Franklin High School

Lyn McKinney McGraw

Hello All-
Am taking a quick moment to wish you all a magnificent Christmas. I bid you all peace, good health, and a wonderful New Year.

John and 'she who must be obeyed'
Thank you for the joy you bring with your quick wit, off the wall sayings, and news around the world....and now the rest of the story....

As for me, I have been tasked with developing a disaster plan which includes the worst possible happenings within the county. We have created interoperability radios and procedures that connects all agencies to assist in carrying out any major disaster that may befall us. It is quite distressing planning for major catastrophies, however quite necessary as those in this profession are required to go on auto pilot and carry out the tasks needed to protect and aid the community. Wow, that sounded so dramatic. Alas, today I am taking time out of my duties to take my children to see the Princess and the Frog. So I know my priorities.

Mark -
Karl just got back from Iceland. To update everyone, I introduced a friend at work (Karl) to Mark. Karl took a very long vacation to....Portugal. There Mark and Louise connected with him and were quite gracious hosts. Anyway Karl showed me pictures of a oh darn it I can't think of the name...it's very hot water in the ground. The water color was beautiful. It looked so odd to see ice all around the water.

Also, I went to Asa Mercer. I walked from Rainier across Martin Luther King (what was its name before I forgot)...anyway then up some large hill through a park then to school. When I transferred from Franklin in my senior year to Highline I remember a day when it snowed. I had moved to West Seattle and drove all the way to Highline. I had ski clothes on due to the cold. When I got to school, only 8 people made it that day. They told me I needed to go home and change into a skirt. I was hot, I said 'I'll go home but I'm NOT coming back!' Go figure.

Well my kids keep pacing around me looking at the screen wondering when I will get off...so bye for now.

Lyn

John MacLeod

Lyn.........
Great to hear from you. Ah, I can only imagine the joy of developing a plan for interagency cooperation and communications. The communications seems to be the toughest. What with different frequencies, radio procedures and various com centers. Just like the story from the bible and the tower of babble. Our bible scholars out there can fill in the details (Nancy).

Memory updates for those of us in early to late stages of CRS (can't remember stuff). Martin Luther King Way used to be Empire Way, named after James J. Hill the "Empire Builder" of the Great Northern RR. Lyn, I also think you are trying to remember Cheasty Blvd. It started right next to Copeland Lumber and angled up the side of Beacon Hill and came out on Beacon Ave, at the south end of the golf course.

I think you were trying to think of geysers as opposed to geezers. The difference being that geysers are filled with hot water and geezers are filled with hot air.

John MacLeod

Weather Update.............

Classmate Bob Barber may have been hit in the head one too many times while on Mr. Caddy's golf team. It is currently 10* in Saco, Maine, where Bob and his wife live. I've got the shivvers just thinking about it. It is however sunny there today, so Bob may be out on the golf course.

My brother Allan (geologist)just returned from a project in Idaho, where it was 25 below the day he left.

Nancy........Is there room in your back yard to set up a tent?? Phoenix is starting to sound pretty good.

Nancy Raetzloff Groth

Well, you could put a small tent on the deck but you wouldn't want to get too close to the koi pond. Seriously though, I am just back from Seattle and the snow, rain and sleet over the weekend sent me hurrying south with my tail between my legs.

I could actually use your expertise in San Diego though John. I have a wrought iron room divider that I want to mount perpendicular to the wall next to the door jamb for double doors. Unfortunately when the doors were installed they only used a single stud for the jamb instead of a double stud. So, I am trying to come up with an idea for metal plates that could attach under the trim piece to the one stud and have bolt holes on the other ends for the wrought iron to attach. My handyman moved to Minnesota and is not available to help out.

In other news, I did receive info for Everett LaVigne. I was also informed that Freida Madden passed away.

Susan Niven

Wishing everyone a Very Merry Christmas & a safe, healthy, peaceful and prosperous New Year!

Susan

Debra Moore Murga

FOOD FOR THOUGHT



Two Wolves

One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people:

My son, the battle is between two wolves inside us all...

One is Evil. It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.

The Other is Good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith.

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather:
Which wolf wins?

The old Cherokee simply replied,

The one you feed.

John MacLeod

Hey, hey, hey...........2010 is here. All the bowl games are on TV. Im not sure who half the sponsors are and if they will still be here in ten years. Tick, tick tick. Time moves on. Remember, growing up is still an option.

Debra.......Great proverb. Feeding the good wolf has worked well for me. I heard once that holding a grudge is letting someone live rent free in your mind. I haven't enough time or energy to hold a grudge, let alone give it free rent.

Marlene Souriano.......From your profile it sounds as if you have managed to pack a lot of life in the last 41 years. Nice update.

I have a line on Jeff Yoshinaka. He may be living in the Ballard area. Be on the look out for him. I don't imagine he has changed much. I got this intel from a Garfield Bulldog (seems to be a reliable source).

John MacLeod

Birthday wishes to Evelyn Findley today. How did we manage to get this old? I don't know about you, but I'm starting to feel the miles.

If you check out Evelyn's profile, you will find that she is the Manager of Port operations. The port has just completed a new cruise ship terminal at Pier 90-91. Perhaps she can get us aboard a lumber scow bound for Australia. We can call it "The Class of '68 Creaky Bones Fact Finding Mission and Geriatric Cruise". Upon reaching Perth we can hitch a ride to Warawaraup and camp out in Susan's back yard.

Ideas ????

John MacLeod

Hey, I am rethinking the Australia trip at the moment. It would seem that it is the season to fry eggs on the sidewalk. Today in Susan's neighborhood it is forecast to be between 104-106* F.

John MacLeod

News at 11:00.

Seems that Gary Locke shares January 21 with former Governor Rosselini as their birth date. Rosselini will be 100 yrs old. According to the news Gary will be 50. Hunh?? How does that work? Brenda Riddock and I are looking at 60, coming at us like a runaway freight train, on the 17th. I'm moving myself into a zen state of mind over matter. If I don't mind, it don't matter.

Mark Weaver

John,

A belated happy Birthday to you and Brenda. Hope you enjoyed your day. I think we need to find out what Gary is taking so that we subtract 10 years from our lves too.

I am still on for Australia. Right now that weather sounds better than what we have been getting here lately. It has been an awful fall and winter so far. Every football practice it seems that it's cold, blustery and raining heavilly. I come home soaked to the gills and freezing. But I still love ooaching.

Susan Niven

Hey gang,

Don't pike out on me because of the weather. At 5.00 am this morning it was 27 degrees Centrigrade, with an annoying wind from the east. It got up to nearly 43 degrees C up in Perth yesterday and wasn't that much cooler down here in Harvey. A cooler change is on the way, but February is the hottest month of the year.

I think I have mentioned that either Spring or Autumn is the best time for a visit!

Aside from that all is well.

Cheers.

Nancy Raetzloff Groth

Hello????

Anyone here? We must be getting the weather that belongs in Seattle. Our rain total is up to half of what we normally get in a year. Fortunately when it isn't raining, the sun is out so we usually are getting 5 or so days each week of sunshine. If any of you norhtwest types want your rain back, just let us know we will send it to you. The one good thing is that with all of the rain we should have a great display of desert wildflowers come March.

I hope all of you are doing well. I talked to Karen K the other day and we plan to get together in March. If any of the rest of you are down this way, let me know so that we can meet up. Phoenix isn't so bad especially this time of year.

Mark Weaver

Nancy,

Don't complain about Phoenix's weather. It could be far worse. Our team's football game was cancelled this last Saturday because we had heavy rain and 100MPH winds here in Portugal. It did a lot of damage to buildings and killed three people here. The storm then moved on into Spain and France where it killed 56 more people. It was a pretty scary storm.

I hope I can see those desert flowers you are talking about soon.

Susan Niven

Please don't complain about rain! Here in Western Australia we've had over 100 days with no recorded rainfall. It's been the driest summer on record. And it's been one hot day after another with the no prospect of cooler weather in the foreseeable future. My place looks like a desert and when the Easterlies blow it's about the most unpleasant place I can think of being stuck in. One more summer like this and I'm off to New Zealand where the grass is green all year round! (That is if I can figure out a way of getting my horses over there, too, that doesn't cost the earth!)

Mark Weaver

Sue,

I saw on the news that Melbourne got some heavy rains and flooding a couple of days ago. Did you get any of the precipitation up your way? When I saw that I immediately thought about your last message here. Things are starting to slowly improve a little here in Portugal.

Nancy Raetzloff Groth

Okay, okay I will stop whining about the rain. It is just disconcerting though to see grass growing in the desert. Yesterday we drove back to Phoenix from San Diego over I-8 and I was dodging snowflakes over the mountain pass. That just doesn't happen down here in March so it was really strange. It must be "global warming" or the next ice age coming or something. I do remember way back in the early 60's that scientists were worried that we were headed into another ice age.

While I was out of touch for a week, two new classmates joined our website. One is James Turner and I have no record of him so if any of the rest of you remember him, please let me know. The other one is Jim Vancura, and he is currently working in Iraq as an agricultural advisor. There are some great pics on his profile.

Susan, I sure hope you are getting some much needed rain.

Susan Niven

Mark

Last Saturday a storm front went through the Melbourne area just after a race was run at Flemington. It brought with it thunder, lightning and hailstones the size of golf balls and 40mm of precipitation fell within 10 minutes. Apparently the powers to be had been in touch with the Bureau of Meteorology who had advised that there was a 10 minute "window" in which the race could be run before the storm was due to hit, and the jockeys were unanimously in favour of running the race. It was unbelievable to watch on telly and needless to say the remaining races were cancelled for the day. I shudder to think what could have happened if the race had to be abandoned at the barriers and there were 16 horses stranded on the track! As it was, unfortunately several horses were injured when travelling back to the tie-up area from the mounting yard after the race and several got away from their handlers. The winner of the race, Wanted, who is a very valuable stallion prospect was one that got away, and the Clerk of the Course heroically recaputed him without incident! That storm front proceeded to move in a north-easterly direction over the following 24 hours, which meant none of it came out west, where rain is so badly needed.

The dams are drying up and I am really tired of the heat. When I went out to feed the horses this morning at 5.30am the temperature was 30 degrees C and there was no wind at all. It was eerie. From what I can gather there may be rain on the way, but I will believe that when I see it!

Guess this is the payback for a wet winter!

Susan

John MacLeod

Hey, Hey Hey..........

Glad to catch up with everyone here. Our winter has been basically a none event. We had teemps in the single digits just before Christmas. Three weeks of solid rain just prior to Thanksgiving. Both of which resulted in insurance work. Recently we have had temps in the high 50's and even 60 degrees. For better or worse I am heading into my 5th week without a day off. Not sure whether I am bragging or complaining. For those who don't know or recall, I am a remodeling contractor.

So let's see.........Susan is frying her eggs and bacon out on the sidewalk. Nancy is starting to regrow the moss between her toes, Northwest style. Mark is looking for an umbrella to cover a football field.

Okay, Nancy. Let's hear about the San Diego house. Weekend getaway, rental, investment or all of the above?

James, Jim, Jimmy Turner. Whitworth grade school(?), Sharples Jr. High and originally class of 67'. He left school in late 66' or early 67'. Sailed with the Merchant Marine for about a year, taking ammunition to Viet Nam. Returned and got his degree with our class. Retired from the Seattle Fire Dept., as a Captain I believe. Dated one of our classes cheer leaders. He has attended at least one of our previous reunions.

My recall is way too scary sometimes. I am learning not to reveal names or ages, as some people are sensitive.

Gotta go........

Nancy Raetzloff Groth

John:

I am impressed with your recall. Our sophomore annual does include a picture of one Jim Turner in the class of '67. Wow, why don't I have that kind of mind. Thanks for helping out my poor brain.

San Diego is actually Carlsbad, CA, close to Legoland and next town over from where Kathy Cooper now resides. We plan to retire there in a few years when it seems to be the right time. Mild climate, close to the ocean, lots of interesting hills and valleys for great hiking and exploring.

If you work too hard John, you won't have any time to keep the rest of us in good humor. We wouldn't want that to happen.

Lyn McKinney McGraw

G-day to y'all. I am just getting off work and was told I need to dawn my sunglasses as I head home. Looking out the window it appears to be a beautiful morning. Think I'll go for a drive up to Mount Vernon. I love the glimpses of the Olympics on one side and Cascades on the other with the farmlands in between. This is the only side of western Washington that I have found buttes similar to those in Bend Oregon. You know the lil hills that profess to be great mountains like those in the background. I humor them and give them the same respectful nod of appreciation as I drive by. Living up around Camano Island we were entertained by the gale winds that blow up through the straights. Quite a Christopher Robin day if I do say. The nice after effects...it blew all the pollen away for a while so my runny nose and eyes were given a reprieve. Good to touch bases with you. John, I know your Scottish, but how about a couple of fun Scottish sayings to get us through St. Patricks Day (even if it is an Irish holiday). Whadayasay?

John MacLeod

Lyn.........

Here's a quick one for you. "Lang may your lum reek" It means long may your chimney smoke, which is a way of wishing somelne long life and properity.

Just got home from the job. My customer gave me three dozen oysters, which I just shucked. The wife unit is busy frying them as I type. Haven't eaten since early AM, so I'm ready.

John MacLeod

Good News, Bad News......

Good news is that Fabio is still with us and is turning 49 today.

Bad news is that he is thinking about changing his name to Flabio and dancing for the Chunkindales.

Rim shot, groans and give that guy the hook.

John MacLeod

Lyn,

Here is another Scottish saying. Keep in mind that Gaelic is one of those languages where phlem seems to be involved. Practice with awk and awk pitui to get the right tonal inflection. If you speak Yiddish you are already there.

Slainte mhor a h-uile la chi's nach fhaic. Which means great health to you every day I see you and everyday that I don't see you. Just stick with Slainte which means health or Slainte mhor which means great health.

What is Irish and stays out all night?? Paddy O'Furniture. How did the Scots teach the Irish to walk upright? We put a wheelbarrow in their hands.

Apologies to my Irish friends..............

Lyn McKinney McGraw

John -

Oh my goodness....giggle giggle...those were awesome. I had to get out a sqweegie for my computer screen trying to say those...putooey. Keep 'em coming. We still have a few days to celebrate.

Hope you enjoyed the oysters and didn't get a tummy ache from too many.