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| This had to be `67 or `68. |
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| Kevin Rodriquez and Brad Langdale, Columbus, Ohio, September 1974 as Kevin is heading off to Merced, CA. Looks like a Corvair with a flat tire. Brad will be at the reunion but Kevin will not. |
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| They did this to avoid going to Vietnam: Dick Helms, Brad Langdaale, Jim Berry (Carroll HIS-68), Bob Parmelee, Bob Knipmeyer (FHS-66) and Mrk Holmes (Carroll HS-68) |
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| Prom Queen Candidates Pam Wildinger, Linda Strausbaugh, Beth Ferris and Trish Morrison, May 1968 |
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| Linda Hotz, Stephanie Cushman, & Kathy Billard |
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| Linda Large and Mona Harris (Class of 69) |
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| Linda Chadderdon, Debbie Johnson, and Debbie Haas |
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| FHS Student Directory Pg2 |
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| FHS Student Directory Pg1 |
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| Honor Roll |
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| National Honor Society |
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| High school banter - a treasured memory from Linda Mayes |
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| Jane Sleeper on Gray Lady September 1967 |
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| Riding In Cars with Girls
There is something about going back to where you were living when you were a teenager that can make for very special moments. Most people don’t move away or do not move very far away from where they lived when they were teenagers so it may not be a big deal at all to them as they are as familiar with those neighborhoods as they were the day they graduated. But for those who did step away or those of you who might be considering attending our next high school reunion but have not done so in the past out of a belief it may not be worthwhile I would like to share something that happened to me recently that makes me believe that high school reunions are very special opportunities to recall old and collect new great memories.
The 40th reunion of the Fairborn High School Class of 1968 will be held 12 and 13 September 2008. A growing number of your classmates are getting together to make this a very memorable event. During these planning sessions we have found time to reminisce about the past as we try to locate each and every classmate and develop an event that will provide something for everyone. Recently we met for lunch in Fairborn and it is from that meeting that this story takes place.
Garnette was my sweetheart in 9th grade and into the 10th grade. She was not the first girl I had a crush on, I have a vague recollection of a brunette in Tennessee, but I certainly remember Garnette much more than any that preceded her in my life. I did not recall much more than that before our recent meeting but I do recall now that her mother died while she was in high school and I have a vague memory of it being hard to get together with her because what I now know was that she worked after school most if not all of the time. I also believe I was terrified of her father but there was no particular reason for that as I was terrified of all the fathers. One of Garnette’s best friends was Debbie and although they both moved out of Fairborn and live in different states they are still incredibly close after all these years. I think that says something about you, if you have non-familial friendships that are persistent through a lifetime as I am sure theirs will continue to be special. Following our lunch meeting we agreed to drive though the old neighborhoods to jog our memories. A lot of memories came streaming back during that ride through Fairborn. I strongly encourage anyone contemplating a reunion to spend some time in your old neighborhood and with the friends you had back then. Doing so can be a very, very rewarding experience.
Now before you do what I did and get in the car there is something to warn you about concerning old sweethearts. They remember more important stuff about your relationship(s) than you will initially and you need to be prepared for a series of point blank, split second, no second chance, no graded on a curve tests that are in many ways the same feminine tests we men have struggled with our entire lives. But now they are even more stressful because you are being hit with all sorts of memories all of which just a moment before you did not even keep in archival storage. It all started with the first question, “do you remember dating me and do you remember taking her,†pointing to Debbie, “out once?†I was toast. They immediately gave quick knowing looks at one another, clearly having shared previous anticipations that some of us do not remember in a way that weighs on the value of the relationship. It was not but it felt like my mouth was wide open. I certainly remembered Garnette but not Debbie not until I had a chance to study her face. And that delayed recognition did not matter one bit. I had not passed the instant recognition test. In fact I did remember Debbie and could not believe I had forgotten her. The more she talked the more I remembered her gifted, witty personality. I knew there was something more but I could not bring it forward but that did not matter it was just an incredible rush of memories and attached emotions remembering someone from years ago and being able to see the strength of her personality 4 decades latter!
Prior to June 23rd, I do not think I had ever ridden in a car where Garnette was a designated driver. I now know I would have remembered and that memory would have passed the instant memory test. As we pulled out of the center of town and made a wide right 360 degree turn having intended to do two rights and a left to head toward what we knew to be the high school it was clear the whole left/right thing was not a suitable dialect for Garnette that day. She was doing this on diet Pepsi, the only thing any of us had to drink over lunch. Directions are one indication and I know some people have no sense of them but that was not the only thing happening as we drove around. There was the way she stopped. I do not think I have experienced anything like it before. I do a fair amount of flying and one might say I have done my share of performance driving but I am at a loss to describe the way she brought a vehicle to a stop. Newton would have had difficulty explaining it but Einstein would have been right at home as there clearly is a time dimension thing at play when Garnette brings a car to a stop. Well it is more like an almost stop, not exactly where anyone wanted or expected it to be but not necessarily a full and complete, no drifting, and no movement stop. I felt like we needed to put on the Volvo’s flashers to give the pedestrians and the other vehicles some sense of warning as to what was happening but I was frozen with both feet breaking against the firewall and hands gripping the seat. It may have been the rush of each of us explaining where we remembered the A&W Root Beer Drive-in and other notable businesses to have been that added to the distractions but it had my heart racing.
In spite of this we made it to the back parking lot of the high school without major incident and stopped near what surely is a backup radio antenna farm for the Air Force to be able to communicate with long-range bombers. I know. It is a student bonding thing that rarely gets used but some government entity paid for it. They tried that on us once back in the early 90s in a place called Pecos River and few recovered with none standing up today to say it was beneficial. That is why it is not done any more. At any rate, they put the poles right where we practiced our passing game back in 1967. We parked in the adjacent lot and classmates Craig Moore, a retired FHS teacher and Steve Wolaver, a Greene county judge, in another car leaned out and described the gym and library which had been added to that side of the school. We all talked about taking typing in a room on the second floor and compared typing teacher attributes. It was amazing how much people were able to recall. Physics and apparently a biology class none of us participated in were taught on the ground floors. We noticed the colors the high school uses now and to a person were disappointed. Blue and Gold, our school colors were gone, just as the mascot, The Flyers, was abandoned. But we all remembered Friday nights and how the stadium was alive with life and energy.
We then circled to the larger parking lot where the buses used to assemble. We accomplished that without incident but there was a moment when it looked like the rather large light pole in the middle of the parking lot, which was not there when we were in high school, would be removed by the Volvo.
We all admired how the brick of the building had held up with Craig explaining that the windows had all been recently replaced. We noticed an inviting full roll of toilet paper sitting underneath a large tree adjacent to the school and Garnette was the first to suggest coming back later to make use of it on the tree. 40 years ago we probably would have done so. Today we did not even get out of our cars. But this was another clue that there was more to my 8th grade sweetheart than I realized.
We talked about starting our reunion with a tailgate party on Friday night September 12, 2008 before the Fairborn/Beavercreek football game. We beat Beavercreek 40 years earlier holding them to virtually no yardage while scoring multiple times in an upset over the team that went on to win the Western Ohio League (that does not exist anymore either). We talked about starting with a school tour, it will be smaller than we remember, about 6PM and then move to the tailgate party and over to the game. We needed a place to go after the game however; perhaps a farm where we could stay up as long as we could to talk seemed like the best combination. Saturday night would be another event.
That completed our school yard tour and as we started moving again Garnette startled both Debbie and me with her alertness to and observation of a strange no left turn intersection in Fairborn. Before we were able to get over that totally unexpected keen observation we were passing the park where the annual town fair had been held every summer but does not look possible now and Garnette was pointing out that we were going through the intersection where she had her first accident (right after she had gotten a new car in high school). I immediately asked how many had she had since. She responded perhaps a little too quickly that there had been only two. Some quick turns and what I have got to call “accelerated stops†followed as we wove past an elementary school on Maple, a school Garnette’s stepmother had worked until sadly Alzheimer’s caused her to forget where she worked.
As we headed toward Forest Hills, we screamed by one of three places I lived in Fairborn on Glendale Drive. Garnette does not really slooow down. We wound around the other side of Five Points and Garnette explained that I used to walk her home the route we were driving. Of course I could not remember that in the time frame of “immediate†which was a further indication of my not remembering her. As we reached her house she pointed out the walkway to the front door where I had escorted her from school. Looking at the front of the house and the front door I remembered! I could see her father standing at the door! I started to recall the walk from school. As if we were practicing for drive-by shootings off we were past one of many places Debbie lived in Fairborn.
At this point I realized I had no idea what was going on with the young ladies in my life back then as Debbie talked about coming up to Garnette’s window at night and gently tapping on it calling Garnette outside for some late night giggling and sipping. I am not sure if it was just 3.2 beer or the ripple wine that was their pleasure. All I remember was walking her home occasionally. As near as I can tell I totally I missed out on a lot of interesting stuff! What the heck was I doing back then?
Driving back through town to my car I could not help but see the Garnette I knew 40 years ago in the woman driving the car. When we first met early that day I recognized in her animated discussion of something I no longer recall that indeed it was the same Garnette who had attracted my attention so many years ago. She had the same friendly smile, the grace of her hands, a chipper voice, and her eyes. It is true that the eyes are the most memorable things about humans, perhaps because we spend so much time looking through them and communicating with them. Garnette had a smile that started with her eyes. And then there was the way she carried herself. When we paused at the school she had a way of cocking her legs and being comfortable that also brought back memories of the Garnette I knew more than 40 years ago. I had forgotten those mannerisms that make her so special today.
We stopped behind my car, the first and only normal stop of the drive and I slowly un-wedged my leg from its knee-locked-save-my-life-position against the forward firewall of the Volvo. As the blood started to flow through my numb leg I thought that that wasn’t so bad. We said our goodbyes and I got several memorable hugs from two women I am pleased to say I remember and hope to stay in touch with for years to come. They followed me out to route 4 and back toward Dayton International and I noticed they had picked up a Fairborn Police car. I thought that police departments rarely have records going back so long as to understand Garnette’s driving.
I said this was a rewarding experience. It was not just in the pleasurable memories but the sadness of remembering a time, friends and family, relationships and events, missed opportunities and extraordinary people who will all be gone in what now seems like a very, very short time. As we have attempted to contact each and every member of our 519 member class we have come to see the mortality we face ahead. Riding in cars with girls can make you very sad but it is a perhaps a unique way of recalling who we were and another chance, perhaps one of our last opportunities to reconnect with old friends.
Dick Helms
President, Class of 68 |
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| The Tavern, Yellow Springs....still there! |
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| Mr. Welty`s 7th Grade Homeroom. Missing: Garnette Gilliam, Corky Shull, Garry DeHart. |
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| THE FLYER
1965-1966
Student Handbook |
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| ALMA MATER |
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