Good morning fellow classmates and friends,
As I sit here with my first cup of joe of the day, and with the final station of 2010 fast approaching, my thoughts are of all of you and another year passing us by all too quickly in the journey of our lives. Amorn and I hope you all had a nice Christmas and were able to enjoy it with your families.
Some final musings. As a whole, 2010 was a challenge for many of us as well as the nation. I can however say that really good things came out of 2010 as far as our class is concerned. For the first time, we made it a point to get together in a non-reunion year and do some really nice things. To re-cap, we started in March with the evening out at the Pleasant, which turned into a danceathon at the Imperial Buffet. We found we still have some moves left in these bodies of ours!
In July we spent a terrific day out at Jim Roy's camp and enjoyed a BBQ and maybe helped Jim get closer to popping the big question to Laurie! We also have some great story tellers in this class too! We also discovered we have many who like fruit here too...;-) What a beautiful day that was in many ways! In August we ended the summer with a bang watching Carey Rush jam at Sunapee Harbor where he put on a magnificent performance for us. John Irish did a great job putting up the videos of Carey's performances on Youtube. Check them out, some good music! Many of us ended up at the Salt Hill in Newport that same evening for a late evening dinner. Sandy, I still can't get over how that guy skedaddled when you went to ask him who he was! It was a perfect evening at the harbor, and again a nice turnout from the class.
In October on a nice crisp fall evening a few of us turned up in Claremont for the homecoming football game. The team lost, but put up a good fight against a much bigger team. We then ended up topping off the evening at Ramuntos Pizza. I am duly informed on just what kind of pizza Jill likes now! And John with his $4 dollar slice of cake! Rachel and Mike, what a great and funny couple you make! It had been at least 20 plus years for a number of us in watching a SHS football game. It was encouraging to see and hear that Stevens sports are on the uprise.
Amorn and I are grateful to have become friends, and renewed friendships with all of you and I hope it just gets better as time goes on. The more time I spend with you, the more I appreciate knowing you. Can you also say, this past summer in NH was the most perfect summer weather wise you have ever lived through? I know for me it was, as I cannot ever recall the weather being this perfect. Also want to congratulate those of you who had new additions to your families in the form of grandkids! Aren't they fun? ;-)
On the downside, we also lost several classmates over the course of 2010, Alice Davis, Anita Methot, and Barret Bodkins. Our hopes are their families have found solace. Let us hope this trend of losing classmates stops for a long while.
Looking ahead to 2011, which I just have this feeling is going to be a really good year. Some things to think about. It has been mentioned a number of times we still have a lot of classmates left to find. Would it be prudent to ask if a goal for us in 2011 would be to try and find some of these people who are still among the missing? Should we put out a list of who we still need to locate and put the detective in us to work on locating them? Its possible many of them aren't aware we are doing things and that we have a mailing list so they can be kept up on what we are doing. Also,never too early to start thinking about what you guys want to do in 2011 as far as getting together. Hike anyone?
I have also thought about some things I can add to the communications part of things, I have been playing around with FB putting together the basic blocks for a Facebook Page just for the class. It seems to be the way everyone is going as it is a great tool for keeping in touch. Yes, it would require having a FB account to be a friend of the page, and to participate in the comments and such. However, you can also view the FB page of a group as a non-member of FB as well, as long as you know the page link, you just won't be able to input anything.
If I do this to completion, I will probably shut down the class blog and transfer the content over to the FB page. It will give us a central point to put out instantaneous messages to the class and input pictures,and video in a easy to work with format. I also like the fact FB has a event calendar as well as a IM feature. I have yet to figure out all the neat things FB can do, but I intend to make myself an expert on it with a little luck! I will still keep up the email list as it will always have a use for certain situations and will be a backup to FB. Let me know if this is something you would like to see happen. I will keep you posted!
In closing, It has been a privilege to have served you as the messenger and sounding board for the class and I have enjoyed it so far. I will continue to do this as long as you will have me, and as long as I can do it well. Again, the real credit goes out to all of you, for without your participation, none of these things we have done would have ever happened. Too all of you, thank you!
Amorn and I wish for all of you, that 2011 will be the year and a really good year regardless of your personal situations for all of you. We also hope to see all of you again and maybe even some new faces as well in 2011 too!
Best wishes, and a happy, prosperous, healthy, and safe New Year to you all.
Phil
