Sept. 17-20 Tom's 50th class reunion weekend in Waterloo, Iowa

17th:  We drove the 40 minutes from Clarksville to Waterloo.  In 1965 there were one or two houses around the high school.  Today there is a huge medical center next to it and houses all around it.

We drove around the University of Northern Iowa, in Cedar Falls, where Tom's recruiter said he should attend one year before enlisting in the Air Force.  I attended one year, the summer (I couldn't bear to go home since he would leave in August), and the next Fall semester.

We drove around some more before meeting his favorite teacher, Barbara Corson, for coffee.  She said he was one of her favorite English students.  We had stopped for a short visit while on our honeymoon, knowing we wouldn't be back here for many years, because his family had moved to Minneapolis.  He attended his 25th class reunion here in1990.

We drove to the home of Dennis and Anita Kabele for dinner.  Anita was in his class and Dennis, in the class ahead.  Tom was so surprised to see them at the Tucson church we began attending 18 months ago!  They spend 3 months each winter there.  Tom joined the choir with them.

18th:  Tom toured the new Iowa Veteran's Museum here in Waterloo. Several of his classmates on the reunion committee were there this morning, getting things ready for the "meet and greet" this evening.  Waterloo is the home of John Deere and Rath Packing Company (closed in 1985). The museum houses many exhibits of early Waterloo history and some great dioramas.  Lots of military history exhibits.

      
                                                The Rath Packing plant 1890's - 1985

                       Railroad roundhouse.  Steam engines were manufactured here for awhile.
                     Below is an exhibit of firearms used by both sides during the Vietnam war.

                                            Tom inside an M4 Sherman tank from WW II

 

                                            Someone actually collected a USO flag from Cam
                                            Ranh Bay where Tom was stationed when he first
                                            arrived "in country."

                  This is one façade of First Congregational Church that Tom and his family attended

 Tom's family lived here during his junior high and high school years, and moved

to Bloomington, MN. the year after he enlisted-1967

541 Sunset Road

 

Mike's DX gas station, where Tom worked during high school is

now a convenience station

 

 

We enjoyed the reunion meet and greet tonight.  Tom saw a lot of people he knew and I met them.  It was often funny to see someone looking at a person's nametag and saying oh my gosh, or it IS you.  He doesn't look anything like he did back then and I think he was the youngest looking guy there.  I had met 3 women classmates in recent years.  One is a professor in Flagstaff, one lives near Denver, and I just met one 2 months ago in Las Vegas.

 

They had about 680 in their class and 100 have already died.  They lost 5 men in Vietnam.  Some classmates produced a video to honor their memory and it was wonderful.  Four of the families shared the last letter the parents or wife had received.  There were 112 veterans in the class that they know of.  Below is a board of pictures that some returned.  Tom is in the top row towards the left, without a hat.  The 5 on the bottom, with stars, are the Vietnam casualties. The sheet behind each is where someone ran over their name on the Vietnam Wall.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 19th

Visited with some classmates at our hotel.  For lunch we went to The Wishbone Restaurant, where Tom and I used to eat 50 years ago.  He had to have one of their gigantic tenderloin sandwiches on the biggest bun, with the pork hanging over an inch or more all around it.  We took a picture on my camera.

 

The reunion evening was held at the Elks Club, which served a nice dinner.  Cathy, the emcee had some cute stories and jokes.  Tom sang "I Just Don't Look Good Naked Anymore" and the crowd laughed and clapped between sentences, so he had to pause.  Then a big applause.  Later he told them he had been many places in the world, but it always felt so good to be home and then this month with all our traveling, he felt "Americana" was very appropriate.  They really enjoyed it, too.

                         Several cameras were being used, so it was hard to know when to smile.

 Marilyn's husband was one of the classmates who died in Vietnam.  She was a classmate, too.  I shared with her about the care package program I started and the cards we make for troops to mail home.  She thought it was fantastic.  Jack was a classmate, and his wife Pam.

Wendy, in the stripes, told Tom twice she wished we lived closer because she wanted me for a friend.  I had met Gretchen in Las Vegas in August.  Tom hadn't met her husband until then, and found out he loves Garand rifles, too.  They plan to do gun stuff when we're there in January.  The lady in the vest is a spouse of a classmate.

 

A couple of  women classmates told me Tom was "just the neatest guy" in high school.

 

A couple of coincidences with classmates happened when we were stationed in Alaska in the '70's-'80's.  I worked in a bank in Fairbanks, and Elmer Leistikow was a construction worker who was roofing it.  He approached me one day and asked if I was from the Midwest.  He, his brother, Tom, and his brother had been in Boy Scouts together and schoolmates.  One day Tom was in Penney's in Anchorage and saw a friend named Rita.

 

20th

All over town  gas station signs read $2.24.  When we got to the pump, we found out that was the price for their government subsidized ethanol, with $3.11 being the unleaded price.

 

We left at 5 a.m. because we had a 9 hour drive to Dayton.  48 degrees.  We drove past Cedar Rapids, Iowa City, and other places we'd heard of our whole lives, but never visited.  This part of Iowa is very flat, as was the sections of Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio we crossed today.