Breaking News, January 9, 2016 Meet-up Puyallup High School Alumni Association

Puyallup High School Alumni Association has announced a meeting to gather classes to discuss re-igniting the alumni scholarship dance once held annually in December. The meeting is scheduled at Sparks Firehouse Deli on January 9, 2016 at 6 pm. Please come prepared with your ideas and suggestions. You can contact their blog at http://puyallupalumniassoc.blogspot.com

Wishing the Class of 1975 a Great New Year

We would like to wish everyone a wonderful beginning to 2016. Did you notice we already had 27 classmates take our poll for our round two 2016 reunion. Please take a moment to cast your vote next door if you haven't and sign-up for the mail list that brings this newsletter directly to your email mailbox. You can also keep in touch with your classmates by following Facebook to watch for exciting news coming your way for 2016. 

Let's Get Together January 2016

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year class of '75!

How would you like to get together in January 2016. Since our reunion this past May was such a big hit, we were thinking it would be fairly easy to piggy back another round. Please subscribe to the blog and watch for an email coming your way. A date we have discussed is Saturday, January 23, 2016. Take our quick poll next door.

Reminder: This Friday, December 18, 2015 is the annual alumni assembly at PHS gymnasium at 12 noon. 

Merry Christmas 1975 vs 2015

A step by step guide...

1. Mid-October: When the Sears Roebuck and J.C. Penney's Christmas catalogs come in the mail, give them to the kids and tell them to circle what they want. Order about a quarter of it. Do not order the rock polisher they keep asking for.
2. Continue about your normal routine until the second week of December.
3. Check the TV Guide for the dates and times when all the Rankin/Bass Christmas specials will air. Plan accordingly so the kids don't miss them again this year. You don't want to have to listen to crying children having to wait 'til next year to see Rudolph.
4. Make a large container of Chex Mix to have on hand. Restock the liquor cabinet and be sure to purchase plenty of Crown Royal and ingredients for pina coladas. Harveys Bristol Cream is good to have on hand during the holiday season as well. Do not forget both green and red maraschino cherries.
5. Around December 15th drag the fiberglass tree up from the cellar along with the box of Christmas decorations.
6. First, spray everything with several aerosol cans of fake snow.
7. String the tree with blinking multicolored lights. Spend 45 minutes trying to find the one bulb on the string that's burned out and thus making all the other lights in the string not work. Replace that bulb. Become tangled in cords. Go into the den for a cigarette to calm down.
8. Come back in and add an extra shot of rum to your eggnog before hanging red and gold balls on the tree. These would be the styrofoam balls covered in a layer of silky thread. They only look nice for about five minutes out of the box because the thread always gets snagged on the tree branches and starts to fray and unravel. Spray some aerosol Aquanet hairspray on them. It might work. It might not. It also might make the ornaments more flammable, especially if they're close to the lights, but chest la vie. All these fire prevention tips are overrated anyway.
9. Cover the entire tree with tinsel. All of it. You don't even want to see that tree. You just want to see a big, glowing pyramid of blinking lights and tinsel in your living room picture window.
10. Take the children downtown to visit Santa. Snap a couple Polaroids of the event. Give them each a candy cane and get home in time to watch "Nestor the Long-Eared Donkey."
11. Pick up a pack of Christmas cards the next time you're in the Hallmark store on Main Street. Maybe something in an elegant Currier & Ives style this year. Run home and write them out and then stop by the post office later for a pack of thirteen cent stamps.
12. Windex the protective vinyl coverings on your living room set and dust your ornate, gilt, rain lamp so your home looks nice for Christmas tests. Water the terrarium while you're at it and stick a ceramic elf in the soil for holiday cheer.
13. Go downtown to the Sears distribution center to pick up your order while the kids are at school. Wrap everything and hide it in the shed outside where they can't find it. If you run out of wrapping paper, just use the funny pages.
14. Plan Christmas menu: canned ham, fruit cocktail, Watergate salad, green bean casserole, jellied cranberry salad, Hawaiian Punch with rainbow sherbet, nutty cheese ball, fruit cake...
15. Attend the children's public school Christmas pageant that is complete with a manger scene. Wish everyone a Merry Christmas.
16. Come home and save cat from choking to death on tinsel for the sixty-fifth time.
17. Put on the Donny and Marie Christmas album. Dust off The Carpenters' "Merry Christmas Darling" and that annoying Chipmunks record the kids love so much.
18. Dress the girls in matching, floor length, red velvet, empire-waisted, high-collared gowns with white ruffled cuffs. Put the boys in corduroys, plaid button ups with dog-ear collars and matching hunter green vests. Throw on your new bright red pants suit with the attached silk scarf, finish with a spritz of L'Air du Temps and praise polyester! No more ironing! You are now ready to go to the Christmas Eve service at church.
19. On Christmas morning get the flashbulbs ready and take several photos of the kids opening their Lite-Brites and Slinkie. Relax while Matthew plays with his Starchy and Hutch car and the girls prance around in their new Wonder Woman and Bat Girl Underoos.
20. Slip into your new jumpsuit, wing your hair and put the canned ham in the over along with a Mrs. Smith's pumpkin pie.
21. Enjoy dinner with the family on the rec room pool table which you have covered with a plastic tablecloth printed with bells and wreaths.
22. Let the kids play with their favorite gift: COUSINS. The adults can have Irish coffee, fruit cake and few Benson & Hedges in the family room while the snow falls outside (because it always snows on Christmas)

written by Victoria Fedden

Happy Thanksgiving 2015

Puyallup High Schools Alumni Assembly 2015 is Friday, December 18th at 12 noon. If you are going we would love your pictures and permission to post them to our blog. We recently learned there is no dinner dance usually associated with the alumni assembly this year. PHS Class of 1975 Reunion Committee is planning a meeting to discuss options for get togethers in 2016. If you would like to be involved please contact us here to get on our planning contact list.

Fall is here...

Dear Classmates,
What a fantastic reunion and summer we had. All of us who attended the reunion mostly agree we attended to mark a point in time and both to keep our spirit of '75 alive. From my perspective and I'm sure yours, the calendar continues to march forward, even quicker than it did last year. My working years become shorter, my grandkids get older, and with the holidays edging closer, I get a call today from Rod... thanks Rod. Time to reconnect everyone.
Rod's call made me realize how much I miss the planning and connection with people. My people. Our class of '75. We know being connected isn't about Facebook or texting, but when my phone rang I thought someone had died and isn't that truly a sign of my own disconnect.
Let's reach out to family and friends over the holidays and each day. Let's commit to it sooner than later. It is our spirit of Puyallup High School class of 1975.

July 23, 2015 Music and Fun in the Park

Meet-up with classmates at The Forum around 4:30 pm and then head to Pioneer Park in downtown Puyallup at 5:30 pm for a fun evening listening to Wally and the Beavs  Go to Facebook to confirm your spot for happy hour.

40 Years Later Tour of Puyallup High School

Next month marks our 40th anniversary of graduation from Puyallup High School. 
A number of us had the opportunity to tour Puyallup High School the Friday evening prior to our reunion, May 16, 2015.  I was amazed at the number of classes students had the opportunity to take that prepared them for careers post high school. The STEM program, culinary arts, auto and video production classroom were real time and high tech. Angela Reed, chemistry and STEM teacher explained how The Boeing Company hired many students right out of high school from her STEM program. 
Peter Sirl, drama teacher, also was on hand to tell about the history of the auditorium. 
A special thank you to Maddy and Liam, for being our tour guides. 

Pictured here: Lee Freeman, Valerie Huber, Mary Stephanick, Robin Clarke, Lisa Hess, Bill Raymer, Rod Mohr, Karen Barker, Terri Martin, Lois Barry, Marie Laguatan

Pictured here: Mary Stephanick, Lisa Hess, Nancy Wiggins, Robin Clarke, Terri Martin, Marie Laguatan, Cathy Raymer, Bill Raymer, Lee Freeman, Karen Barker, Valerie Huber, Lois Barry

Thank you!

Our committee is an amazing bunch. 
I would love to extend my gratitude to all of you. We began our journey in August 2014.
Throughout our journey, I found how important it is to have friends who help carry you through life’s journeys as well. What a gift you all have been to me. It is rare most of us experience that often. This evening I’m a bit overwhelmed with that thought and the thought that this has ended. Each of us have our connections to each other in some way. Some of us go way, way back,. Barbara Gross, and I went to church together. I think we were in the third grade. I am still trying to figure out how exactly I’m related to Rod Mohr. Actually Rod and me are a lot alike, we work under pressure the best, and are both relentless. I'm going to miss his phone calls and asking, "If this is a good time to discuss something..."  Great job with MC! Christy Brown, I met in art, Dan Vesey, now gone. Art has been my happy place in life and I believe I found you in one of those classes with Shelly. We should never let our kids miss out on art and athletics. Audrey, you reached out to me 15-20 years ago while you were working on another reunion. Audrey Looker, I will never forget that because it was at a time I was raising my boys alone. You have beauty, strength and balance. When I need more of that, I seek you, you are a gift and a most wonderful friend. Ronald Kline, you are and always will be a ton a fun! You are the only person I would ever let drive “MY” car and then leave it running for a 1/2 hour while parked on the curb and laugh about it! OMG and you are so connected to the feelings of others. To Jim Anderson, Karen Barker Nunn, what a wonderful blessing of talent, knowledge, and representation for our class. Thank you for the lovely tribute to our classmates who could not be with us, Karen.
Debbie Smith Patterson, I wish we had know each other better, much earlier. I believe we could have been great friends as you are the best! Robin Clarke and Sheila Fix, Lois Ann Barry Umpstead and Terri Martin Walton we were all friends in school, thank goodness for that.
Let’s not ever let the connection of friendship break or let life get in the way.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart. I am truly blessed beyond belief.
Lisa (Hess) Elliott, Blog Editor

Joe Kelly, Debbie Smith and Ron Kline setting up for the reunion.

We're the greatest class alive, victory rules for '75! Please add a comment or two below the pictures.

About 105 classmates plus around 60 guests showed up for our reunion, May 16, 2015. About 57 classmates stayed to participate in the poker run and social/dance at the Eagles later.

Lisa Hess, Colleen Kastama, Barb Brewster, Shelly Rowley

Colleen Kastama, Barb Mankertz, Audrey Wilson

Diana Stemp, Vance Huber

Ray Gardner, Brian Huber, Randy Hoover

Patty Fullerton, Rick Neil, Cheryl Fisher

Bill Raymer, Shelly Rowley

Denise Nau, Renee Book

Barb Mankertz, Rick Olson