Classof69PDC

More messages from classmates

2009-09-08T17:34:00.000-07:00

Everyone looked like they were having a good time...I spent time last night looking at the pictures. I did plan on attending...sorry I missed a good time. Terry Sellers Hutchins

It sounds like the reunion was a lot of fun. Sorry I missed it. Since 1993, I have struggled with Parkinson's Disease and was placed on disability in 2006. The medication that had given me relief was no longer working, After consultation with doctors, I made the decision to proceed with Deep Brain Stimulation Surgery this spring. The surgery was very scary since I had to be awake. The surgery was done at Froedtert Hospital in Milwaukee and was very successful. My hair is growing back finally, however it is gray. I am still taking medications but it has improved my quality of life for which I am very grateful. My oldest son is getting married on Halloween this year. Now I can really enjoy the day. Greetings to you all
Phyllis (Lenzendorf) Rodriguez

Classmates,
As I head out to work this morning it's with a special smile on my face after spending a great weekend in Prairie with you all and family. God blessed us with great weather and comradery. I would like to echo Gordon's very well stated thanks to all those who worked hard to make it a great reunion! I would like to offer a special thanks to Dave Polodna, Mike Obmascher, Steve Ristvedt, Robyn Hedeman, and Dave and Jeanette Cook who also made this a great music reunion for me! We had a great time getting together to practice and playing at the reunion and so glad to hear so many enjoyed the era music we put together. Gordon, thank you for keeping us all informed and in touch, and for all the great photos. I didn't get a chance to take many but you captured the moments well - and I WAS able to download them.
Take care all. Hope to see you all in 5 years (or less)!
Off to work! :)
Jim Wachuta

Dear Gordon,
What a total success. Blew my expectations way out. I just hurt the next day...face from laughing and feet...well the music was so good. Karen (Day)

40-year reunion fades into history

2009-09-07T15:29:00.000-07:00

We now have a few more memories and few more photographs, and maybe our ears ringing and our feet sore from an evening with a great band (all former classmates). The PHS Class of 69 40-year reunion was a great success, with turnout numbering around 65, including former band teacher Dave Todd and his wife, plus several extra members of the Wachuta and Hedeman families who came mainly for the music.

The afternoon picnic was a great way to enjoy a gorgeous Wisconsin summer afternoon, and get a head start on all of the catching up that these reunions seem to foster. About two dozen made it for the afternoon.

The music was fantastic. Jim Wachuta, Dave Polodna, Mike Obmascher, Steve Ristvedt and Robyn Hedeman practiced together for the first time in 40 years on Friday night and played several sets of memorable tunes. I can't imagine a better way of doing a class reunion.

Photos have been posted on the Class of 69 Fadebook page, click here.

I think anyone can access the photos, you don't have to be a member of Facebook. However, if you are on Facebook and join the official Class of 69 group, you should be able to add your own photos to the mix. If anyone wants to have their own copy of any of the photos, you should be able to download it from Facebook, but I'll be glad to email you a copy also.

I heard from several classmates who couldn't make it this time but are already looking ahead to 2014:

Gordon, thanks for keeping my in the loop on the reunion. I don’t plan on making it to the festivities but if anyone asks, we are doing fine. We are empty nesters now. Our youngest son started college this Fall ,even though he is in town at Iowa State, he has moved to the dorms. We anticipate seeing him on the weekends for home cooked meals and laundry duty. Enjoy the weekend. - Gary Novey

To all of my fellow classmates.. I hope you all have a great time and a wonderful reunion. I so wish I could be there. It will be a blast. Where did 40 years go? With love, Mary Jerde Chapman

Man, I wish I could be there. Know you'll have a great time. Now I'll have to wait 5 more years. That hurts. Tell Barb Floyd I'll have "Send in the Clowns" ready for her next time. · Terri Larson Cunningham

Kristine Otteson Maag and Kathy Kaber Kruse will be putting together the 2014 reunion, with technical support from yours truly. We'll try to keep up the steady communication so that everyone remains informed about how classmates are doing. Thanks to all who expressed their appreciation for the communiques.

A special thanks to Rick and Kathy Brown for shouldering the main responsibility for organizing this year's gathering. Karen Day made arrangements for the cake, handled decorations, and donated the park shelter reservation. Lois Moeller Baker provided flowers for the tables. And thanks to the spouses who patiently endured another night with a room full of strangers because they know how much it means to us.

As Karen put it, we have a unique familial bond that's linked to a specific time and place. Whether it was four, six, ten or twelve years together, we have classes, teachers, coaches and a lot of memories in common. Even if we now have a twangy Texas accent like Wayne Horkheimer (I love listening to him talk) our roots are still in Prairie du Chien, our alma mater. Wherever we have made it to (some of us have made it and retired already), PDC is where we started.

Switched at Birth

2008-07-26T14:08:00.000-07:00

Classmate Sue McDonald Boutni learned in 1994 that she had been switched at birth. The story was shared on public radio's This American Life today, July 26, 2008.

Schoolmate Brad Williams

2008-01-13T19:43:00.000-08:00

The Wisconsin State Journal has a front page article on former schoolmate Brad Williams. Unfortunately the article doesn't seem to be posted online so there's no link available. However, an article of a similar nature appeared in the LaCrosse Tribune last year. The article is on hyperthymesia, which is defined as having a superior autobiographical memory.

Brad is 51, so he is a few years behind us but he also skipped a grade. His brother Eric is working on a documentary on hyperthymesia. There are some interesting video clips posted online. Brad's mother, shown in one of the clips, shows a resemblance to Mrs. Gauger, the fifth grade teacher who taught some of us. Which is to be expected, since Mrs. Gauger was Brad's grandmother.

I don't remember much about fifth grade, except that was when the class started doing spelling bees. And I discovered I was a pretty good speller when Claudette Clark and I spelled down the rest of the class. Brad, as you may remember, was the state Spelling Bee and went to teh national bee in Washington.

Brad went into radio news, which was my field for many years. Shortly after I left KLMS radio in Lincoln, NE, Brad started working there. He went on to WIZM in LaCrosse, a station which is part of the Midwest Family chain, where he still works. Before I went to Lincoln I worked at WISM in Madison, also part of the Midwest Family chain. My ability to remember obscure trivia sometimes astounds my family (and has established my reputation in Trivial Pursuit). However, nobody remembers details like Brad obviously does.

Doppler Max

2007-10-22T16:19:00.000-07:00

The local NBC affiliate in Madison has a new doppler weather radar. In the highly competitive arena of local TV weather, it has been dubbed Doppler Max. To those of a certain generation, and a certain area of SW Wisconsin and NE Iowa, the name cannot be mentioned out loud without conjuring memories of a great local television personality. Dr. Max and his clown companion Mombo entertained the after-school audience for much of the sixties on WMT TV, channel 2 out of Cedar Rapids.

Sure enough, more information about this classic television series is available online, at least one weblog has a mention (and that's where this photo is posted).

We're all from the Driftless Region

2007-08-19T14:22:00.000-07:00

The lead article on the front page of the Wisconsin State Journal this morning was about a proposal to create a National Park out of Crawford County. The proposal would seem to have some merit since Crawford County is at the heart of the geologically famous driftless region. The proposal is made in a beautifully illustrated book by Bryan Stanley. Despite the beauty and the quality of the book the proposal is probably fatally hampered by the fact that Stanley is a resident of the Mendota Mental Health Institute.

Crawford County is one of the most beautiful counties in Wisconsin, but also one of its poorest counties. I'm not sure why its poverty rate is so high but creating a national park would surely change the economy in the region.

I've found myself thinking lately about a much less ambitious park plan, creating a park on the blufftop surrounding the Brisbois gravesite overlooking Prairie du Chien. I wonder how many classmates have actually hiked up the bluff trails to those graves? I wonder if they're even accessible like they were when we were growing up? Apparently it is, since a Brisbois grave tour is part of the cemetery tour being promoted for October 6th. Creating an access road from the farmland just to the east, and adding some additional park amenities, would open the way to a beautiful vista of the Mississippi River valley, and give the city one more promotable attraction.

Another great vista, deserving of a park to promote and preserve it, is on county highway F on the crest of the bluff just above Lynxville. A whole 15-mile sweep of the Mississippi River is spread before your eyes. If you're taking a visitor to see the Mississippi, this should be their first glimpse of it.

Just a couple of weeks ago another article in the WSJ focused on a cave near Eastman where prehistoric Indian inscriptions have been defaced. I wasn't even aware of any significant caves around Eastman.

Despite the steep hillsides, Crawford county still has a lot of fertile farmland (it would appear). Asking farmers to give that up would be a big obstacle to any park plan, in addition to the cost. On the other hand, farming in Wisconsin hasn't been all that lucrative lately, even on flat land. Hundreds of farmers across Wisconsin leave the business each year. That's one of the reasons that more and more Amish can be seen on the roads of Grant County.

Additional note: heavy rains this weekend have caused heavy flooding and evacuations in the Kickapoo Valley villages of Gays Mills and Soldiers Grove, as well as around the region.

8/20 update: Crawford County has been declared a disaster area, along with Richland and Vernon Counties, due to heavy rains and flooding.

Final note regarding Bryan Stanley and another class connection to this story from classmate Amelia Lochner Dittman: Bryan Stanley is in the Mendota Mental Health Center because he shot and killed our parish priest, deacon and custodian (St. Patrick’s, Onalaska) in 1985.

Classmate photo

2007-08-19T14:14:00.000-07:00

I was once walking down Lake Street in Madison and bumped into a couple of classmates. Nowadays it appears as if the likeliest place to accidentally bump into several classmates is at a nursing home. Which is what happened to Diane Duffy Cady, Barb Coorough Schwant and Joyce Herried Hagen (left to right) last year. Barb sent me the photo earlier this summer and I'm finally getting caught up on my email.

Bridges of Crawford County

2007-08-08T16:02:00.000-07:00

Classmate Dennis Pelock, the Crawford County Highway Commissioner, has responsibility for two of Wisconsin's 15 bridges that are the same design as the I-35 bridge that collapsed last week up the Mississippi River in Minnesota. The Wisconsin State Journal reports that the two highway 82 bridges across the Mississippi River at Lansing are being closely scrutinized and no red flags have been found so far.

Of course anyone who took Driver's Ed in the pre-1974 days of Prairie du Chien's suspension bridges across the Mississippi River has their own bridge nightmares, usually related to learning to drive across the narrow, swaying structures. Heaven forbid if a fully loaded semi-truck was coming in the other direction.

Seems to me I got up the nerve to ride my bicycle across the Wisconsin-side span once, which isn't much when you consider that Bob Titlebach and Lonnie Hubbard actually jumped off the bridge into the river. I wonder if Bob still has nightmares about that.

On the internet the two suspension bridges are still up. There are several sites that have nice photos of the structures. One is at: http://www.visi.com/~jweeks/upper_mississippi/pagesA/umissA08.html (Clip link and paste into browser, for some reason the embedded URL was impossible to link correctly). I especially liked the photo showing the causeway that was built between the two bridges, before the trees grew up to shadow over it. That causeway between the two bridges was one of my favorite scenic drives.

Follow-up: Just a couple days later the famous bridge between Prairie du Chien and Marquette gets a mention in the New York Times. It's a travel story about renting a house boat and floating from Lansing to McGregor.

Another retirement

2007-06-20T19:13:00.000-07:00

A surprising number of classmates went into law enforcement after graduation. Now another retirement has been announced.

Courier Press, Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, Monday, June 4, 2007, Page A-4, Local News

Randy Schmidt retires from PdC Police Department after 34 years

By Sandy Vold

Randy Schmidt, actually Sergeant Randy Schmidt until 1:30 p.m. May
31 when he completed his final shift with the Prairie du Chien Police Department, is not a man to brag of his abilities and accomplishments. Nevertheless, he will be greatly missed by the rest of the department after serving the city for 34 years.
Said Police Chief Mike King of Schmidt's retirement: "It's the end of an era. He's been the face of the police department longer than anyone. I'm glad that he's retiring and will have time to enjoy life, but I'm not glad to see him go."
Patty Yager, administrative assistant for the department, said his knowledge and expertise will be missed. "I'll be calling him at home for a long time. He knows everything and everybody. All I have to do is say, 'You know that guy who drives a green car,' and he'll know who I'm talking about."
Schmidt began his career right out of college in 1973. He had just received his degree in criminal justice at UW-Platteville when he came to work for the city. Over the years he has seen changes, but the biggest one, he said, is the increased paperwork. "It doesn't stop,"
he said, "it's the name of the game."
He considers himself fortunate to have had only three close calls in all his years with the police force. "They involved a scissors, a knife and a hand gun," he said, and he was not injured in any of the incidents. When asked what attracted him to police work and what kept him going, he quipped, "retirement," but then added more seriously, "the reward are that you serve and protect; you help your fellow man."
The seriousness of the work was relieved by the camaraderie of his co-workers--"we've had a lot of good times," he commented--and some of the unbelievably dumb things done by lawbreakers. He recalled one fellow some years back who had broken into 20-some places and stopped at the police department after each one. His pattern was so reliable it was easy to compile evidence and get a conviction.
Schmidt has no specific plans for his retirement. He has a cabin and some acreage, and plans to do some fishing and "catching up" on things.
He also has some advice for anyone contemplating a career in police work: "It's treated me well. Go for it, do the best you can and be compassionate to your fellow man."

Classmates in the News

2007-01-16T17:03:00.000-08:00

Bureaucratic bridge battle ends with local winners
WISCONSIN STATE JOURNAL
January 16, 2007

For 31 months, it was a bridge too expensive, a bridge too isolated, even a bridge too short.

Finally last week, Crawford County highway officials got the news that the Federal Emergency Management Agency has decided it is a bridge "eligible for replacement."

As officials pointed out in appeals and applications, even a letter to President Bush, they had no choice but to replace it two years ago. Now the county and town of Clayton will get up to 87 percent of the $140,000 they spent to replace an old timber bridge after a flood in May 2004.

Highway commissioner Dennis Pelock called it a "hard- fought battle," and he is still puzzled why FEMA denied appeal after appeal for what he said should have been a routine approval. Read more.
Print version.

Election results

2006-11-23T15:15:00.000-08:00

Congratulations to Jim Rider for running a strong campaign for Sheriff in the 2006 election. Unfortunately it wasn't quite strong enough to win. The final results are in - Opponent: 3751 Classmate: 2524.

For the record, the PDC Class of '71 has had a lock on the Grant County Sheriff's office for the past ten years. You may have read about the race this year. News coverage appeared in 350+ news outlets from the New York Times on down to the Henderson Daily Dispatch in Henderson NC, due to the fact that one of the challengers changed his name to Andy Griffith. The real Andy Griffith wasn't too happy about that.

Sheriff's race attracts another classmate

2006-06-01T18:24:00.000-07:00

Another classmate is making another run for public office. Jim Rider has announced he's a candidate for Crawford County Sheriff, running as a Republican. Was it just four years ago that Randy Schmidt was a candidate? The citizens of Crawford County are given a second chance at voting in professional law enforcement. Grant County Sheriff Keith Govier (Pdc Class of '71) said that he thought Jim Rider would make an excellent sheriff.

"The Girl in the Blue Dress"

2006-02-13T15:28:00.000-08:00

Flowers, candy, cards...they're all nice. You can also post an ode to your true love on the internet for Valentines Day. That's what Stan Hitchcock did, husband of our classmate Denise Thornburg. It's called "The Girl in the Blue Dress." And, yeah it's pretty sugary. But what else would you expect on Valentine's Day? Happy Valentine's Day everybody.

We're all singing the same song.

2005-07-27T19:43:00.000-07:00

At Prairie du Chien High School we knew what senioritis was. High School seniors today probably don't handle it any better than we did. But now that we're as old as our teachers were then (or older, well except for Violet Dohse and a few others), senioritis has other connotations. At least according to Ed Cook, a philologist in Cincinnati and one of my favorite bloggers at Ralph the Sacred River.

He's the same age as we are, listened to the same music that we listened to, and asks the same questions we probably ask. Let me know what you think. Comments are allowed on this weblog.

Marquette and Meskousing

2005-06-17T20:02:00.000-07:00

On this day in 1673 European explorers reached the Mississippi River for the first time. Father Jacques Marquette and his partner Louis Jolliet traveled the superhighways of the era, the rivers, in their birchbark canoes. The Wisconsin River they called the Meskousing. The name was changed to Ouisconsin by later French explorers and reached the present English spelling in the early 19th century.

The Marquette/Jolliet journey is a familiar story for those of us who grew up in or near Prairie du Chien. We've stood on the bluff at Wyalusing State Park to view the confluence of the two rivers numerous times. I recently attended the wedding of a former colleague at the park, along with my son Sam. Sam & I noticed a buzzard floating in the updrafts as we gazed out over the two rivers. First wedding I've been to with buzzards flying overhead.

We've walked its trails and explored its caves during our school outings. It is one of the most beautiful parks in the upper Midwest as is its twin on the opposite side of the Mississippi, Iowa's Pikes Peak State Park. I attended another wedding at Pikes Peak about 20 years ago, the wedding of my youngest brother Ben.

Now the State Historical Society has posted Marquette's diary online. The account is fascinating. One of the things that strikes you immediately is the religious nature of Marquette's mission, to bring the Gospel to the native indians. He writes about it frequently.

Another must-visit-daily site on my list is Jim Peterson's great weblog on Lewis & Clark's daily diaries and what else happened in America on that day. I've been reading along with Lewis and Clark for over a year now, I think. It's a great adventure, especially as it's seasoned with the memories of the 2002 trip I took with Sam and his older brother Brian out to the west coast. Our last stop before we headed back was Fort Clatsop at Astoria, Oregon. That night we camped at Farewell Bend on the Snake River, an Oregon Trail campsite. And the next day we stop at Promontory Summit, Utah. We covered the three main features of the westward migration in just over 24 hours. We also visited Mount St. Helens. I told Sam he would be studying all of this stuff in school and he was very fortunate to be able to see it in person. I think he believed me.

Addenda

2005-06-12T12:59:00.000-07:00

Gordon,

I know this isn't the way you would wish to get responses to your new
blog, but it is simpler and more direct for me. Just a bit of
information: the cabins on Marquette Road were called the Elm Grove
Cabins. You might also find it interesting to know that Vince and Vi
Polodna who owned the cabins also donated a good share of the land upon
which the Memorial Hospital was built. Not a small accomplishment for a
man who worked many years as a custodian at St. Mary's.

David
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
David Polodna, Director
Winding Rivers Library System
Phone: 608-789-7119
E-mail: dlp@wrlsweb.org Fax: 608-789-7106

Open for business

2005-05-28T09:33:00.000-07:00

OK, it looks like this works. All members of the Prairie du Chien High School Class of 69 are invited to become members and post regularly. Class is in session. Check your spelling. No running in the halls.

If, by chance, you already have a weblog and want to post in the comments section, you can do that. However, I would prefer that you contact me directly. Then I can formally invite you to be a member of the blog and you can post directly to it.

Choreography & Reflection

2005-05-27T20:44:00.000-07:00

If you're paying attention, you'll see amazing things all around you, even in rush hour traffic. Not major miracles necessarily, but small moments of beauty and wonder that are enough to lift your spirits for the rest of the day and maybe into another day.
Headed home from work on a Friday afternoon, I noticed two empty carhaulers next to each other in the lanes in front of me. One of the car dealers along Odana Road had just received a dozen or more new 2005 models and the trucks were on their way back to the factory.
As we cleared the green lights at the intersection and drove under the beltline overpass, I saw the two trucks wheel left into the on-ramp in precise formation, as if they had been practicing all afternoon. The one on the inner left then slowed to let his companion pull in front of him and they were homeward bound down the freeway.
Normally a small moment of beauty like this is a personal epiphany, and if we choose to later share it with friends or family much of the magic is gone. But I got to share this moment with my brother Jim because we have been car pooling for the last nine months, ever since I joined him in working at the Madison office of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. He's been working there for most of the past three decades.
We work at opposite ends of the building and don't see a lot of each other on the job, but by sharing time on the way in and out we've gotten caught up on a lot of conversation time we wouldn't otherwise have.
Our conversation lingered for a moment on this pas de deux and then we returned to what had started to develop as a rich lode of reflection on this trip, some shared childhood memories.
Triggered by a passing comment earlier in the day from someone else, we had started by discussing the Bread and Breakfast Inns of Prairie du Chien, a concept that had not yet been popularized there or anywhere else we knew of when we were growing up. We were more familiar with railroad hotels, having grown up a block from the tracks and the CB&Q depot, although by the time we came along rail passenger traffic was on the decline and so were they.
The truly exotic place to stay, back in those days, was the Hotel San. The Hotel San was like no other building around. Partially constructed out of, I don't know, concrete perhaps, with one yellowish tan sloping wall of a sandpaper texture, I see it in my mind as almost like a sandpile or a sand dune alongside Blackhawk Avenue.
It was probably much more of a conventional building than I remember. I have no idea what it looked like inside. I never went inside, or had a reason to. I occasionally stopped in the shelter of a corner doorway while dodging raindrops on the way to school. Between the hotel and the railroad tracks was a small diner where somehow I discovered ice cream cones were for sale for only a nickel. I did stop in there several times.
The Hotel San burned down, we decided, around 1965 or 1966. Jim had a work-study accounting job at the farm implement dealer across the street, during his senior year in high school, when it happened. The farm implement business too is long gone, both properties are now occupied by banks. We had a fire that routed us out of our own home at around the same time.
I remember hearing a rumor that Police Chief Doc Lyons had rescued a suitcase full of money from the burning hotel for one of its customers and been handsomely rewarded. The Prairie du Chien police force at that time somewhat resembled the Mayberry Police Department, but we didn't pursue that line of reflection. Perhaps another time.
Instead we discussed other accommodations available to visitors of Prairie du Chien, particularly Polodna's cabins, situated on South Marquette Road where the McDonalds drive-in now dispenses Big Macs and Chicken McNuggets. It seems like they were called the Whispering Pines Cabins or something like that. We wondered how much a week in those cabins cost back almost 50 years ago.
We got to stay there, off and on, during the summer of 1959 while mom and dad were fixing up the house we'd bought on North Marquette Road. There were several short stays at the cabins, a couple brothers at a time. The rest of the brothers stayed back on the farm, under the watch of aunts and uncles. Next door to the cabins was an ice house, with a coin operated ice dispenser dealing out coolness in large blocks and smaller cubes in plastic bags. Having little to do and no friends yet, we spent a fair amount of time just hanging out on the steps of the ice house, watching the world go by and occasionally stopping to buy some ice.
It seems like it took several months to make the house livable for our family, although we did a lot more work on it after we moved in. Dad eventually spent years digging out a basement under the house, shovel by shovel, first making room for a wood-burning furnace.
Many years later we had a bait shop in the basement. From time to time fishermen would stop in on their way to some Mississippi River fishing spot and knock on the back door. We'd go down and retrieve a couple dozen red wrigglers and put 'em in a old soup can for them. Red Wrigglers were not as big and juicy as night crawlers, which we also occasionally sold, but they were supposed to be lively enough to attract a lot of fish.
A block away from Polodna's cabins the Memorial Hospital had just been built. The area was criss-crossed with streets. But most of the blocks were empty. Doc Lyons actually had one of the first homes built in that area. With those empty fields still clear in the mind, it seems strange to drive those streets now and see homes on every lot surrounded by mature trees.
But there are much stranger things in this world. Cities that add new homes for expanding populations and trees that grow to spread their canopies across those homes are actually among the more normal things in life because growth is normal. It just seems strange because our memories can take us back to a time when it looked different. The longer we live the more of those memories we have.
But we should expect growth. And we should appreciate and enjoy our nostalgic memories. We may not learn as much from the pleasant memories as we do from the heartaches that are also standard experience in life but they are uniquely and individually ours. And those that we can share with family and friends are even more precious. Here's to car pooling and conversation.
GG