Name: Clark Millman ~~~~~~~~~~ Thu-Feb 18, 2010, 12:19 pm - HHS Time
Class: 1976
City & State: Wichita,KS

Message: Sorry folks, Tom had some direct questions for me so I'll respond and hopefully we can all "move-on. Tom: I define athletic success the same as everyone else in modern society. Take a bunch of young people, give them the same equipment, tools, coaching, and see who excels. Since I've been coaching high school track for 29 years now I think I am well qualified to judge athletic success. I use my good friend Dan Dye(HHS'62) as a measure of athletic success. Way back in 1962 Dan threw the shot further than anyone in HHS history. At the time it was the 8th best throw in American high school history. In the ensuing 48 years no athlete from HHS has been able to beat Dans' mark. Despite having the same equipment and same rules of the game. That is athletic success! Tom I was not disrespecting my track team mates like Ken Mcallister or Rick Perius..no just YOU! You wondered what I learned at HHS. As president of the Knights I learned about community service. Helping others with no thought of personal gain. Bill Sloey and Danny Litton demonstrated this virtue by coming back to coach at HHS after graduation. Thanks to their example I returned to HHS to coach track in 80-81-82. You said valedictorian just means someone studied alot. Couldn't it be Tom that these folks were just downright intelligent!!?? Ted Gioia(valedictorian 75) is one of the smartest guys I've seen and I'm friends with West highs 74 valedictorian who is just sharp as a tack and is a doctor. Rick Weaver talked about learning values in our younger years. Tom you have no class picking on coaches who have been dead for years and cannot respond to your pitiful assessments. Move on Tom!! You have a big mouth when hiding behind your computer! Why don't you let us all know when you can attend a Cruise Night. You came very close to insulting Alex Bravo. Coach Bravo is a friend of mine. I'll bring coach Bravo to Cruise Night and you can speak your mind to his face if you have the guts(doubt it seriously). I think Alex can take you even at the age of 80 and just in case, I'll be on his right shoulder and I'll make a couple of phone calls and have Tony Cherbak on his left. Tom you said Senior Square was no more important to you than the pencil sharpener in your computer lab. Well you've deomostrated to a few thousand alumni that you are a malcontent and not the sharpest pencil in the box so why don't you do us all a favor and stick your head in the pencil sharpener and see if that improves things. One final thing I learned at HHS in honors english Tom: "When in the presence of a fool, if you see no wisdom depart from him." So I depart from you now Tom and hope you will take your own advice and "move-on" John: First amendment rights beside, I am offended by people (Tom) insulting folks who have been deceased for many years. You should have some guideline for the moaners and groaners. Let's all get back to more important topics.

Name: Jerry Miles ~~~~~~~~~~ Thu-Feb 18, 2010, 11:26 am - HHS Time
Class: 1966
City & State: Fair Oaks, CA

Message: I shared this a few years back but as we are on to Miss Selz stories again here is a repeat.
I have a Miss Selz story. It was the afternoon before graduation and all we seniors were out on Halcap Field practicing. Miss Selz called me over and said, “Jerry, that hair is much too long. I want you to get a haircut tonight and report to my office in the morning or you will not graduate with your class.” It was about a inch over my ears. Twenty-four hours left as a high school student and I was being harassed to the end…haha Well, of course I told her I would see her in the morning but didn’t get any haircut that night. The next day I avoided her office completely but just knew I was going to be pulled out of class any minute. The day went so slowly by without incident but I graduated that afternoon long hair and all.

Name: Larry Bach ~~~~~~~~~~ Thu-Feb 18, 2010, 10:43 am - HHS Time
Class: 1972
City & State: Torrance, CA

Message: I tend to read far more Cougartown posts than I write but I need to say thank you John, for allowing Tom to use CT as his platform to vent. Tom wrote that he's honest to a fault. It looks more like humility with a left hook. Let's see: Tom's moved on to bigger and better things over the years and now he's too good for Hawthorne, too good for Hawthorne High School, smarter than most of his HHS teachers, and now looks down on those HHS alumni who have more good memories than bad and like to do things to preserve those memories. I didn't like Hawthorne High School either during most of the four years I attended and still give a very mixed review about that period in my life, when asked. However, that doesn't give me a license to be a "kill-joy" for others or to publicly insult certain teachers by name. If that's being honest to a fault then Tom never learned that the worst form of dishonesty is being dishonest with oneself; like someone who must eat raw onions on THEIR hamburger but doesn't think it gives THEM bad breath. Well, I've lost a deal of weight so now I have to go loofa my stretch marks.

Name: Sharon Leach ~~~~~~~~~~ Thu-Feb 18, 2010, 10:20 am - HHS Time
Maiden: moore
Class: 1966
City & State: long beach, ca

Message: Miss Selz. Don't get me started. No wonder she was Miss Selz. She was great at demoralizing people. One day I was wearing a new fashion that had a skirt with slits on each side and knee-knocker pants underneath. She called me into her office walked around me and stated laughing and telling me how stupid I looked. Then called my parents and sent me home to change. (By the way for the younger Cougars, knee-knockers were long shorts just to the knee) Now my parents always told me that teachers were always right and not to talk back and to do everything they said. If I did not I would get it worse at home. So I never complained about teachers or made them mad at me. I wasn't all that smart, but I was nice and never had any problems with teachers. However, that day my mother and father were ticked, to put it mildly. A teacher telling a young girl that she looks stupid was unacceptble to them. I had done nothing wrong. My outfit was not revealing. My mom felt to was better than just a skirt, because no one could look up it. Not that any of the Cougar guys would ever do anything like that. Anyway, that's my only bad story at HHS and Miss Selz would be fired today for demoralizing a student. Other than that, I loved HHS and my time in Hawthorne really were among the best times of my life.

Name: Jill Jaynes ~~~~~~~~~~ Thu-Feb 18, 2010, 9:32 am - HHS Time
Maiden: McFarlane
Class: 1977
City & State: Mission Viejo, CA

Message: Not to change the subject, as riveting as some of these posts have been, I'm bored with the whose are bigger mentality, it's like we are back in High School? Anyway, loved Barbara's story, I think we have all been through that. I would like to know who is planning to go to the wine country weekend in June. If anyone is interested in sharing a room with me, please email me privately. I'm really looking forward to seeing old friends and meeting new ones. John, unfortunately, I will not be able to make cruise night, I will be out of town visiting a former classmate, with two other classmates. I guess you can say we are going to have our own "Cougar" cruise night. However, stay tuned for our Orange County thing. We are narrowing down the date and the place and we are close. Okay, I think I'm done. Have a great weekend everyone.

Name: Jim Frederick ~~~~~~~~~~ Thu-Feb 18, 2010, 4:41 am - HHS Time
Class: 1969
City & State: West Hills / Hanalie Hi.

Message: ... Sorry Tom... Dorris may be correct ...... But we don't have to read your post either .. I'm tired of hearing about your poooor miss guided life and times at HHS ...With someone like you it's never your fault is it ?..... If I see another post from you I'm just not going to waste my time reading it ... GET OVER IT DUDE ! AND MOVE ON !! I figure your in your mid fifties , Right ? Grow up ... and "forget about it"..... Oh .... and you really do need to proof read your post ....Sad... just plain sad ...... But that's not your fault is it ? .... Peace Out ...

Name: Thomas Leeman ~~~~~~~~~~ Wed-Feb 17, 2010, 10:17 pm - HHS Time
Class: 1973
City & State: San Diego, CA

Message: I think it's time we correct the false impression that I had a difficult time at HHS. I was a honors student who made a minimal effort at times knowing like many other similarly inclined individuals how to game the system. I was offered a partial scholarship to Occidental and instead chose to to go one of the top party schools on the west coast. (How's that for fodder) Although I planned to attend law school after college the lure of immediate gratification (while admittedly shortsighted) resulted in me following an MBA track instead. Are they still handing out diplomas like tootsie rolls on Halloween? So I know a few of you there are going WTF? But here's a funny little story ( at least I think it is) to add some color to those comments. It involves John Dye and Mr. Andrade's science class. Each semester students in pairs were to do a class project. Hard pressed to come up with worthy project John and I came up with this idea to do an experiment on mice somewhat reminiscent of those done with cyclamates back then. John's mother was an RN so she had access to certain drugs in their more pure form. In this case, caffeine, so as not to violate any laws with the complicity of our parents. So John drew the heavy lifting portion of the assignment and administered the doses to the mice. I'm telling you those suckers could have rivaled Hoover dam if they connected their exercise wheel to a generator. My assignment was to present the results to the class. But during the presentation my lack of preparation became evident to Andrade as I tried to buzzword my way through it and I could sense I was going to face some tough questions. So after getting skewered a bit on dosing control I could see Andrade with just the slightest hint of a grin say, "So Tom, what is the metabolic rate of a mouse" I kinda just died inside at that point. Well, the mice were more literally afforded a similar fate. Like that really helped our cause. (Sorry PETA - in the name of science) But John and I took our B and lived to fight another day. But without Caffeine!

Name: Thomas Leeman ~~~~~~~~~~ Wed-Feb 17, 2010, 9:00 pm - HHS Time
Class: 1973
City & State: San Diego, CA

Message: Steve, I assume you know of Mollie by way of Bill Cone. Yes she is a wonderful sister and someone I have enormous respect for. But there is something you should know about this discussion. I NEVER felt like a victim. I get the impression that many here would never pass the Milgram test. Anyway. let me explain it in terms you may better understand. Suggesting that a few high school teachers had any real impact on my life would be like me suggesting that the HFD was a bunch of (expletive deleted). The firemen I knew were tough as nails and as decent bunch of guys as you would ever want to meet. Similarly, those who knew me also know that I never backed down from a fight. That would be like MJ quitting B-Ball after getting cut from his high school team. Here's a side story to illustrate my point. The few around during that time that participating in student council might remember that mixing it up with those clowns was small potatoes compared to my taking on the school board. That of course was related to the actions preceding the 1972 general election in which 18 year olds were granted the right to vote. That in turn was precipitated by the understanding that sending men off to fight a war in Vietnam without any say in the election of their commander in chief was a fundamentally flawed precept. We extended those principles to 18-year olds attending high school. I wasn't able to benefit directly from my efforts but I did press on after graduating to the ultimate benefit those who followed. But nowadays I'm more apt to characterize my approach as that of Vinny Gambini. You know, if it is going to get ugly it bloody well better be worth the effort.

Name: John Baker ~~~~~~~~~~ Wed-Feb 17, 2010, 6:37 pm - HHS Time
Class: 1962
City & State: Lomita, CA

Message: Attention Cougar Football fans, Things are looking up as Hawthorne has just hired their new football coach, Joe Kanach. To find out more, please read the Daily Breeze article. Looks like our Cougar football program is back on track.

Name: Lee Ann Nixon ~~~~~~~~~~ Wed-Feb 17, 2010, 6:16 pm - HHS Time
Maiden: Nixon
Class: 1964
City & State: Vancouver, WA

Message: Okay, John, here's my "bad experience at HHS" story. At the beginning of my junior year I had just had my tonsils out. Our gym class was doing swimming, so my doctor excused me from that. I was assigned by the gym teacher to check in people's belongings, which job was shared by two other girls. Apparently, when I came on board, someone was stealing money from girl's purses, clothes, etc, which I wasn't aware of and they planted marked bills in some of the student's things during the time they were swimming with the class. One day I was taken aside and made to empty my purse because I was accused of being the thief. No money there, of course. Then I was taken to the guidance counselor, Joyce Selz. She sat me down and told me that we were being recorded so I might as well confess. What a demoralizing thing that was. Anyway, my mom came down and straightened them out in a hurry. Like other postings I have read, one chooses the good stuff to remember and this one is just tucked way back in my mind. One good memory is Dennis Wilson mistaking me for Maridel Johnson. Now, that is a memory to keep.

Name: Loren Rector ~~~~~~~~~~ Wed-Feb 17, 2010, 4:54 pm - HHS Time
Class: 1956
City & State: Okeechobee, Fl.

Message: Your Wine Country trip really sounds like fun, Would love to be a part of it, just too far away and I will be spending the summer in Wis. in the back woods. I will take my own wine with me. I am a hobby wine maker, currently am in the process of making Concord Grape, Cranberry, Blackberry and White Zin. My wife and I drink some of it, but mainly give it away to friends and also supply the wine for our many fish frys and get togethers with our frinds here in Southern Florida. Have fun and don't taste too much of the good wine. Loren

Name: Art Lamere ~~~~~~~~~~ Wed-Feb 17, 2010, 4:29 pm - HHS Time
Class: 1973
City & State: Bettendorf, Iowa
No E-mail
Message: Steve, I think I know what Thomas is doing for work he must be a backhoe operator because every time he lets his fingers do the talking he digs a bigger hole. High school.. you got out of it what you put into it. As for me I can't spell worth a darn, I spent the first 10 or so years after high school in the US Navy and then I worked security until I got the job that I have had for 22 years. Do I blame anyone other than me? No. Most of you that remember me, I slept most days in class. If I did not do good my bad not anybody but me. So Tom or Thomas get over it, move on and live life to the fullest. If you did not enjoy school you could have left, got your GED and then you could blame yourself. The buck stops with you my friend. John thanks for the spell check works for me Art

Name: Thomas Leeman ~~~~~~~~~~ Wed-Feb 17, 2010, 3:55 pm - HHS Time
Class: 1973
City & State: San Diego, CA

Message: Rick, I always thought of you as a friend even though we weren't in the classic sense of the word. I think you and I started out together in the high jump but I soon gave up field events when I realized that you were a much better jumper than I. A talent that also served you well on the basketball court if I remember correctly. I know we crossed paths on several occasions after graduating. One in partcular that I won't forget since it coincided with a seminal event in my life at the time. Anyway I hope all is well with you and your family. Unlike most of you who have grandchildren older than my son mine is just getting started. I'm off to coach my son's team now. Catch you later.

Name: Rick Weaver ~~~~~~~~~~ Wed-Feb 17, 2010, 2:20 pm - HHS Time
Class: 1973
City & State: Bedford, NH

Message: Ok Barbara, I’ll try. One day (I’m reasonably sure I was a Senior) a fellow Cougar who will remain unnamed and I had the brilliant idea to go off campus during lunch and partake in a clear alcoholic beverage that originated in Russia. We did some damage on the bottle and rushed back to campus at the tail end of lunch. I went to Modern Media where Mr. Sloan had queued-up the classic “War of the Worlds” by H.G. Wells while we listened to it in the dark. It was quite enjoyable in my inebriated state! He looked at me “suspiciously” though and asked me if I was okay, and I assured him I was. My partner in crime had set himself down outside with his back against the popcorn stand and promptly fell asleep. In a short while he was rudely awaken by Mr. Nelson and spent the afternoon in his office until one of his parents could pick him up. I felt bad for him, but I guess we all learn from our mistakes. Maybe!

Name: Tom Shelley ~~~~~~~~~~ Wed-Feb 17, 2010, 2:03 pm - HHS Time
Class: 1962
City & State: Torrance, CA

Message: Tom Leeman, you need to proof read your stuff before you send it out. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not ragging on you. They probably didn't teach you that at HHS, so it's really not your fault. I didn't do very well at HHS either. But that wasn't really my fault. I mean how could I be expected to get a good education when they wasted so much of my time making me sit in Mr. Wetzler's office? I don't know how many times I heard him say "You're such a smart guy, if you'd just apply yourself". (I misunderstood and thought he said 'ply yourself'. So every Friday and Saturday night I did just that!), I didn't do so well in school. But it wasn't for lack of qualified teachers- I had some of the best. Tom, it's too bad you were not born 10 or 12 years sooner. We had some great teachers in the 50s and 60s! Ms. Theresa Mark is no longer with us physically, but she will always be alive in the hearts and memories of the hundreds students she guided toward a better understanding of the English language in her direct, no b.s., positive manner. And as much of a pain in the a** as I was in History, Mr. John Brown never gave up on me...I'm the one who gave up! ( Mr. B., today history is my favorite subject.). And Mr. Kyllonen, I still don't think if a tree falls in the forest that it makes any noise if there is no one there to hear it. ...and you gave me a bunch of other stuff to think about too. There was Mr. Ray Mossholder, Drama; Mr. Nivelo, Spanish; Mr. Kirkpatrick, who tried to teach me Algebra. All of them genuinely cared about me in spite of my crappy attitude about school. Yeah, Tom, I'm with you. Most of what I know today I've learned on my own. But those people gave me the "jumping off place". They got me started in the right direction. They "lead the horse to water" so to speak. Tom, you may want to go back and re-read the posts from Keith Jones, Jill McFarlane, Clark Millman and others. Perhaps you need to re-think your attitude and reassess your expectations of high school. Good luck, my friend. Tom S.