Reunions within Reunions 4

Class Reunion

within reunions within reunions.

Valley High School Class of 1954

80 year olds

Gulp.

  I told Maureen we thought she was a traitor when she moved to Kanab and graduated

from Kanab High School. She redeemed herself with these black and orange table

decorations with the school bus pencil sharpeners, Cedar branches with berries

and furry buffalo. She also brought a salad. 

 Maureen visiting with Odean, Ramona, and Bruce Hoyt.

Maureen and Odean are cousins.

I didn't know it in high school
but Bruce and I share a common great grandfather, Israel Hoyt.

 Nolen and Beth had eight children.

 Georgia and Darol Heaton won the White Buffalo for having the most posterity. 

Darol is 86. He graduated with my oldest sister, Shirley.

 Lenore didn't graduate with us either but she has lived in Orderville since she was 15.

I asked her if she thought she might be in the Guinness World Book of Records for having

three husbands all named John.

She had two kids and her first husband was killed before I was married.

Her second John died of a heart attack relatively young.

This is her third John.

She has great great grandchildren.

(Catch the white buffalo in the background.
YOU BUFFALOES STAMPEDE 'EM!)

 Doc is giving everyone the link to his National Horseshoe Tournament in Alabama at the end of July.

 The local gals arranged for the lunch.

Georgia has spent most of her married life in Fredonia and Maureen in Kanab.

Maureen still drives to Mexico for six months every year.

This year her friends gave her a surprise 80th birthday party.

Seventy people came.

 Georgia and Lenore were my two best friends the last years of high school.

  This is when you're glad you didn't come from a class of 900.

 Back: Jeanette Esplin Hugh, Dale Van Sorensen, Georgia Troy Heaton, Dale Heaton, Nolen Roundy, Lenore Slaugh Tisdale, John Tisdale, Bruce Hoyt.

Odean and Ramona Crofts, Lyn Heaton, Beth Roundy, Maureen Crofts Ramsay, Carol Jean Heaton Eves. Carol Jean and Darol are brother and sister.
Amy thought Carol Jean looked 20 years younger than the rest of us.
Offended.
"Maybe it's the way she's dressed," Amy conceded.
Double offended.
We were nearly through eating when Dale and Lyn Heaton came in.
"We couldn't find the place."
How can you not find a place in a town of less than 400?
Later my sister, Carol, said that LuJean, Dale's sister and Carol's classmate,
called her in Salt Lake from St. George to see if she knew where the 
North Events Center is
or she had my phone number.
Dale had called her.
They didn't know at the store or service station?
We called Dale "Professor" in school
because he was so smart.

 Finally got a smile out of Odean.

 Classmates: Georgia*, Dale Sorensen, Dale Heaton, Nolen*, Bruce*

Odean, Maureen, Carol Jean*, Jeanette*

*Graduated Valley High School Class of 1954;

the others graduated someplace else

or didn't graduate

or graduated later.

 Our talented classmate, Nolen Roundy, craved each one of us this memento;

each different, each exceptional. 

H V S

Class of 1954 Reunion

July 8, 2016

Orderville, Utah

  It's a good thing we're having the reunion this week," Maureen said when I first arrived and was admiring her decorations. "Next week I have to have major eye surgery. I always tell people that I've had six eye operations and I still can't hear."

  We could never get Bruce Hoyt to come to our class reunions even though he lived right in town. With the invitation this year, I wrote a personal note to him: "Bruce, you probably think all we're going to talk about is our children and grandchildren. We're not. Now we're all eighty or approaching 80, we're going to talk about our aches and pains." Nevertheless, Maureen wanted to give the "white buffalo" from the table decorations to the one with the most posterity. She went around the circle asking everyone how many children, grandchildren, great grandchildren, and great great grandchildren he/she has.

  "You passed by me," Bruce interrupted after we finished. "I have three dogs, eight horses, and 60 head of cattle." Joyful laughter. How could you be lonely or depressed with such bounty? He was also an outstanding school teacher. How many lives did he touch?

  "One of my 4th grade students taught me a valuable lesson," he shared. "I had just scolded the class for being so rowdy and everything was very quiet. One rather timid boy came up to my desk and said: 'Bruce, do you know that happy people are healthier than grumpy people?'"

Goodbye, my friends, goodbye.

  DeRay has planned to go down to Orderville to the reunion all along.  When it came right down to it, he would rather be at Duck Creek with his brother and sisters. No one dare ask me where he was for fear he was dead - "or divorced?" I tease.  Not one person in our class has been, was or is divorced. Death has separated some of us; but not divorce. (That shows how old we are.  Oops, Bobby Gardner called on Saturday to see if we missed him at the reunion. He reminded me that he divorced his first wife. He's been married to his second wife for 54 years. She is bedridden and he takes care of her 24-7. Because she sleeps in, he's able to go play golf every morning at 6 AM. Norm Maxwell also cares for an invalid wife and couldn't come to the reunion. Saints!) Too many have died: Yvonne Watson, Lenore Chamberlain Russell, Jack Crofts, John Hardy (two of Lenore's husbands), Flossy Roundy Willard (born on the same day as me); Jim Maxwell, Wayne Robinson, Annie Gardner Judd. Another interesting tidbit, in my small class two of them are DeRay's first cousin and his first cousin once removed. Additionally, DeRay needed to be with Eddy. The kids were willing to have him stay at the condo with them but they planned to hike around Cedar Breaks and that doesn't work for him. So I dropped DeRay and Eddy off at Duck Creek Campground on my way to Orderville where they spent the day.

They were so worn out from the Forced March yesterday to the Heritage Sites

that they didn't get gone until after noon. 

Now we know why Amy's pictures are par excellence.

Taken from the top of Brian Head

   I got back up on the mountain around 4 and stayed for Soup Night. Brooke, Elizabeth and kids came for Soup Night then drove all the way home Friday night. Amy, Brent, Jan, and Naomi got to Soup Night with our soup after everyone had eaten so we sent it home with Clare. She deserved it. She sets up the kitchen at the Round-Up.
  With Brooke's family gone, DeRay, Eddy and Jonathan moved into their quarters. DeRay and Ed had been sleeping on the horrible hide-a-bed. Amy and I were in the master bedroom. Oh yes. Ed said he was jealous. I reminded them of all the times they had been in the Master Bedroom and I had been on the hide-a-bed or when I got bumped from there, to an air mattress on the floor. Jonathan was happy to have his own cove and privacy.  
  Good night.