 You
Don't Know Jack --
01-10-02
In With The New(year) -
Can you believe it? 2002 already! The year 2001 just
flew by. 2001 was the "Space Odyssey" year
of the movie fame. Heck, I was aiming to put Hal's (the
computer) voice on my home PC in honor of the year and
just forgot about it. I saw that movie over and over
again when I worked at the Henrico Theatre. The Henrico
Theatre, now that was an experience.
Since I have started writing this entry a 15 year old
boy has gone and flown a plane into the Bank of America
building here in Tampa. (For those of you who don't
know, I live in Tampa, FL). I saddens me that this had
to happen to a kid as a way to get some attention. I
know some of you will say, "What kind of attention
is that?". As the saying goes ..."Negative
attention is better than no attention at all".
This kid was a loner and was kind of left out of the
main stream social circle and his only way of getting
noticed was to kill himself by flying into a building.
Oh yeah, about that note saying he was sympathetic with
you-know-who's cause? I don't believe that was anything
more than his insurance policy to make sure that his
story got on the news and stayed there for awhile. So
my point is this...this site and our relationships with
each other are a direct result of of a high school social
scene much like the one that failed this young boy.
And after all we are really nothing more than the same
people we were in high school except that we are just
older now and most of us have kids of our own. So, take
a moment and think about all the people you knew then
and see if maybe there are some people you may not have
taken the opportunity to socialize with our get a chance
to know while in school and if you see them on this
site, you might want to drop them a line or two to just
say hello and welcome them onto our little high school
on the web. If you know of someone who isn't on the
site just let them know that we'd love to have them.
That's all, reach out and touch someone's life.
At this point I'd like to say that I am soooooo glad
I decided to start this site. I have had the opportunity
to interact with a lot of my old high school friends
that I haven't heard from in years and actually made
some new friends with people I never got to know in
high school. So I have been rewarded and enriched already.
I've tried to get the attention of some of our former
classmates who have signed up with Classmates.com and
get them to come on over here also. Jim Fisher and Lisa
Blackwell come to mind and I'm sure there are a few
others, but I've gotten no response yet. I know some
people are just too busy with their lives to spend a
whole lot of time on the computer. I did find Dodie
Campbell In Texas and contacted her but apparently she
is just too busy as a Dr. or just not interested. Terry
Kennedy has not responded yet. But Hey! They are still
our friends and maybe we'll get them to come around
eventually. On the other hand, I have made some great
connections and reconnections. One that I found most
interesting was Johnny Delaney. We've emailed back and
forth a couple of times now and I thought it was so
cool. For those of you who don't know, ol' JD was the
president of our fraternity, Sigma Psi, and he and I
got off on the wrong foot in high school and we ended
up in a stupid boxing match pounding the life out of
each other in Bryan Park. Silly kids! But he's doing
well and I'm doing well and I'd like to have a beer
with him sometime when I get back to town. I got to
contact Micky Taylor, Boo Miller, Donah Miller, Debra
Stanley, Suzanne Isaacs, Sue Kurzman, P'nut Wilson and
Leah Ziegler (just to name a few). It's been great fun.
So please use the site to connect and reconnect!
I am also very glad and excited about Dan Zodun jumping
in here and taking on the mantle of Web Designer Emeritus.
He deserves a giant brownie button because he has done
a lot of stuff behind the scenes that I'm not going
to embarrass him and mention them here because he is
not quite as emotionally needy as I am. Just trust me
on this.
Some new joinees I'd like to mention are Jack Maynard
who just came out of nowhere and joined our site. Cool.
Also Donna Lee Weimer (Leflar) from the Class of 1958
just joined and I am extremely excited about that. Donna,
you are the first from your class year to join and I
hope more will follow. This tells me and Dan that slowly
the word is getting out. I mean we are really growing
as a site much faster and more successfully than I ever
dreamed of and it would not be possible without everyone's
involvement.
As we move forward we will be making changes to the
look of the site and adding more and more things. We
plan to install a search engine and a bulletin board
so there can be more interaction between members. Trivia
and more history. We are asking for content contributions
from members also. I would like to add a Photo Gallery
of pictures and things that people may not get to see
otherwise. If you are interested in contributing, email
me and we can work out the particulars on getting the
photos scanned and returned to you. I've thought about
adding a Memorial page where people could post thoughts,
feelings and remembrances about our friends who have
passed on. Let me know what you think about that idea.
One last thing. I would like to see us get a virtual
Alumni Newsletter started on the site and have some
regular writers doing monthly columns on the site. Got
any volunteers?
Okay, I'm done for now. Don't forget to write.
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