Interesting/Fun Facts About the Class of '68
As part of the upcoming 50th Reunion, we are establishing a "Classmate Fun Facts" page here on our class website. You may know something of fellow Classmates, or maybe yourself, that would be of interest to others in our class.
If so, please share these facts or experiences by submitting them to Larry Johnson via e-mail ([email protected]) or USPS mail (1230 Cambridge Drive, Lafayette, CA 94549).
All submissions will be kept confidential and completely anonymous as to the Classmate or the sender. (Legal activities only, and of course, keep it clean).
Example: A classmate operated a Bed and Breakfast in Kathmandu for 15 years.
Remember: No Names
Here we go:
If so, please share these facts or experiences by submitting them to Larry Johnson via e-mail ([email protected]) or USPS mail (1230 Cambridge Drive, Lafayette, CA 94549).
All submissions will be kept confidential and completely anonymous as to the Classmate or the sender. (Legal activities only, and of course, keep it clean).
Example: A classmate operated a Bed and Breakfast in Kathmandu for 15 years.
Remember: No Names
Here we go:
- At a young age one of our classmates had a successful gambling career started by betting his friends that he knew someone who had 6 toes on one foot. In fact, one of his friends had 6 toes on his left foot, one of his toes was split down the middle with 2 completely separate toes and toenails. So beware at the reunion of a classmate pitching a 6 toe wager.
- The Markleeville Death Ride received its notoriety for a very good reason. It takes place high in the Sierra Nevada Mountain range and is 129 miles long with 5 passes to be conquered. Three of the five passes are close to 8,700 feet and the riders must climb 15,000 ft. The riders endure 12 - 18 hours of riding under various weather conditions including rain, hail, or extreme heat. To complete this ride once is more than most riders can tolerate, one of our classmates has made this ride 12 times.
- Did your parents ever threaten to move while you were out and not tell you where they went? One classmate was returning home to Palo Alto on Navy leave from Vietnam and decided not to tell his parents he was coming home because he wanted to surprise them. When he finally got home after many unbelievable days in transit, he knocked on the front door of his family home at 5:00 AM in the morning, only to find another family living in his family house. “Your people moved,” he was told as the door was shut in his face. Luckily, his sister lived close by and he learned that his folks were now in New York City where his father had recently been transferred. His parents put their house up for sale in Palo Alto and it sold immediately, so they packed up the household contents, took 3 of the six kids and moved back to Long Island. They wrote their son a letter explaining the rapid fire transfer and move, expecting the letter to reach their son, not realizing he had also left his ship and was homeward bound. Moving on to his new duty station, about three months later he finally received his parents letter (looking very much like a battered steamer trunk) that had been stamped by several ships and FPO's (Fleet Post Office) in search before finally reaching him.
- This classmate went with a buddy to Spring Break in San Felipe, Baja. The first night sleeping on the beach with his pants for a pillow, a $20 bill was stolen out of his jeans. He promptly reported it to the town’s police station. However, the police did not set up roadblocks or went undercover to locate the missing bill, a fortune back then for two on the road. Fortunately, the other classmate had put his money in the bottom of his sleeping bag. They would have enough to make it back. Some fifty years later, the case of the stolen $20 is still unsolved.
- The two classmates on their way to San Felipe, Baja, had scored a couple six packs from one of the classmate’s older brother. Knowing that underage, they could buy cheap beer in Mexico, they decided to stash the precious beer in Calexico on the California side of the border to have when they returned. As if handling a huge drug transaction, this classmate strode as nonchalantly as possible into a Greyhound station and stashed the grocery bag of beer in a locker. A few days later upon return, he found that the key did not work because the lock had been removed. What to do now? Had the authorities figured out that anyone who would stash beer in a locker must be underage? Were they watching to see who went up to the locker with the vacant lock hole? Should he make a break for it? But they had a major investment in the beer, both in money, which had been depleted due to the stolen $20 (see above), but also more difficult to buy beer when underage. Sucking it up, he took the key to the counter and, when presented with a bill for late storage, paid it. The attendant then took the designated lock to the locker and left. The classmate found the beer in place and nervously walked out with it in the grocery bag tucked under his arm. His classmate awaited in the car, wondering what had taken so long. Was it a bust? The two then made their gateway, calmly, but soon jubilantly celebrating their heist of their own beer from a Greyhound station locker.
- Two classmates have been sending the same birthday card back and forth for 52 years!
- One of our classmates was a wild land firefighter in the 1970's!