Thanks to our classmate Jane Via, who lives far away in beautiful San Diego County, CA, one of the most wonderful parts of our USA IMO, a copy of the Nipher "Reflections 1971" yearbook has graced my mailbox today! I don't remember when the Jr. high included only 7th and 8th grade, at some time 9th grade went to KHS. But no matter, the book is 7th, 8th & 9th grade students in 1971, six years after we graduated from KHS. My how things had changed....photos of a computer user, heck, even a yearbook! Eleven cheerleaders, did we have that many at Nipher? Long-haired boys? But some things are the same - in the photos of the chorus all the first row girls' skirts were the same height from the floor, remember that? I do. Mrs. Haley is there, as are so many you'd recognize. Mr. Clodfelter was principal, sports were big, and there is even some student-penned poetry. The book is very heavy on photos, not much text. The students in the group photos are identified, and the larger club and team photos too. The students' photos are the size of postage stamps but each is named w/ surname & first initial. There are of course many familiar surnames. But for me, the most endearing thing is that this was Mrs. Via's copy of "Reflections 1971" and since I knew her well, Jane and I were and are still very good friends, it warms my heart to read how much she was loved and respected by her students. "...my favorite teacher", "Your [sic] a delightful teacher", "To my favorite teacher", "To a fun teacher", "To a sweet teacher", and directly under that one is a neatly written set of quotation marks under each word then a male student signature and under that signature, yet another boy's signature. Two young men not wasting time being 'mushy' I guess! Mrs. Via was one of the CORE teachers and apparently a great one! Another, probably my personal favorite, "To a beautiful teacher and a nice one too" in cursive. then in all caps printed "P.S. THANKS FOR PUTTING UP WITH ME!" from a male. Below that another male "Thanks for being so nice."
There are more but because one of the most familiar names to me, whom I knew because I was mad about his brother at Nipher, is the last one I'll quote, "To a great teacher, who's taught me alot. Dan Hoag". When we were in 8th grade, the 9th grade Triple Trio was singing at practice for our Nipher Spring Concert on the stage at KHS. Dan Hoag's big brother Dave (KHS64) was in that trio and I (in the audience awaiting our turn to perform as I was in chorus) sitting next to the late Claudia Margedant, said "Oh my gosh WHO IS THAT, he's adorable?" And who would have known... her response, "Oh that's Dave Hoag, he's a good friend of my boyfriend's." Anyone want to guess how long it was before I got her to arrange for me to meet Dave? But the end of that story is that after we broke up, his idea, he had the nerve to call me one night and ask me for Pat Corpening's phone number, thus breaking my heart a second time. The rest, as they say, is history. And at their 50th wedding anniversary party as I was dancing with Dave, yes we all remained good pals all those years, I finally had the nerve to ask him why he broke up with me. No, I'm not telling.... but I understood then and my heart remains unbroken ever since that night; well no, it was again broken when that wonderful guy, veteran, husband, father, brother and son died too soon. As I am finishing this up, a memory of Dave and me in his dad's car as he drove us to a 9th grade Nipher Fortnightly jumped into my mind.
THANK YOU JANE for sending this lovely treasure. It'll go to the Kirkwood Historical Society someday with the rest of our KHS65 memorabilia, but not yet....I have to go through and organize it all first, and I have to get so old I'm willing to give it up!!! We have some great 'stuff' - a piece of the Berlin Wall, menu from a favorite restaurant, years of photos of reunions, class photos, music, videos,and other things shared with us over all these years.
PS. After I posted this I was looking thru the book for pictures to post, found the hem photo and posted it, but wanted more so I decided to post one photo of the students to illustrate how each student was shown individually. Remember, in our KHS yearbooks we had individual pix only as Seniors. At any rate as I looked at the page that I randomly opened to I discovered I'd picked the page with Pat Corpening Hoag's sister Cindy! So that's the page I'm adding... and I notice Doug Coombs, the husband of Cindy Coombs who has been involved in Kirkwood School District activity for years; I chatted with her earlier this year at the School District Foundation Board reunion, she and I were on that board at the same time years ago. So much fun staying in one place for one's life... blooming where we're planted as they say.
CLICK THE PICS TO ENLARGE
HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY HOLIDAY EVERYONE
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