We stayed at the house of Melinda Race. She is a dear sweet woman, who embraces the meaning of hospitality. Her generosity knows no bounds. I have known since grammar school. This time we got to met her other daughter. Melinda has a beautiful family.
Saturday morning, we got up way to early. We headed over to Yoyo's. Yoyo is a friend from Peru. She made us a delicious breakfast and we enjoyed chatting with her.
Carmen and I both got off early so that we could drive down to southern California. We left at 11:15 and got in just after 7:00pm. We made really good time until we were on the I210 East and got to the tunnels in Pasadena, then we crawled the rest of the way. If is funny how the diamond lane is often not as fast as the regular lanes.
(This picture was stolen from Grant Jones)
Next we headed over to Lee and Judy Fisher's house. Waiting there was another friend Cecil Brower. The Fishers and Browers are families that we were very close to. I went to school with their kids, we were in Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts together. Our families spent a lot of time together. Both Lee and Cecil were very active in Scouts and attribute many good lessons that I learned to their efforts. There should be more people in this world like them.
We chatted about old times and where everyone was now and how they are doing. Next time I visit, I need to bring my dad. One of Lee Fisher's favorite quotes by my dad is "It isn't easy being a Webelo”..
While Mr. Brower still lives in his house in Glendora with is wife, Lee and Judy no longer live in their 5 bedroom house in Glendora. They now live in a beautiful 3 bedroom house in Rancho Cucamunga near one of their sons.
Next we visited COBOS (Diana Campbell), her daughter Zoe and her grandson Logan. What a cutie. He is a babe magnet and we took some short videos which are posted on Facebook. Can we say Facebook here?
That evening Melinda, Cobos, Carmen and I headed over to Honolulu Harry's for a mini reunion. The reunion was planned by Grant Jones of 1979 and open to all years, which has become the tradition. I think it was the best one so far. There was live music, yet everyone could hear. The prices were very reasonable, the food was pretty good and the seating worked very well.
(This picture was stolen from Pearl Sittrop)
I thought I was going to a COHS mini reunion and I was. I saw many friends that I always enjoy seeing such as Melinda Race, Judy Zeiter, Bill Hicks, Sonya Conn, Gary Dahle, Craig Schaeffer and many others, but my family was very active in Boy Scouts (BSA). Earlier this morning I spent time with some wonderful people from Boy Scouts, but imagine my sheer delight when two Eagle Scouts, Tom Sargent and Albert Funfstuck where there. Tom's dad was another one of those parents that were very involved. Until that day, I had not seen anyone from Boy Scouts in 30 years these two made for a total of five in one day. WOW.
(This picture was also stolen from Pearl Sittrop)
There were quite a number of people that showed up that have not made other reunions and so again it had been over 30 years since I had seen them. One such person was Jim Vanessa. Jim and I had played Little League Baseball together. Our very first team was the Delephane Truckers. Worst team ever! The following year we did quite a bit better as Savage Mazda. Naturally we had no idea what a Mazda was at the time or how to pronounce it. Jim's dad was our coach. He was one of those great parents that really make a difference. It was so good to see Jim after so many years. In case you don't know Jim, Jim was funny. He still is! We had a riot!
Carmen and I are very grateful for Melinda putting us up at her place and I am grateful to Grant Jones for putting this mini-reunion together. It was First Class!
