It just seems to go faster. Time.
I graduated from Nordhoff High School, in Ojai, California in June, 1963.
Classmate Charlene (Stallings) Miller reminded me that we had gone to the Ojai Bowl for a pre-ceremony for the graduating class. Ah, yes, I remember It well, as the song goes. Not.
The actual graduation was held on the playing field. The band was set up on the 50 yard line. The bleachers were concrete and filled with the families of the graduating seniors. The chorus was assembled nearby. As a member of both band and chorus, I and Alan Petrich, my best friend, played in the band that day, moved over to the chorus for it’s performance, then moved to the line-up for the graduates.
Some will likely say I haven’t changed, but I didn’t hear anyone say that at the reunion. Possibly the glasses…
The reunion was held at the Soule Park Golf Course Meeting Room in Ojai. There were 125 graduating seniors in the class, and 45 of them were at the function, 80 people in attendance when you include spouses.
On Friday night there was a no-host bar designed as an ice breaker. I was torn between going into Ventura to a square dance, or this function. I chose the dance. We got dressed in our dance outfits, drove 45 minutes into the dance location, and nobody was around. Bummer. Drove back to our RV park at Casitas Lake, looked on the internet and discovered another web site gave a different address. Nuts!! Now it is too late to attend the ice-breaker or return to Ventura.
Next function was a breakfast at an Ojai restaurant. We didn’t go. I reasoned that the structure of a restaurant wasn’t conducive to meeting more than a couple people. I’ve been to those kinds of functions before anyway, and once you’re seated, that’s pretty much it. So…
Next thing was the BIG EVENT, a Saturday night catered dinner and no-host bar. Nice decorations. The committee really did a terrific job of organizing and executing. I’d like to make a word here about that. If anyone reading this blog is nearing a reunion, make an effort to contact an organizer and offer to help out in some way if you can. Even if it is across the state/nation. It always falls on the ones who have stayed nearby to get the reunions going. The others seem to just reap their efforts. I was guilty, and feel not so good about that. I did offer to help sometime before, but too late to be any good to anyone.
The High School in Ojai uses the original name of the town. That’s why as you see here, we were the “Nordhoff” Rangers. Somebody long ago thought that a really cute mascot would be this ranger sitting backwards on a crossed leg horse! It’s a challenge to defend your honor against schools who have normal mascots…but we were better for it. Sort of like naming your son SUE.
School colors were blue and gold. Yep, that’s our mascot in the center of the cake.
Gary and Gale
Carol Whiting left and right with Henry Baugh
Charlene, still blonde after all these years!
Someone decided that there should be a group picture of those who went to each of the areas’ elementary schools. I’m with the group of 16 who attended Meiners Oaks Elementary. My first school, Santa Ana Elementary is located underneath Lake Casitas!
Orrin Dolan and wife look at all the old photos and captions on the walls
.OrrinElaine (Garriga) and husband John
ElaineI picked these people pretty much randomly from the ones taken that night by Eloise. She didn’t have too much fun, but she took a lot of pictures!! Thanks luv. She made the comment that if the spouses/dates of the graduates wore different kinds of nametags, she might have been better able to relate.
I had loads of fun reconnecting with classmates! None of my personal circle of friends were at the reunion. Two of them had passed on to a ‘higher’ high school. Others have their own issues. Since I had only attended one other reunion (my 30th) I can hardly throw stones! It would be terrific to know what their stories are and how they are getting on. But even though I wasn’t in the circles of those at the reunion, it didn’t really matter. We were all simply old, and H.S. cliques were long forgotten.
We had long ago arranged with my sister-in-law Sharon Cunningham to park at her place, which is only 7 miles from Ojai. When we looked at google maps shortly before we to arrive, it was clear that no way were we going to fit either on the driveway or along side. We had been there while my brother Gordon was alive, but that was in a shorter RV. So we looked at the park at Camp Comfort, but couldn’t get solid information about it. We decided to stay at the RV Park at Casitas Lake, also just a few miles from Ojai. The pamphlet said the lake provides 50,000 people with water, on 2700 acres. Swimming is not allowed, but boats are okay if they are 11' minimum to 26' max. Pets are not allowed within 50' of the lake. I'd say good luck enforcing that one. We were able to spend some time with Sharon, but she was leaving for a 2-week trip to China right after we got there!
For those of you who might like to stay here, they have a web site that will show a picture of every reservable site HERE. Actually, this link will just take you to the "Bass" campground loop. By clicking on the "details" icon, it will tell you size and price. You can navigate wherever you want on the main site. Click on each small picture to see the actual site. In our case, we picked one that looked fairly level, B52, and looked like the trees wouldn't be in the way of our satellite reception. We booked on line without a hitch. Well, I'm sure glad we didn't come in after dark, because while backing in we discovered there was a large tree limb that hung down to about the 11' level. Just guessing. Our rig is 12'10". It just wouldn't have fit. In the dark we would have torn something badly! When we asked for an alternate site they were very gracious and accommodating. But, it might have been a real problem finding an alternative in the heavy use season....just sayin'.
Another minor detail while talking about the campground. There is a sign saying no re-entry after 9 P.M. We got concerned that we might have to park outside the entrance and walk in, so we went into the office. They explained that somebody was on duty all night, and all we had to do was call the number printed on our receipt, and someone would open the gate for us. It worked when we returned after hours, without a wait at all.
This is what it was like at our site:
Lots more room than the one at Vandenberg AFB. This is the other side and my nearest neighbor
I took Eloise on a drive around the area where I grew up. This is the house I lived in from the time I was 10 until I left home at age 18. (Just a reminder, you can single-left-click on any picture to enlarge it, click the back arrow to return to the blog):
.My father learned to break rocks and make walls while he was in the CCCs in MN. He was proud of his ability. This lady in the center of the picture is the current owner of our old house, a Mrs. Erickson, and she explained to me when I approached her that they had hired some people who recognized the work of my father, and knew him. They told the owner that they would be able to copy his work when they made the rock wall you see in the foreground. You can’t really see my fathers work there in the background, but I am very sure he would have approved of the new wall! Mrs Erickson asked if I would like to see inside, but I declined. She was very nice. That palm tree in the center picture was eye level when I lived there!
Well, so it’s back at Casitas Lake. That’s a disk golf hole there on the left, and a wee bit of a finger of Casitas.
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Hadn’t seen one of these portable 'holes' before. There was a league of ‘golfers’ playing a very tough course there in the hills around the lake.
Okay, that was my reunion and my visit to my childhood environment. Really glad that I went. Eloise was a very good sport! Thanks everyone for coming along on my journey.
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