Happy New Year! GO GATORS!! Let's Party!!!

Happy New Year to all in GHS 68. There has been alot to celebrate in the old home town lately. The County finally put up a traffic light way out on Jonesville Road at NW 39th Avenue, neither of which even existed, I suspect, when we were young. The First Baptist Church is even moving out there from downtown. In other local news, THE GATORS ARE NATIONAL BCS CHAMPS!!! And Superman has been sighted recently, indicating he will be around to hammer the bad guys for another year!

So it's a fine time to have a little party. We have reserved a room at the Macaroni Grille for Friday night, January 30, at 6:00. This is a little different than at the Gator's Dockside, so we need your RSVPs in advance if you are coming to make sure they have room for us. Please email Bill at bill.harlan@alumni.duke.edu or Jackie at hoover81@cox.net or 352/332-2516 if you will attend or need information. The restaurant sits on the side of the Oaks Mall in Gainesville that faces Newberry Road. We're looking forward to seeing you!

Classmate News - from Ages Past

Speaking of the Gators, our own Bill Koerner correctly predicted the score of the BCS victory, highly sagacious and in defiance of all the oddsmakers who predicted a much, much higher scoring game. That got several classmates talking about his good luck and how he ought to head for the track. Bill responded, "I've already been there," and told this story from Ages Past about he and Doug Lynes.

Bill recalls, "I remember another time when the numbers were working in my (our) favor.... one more story from days gone by.

During the summer of 1970, Doug and I needed a vacation but were short on funds. At the time my parents owned a cabin in upstate New York, on Brant Lake in the Adirondacks. Brant Lake is located 30 miles or so north of Lake George and we enjoyed the best of both worlds; the beautiful solitude of a remote lakeside cabin, and resort town nightlife in Lake George Village. After a few weeks of hiking and exploring during the day and visiting the Lake George pubs by night, we were running out of money.

On one of our trips to Lake George we ran into a guy I knew from UF. He was working that summer at one of the many resorts that surround Lake George, and told us some of the staff had left before season's end, and they needed some help. Doug bussed tables, and I was a short order cook at the snack bar. We both worked the night shift; not a bad job, and provided funds to keep us in food, gas, and beer.

One day, the guy from UF invited us to go to the horse track at Saratoga. He had some extra club passes, and we got to hang out with the high rollers at the track. Doug and I placed a few bets, and, with the hot dogs and beer, were quickly depleting our cash. Then came "the tip". Someone in our group knew the bugler who plays the call to the starting line. He told us to bet on this horse whose name I cannot recall. The odds against this horse was something like 250 to 1! We went back to the bugler and asked if he was sure about this, and he said yes. Doug and I were tapped out, but managed to come up with $1 each to bet on this horse. Apparently we weren't completely convinced this horse was a winner, so we placed a $2 bet to "show".

He won! Our $2 bet would have made us $500 had we bet to win. As it was, we won $58 (?), which we split, which paid for our day with a little left over.

Now that I've jogged my memory, stand by for other stories from our adventures in NY. Here are a few headlines:

Doug and Bill hitchhike to Lake George Village and get picked up by some strange characters.
Doug and Bill are picked up by a sheriff's deputy.
Doug and Bill are confronted by a biker gang in Lake George Village.

Bill Koerner
[whom we hope will let us put all these great-sounding stories on the blog -- stay tuned!]

Katherine Harlan featured in the Sun

Eastside High School junior, Katherine Harlan, was featured in the November 7, 2008 edition of the Gainesville Sun. See the link below. I know that Ma and Pa Harlan are busting with pride!

http://www.gainesville.com/article/20081106/NEWS/811060246/-1/BLOGS?Title=A_to_Z_with_Eastside_diver_Kat_Harlan

Classmate News - The Endless Summer from 1968

Believe it or not -- a few of our classmates still surf, well past 40 years worth of riding the waves in the Atlantic and elsewhere. Here's a recent report from Bill Koerner to fellow '68 Cane surfers Rik Dilgren, Doug Lynes, Richard Robinson plus a couple of landlubbers, Bill Harlan and Kelley Wiltbank:

"Since you guys have been watching the Blue Sky surf report, thought you would be interested in a personal story. Last Friday was epic, but while my son was able to surf (he has Fridays off), I was hard at work. The Saturday morning surf report was not encouraging, but a buddy from church and I decided to check it out anyhow, and went to Hanna Park in Jacksonville, which is located just south of the Mayport Navy base. The dividing line on the beach between Hanna Park and the base is a row of poles that jut out into the ocean about 50 yards. For a number of reasons, this is one of the best surf spots in Jacksonville.

My buddy has a park pass, so we were able to get into the park before the "masses", and were greeted with 3-5 foot waves, a fairly stiff west wind, a beautiful sunrise with dolphins playing just offshore, and a cool 68 degrees, the water at 82. Life is good. I will confess that I haven't been out for a couple of months, and my surfing was not impressive. In fact, Rik would have been embarassed to be out there with me, but it was a great day nonetheless. Surf held up nicely for a couple of hours until the tide changed.

Note to Rik.... next time you are down this way, use your Navy ID to enter Mayport, and head for the south end of the beach. Look for the "poles"."

Note to the rest of GHS 68 -- I doubt if any of us surfed with our parents, although I imagine it was your parents who first got you over to Crescent and Daytona, like mine did! It's great to see Bill Koerner passing his love of a day like this down to his sons. Life really is good!

Classmate News -- Richard Greene

In May of 09 our classmate Richard Greene is going to join a bicycle ride that starts from San Francisco and goes to Los Angeles, some 540 miles in seven days, called the AIDS Life Cycle. Richard describes it this way, “This is a huge event and to be a part of it I must raise more than $3000.00. I am HIV positive and this event is far too meaningful to me to pass up.” The event’s website has more details at http://www.aidslifecycle.org/ . Many classmates had a chance to chat with Richard at the reunion, about which he says, "Coming from Palo Alto to Gainesville was well worth my time, energy and effort. I had a great time in seeing people and how they had progressed in life." You can contact Richard at gatorhunter@ix.netcom.com .

Mini-Reunion in Gainesville on UF-LSU Weekend

These mini-reunions are an awful lot of fun. There just aren't enough of them! So we'll have one on Friday, October 10, at 5:30, back at Gator's Dockside in Gainesville, a location that works very well. It will be hopping the night before a big Gator game against an SEC opponent, so let's get there early. Look for the purple 'Canes megaphone on the table, and gather 'round. If you have any questions, or just want to let us know you're coming, or can't come, get in touch with your mini-reunion committee: Jim, Jackie, Susan, Bill or Robby.
Or email ghs68reunion@aol.com .

Message from Ken and Hope Nibling in Houston

Shaft and Hope are alive and well. We have power and had minimal damage (we lost a fence that needed replacement anyway.)

We were very fortunate and thank God for His grace and mercy. We are also very thankful for all of your thoughts and prayers. Your thoughtfulness meant a lot to us.

Please stay in touch and tell everyone hello for us.

Ken