50 year High School Reunion – Class of 1967

We made it!

On Wednesday we didn't know if we were going to make it to the reunion. I started chemotherapy on Friday the 7^th of July and we had no idea how I was going to react to the chemotherapy drugs. My oncologist said I would feel like I was hungover, our family doctor said that it was a sliding scale and some people get very ill.

I got very ill. I slept most of the day on Monday and Tuesday. I felt a bit better on Wednesday so we decided to drive half way, to Pierre and make a decision on Thursday morning, if there was no change we would return to Custer but if I felt better we would continue on to Fargo. We continued on to Fargo.

The reunion was scheduled for 3 days, Friday, Saturday and Sunday morning. Considering the chemotherapy drugs compromise the immune system we decided to attend only one evening and leave before I got fatigued, we looked over the schedule of events and decided that Saturday evening looked more interesting.

The party was at El Zagel, the club house of the Shrine organization in Fargo. It was built in the late 1960s if I recall correctly,  when they tore down the old Shriner building in downtown Fargo, I was in DeMolay at the time. El Zagel is a great place for a party.

We got there early, got registered and got a drink, said hello to Paul Meyers. The place looked very festive!  We looked over a display of photographs taken by George Schatz and news clippings that he and his mother had saved, there were hundreds of pictures as George was the yearbook photographer. George reminded me that we had both been in DeMolay during high school and he shared a couple of interesting stories.

Carol and I found a spot to sit down and watch people for a while. No sooner had we sat down

Terry sitting on the ice.

I saw Terry Miller. Terry and I had done a fair amount of SCUBA diving together, some of it chopping holes in the ice and diving under the ice. There were some interesting stories about that.

About that time Tim Berreth walked up and joined the conversation. Tim and I were study partners while we were engineering students at NDSU. Tim was also a SCUBA diver.  When he was in the Air Force he was flying a supply route to Vietnam and visited me twice when I was stationed in Okinawa. And we kept in contact throughout the years.

Dave Anderson walked by and visited for a few minutes.

 

And the evening kind of progressed like that...

I spoke with Stella Coser our exchange student from Brazil, Ann Koslofsky, Terry Slinde, Carol Nelson, and Chuck Stanton.

Got to speak with my old neighbors: Janice Rorvig, Dave Knodel, and Barb Moorhead.

BBQ was provided by Famous Dave's and was very tasty.  Tim Berreth joined us for supper.

During supper Paul Meyers and Merrill Piepkorn were MCs. My name was drawn out of a hat for a gift. On the way to the stage I began to get anxious and when Merrill put the microphone in front of me, with the question, "what is so great about Custer", I blurted out, “nobody lives there.” I wish my anxiety would leave me alone for a day. I could have said, “the rock climbing is great”, or “during the off tourist season it is very quiet and serene there", or "it is close to heaven."  I got back to my seat and my knees literally shook for 20 minutes. Reminded me of the panic attacks I had during Ted Larson's speech classes in the 9^th grade, I hated that class.

After supper the program continued with speeches from our class valedictorian, Shirley Olson Flittie

and class president, Stanley Grimm. Stanley is just as funny as ever. At the end of the program the group got together for the class picture.

I was getting tired and figured we should excuse ourselves in about 30 minutes, I wanted to say hello to a few more people. I visited with Gray Doffin, Stanley Grimm, Jan Byhoffer, Carol Lageson Seim. Then I caught up with Shiela Berg, Shiela was my angel when I was in high school, and I told her so. She always had a wonderful smile and a pleasant word that caused the sun to shine into my wretched life (I struggled with severe anxiety and depression) if just for a minute. I missed some people, sorry, I just ran out of energy.

On our way out the door I spied Nancy Willson and gave her a big hug and thanked for her many kind words on Facebook.

Tim Berreth walked us out to the parking lot and we chatted for 15 minutes more, promising to get together sometime in the next year.

Many thanks to Paul Meyers and the Reunion Team for putting on an awesome party.

I would say, "see you next time", but I doubt that I will be here for the next reunion. If I am not please “lift one for me”.

And if you are in the Black Hills of South Dakota, please look us up in Custer. We are in the phone book.  We always have the coffee pot on. And we love to share our love of the area with others, it is a beautiful part of the country. We have three seasons here, tourists with kids during the summer, it is a busy time of the year; newly weds and nearly deads in the fall (which is one of the best times to visit the Hills as far as I am concerned); and winter/spring, when the snow birds leave and “there is no one here!” (Winters are mild in Custer, snows don't usually hang around for long, unlike Fargo where the snow that falls in November is still on the ground in April, and temperatures are typically 20 degrees warmer than Fargo.  And if you want to try rock climbing, that could be arranged too.

Love to all,

Van