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Name: Jill Jaynes ~~~~~~~~~~ Sun-Aug 5, 2012, 11:27 am - HHS Time
Maiden: McFarlane
Class: 1977
City & State: Mission Viejo, CA

Message: Our class of 77 reunion I think was a success! We may not have had a lot of people show up, but it was a fun group that showed up! I'm happy to report that we did not have any crashers. The only thing that crashed, was me afterwards. Looking forward to our 40th, whoever plans it, I'll be happy to help!
Thanks Jill, reunions, no matter who's there, are so much fun.
Name: Leo Ainsworth ~~~~~~~~~~ Sun-Aug 5, 2012, 10:17 am - HHS Time
Class: 1964
City & State: St Helena, Calif

Message: My mother was in the same Ramona School class as Norma Jean and my close friends are owners of the wine company Marilyn Merlot, which sells wines with Marilyn's various poses on the labels.
Name: Peter Nelson ~~~~~~~~~~ Sun-Aug 5, 2012, 9:00 am - HHS Time
City & State: corona california

Message: Message Marilyn Monroe died 50 years ago today Aug.5th 1962 at age 36. Marliyn lived in Hawthorne from 1927 to 1934, Marilyn lived at 4201 West 134 street. Marilyn's real name was Norma Jean Baker Marilyn went to school at the fifth street school later known as Ramona school. PETER NELSON CLASS OF 1957
For more on Marilyn please visit the Hawthorne Historical Museum open Saturday 10am to Noon.
Name: Cindy Pablico ~~~~~~~~~~ Sat-Aug 4, 2012, 8:49 pm - HHS Time
Maiden: Christon
Class: 1971
City & State: Hawthorne, Ca.

Message: Ok so many things change whether we like it or not a lot of people say its a good thing while others don't or won't or can't accept this or if we are ready or not there is nothing we can do about or who's name would appear in anything even if we vote who or what. I think if our beloved High School needs fixing then so be it maybe we don't know how the buildings are or too many students or teachers, or staff goes through now than what we did. Even we all loved our High School back then & we were comfortable with it. All I'm saying is we were there, now its the newer generations or the Principal or board of trustees turn, like I said whether we like it or not. I'm sorry if I hurt someones feelings, but think back even houses, buildings, restaurants, schools, like Anza, Cabrillo, Burnett, & Dana plus other school Districts. All is changing.
Name: Jim Sloey ~~~~~~~~~~ Sat-Aug 4, 2012, 8:37 pm - HHS Time
Class: 1966
City & State: solvang

Message: Congratulations to HHS '65 Wayne Bryan and his wife as there sons have won the GOLD medal at the summer Olympics in tennis winning the doubles competition. But then again these two guys have been the GOLD standard in doubles for some time! As an aside, all the Bryans could play tennis and play it well they did. Congratulations!
Congrats to Bob and Mike.
Name: Clark Millman ~~~~~~~~~~ Sat-Aug 4, 2012, 6:05 pm - HHS Time
Class: 1976
City & State: Manhattan Beach,CA

Message: The'Cougar stalker is still on the prowl while everyone is worried about renovations! Met Aaron Yancy (HHS'02) at Office Depot in Hawthorne while shopping for a new computer. Sharp kid, already has two bachelors and a masters and is still going! As a side note, Beth McCammon,HHS 64, was my childhood babysitter. The first HHS girl I was in love with!
Thanks Clark
Name: George Johnson ~~~~~~~~~~ Sat-Aug 4, 2012, 4:44 pm - HHS Time
Class: 1962
City & State: Spinnaker Coves, Ca

Message: Hey, Paco Went there for about a month & a half, then got sent packing by tha Admin.. Jorge
Name: Howard Paco Duran ~~~~~~~~~~ Sat-Aug 4, 2012, 4:03 pm - HHS Time
Class: 1961
City & State: Lake Forest

Message: George, nice talk from a guy who didn't even go to HHS! I'm sure the current students are glad!
Name: George Johnson ~~~~~~~~~~ Sat-Aug 4, 2012, 12:20 pm - HHS Time
Class: 1962
City & State: Spinnaker Coves, Ca

Message: Hey, JB, Let it be, get a life & move on, your High School are over and have been for half a century. Keep your fond H/S memories & let it go. None of these names mean anything to anyone but the hangers on, it's a ghetto school now, except it, maybe they should put up a "Martin Luther King" plaque also. I don't care if they rebuild all of the schools in Centinella Valley mark it up to progress & LAUSD upgrades, laundering their money, kinda like they do in Las Vegas. Jorge
George, It seems you don't have an answer so please do not take up our space. We all know how YOU feel.
Name: Armand Vaquer ~~~~~~~~~~ Fri-Aug 3, 2012, 11:22 pm - HHS Time
Class: 1972
City & State: Tarzana, Karloffornia

Message: Betty mentioned having a plaque honoring John Baker. It is a feasible thing to do. All we have to do is get the principal's permission to have it mounted, raise the funds and get it made (figure around $500 or so). Once made, we can organize a plaque dedication ceremony. A series of plaques around the school noting different items in HHS history might be the way to go. It CAN be done. We put up a plaque a few years ago at a new elementary school in Los Angeles (at First and Vermont) commemorating the studio site where Raymond Burr's "Godzilla, King of the Monsters!" scenes were shot in 1956. Imagine a plaque honoring The Beach Boys at HHS.
Thanks Armand for suggesting a plaque honor me but let's honor someone who really made Hawthorne High what it was in our era. I have suggested administration and faculty. Maybe classrooms honoring favorite teachers or the new media center named something like the Wallace Nyman Media Center. I'm just spitballing here. Does anyone have other ideas on how to keep our HHS history alive?
Name: Glenn Crist ~~~~~~~~~~ Fri-Aug 3, 2012, 6:27 pm - HHS Time
Class: 1964
City & State: Sonoma, CA

Message: I e-mailed Dan McCammon about a couple of years ago, looking for his sister Beth (HHS c/o '64) who was brilliant in her own right. Dan (when at HHS) was the youngest person to hold a commercial (not amateur) radio license which he obtained at age of 8 years. I remember him in the Boys Gym after a Science Fair, booths taken down, but the with the vinyl coated clothes line still strung from one end to the other plucking the line and calculating the frequency and wavelength of the result from the distance and the time it took to return. I too have very mixed feelings about the Hawthorne High School remodel. I will miss it historically but the plans look amazing. JB, is there a way to post a link so we can view it full screen rather than having to scroll right to left and up and down? And perhaps an "Under Construction" page, so we can view not only the historic but the progressive. Hawthorne history marching on. I'm guessing that if HHS was an epicenter for a quake, the bulldozers wouldn't have quite so much work with those old (probably not reinforced buildings that were our classrooms.
Glenn, google Hawthorne High Construction and it's the first one that comes up.
Name: Steve Eide ~~~~~~~~~~ Fri-Aug 3, 2012, 2:22 pm - HHS Time
Class: 1966
City & State: Fort Lauderdale, FL

Message: I noticed Dan McCammon mentioned in a recent post. Was his father Oliver McCammon who was Hawthorne Schools Superintendent?
Yes he was Dan's father. Yet another pillar of our school system who should be on an honor wall or plaque at HHS.
Name: Debbie Beachler ~~~~~~~~~~ Fri-Aug 3, 2012, 12:43 pm - HHS Time
Maiden: Kilroy
Class: 1971
City & State: The O.C.

Message: John, both you and Judy have the right idea. We can't prevent progress nor dwell in the past. We have to be open to change or we stagnate. I suspect a refurbished high school will also give the local area a lift and generally improve the surroundings. If the current admin doesn't know or care enough to find out about our history, shame on them!!! The revolving door of administrators is probably common place now a days, which is too bad for the students and the school. I am so glad we had teachers and admins and even school nurses who were there for years and brought a sense of family and continuity to our daily school life. Geeze, I still have nightmares of Mr. Nelson busting me for being at Taco Bell for lunch, instead of home!!! LOL!! Change is not, by definition, improvement, so we all need to let the current admin know that alot of former students do care and some "relics" of the past should be preserved...
Couldn't have said it better Deb, thanks for your comments.
Name: Jill Jaynes ~~~~~~~~~~ Fri-Aug 3, 2012, 9:46 am - HHS Time
Maiden: McFarlane
Class: 1977
City & State: Mission Viejo, CA

Message: Tomorrow is the big class of 77 reunion! While we only have about 60 people attending, the people that are attending are really neat. I'm looking forward to spending time with all of you. As I stated before, if you plan on showing up at the door, do not expect that you will be allowed to come in, especially if we have all eaten. Everyone in attendance has paid, and there will be no exceptions. Just want to make sure that we are all clear on that.
Thanks Jill, I'm sure you'll have some signups at the door. Have a fun reunion.
Name: Patti Smith ~~~~~~~~~~ Fri-Aug 3, 2012, 9:30 am - HHS Time
Class: 1968
City & State: Cypress, CA

Message: Has anyone taken into consideration that seismic standards in the early 50's are far, far below the standards of today. Retrofitting the school would be far more costly and take longer than tearing down and rebuilding. This affects the safety of the students and faculty of today and years to come. Just my 2 cents' worth.
Name: Betty Rodriguez ~~~~~~~~~~ Fri-Aug 3, 2012, 8:12 am - HHS Time
Maiden: Kean
Class: 1969
City & State: Kingman,, AZ

Message: Anita, John Baker has memorialized Hawthorne High School for over 15 years. I would like to see a plaque stand on the new HHS campus of him. Years of history can be found right here on Cougartown. Are they building on the fields near Broadway too?
No, no building on the fields. Those are views of the second stories of buildings they are pointing to.
Name: Judy Blomsterberg ~~~~~~~~~~ Fri-Aug 3, 2012, 7:49 am - HHS Time
Maiden: DeGrazia
Class: 1964
City & State: Torrance
No E-mail
Message: Have you all forgotten that the memories of HHS, of your old homes and haunts from the 60's are all etched in your memories. After all, it's not like you visit the Alma Mater or your homes once a week. Change is good and with what I saw the last time I was on campus, the school needed a lot of help anyway. (the curtains were rotting off the rods, window glass was broken, the grass didn't exist anymore, planters were empty) I found that very sad & I felt sorry for the students. With new buildings and new surroundings, future HHSers will not be asked to look at what once was, but what is now and all of it will be new, fresh and beautiful. I'm not nuts that the old art building will go down & I can no longer visit the first place my boyfriend carried my books, walked me to class & kissed me goodbye and I fell in love, but I can recall it daily by just "remembering." All the memories are still in your head with all the rest of Hawthorne's past. A lot has changed there and we can't selfishly hold on to it just so we know we can revisit the old HHS once every 5 years. Here's to the new students and wishing them the same fun we had when HHS was bright and new! They deserve the same that we were offered and to make their own memories, as we did 50 + years ago. Yes Sid, this was the long answer.
Well said too, Til.
Name: Larry, Loretta Cuiper ~~~~~~~~~~ Fri-Aug 3, 2012, 7:47 am - HHS Time
Maiden: Morelli
Class: 1962
City & State: Hawthorne, Ca

Message: I agree with you John, I feel you have the right idea! Now how can we get involved in letting the District know our thoughts? Any ideas who would be the one to contact at the District? ALWAYS A COUG....
Name: Ron Reinholdson ~~~~~~~~~~ Thu-Aug 2, 2012, 9:46 pm - HHS Time
Class: 1965
City & State: Claremont, CA

Message: I'm in Waikiki. I'll be here until Tuesday. Any surfing Cougars up for a surf session? Email me.
Name: Anita Bell ~~~~~~~~~~ Thu-Aug 2, 2012, 9:33 pm - HHS Time
Maiden: Harmon
Class: 1969
City & State: Fair Oaks, Ca

Message: Okay - so maybe HHS doesn't exactly have impressive architectural character that many schools built in the 1950's had but dog-gone-it, that school has been a fixture in Hawthorne for how many years now? I can't help feeling a strong sentiment and a desire to keep part of it in some form. Did it become structurally unsound? Could it not have been renovated? Do they have to tear down every flippin' building? No longer will I ever be able to drive by HHS and say "that's where I went to high school" because that school will be gone. We've all been true to that school for so many many years. I am saddened to see what is taking place. The new HHS may have the same address but that is all it will ever have. When the school is finished I'm sure it will more than likely be a beautiful school, but it's traditions and history will be just that...history.
Anita, I do know how you feel. Night before last I was up thinking about this until the wee hours. It's hard to believe that bulldozers can come in and flatten, in a few minutes, what stood for 60+ years and holds memories for thousands of Alumni. No it won't be the same for me and you and others. Maybe it could have been upgraded but for the new kids coming up it's probably best. Those buildings were only 7 years old when I was a frosh and I was so very proud of my nearly new Hawthorne High. I had lots of school spirit and pride back then. Let's you and I and the rest of our classes let it go, as the NEW Hawthorne High will instill yet another round of school spirit and pride for our future generation of Cougar Alumni. Maybe the Freshmen who come in will feel as I did a half century ago.
Now we CAN save pieces of our HHS and add them to the new school along with historical pictures of people like Wally Nyman, Jefferson Garner, Hal Wetzler, George Key, and many more. These people should be immortalized for their contributions to our alumni and school. This actually should be part of the 9th graders curriculum just like learning the alma mater. We need bronze plaques all over campus commemorating the successes of our faculty and alumni. Something to get these frosh off on the right foot and instilling a sense of history and tradition. We have so much history at HHS and the history has fallen silent for so long that there's no one who remembers it. That folks, has to change.
Name: Steve Gant ~~~~~~~~~~ Thu-Aug 2, 2012, 2:51 pm - HHS Time
Class: 1965
City & State: Orem, UT

Message: To Chris, Wikipedia is user updated. You should consider adding anything that fits.
Name: Sharon Leach ~~~~~~~~~~ Thu-Aug 2, 2012, 1:57 pm - HHS Time
Class: 1966
City & State: Long beach ca

Message: have not been on Cougartown for a long time. very sorry to hear about the passing of henry cooper. he was always very kind to me and had a great sense of humor. great person, tragic loss. my condolences to his family.
Hi Sharon, welcome back.
Name: John Baker ~~~~~~~~~~ Thu-Aug 2, 2012, 1:16 pm - HHS Time
Class: 1962
City & State: Lomita

Message: Just got off the phone with Mark Newell, Principal, asking that some artifacts from Nyman Hall be incorporated into the new Visual/Performing Arts (VAPA) building at HHS. He said Nyman Hall is not in this phase of demolition but yes, that can certainly be done. This, phase 1, includes the band room and the administration building. Just trying to keep you all up to date on our school and if you have any suggestions/comments on saving other memorabilia from the old buildings please add your ideas here.

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