Saturday, October 06, 2018
Dear CHS Class of 1962
Subject: CoronadoHigh School Homecoming & Next-Day Gathering
Dates: Friday, September 30, 2011 and Saturday, October 1, 2011
October, 1961
(1)JFK advises Americans to build fallout shelters.
(2)Roger Maris hits his 61st home run, breaking Babe Ruth’s record.
(3)“Ben Casey”, “The Dick Van Dyke Show”, and “Mr. Ed” premier on network television.
(4)An expansion draft is held to stock the newly formed Houston Astros and New York Mets.
(5)The U.S. performs another nuclear test at the Nevada Test Site.
(6)Movies released to theaters that month included West Side Story and Breakfast at Tiffany’s.
(7)Familiar names on the Top 40 Hits list included Bobby Darin, Connie Frances, and Chubby Checker.
(8)The #1 music hit throughout the month was “Walking Back to Happiness” by… Helen Shapiro. (Helen Who? Google her up.)
Well, now is your opportunity to walk back to a bit of nostalgic happiness. Coronado High plans to celebrate the fifty-year span of Homecomings, 1961-2011, with a little bit of extra hoopla this autumn. And, of course, you are invited. But then you have a standing invitation to attend every year.
However –
For this year’s event a special guest will be there: Toni Mae Strong (now Maynard). Toni was our 1961 Homecoming Queen, although, if you recall, we did not dub that first event Homecoming, given there were no graduates yet to “come home”. We called our equivalent affair “Spanish Holiday”. Danny Huston, our football captain, was voted King. Toni was Queen. Recall, too, if you will, that Toni was our class salutatorian and a member of the all-state orchestra. (She played a mean French horn back then.) Besides being bright and talented, she was, and still is, an attractive and charming woman.
Your attending this Homecoming will be significant because the event is special to Toni. Late last summer Toni was diagnosed with small-cell lung cancer. She is fretting that she may not survive to attend the 50th reunion of the Class of 1962 in 2012. Because she has been undergoing aggressive chemotherapy, Toni is currently feeling pretty feisty and is confident she will still be ambulatory this October. Beyond that? Iffy.
In addition to Coronado’s formal celebration of fifty years’ worth of homecomings, an informal gathering of Toni’s classmates is being planned, in part to honor Toni, in part to reacquaint ourselves with other classmates and to dredge up old memories.To celebrate fifty years’ of Coronado High’s existence, and the changes that have occurred over the years – some good, some dubious** -- we may even commemorate our gathering with a ritual light-bulb changing. Changing a light bulb takes lots of alumni, you know: Only one to turn the bulb, but many more to reminisce about how much better the old bulb was.
Where the informal gathering will occur has yet to be determined. The venue will depend, in large part, on the number of positive responses we receive from this letter. Somewhere in Scottsdale. Homecoming itself has finally been announced: Friday, 9/30/2011. So the date for our get-together will be Saturday, 10/1/2011.
To respond regarding your attendance at the informal Saturday bash– Yes, No, or Maybe – please use one of the contact e-mail addresses or phone numbers listed on the next page. Even those of you who answer No or Maybe will be kept informed, in case you change your mind later.
Thank you.
Cheers!
Jeff Ridenour
Jeff Ridenour
for
Carole Richards (aka Debbie Tust)
and
Norm Storns
All of three of us CHS Class of ‘62
** The demise of the Don-ettes, for example. The fellow who replaced the irreplaceable Gene Hanson as CHS’s musical director deemed the Don-ettes expendable @1990, substituting a corps of flag-wavers for the lovely ladies.
Contact:
Jeff Ridenour
Crawfordsville, Indiana
(765) 359-0165
(765) 366-7862 (cell)
Carole Richards
7349 Via PaseoDel Sur
Scottsdale, AZ85258
(480) 675-9495
Norman Storns
Phoenix, AZ