Snowed in Again

The St. Louis area is experiencing winter for sure now. After sliding my SUV into a tree on Sunday because of the snow covered driveway, I thought the snow would ease up. But, now at 11:30 pm on Tuesday night, I'm waiting for a snow plower to call back. We have only about 6 inches, but that 6 inches makes the driveway sleet encrusted and extremely dangerous. Woods, big trees and a drop off border the sides. It's a scary scene when you have a giant vehicle sliding of it's own free weight right towards a big, hulking tree. I almost threw up from fear as it just about happened again as I started a descent to got get the cracked tail light fixed yesterday. I launched the car with a gulp down the snow covered grass. The shakes stayed with me the rest of the afternoon.

The Hall of Distinction at FM High School

The Fayetteville-Manlius School District and the Fayetteville-Manlius Education Foundation are proud to present the inductees to the F-M Hall of Distinction.
The F-M Hall of Distinction provides a wonderful opportunity to honor and celebrate the outstanding accomplishments of the graduates of the school district, and the daughters and sons of our community. It is our hope that such recognition will inspire current students to their own achievement, both in high school and beyond.
This group of distinguished alumni represents an extraordinary range of personal and professional achievements. They have traveled from around the country to share with us their experiences in a wide variety of fields.
As a school district which continually strives to instill in its students the concepts of achievement and excellence, the Hall of Distinction inductees serve as exceptional role models. Their personal accomplishments, either to their individual fields of endeavor or to the broader community, exemplify what our students may attain through initiative and commitment. We are pleased to honor these inductees, to celebrate their successes, and to have them reunited with the Fayetteville-Manlius School District.

http://www.fmeducationfoundation.org/Hall%20of%20Distinction/HallofDistinction--USE%20THIS.html

More about Dave Eckerson

Dave is now a minor celebrity having been chosen for the elite Hall of Distinction in FM School. Other alumni including Dave Vermylia, Frank Carroll, and Wayne Travelpiece.

The ceremony is March 28th.

Please send congratulatory emails to Dave.

We all very proud of him.

Dave Eckerson

Pictures from Africa

Dave Eckerson

OK, DD ... here are a few pics from Christmas with our three kids in Africa: an elephant too close, the infamous (and rare) African Shoebill stork (note beak that looks like a shoe), a cold Nile on the Nile, a lioness on the hunt, my daughter and I at the sacred tombs of the Buganda Kingdom, a pile of crocs along the Nile, and monkey motherhood. As for what's up in my life: I have a great job and love going to work. Your government and mine is investing over 400 million dollars a year to improve life in Uganda and restore stability following the ouster of Joseph Kony iand the Lord's resistance Army in the north. I get to manage where all that money goes, and how it is spent.

I just learned that FM has a "Wall of Distinction" and that three fellow classmates: Dave Vermilya (first of us to be honored in 2001), Frank Carroll (2003), and Wayne Trivelpiece (2005) adorn it. Seems they take in three distinguished alumni a year who have proved worthy of recognition for their service to the community and the world. For some reason I have been chosen in 2009 to get my name up there along with them, making the class of '66 (I think) to have the most representatives. So, I'll be swinging thru Fayetteville o/a March 28th to suffer thru the ceremony at the insistence of my bride and kids. Let everyone know if they are ever in Uganda, a cold beer and a comfortable abode awaits them.

Eckerson

Down the Road

After thinking about it, I realized it might become too confusing to begin merging posts from different classes so I started a new blog for the Class of 1968, http://class1968fmhighschool.blogspot.com click on this and it will take you there.
Debby

Lake Erie

Lake Erie

History and Views

by Thomas Langmyer

published by The Blue Water Group, LLC

http://www.lakeeriehistory.com/index.htm

Not from our Class Tom Langmyer/author

Tom Langmyer is not from our class but he the person that brought my husband John Butler to St. Louis. The 3 of us worked together at WSYR Radio in Syracuse. Tom left to go to KMOX radio in St. Louis. He eventually hired John in 1996. We moved then and have been here now going on 13 years. Tom now works in Chicago for another station as general manager. He has written a book, which is the impetuous for my writing this post. I wanted you to know about it. It will be published very shortly.

Happy Birthday

Cynthia Greenhalgh Torelli - Happy Birthday

Greetings from the following Classmates

Duke Leonard
Charlene Maquire
Dan Sheedy
Peggy Nelson '68
Carol Dinger Gadsden '68
Dud Larus '68
Tom Ford '68
Kristin Jones Rulison '68
Kirsten Mackey Fleisher
Anita Cottrell
Melinda Mussi Lockwood

Melinda Mussi Lockwood

"Been crazy busy with our "austerity" measures here at MU. We are looking at alternate ways of doing business so I have been busily building databases to allow for a reduction in paper use. I have also been very caught up with my photo restorations. Hope all is well with you - just don't seem to have enough time to do all that needs to get done lately!

"M"

Dan McCabe

Happy Birthday, Dan

Charlene Owens Maguire

Also spoke and looked at Charlene Ownes Maguire on Skype.

Gerry Phillips

Spoke to and saw on camera Gerry Phillips and his wife Denise using Skype.

Please Send News

Please post some news about anything on your mind, your family, job, retirement, state of the union etc.
If you want me to post for you, just send me an email.
Debby

Kirsten's Photos

Kirsten Mackey Fleisher

At Debby's urging to write something for the blog, I have decided to ramble on a bit about something that is very dear to my heart. For the past eight years I have spent August in central Guatemala on a medical mission. This work also includes the medical support, a feeding program and a children's ministry. Last year we expanded with a program we call "Buy a Bag." For a five dollar donation, we send each of the families, who come to the medical clinic, home with a bag of staples that will last them a month - cooking oil, flour, sugar - things like that. We even give them ground coffee. Many of these people climb the steep mountain slopes and harvest coffee beans, but they are not able to afford the final product. Five dollars...so little money, yet so meaningful to these Mayan people. Many of the people who come to our clinic are not only sick, but very poorly nourished - they are hungry! The poverty around Lake Atitlan is quite astounding, and it is made even worse during the rainy season with terrible mudslides that take the lives of hundreds of people. However, the people are gracious and friendly - smiling and welcoming us into their villages. I made my first mission trip more for adventure than dedication to third world problems...but I was hooked on the very first clinic day and can't imagine a summer without a trip to San Lucas Toliman. Guatemala is south of Mexico, and north of El Salvador and Honduras. They are less than ten years beyond a terrible thirty six year long civil war that especially devastated the indigenous Mayans. Guatemala is made up of many different groups from the Mayans to the Ladinos to the Spanish descendants. Although Spanish is the official language, large areas of rural Guatemala speak Mayan dialects very different from Spanish. So, for me,Guatemala has been a significant focus...either in the actual time spent there, or in the planning for the annual trip. It's been a wonderful experience that has shaped my everyday life.

Midwest update

It's Friday, January 16th, 2009
It's currently 0 degrees
no snow

Skype

I've just finished setting myself up with a Skype account and trying to figure out what to do with it now. I bought a headset so I have a microphone and earphones. And after a few hours of trial and error and testing, it works. Now what.
I have a cousin in Japan and another in Australia. So I hope to be able to communicate with them. I have other cousins in Virginia, Oregon and Arizona. I also have a sister in New Mexico and my brother in Georgia and an uncle in Florida. Everyone has a computer so I thought this Skype idea could be a good thing for my family since we are spread out all over the place. Time will tell. So if any of you out there have Skype, let me know.

Have heard from the following classmates in the last few days

Larry English
Cheryl Albig
Terry Steenburg vonSneidern
Kirsten Mackey Fleisher
Sandy Jackson Epoch
Kate Wilber Cohn
Bob RC Whitaker
Bix Norman
Judy Lapham Drake
Camilla Zankowski Daniels
Dan Sheedy
Tom Weller
Melinda Mussi Lockwood
Mike Krall
Cindy Greenhalgh Torelli
Dick Shanahan
Gerry Phillips
Ann Whitney Breihan
Anita Cottrell
Lynne Gibson Lovett
Larry Shipps

Face Book

Take a look at Face Book. There are several classmates on it:

http://facebook.com

Cheryl Albig

Got another surprise call from Cheryl the other evening. We had a nice chat and I cleared some things up for her about the class and about the blog.

Dan McCabe

Heard from Dan through a forward. He loves Oregon and can't say enough about it.

Dan Sheedy

Dan is recovering froma bout with the flu and an ailing computer.

Camilla Zankowski Daniels

Having many medical tests done at the moment. I babysit for my granddaughter, Ilsa, for about twelve hours during the week; we make each other laugh and dance to a new kind of hope that hasn't been present for awhile. Ilsa's smile lights up a room. She already has worn her first Ohio State University outfit. Even with her positive outlook and cheering they lost to Texas. Couldn't ask for a better way to spend quiet time than with a happy baby learning as she grows.

Happy New Year everyone.
Camilla