Driving this blog has a learning curve, and I think the curve is going up. I just discovered that the last “post” was still listed in the draft stage and had not been posted. Now it has.

Dan Scraiffa just called and gave me a first-hand account of the “tobacco splat meets windowpane” event. He was there and one of the perpetrators. I have urged him to write his own account, so watch for it here as a comment. We also reminisced about the “jumping out the window event” in Miss Murray’s class, and he has close-up knowledge of that one as well. Let’s hear from you, Dan.

I also heard from the Byrds, who will be here. Larry and Fritzi Connally are thinking a golf outing. If any of you golfers have interest, give Larry a buzz at sbyrd13@comcast.net .

Memories:

Who remembers Life Magazine? Here is a cover from March 7, 1934—before our time, but the Lassos made the cover of Life back then.

Meanwhile, in 1954, minimum wage was $.75 per hour, gas was $.22 per gallon, the Dow Jones average was all the way up to 342.13. And the Boeing 707 made its debut. That was also the year that Joe DiMaggio married Marilyn Monroe. What a year!

We will relive all these memories and more at our 60^th class reunion.

More Lost Class mates:

Here are some more names of our 60 lost classmates. If you know of the whereabouts of any, please email jeff-54@satx.rr.com. Some probably have addresses in a cemetery somewhere, so if you know about that, send it in as well. You may notice that there are far more female than male names, to be expected since men do not change names (as a rule) when marrying. Where a married name is know, it is shown in brackets.

Gerry Mercer   Gail McElroy (Newberry)   Deloris Pesek (Pobllits)

Ann Moody   Pat McEnroy   Joyce Reichert (Chism)

Jeanne Moore   Claire Moreau   Linda Riley

William Lillis   Shirley Osha (Shaw)   Lawrence Sanders

Lucille Lopez   Nancy Partin   John Shaw

Ina Raye McDowell Helen Paul Joseph Siegel

The Reunion

Returning to the scene of the crime: If you attended our 30^th reunion, you may remember the Plaza Club venue (21^st floor of the Frost Bank Tower). Early in the evening at an appointed time, all classmates present trooped down to ground level and across the street to a vacant lot. There the Goldbeck studios had set up stands and we climbed aboard and posed for a panoramic photo. When we trooped back up to the 21^st floor, catastrophe had occurred. This reunion was billed as a cocktail buffet, which meant eat something before arriving at the party, where a variety of hors d’ouevres would be served. What we found is that our spouses had swarmed across the buffet like hordes of locusts and stripped the plates clean. Some of us went hungry that night.

Well, it has taken 30 years to dare to go back. This time, we will find a full buffet that sounds fantastic. More details on this later.

Thanks to all who are reading this and to those who are commenting. Feedback is good, so far.

Thanks to all who have made a comments. Jay Weidenfeld and Jeanine Price both spoke of teachers we were privileged to study under.  Any and all are urged to comment on the teacher you best remember or the one who meant the most to you. And if you cannot narrow down to one, more is good.

In that vein, I mention both Senoritas Perez and Wright, not so much because of the Spanish skills I acquired but mostly because I learned a tremendous amount about the English language, especially about tenses. I would also need to add Mattie Sharp Brewer in English. If she is looking down on us, then I must rephrase the paragraph highlighted above to read teachers under whom we were privileged to study.

Grammar aside, let’s hear it for those memorable teachers.

The Reunion:  Now, to talk briefly about our hotel. Do you remember the old Alamo National Bank? It sits on the southwest corner of St Marys and Commerce Streets. The Aztec theater is exactly cater-cornered across the street.  Potchernick’s Sports Store (now gone) was a half-block north on St Marys.   Our hotel lobby was the original bank lobby, with registration taking place at the old teller booths. A mezzanine surrounds the lobby with chairs and tables to sit and visit. We go down to basement level to our hospitality room. Along the way, we see the old bank vaults open with displays of memorabilia. Our gathering room actually opens right onto the riverwalk. The epicenter of riverwalk activity is a block or so away, and the river barge stops right at the hotel.

Where are they now?

We have approximately 60 classmates on our lost list. A few will be listed each time. Some may be deceased. Does anyone know the whereabouts for:

Nancy Grauer: Nancy left Jeff for UT as a drama major (what else?). As a freshman at UT, she was cast in a starring role in a Drama Department production. While at UT, she married a fellow drama major named James McLarty or McClarty. They graduated and left for NYC and the Broadway stage. A check with UT Ex-student Association ended with no valid address on file.

Edward L. Moses, Jr: We think Eddie is somewhere in the Houston area but have not been able to pin down a valid address.

John Gilbert Jones: Possibly somewhere in New Mexico

No Information:

Joan Ivanoff                   Patricia Fry                     Jane Stanley Isherwood

Janice Baldwin            Robert Lacey                 Nancy Cummings

David Newhouse        Nancy Robinson            Claire Moreau

More names will be posted in the next blog.  If you know whereabouts of any of these, please email info to jeff-54@satx.rr.com

These photos were taken by Victor Weiss, our physics teacher.

Your comments and memories are invited. As comments begin to flow in (and hopefully they will), do take time to read them.

•  Memory of the Day: Many of us remember Miss Ida Murray, math teacher who was really, really old. (Well, she was probably all of fifty at the time.) She taught on the second floor with a room over ledges and the carvings to the left of the main entrance to the school. One day one of our classmates climbed out the window and hid on the ledge. Jim McNeel has told this story and needs to repeat all of the details here, ‘cause he knows them better than I.
•  More on the reunion…Our hotel is providing a hospitality room that is available for anyone, whether you are staying in the hotel or not, to drop by and have a visit with other classmates. After every reunion in the past, a significant comment is that there just was not time to have a really good visit with everyone you wanted to see. Here is the opportunity to spend your down time recalling the good old days.
• In 1954… The world’s largest war vessel, the aircraft carrier USS Forrestal, is commissioned in Virginia.
•  How times change… Sixty years later in February, 2014, the de-commissioned Forrestal is being towed to a salvage yard to be dismantled. And, in 1954, the average life expectancy was 68.2 years. We recommend that classmates keep on trucking, avoiding salvage yards and dismantling.

Confidential: If you are by-passing our reunion because of the cost, we have received some generous donations to help defray part of the cost. Please contact me at jeff-54@satx.rr.com. No one but you and I will know about it.

One of the really important things each of you can do is to make sure we have your current contact information. If your email or phone or address has changed recently, send it along to jeff-54@satx.rr.com. If your underwear size has changed, we don’t care to know about it.

That’s all for today.  Please send along memories and comments and stay tuned.  When I can turn the laziness level down a notch, I will find some photos.

This is the second posting. If you look at the first posting and click on comments, you will have opportunity to see what others have said. If you wish to make a comment, I found that I am notified and must approve the posting. My thought is to approve all, no matter what the comments are, but then I assume that all of our classmates are laden down with class and will not be too rude.

Memory of the day. Probably everyone in our class heard about Mr. Daniel, the math teacher, having a chaw during class. The story goes that he would occasionally go to the open window and have a spit. One day, someone eased the window down, closing it. Mr. Daniel was unaware, and when he went over to spit out the window, it splatted against the glass and ran down. Is that urban legend or fact? Does anyone remember the event? Does anyone own up to closing the window? Was it Dan Sciaraffia or someone else who wants to claim the honor?

Let’s talk about our reunion. A survey last spring indicated that the vast majority is available to attend any time during the week, so it is scheduled for a Wednesday and Thursday. A somewhat unscientific research indicated that airfares are generally lower on those days and lowered hotel rates were offered.

For the first time, we have chosen a downtown hotel on the riverwalk as reunion headquarters. We committed to 50 rooms, and already we have surpassed the 50. The hotel is still accepting reservations at the great rate at this time.

Our hotel is the Drury Plaza Hotel San Antonio Riverwalk. It was originally the Alamo National Bank building back in the day, so it is nostalgia laden. As the name implies, it is on the riverwalk,

The committee is diligently working to make this the best reunion ever. It is anticipated that it will be the last reunion as we have known them for the past 60 years, so you should plan to join us on April 30 and May 1.

Send along your comments and ideas.

What’s a blog? A Web Log—a stream of stuff across the Internet originated by someone. Never thought I would do one, but here goes. I target this for classmates of the Thomas Jefferson High School Class of 1954, San Antonio, Texas.

What’s the purpose? We have a reunion scheduled for 2014—our sixtieth since graduation; my hope is to generate interest and excitement about the event and recall memories of those days so long ago when none of us ever intended to be as old as we are.

In the coming days, watch for information about the reunion and plans being made, along with comments about San Antonio and how it has changed, maybe some photos, and recollections. If your interest is piqued, please join in by responding and posting your own memories. (I don’t know yet if this site will permit responses.)

Let’s see where this goes. Without any response, I will conclude that this sterling prose put you all to sleep or else you have not awakened from your nap yet.

That’s it for today, except you should open your calendar to April 30-May 1 for the Jeff class of ’54 sixtieth reunion. We have a ton of interesting events in the planning stage, so stay tuned.

What’s a blog? A Web Log—a stream of stuff across the Internet originated by someone.  Never thought I would do one, but here goes.  I target this for classmates of the Thomas Jefferson High School Class of 1954, San Antonio, Texas.

What’s the purpose?  We have a reunion scheduled for 2014—our sixtieth since graduation; my hope is to generate interest and excitement about the event and recall memories of those days so long ago when none of us ever intended to be as old as we are. 

In the coming days, look for information about the reunion and plans being made, along with comments about San Antonio and how it has changed, maybe some photos, and recollections.  If your interest is piqued, please join in by responding and posting your own memories.  (I don’t know yet if this site will permit responses.)

Let’s see where this goes.  Without any response, I will conclude that this sterling prose put you all to sleep or else you have not awakened from your nap yet.

That’s it for today, except you should open your calendar to April 30-May 1 for the Jeff class of ’54 sixtieth reunion.  We have a ton of interesting events in the planning stage, so stay tuned.