Welcome Topeka West High School Class of 1968. We have created this webpage (blog) to keep you informed about the 40th Reunion planned for June 20-21, 2008. It's also a great way for you all to connect with old, old, old friends ! Remember if you like to read about your old friends and classmates it's only fair that YOU post information about yourself and what you've been doing for the last 40 years!!! It's ok to brag a little...or make up a little...who would know??If you don't remember high school...it's ok..after all it was the 60s! Add your comments and what you do remember and maybe one of your classmates can fill you in about what you missed!!!
To see the comments your classmates have left just click on the "comments" at the bottom of each Topic or "post" . Read what your friends have said and then add your comment. To do this, type in the "Leave your comment" white box....it will hold all you want to say. Then you have to do the word verification to make sure you are not a terrorist or something. Then you "choose an identity" by clicking on whatever circle you choose. Most of us have checked the "name/url" one and just put in our nickname or first name and last initial or whatever you want..leave "url" blank...what does that mean anyway??. (I have no idea what the other options mean or how they work but if you want to use one of those options ..live it up.)Don't forget to hit "Publish " or it will not be "saved". You can add comments as often as you would like....the point is to have fun and get to know each other again. (If you add something and then really don't want it there I can make it go away. Just let me know.)
PLEASE contact anyone that you know from the class and let them know about the reunion and this site. Don't assume that we have contacted them....we're missing LOTS of classmate's information and we don't want to leave anyone out.
CLICK ON "OLDER POSTS" AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE to see the invitation, pictures and the list of "lost" classmates.
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Topeka West High School Class of '68...45th Reunion
Welcome TWHS Class of 1968!!
You are invited to the Topeka West Class of 1968's 45th Reunion! September 27th & 28th, 2013
Event Schedule:
Sept 27th - Friday Night Picnic, 6:00 pm-11:00 PM
Garden House at Lake Shawnee (air conditioned - same location as the 40th reunion). The address is 3650 West Edge Rd. West Edge is the road that runs on the west side of Lake Shawnee & is accessible from 29th, 37th, or 45th. There are two locations to park. One is at the Ted Ensley Gardens parking north of 37th (Look for the gazebo and the shelter house is just east of there). The other is off SE Yacht Ct,
just off West Edge & south of 37th St.
Cost: $20/person (includes food, beer, soft drinks, & bottled water).
Sept 28th, Saturday -Tour of TWHS, 10 AM-Noon
TWHS Cafeteria...Sweet rolls, coffee, juice -FREE.
September 28th-Golf Tournament - GOLFERS...Tee Times have been scheduled to begin at 9:00 AM. If you haven't called me yet & plan on playing, please call ASAP. I'll only schedule times for amount of people who have notified me, as it's the busiest day of the week for the course. Thanks, Charlie T.
Shawnee Country Club Golf Course (now Great Life),
913 SE 29th Street
Cost: $35 green fees to be paid at the course
Make reservations through Charlie Thompson at 785-633-5138
September 28th-Party, Party, Party!!!!
7:00 pm-12:00 am
Shawnee Country Club (Greatlife) 913 SE 29th, Topeka, KS
Cost: $20.00/person (includes Heavy Hors d'Oeuvres, Cash
Bar). Same band as 40th reunion, Talent show, lots of places to get away from the noise and visit!
All events are casual attire.
Please make your reservations and send checks ASAP to Linda McPike Marling..so we can order the food and drinks!!! Her address is 1831 SW Oakley, Topeka, Ks 66604
After Aug 1, 2013...($5.00 per person per night late registration)
If you have not received a form there is one on this site that you can print out...it's called "Invitation and Schedule". Make sure you use the one for the 45th! Join us on FB by searching for TWHS KANSAS to get the latest information and please please check the list of missing to see if you can help find them! If you have NOT received an email from Elaine, or if you've recently changed your email address, please email Elaine at eneffy@gmail.com.
Questions?? call or email one of the following (emails are listed on the invitation)
Linda McPike Marling at (785) 232-8356
Margo Weidner Leonard at (785) 272-0801
Terry Diaz Dykstra at (785) 220-3892
Jan Pipkin Flesher at (785) 273-3863
Elaine Neff Toland at (785) 379-9558
Charlie Thompson at (785) 633-5138
Add your bio and memories to this site so everyone can re-connect...it's easy...just read the Greetings post to see how to add comments. If you can't figure it out, e-mail it to me or enclose it with your reservation and we'll add it for you. We can also post pictures on this site ..if you would like one added please send it and a caption to Terry D. at princessofkeene@hotmail.com or Elaine at eneffy@gmail.com.
Hotel accomodations and prices will be posted at a later date on a post titled "We'll Leave The Light On For Ya".
On a more somber note: We are planning to have a time on Friday evening to remember those in our class that have passed away. Please view the post titled "In Memory Of" and let us know if we have missed anyone so that we can include them in our thoughts. Please let us know right away if you see an error.
If you are new to the blog, please check out the memories from the earlier blog. We have some very humorous writers and some classmates still have remarkable memories. There's fun for everyone!
It'll be here before you know it! See you soon!!!
You are invited to the Topeka West Class of 1968's 45th Reunion! September 27th & 28th, 2013
Event Schedule:
Sept 27th - Friday Night Picnic, 6:00 pm-11:00 PM
Garden House at Lake Shawnee (air conditioned - same location as the 40th reunion). The address is 3650 West Edge Rd. West Edge is the road that runs on the west side of Lake Shawnee & is accessible from 29th, 37th, or 45th. There are two locations to park. One is at the Ted Ensley Gardens parking north of 37th (Look for the gazebo and the shelter house is just east of there). The other is off SE Yacht Ct,
just off West Edge & south of 37th St.
Cost: $20/person (includes food, beer, soft drinks, & bottled water).
Sept 28th, Saturday -Tour of TWHS, 10 AM-Noon
TWHS Cafeteria...Sweet rolls, coffee, juice -FREE.
September 28th-Golf Tournament - GOLFERS...Tee Times have been scheduled to begin at 9:00 AM. If you haven't called me yet & plan on playing, please call ASAP. I'll only schedule times for amount of people who have notified me, as it's the busiest day of the week for the course. Thanks, Charlie T.
Shawnee Country Club Golf Course (now Great Life),
913 SE 29th Street
Cost: $35 green fees to be paid at the course
Make reservations through Charlie Thompson at 785-633-5138
September 28th-Party, Party, Party!!!!
7:00 pm-12:00 am
Shawnee Country Club (Greatlife) 913 SE 29th, Topeka, KS
Cost: $20.00/person (includes Heavy Hors d'Oeuvres, Cash
Bar). Same band as 40th reunion, Talent show, lots of places to get away from the noise and visit!
All events are casual attire.
Please make your reservations and send checks ASAP to Linda McPike Marling..so we can order the food and drinks!!! Her address is 1831 SW Oakley, Topeka, Ks 66604
After Aug 1, 2013...($5.00 per person per night late registration)
If you have not received a form there is one on this site that you can print out...it's called "Invitation and Schedule". Make sure you use the one for the 45th! Join us on FB by searching for TWHS KANSAS to get the latest information and please please check the list of missing to see if you can help find them! If you have NOT received an email from Elaine, or if you've recently changed your email address, please email Elaine at eneffy@gmail.com.
Questions?? call or email one of the following (emails are listed on the invitation)
Linda McPike Marling at (785) 232-8356
Margo Weidner Leonard at (785) 272-0801
Terry Diaz Dykstra at (785) 220-3892
Jan Pipkin Flesher at (785) 273-3863
Elaine Neff Toland at (785) 379-9558
Charlie Thompson at (785) 633-5138
Add your bio and memories to this site so everyone can re-connect...it's easy...just read the Greetings post to see how to add comments. If you can't figure it out, e-mail it to me or enclose it with your reservation and we'll add it for you. We can also post pictures on this site ..if you would like one added please send it and a caption to Terry D. at princessofkeene@hotmail.com or Elaine at eneffy@gmail.com.
Hotel accomodations and prices will be posted at a later date on a post titled "We'll Leave The Light On For Ya".
On a more somber note: We are planning to have a time on Friday evening to remember those in our class that have passed away. Please view the post titled "In Memory Of" and let us know if we have missed anyone so that we can include them in our thoughts. Please let us know right away if you see an error.
If you are new to the blog, please check out the memories from the earlier blog. We have some very humorous writers and some classmates still have remarkable memories. There's fun for everyone!
It'll be here before you know it! See you soon!!!
TWHS Class of '68
This blog is for members of the Topeka West High School Class of 1968. Check here often for information about the 45th Reunion and updates on your classmates!!
7 comments:
I can’t believe all of the wonderful stories I have read today. I really do not think anyone else would think my life has been exciting but it has been a good one. I also married young, gave birth to a wonderful son but my husband and I divorced when Cory was 18 months old in 1979. I have worked 4 years for the State of Kansas and 34 yrs for the Department of Veterans Affairs and the United States Coast Guard. My son married his childhood sweetheart, Tisha, and they have given me two beautiful granddaughters; Skylar, 4 ½ and Falyn, 1. My son recently removed his family to Palmer, Alaska, and I will be leaving for my second visit during the time of our class reunion.
Let me think of some experiences I’ve had since high school…when I was married, we built a house on 20 acres where I learned how to put on shingles, siding, and subflooring. After the divorce, I bought a home in Topeka and have been there for 28 years. I found that I loved rattlesnake hunting in the desert, the ocean, and the feeling of landing a state record White Base, and a 3 ¼ pound Crappie.
I was a single parent but would not change a single minute of it. My sister and I cared for my parents for 19 years but value every memory especially since they have passed away. Now that I am over 50, so many details leave me but not the ones from the people I love. I guess I remember that I was loved and needed…and that makes it a good life.
Susie...I moved your bio to the "Last 40 Years" part of the blog.I was afraid no one would find it here!!! Wish you could make it to the reunion but I'm sure you'll have a wonderful trip. TerryD
Hey Susie - Remember coming over to my house so you could wear your "Levi's?" Your mom wouldn't let you wear them - weird huh? I remember we chummed around in Jr. and High School. Seems like everything we did we had to "sneak" because of how strict your mom was. So were you a strict mom? Just wondering - Debi Shavey
Thanks to Margo and her persistent cell-phoning, I just booked airfare this morning to Topeka; will arrive Friday 6.20.08 in time for the picnic at Lake Shawnee. Looking forward to seeing everyone but need to figure out how to take care of LATE-LATE-LATE registration and getting $$$ to the right folks. Do you REALLY want a bio? Might bore people to death . . .
BIOGRAPHY--BRENDA FINDLEY (nee Born)
6.18.08
Back in the late 1980’s while we were having cocktails at the old Formosa in Hollywood, Chloe Webb (Sid and Nancy, Twins) told me, “Brenda, you are such a WHITE girl!” It was an interesting observation, inasmuch as I was just as much a “WHITE girl” as she was (and as we both obviously continue to be.)
I’m still not exactly sure what she meant (well, I have suspicions,) but neither one of us knew back then that I would spend the next 20 years becoming a bona fide film gypsy, working freelance on dozens of feature films and TV movies for Merchant-Ivory, Warner Bros., Disney, Paramount, Fox, MGM, Universal Studios, NBC, ABC, CBS, HBO and Hallmark Hall of Fame, ultimately settling down for the past two years in Atlanta, GA with Lionsgate Films and prolific AFRICAN-AMERICAN writer, playwright, actor and director, Tyler Perry.
Just shows how life can turn a person, or perhaps how a person’s life can turn . . . after high school, I attended K.U. for a semester, drove to San Francisco, became disenchanted with Haight-Ashbury, took a bus back to Topeka and enrolled at K.U. again. Before the fall semester started in 1969, I married the Viet Nam vet I had dated as a high school senior and delivered our daughter, Tristin, before I turned 20. The marriage didn’t work out; we divorced, I attended court reporting school and worked as a free-lance court reporter for the next 10 years, practicing in Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma and upstate New York.
Stress arthritis ended that career, but (still never suspecting that Chloe Webb would later accuse me of being a “White Girl,”) I went on to:
* Work as a reporter/photographer for a small-town weekly newspaper, The Yates Center (Kansas) News
* Breed and show registered Persian and Himalayan cats
* Form a multi-county tourism region and film commission in Southeast Kansas
* Work as a lobbyist at the state level for alternative economic development in conjunction with the National Main Street Program
* Work with the Kansas Historical Society to designate the Yates Center Town Square as a National Historic District
* Design and sell jewelry at shows and galleries
* Work as a set dresser on the NBC mini-series “Cross of Fire” in Topeka
* Return to K.U. to study design for theatre
* Study ballroom dance including showcase & competitive performances
* Be thrilled-to-death to meet Mick Jagger at his daughter’s wedding reception in San Francisco
In 1992 I finished my studies in theatre and film at K.U. and moved to Atlanta, GA to work in the thriving film industry there. I’ve been in Atlanta ever since—just wrapped the feature film Tyler Perry’s Madea Goes To Jail, am currently working on my fifth marriage (for the past 12 years to John H. Findley III, a wonderful and talented locations manager for motion pictures and television) and my fifth Ford Mustang (2008 Vista Blue Coupe.)
I have three grandsons, six cats, a litter of five rescued stray kittens, an excellent rose garden and I’M IN THIS CRAZY MARCHING BAND—The Seed & Feed Marching Abominable, a wild parody of a college marching band that’s been terrorizing Atlanta for nearly 35 years. I play clarinet, of course (my clarinet is BLUE) and the band will be featured on America’s Got Talent on July 1 . . . check out our website at: www.seedandfeed.org !!!
Ok I guess this is where we are supposed to talk about ourselves,so here goesSince graduating my salient contributions to the human race have been : some mildly abrasive radio shows ,some bad poetry, an intermittently successful real estate "career" and co-creating with my then wife,the striking as well as stylish Nancy Brier,(class of 67),a really cool daughter ,Amelia Noelle. Alas,our marriage is no more but our daughter continues on as our genetic legacy of beauty & soft charm to a planet desperately in need of such. Have been reading some Eckhardt Tolle lately,and thinking from time to time how in 1968 it seemed that things were going to be DIFFERENT...But NOOOOO!!!!Congratulations to Barb Owens for getting out of dodge,one of my heroes R.Crumb did the same thing in the 90's, as portrayed in the movie,"Crumb",one of many great pictures which have yet to grace a Topeka screen..I still remember going to see Catherine DeNeuve in Belle da Jour at the Dickinson Theatre,the summer when we graduated..things have sure gone to hell movie-wise around here since then But hey,SOMEONES got to stay in Topeka,right? And the French are coming here on July 4 to film the Collins Park Parade,I'll be there dressed as that great American Richard Nixon...and will be at the reunion dressed as myself,your humble classmate MB
Please don't post comments here....unless they are a greeting..then ..go ahead...otherwide they will get lost...everyone doesn't check this section...thanks...
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