There was a gathering of Lakenheath Lancers in San Antonio over the weekend of 4-5 April (folks who attended high school at RAF Lakenheath, UK). Photos below and at: http://imageevent.com/getdown/lakenheathinsanantonio
Don’t take my picture!
Tag: RAF Lakenheath
Comfort
The milieu in which I grew up made it clear that some people were predestined to be more successful than others. Continue reading “Comfort”
Lakenheath High School
I’m interrupting my Vegas series because I just found this photo over at the Lakenheath ning site.
Lakenheath High School, ca. 1977. This is what my high school looked like, people! (Same photo but bigger, better here.)
Kathy Soden Grant posted this photo with the caption: “The Smoking Area – Can anyone tell me how we got a smoking area?” I supposed we had a smoking area at school because we were all given ration cards to buy cigarettes when we turned 16…just another iteration of the relationship between the military and the cigarette industry. Of course, most of us dabbled in smoking cigarettes or became outright addicted long before turning 16.
I gave up smoking when I was 14 because Kevin Foley didn’t like it. It didn’t help with my relationship with Kevin, but I’m a happy non-smoker to this day.
I do believe that Phil Mason is the guy on the left (in the letter jacket) walking toward the camera. And to the right–the center person in the group of 3–Peggy Gralish?
Ahem. Pardon my nostalgia. I have a clinically certifiable case.
Lakenheath HS Reunion 2008: Awards Edition
The Lakenheath High School reunion in St. Louis was fantastic. There are photos here (scroll down) and Valerie Rogers White posted more photos here.
The 2008 Lakenheath High School Reunion Awards – To honor the Lancers who gathered in St. Louis at the Millenium Hotel on July 31 – August 3, 2008, I offer these awards. If you have any complaints about the award you’ve been given, you’ll have to take it up with me at the next reunion at your own expense over the drink of my choice.
The “You Kept this Secret All These Years?” Award: Junior JC Clemons, who is listed as Harry Lane Clemons, Jr. in the 1977 Graduation program. He really is Harry Lane. You may call him JC. “Junior” has been dropped.
“Hero’s Journey” Award: Scott Harville (below right) for jumping in the car at 2:00 am on Saturday morning and driving from Florida with his son Argus. Scott and Argus arrived in the STL right around 6 pm. Scott, you rock.
“Best Recall of Decades-Old Facts” Award: Also to Scott Harville for his magnificent retelling of some really scary shit—think ‘scared straight.’ (That’s Rick Zarder on the left and Dave Jester in the middle.)
“SBD on the Dance Floor” Award: Two initials—R.T.
The “I Love All Ya’ll but I’m in a New Relationship” Award: Phillip K. Mason. “He plays heart strings.”
“Room With the Best View” Award: Kelly Woodson and Becky Tolley on the 26th floor. Why go sweat at the stadium? Sit here, pop open a beer, watch the game on TV, and glance over at the stadium once in a while.
Best “Random Sighting of LHS Teacher” Award: Marcos de la Cruz, who recently ran into Mr. Chester at the Trader Joe’s in Huntington Beach.
Best “Random Sighting of Fellow LHS-er” Award: Scott Harville, who recently saw Debbie Gunter and her husband at the restaurant where Scott works.
Best “St. Louis Arch Imitation” Award: Alice Spicka, who described what it is like to go to the top of the arch, and told us how we could recreate the entire experience without leaving the hotel. (Step 1 involves getting into a closet.)
The “Thank You for Bringing Your Loaded I-Pod Award”: William Powell (below left, with Jeanine Courtney Krenz), who brought on Heatwave, Earth, Wind and Fire, and others.
The “Song that Stood the Test of Time” Award: Groove Line by Heatwave.
The “Porcelain Goddess” Award: Melinda Brown Taylor.
Honorary Alumni Awards: Jordan Krenz (daughter Jeanine Courtney Krenz & Rob Krenz); and Ian Jester (son of David and Lisa Jester). You know when you hear “Go LHS!” out of the mouths of offspring that there are some effective parents among us.
The “You Get in the Picture Too, Let Me Take It” Award: Jordan Krenz and Verna Spicka (Alice and Sean’s mom—below left with Jeanine Courtney Krenz). Jeanine is the clear winner of the Abba “Dancing Queen” Award.
The “Run to the Store and Fetch Me Some Beers and Stuff” Award: Phil Mason, Mike Mason, Rick Zarder, Donna Lopez Powers.
The “Most Likely to Flip the Bird at Any Given Moment” Award: Mike Mason.
From left to right: Rick Zarder, Mike Mason, Sean Spicka, Marcos de la Cruz.
The “Loud Flatulence Verified By Roommate” Award: Marcos de la Cruz.
The “Your Great Smile Actually Got Better Award”: Rick Zarder (below) and William Powell (back up there).
The “Glad You Showed Up Despite Recent Injury” Award: Annette Bryant.
The “Family Complainer” Award (nominated by Mary Beth de la Cruz): Lisa de la Cruz.
The “Hasn’t Changed One Bit” Award: Becky Tolley.
The “Now That I’ve Been to One Reunion I’ll Never Miss Another One” Award: Rudy Thornton.
The “Best T-Shirt” Award: Chuck Lyons. Dude had a t-shirt of the Hotel California album cover.
The “Most Honest Confession About Lakenheath” Award: William Powell, who said, “I hated it there. Maybe I was sick of moving or something.”
The “Are You Shittin’ Me?” Awards:
Non-fiction – Scott Harville
Fiction – Mike Mason
The “Apparently She Wrote Everything Down” Award: Kelly Russell.
The “Most Worried About What She May Have Written About Me” Award: David Jester, who asked me twice to make sure that at least some of what happened at Lakenheath stayed at Lakenheath.
The “I Will Suggest My Own City for the Next Reunion But Not Actually Offer to Plan It” Award: Names redacted in the hope that someone will actually step up.
Best Clarification of Questionable Event: “They didn’t sleep together, they had a long conversation with naps.”
The “You’ve Come A Long Way, Baby” Award: Sean Spicka.
The Martin Luther King, Jr. Divinity Award: Dean Baines. Serioushly.
The “Pound the Crown (Royal)” Award (cumulative with the 2007 Reunion in DC): Dean Baines. Serioushly.
The “Existing Legislation Noted With Regret” Award: Goes to the State of Georgia, where oral sex is illegal.
Reason Dean Baines drives straight through Georgia without stopping: See above.
Dean Baines on the left, Scott “Mr. Memory” Harville on the right. Serioushly.
Feel free to add your own award nominees in the comments. Lancers, I love you.
Many, many thanks to Verna Spicka who shared her photos with me. Verna, you rock!
Union Station, Los Angeles
I’m going to be traveling over the next week. Not by train.
I’m going to my high school reunion – this time in St. Louis. I went to junior high and high school on an American Air Force base in England, RAF Lakenheath. (Sorry to be repetitive, but one must always set the table for the first-time visitor.) It recently occurred to me that I probably can thank Adolph Hitler for this. Or perhaps I need to go farther back to the Treaty of Versailles which pissed Germany off in the first place. I also lived on a military base in Panama while in 4th and 5th grade. We’ll ascribe that one to favorable geography.
Art Deco (and passenger trains) make me nostalgic for a time that I didn’t even live through. That’s part of nostalgia, isn’t it?
I’ll tell you something—I have such a raging case of nostalgia that I will probably never leave Pasadena this house that I’ve been in for 25 years. I already miss what I miss—the place I grew up. Time has displaced me from that place. Distance too.
Now I’m twenty-five years on in this place—and I still miss that other place. I couldn’t bear to leave Pasadena and face the prospect of missing it too. Shoot, I still miss Fedco!
My passport does not match the country in which I grew up. (That is an awkward sentence, much like the situation I’m trying to describe.) This makes me a perpetual outsider. When I go ‘home‘ – and it always feels daring to call England ‘home’ – the immigration control folks want to see my return ticket. Still, I feel very content when I’m there.
This weekend, I get to spend time with people who have a similar experience to mine. We are third culture kids, and I blogged about it here in a post called “Is It My England Too? On Being a Third Culture Kid prior to my last high school reunion.
Posting will be light to non-existent during the next few days. Next week, you’ll be seeing the happy faces of my fellow Lancers. See you later.
All photos by Timothy Down.
UPDATE: Wow. I just found out that Edward Lee Howard, a CIA officer who defected to the Soviet Union, graduated from my high school.
West Coast Grrlie Blather 