5701 Shelton

"There's just so much sentimental baggage you can carry through life. I'm not much for reunions. Anyone who has reached the age of 60 could easily spend the rest of his days just sitting around, remembering." --Andy Rooney


Mr. Rooney was about 64 when he published those words in 1983. He passed away at age 92 a few months ago, still expressing similar notions.

We went in and out of those doors many times during the 3-years we were assigned to that institution. Take a look at the cars--this is a period picture and you can right click and open in a new tab for a larger view. No matter what we have done since those days, like it or not, if you are like me, you have been influenced by what you learned inside those doors and by who you knew in those hallways.

Except for our families, we probably spent more time together then than we have with any other group of people since. There we learned about ambition, success, failure, envy, love, lust, work, stress, glee, gloom, and friendship--all with a little math, science, and English mixed in.

This blog is intended to draw out some of your thoughts on various matters. Perhaps it is best that we keep things relatively anonymous in order to provide a comfortable online environment for unfettered expression. Let's leave philosophy to the philosophers and personal comparisons to the reunions. In this place, let's think more about what we have learned, what we can recall, and thoughts we might be able to share as we move onward toward 70. Seventy—can you believe it?

January 2011 Update.  Those 266 words written about 5-years ago still look good to me as a mission statement (I don’t like the term, but it seems to have gained traction as a buzzword) However, it’s probably worth adding a few thoughts.

Unfortunately, some of those I initially wanted to hear from have either died or haven’t found the blog. On the other hand, some folks I hadn’t known well back then have been active readers and have left some very interesting and substantial comments. I’ve enjoyed them and been pleased to publish their thoughts.

Although this blog is narrowly targeted, it has had over 105,000 page hits. I had originally intended it to be a place of useful information not only for we ranking senior Highlanders, but also for our children and grandchildren who might want to know a little more about us and our times. I believe it is still a good venue for that purpose.  Expanding its scope to include adjacent classes of 1961-1965 is an added objective...we knew a lot of them, too.

Our time-slot in history has been an interesting one worth chronicling. No other generation of people will be able to speak of the WWII generation with more objective authority than we can. For those of us whose father was a WWII veteran, we had a unique perspective of at least one of those men. Their service, no matter how heroic or mundane, can help history record an accurate and objective view of the participants we knew.


Internet/PC technology has developed to a point where we can make very good use of it, if we are careful. It was initially conceptualized by hippies and substantially exploited by adolescents. As rational adults we have some problems making sense of much of it. However, we do understand that little adult supervision has been applied to the space, law is woefully lagging behind, and the description of it as the “wild west” is not without merit.


Communicating with me. Simply leave a comment anywhere in the blog and I will get an email notice from the blog. All comments are subject to my moderation and acceptance—I might edit to dress up the wording. If you do not want your comment published, just say in your first sentence…DO NOT PUBLISH…and it won’t be published.

The comment window can be a bit confusing to newcomers and those who are intensely cautious about their online interaction. The Blogger software tells me nothing about you, except the screen name you’re using, and then only when you leave a comment. If a response is requested or useful, I will enter a comment beneath yours on the same post.



Facebook. You can also contact me on Facebook.  Facebook is convenient for the exchange of casual messages and pictures, so is Flickr.

Email: Use the "Contact" box at upper right side.




Adios.