Name: Wayne Gratiot ~~~~~~~~~~ Fri-May 9, 2008, 3:42 pm - HHS Time
City & State: Summerland, CA
E-mail
Message: Since you posted the photo of Wiseburn/Dana today, I have a few comments to make about what I remember about my time at R.H. Dana in the 6th, 7th and 8th grades in the late 60's.....What was the name of the baseball-based game that we played at lunch with the "flat" bat and a soft baseball-sized ball?.....Does anyone remember that during that time, the entire block all the way to Isis and Peter Burnett was all grass where we could play any number of games all day? Harry Philipp and I among others would go out there with a baseball bat and some golf balls and, of course, our baseball gloves and whack some huge fly balls to each other and try and catch them. Boy, wish I could have hit a baseball that far!!.....The other goofy thing we did was to try and walk along the ledge right below the windows at Dana and see how far we could get before falling off. A few times the janitor would see us and chase us away. Oh, to be 12 years old again.

Name: Barbara Duran ~~~~~~~~~~ Fri-May 9, 2008, 7:57 am - HHS Time
Class: 1972
City & State: el segundo
E-mail
Message: Hello Gary Bickers! I just read your post about Ty & Neva's wedding. If memories serve me, didn't you also stand in for Ty in the cake cutting photos with Neva? Tys mom, Virginia was so upset. I have dinner with Virginia weekly...she's a great lady. She's been my stand-in Mom. I love her.

Name: Ron Kritz ~~~~~~~~~~ Thu-May 8, 2008, 9:36 pm - HHS Time
Class: 1956
City & State: carson ca,
E-mail
Message: to all. I attended hawthorne high 56 & part of 57 don't remember to much wasn't there much. lot of beach parties and ditching. I knew mr nelsen real well. my older sister Marian and brother Jack and younger brother also attended. (the goods days) how good we had it then and didn't know it.

Name: Gary Bickers ~~~~~~~~~~ Thu-May 8, 2008, 9:29 pm - HHS Time
Class: 1963
City & State: pve cal
E-mail
Message: Cougar sighting: I was meeting my wife at the Chart House in Redondo for dinner. At the next table was Bob Knewsome his wife Diane and with them was John Mitchell and his wife in from Montana. These are all class of '61 I think. At the next table was Ron Petch and his wife. Diane Knewsome finds out who Ron is and goes to his table to tells him he ruined her Home Coming Game by kicking the winning extra point. She went to Santa Monica High. You all remember the greatest game in HHS history?

Name: Ricki Farrell ~~~~~~~~~~ Thu-May 8, 2008, 5:53 pm - HHS Time
Maiden: Valencia
Class: 1961
City & State: Tucson AZ
E-mail
Message: Here's a link to Clayton Williams' obituary. I'm certain that many of you would appreciate the opportunity, as I do, to share a few words with his family.

Name: Jessie ~~~~~~~~~~ Thu-May 8, 2008, 5:16 pm - HHS Time
Maiden: Corral
Class: 1974
City & State: Los Angeles, CA
E-mail
Message: Happy Mom's Day to all the Cougar Mom's! I hope your little Cougarettes shower you with nothing but love and affection...and breakfast in bed or dinner and lots and lots of gifts!! You deserve it!

Name: Gary Bickers ~~~~~~~~~~ Thu-May 8, 2008, 2:25 pm - HHS Time
Class: 1963
City & State: pve cal
E-mail
Message: Howard, great to see your pictures. I was happy to see your Mom looking so good. I think your mom and mine are the only ones left off 134th street. The question is, did Goodman ever take a picture not doing the HUYNE FACE? The second question is the Ty wedding pictures were of the wedding only? I remember he did not show at his reception and I stood in for him in the pictures. He was playing golf in northern Cal and missed his flight because they went extra holes. Bless that guy's heart. He was a real HYMIE.

Name: Margie Lopez ~~~~~~~~~~ Thu-May 8, 2008, 2:19 pm - HHS Time
Maiden: Galindo
Class: 1978
City & State: Hawthorne,Ca
E-mail
Message: My sincere condolences to Krista and the Williams family...Mr. Williams was a great and gentle giant of the art department at HHS...I remember my senior year I took 2 of his art classes, and also had Karna Gottenders ceramic class...I had a project due in his class and of course left it for the last minute...so I took my brother's art work (Alex had Mr. Williams when he was at HHS in the early 70's) and handed it in as my own...well imagine my surprise at getting a big fat 0...with a note attached...this is your brother's work and he already got an A...(Alex was, and still is a creative genius)I was so embarrassed...and I should be...but Mr. Williams was so sweet and never said another word to me...I could never draw as well as my brother...but to this day I can draw a pretty decent tree...also when my daughter Jessica attended high school at The Academy of Animation and Digital Art in Lakewood 2 years ago...the head of the art department was none other than the lovely and talented Rikki Farrell c/o 61...it's a small, small world and the legacy of Mr. Williams lives on in all the students that he taught...and so on and so on...thanx for sharing him w/ us...Margie

Name: Patty Saville ~~~~~~~~~~ Thu-May 8, 2008, 2:04 pm - HHS Time
Maiden: Valencia
Class: 1974
City & State: Laguna Beach, Ca.
E-mail
Message: Vacant lots - I remember riding bikes with V6 one summer day. This old couple (probably in their 40s or 50s)pulled into this lot and parked. Gloria and I were just riding around in circles practicing turns and then riding up and down the streets. We got to Ramona, rode through the alley and cut across this vacant lot to Truro. Bad timing, the couple was pulling out and accidentally ran into Gloria. She went down, her handlebars were a bit tweaked, and the couple was horrified. I stopped, picked Gloria up, dusted her off, assured them that she was ok, fine-tuned her handlebars and we started off. "Are you sure she doesn't need to go to the hospital?". "No, she's fine." Heck no- we didn't want to cut short the summer day. She was only dazed for about another 20 minutes. Guess that episode wouldn't be real common today.

Name: Sue Hans ~~~~~~~~~~ Thu-May 8, 2008, 10:27 am - HHS Time
Maiden: Hans
Class: 1961
City & State: San Mateo, CA
E-mail
Message: Dennis I do remember and do you remember Steve Trull? I saw him several years ago up here. He was living in San Ramon working for ATT. We had dinner a few times and then lost track of him again. I will never forget drinking 7up in his garage after school, way before Hawthorne High. We will be down in Southern Ca in two weeks to visit my son (in Crestline) and hope to go see the old places. Although, our house is now the 405. Thanks for the info on Doug. I wonder where Larry is. I lived in Hawaii right after graduation and surfed there for several months. When I came back Rikki and I got an apartment in El Porto. Fun times.

Name: Stephanie Brito ~~~~~~~~~~ Thu-May 8, 2008, 10:25 am - HHS Time
Maiden: hall
Class: 1961
E-mail
Message: John, this message is JUST for you. I was reading your words and others' words about play in vacant lots. I taught 33 years, last 21 were with inner city Hispanic primary age students, so I worked a lot on expanding their vocabulary. I talked to one class one day about vacant lot play. They could not visualize the concept of homes or apartment buildings not occupying all the space. (Billye and Johnny Renn and the Fitzpatrick boys, i.e., Mike and Pat Simpson figured in my stories of cowboys and Indians, army, with Northrop traffic being shot at frequently, as we lived under the flight path.) The students were giggling at the idea of such play. Maybe a month later Francisco and I were driving somewhere in the outback...of the Valley when I yelled pull over, I've got to take a picture. Yes, we just drove by a vacant lot. I framed the photo so the kids could see the houses on either side and a perfectly good piece of land, unoccupied but growing weeds and trap door spiders. Unfortunately there were no children playing. But when I took the 8 x 10 to class the kids understood "vacant" lot. We went on to learn vacant apartment, house, store, and "look in his eyes". vacant meaning empty. Years before this I was in traffic school being taught by a cop from New York who was here hoping to sell a movie script. He asked the question "How far from the corner MUST you signal for a turn?" (it was REALLY a long time ago.) I answered "Two lots." but he heard "too lots."...and asked what that meant. "You know, two lots away from the corner, you put on your blinkers or your hand out the window." Being from THE CITY, he had no idea what a lot was, except a "bunch of stuff"...I had to explain "piece of land, on which a house is built." He asked how big is a lot? I said 40 to 50 feet, so 80 to 100 ft from corner you signal for a turn or stop....who knew city people didn't know what a lot is!

Name: Sharon Branigan ~~~~~~~~~~ Thu-May 8, 2008, 7:57 am - HHS Time
Maiden: Bierman
Class: 1976
City & State: Thousand Oaks, CA
E-mail
Message: All you reunion organizers should consider using the Ayres Hotel in Hawthorne as your venue. They were wonderful for the class of '76 30-year reunion! In fact anyone planning an event in the area should give them a look. They are a GREAT group of people to work with! I hope Russ Jacobsen is okay... we've never met but I've loved reading his postings all these years and still laugh over the story of the moonlight shining off his bald head and keeping Judy awake.

Name: Nancy Harker ~~~~~~~~~~ Wed-May 7, 2008, 9:55 pm - HHS Time
Maiden: Koch
Class: 1974
City & State: Koloa, HI
E-mail
Message: My sympathies go out to Krista and the Williams' family. Though I never took art (hopeless in that department, especially looking at all the wonderful art created by his students that adorned his room), he was a GREAT fencing instructor. We fencers had a lot of good times with him, both on and off campus, and he was a great inspiration. He will be missed, but he'll live on in all of us that he impacted.

Name: Dennis Campbell ~~~~~~~~~~ Wed-May 7, 2008, 7:00 pm - HHS Time
Class: 1961
City & State: Mission Viejo, CA
E-mail
Message: Hey Sue, Wow glad you chimed in it seems like yesterday we were walking to good old Anza together, not a care in the world. Yvonne said to say hi. Doug and his dad moved to the big island of Hawaii over 20 years ago. Doug opened up a Sport bar and his dad opened up a Sport fishing business both in Kona. We were over there 2 or 3 years ago looking for Doug. I think he?s dropped off the planet earth. Are you still teaching art? Hey speaking of teachers and how they influence kids take a look at Paco?s picks AKA (Howard Duran) and look all the way down to almost the last picture and you will see a B1 Bomber and about 50 or 60 HHS kids from the aerospace class standing there under the wing. I wonder how many of these kids are in the flying business today. Good job! Pat Macha FYI Pat graduated from Lennox 1963. Mike Mecey, Good luck on your retirement the honey-do-list never ends. Dennis

Name: Sue Hans ~~~~~~~~~~ Wed-May 7, 2008, 5:13 pm - HHS Time
Maiden: Hans
Class: 1961
City & State: San Mateo, AC
E-mail
Message: Boy, just have spent the last hour going down memory lane. Read an old e-mail about my old '49 olds, cruising to the Wichstand and Fosters. Ditching school when the surf was up, and all the great things we did. It was fun reading about Dana, and Anza schools. Sad about Rikki Pritchard passing. We spent some wonderful times living together in El Porto and Manhattan Beach on 28th St. I often wonder what happened to Larry McAllister, Doug Geller's brother. Their parents owned Perry's Sporting Goods On Hawthorne Blvd. I spent most of my life there it seemed like, or driving around town is his Model A, with no brakes. How did we survive those days? Anyway, it is great to sorta reconnect with the past and to walk up that path. The good old days, sound like my grandfather now, I have told my kids to shoot me if I ever start saying "when I was a kid" and here I go. Sue

Name: Jim Schroeder ~~~~~~~~~~ Wed-May 7, 2008, 10:47 am - HHS Time
Class: 1966
City & State: Central Point, Oregon
E-mail
Message: The reason(s) I teach 8th grade US History is / are Coach Bunyard and the late Miss Clark. That and my plan to be a male model fell through. (Let's dance around the May Pole)

Name: Sue Hans ~~~~~~~~~~ Wed-May 7, 2008, 9:39 am - HHS Time
Maiden: Hans
Class: 1961
City & State: San Mateo, CA
E-mail
Message: It is with great sadness I feel with the passing of Mr. Williams. As others have said he was the greatest influence on me at HHS. I spent hours in his class and the fencing club. The first piece of art work I sold, he sold for me to Kiern Mathews. What a thrill. I have gone on to sell lots of work, and too, teach art classes in different venues. He was an inspiration, a friend, someone to talk to, and was always there for whatever needed to be discussed. My heart goes out to his family for their loss.

Name: Debbie ~~~~~~~~~~ Wed-May 7, 2008, 8:13 am - HHS Time
Maiden: Miles
Class: 1977
City & State: Del Aire, CA
E-mail
Message: To Talia and any future party planners: If you follow this link you'll find tips for high school and other party planning tips. Hope this helps. I have no artistic talent, it stops at happy faces and hangman, but I remember everybody really enjoying Mr. Williams as a teacher. In that light, since Laura posted that this week is the Day of the Teacher, why not try to thank a teacher who touched your life? And don't forget it's time to be thinking of all the special Mom's, too!

Name: jim sloey ~~~~~~~~~~ Tue-May 6, 2008, 10:27 pm - HHS Time
Class: 1966
City & State: Farleyville/Buddytown USA
E-mail
Message: Happy birthday to a great guy May 7, Bruce Davidson class of '65. After 40 years we ran into each other at Home Depot in Palm Bay, Florida, along with my brudder and the Youngs in the next line. We spent the summer together [it was plutonic] and now we talk almost 3 times a week. Amazing how this thing you created works, Baker. God Bless you Bruce, have a great birthday! And take care of my dogs!