soared. Not only was I not forgotten, I had lived in someone’s heart all these years.

It was another old friend who sent a yearbook, and as I turned the pages, the names and faces jumped out opening a floodgate of memories. Each of you that sent emails, Elaine, Diane Pettingell Staes, Jackie Novak Peacock, Barbara Schaller Beasley, June Swift Cory, Joe Howe, John Reavley, Mike Nicolai, Bob Chambers, Bob Wainwright, and Don MacLagan, you all gave me pieces of myself back.

At first I was hesitant to attend this 2001 reunion. After all, my marriage had ended in divorce in 1975, and I still haven’t found that special someone to love me as Marc Eisner loves Michele Kearney. (What absolutely wonderful people they are.) I wasn’t rich, and I wasn’t even real important in the grand scheme of things. Too, there was that bit of extra weight that I‘ve fought so hard for the past 10 years. I have a beautiful daughter and two grandchildren, a boy and a girl, that I adore. I've had a career that suits me, and I work daily with fascinating freelance travel writers and editors of newspapers and magazines. I've built a reputation for being among the best in all the states in knowing how to help them find the stories that will sell and interest the traveling public. Through a series of articles called the Tennessee Traveler, I've found an outlet to write my own stories and often get a byline. There are two books in my computer waiting for the muse to strike again so I can complete them and see if there is a publisher somewhere that they will interest. I never did replace Sonja Henie - Queen of the Ice - in the world of ice skating or learn to paint like Maxfield Parrish.

Wonderful, dear Diane shared some of her fears with me. I thought if someone as pretty and popular as I perceived Diane to be all those years shared some of the same qualms I was having, then it must be all right to return to see all the classmates of my youth. "Yes," she wrote me, "I understand the nerves. I have seen quite a few of our classmates over the years, so I’m not quite as apprehensive as you are. God knows I wish I had worked harder to lose that 20 lbs! How  we look always seems to come to the top of the list when seeing people we haven’t seen in years. In the end, it really isn’t very important." How beautiful was her smile when I turned and saw her standing in the doorway in our San Diego resort hotel. It brought tears to my eyes and a lump to my throat and I had great difficulty even saying hello. So I hugged her instead.

Elaine, a night owl as I often am too, wrote in the wee hours these sage words which I give to you to share with anyone else suffering the pangs of wanting to attend a reunion, but fearful of what they will find: "Regarding your mixed feelings about attending the reunion...just KNOW they are perfectly normal reactions. And consider this, how fortunate you are...so many have never been heard from again, they seem to have disappeared into thin air, what became of them? Why did they never get in contact with anyone again? It's really so sad. I told you before...when I went to the 35th reunion, I felt like it was like Christmas morning, opening presents to see what was INSIDE of them, their heads. Such delightful surprises, for the most part, and some quirky ones too. You will have the same wonderful, laughable experiences, and everyone will welcome you with open arms. Bob Chambers sounds especially nice, so warm and friendly. So have no second thoughts, you will have a great time! And rejoice, you are alive and kicking and "not a dull head among windy places." (Thanks, T.S. Eliot) At 62 or 63, the things that were once important no longer are. YOU are YOU now, not some little kid who is still looking for an identity like we all were in awkward adolescence."

So, to Bobby Joe Chambers, Bob Wainwright, Ralph Forlenza, the welcoming committee who met me at the airport with open arms, God Bless you. These guys worked so hard to make us all feel like cherished friends returning to the bosom of a big family. To Don MacLagan, who spoke so softly, smiled so sweetly, sang his wonderful mellow tones and said such nice things about me in his letter, God Bless you. And Diane, you are so right, he is still very handsome! To Bonnie Wainwright, still beautiful and feisty, who welcomed me as an old friend though neither of us knew the other in high school, God Bless you. To Nancy Forlenza, Ruth Lee, Lee Stanfield Reed and Vickie Lockwood, all of whom I got to know during a day of grocery shopping and sharing food, for opening your hearts and lives to a virtual stranger, God Bless you. Oh, and Bill Sedlacek, it didn’t go unnoticed by me how you have grown so much since your high school basketball days, the deepness of your thoughts and the gentleness of your soul, God Bless you. Ken Werk, still handsome and the epitome of calmness, who has endured so much and literally come back from the veil of the other side, and his wonderful sidekick, Ruth Lee, who was so much fun, God Bless you. Sonny Berghage Benz didn’t even know me in high school but she, too, welcomed me like an old friend with a hug and a big hello. She’s so full of spirit and full of fun, God Bless you and your dear husband Bob. Sweet, dear Joe Brooks, with whom I fell into easy conversation as though it were but a day since we parted, God Bless you and your friend Doug. Oh Gosh! Ron Nelson and his wife, with whom I never even got to talk, seeing them only at a distance down that long, long table at Sam Choy’s Hawaii at the Bali Hai Restaurant, God Bless you. And no, Ann Chambers, I haven't forgotten you with your bright red hair and sassy ways, you're certainly a good match for Bobby Joe. You brought some joy and laughter that is so needed in the world today. How I wish you had stayed, June, and we could have talked more. But then perhaps our paths will cross again before too long. Bill and Holly Hawkins, I saw you but a fleeting moment.  May God Bless you all as you go through the days of your lives.

Even if the boys never kissed me in high school or the girls weren’t my closest friends, I think they all liked the 62-year-old Barbara, and I know I liked each and everyone of them. Yes we've all had a bit of trouble in our lives but  we’ve survived them and we’ve all been good people, loving, and trying to do the best with what life has dealt. This reunion has made me want to find all those that weren’t with us and wrap them in my arms in the biggest bear hug I can muster. It was into loving arms of old friends, who welcomed and loved each other for who we are and not what we are, that I flew on October 14, 2001. It was a wonderful thing that was happening inside my heart, healing and nurturing, and I wondered, why did I wait so long? Somehow I knew the 17-year-old Barbara was watching and smiling.

In the parting words of Michele, who never fails to say them to her friends, even this new one, "I love you."

Barbara Teissler Parker

The Invitation (Bobby Joe Chambers, left)
The California reunion has been finalized for October 11, 12 & 13th in San Diego.  Listed below is information for planning your trip:

Location:   Quality Resort
875 Hotel Circle South
San Diego, CA.  92108
www.qualityresort.com

Phone:   1-800-362-7871
Standard Room = $   89.00
Superior (Larger) = $   99.00
Suites   = $ 129.00

When making reservations ask for the “Rich Township Park Forest High School Reunion”.  This will assure you the above group rates.

The San Diego Airport is 15 minutes away.  Let Bob Wainwright or Bob Chambers know if you need to be picked up.

To date, we have close to 20 couples planning to attend.  Please let me know if you can join us, as we have the following tentative activities planned:

Thursday - 10/11

Bob Wainwright & Bob Chambers will pick up early arrivals at San Diego Airport.  Hospitality Room (109 – Bob & Ann Chambers’ place) will open for cocktails at 3:00 pm, followed by a casual dinner out at a local restaurant.

Friday – 10/12

Bob Wainwright & Bob Chambers will pick up Saturday arrivals at the airport.  Hospitality room (109 – Bob & Ann Chamber’s place) will open at 4:00 PM and will serve hors d’oeuvres and cocktails.  We can sit outside on the patio and enjoy the food, drink, pool & Jacuzzi.

Saturday – 10/13

Reunion dinner and dancing – maybe even karaoke!

Sunday – 10/14

We are planning a Sunday champagne brunch at a local restaurant for those brave souls still alive after Saturday night!

The Quality Resort is just one of many hotels in the area.  For those of you wishing other accommodations, or detailed information about sights to visit in San Diego, please call the San Diego Concierge at (800) 979-9091, or visit their website at www.sandiegoconcierge.com.

Well, I think I have covered just about all the bases.  The reunion is shaping up to be a well attended event – and I hope all of you can join in the festivities as we celebrate seeing old friends and recalling memories of  “back in the 50’s tonight”.

Hope to see you soon.

Bob Chambers
 

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