Hi Lori, welcome home!!! We missed you and, as you know, we were all concerned for your safety. And, maybe just a little concerned that you were having more fun than us.

It's less of leap, but I just returned from Montreal. We found a great apartment on the port in Old Montreal where we spent the weekend. It reminded me of living in Greenwich Village where it was always completely nuts with people dining and partying at night until???? and then complete quiet in the streets the next morning.

The only problem was it took 1-1/2 hours at the border. I think we will avoid Sunday afternoon there next time. Be good, have fun everyone!

Hey Lori,,,,

I will say hi. I don't mind. Where do we have the next party???????? Maybe at my house. lol.........

It's me again. Where is everybody? Did I scare you all away?!!!!!

Hey, it worked! Thanks, Brian. You probably did something or other to make it work. Patti told me to keep trying. That was the right advice. I've been enjoying reading about the reunion. I'm still waiting to see pictures, though. Are you posting them, Brian?

Hi everyone. I'm giving this another chance. I haven't been able to get into the blogsite since I got back from my trip. Just wanted to say hello. I'm glad to see you're all still here!

Hey Mike, First time I've heard you in here. Hey Thanks for the congrads.
The furthest we made it was to Home Depot to get some stuff for the new bathroom I am building. Holy Christ what a project. It is a totally different room then from the existing one and wow I have my hands full with all the plumbing. But hey thats how I learn, just dive in and hope you don't break your neck. Just a little pun there. Seeing how diving was almost my death bed. Anyway Thanks to all who thought of me and I will say that its been good to see and chat with you all again. Hey who knows maybe I will just find a place and we can have a little get together again, like maybe next year or so. Anyway gotta run. I am feeling like a muffler. You know a little exhausted. (heeee heeeeee) See ya........

Hey John congratulations to you and your lovely bride!!

I haven't been a bit worried about the CD. Besides my memories of the event are still very clear. It's a sign of my youth and vigor that I still remember what happened a couple of month ago. What a relief. Of course I don't remember what happened this morning, but ...........

Hey John, Really great!!!! Congratulations, I hope you both keep bringing out the best in each other. How about a little Gershwin for the occasion:

The more I read the papers,
The less I comprehend
The world and all its capers
And how it all will end.
Nothing seems to be lasting,
But that isn't our affair;
We've got something permanent -
I mean, in the way we care.

It's very clear
Our love is here to stay
Not for a year, but ever and a day

The radio
And the telephone
And the movies that we know
May just be passing fancies and in time may go

But oh my dear
Our love is here to stay
Together we're going a long long way

In time the Rockies may crumble
Gibraltar may tumble
They're only made of clay
But - our love is here to stay

OK?!?!

Oh yea Jerry forgot to mention that I will send you a CD also.

Hey Jerry and all. Thanks Very Much for the care. Yes we are still together and I finally made it a year.
I have this whole week off just to obsorb what has happened. I will keep in touch and don't worry Pat now
I have time this week to get your CD in the mail. I will chat with you all later. Thanks again Jerry.

I'll come in and get out very quickly before the lights start dimming. It must be because everyone in Bloggerland is running their air conditioning today. I just wanted to wish John and Peggy Laplante a wonderful day tomorrow as they celebrate their first anniversary of marriage. Congratulations!!!

Hi everyone, Lori is unable to post so asked me to say to everyone "hello" and she will try to write when the posting is working again. Her trip was exhausting though very rewarding. Her family are all well.

Awesome!!! The lights are getting dim, better post now . . . .

I was here before and wrote quite a bit, but I got disconnected, then my PC locked up and I had to reboot and lost the message. I'll just mention one important point while I'm still connected, then publish. Monday the 12th is John Laplante's first wedding anniversary with Peggy. You are still together, aren't you, John? So maybe we can flood them with good wishes as the day approaches.

That is good news Pat, thanks for the update.

I have the best of news!! Lori wrote to me this afternoon. She arrived home safely on the 4th as planned. She is exhausted from jet - lag and will write soon with details of her trip!!

I had a copy of her itinerary and she was going to be moving round Israel quite a bit. In fact every town she had listed was one of the places the news told of another attack in. she said she was sure she wouldn't be e-mailing while she was gone but would get in touch right away when she returned on the 4th. No word yet but I'm sure she's catching up with family.

Lori was going to Italy and then Israel and she was to return on the 4th of August. I have been thinking of her too, when I hear the news reports.

I did not think Lori was going to Israel on this trip, but rather to Italy to be with her family vacationing there. Worrying is easy to understand, but there are so many wonderful possibilities out there. Everyone has to make their own choice. I can tell you that I would go to Italy in a heartbeat and travelling in general makes a lot of sense to me. I am amazed by things that are 1000s of years old or 1000s of miles away. It makes me happy and I don't even know why. A nice bottle of Tuscan wine would be one good reason, though.

Frankly, I'm waiting to hear that Lori survived the trip at all. I've been terribly worried about her. I wrote to Avi checking upon her but the mail came back undeliverable. She was very determined to go to Isreal but the times are frightening over there.

I don't think Mike is finding the time, yet. Hi Mike. I think Lori must be back from her trip by now. It would be great to hear about the best meal, the best view, the best ??? whatever. I hope it was fun.

Hi Everyone, Just wanted to let you know Colleen and I made it home safe and sound. The trip went well, we worked hard, played hard, and ate a lot!!!!!! All the youth were offered jobs, if they are old enough, if not then when they are, and hope they come back next year, and if the church decides not to go there next year call and they will help get them up there.
Our youth loved it because they were counted on and trusted with the campers. Last year was a little too hectic, and the campers were more severe than this year, but they really got to prove themselves this year. I worked in the kitchen last year and had almost no contact with the campers, so this year I got to be with the campers this year, great kids!!!! Really tugs at your heart strings to know you are making a difference in their lives, but the truth is they make a bigger difference in ours. That's all for now.

Hi Mike, Welcome to blogger. How's everyone in SPFLD ?

Hi Richard,

Fox Brothers were o.k. I think it was a little too canned for my taste. they did a lot of joking between songs and it didn't come over as very spontaneous even though the obligatory "potato" stuff was thrown in. the music was pretty good though. The crowd really got into it when they closed with some upbeat Christian and Patriotic pieces. the fireworks afterwards were terrific! so was the fried bread dough with powdered sugar. Yumm.

I told myself I'd lose 20 lbs. by the time school started and that's probably too lofty a goal. (we go back the 26th of Aug.) As it is, all my clothes fit better and I'm wearing things I haven't warn in several summers. I'm sure glad I didn't clean out my closets!! I'm pretty happy with the way things have gone. Certainly I feel better and healthier. Congrats to you on your weight loss also. It's a tough thing to do. I was such a skinny ****** in school, thought I'd never have to worry about weight!

Patty, How were The Fox Brothers? I looked at their website. They don't look like Ozzie, but they look like they are a good band. Congrats on your weight loss! I have lost a little as well.

Tonight is The Fox Brothers at the Northern Maine Fair with Fireworks to follow. Except for the rain it should be a great evening. I can already taste the fried bread dough. We like to go early in the week to the fair while the fat is fresh but didn't make it so we'll take our chances tonight!

In between rain storms I've been working in my gardens, playing a little croquet and refinishing furniture. I've even lost 12 pounds! For me, it's ben a very good summer.

Got a note from Eileen Hongisto yesterday. She said she missed the reunion because she was having back surgery. She'd love to see photos. I have none so if someone could post a few or send something to Eileen it would be great. Thanks.

Jerry, What do you like better- watching the race or watching the people watching the race? This weekend was party time here. I went to a friend's birthday party Friday, an annual garlic party at Arnold's (a Ben & Jerry's taste developer) house Saturday (do you know the difference between Italian, French and Bulgarian garlic?), and then last night with the same 4 couples that we have dinner with about every 6 weeks (for the last 17 years) for Mexican seafood at our house (first time I had a seafood taco- yum!). Be good & have fun to all! Today is going to be a long one. People are losing their jobs where I work and, like they say, "You never know when your going to go!"

In answer to Richard's question of the 19th (maybe it was rhetorical), I didn't wear my one-piece racing suit for the New England 300 at the speedway in Loudon. Instead I wore a black (hot) t-shirt for the Kellogg's Corn Flakes car #5 and driver Terry Labonte with shorts and SPF45 Coppertone sunblock lotion. I periodically took a swig of the cold water in my cooler and ate some more of those famous carrot sticks and some cherry tomatoes. Yum! Oh, and also wore a NHIS hat to protect my fragile hairline from the sun. I ended up selling my last ticket at about 11:30 just outside the fence of the speedway to a guy who told me he was working in New Jersey and this was his first visit to this track. Not sure if I'm going in September, the 15th, or not, so my tickets might be available for that one. I was there along with everyone else the day after Thanksgiving which was the makeup date following the postponement from the Sunday after September 11 last year. Yeah, I said hi to a couple people at reunion and I was hoping to run into them again for more conversation than that, but then the evening was over and those people had left. That's why we have an e-mail address listing to at least catch up on a few things, right? I've got to get some fresh native sweet corn which is about my most favorite vegetable. So what else do you want to talk about?

Yup Pat I know what you mean. It was a good time to see everyone. I felt the sameway. There was so many of them there that I wanted to talk too but there just wasn't even time for everyone. Well you know what that means.
Sounds like we need another one before the 5 years. I may do it again, who knows.

Hi Evertbody, Even though I don't "talk" often I just wanted to let everyone know I will be leaving tomorrow evening for Colorado. Colleen and I wil be gone until next Sunday afternoon, we are really looking foward to it!!!!!! See ya'll when I get back.

Hi everyone, today I watched a video by Terry Cochran called "Life Happened". The storyline is her saying she ran into this one and that one from her high school class and how they hadn't followed their dreams because "Life Happened". She was bothered by this until she got to her reunionand realized that everyone had turned out alright. They just followed different dreams. I thought it was nice. Reminded me a lot of our reunion. I think we all turned out alright too. I wish I had more time to talk to some of the folks like Andy Warren who were there. I remember one minute I was talking with him and then I wasn't. I was such a gad about that night that I probably wandered from conversation to conversation without finishing anything!! It was wonderful to see so many people.

Hi John, I got pictures! Thanks. Brian's high school picture made my wife laugh till she cried and now my older son is thinking about growing an Afro. This is progress.

Sorry for the hold up on pictures. I have been very busy. I have brian's and richard's cd in the package. I just need to find the time this week to get them in the mail. The rest of you will get yours soon. I am trying to finish the video that I put together for this. I thought you would all enjoy to see. Hang tight, I haven't forgotten anybody. It's just time consuming on the video side. If I don't finish it soon I will just mail out the CD's to you all without it. But I think it will be worth the wait. Till then..... CHOW...... Don't worry I am still here.

Hi Jerry, When my kids were much younger and we were living in VT, we went to Park Safari, just over the CA border. Thankfully we were in my dad's car. You drive through the park with your windows down and feed the girafees and others as you drive through. I was slimed by a buffalo. It was green, wet, and gross. I loved it!! The monkees have all been moved to their own area where one walks around on bridges to see them. They were doing too much damage to the cars. Janice and Butch will remember a trip through where they had a lot of scratches to their new car.

Dave and I went to Florida's Busch Gardens some years back. That's a beautiful park. We'll be in Williamsburg, VA in early Oct. There is a Busch Gardens there also.

How's your worm research going? Have you check it out at Symantec.com? That's a great place to read up on the actual and the hoax problems with the internet. I always check there before I forward any of those e-mails I get telling me about the latest destructive virus going around.

Howdy, Jerry. I haven't been to Canobie, but I have been to Splash Water Kingdom at Lake George. It is surprising how many crazy ways there are to end up getting really wet. I had a good time. Also, I have always heard that you should only go to a Wild Animal Park in someone else's car or a rental that has insurance and avoid having the monkeys peel the trim off of your car. This has been enough to keep me away, but I have gone on the monorail at the Bronx Zoo which traverses a wide open grassland with tigers and lions roaming free on all sides. Oooo baby, it's a wild world! Hey, have fun at Loudon! Do you wear your one piece race suit for these occasions?

Howdy.

Hi everyone..........note to Brian, the CDs are in the mail...........I have some of my house, etc. so you can cut them from the ones you post. I'm sure people would be more interested in the reunion pictures. I have a gret one of you and your wife, Peter. It was great meeting her and seeing you as well after all these years. I really liked meeting the "significant others" of all the classmates. I'm sure they felt a little out there, but some were interested in what their spouses did in high school. Take care, and have a nice week.

Welcome, Peter! Glad you stopped by in here. Back safe in Iowa? Just got a notice about a new medium risk worm (virus). Guess I'll have to get another update. And I'm glad to learn something about the potato harvest and how it's done. I'll be going to this Sunday's Winston Cup stock car race at New Hampshire International Speedway in Loudon (just north of Concord), and one of my tickets is available. If anyone knows of an interested party who could use the ticket and we can make connections, please let me know. I'm just getting the word out. Went to 100-year-old Canobie Lake Park on Saturday with a small group of the church youth. It's still a fun place for lots of people. Did any of you go there as kids? How about Benson's Wild Animal Park which doesn't exist anymore?

I have a lot of friends here who worked the harvest as teenagers. They tell of back breaking work that was the ony way to buy school clothes for the new year. Trucks used to drive around the neighborhoods and pick up the kids early in the morning and drop them back off at the end of the day. You got payed by the barrel-full.

Pat, I am glad that I asked and am very interested by the story. It is pretty unusual for a community to connect and support each other. I think so much is exchanged through shared work- most of it positive. Thanks!

Hi Richard, Yup it's true. I live in the historic times of the Potato Harvest. When Presque Isle High goes back into session mid Aug. they will only be in for about a month or so. Then there will be a month off for the harvest. Studies have shown over the last several years that very few students actually participate in the harvest but the "powers that be" insist that without these students they (farmers) would be unable to accomplish their harvest. Whatever. I imagine your friend was a hand picker. I've done that with my middle school students. jeez that is hard work and dirty. Now most of the farms are automated and one must be old enough to work on a harvester. A very large and dangerous piece of equipment. Our son Colin worked on a harvester one year and learned what real work is all about. He bought himself a nice Dell with the money and swore he'd never go back again. some town close everything down but we just close the high school. All the other schools open the 27th of August and go right on through til spring. Aren't you glad you asked? That's probably more information than you were looking for!

Hi Peter welcome to Blogger!!!! Nice to see my invitations are working~~~~~~~~~~

Hey Peter! I went to Niagara Falls but didn't take the Maid of the Mist boat. I really wish that I did, though! I am pretty impressed by miracles of nature and it kind of blew me away to see water that spans 4000 feet, dropping 175 (?) feet straight down. It's kind of like a little Grand Canyon that moves (a lot).
Hi Pat, My neighbor lived in Maine potato country when he was in high school and he said that they went to school for one month starting in August and then the schools closed for a month while potatos are harvested. Does that still happen? My neighbor says that it was hard work and that he wasn't that much help.

Hi everyone I'm new to this site. Will try to check in weekly but will be weakly most likely. My wife Barb,son Zack, and I stopped at Niagera Falls on the way home to Iowa. We rode the Maid of the Mist boat ;got wet ,but otherwise had a safe and uneventful trip home.

Hi everybody, Dave and I are back from our vacation trip to NH. Boy was it hot! 100 degrees and the same for humidity, but the lake was clean and heavenly! so I really didn't mind. Tough going in and out of our pop-up though. Til the sun went down we couldn't do much about the temperature in there.

Had an interesting time at Dave's reunion the Sat. after ours. I had the opportunity to see how it felt to be on the "spouse side" of a gathering. Only knew one other person there. He was drunk and obnoxious pretty early on so that wasn't too pleasant. Oh well.

I don't see any of our newly invited members here in the blog site but I can see from the team list that some folks have at least peeked in. Speak up out there !

John I'd like a copy of the CD if you can let me know about the cost I'll drop it in the mail. I'd like to see the pictures on the film in Kelly's camera. She asked me to use her camera during the parade and take LOTS of pictures. Hope she sends copies to someone who sends them to Brian so they can be posted here. She doesn't have e-mail.

Karen, since you'll be in Bar Harbor anyway, why not drive another 6 hours north and visit me here in Presque Isle? The pototoes are in bloom and the annual Potato Blossom Festival starts next week. You haven't lived until you see mashed potato wrestling!

Nancy I will stop by and drop one off for you.

Hi John....I would like copy of the cd. How do I get one? Bob is going to send Brian the pics he took at the parade and dance so that they can be posted. Hi everyone!!!!

Hi Everyone! Well, now it is my turn to go to VT. I am leaving tomorrow to fly into Burlington and then go to my sister Marleen's in Middlebury. My sister Diann, from Needham, MA will be there too and we will all get into some trouble together for the next 4 days. My brother Bryan lives in Northampton, MA and we'll see him also. Rich and the kids will drive to Perkinsville from Grand Rapids on the weekend and we will have family reunions with both families............can't wait! Planning to see Butch and Janice Stearns too. The following week we will head to Bar Harbor, ME to Rich's family's camp, We love everything about heading to New England, except the bugs! My mom said that they could see the smoke from the Canadian fires last weekend, hope it is gone by the time we get there. Supposedly Michigan had it too, but I didn't notice. Hope everyone is having a great summer. Cheers! (Champagne and Chambord of course!) Karen Millay

Yeah, John, I would like a cd of the pics - or at least to see them on the net. Do you need some money - for postage/cd? If so, let me know. You can call me at 802-886-1001 after 5:00 or email me at jlachapelle@vtlegalaid.org - or my address is 115 Route 106, N. Springfield, VT 05150. You did a great job and we really all enjoyed your rendition of It's a Wonderful World. So, you had a vacation, huh? Hope it was swell. Bye for now.

I had such a nice 4th. Gerda, our boys, and I went to a party with guitars, frisbee, and salmon on the grill. It was so much fun to sing old Beatles, Simon & Garfunkel, Bonnie Raitt etc. The hosting couple have four wonderful boys and there were many teens there, all well behaved. Must be good parenting! We drove home through 3 or 4 little towns that were shooting off fireworks. Really cool!
Be good, have fun!
-Richard

Hope everyone had a great 4th and nice relaxing weekend...........take care,

Hey everyone.

Brian the CD is made and I will be sending you one. Anybody else that wants one should let me know. It has all the pictures of everything from start to finish.
Happy 4th of July to everyone.

I sent an email to John Lewis to tell him we missed him at the reunion, Roger Belville told me he wasn't there because of business reasons. Anyway, John just emailed me and asked me to tell eneryone he really missed being there.

HAPPY JULY 4TH EVERYBODY!!!!!!!!!

Hi John, I think IM is a great idea. . . but I am usually not on line when I am at home (like now) and IM at work would not work for me (Brian is already saying to himself that the answer is obvious to him. Quit the job!). I think there are others that would love to connect thru Instant Messenger when they are on line. I hope that you get some emails and are able to set it up!
All for now,
-Richard

Hey has anybody thought about using Instant messenger so that we can chat with each other when online.
Then we would know if or when they are online and would like to chat. They don't have to chat everytime they log in.
Ok you all know my email address and I am on instant messenger so it was just a thought.

Hi Everybody, I talked to Jane (Haseltine) Kinney last night for two hours, it the first time we have been able to catch each other since we found we are so close to each other. I told her about the reunion and how wonderful it was, she was sorry she couldn't make it and really sorry she missed your song John, I told her she had missed a real treat. It was so wonderful to see everyone again, and I agree with Brian, there wasn't enough time, and along with email there is IM's too assuming you have the same service, that's a good way to "chat". Well, just wanted to add my two cents worth. I had a great time and thanks again to all who had a hand in it. It really was a wonderful weekend.

Brian, I am getting mine developed, and will try and get them to you as soon as I can. I know Lori and Karen are anxious about seeing everyone that we have been talking about as well as all that were there. Sort of builds up the interest, eh? I think you said the right thing, Brian. Our class was the greatest and it looks like we have more talent than we thought 30 years ago.........I really have to be honest and say that I think we do have the best class, lets keep in touch, though. I won't let another 30 years go by, for sure.........we'll be almost 80, then. WOW.........

Ok Ok Ok ...... I am on vacation right now but I will post the pictures for everyone. Brian thanks for the compliment and the rest of you all. It was a wonderful world that night.
Hey hang tight I will get the pics out and post some more info on what is or might be up our sleeve. Going to Hampton Beach and soak up the salt.
Hey talk to you all in a bit. Hey Brian maybe I will just send you a cd of all the pics so that you can enjoy all of them. I will get that to you in a short.
I will just mail it to you . Bye for now.

Wow. That was fun! I had a great time from morning to night. Thanks to everyone for being the marvelous people you are! It was great to catch up, to hear about your lives and families. There wasn't nearly enough time for all the questions I would have liked to ask, but that's why we have email, right?

Wasn't John LaPlante amazing? What a guy! One of the brightest highlights of the evening was when John sang Louis Armstrong's "What A Wonderful World". Eveyone around me was positively stunned and delighted.

And thanks to Nancy Cordle for buying me my first drink of the evening, and getting the party off to rockin' start.

Linda LaBonte kept me spellbound with tales of horror and happiness, not to mention the "Bump": )

I was sorry that Ron and Debbie couldn't be there, after all the work they did to get this party off the ground. We are all most grateful for what you've done, thank you.

I started to list names of all the people I enjoyed talking to, but that was going to be a list of everyone there, so I'll just say "Thanks, everyone, you are the greatest class of '72 in the world!"

So send me some photos willya? If you can't do it by email, my street address is in my profile (click the "Team" button in the Edit your Blog section), I will send the photos right back after scanning them.

Hey everybody, I had a good time at the reunion too. It was great to see everybody. I am wondering where all those photos are that John LaPlante and Bob Dunham took? I thought they would be posted here by now. Get off your duffs and post a few photos for us! I am sorry for your husband's loss Nancy. Losing a mom has got to be the worst. Hope to see some pics here soon. Bye for now.