Rocket Man
Karen Grassle
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Class reunions
40 years later
Brown Bag reunions
2002
Ventura High School Alumni Foundation
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Here we are in front of the Bard Mansion
40 years later In August 1999, the class, looking older but still feeling young, celebrated its 40th anniversary with a two-day reunion at the Bard Mansion at the Port Hueneme Seabee Center and Arroyo Verde Park in Ventura. There were lots of hugs and smiles, a few kisses and a lot of squinting at name tags (which included our yearbook pictures to help jog our memories). We saw lots of people we hadn't seen in years, we learned that some of our classmates are no longer with us and found that many of them have disappeared (meaning simply that we couldn't find them to tell them about the reunion).
The feelings of those who could attend were well expressed by two who could not, Carmen Mayfield Bickel and Fred Pitcher. They shared their feelings in this poem, read by Barbara Gallinger Gates:
My Special List From Carmen Mayfield Bickel and Fred Pitcher
I have a list of folks I know
All written in a book,
And every now and then
I go and take a look.That is when I realize these names
They are a part...
Not of the book they’re written in,
But taken from the heart.
For each name stands for someone
Who has crossed my path sometime,
And in that meeting they have become
The reason and the rhyme.
Although it sounds fantastic
For me to make this claim,
I really am composed
Of each and every name.
Although you’re not aware
Of any special link,
Just knowing you, has shaped my life
More than you could think.
So please don’t think my greeting
As just a mere routine,
Your name was not
Forgotten in between.
For when I send a greeting
That is addressed to you,
It is because you’re on the list
Of folks I’m indebted to.
So whether I have known you
For many days or few
In some ways you have a part
In shaping things I do.
I am but a total
Of many folks I’ve met
You are a friend
I would prefer never to forget.
