WHS69 News
May 2006
Martha Flood Caughey, in her continuing her pursuit of intellectual stimulation, has just completed the Creative Writing (Poetry) course at PJC. Her work was entered in the Walter Spara Writing Competition. For those who may not be familiar with the name, the contest is named for Walter Spara, the educator and internationally published author and poet who founded PJC's renowned creative writing program. Martha's work garnered both second and third place recognition in poetry! Martha also serves as PJC's registrar. Talk about multitalented! Way to go Martha!
Jim Hylton, after many years experience as a secondary grades English teacher, also entered the contest and won first place in the fiction category. All those years of training finally paid off - Jim won $100. (Just think! Now you can almost fill up your gas tank, Jim!)
The winning pieces will be posted in PJC's online student publication, The Corsair. Once we know when the postings will occur, we'll be sure to let you all know.
Those other folks just can't compete with the class of '69, can they!
April 2005
CBS News will be airing a special on April 29th focusing on the end of the Viet Nam war, including a discussion of MIA's and KIA's. The location and return of classmate Randy Ard's remains will be highlighted. In Pensacola the show is supposed to air on CBS right after the 5:30pm edition of the news. Keep an eye on this site for more info.
March 2005
Mira Kirkland's wedding consulting business, Your Perfect Day, has been featured in the current issue of the online magazine, San Antonio Weddings. To be chosen as a featured company from among hundreds in this region's highly competitive field means you're definitely doing things right. An interesting point is that the article not only highlights Mira's expertise and artistic sense of taste, it also showcases a part of her family. The article, written in the first person point-of-view by Mira's daughter Kate about her own wedding, features some photos of some family members. Take a glimpse at what Mira's been up to since you last saw her, and if you've got a wedding to put together, definitely take a look at this page. Click here to read the article.
February 2005
Randy Ard.
As you know, the
remains of our classmate, Randy Ard, have been found.
Randy had been MIA since his disappearance in
The funeral service will be held at
3364 Highway
205 North (Old Guntersville Highway)
(256) 878-6781
If you would like to make the trip and don't feel like
driving, please contact Steve Dehart. He may be able to provide
transportation. Steve can be reached by email (eodstogie@cox.net) or by phone.
Steve is also working with the Pensacola
News-Journal to publish Randy's story. If you have anything you would like
to share -- a photo, a story, or just an emotion about the event -- please
contact Steve. It is quite possible that the PNJ would want to interview
you, so keep that in mind. I agree with Steve that this is a worthy tribute to
our classmate.
Many of you have asked where to send cards or
caring thoughts to Randy's family. I've asked Artice
Holland, our classmate who has kept his friendship with Randy a strong one by
maintaining close ties to Randy's family over these many years, tells me that
the cards and notes can be sent to Randy's brother, Bud:
Bud Ard
Let me know if I can provide any other
information.
January 2005
They’ve moved! Classmates and reunion
committee members Paul and Carolyn Fields Baker have
moved their business, The Shady Lady, from the historic Quinta
House in the
In case you missed it in these pages in the past, Paul and Carolyn are in the business of selling wine and beer making supplies for the home enthusiast. They’ve recently added cheese making to the menu, which, when you think about it for a moment, makes a pretty good combination! If you haven’t visited their place, make sure to drop by for a visit.
Paul and Carolyn have always been
BIG supporters of class
functions in the past. They’ve graciously opened their home, hosting the
reunion committee meetings week after week during the planning of many of the
events, and we’ll definitely miss the Thursday night gatherings at their old
location at
September 2004
Happens to the best of us! Molly Caughey, daughter of Martha Flood Caughey, went and made her a grandma! Martha serves as the Class of 69 Reunion Committee recording and correspondence secretary, Pensacola history and trivia repository, and just plain ol’ fun person. Grandson Jared Alexander Gumapas arrived at 1:50AM on Saturday, August 28. Like all good parents, Granny Martha personally supervised the delivery, keeping the medical staff on their toes and monitoring their efforts during a long labor and eventual delivery. Mom and son are doing fine, but Martha may be suffering a little from the stress – the delivery occurred in the wee hours of a Saturday morning after a hellish week of performing her duties as PJC’s Registrar during the fall term registration. Take a break Martha; you deserve it. If you’d like to see pictures of little Jared, click here.
June 2004
Classmate Jimmy Holler and his
business, the
Dog House Deli, got a little attention from the Ziegler company
and
A
As Channel 3's Sara
Baumgartner explains, he's going to be inducted into "the hot dog
hall-of-fame."
Never heard of the
Ziegler hot dog hall of fame?
Don't worry. There
wasn't one until now.
There's not a
building for it. It’s just a concept.
Jimmy holler, owner
of the dog house deli in
"it's a lot of fun. It was completely...a surprise."
What did he do to get
in the hall of fame?
Holler, who's been in
business for twenty five years, started by selling a couple hundred hot dogs a
day.
After that, it starts
to get confusing.
"if you do that 300 days, it ends up being 60-thousand feet
of wieners in a year. If you do that times twenty five, it ends up being a million , 500 feet, which if you divide that mileage it's
something like 285 miles."
So, he's basically
sold enough hot dogs to reach from here to
Thousands of those
hot dogs are made by Ziegler so he got a special award from the
Some customers don't
find it hard to believe that holler's dogs have sold so well.
Heather:
"they're just good."
And, with a least ten
basic choices on the menu, there's a lot of variety.
Keri "the foot
long with chili, cheese, onion"
Luke "lots of
jalapeños, chili, and onions."
Sara "can you
make a wear tv dog? Jimmy: i think we can come up with something like that and call it
the Baumgartner dog."
There's also the
Mexican dog,
Holler says the fact
that hot dogs are not boring has helped his sales skyrocket.
"You can change
a hot dog..anyway you want
it - a beef frank, different size buns - there's just a lot of variation with
hot dogs and it's just a tradition - you know everybody's always eating a hot
dog."
With that in mind,
expect holler to sell even more miles of delicious dogs.
April 2004
Looking for VAD! A girl’s
class ring with the initials “VAD”
inscribed has been found and forwarded to reunion committee member Martha
Caughey. The ring was found in
The only person we could match with those initials from our class is Virginia Ann Darby, who
went by “Ann” when we were in school. We think. We can’t seem to find Ann, so
if anyone out there has any information that may be helpful, please contact Martha, the web manager, or any member of the reunion committee.
This is one of those irreplaceables that should find
its way home to the owner, don’t you think?
March 2004
The
Class of 69 Reunion Committee has met twice this month as they begin to lay plans for the 35 Year Reunion. This is a major milestone, and we hope for a
celebration worthy of everyone in this very special class! We welcome your
contributions. If you have any ideas, suggestions or want to get involved as a
member of the committee, please contact any of the reunion committee
members. Our next meeting will be March 15. We’ve been pretty fortunate this month in our ongoing attempts to locate
missing classmates, but we need your help! Please take a moment to read over
our “Missing Classmates”
list and let us know if you have contact information for any of those on the
list. Wayne Villaneueve has been removed from the missing list! Wayne has
carved out a very interesting career for himself doing voice-overs for
animations, radio, television and films. Check out the streaming audio demos at
his website. Pretty amazing stuff! (Are you sure this is the same Wayne
we went to school with?) His website is http://www.andrewvilleneuve.voice123.com/
. His email has been added to our Classmates Addresses
Page. Jim Van Landingham, another of our classmates who was classified as
“Missing” has been located! (Or, rather, he located us!) Jim is currently
residing waaayyy out in Lilian, just over the state line west of Pensacola.
Jim’s email is p3orionfe@gulftel.com . Hal Padgett has
just launched his personal web space and invites everyone to visit at http://home.earthlink.net/~halpadgett/
. He has posted some of his writings and photos there for you to see. Take a
look! Mike Uman has
surfaced in Orlando where he is working as a hair stylist. Mike doesn’t have a
current email address, so everything has to go by “snail mail.” (Webmaster’s
Note: Because we don’t publish
classmate home address and phone number info on our website, let us know if you
want to contact Mike, and we’ll get the okay from Mike to share that info with
you on a one-to-one basis.) February 2004 Martha Flood Caughey, who we all know has put untold hundreds of hours into
making our class reunions a reality, apparently exercises that same admirable
work ethic in her everyday efforts for PJC. Martha has just been selected as
Pensacola Junior College’s new Registrar. This is a great accomplishment, and
Martha truly deserves our admiration, our applause and our support. Drop Martha
a line to say congratulations on a job very well done! Paul and Carolyn (Fields) Baker have assumed proprietorship of The Shady Lady, a local shop specializing in winemaking and beer
brewing supplies and equipment. Here’s a bit of information that Paul sent
along: The
Shady Lady is at 208 South Alcaniz St. one-half block north of Seville
Square. We sell winemaking supplies and equipment and beer brewing
supplies and equipment. We do not sell beer or wine, however we do have free
samples. We also have a small gift section of candles and specialty
foods. We
are open 10-5 Mon-Sat through January. In February we will start closing
on Monday Carolyn
will keep her job to keep us in insurance --
the store really will not sustain two people right now (hardly just
one). It does not pay much, but I am having fun. This is a full
time job I LOVE. We
will have a OPEN HOUSE on February 15 from 1-5 pm. Please come see us.
Don't wait till then, come any day. My
years of working with turn over, inventory, ordering, shipping, profit/loss,
etc. is now being put to the test. We
have a good internet site. www.theshadylady.net
gets us orders from around the world. I have learned that Goaz, Malta is a real
place, and they make homemade wine there, too! Please
come to check out our little shop. Sounds like a great venture, and we want to wish Paul
and Carolyn all the success possible! Let’s all see if we can’t make it to the
open house on the 15th! October 2003 Jim Hylton has
sent us some photos of his place along the Choctawhatchee River in northeast
Florida. Jim has been teaching English for quite a while, and is currently enlightening
young minds at Freeport Middle School, and enjoying the creative freedom that
living in a quiet natural environment affords. If you haven't seen his
guestbook entries, be sure to take a moment to read them - Jim has done some
interesting things since many of us last saw him. His pictures can be seen by clicking here. September
2003 Thanks
to Martha Flood Caughey’s diligent efforts, we’ve located Gordon Gray. Gordon and his wife Judy are
innkeepers smack in the middle of the Blue Ridge mountains in a little place
named Cashiers, North Carolina. If you’re looking for a beautiful place to
relax and enjoy the beauty of some of America’s most exquisite mountains, I’d
certainly recommend taking a look at Gordon and Judy’s place, The Cottage Inn .
Their website is www.cottageinncashiers.com. There’s also a page with a little scoop on
Gordon and Judy and how they got to be where they are, along with a photo of
Gordon and his beautiful wife. Sounds like a wonderful life, Gordon! Always
one with a knack for seeing new ways to approach old situations, Sharon Galloway was applauded recently in
the Pensacola News Journal for her “bottoms up” approach to helping kids in her
class deal with simply staying focused long enough to learn. Innovative,
interesting and fun, you can be sure. Way to go, Sharon! Click here to check out the article. Mira Kirkland Siegel is
living and working in the San Antonio, Texas area as an events planner,
specializing in weddings. Sounds like she’s had a pretty interesting time
getting there, too! If you want to read more about Mira, check out her website
at www.yourperfectday.com. There’s an great bio page for Mira there, too. August
2003 Connie Chamberlin is a grandmother! Connie’s first grandchild, Katelyn Marie Gaff, was born last Tuesday, August
19, in Wisconsin. Connie will be flying up to meet her in a couple
weeks. Connie says, “My son,
Ben, is in
Iraq and will probably not be back before April so we'll be taking even more
than the usual million photos. Gosh, when did we get so old? I
thought it would be much worse than this ;)” Let’s keep this whole family in our prayers, and maybe a few extra
good wishes for Ben as he spends this time in Iraq. June 2003 Patty Newton Herndon … Patty lives in Jacksonville and is a
paralegal with a large law firm. She
has just graduated from Jones University (in Jacksonville) with a bachelor’s
degree in legal assisting. And she
graduated summa cum laude. She is a
single grandmother – maybe next time she’ll tell us about her grandchildren. Barry Arnold … Barry is in Pensacola and works at the University of
West Florida. He has just been
appointed Professor of Biology/Philosophy/Religious Studies – that’s big, isn’t
it? He will also serve as Director of
the UWF/Sacred Heart Center for Health Care Ethics. Marilyn Ulen … Marilyn lives in the Tampa area and has been
enjoying a position as the director of a year-long shared celebration between sister
cities St. Petersburg, Florida and St. Petersburg, Russia. She recently returned from a nine-day visit
to St. Petersburg with an official delegation.
I can picture Marilyn with an entourage, can’t you? After filming the sites in Russia, she is ready
to put together a documentary of the celebration’s highlights. The funding for this celebration will dry up
in July, and she will be sending out the resumes. Her daughter, Danielle, graduated from high school this year, and
will be attending a photography school in the fall. Her oldest daughter, Sara, will start graduate school at Clark
University (Massachusetts) this fall. Peggy Hall McCoy … Peggy’s daughter, Mary, graduated magna cum
laude with a bachelor’s in fine arts from St. John’s University (New York). Steve Dehart … Steve has put up his commander’s insignia with an
official retirement from the United States Navy and started work immediately
with Raytheon in Pensacola. His retirement celebration was
said to be a great time, and, if he remembers any of it, I’m sure he’ll tell us
all about it at our next gathering. Hal Padgett … Hal has moved
lock, stock, and smoking gun from Atlanta, Georgia, to Jacksonville,
Florida. Make that lock, stock, and
camera equipment. He’s a professional
picture taker. He is also, after much
prodding, considering writing for fun and profit. He just completed a writing workshop in his new hometown. Many of you will remember that Hal’s dad,
Al, wrote the sports column for the News-Journal for many years. Anyway, good words come out of his word
processor, and I’m thinkin’ that Dave Barry better beware. Kathy Algee Landua … Kathy resides on the outskirts of Atlanta and
lives on an honest-to-God farm. She’s
raising sheep and grows veggies and, well, just does farm things. She works for the Center for Disease Control
in Atlanta and does the farm thing in her spare time. That’s when she’s not giving back to the community in the form of
foster care. Kathy recently agreed to
care for two teenage girls who come from a neglectful and abusive
environment. Connie Chamberlin … Connie works at the University of West Florida
in the Advising Center. She has been
working on her bachelor’s degree and should have that piece of paper hanging on
her wall by the time we have our next party.
In the meantime, she and her husband have been building a new
house. I mean really building it ..
with hammer and nails and stuff. She’s
learned how to hang sheetrock, install ceramic tile, and do finish
carpentry. And she wasn’t even in the
4-H Club! She has four sons: Matthew, a National Guardsmen, and his wife
live in Scottsdale, Arizona; his unit was recently reactivated. Ben is in the
Army and is stationed somewhere in Iraq; Ben will be missing the birth of his
first child in August but should be home by October. Jonathan is going to school in North Carolina. Aaron just turned 13. Connie says, “It’s good to know that we
aren’t all sitting around in rocking chairs watching the grass grow. It’s also
reassuring to know that while lots of the Class of 1969 is headed into
retirement, there are some of us just finding out what (or what else) it is we
want to do.” Well said! JAN MADDREY Moncrief (and, by default, SONNY MONCRIEF) … Jan and Sonny live in Mississippi. Their son, Ben, just graduated from the
University of Virginia Law School with the juris doctorate, and he graduated in
the top 10% of his class. Ben and his
wife are moving to Birmingham. BUDDY CARROLL … Buddy
is in San Diego, California. He is
retired from the United States Navy and is currently working at the California
Wolf Center, writing poetry, taking photographs, working on his bikes (motored
and un-motored), and remaining current in the world of computer networking
technology. He is a regular contributor
to the online Adirondack Review – check out his poetry and his photographs at www.adirondackreview.com. His talent will appear under his grown-up
name of James Carroll. Oh, yeah, and he
just found out that he’s gonna be a grandfather! NEIL JERNIGAN … Neil
says his life is better than ever these days.
He’s just remarried, after being single for six years, and is looking
forward to the next reunion. MARTHA FLOOD Caughey
… Martha’s daughter, Molly, just graduated from Washington High School and is
going to start Pensacola Junior College in the fall. Martha works at PJC and looks like Molly will get all the benefit
of first pick of classes … and, more importantly for Mom’s wallet, free
tuition! Martha has been at PJC since
she graduated from high school working her way through the system from
secretary to her current position of Assistant Registrar. During that time, she attended college (PJC
and UWF) on a part-time basis and earned the bachelor’s degree in business
administration in 2000. She enjoys her
job but admits that visions of the “R” (retirement) word have been dancing in
her head. She has taken a creative
writing course and loves the feeling of putting emotions on paper. She will be doing more of that in the
future. KAREEN WELCH Stockton
… Kareen is one of our too-far-away classmates, and she has been living in
Washington (state) for many years. She
and hubby, Jack, are selling the farm, the big house, and starting the
downsizing process. Their 23-year-old
daughter, Dacia, graduated from the University of Washington last year but is
having some difficulty finding a job appropriate for someone with a degree in
business/marketing. Dacia is thinking
of a geographical relocation to Boston, and Kareen is asking if anyone has any
information about jobs, housing, etc., for that area. As for the downsizing process, Kareen says that the only
maintenance Jack wants to do these days is fix a divot on a golf course!
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