Hawthorne Feedback

Name: Jim Frederick ~~~~~~~~~~ Sat-Feb 27, 2010, 5:52 pm - HHS Time

Class: 1969
City & State: West Hills / Hanalie Hi.

Message: .... Hey Dean .... George boy gave some good advice ... I would also like to recommend buy a rental house out of state ! That way you can go back and forth and do repairs /maint,/etc..".nudge nudge wink wink" , ... Great on your tax deducations also.! And go on the road See America ! Take a walk every day ! And i highly recomend get involved in some type of voluenteer work ....! Get a good dog (if you don't already have one) Take advantage of all those great senior deals dude ! I honestly have more things going on now than i ever have ! And i love retirement ! Like George said it takes awhile to get used to it ... And hey ! you can always hang out here and keep J.B. and the Cougar family company ....Oh gosh we have it all ! Who needs a soap opera ! Its all here and REAL ! LOL ! Whooooooo Weeee !Enjoy ! .... Peace Out ....P.S. Who recalls the donkey basketball games ? ! Im sure this ones been on feedback once or twice ? Aloha and Mahalo

Name: George Johnson ~~~~~~~~~~ Sat-Feb 27, 2010, 11:52 am - HHS Time

Class: 1962
City & State: Spinnaker Cove, Ca

Message: Hey, Dean Boy; Welcome to the ranks of the retired. In answer to your question, in March, I will be retired 10 years, so I have a little insight. First thing you do when you retire is to do all the "Honney Do's" that you were able to put off all those past years by telling the little woman "you didn't have time", aftre you do that, thake the wife on a cruise, not Baja, try the Caribbean or Alaska you can get some great deals right now. Then aftre you get tired of having fun, if you have any residual skills left over from when you were employed, go into a part time business for yourself, trust me, you will get bored with retirement in time, however, not right away. By doing this (part time business) it will get you out of the house and away from the little lady who you will be spending 24/7 with now that you are retired. Or even better, get the little lady to take a job out of the house and everybody will survive retirement and the "Golden Years", hope this answers your question LOL. Have fun with the grand kids. Jorge C/O 62

Name: Petey Smith ~~~~~~~~~~ Sat-Feb 27, 2010, 11:29 am - HHS Time

Maiden: Smith
Class: 1972
City & State: Oregon

Message: Have a great day Big Kell! Let's go play some tennis.

Name: Dean Karels ~~~~~~~~~~ Sat-Feb 27, 2010, 9:30 am - HHS Time

Class: 1965
City & State: Tustin Ca

Message: Looking for advice on retirement (just joined the ranks on thurs. 2/25/10). I know to stay busy and all that stuff. 1st grand child due in June. That might take up a little time, can't make cruise night either family retirement party that night.

Name: Adrianne Dealejandro ~~~~~~~~~~ Sat-Feb 27, 2010, 7:48 am - HHS Time

Maiden: Longpre
Class: 1963
City & State: Cerritos, CA

Message: We have been frequenting the same nightclub for years, making many new friends. We've gotten to know one in particular, and for the first time we started talking about our hometowns. To our shock, we both went to HHS. He also went to St. Joseph's. John Gulure, c/o '79. He said his sister, Michelle, was c/o '81. He lived at 139th and Inglewood Avenue. Except for my Alex, this Cougar is an exceptional dancer, moving and grooving to the band music. I told him about this website, and also Cruise Night. This was MY Cougar sighting.

Name: Sharon Leach ~~~~~~~~~~ Sat-Feb 27, 2010, 7:24 am - HHS Time

Maiden: moore
Class: 1966
City & State: long beach, ca

Message: Happy birthday to my fellow classmate, Kelly Currie.

Name: Lisa Dulin ~~~~~~~~~~ Sat-Feb 27, 2010, 5:57 am - HHS Time

Maiden: Graham
Class: 1967
City & State: La Quinta, CA

Message: Happy Birthday Kelley Currie. Love, Lisa

Name: Tom Nadal ~~~~~~~~~~ Sat-Feb 27, 2010, 5:54 am - HHS Time

Class: 1977
City & State: The OC

Message: I've just discovered where some of the Stimulus $$$ is going - Hawthorne's Senior Center. While visiting my parents yesterday, we checked out the Senior Center at Memorial Park. It's actually an OK place to hang out; free billiards, free computer use, free classes, free dances, free movies, $3 donation lunch, and curb-to-curb bus transportation for 50 cents. The site director told me they just got a bunch of stimulus money and are going to start breakfast on Monday for a $2 donation. If we were to throw in a photographer and some adult beverages we could make this the new home for all future class reunions. $10 a couple with limo service included! It doesn't get any better!

Name: Glenn Crist ~~~~~~~~~~ Fri-Feb 26, 2010, 11:54 am - HHS Time

Class: 1964
City & State: Sonoma, CA

Message: I have gotten several inquiries about golfing in and around the Sonoma Valley by folks thinking about attending the Wine Country Weekend. The Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn owns the Sonoma National Golf Course (private). They recently hosted the Charles Schwab Cup Championship. There may be a lodging and golf package. Sharon and Mike Branigan recently stayed at the Double Tree in Rohnert Park with adjacent public courses. If golf is something you are interested in doing while you are here, e-mail me and I'll send you a list of public courses you can play. At present, I've had about 20 CT members who have asked about the weekend.

Name: Sharon Stowe ~~~~~~~~~~ Fri-Feb 26, 2010, 10:29 am - HHS Time

Maiden: Ritch
Class: 1972
City & State: Lawndale CA

Message: Yes John, Animal Farm is a very short book and that is why I picked it. Which makes my story even funnier to me. I usually can laugh at myself. But I was 15 and had far too much stuff on my mind to focus on besides school work! Duh. It took me awhile to appreciate school. I didn't take college seriously until i was in my mid 30's. So I paid for my goofing off.

Name: Victoria Cordero ~~~~~~~~~~ Fri-Feb 26, 2010, 7:47 am - HHS Time
Maiden: Eide
Class: 1977
City & State: Conroe, TX

Message: I found your website when I was reminiscing about growing up in Hawthorne and about how much things have changed. My brother, John and sisters Helen and Priscilla graduated in the fifties from HHS. It's wonderful to see all the old pictures of favorite teachers. I know Gil Gaier and Kermit Bennett (woodshop) have passed long ago. They were friends of my parents. The memories will live on. I am glad to see a website I can show my kids to help explain how things were when I was growing up.

Name: Sharon Stowe ~~~~~~~~~~ Fri-Feb 26, 2010, 7:22 am - HHS Time

Maiden: Ritch
Class: 1972
City & State: Lawndale CA

Message: I have a Mr. Baxter story. I remember cheating twice during my 4 years at HHS and both times I got caught. One time was in Mr. Baxter's class. I was supposed to read Animal Farm. I read a couple pages, but being a Freshmen and thinking Mr. Baxter really didn't give a hoot, I got one of those shortened versions and turned in a review on it. It was very obvious that I didn't read the book since I said something about it being primarily about the French revolution. What did I know about that! I was clearly not good at cheating. Anyway, Mr. Baxter did something that made this stick out in my mind far more then feeling guilty about cheating, He praised my work stating that it was the best thing I did all year. He went on and on until I felt about 2 inches high. He was a master.

Name: Sharon Stowe ~~~~~~~~~~ Fri-Feb 26, 2010, 7:10 am - HHS Time
Maiden: Ritch
Class: 1972
City & State: Lawndale CA

Message: My 10th grandchild is here! Born last night... Leo Limuti, weighing in at 9 lb. 13 oz. With dark curly hair! John, Like Ma Kettle use to say, "I would not take a million dollars for one of my kids (or, in my case, grandkids) but I won't pay a nickel for one more." Okay, that is a little harsh. But I am hoping that this will be the last grandkid!

Name: Keith D. Jones ~~~~~~~~~~ Thu-Feb 25, 2010, 10:45 am - HHS Time

Class: 1976
City & State: Las Vegas

Message: Anyone interested in going to the Multi-Year Reunion needs to book their room at the Monte Carlo at 800-311-8999 by May 9th and give them the code XHAWTHI and they can also get upgrades to suites and strip views if they want. We can also plan some stuff together maybe rent a house boat at Lake Mead and have a lunch on the beach and boat. We are going to try and get some dinner vouchers at least from the buffet. The dates of the reunion is June 10 to the 13th. So far we had already a dozen folks from Cougartown email me saying they are going and we haven't even begun telling people so this may be a big party. You know everyone loves Vegas.

Name: Armand Vaquer ~~~~~~~~~~ Wed-Feb 24, 2010, 10:58 pm - HHS Time

Class: 1972
City & State: Tarzana, Karloffornia

Message: Larry's mentioning of Mr. Baxter's walls jogged a long-buried memory. The details are hazy, but it was either in my sophomore or junior year that I had a class project (with a fellow classmate) to put up on one of the bulletin boards a display of a socialogical topic of current interest. Our topic: porn. I remember the items we posted came primarily from the L.A. Free Press (remember that paper?). Our teacher was concerned, after the display was up, if it was too raunchy or okay to leave up. So she brought in a few other teachers to look it over to see if was safe (by 1970-71 standards) to leave up. It turns out it was okay, in their opinion. I remember we got an 'A' for it. For the life of me, I can't remember who our teacher was (she was blonde and thirtyish), but she inherited Mr. Baxter's former classroom. Whenever there was a lecture while it was up, quite a number of students would be looking at that board instead of at her. We had a good laugh over that.

Name: Keith Peters ~~~~~~~~~~ Wed-Feb 24, 2010, 8:57 pm - HHS Time

Class: 1969
City & State: Fredericksburg Virginia
No E-mail
Message: I'll speak up in defense of Mr. Baxter. Of all the teachers I had at Hawthorne High School, Mr. Baxter was one of the few who stopped and took the time to give encouragement to a pretty mixed up high schooler who felt pretty out of place(probably like a lot of us!) I sent a letter a few years ago to Nancy asking her to thank him for me. If I'm not wrong I think he's worked with troubled kids for a long time for the rest of his career. Other teachers I tip my hat to for being great to me--Coach Chauncey, Mr. Wing, Mr. Morgan and Mr. Haueter.

Name: Larry Bach ~~~~~~~~~~ Wed-Feb 24, 2010, 7:51 pm - HHS Time

Class: 1972
City & State: Torrance, CA

Message: Hi Betty, I definitely remember Mr. Baxter. One couldn't walk by his classroom and not notice those psychedelic murals painted on the walls and the sofa in the back of the class. Most of his students thought he was pretty cool and at least one quite a bit more than cool. There is a Cougartown post from a couple years back written by the best friend of the particular female student Mr. Baxter married after she graduated in 1969. I think the details were posted to 'put to bed' that specific Mr. Baxter story.

Name: Armand Vaquer ~~~~~~~~~~ Wed-Feb 24, 2010, 7:10 pm - HHS Time

Class: 1972
City & State: Tarzana, Karloffornia

Message: Rick, great story! A year after the student involved graduated (class of '69), I saw her and Mr. Baxter at McDonalds on El Segundo. I was working there at the time and they came in. They seemed to be a happy couple and I briefly spoke with her. She seemed to be a nice person. A year after that, the movie "Pretty Maids All In A Row" came out (with Rock Hudson, Telly Savalas, Roddy McDowell, Angie Dickinson) and it reminded me of Baxter for some reason.

Name: Rick Weaver ~~~~~~~~~~ Wed-Feb 24, 2010, 4:04 pm - HHS Time

Class: 1973
City & State: Bedford, NH

Message: Hey Armand, I certainly remember the name of Mr. Baxter (by the way, nice reference to Mary Kay Letourneau). I thought about him during the last week or so of the “Teacher” postings but I decided against saying anything. BUT, since you brought him up, I do have a non-controversial story I can share. I never had him personally as a teacher, but I am familiar with the story of which I will not elaborate, but for those who do not know the story, take the Mary Kay inference and you’ll figure it out, and if you don’t know the Letourneau story, Google her. Well, word got out about Mr. Baxter and when my Dad found out that my sister (Barbara Weaver class of ’71) was going to be in his class at the beginning of the next semester, my dad calmly went to the school and spoke with someone (who I really felt bad for) and told them that he was going to tear the school apart brick-by-brick until she was out of his class. Naturally, when confronted with an angry 6'3" two hundred pound Dad, she was out of that class faster than a New York minute. I don’t remember what happened to Mr. Baxter, but unless someone can suggest otherwise, I guess he would go on the list of “bad teachers”.

Name: Deanna Petersen-Askren ~~~~~~~~~~ Wed-Feb 24, 2010, 3:58 pm - HHS Time

Maiden: Petersen
Class: 1962
City & State: Coronado, CA

Message: Would love to hear from anyone from 1962 class. Hope everyone is well and happy.

Name: Bob Jensen ~~~~~~~~~~ Wed-Feb 24, 2010, 1:57 pm - HHS Time

Class: 1971
City & State: Los Angeles

Message: Our meeting went well with the Senior Class of Hawthorne High School. Bob Frasier 60, Sharon Bierman 76, Gary Shambaugh 71, and I were in attendance. The ASB advisor has written a grant and some funds will be available for the project. The class is very interested and the Alumni suggested that the class put together a “Plan” regarding the development of the square. The attendees will be gathering information and will present to the class of 2010 a ballot for voting on location, style, etc. The Alumni presented several suggestions regarding fundraising for additional funds and to help beautify the project. Principal Newell has asked that the Cougartown family participate in the construction. Once a final plan is approved, the class along with anyone who wants to physically help in the construction will start the project on weekends. It will be simple at first and will grow as future classes participate in further improvements. There was some talk about fundraising in the form of dedication tiles or bricks. We will use Cougartown to keep you informed of the plans and progress and what you can do to help.