Past WUHS1961 News Items 60th Class of 1961 Reunion Saturday, October 9, 2021
Just noticed a Watsonville High School Alumni public Facebook group that may have some of our people leaving comments. 55th Class of 1961 Reunion Sunday, August 21, 2016
Contact person: Charlie Johnston, 406-425-2318, 50th Reunion Enjoyed By All Dec. 8th, 2011 Update by Tana (Bowen) Roberts, to the Class of 1961: Our 50th Reunion has come and gone, the dust has settled, and most of the bills are paid. We have heard nothing but good things about the event. Only one complaint came in..... they said it wasn't long enough. Good grief, it started at noon and we were there until 10:30 p.m. cleaning up (way past our bedtime). We had a wonderful committee this time. Our first meeting was in November of 2010. Two of the committee members travelled several hundred miles to be here. David Leippe came from Cameron Park and Joan (Terry) Lohr from Pleasanton. That's called dedication. David Leippe agreed to set up a Google site for class chit-chat before the reunion and spent countless hours making the master list with addresses, phone numbers and email addresses. In the meantime, the committee spent hours searching for classmates via the Internet and calling everyone and anyone who may have known someone from our class. My husband and I even drove to some of the old addresses in town when the mail was returned and tried to track the classmate down by talking to neighbors or relatives. Many changes were made to the master list to finally get it ready for the mailing of invitations in April. If we had to lick another envelope, I'm sure we would have resigned on the spot. A big "thank you " goes out to David Leippe for all his hard work. New biographies starting pouring in and Bill George, creator of http://www.wuhs1961.com web site, was kept busy updating the bios.....some were short and sweet, and others were novels. Bill and I enjoyed reviewing them and getting them on the class web page. A big "thank you" to Bill for his constant help. We are so fortunate to have computer "nerds' to keep us right on track in the world of technology. A special thank you to Annette (Hudson) Rose who so tirelessly spent most of her day taking photos...you are one talented photographer. Our committee met monthly making good use of our time with lunch provided and allotting time for laughing and talking (Henry Gong even made apple crisp for us). A week before the reunion, Sharon (Kusanovich) Stevinson, Priscilla (Baclig) Hedgpeth and I went shopping for the hot dog lunch supplies. We could hardly push the cart around Costco and my SUV was loaded to the top. On countdown week, Marsha (Tsuda) Wada was busy working on the name tags, Sharon and Priscilla were making last minute arrangements with the caterer, and I was frantically sending emails to remind everyone what to bring and what to not forget. I'm sure the committee was getting tired of all my calls and to-do lists, but no one complained (not even our spouses). We spent all day Friday and early Saturday morning setting up and decorating. A special thanks to the many people who just showed up on both days.... what a surprise to have so much help. Another thanks to all who stayed to take the decorations down and to help clean up. Last, but by no means least, thanks to everyone who made the effort to attend.... you made it all worthwhile. Farewell for now, and we will meet again in 2016. Sept 15th, 2011 Update: Uploaded Tana's speech. September 10, 2011 Update by Tana (Bowen) Roberts... The reunion was awesome and everyone attending seemed to enjoy all our efforts. They are asking about the next one.... a few of us have decided it will be held at a restaurant or "Shady Oaks Retirement Center" where all food is provided and no decorations will be done. We will all be over 70 years old by then. It was an honor and pleasure to be able to be involved with the 50th reunion. The committe tried to not miss a detail in the planning and execution of our theme...Back to the 50's for our 50th". We recreated a 50's soda fountain with all the trimmings.....a vintage coke machine and milkshake maker, jukebox with flashing lights and music, nostalgic signs and decorations, vintage 50's clothing display, tour of the high school, Friday evening cruise to Santa Cruz, 10 classic cars brought by hot rod buffs in our class, chili dogs for the light lunch at noon, a singer belting out '''Tammy" and "Where The Boys Are", 3 teachers from our days at WUHS, and so much more, it's hard to remember. Annette (Hudson) Rose took all the pictues and they will be provided for the web site as soon as she does some editing. A classmate just called and told me it was the best reunion ever. Nothing could ever top this one. (ed. Tana was in some discomfort while providing this update as she fell while dancing and broke her wrist). September 7, 2011 Update.....3 days left before our big 50th event. Everything is starting to fall into place. We have 202 confirmed reservations. Lots of last-minute-comers afraid to miss this one, thinking it may be the last one they could ever attend. The committee and a few volunteers will begin decorating and set-up on Friday, September 9th at 9:00 a.m. We will return at 8:00 a.m. on the 10th to put the tables outside and tie up any loose ends. Henry Gong has organized a cruise of vintage cars on Thursday, September 8th. Meet at the high school cafeteria at 10 a.m. and cruise to the Monterey area and the 17 Mile Drive. Also, there will be a cruise on Friday evening....meet in front of Comerica Bank at the shopping center on Main Street and So. Green Valley Road at 5:30 p.m. (we were meeting at Taylor's Hot Dog Stand, but a Farmer's Market downtown would tie up traffic). Don't forget to take the tour of the new facilities at the high school at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday the 10th.....meet in front of the high school cafeteria for the guided tour. The reunion starts at noon with a light lunch so plan to spend the whole day with us. See you on Saturday...be sure to bring a jacket as the fog could roll in at any time. Wildcatz, forever! ...Tana August 12, 2011 Update -- Less than a month to go until we celebrate our 50th Class Reunion. The reunion committee had it's final meeting on August 4th to tie-up loose ends. Reservations are still pouring in and at last count, we are at about 170 attending. Better to reserve ahead of time so we can have an accurate count for the caterer, and so we can make a picture name tag for you. We will be decorating the building on Friday, September 9th, starting at 9:00 a.m. Volunteers welcome 'cause there's lots to do. Remember, your 50th reunion only happens once in you lifetime, so don't miss the fun. March 31, 2011 Update: Invitations to the 50th were mailed this week to all Class of 1961 Mora and Watsonville High School classmates. If for some reason you didn't receive one in the mail, and want to attend, please fill out your contact information on the last page of the 50th Invitation, include a check and mail to Sharon (Kusanovich) Stevinson. We hope to see you there. March 16, 2011 Update: If anyone needs a class email address, please visit the 50th reunion web site and contact David Leippe at dleippe@gmail.com February 2, 2011 Update: 50th Reunion planning continues. Postcards were recently sent to classmates advising them to reserve September 10, 2011 for the 50th Reunion. It is planned to be catered and take place at the Corralitos Community Center. A second web site has been set up by David Leippe to help organize the 50th. It is a confidential web site containing class emails, rosters and lists of missing classmates. There is also a private Google Group (see instructions) that WUHS 1961 Alumni are encouraged to join. Group discussion messages can be read by members of the Google Group. Previously, a Yahoo Group was used to exchange WUHS1961 information (if you want to retrieve past emails). July 9, 2010: Planning begins for the 50th Watsonville and Mora High School Reunions. Tana (Bowen) Roberts, Priscilla (Baclig) Hedgpeth and Sharon (Kusanovich) Stevinson have started planning our 50th Watsonville High School Class Reunion. They are trying to line up the Corralitos Community Center and there should be a planning meeting soon in the Watsonville area. Please email Tana (Bowen) Roberts at ricktana63@aol.com to update information on yourself. There are five places information can be placed for yourself or others: Mora graduates can also communicate with Mark Pista at markpista@att.net if they have questions or comments. Pictures of the 45th Class Reunion were uploaded on 11/21/06 that were taken by Annette (Hudson) Rose and Bill and Diane George. The 45th Class Reunion was a success on September 23, 2006 at the Corralitos Community Center and people had a great time. This website will be updated in the upcoming days with news, on-site reports, photos, mini-bios and anything of interest that's provided. Karin (Konig) Wode attended: I ran across some Corralitos historical information at http://www.corralitoshistory.com/ by Judy Pybrum Malmin. Bill George 5/17/2006 Here are a couple of updates: (1) Tana e-mailed
this Reunion Poem that you might appreciate. Bill
George 11/16/02 (2) Watsonville High School's Web Site has their own domain
name On 11/24/2001, a second set of photos, taken by Judy Nielsen was added to the web site. Thank you very much Judy. A "Whatever happened to...?" page was added. In order to keep up with our '61 classmates, this web site was started shortly after our 40th High School class reunion. We need your name, address, phone, e-mail and mini-bio. Please e-mail it to Tana (Bowen) Roberts at ricktana63@aol.com
Updated 10/24/21 |
