Erik Kimple

As the saying goes, there is only two sure things, death and taxes, unless your super rich, then its only death, though they are working on that one. I'm not belittling people passing, my wife and I have gone through many deaths in her family and many or our dear friends here in Northern California , that have passed on. I saw a young man with a T shirt, on the back it said, the only sure thing is DEATH and the only important thing is how you are REMEMBERED, we remember our departed classmates with love. Go Quakers into that goodnight.

Barry Meyers

WOW! What a tremendous weekend! My wife, Linda and I met up with my really old friends (older than me by 3.5 months) the Benecke twins Jerry with his wife Margaret, and Mark with his wife Beth. We attended the Taste Washington event at the Century Link Field Exhibition Hall, then a dinner at Assagio. All day, we had great wine and food; and best of all catching up, which goes back 60 years since we grew up in the same neighborhood where we went to kindergarten together at John Muir, then off the Asa Mercer, and finally Franklin. We got to talk about grandkids, crazy pranks, walk 1st Avenue and Pike Place Market and figure out what's still there and what's not, Medicare, Social Security, travels, and on and on. It all ended to soon when Saturday evening can to a wonderful conclusion after a day of fun, laughter and camaraderie. Looking forward to the next round!

Donna Amira

You all look great! I could even recognize you! Thanks for sharing.

Sara Thompson (Thompson)

You all look wonderful. Our 50th reunion is not so far off. I just posted an announcement about the Franklin Hall of Fame Celebration. Gregory Dean who was in our class is being inducted, and I hope we can have a great turnout on his behalf - and it will be a perfect opportunity to remember old times.

Sara
 

John Hein

Barry M: Thanks for the post & pix. Sounds like ya had a great time. I haven't seen the Beneckes since the reunion in 2008. I hope all's well with you & the Beneckes.

Njoy, JRH

Jerry Benecke

Donna - Sarah - Thanks for the kind words & thanks for all your great work with the web site & FHS alumni.  We are all very proud of Greg & his accomplishments with the Seattle Fire  - see you at the 50th! - it's been great to reconnect with Barry ever since his return from Hawaii & Micronesia.  I will share a story about the Bear that goes back to 8th grade algebra class at Asa Mercer and the Heavyweight Championship fight between Ali (then Cassius Clay) & Sonny Liston. Liston was a unanimous favorite.  Barry was soliciting wagers on the fight - he was the only one betting on Cassius.  We scraped together our hard eaned nickles, dimes & quarters and laid our money down - even some of the girls participated.  If there was ever a sure thing, this was it!  Our only concern was how was Barry going to pay all of us back.  Of course, Ali knocked out Liston in the first round and the Bear has been eating well ever since!

Jerry Benecke

JR - nice to hear from you!  - hope you are enjoying retirement - Mark & I are both semi retired - Mark is a tennis offical when he's not playing - I work as a sub for the Lake Washington school district transportation department a few days per month  - we've looked at moving up to Camano when my wife retires in 1-2 years or somewhere where the sun shines a little more.  Now that we're older, I understand why older people cut down trees.  Very sad to read about Larry Bingham's passing - I hope his brother Gary is doing well - take care, Jerry

Barry Meyers

Donna, Thanks for the response. Linda and also got to see one of your old Seward Park neighbors (although younger than us by 4 years), Paul Krasnowski. We always stop when in town to say hello and kibbutz with him.

Sara and John, Thanks for the response also.

Jerry, I'm still trying to remember where the proceeds disappeared to. That must be why it's difficult to live large.

Everone Else, This blog seems to have slowed down. What's going on? Who have you seen lately? You know, stuff like my good fortune being able to catch up with Al Ovadia last November in LA. What exciting have you done?

Anyone going to see anyone or anything good in the near future (We're seeing Joe Bonnamassa in May)? Hello

Mark Benecke

Thanks for all the birthday greetings everyone and a big congrats to Greg Dean for his selection to the FHS Hall of Fame.  Wow...what a well deserved honor and reward for a great guy and his special accomplishments and leadership.  I'm sure Gregory's inclusion was by "unanimous" vote.  I'd also like to offer congratulations to my fellow FHS alums signing up for Social Security and Medicare.  (Welcome to the club!)   A special salute to Brother Jerry and Margaret for marking 40 years of blissful marriage in 2015!  How many of us can match that!  I have to give a shout out to my lifelong friend Barry.  He may be responsible for getting me started in radio back in the day.  Once in awhile, Barry and I would drive down to KOL Radio on Harbor Island and say hello to nighttime d.j. Burl Baer.  We may have taken a few phone requests and passed them on to Burl.  Of course we always wrote down the song we really wanted Burl to play!  These days I'm staying way too busy driving shuttle three mornings (Mon/Tue/Wed) per week for Sunset Audio/Porsche.  I work with a lot of young men and women in their 30's, many the same ages as my daughter's.  I wasn't sure what it would be like working with so many young people.  To my pleasant surprise, it's been totally refreshing. They have great teamwork, take personal responsibility for their job, possess a super attitude, understand the value of happy customers and their led by an outstanding 33 year old manager.  It's so nice to see young people doing so well!  I'm also in my 4th year of officating junior and adult tennis matches and tournaments.  I'm on court with a lot high school players, former college players and old guys & gals like us.  One of the venues for the junior tournaments is Paul Kagyama's alma mater, Lewis & Clark College. What a beautiful campus!  Next year I have to decide if I want to officate  Division One college tennis.  I'm also playing on two adult (men and mixed men/women) teams at Club Green Meadows in Vancouver. I guess it's my way of hanging on to my youth as long as I can still run and jump a little and avoid chronic shoulder, wrist & knee pain.  One of my retirement pastimes has been rebuilding a couple of cars I've owned for awhile.  In the fall of 1998, my youngest daughter Debbie decided to forgo her senior year at Mountian View H.S. in Vancouver and attend Clark Community College on their "running start" program.  Since Clark was about 6 miles away from our home, Deb needed her own car.  I ended up giving her my car, an early 90's Peugeot, and I went out and bought something I always wanted, a 1979 Porche 911 Targa.  Over the years I've had the Porsche painted and many of the parts replaced.  Finally, after 16 plus years of rebuilding the car...I think I'm finally done!  I know J.R. had a Porsche during our time at Franklin.  What was the year and model John?  Do you have a pic you can post?  Was the color Robins Egg Blue?   My other vehicle project is a 1997 Jeep Cherokee Sport.  Beth and I bought the Jeep on a lease return from a bank in 1999 when we started our business and needed more utility for supplies and light cargo.  The fun thing about the Jeep is there is nothing "power" on the car so very little can go wrong.  It doesn't even have power windows or locks.  (My grand kids have no clue how windows can roll up and down by hand.)  The Jeep has 170,000 miles on the car and the Porsche, nearly 258,000.  I hope this message finds you all happy and in good health!

Robert W Talbot

Nice looking cars especially the Porsche . I remember Johns; a red 63? 356 with black interior. Nice!?? I think I recall when he was doing some engine work on it he and his Dad got frustrated about removing or replacing the Pistons. According to the shop manual you had to heat the Pistons to a certain temperature. Apparently a real pain in the posterior. But when it ran, did it sound sweet! ?? Ah the good old days.

John Hein

Bob T: As Ed McMahon would say, "You are correct Sir". It was a 1963 Porsche 356C, Porsche red with black interior.

Mark B: As Johnny would say to Ed, "You are wrong Budweiser breath". I didn't get the Porsche until 1970. In hi skewl I had a 57 Chevy 210 briefly as it was a rust bucket. Then I had a '62 Impala, which John Schwartz would buy just before we graduated. At that time I gotta '65 Buick Gran Sport. In '69 I gotta VW Beetle, later a '61 Olds 98, then the Porsche. I've looked and I can't find the car pix I know I have....somewhere.....Watch this space..... Oh yeah, nice Porsche & Jeep you have too. This one isn't mine, but it's exactly what it looked like.

Jerry B: I remember the Sonny Liston controversy. We would learn later that Liston was owned by organized crime so they could fix the odds and walk away with big $$$. That's probably why Cassius Clay won. I'd learned way back in grade skewl that wrestling was fake, but it took until 8th grade to learn that boxing was fake too. Maybe the Bear was just trying to help his "family"(?). 'Twas nothing new: In 1919 Arnold Rothstein (notorious New York "invester") fixed the World Series, and was never charged with anything. There's a docudrama about it called "Eight Men Out". Shoeless Joe Jackson would make his return in "Field Of Dreams".

Good to see posts from all of ya, and hope all's well with everyone, JRH

John Hein

OK, are U watching this space ??? I finally found the car pix:

'62 Impala

'65 Gran Sport

'63 Porsche 356C

Off topic, but here's a pic of Larry Bingham (RIP) helping me side the house. You can tell by the long shadows we weren't quite outta winter (1991). The bundles of bevel cedar siding were frozen together. We had to take a chisel and break the ice to get them apart. Larry died a year ago, the same day the KOMO 'copter crashed at the foot of the Space Needle. I'm re-siding the house now, and I think of him often. Miss him.....guess I always will.......

Njoy !!!

Robert W Talbot

I remember when we were waitin in the 62 for Liner Flaten to shoot the tubes. Oblizlo showed up in his black 56 and asked if you wanted a tune up race with him. Tail lights was all we saw! Found out later about his black 56. Ram quads,488 deadens; you get the picture. Great memory! ??

Al Ovadia

So Mark, I just read your post and all the other great ones that followed. I was cacking up when you mntioned Burl Barer and KOL. Burl is my ex-brother in law's brother. Stan and my sister were married for I guess 15 years or so. Met him when I think I was about seven or eight. Great guy.

Love the car photos. My run with cool cars ended abruptly when I sold my red '57 when I was a freshman at UW. It would be another 15 years or so before I got back into it when I was in a position to have the money to get into it again.

John Hein

Al O: I met Berl Bear at a custon rod & bike show, circa 1970. The main draw was Captain America's chopper so prominently featured in Easy Rider. I had a 1966 Norton Atlas at the time. Dah Bear used to play "underground" albums on the graveyard shift. He'd play a whole side of an album, no commercials or station ID or any other interuptions. That was unique at the time. I had a cheap Kenwood receiver and a pair of home-built speakers, and I listened to KOL FM a lot. Where's Dah Bear now ???  

John Hein

We're all spelling it wrong: His name is Burl Barer. Apparently he's still active in broadcasting. Luv that underground album format. Thanks, Burl !!! Seems to me KOL had a hydroplane for awhile too......great memories from the daze of our youth, when we were young and immoral.

Jerry Benecke

 Burl Barer is a succesful author, entrepreneur and radio legend - so many great "DJs" and stations back in the day. Speaking of cars and their owners, has anyone heard from David Eberharter or Jeff Yoshinaka - hope all is well.

Barry Meyers

John H., Yes we are no longer, young, but I'm thinking the imoral part may still apply.

Robert M Temples

Hi fellow 68ers!  I'm sure noone will deny the contributions our classmates have made on the world. I remember when they announced that 80% of us were attending higher education after graduation. We were multicultural with demograhics across broad.

He're we are 47 years later some retired others working towards it. As many of those Franklin Grads that successed before, we have much to be proud of. We have lost classmates over the years to war, illness, and accidents.

At times I wonder all the stories of lives well lived we could share of all that we have seen and lived in our lives. All of us bonded by three years of our young lives in school. Three years out of 65 that made for a lifetime of memories.

So I lift a glass to all and appreciate you all being part of the fabric of my life!

John Hein

That's sad that we've lost another classmate. RIP Bob.

Robert W Talbot

I too will miss Bob. Rest in piece.

Glenn James Schoenmakers

Bob Temples and I knew each other on friendly basis at FHS. We were not close, but we knew each other. During that time I always remembered Bob as somewhat gangly and tall. I'm sure he didn't smile all of the time but that's how I remember him. Always with a smile. I later saw a picture of him and his partner on Facebook. While he had lost the gangly appearance, he remained tall in stature. When I saw that picture, I couldn't help but think what a fine man Bob had become. When I read his last post, I thought it was very insightful and sincere. My condolances to Bobs family and friends. He will be missed. Another candle gone out. I will lift a glass each year at this time in memory of all the classmates we have lost.

Sincerely, 

Glenn

Dorothy Rodes

My best memories of Bob Temples are from Geometry in sophomore year. Clearly he was a kind man. Saw him at the last reunion ... didn't recognize him at first ... the warm vibes were the same. Fare thee well.

Susan Fannan (Kaeser)

Bob was a dear friend of mine, starting at Sharples. He was a kind and caring man. I was happy for him and Michelline when they found each other. He will be missed by many.

Judith E. Payne

Warm summer greetings from DC!

I don't think I've ever posted here but have read many of your messages over the past year or so.  It is so wonderful that so many of us are connecting, sharing memories, appreciating our pasts and our blessings.  I'm still working but hope to retire in a couple of years.  I love my work with USAID as the info tech advisor for agriculture but I would love to spend more time with my daughters, their babies (2 so far), hiking, gardening, hanging out with my dog, cooking, reading and sleeping.  I enjoy all of this now as I can around work.

Judy (Payne)