When we arrived we went first to Mark's old house, knocked on the door and asked permission to get pictures. The outside of the house is about the same as 50 years ago, just the landscaping different and the trees way more grown up.
Below is the rock wall, Scedge, Mark's dad built. He also built the house himself.
Everywhere in this town were beautiful rhododendron bushes, I was glad to see there were some in this yard too so I could get a better look at them. Some of these bushes were taller than trees and all of them were just loaded with blossoms. The colors were gorgeous, light pink all the way to dark purple and reds.
From the house we went to the restaurant to meet the group for lunch. We stayed visiting until it was time for the school tour. This was the 1st ever 50th reunion tour the school ever gave. Everyone enjoyed seeing the changes in their school and talking about the many memories of high school. For a 50th it was very well attended. The young man in the white shirt, was our tour guide and had a tough time keeping up with the questions and moving everyone along.
The biggest change was the swimming pool. 50 years ago there was no pool, much less an Olympic sized one.
Another big change was their cafeteria had been changed into a library.
There were tons of computer labs and every student is given an I-pad when they start as a freshman. After the tour Mark's close friends from high school went to Marilyn's house for dinner. They brought their transcripts from high school and all had a good laugh. Many stories were told. Karen Schreiber brought a bunch of scrap books from that time era. Marilyn gave Mark back the spoon he had given here when they were in high school. He made this spoon then decided Marilyn needed it. She kept it all these years moved it each time she moved then gave it back to him.
We lined up for a picture and Marilyn, our host, was too busy taking pictures to be in it.
Above left to right is Kent and Karen Schriber, Karin Hawkinson, Linda Heinold and Mark. Not picture is our host Marilyn Faulkner. We had such a good time we stayed quite late visiting. It was hard to pull ourselves away and by the time we got to back to our hotel it was after 10:00 pm. We awoke early and started our long drive back. It was a good trip.
I'm glad to be back and also glad we missed at least 1 day of that tremendous heat the midwest had been having. It is nice and cool today. Mike sent the 2 pictures below of the horses at Middle Grove keeping cool under the trees.
Above they are bunched together keeping the flies off by the swishing of their tails. Below they are coming up to see Mike.
The foals are all part of the herd now. They learn wonderful herd manners and have other foals to play with. This is a perfect place for the foals to live until weaning and sending them to their owners.
It was so great to have you there! Wish we lived closer!
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