Does anyone else remember...

• History w Mr. Anderson. Shada writing essays that had only a few true sentences and then went on to describe her day with random key words (Roman, Greek, archaeology) strung in the middle. Or the final assignments of "roman life" which ended up being giant pool parties labeled as "roman orgies".
  

• French class w Bro. Roger....whoah. Wasn't Bro Roger "the star" of the 9th grade production. As I recall he and Lynda Fletcher performed quite the tap dance number.
  

• Honors Geometry class ditching Sister Marion's Friday afternoon class to end up hanging out in the library and then being chewed out by Brother Mario the next week.
  

• History with Mr. Cheveden who would shout out the Muslim prayer call and talk endlessly about the Crusades, Salidin and Richard III and his doctoral thesis about finding a piece of Hadrian's Wall in the middle east somewhere. And don't forget how he rode his bike to school...tie a flappin in the wind.
  

• French class with Mrs. Huckabee. Lounging on the couches and chatting. She was pretty mellow in that class though I understand she was rough to have for history. Tom Lapatka do you remember the video assignment we did that had the Eiffle Tower in ruins and the credits for the video were dubbed with some Canadian French music group that we all thought was awesome.
  

• Mr. Johanek's person of the week thing, where he would take a polaroid pic of the student and play fanfare for the common man or the olympics theme while handing them some piece of his lunch or some odd tidbit from his office. And what about the morning viewings of This Week w David Brinkley. I remember Nanette's opinion that Sam Donaldson had eyebrows of the devil. I was sad to hear of David Brinkley's passing. It reminded me of those early morning viewings and the quizzes we took. I think that class (APPolSci and AP US Hist) were the ones that really steered me toward studying politics in college.

• The senior musical "Hello Dolly" with Amy, Margaret, Anthony and Mark being the leads on alternate nights. All the rehearsals and the jolt cola drunk to keep awake.

Brian Altman

Greetings from NoCal. This blog is surprisingly addicting. Time for me to get off the sideline. Here’s my shot at 20 years on one page. Sorry if it goes long.

After Chaminade I attended UC Santa Barbara where I graduated with a BS in Physics. I loved it there and met my wife, Kristen, in the middle of my 4th year. She graduated on time and lived briefly with my parents while I took a victory lap to finish a two quarter lab. Becoming a nerd takes time and apparently a lot of beer.

While still in school I spent quite a bit of time chasing sales jobs with IBM and NCR. Everything looked great other than the massive layoffs that started to kick in shortly before graduation. Realizing those options were dead, I called a friend who knew someone at Intel in Folsom. He put me on hold, called Folsom, and when he came back on the line I had an interview scheduled the next week. Turned out it was a business planner position which means I was planning factory capacity and shipments to the various parts of the world. I pounded my head against quantum mechanics and astrophysics for that? Oh well, it was a job. Kristen and I moved to Folsom and got married in 1993. Jim McCue actually met his wife at the reception.

I spent seven years at Intel, moving fairly quickly out of factory planning and into engineering. Both of our kids were born during that time. More on them below. In 2000, I decided to participate in a small 7 person semiconductor test equipment startup. We moved to Irvine in 2000 to help get the company off the ground. Great year. Spent a lot of time at Disneyland and Angel games in addition to a lot of time in the lab and the garage. We decided to sell to a larger company, Credence, in the bay area late in 2000. Pretty good timing since the tech acquisition market fell off hard over the next couple of months. Kristen, the kids and I decided to move back to Folsom. Love the bay area but we didn't want to live there.

I worked for Credence for about 5 years as a director of engineering and, later, a director of marketing, making the 2+ hour drive a couple of times/week. The job was good but, in 2005, we decided schedule stability would be better. Too late for my hair. I'm with Bruce on the virtues of the comb over. Shaved it off a few years ago. Dabbing sunscreen through hair got ridiculous somewhere around 35. As my wife so eloquently put it "you didn't have great hair anyway". Very funny. Can’t argue. I moved back to an Intel marketing role in 2005. I'm definitely not a big company lifer (too slow) but it has been a good family move.

Kristen is a stay at home mom who seems to work at the school as much as some teachers. Our daughter Kylie was born in '96 (turning 11 October 19th) and our son Trevor was born in '98 (9 yrs old November 3rd). They both play outdoor and indoor soccer. I've coached Kylie's team for seven years and my wife has coached my son’s team for 5. Kylie also plays softball, violin, acts in the annual school play and is starting to play volleyball. Trevor plays baseball and pounds me in video games during his spare time. I asst coach on both softball/baseball teams so we're all pretty busy most of the year. My parents moved to the area around 2000. They are both doing well, traveling and playing a lot of golf.

I still play competitive soccer a couple of times/week although the 20 somethings are quicker than they used to be and the mornings are more entertaining. CREAK! POP! I’m sure you all recognize that morning ritual. The old man leagues aren't far off. I also play beer league softball with McCue (AKA poker pre-game), golf a couple of times/month and sub on a volleyball team once in a while.

Finally, I recently started a masters program at USC in Engineering Management. I'm sure that will sit well with all of our Bruin alumni. I can hear Molnar now.

Anyway, the blog has been great so far. Keep 'em coming. I’m really looking forward to seeing everyone.

Thanks to Amy, Lisa and Carol for keeping everything on track and Anthony for lighting up the blog. See you all next month.

Go Nad!.... er.... Eagles!
Brian

Straight to the 'Nads (aka '81-'87 mashup)

Hello to all my fellow 'nads

Thomas (Tom) Lopatka here.

This site has been a source of continuing enjoyment over the past few months. Many thanks to everyone who has shared their life experiences over the past 20 years...extraordinary.

I've been living in Switzerland since July 2000, (I first visited here in '84, pre-Chaminade, and eventually my heart led me back).

Most likely, I won't be in LA for the reunion.

In between high school and 2000 was a year at UCLA and five more at SCI-Arc, where I received a B.Arch in 1994.

There were also a variety of employments, aspects of an organic process that led to a career in film and video post-production.

They included:

Designing cemetery architecture for the Forest Lawn Company, and teaching architectural drawing and design at SCI-Arc.

This was followed a brief period of career realignment which led to 3 years at SGI during their "golden years" in the mid-to-late '90's.

During that time, for a year, I also worked a second job at night as an Inferno artist for a company in Hollywood called Imaginary Forces that specializes in film title design.

Also of note was a marriage in the early '90's (some of you were there, I recall), followed by a de-marriage in the late '90's.

These days I am working for a NFP called the AO Foundation which focuses on the (mostly) surgical treatment of trauma injuries. I head their video production unit, and spent a good portion of 2006 in South Africa, focusing on a project that trained surgeons in Sub-saharan Africa the basics of non-surgical fracture treatment (between malaria and HIV the WHO has enough on their plate). This was a really a great project to be involved with. It's perhaps difficult to conceptualize it living in the States or in Europe, but in many parts of the world, a broken arm or leg can mean a life on the margins of society - the difference between being a provider for one's family or a dependent for life.

So there you have the "Cliff's Notes" version of the past 20 years from me. It all passed so quickly.

What I really wanted to bring up was an idea I have regarding something a lot of you have pegged as key in your recollections of high school...MUSIC!!!

You see, I have a big soft sweet spot in my heart for the music of our youth, and with your help and participation I would like to put together the pentultimate playlist of "87 songs for the class of '87"...Straight to the 'Nad's.

Whether you were into Death Rock, Brit Pop, Punk, Jazz, Funk, Country, Classic Rock, Ska, Rap, King Crimson, the Iron Sheik singing the Persian national anthem or whatever.

The idea I have is to put it all together into something that is from everyone and dare I say catholic (in the sense of universal). It's not about being cliqueish or elitist, it's about the joy music brings...so if you're all about Whitney Houston, Jan Hammer, Zodiac Mindwarp, Bon Jovi, or The Housemartins...bring it on. Maybe there will be things you've never heard of, or maybe things we all knew and loved or despised, the main thing is to feel it.

Maybe it seems frivolous in the face of your career, your family lives, or the other demands of your day-to-day, but music is an amazing thing. If you don't care, don't participate, no worries...but everyone is welcome...please don't be shy.

So there's the pitch...the parameters and process follow.

The idea (today) is "87 songs for the class of '87". My original thought is that the music should have been produced between '81 and '87, the years we could have been together at Chaminade. I suspect we can keep this loose to allow for songs from KAIROS or whatever. Somehow it feels right, like an older song that was in a movie released during those years, that could be OK too.

So if you are into it, send me an e-mail (tlopatka@gmail.com) with your favorite song, or top 3, or top 10, or even your top 87 (or something in-between).

Also, if you have a playlist somewhere in webspace, let me know and I'll do what I can to incorporate it all.

I hope to put the whole thing together in the next few weeks, so a quick turnaround is key.

Once the initial 87 are together I'll post it here.

Naturally there won't be room for all of everyone's favorites (although I suppose there might be if we drop the "rule of 87").

Afterwards I'll send it back to you one-by-one in the order I received your suggestions.

Then, if you choose, you get to strike one song off the list and replace it with one of your own.

Send it back to me and the process continues to the next person.

When that's done I'll post that result as well.

The idea is that the result will somehow be both collective and individual...a real camel (you know, a horse designed by committee). The real soundtrack to a movie John Hughes wishes he could have made.

If time permits, I'd like to put the result together into something concrete, like an .mp3 CD or P2P fileshare. If it comes together as hoped, please respect all copyrights and use music you own.

So there it is, my own modest proposal. I hope you are all up for it. Let's see what it turns into.

My best to you all,

Thomas

10th Grade Speech Class

Hey all-
I was thinking about a Chaminade memory last night. It was a speech class I took in 10th grade. I don't remember the teacher's name, but she was female, 20's, and didn't teach at CCP very long (I'm sure Bob Munck remembers her name). What I do remember was that the class was friggin' HILARIOUS! It was a bit of a "free-for-all," with people trying to outdo one another.

If I remember correctly, Jeff Hunt did a "demonstration" speech involving his HK-91 assault rifle (I'm not kidding). I also remember a speech involving Scott Ulrich and a hand grenade. Other notable class members were Munck, Jeff Kisylia, Rick Baker, Toggenburger, and Mike Katz (yes, that Mike Katz, who made famous the red Levi cords, silk shirt with Japanese "carp" and Ralph Sampson signature model black/red Pumas!). I think I did a speech about my favorite RTD bus drivers, including Ernest E. Seehoffer, who won Driver of the Month (why I remember his name, I'll never know). I believe I had the cardboard sign regarding the driver award that I stole off the bus, route 158 down Devonshire, of course. What a bunch of idiots we were!

Does anyone else remember that class? I just remember bits and pieces, and that I laughed my ass off every day. I think it was held in the same classroom that I had Health, taught by Mr. Bernie Kyman! Another tremendous class with a lot of funny moments!

Steve Orr

Bruce Roberts, 20 Years Later

Greetings! Over the last few months, I’ve been reading and enjoying everybody’s blog entries, and only in the last few days has it occurred to me that it isn’t fair that I’m consuming, but not contributing. Add to that a friendly reminder I got from Matt Wiltshire on my cell phone the other day, and here I am with my crack at this.

After graduation, and a summer of working a couple of odd jobs, I left for San Diego State. It was quite an adjustment to go from Chaminade’s smaller, more intimate campus to a place like SDSU, where there were well over 30,000 students at that time. While my first year there was a total blast, the next couple would prove to be more challenging as I tried to balance a full school schedule with a job. Somehow, I was able to pull it all together, and I graduated in 1991 with a degree in Information Systems.

During my third year at SDSU, I met a beautiful girl, Anita, and we hit it off right away. She graduated from USD in 1991, and upon our respective graduations, we were engaged. At that point, both of us got started on our careers, with Anita landing a teaching position in her home town of Escondido as a second grade teacher, and me finding work as a support analyst with a point-of-sale systems company in San Diego. After settling into those jobs, we married in June of 1993, and have been together, happily, ever since.

Our first few years of marriage were quiet and easy. We were able to focus our attention on our careers and on buying our first house. We were able to do the latter in 1994, and by buying in Escondido, we sunk our roots a little further there. Right after that, I changed jobs and started working at Mitchell International, first as a support technician, then as a systems administrator, and finally as a software engineer. During this time, we were able to travel around the country a bit to visit family and friends in places like New York, Chicago and San Francisco. However, after all that, it seemed natural that our next step was children. We knew from the beginning that we wanted kids, but we also knew that we wanted to wait until the time was right. Right around the time we started trying, though, my wife had the wild idea to complete a graduate degree she had started a couple years earlier. Our son Gavin was born in January of 1998, and my wife got her Master’s degree just six months later. That wild idea turned out to be contagious. Taking advantage of a special program at Mitchell, I was able to go back to SDSU to get a Master’s degree. I started when Gavin was just a year old, and by the time I finished, we had our daughter Grace. She was born in October of 2000, and I finished grad school in May of 2001. Looking back on all that, I am still not sure how we got through jobs, babies and grad school all at the same time, but we made it!

After all that, it was time for another change. We sold our house and bought a bigger one in 2002 (again in Escondido) to accommodate our growing family. I changed jobs one more time, this time going to the San Diego Unified School District, which is where I still work. I currently am a systems analyst, and most of my time is spent supporting and implementing the district’s monster of a PeopleSoft system. Anita was able to find another teacher with whom she could split a contract, and she teaches kindergarten here in Escondido part-time, which has allowed her to volunteer at our kids’ school from time to time.

Gavin is now nine years old. He has tried a variety of sports and other activities, and his latest is Pop Warner football (much to my delight). Grace is now six years old, and she enjoys dancing. Last year, she joined a competition team, and she enjoys that immensely.

Of course, I’m not including a lot of detail, and what I’ve written may not seem terribly exciting, but with a career, a family and all the things that go along with those, the last 20 years have been quite a journey. Along the way, I’ve experienced some of the highest highs (welcoming my children into the world) and some of the lowest lows (such as the passings of loved ones, particularly Anita’s mother a couple years ago). When we graduated from high school, I had no idea what was ahead of me…but I do feel blessed.

Favorite high school memory…I have a lot of good ones. There are too many to list, and it’s difficult to choose just one, but something I do remember is one of the visits to “the bowls” (some of you will know what those are). I believe it was Halloween on this particular visit. Somebody decided to light a small fire at the entrance to a tunnel, which prompted a police helicopter to visit us, shine a light on us, and demand over the loudspeaker that we put it out. At the time, it was a bit intimidating, but it’s definitely one of those things where I look back and laugh. Believe it or not, at one time, I had some of that exchange between the police and our group on (audio) tape! I doubt I still have it.

Contacts…sadly, I’ve lost contact with many of the friends I had. Two notable exceptions, though, are Matt, as mentioned before, and Steve Orr. Matt and I have remained friends throughout this time, and in his initial blog, he referenced a visit we had at his brother’s bachelor party over the summer. Matt and I had not seen each other for several years before that, but when we saw each other, it was like we had never lost touch. I’ve been in contact with Steve through email. We’ve commiserated with each other over old football stories. (Steve – I vividly recall the “conditioning” we got after that lopsided loss to Alemany, but remember the Aerial Circus we had against Moorpark the next week!). My parents recently sent down a box of my old stuff from their attic, and one of the items in there was the football program from our game against Bell-Jeff in 1986. Sprinkled around this program were pictures from Homecoming, Vice, and the like. Talk about a flood of memories…

One last thought…I’ve read, and can relate to, the comments that have been made on this blog about getting older. A couple of you have mentioned receding hairlines. Well…it seems my genetic makeup has decided that the top of my head should go the full monty, so my hairline has receded, and because of that, rather than make bad attempts at covering it up, I just shave it all off. It’s actually pretty liberating, and it’s certainly one less thing to worry about, but I just hope it doesn’t shock anybody at the reunion. I’m told it suits me well, but I only seem to hear that from the likes of my wife and mother…

I will be going to the reunion next month -- the check’s in the mail (seriously). I look forward to seeing everybody there.

Gabby Gabriel’s last 20 years….

Hello Class of 1987 from Guillermo “Gabby” Gabriel. I must say it has been sooo much fun dusting off the yearbook and flipping through memory lane. I have really enjoyed reading everyone’s posts. It truly sounds like everyone is doing very well. Now I know where to go if I need rental supplies, entertainment for kid’s parties, a good doctor, lawyer or anything else. I really feel like time has gone by so fast. I seriously can’t believe 20 years has passed by. It’s like a blur.

Where to start… well, after high school, I tooled around for a bit before I decided to go to Cal Lutheran in Thousand Oaks. At the same time I was working full time at a car dealer (almost dropped out of school) and when that company went out of business, I started working at a bank. I got out of college in a little over five years and continued my career at the bank, eventually managing one of the branches. I got tired of banking and decided to change careers altogether and joined an oil and gas company (where coincidentally Sam Dominick’s father was a big, big boss) so I could learn new things and travel the world. And did I travel…in less than two years I racked up something like 300,000 base miles – but I saw a lot of places and things I never would have seen on my own dollar.

Our department fell into the rage of the 90’s, (not grundge music or boy bands) but outsourcing. I ended up joining one of the “Big 5” accounting firms thinking “wow-my resume is set for life!” but thanks to Enron, my firm and dreams collapsed. I had some great years at the firm, but I was still traveling, to the point where the people at the airport knew me by name and my condo never looked like it had been occupied. So, when the firm fell, I followed my core group to start a small consulting firm, which is where I still work today. Travel is nothing more than some bouts up and down the 101 or 405 and I love it.

I have not really left the San Fernando Valley since high school. I got my first place in the 90’s on Shoup and Sherman Way. Currently, I live with my fiancé (whom I have been with for almost 20 years) about a half mile from Chaminade on Platt Hill. We pass Chaminade every time we go to Costco. I can’t believe the stuff that has happened over there recently – from security check-in at the main gate (wasn’t Ms. Lerned enough security?) to the new science building which was built on the site we used to run down that hill to ditch school during lunch. I actually went to an open house a few months ago where the view from the backyard was the Chaminade football field.

What do I remember the most?

• 80’s music – I still listen to the Smiths, the Cure, New Order… anything 80’s. Music like that will never be repeated. Thank God Time Warner has a great 80’s new wave station on their music channel.
• I still use the hair spray, but I don’t think Aqua Net is still in business. Looking at our yearbook, I swear 98% of us used some sort of crazy freeze hold hair product.
• Walking across the football field to the FA building while smoking a smokeless cigarette.
• I just spent $72 on a Lacoste polo shirt that would have otherwise been free if I could wear my old high school clothes and not have gained all this weight.
• Well, I did give up Bartles and James wine coolers. Enough said. Not sure if they still sell Boone’s Farm at Ralph’s.
• They still sell 5 pound blocks of ice. I wonder if kids these days still go ice blocking.
• Why is Chaminade Park a mile away and not the park right across the street from the main campus?
• Do Chaminade high school students these days have beer bongs?
• Why did they have all these blood drives in high school but if you have a tattoo they give you the third degree when you want to donate?
  

Just curious.

High school was definitely a defining moment of my life. I wish I would have just stepped back and enjoyed it more versus rushing to grow older and speed through it. Looking back, this is one of my greatest regrets.

I hope to make it to the reunion and catch up with all of you.

Shop at TUSO!

This is not a paid advertisement. Tracy has no idea I'm posting this. But post it I must.

This is for the ladies out there (and the men who are so inclined). Our own Tracy Tuso is the owner of an adorable boutique called TUSO at the totally redone Sherman Oaks Galleria (Like, Oh My God!). So if you are at a loss as to what you are going to wear to the reunion, I recommend you go there. She has the cutest dresses.

I suddenly had to go to an event this Saturday and was in desperate need for proper attire. I had been to my local mall and had no luck. So I drove out to Tracy's shop because I'd remembered there were great dresses there when I dropped in a year before.

I ended up trying on about 7 dresses and had a choice of 3 that looked good on me. This is a miracle in itself (You read about my boobs, right? They have to be packaged "just so." Maybe I should talk to Sheila about getting some help.)

Seriously, the selection there was so good, the store manager was very helpful, AND they were having an awesome sale!

The store is located in a kind of cul de sac area behind the elevator near the Cheesecake Factory. So go buy a dress and then treat youself to some cheesecake! I did!

Amy