Name: John Baker ~~~~~~~~~~ Mon-Jan 22, 2007, 1:50 pm - HHS Time
Class: 1962
City & State: Lomita, CA
E-mail
Message: For all interested parties in the Alumni Association's first meeting, the minutes of that meeting have been added to Cougartown.

Name: Michael Kratz ~~~~~~~~~~ Mon-Jan 22, 2007, 11:57 am - HHS Time
Class: 1971
City & State: VEGAS
E-mail
Message: Cougar sighting or not, the wonderful flight attendant Mariann Dowell(74) had a short layover here in Vegas. She gave me a call, and we got together for lunch. Mariann and I spent much of that friday afternoon, reminiscing about Hawthorne and are past experiences. We had a lot to talk about, for Mariann and I haven't seen each other since the summer of 74.

Name: Sharon Branigan ~~~~~~~~~~ Mon-Jan 22, 2007, 9:47 am - HHS Time
Maiden: Bierman
Class: 1976
City & State: Thousand Oaks, CA
E-mail
Message: JOHN!!! On behalf of HHS and the Alumni Association may I say, WOWIE WOW WOW WOW!!! What a generous gift! You are TRULY a Prince among men! Not only a page on Cougartown (worth it's weight in gold!) but seed money as well! As for the rest of us, let's not just sit here lurking- let's get our dues in to Cougartown! Not only can you support Cougartown, but the HHSAA, too. CT has been a blessing to all of us; now it's our turn to pay it forward. So everyone get your checkbooks and credit cards and send in your dues! Do a good turn and you'll feel good about yourself and help a worthy cause at the same time. Thank you, John!!!

Name: Kathy Downer ~~~~~~~~~~ Mon-Jan 22, 2007, 4:51 am - HHS Time
Maiden: Peterson
Class: 1970
City & State: Marietta, Ohio
E-mail
Message: Larry Bach's posting from Friday sure jogged my memory. I went to St. Joseph's for school, but attended Dana for summer school in 7th grade. Some boys switched the bathroom sign from girls to "boys" and I walked right in. Being shy, I didn't think it was too funny until later. Thanks, I hadn't thought about that in years.

Name: Keith D. Jones ~~~~~~~~~~ Mon-Jan 22, 2007, 12:59 am - HHS Time
Class: 1976
City & State: Kona, HI
E-mail
Message: Armand I noticed you mentioned your grandfather was in the Aleutian Islands during WWII. My dad was also there. His name was Casey Jones. Wouldn't be neat if they knew each other. And good job with the Alumni Association. I would like to be a part of it if I can. Don't know what I can do from here but I will if I can

Name: Sharon Branigan ~~~~~~~~~~ Sun-Jan 21, 2007, 8:20 pm - HHS Time
Maiden: Bierman
Class: 1976
City & State: Thousand Oaks, CA
No E-mail
Message: We are off to a fine start with the HHS Alumni Association, which held it's first meeting yesterday in the new cafeteria at Hawthorne High! Many thanks and a huge WELCOME to those who attended: Leslie Greasby, Tracy Turner, Chris Prewitt, Richard Witte, Don di Tomasso, Laura Geele Wang, Clark, me, and MY MOM!!! We have some great ideas to work toward and a great crew to work with, and would love to see MORE Cougs join in the fun! Please join us for the next meeting on March 24 at noon, at the Keller-Williams offices in Torrance. Email me for address, directions and phone. I know there will be at least two new faces at the next meet: Sue Bierman King 74 and John Baker 62! Hope to see Jodi Wilbanks Weishaar, too! Class of 76 has a VERY strong showing, folks- WE'VE GOT SPIRIT, YES WE DO! WE'VE GOT SPIRIT, HOW 'BOUT YOU???? Big things planned, many hands needed! Let's see that Cougar spirit come shining through!

Name: Don D. ~~~~~~~~~~ Sun-Jan 21, 2007, 5:37 pm - HHS Time
Class: 1975
City & State: South Bay
E-mail
Message: Chris Prewitt, Great job scanning those ASB pics. That was a major endeavor for sure. Glad to see you at the meeting too and (you and Kathy) at the VFW breakfast also. John B., it was good chatting with you today during the VFW breakfast. I look forward to seeing how alumni will support HHS this year. It should be interesting.

Name: Armand Vaquer ~~~~~~~~~~ Sun-Jan 21, 2007, 2:50 pm - HHS Time
Class: 1972
City & State: Tazrana, CA
E-mail
Message: You're never too old to pull off pranks or practical jokes. I have one from the workplace in my, uh, later years. I worked at an insurance company claims department and our claims manager went on a two-week vacation. On the day he was returning, I brought into the office (in a bowling bag) a real human skull that my grandfather found in the Aleutian Islands during World War II (it was an Eskimo's). Before the manager came in, we got the thickest workers' compensation claims file we could find, set it on his desk with the skull on top of it with a tag that read "salvage" and closed his office door. A little later, the claim manager came in and opened the door and went in. Then we heard him splitting a gut laughing. Any other good workplace pranks?

Name: Keith D. Jones ~~~~~~~~~~ Sun-Jan 21, 2007, 11:06 am - HHS Time
Class: 1976
City & State: Kona, HI
E-mail
Message: Talked to Kurt Morlock (77') last night. We were going over a bunch of pranks we used to do. He reminded me of some of the funniest ever. The "wallet or purse trick" We would tie fishing line to a wallet or purse and lay in he intersection out front of the house. When cars or even people come by they would see this wallet or purse and immediately try to pick it up. When they did we would pull on the string. It was so funny watching people try to grab it. Some people would even follow it trying to pick it up thinking it was the wind that moved it. We even did this at night clubs. It was really funny. And John it was easy to get the pigeons. Take a pellet gun sit on the proch and wait for them to land. They are all over the place.

Name: EL N IDA ~~~~~~~~~~ Sun-Jan 21, 2007, 9:35 am - HHS Time
Class: 1960
City & State: ID, Potato
E-mail
Message: I guess the previous post didn't make it through channels. This one is for my SON. He and a couple of buds got ahold of a real life like dummy. VERY REAL! Mind you now this is a brand new neighborhood being built. New Streets, houses etc. Well they laid the dummy beside the road on the curb, half on and half off, a leg here, a leg there. I might mention they were looking out the top window of the 2 story house being built behind us. Well Jude and I were unaware of what was taking place in the neighborhood, Probably playing ZELDA or something. Well a car went by and kind of stopped, looked at it ,drove on. Several cars did the same thing. At a slow pace. In a spot in the proceedings the kids needed something more. So they sat the Dummy up in the middle of the road and a dramatic thing happened. The ALPA A personality was on the way home, theres the dummy sitting there...he just gases it and runs over the damn thing and hauls *ss home,:-)) meanwhile the kids are roaring in this two story house behind us. Then the sirens from the FD and EMS start coming. The guys fled to a corn field NW of us to wait out the drama. Jude and I are looking out the window asking ourselves what the big deal was? The fire Dept, instead of picking up this prank Dummy, puts it against the fence across the street from our house. Everyone has a great laugh. Next morning Jude gets in her Van to back out of the garage and sees this person in the back seat of her car! It's called the big ONE! Our Son and buds had snuck back and put the dummy in her car. Great moral to this story, never trust your kids if they have an imagination and if they do and can beg real well...THEY LIVE!!! MAY THE COUGAR BE WITH YOU!!Jake N Jude.

Name: John Crotty ~~~~~~~~~~ Sun-Jan 21, 2007, 9:03 am - HHS Time
Class: 1969
City & State: Hermosa Beach
E-mail
Message: More pranks...I think I was in the fifth grade at Jose Sepulveda School when I pulled this one. On a Saturday afternoon, I was at the school riding skateboards with a buddy. We used to ride there because they had wide cement sidewalks all around each building. In the middle of the west end of the school was a building that housed one pair of lavatories, the janitor's room, and the book storage room. The book room only had a door and a metal louvred "window" with no glass (I guess for ventilation). Well, on a break from our riding, my buddy produces a pack of smokes he had stolen from his dad. We both light up and pretend to smoke 'em. Suddenly, another friend's father appears walking his dog. We run to the "window" and throw the butts through the louvre. The man walks past us, says hello, and disappears from view. Feeling smug about pulling a fast one, we suddenly notice smoke coming out of the louvres!!!!! YIKES!!!! We must have spent about ten minutes running back and forth from the drinking fountain, to the "window," with mouths full of water, spitting them through the louvres until the smoke ceased. Whether it was just the butts smoldering, or whether some books actually caught fire, I don't know. The only thing I ever heard about the "prank" was that some books had water damage. It was the only time in my life I didn't get caught for some stupid antic I pulled. I guess I can be thankful DNA testing wasn't invented yet!!!!!

Name: James Armour ~~~~~~~~~~ Sun-Jan 21, 2007, 4:48 am - HHS Time
Class: 1970
City & State: Atlanta, GA
E-mail
Message: Hey John,Congratulations on number 900! Wow, thats a good size novel! Im glad I have been able to be a part of it. My experience with you and Cougartown has greatly enriched my life. It has kept me in touch with a part of my life that normally would have been lost through the passing years. Everyday I log on to Cougartown I feel as if I am having a reunion. Thanks again John.

Name: Chris Prewitt ~~~~~~~~~~ Sat-Jan 20, 2007, 11:58 pm - HHS Time
Class: 1967
City & State: Fullerton, CA
E-mail
Message: I attended the Hawthorne High School Alumni meeting today, Saturday 20 Jan 2007. Clark stressed that this is not a competing group with Cougartown but a group that is out to help the school. The group will likely associate itself with the PTA. Some things that were suggested were to re-establish the HalCap award for the best athlete and groups like the Knights and Diaconians have long since disappeared. Just to let people see how things have fallen apart, I took the photos of the ASB presidents and scanned them. They were in storage and not kept out of the weather. You can see the scans here. Most of the photos can't even be removed from the glass. In some cases the glass was so broken I just left the photos in their frames. A lot of the photos were missing including George Flesh, Chuck McCabe, Dani Griffiths, Maureen Grogin, Carl Bryan, Tom Demary, Chuck Griffin and Pat Hammon. All of whom were in office during my High School years. Look for the next meeting around the 24th of March.

Name: Dan Johnson ~~~~~~~~~~ Sat-Jan 20, 2007, 8:53 pm - HHS Time
Class: 1977
City & State: Legoland
E-mail
Message: Wild, wooly, wacky and random COUGAR sighting! Today I took Layla to Legoland in Carlsbad for her 3rd birthday. Speaking with a couple of folks in line for Safari trek. They mentioned they lived in West LA and I mentioned the recent "snow" there. We then chatted about the hot weather from this past summer and the recent cold weather. I mentioned in an offhand way that I was from Hawthorne and, therefore, not used to the extremes on either end of the temperature scale. So the gentlemen says: "I'm from Hawthorne" So I asked, Leuzinger or Hawthorne and he said "I'm a Cougar." He is aware of CT but doesn't frequent that often. He's excited about the 50 year on Catalina -- it was my pleasure to meet for the first time fellow Cougar Robert Shpall, Class of '57.

Name: Jodi ~~~~~~~~~~ Sat-Jan 20, 2007, 3:40 pm - HHS Time
Maiden: Torgerson
Class: 1975
City & State: Bakersfield, Ca.
E-mail
Message: Hi Art Lamere. I have e-mailed back and forth with Gin in the last year and had not heard from her as of late. Please send Ginny, and your Mom our prayers and please e-mail me and let me know if the address I have for her in Poway is still good. Thanks, Jodi

Name: Sheree ~~~~~~~~~~ Sat-Jan 20, 2007, 12:01 pm - HHS Time
Maiden: Klingenhagen
Class: 1975
City & State: Sugarloaf, CA
E-mail
Message: I wanted to say a big THANK YOU to John for giving us 900 pages of great memories reconnecting us with our old classmates and teachers. This is quite an accomplishment for one person. You have made our little town of Hawthorne known now by many and not just because of our beloved Beach Boys but also for a great website put together by one of our own. You have no idea what you have done for so many of us, you are greatly appreciated!

Name: Keith D. Jones ~~~~~~~~~~ Sat-Jan 20, 2007, 10:41 am - HHS Time
Class: 1976
City & State: Kona, HI
E-mail
Message: I remember when we used to get a dead pigeon and tie a line of fishing string around its neck and then throw it over the telephone lines that went over the intersection in front of my friends house. We would hide and when a car stopped at the stop sign we would drop the pigeon on their windshield. The people would get out of the car to see the bird that flew into their car. We would then lift it up quick and they would always jump or scream. That was fun.