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Every Saturday at 9 a.m., the good folks at Walter Andersen Nursery at 3642 Enterprise St. in San Diego (map) host a free gardening class, with coffee as a bonus. Next week (May 16) will cover grafting and budding. For more information, call (619) 224-8271 or go to walterandersen.com/ptloma.html

Bob & I are trying to get balanced. We have been taking T'ai Chi for several years now, at St. Brigid's Catholic Church, and at the Pacific Beach Christian Church. There are also classes in La Jolla and in Ocean Beach. For information click here: T'AI CHI

Ready to dance? Rey Vinole's Big Band will be performing at Christ Lutheran Church, 4761 Cass St. in Pacific Beach, for a Rwanda fund raiser. There is a request for a $20.00 per person donation to help support the Rwanda Orphan Project. The Dinner Dance will be held on Monday, June 1, 2009, 6PM-8 PM

May 25 is Memorial Day. On Thursday, May 21, there was an informal ceremony at Mission Bay High School at the memorial honoring MBHS students that had been killed in war. Jeri Lynne and Bill Swank attended. Bill told the cadets about Walter Stevens and David Rose, classmates of ours who were both killed in South Vietnam in 1966, and who are honored on the memorial. He also talked about Nay Hernandez (1944 San Diego Padres player who was killed in Germany on March 22, 1945).

In a 1971 Taroga Bill found a picture of the waterfall and pool that were originally part of the memorial. The waterfall was non-operational by 1975. The new memorial was dedicated in October of 2008 without the waterfall, but with extensive plantings.

Photo of the waterfall and pool from the 1971 Taroga Brian Josten singing all the verses of the "Marine Corps Hymn" to the cadets

Bill Swank standing next to war memorial after reciting "In Flanders Field" The vegetation is really doing well!

Walter Andersen sent me a message about "The Bay Park Guys" 14th Annual Reunion on Thursday, May 14th. He said that it is just "guys" who grew up in Bay Park or close by. Walter has lived in Bay Park since about 1942, but many of the others have moved away, and return for the Reunion. From our class, Bill Rice came several years ago, Gary Crowley came this year for the first time, and Wayne Lollis for the second time. They had 22 signed in. For more to this story Click here>Bay Park

Many of you may know that Betty Waddell Cerney is in a continuing battling with cancer. She was in treatment well before the 50th Reunion, but she came to the dinner and also to the Monday "Walk/Ride/Lunch at the Hilton Event", looking wonderful and cheery. I e-mailed her this week to see how she was doing, and I got this:

I'm holding my own! They have me on a stew of four different chemo's and I go each week for them to be dripped into me. Oh, me! Sometimes I'm there only a few hours, like last Friday, and sometimes I'm there as much as five or six hours. This is all done at the Grossmont hospital cancer center just across the road from me so it only takes me about five minutes to get there. Thank goodness! If I were trying to drive all the way to Scripps in La Jolla I'd never make it!

I get home pretty worn out and am sometimes done in for a day or so. I make myself get up and do as much as I can because I've found that whether or not I stay in bed or make myself do stuff, it really doesn't seem to matter as to how I feel.

This most recent chemo they're trying on me seems to be slowing the cancer cell growth some, but it's temporary. When it fails to be effective they will try a more aggressive chemo and on and on. I have to make the decision as to when is enough! If the chemo makes me so darn sick I can't enjoy a thing, then it's time to call it quits. I'm working at being ok with this. I've sure had a great life, seen all of my kids grown and also my grandkids grown, traveled and had some remarkable times. And, hey.....did I have the greatest high school class to be a part of or what? :)

Jim has been on our missing list for a long time. He has been living in West Virginia for many years and we have had no contact with him. He is now in the Palomar Medical Center in Escondido recovering from a below the knee amputation of his left leg due to complications from diabetes. His son says that he is in good spirits, although in some pain, and that he is beginning rehabilitation. I couldn't contact Jim tonight, but I will keep us updated. Please keep Jim in your thoughts and prayers.

May is here: May Day, Cinco de Mayo, Mother's Day on the 10th, Memorial Day on the 25th. May 6 is National Nurses Day; 17 is Pack Rat Day (sounds good to me); May 24 is National Escargot Day, on which it is suggested that if you don't want to eat a plate of snail, you might want to give a friend a gift card for an escargot meal. The first Kentucky Derby was held on May 17, 1875; the first Indianapolis 500 was held on Memorial Day, which was May 30 in 1911 and it is always held on the Memorial Day Weekend (Memorial Day is the last Monday of the month); the first ice cream freezer was patented on May 28, 1948. My husband, Bob, was graduated from Texas A & M as a second lieutenant in the United States Air Force on May 23, 1959.

May is National Barbeque Month, National Hamburger Month, and National Blood Pressure Month (I'm not sure it that is high or low).

May is named after a Greek goddess, Maia. An interesting history (and picture) of her can be found at the Wikipedia web site; look for Maia. Or copy and paste this: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maia_(mythology) into your address space and click "go" (I can't get the link to work) .

We had a couple of regulars absent this time, but still we had 24 classmates at the breakfast-actually 26 if you count Bill Swank & his wife, Jeri Lynn, who stopped in briefly, but didn't stay to eat, on the way to the Garden Tours. What a great group.

Class of 1956: Ken Stone; David Castle; LuAnn Easterly Giegler and her husband, Don (1954, La Grange, Il)

Class of 1958: Marie Gilmour Davila & husband Bob (1955, New Braunfels, TX); Mimi Hamilton Morton; Vonnie Varner Martins, Walter Andersen; Sunny Roberts Ariessohn; Judi Michael Shacklett & her husband, John (1957, Grossmont Hi); Wayne & Pam Priest Lollis; Sheila Mura; Pat DeFore; David Kerr; Bill & Jeri Lynn Swank

Class of 1959: Barbara Grayson Bell; Bill Curtis; Ann Greenfield; Richard Leonhardt; Rosemary Pleger Jackson; Bill Crigler

Rosemary Pleger Jackson; Bill Curtis; Vonnie Varner Martins Walter Andersen; Barbara Grayson Bell

Bill Crigler; Bruce Livermore; David Kerr LuAnn Easterly Geigler; Sheila Mura; Pat DeFore

Bob Davila; John Shacklett; Wayne Lollis Don Geigler; LuAnn; Sheila; "Thelma The Waitress"

Mimi Hamilton Morton; Walter Andersen Vonnie; Sunny Roberts Ariessohn; Judi Michaels Shacklett; & Mimi

Ann Greenfield; Richard Leonhardt; Rosemary; Pam Priest Lollis Pam; Ken Stone; David Castle

If you have any items of interest to the class: pictures, trips, juicy gossip, etc. let me know, please. Marie