Party at The Barn

The Class of 1967's answer to Dwight Yoakum...our very own Greg Feik. My apologies to Greg for not realizing he was a budding musician back in the '60's. While some of us were warbling in Chorus or playing horns in Band, Greg was strumming his guitar. (Look it up...says so in The Astrum.)

Greg and his band "Vintage Reissue" are now playing a regular gig the second Saturday of each month at The Barn in New Boston. You have two chances to hear him play in December because they will be the New Year's Eve entertainment as well.

The Harlans, my husband Frank, and I had a great time listening to their fine music and cheering every time Greg mentioned "Class of '67". Wish more of the class could have made it. Thanks, Greg, for giving me a reason to stay up past 8:30pm. Next time, if the old knees hold out, I'm going to dance.

Jo McIntyre ----- Found

What a great tool/toy the internet is! Jo McIntyre and I had a fun phone conversation this afternoon. She is sorry we did not find her before the reunion...I think we can convince her to come for a get-together before 2012.

She wants to hear from everyone. I have sent her email and phone number to the on-line contact list and I have emailed a copy of the "booklet" to her. Freely share her contact info with others who don't have email. I will add her to my next snail-mail mailing.

An afternoon of nostalgia

I spent part of the afternoon talking on the phone with one of my favorite teachers from AHS, Barbara Putnam. She was Barbara Sapinski at the beginning of our junior year in English and, I confess, when she returned from Christmas vacation as Barbara Sandbote, I felt betrayed. How could she have loved some guy more than she loved her students?

A few of us visiting together last year began speaking of her and it was fascinating that we had all been influenced rather strongly by her.

Through the ignorance of youth or the cognitive loss of aging, I didn't know or didn't remember anything about her life outside school. Living next door to the museum has special perks, though. My favorite is reading old Times Records on microfilm. And thus I discovered that Mr. Sandbote had been briefly employed at the TR as editor. But it was the late '60's and he left rather soon for the Navy.

That was all the information I had to guide me but fairly quickly found the website of Mr. Sandbote's law office in Texas where he had very kindly placed "editor, Times Record, Aledo, Illinois" in his on-line bio. I dashed off an email and a few months later he sent a gracious reply. Though he and Barbara are no longer married, he was able to give me a name which finally led me to her this afternoon.

She is a speech language pathologist, lives in Texas, married, has a son, step-children and step grandchildren. And she would love to hear from her former classmates...so send her an email and keep in touch.