Jackie's High School Reunion

The first four days in Olympia were spent with Jackie's high school reunion, first getting ready, then the actual reunion. Jackie graduated from Pullman High School, but this reunion was held in Olympia because many of our classmates have settled on the west side of the state. The mansion pictured below was one of the venues for the reunion. The Friday night get-together was held there, and several classmates stayed there.

This is the view of the water from the mansion.
Chatting at the get-together were Ron and Barbara Hansen, Linda Spencer Hunter and Owen Johnson. Owen came from Indiana and Ron and Barb from California.

Sitting in front of the mansion were the Hansens, Dave Burgess and Jeff Rundell.
John Maynard Hicks ('63) and Lynette Howard Carothers were reminiscing (sp?).
Saturday morning several of us gathered at the Heritage Hall at the Fairgrounds to set up tables and decorate. Here are Linda Spencer Hunter and Nancy Lamb Judge, the two fantastic organizers of the reunion.
And here is the decorating crew, minus Dick, the photographer. Laird Hastay joined us to decorate, and what a helper!

Cocktail hour at the dinner/dance. You can see some of the great decorations in the background. This reunion was a "sandwich" reunion of classes '63, '64, '65 and a couple from '66. It was so fun reconnecting with friends we hadn't seen in years!

All of the PHS graduates at the Saturday party. John Maynard Hicks has been a radio personality in Seattle for years, and he was our DJ. He did a great job, interspersing comments throughout and playing the wonderful sounds of the '50s and '60s. The weather was quite warm, with no air conditioning, but it didn't stop anyone from dancing up a storm. And here are my classmates from '64. Quite a nice-looking group, don't you think?

Gretchen Christopher, from the Fleetwoods ("Come Softly to Me") came and entertained us. Here are some folks lined up to get a CD signed by Gretchen.

Anyone remember the "Stroll"? Well a few did, and it was such fun!
The other wonderful venue was the Lighthouse Bungalow, across the street from the mansion, and right on the water. The patio seen from above, while the band was setting up on Sunday afternoon.
Oh, yes, we had a live band to entertain us on Sunday afternoon. It was so great. Bob Hunter (Linda's husband) is pictured on bass and Bob Hausenbueller ('63) on keyboards. The drummer played with the Wailers and all the band members played with big name groups. Again, dancing and enjoying conversation with classmates.


Linda, Lynette, Melinda Daughterty Beasley and Kathleen Cosgriffe Mohn are being entertained by Vince Dayot ('63) while enjoying the Sunday festivities.

Pictured in the center right of this picture is Wilma Peterson, mother of Allen ('63) who is 94 years old and a wonder. She remembered all of us and our families, and even danced. She is an inspiration to all of us.
Linda and Nancy, the two organizers extraordinaire, still working on making everything "just right".

The whole weekend was absolutely fantastic. The best part was lots of time to just chat and catch up. A really big thank-you to Dick for all his hard work -- he was there whenever we needed something moved, put up, carried, etc. And then with the camera, of course.

More later about the rest of our time in Olympia.