June 30, 2007:

We recently lost two more classmates. Their obituaries are shown on the Recent Obits page.

April 21, 2007:

Carolyn Ward, our class reporter, received an email from Alvina Ellis advising her that her husband and our classmate, Robert J. (Jim) Ellis, had passed away on January 12, 2005 after a long battle with cancer. Jim has been added to our Memoriam page.

April 20, 2007:

As you may have guessed after reading the email you received last month, the address book now features photos of each classmate in 1953 AND, where available, a much more recent photo. If you have a problem with the photo used, please send a better one to the Webmaster. We hope you enjoy this new feature. Just remember that we all are past our prime photo years. Those who have no "now" photo shown are invited to submit one to the Webmaster for inclusion in this section. To go to the beginning of the address list please click here.

The big All-Class Luncheon sponsored by OUR class is just a little over one month away. The facility can only accommodate 400 people. So don't miss this milestone luncheon by reserving too late. The cutoff is May 17, 2007 but the tickets may be gone long before that date. Most of you should have received a reservation form but just in case you haven't, you will find a copy of this form here. This will be the last big event before we start celebrating the 100-year anniversary of Lincoln High in September 2007.

March 19, 2007 - From Loretta Ransom Hucks:

Loretta learned recently that Barbara ANDRESEN Whitney died on January 25, 2004. Barbara's father reported that she had suffered a heart attack during the night with no earlier warning of heart problems. Her father was a member of the Seattle Symphony and currently belongs to the Puget Sound Traditional Jazz Society. Barbara was retired and living in Gold Bar, Washington at the time of her death. She was survived by a son and a daughter. Barbara was a majorette with our LHS marching band.

March 18, 2007 - ALEXANDER HAMILTON FORTY YEARS LATER by Brock Hogle, 1951 Lynx:

Having grown up and lived in the Wallingford Neighborhood since 1940, I got to know the Junior High School named Alexander Hamilton. I remember we used to play basketball on the north blacktopped area on weekends and after school, even before we were in the 7th grade. I particularly remember, because as a FAT SIXTH GRADER, I had to climb over the nine-foot gate to get in. Jim Manus (51), John Thornton (51), Ralph Brown (52) and others were regulars.

I attended there from September 1945 to June 1948. They always locked the gates on the weekends and the fence never got any shorter for this growing boy. The hoops did not have any nets attached. I guess nobody cared enough? Why do I make this a major point of this story?? Because, when I returned there as a P.E.teacher some 13 years after leaving, the first thing I did was get the gate opened and locked into the concrete so people could pass but cars could not. I put ALL WEATHER NETS on the Basketball Hoops and saw that they were always there. There has to be some FAT KIDS out there that benefited from my actions??

Having opened in 1928, Alexander Hamilton had a BIRTHDAY PARTY on January 30th this year and was asking for alumni to come and be interviewed by students. I went, entering the building 41 years after I transferred to Nathan Hale High School in Lake City. Memories flooded through my mind as I signed in at the table in the entryway, just east of the PRINCIPAL’S OFFICE. My Classmates Paul Sava (51) & Howard Blair (51) were there as well as Norma Holmes Svardal, from your 1953 class. Walking the halls was tough, as they seemed so narrow. Lockers are now painted BLUE. The Boy’s Gym we played in and where I taught and coached for five years looked SO SMALL. No wonder our ZONE DEFENCE & TRAP PRESS worked so well, there was no room to get around it. The Print Shop where Mr. O’Neil taught us to separate type, put it in backwards and lock it into a frame so we could RUN THE PRESS, is now a classroom for Art.

The Former ART Rooms on the SECOND FLOOR are now the Computer Lab & many people were in there looking around. The Teacher’s Mail Boxes just inside the Main Office looked so small, an area I knew very well in my five years teaching there or as a student SENT TO THE OFFICE..

I was interviewed by a student, on video and tape-recorded. The questions were thoughtful. I told them that it was a GREAT SCHOOL when I went there and when I taught there. I told them the teachers were the BEST and named a few that took the time and interest to quiet me down and encourage me to do better work. I told them about the time in late 1947, when the classes were mixed, no longer all boys or all girls’ classes. I told them about the Science Department having two classes come to the second floor science room, shades drawn and showed a film on the Human Body & Sex. We were warned not to talk or make any noises. I assure you, we did not. In 1948, that meeting was our SEX EDUCATION for the year.

I gave them written statements from Jim Manus (51) on the GREEK SCHOOL that was taught on Mondays and Wednesdays near the SE Entrance. My older brother Bob Hogle (48) wrote his memories and singled out Mr. Johnson in the Gym and the 7th Grade Counselor who called him in and told him she was putting him into a College Prep Program. At that time, he had no thoughts on college but after getting his BS, MS & EdD which led to 30 years in Education, he KNOWS how important her work and caring was. Most of the teachers there were eager to help us learn.

I didn’t stay for the cake and get-together. I just felt “FILLED UP” with old memories & smiled all the way home. EIGHTY YEARS has been good to the OLD SCHOOL, I just hope I look as good when I hit 80.

March 10, 2007:

Two of our classmates passed away recently. Their obituaries are shown on the Recent Obits page. See their obituaries here.

March 3, 2007:

The Home Page has been streamlined to look more like a website. I hope that you will be able to more easily navigate the website with this new format. Check it out here. If you have any problems, please let me know at Webmaster

Betty HILLER Gronning and Diane LINNEMAN Bicknell attended the Hamilton 80-year celebration together (see Diane's story below). While there Betty took some photos of the old school. She is sharing these photos with us. You will find them here.

March 1, 2007:

The annual photos included with the Memoriam page have been well received by our class members. The webmaster has received many favorable emails on this subject. This has influenced me to expand the photo program to include those names in the Address List and those shown as missing. I hope you will enjoy this new feature. Now you won't have to dig out your annual to remember someone mentioned on this site.

February 22, 2007 - From Georgene Nelson Birchard:

I saw Arlene JOHNSON Wick's name in the missing classmates. I am sorry to report that Arlene passed away back in the 80s. I went to Broadview grade school from 5th to 7th grade with Arlene, one year at Hamilton Jr Hi in 8th grade and 4 years at Lincoln with her. I don't know how long she had been going to Broadview when I met her. She was a very dear person.

February 21, 2007 - Class Statistics:

I thought you might be interested in some statistics regarding our class. According to the Totem back in 1953 we had 563 graduates. We have, however, 658 names associated with our class. Of those 658 classmates - 187 are lost at the present time; 86 are known to be deceased; leaving 385 that we can account for with addresses. Of the 385, we have 164 email addresses. Also of the 385 - 284 (74%) live in Washington at least part of the year; 30 (8%) live in California year round; 17 (4%) in Arizona; 12 (3%) in Oregon; 7 in Idaho; 4 in Alaska; 3 each in Utah, North Dakota and Nevada; and 23 in other states. It looks like we didn’t travel far from the nest – unless the 187 lost classmates are the wanderers. Why should we leave? We have everything right here in Washington!

February 21, 2007 - An adventurous classmate becomes an author:

One of our classmates has had a very interesting life. As a young woman Mary FOWLER Trimble served as a purser and ship’s diver on the tall ship Explorer. Later, with her husband, she served in the Peace Corps in West Africa. In 1989 she and her husband quit their jobs, bought a 40-foot sailboat and sailed the South Pacific for two years, covering about 13,000 miles. Upon returning home she chose to write, forsaking her former career as a computer analyst. She has written two “coming-of-age” novels (published in paper and e-books) enjoyed by adults and teens, who love horses, ranching and contemporary Western stories. Mary is in the process of writing a third novel - a light love story with a subplot of the Mount St. Helens eruption.

Please visit Mary’s website at http://www.whidbey.com/marytrimble.

If you have a desire to purchase one of Mary's books, please go to http://amazon.com and do a search on "Mary E Trimble". Or, you may use the Atlantic Bridge Publishing site at http://www.atlanticbridge.net.

Following is Mary's bio taken from her website:

“In 1989, my husband Bruce and I acted on a dream we'd held for years. We quit our jobs, sold our home, bought a 40-foot sailboat and sailed the South Pacific for two years. After cruising, I couldn't bear the thought of returning to my former job as computer programmer/analyst at a large insurance company. Bruce encouraged me to follow my heart, so I began to write.

“We sold the boat and bought a home on Camano Island in Northwest Washington. My office looks out on five acres of clover-covered fields and evergreen forest. Our four grown children live in the greater Seattle area, within an hour or so of our home. Our five grandchildren, as diversified in their interests as their parents, keep us up-to-date with what's really going on in the world.

“By now I've had well over 400 articles published in magazines and newspapers. My first efforts were articles about sailing our Bristol 40, offshore cruising tips, and destinations. My writing soon expanded to other interests - RV travel, gardening, our two years with the Peace Corps in Africa, issues of interest to homeowners, and places to go, things to do. I'm active in the American Red Cross and respond to disasters locally and nationally and have written about these experiences, too.

“My novels, Rosemount and McClellan's Bluff are contemporary westerns set in eastern Washington and Oregon. One of the joys of writing is doing the research. I visited eastern Washington ranches and participated in roundup and branding, learning first-hand the language, dust, noise and mess of working cattle. Bruce and I have camped at many of the settings of these two novels, soaking up the unique, rugged countryside these two states offer.

“I am a member of Women Writing the West, The Writer’s Guild, Pacific Northwest Writers Association, Electronically Published Internet Connection, and The Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. My affiliation with Atlantic Bridge Publishing, the publisher of Rosemount and McClellan's Bluff, has been rewarding and eventful. An electronic publisher, Atlantic Bridge offers their books in electronic and Trade Paperback format.

“In addition to having books in print, it’s exciting to be involved in electronic publishing. I believe e-books will become as common as paperbacks and videos. After all, in the early days after World War II paperbacks were predicted to be a failure but by 1950 they were a part of every reader’s library. Later, it was feared that videos would replace movies but they have enhanced the film industry. E-mail and the Internet have opened electronic avenues for communication in all fields. E-books, too, will become a part of our lives and it’s fun being on the front lines of this rapidly expanding technology.”

February 15, 2007 - Hamilton 80-Year Celebration Open House by Diane Linneman Bicknell:

Talk about stepping back in time! My life long friend Betty Hiller Gronning and I drove to Hamilton together. I took the route driving south on Stone Way and turned up the street where we used to wait to catch the #6 Stone Way bus to take us home. No school busses in those days. We parked at the top of the hill and there it was - “Hamilton Junior High School” - just around the corner with all its lights ablaze.

My friend Betty and I entered the side door on the west side and right away we noticed that the “girls locker room” was no longer. In its place were doorways and several offices. In the front main hall there were tables to sign in and we were given a map. Then a former classmate Arlene Shulmier Daniel came up and introduced herself. I remember seeing her at the LHS 50-year reunion. She was at Hamilton with her daughter.

We were approached and asked if we would do an oral history of our time at Hamilton. Betty agreed and we walked up the old stairway to the second floor, where we entered a room where the recording equipment was set up. I agreed to do this, but only if we did it together, combining our memories. We were introduced to Evan, the young man who is a student at Hamilton. He would conduct the interview using a questionnaire sheet.

What years did you attend school here? We attended Hamilton Junior High School as mid-term students coming from John B. Allen, so we were there from January 1946 to January 1949. At times it was hard to remember what had taken place there or at Lincoln High School. But finally we got on a roll as the questions that Evan asked help jog our memories!

What were the clothes and fashions like? We recalled when the girls skirt lengths were so long they came to the top of their angora bobby sox. In protest the boys rolled up their pant legs - until they were told by the teachers to roll them back down!

In our Home Economics sewing class, our first project was a bib apron that you embroidered your name on. Then the next semester you wore that apron in your cooking class. Miss Hilton was our sewing teacher and I believe Ms. DeShawn taught the cooking class.

The Library was always my favorite room in the school, the view looking south towards the city was fantastic. Now the windows are covered with butcher paper to keep out the sunlight as it is a computer center. I worked in the library there and at Lincoln High School. It was something that I continued to do when I worked for the Seattle School District as support staff. I worked at Eckstein Middle School in the office and Library and later on at Ingraham High School library.

Evan asked how we earned money? Babysitting was my main source of income for which I got paid 35 cents and hour and 50 cents after midnight. There was NO Television. It wasn’t available for a few more years and then only a few homes had it. The programming went off the air at 10 p.m. In my home we didn’t have a telephone until I was a Junior at Lincoln High School. My friends had phones, but everyone was close enough and saw each other all the time so not having a phone was no big deal.

Entertainment…we lived on the west side of Green lake and in the summer time we spent many hours at the west beach. Also we were active at Zion Lutheran Church with its young people’s group and we belonged to the choir and attended Catechism Class. The Arabian Theater was nearby. We attended often and we worked there when we were older. The Ridgemont and Grand movie theaters were also places we went on foot, with no safety issues. There was a Wednesday night special called Surprise Night - 25 cents for two movies, but you didn’t know what they would be. Many a Saturday or Sunday afternoon was also spent at the Roller Rink at 85th & Fremont. Playland Amusement Park was located north on Aurora by Bitter Lake and it had a great roller coaster. Then we could also attend the Midget Car Race Tracks nearby. Another fun outing was horse back riding on Saturday for one hour for $1.00. The horse path we used was around Jackson Golf Course.

I’m glad we visited Hamilton and the past lives we had there. I’m also glad they are going to remodel the school. It truly needs to be updated and remodeled. It has been a long time coming. Thanks for a trip down memory lane.