People look at this blog! Records are kept as to how many people look at the blog and how often.  I just found and studied these today.  Records show that  933 have viewed since the first posting, including 94 on one day. That is encouraging, though on study, I discovered that 94 different people did not look at a particular blog, but that some came back to it more than once. A bit more disappointing is that there have only been 29 comments–disappointing because the original intent was to stimulate discussions and memories.

What’s next? The reunion is past, but work remains to be done. Maybe it is a fanciful idea that is too ambitious, but here is what I see over the next few months:

• Those who took photos are sending them to me to do something with.  Most likely, this will be to put them in a slideshow format to post to YouTube, as we have with the past two reunions. That is easier said than done. It includes identifying and labeling each photo posted, tweaking them to improve the lighting, focus, sharpness for some, and finding some suitable music to download that is royalty-free. If you did not see these previous efforts, I will hunt down the website reference and post next time.
• Creating a history of the class of 1954. The purpose here it to develop a document for our classmates and to present to the TJHS Historical Preservation Society for their archives. The vision is to coerce, beg, plead, for all classmates to send in a history of their lives since Jeff days, along with a recent photo and one from the yearbook.
• Continue to hunt for lost classmates via the Internet. This is a spare time effort, of which there is little (spare time).
• Create a current directory of classmates. This just takes some time but will probably be done early, as I have already received a dozen requests for addresses of classmates following the reunion.

So do any of you want to be a part of this effort? Here is what will help the most—and I know some of you know how to do this: Will anyone scan in all or a portion of the class of ’54 photos from the 1954 Monticello? Ideally, scanning and cropping into individual photos will help the most, but even just the pages scanned in will be a great start. And if several wish to help with this project, we can divide up the pages. If you are willing, let me know via comment here or email to jeff-54@satx.rr.com. With this help, I can move the project along much faster.

A pre-reunion casualty. Missing from the reunion was Sam Granato, who was scheduled to arrive in San Antonio several days prior to the reunion. After the reunion was finished, Sam sent an email that he arrived in San Antonio and ended up in the hospital with emergency surgery. We did miss you Sam and trust you are back on your feet by now.

Picture time

It’s the fight song with cheerleaders

Bettye Sue Conrad Dube,

Doug Campbell, and

Betty Stensland Saunders

                                               The blondes: Marcia Pittman, Texas Nowotny Myers,

                                                 and Sarah Belcia Yates