In Memorium - Tom Sarconi

I am sorry to write that yet another member of our Central family has fallen to cancer.

Today on Facebook, Tom's wife, Marilyn Connelli Sarconi, broke the sad news of Tommy's passing yesterday morning.

It was wonderful that we were able to see Tom in September when he and Marilyn attended the 45th reunion in Pueblo.

We all have good memories of Tom Sarconi and Central High; personally, I remember him fondly as one of the nicest boys at school. 

Our prayers and thoughts go to you, Marilyn, and to your family. We will carry you and Tommy in our hearts always. 

Take good care, friends from Central. We must all remember to live each day to its fullest.

A call for prayers

Love this picture of such a beautiful couple, Marilyn and Tom Sarconi...taken September 10, 2010, at the Friday night reunion mixer in Pueblo.

Hello again, Central friends...Marilyn Sarconi posted an update on Facebook regarding Tommy's health on Friday. He is out of the hospital and back home again, but he is fighting a tough battle with liver cancer. Just sending out a request to keep Marilyn and Tommy in your hearts and prayers.

Happy New Year! We get Letters!

Happy New Year, Central Alumni! 

We've made it through another year...Blessings to you all for good health and a Very Happy 2011!

I've heard from a few of you regarding the difficulty of leaving reader comments on the blog. And when Carol Nesland Rogers contacted me saying she'd also had this difficulty, she hung in there with me while I tested "the system." By tweaking a couple of things, I believe we have it fixed.

To leave a comment about one of the entries, just do the following steps: (this may look like a lot of work, but trust me, it's easy and the more comments you leave, the easier it gets!)

1. At the bottom of the entry or post, you'll see a number followed by the word "comments," i.e. "0 comments," "1 comments," "2 comments," etc. Click right there.

2. You'll get a "pop-up" window that says "Leave your comment." Simply type in what you'd like to say.

3. After typing in your comment, go to the next step, "Word Verification," which are some colored letters written in an odd, slant-y way. In the box provided, simply type in the same letters that you see. 

4. Below Word Verification it will say in orange type: "Choose an identity." I have found the simplest option to be the first one, which says "Google Account." If you don't have (or know) your Google account, the blue link that says "Sign up here" allows you to create a Google account. This is a simple step - you just need a user name (your user name can be your e-mail address since it's one you'll remember!) and then you'll choose a password (one that you'll remember). 

5. Last step: Click on "Publish your comment," and VOILA! Your comment will (HOPEFULLY) show up on the blog.

Because I LOVE your comments, I hope these instructions will provide useful and that you'll have lots and lots to say - this is our blog, Wildcats! Please visit often - and keep the feedback coming!

Get out your yearbooks! A Blast from the Past

If you haven't noticed the world getting smaller due to the Internet - this will make you a True Believer! Our friend and former classmate, Beverly Hardwick Nitschke, posted a message on Facebook recently regarding one of the teachers at Central when we were students - whether any of us had been in one of her classes between 1963 and 1965.

Ready to guess whose photo this is below? And, no, she's not one of our classmates, although she looks as young as we were and was actually quite close to us in age. I remember she was one of the more "popular" (to use the vernacular) teachers at Central. A lot of the boys thought she was pretty cute to boot.

This, friends, is Miss Carol Nesland who taught bookkeeping, typing and buiness law and business economics at Central. And the photo below that one (taken from my old 1965 Central annual) is Carol Nesland Rogers (still cute after all these years!) and her husband, Francis, at Gooseberry Falls State Park on the North Shore of Lake Superior near Duluth, MN. It was taken in October.

I spent an enjoyable morning communicating via e-mail with Carol who was kind enough to provide me with some "Pueblo Memories," which I am posting below the pictures. Enjoy!

I taught business education classes (typing I and II, bookkeeping, business law and business economics) at Central High from 1963-65. At 21+ years I wasn’t much older than my students. My most embarrassing teaching moment was the day I turned two words around and said I was going to show a “strip film” instead of a “film strip” in one of the classes! Word of that mistake traveled the school very quickly! I remember the moment at Central High School when I went into Mr. Raso’s office; they had just learned President Kennedy had been shot and were going to announce it over the PA.

I loved Central High School and Pueblo but left after two years to return to Minnesota to get married. Those were my only years of teaching. My husband completed college in SD and then went into the seminary. After ordination we moved every 2-3 years, living in cities in MN, SD, ND and Ohio (where we divorced). We have two great children who are married; one lives in Eugene, OR, and the other in Marietta, GA. I worked as a social worker, office administrator, transcriptionist and unit clerk before retiring last July. I have been happily married to Francis for almost 20 years. We live in Northern Minnesota. For fun I love to sing and play in the bell choir at church and have “Grandma time.” Some friends and I dress up and speak with Norwegian accents, calling ourselves Sven, Hilda (me) and Ingeborg. We have done routines for fundraisers. You can check out our pictures on my Facebook page. If you remember me, it would be fun to connect on FB or email (carolr2001@hotmail.com). I’d love to be back in touch with teachers from those years also, especially Mary Richardson, Kathleen Losavio and Sandy Hovland.

In addition, Carol also wrote the following e-mail, which adds a little more info to what she has written above (and don't you love the part about the "strip film??" Ok, Carol, so THAT'S how you got so popular with the guys :) Naw, I am only kidding - but don't we all have one of those Too-Embarrassing-to-EVER-Forget horror stories about our first jobs?

This sheds a little more light about how Carol ended up teaching at Central:

Back in the 60's, people came from School Districts to colleges to seek out teachers. Can you believe it? I had lived in Minnesota all my life and decided it was important to go someplace interesting and far away right away or I might end up in Minnesota the rest of my life. I interviewed (at college) for Bakersfield, CA; Glendive, MT; and Pueblo, CO. I knew I wanted to live near mountains. The offer came from Pueblo and I accepted--even though I would spend the first year there without a car and without knowing anyone there! That sounds amazing to me now. My parents were stressed to think of me being so far from home, but I never regreted it.

Thank you, Carol, for being in touch - and this is your official invitation to join us at our 50th Central class reunion - just 4-1/2 (or so) more years - yikes!!!

Happy New Year, Everyone - and GO WILDCATS!

A Christmas Card

Hello, Central friends, and Happy Holidays!

This entry will be a little different...tomorrow is Christmas Eve and I am checking in with my wishes to you all to have a very Merry Christmas and a happy, healthy, and prosperous New Year.

Rather than go on and on here, I'd like to share a piece running in our local paper today. It sums up my feelings about the holidays from the perspective of looking back over the decades and Christmases Past...(you may or may not know that I'm a writer and do a column for our the three newspapers serving the cities (towns) of southern Santa Clara Valley here in Northern California).

Although I truly miss my Colorado roots - the snow, the seasons, the beautiful mountains - it's lovely where I live, too, and I've always been of the belief that we make our own happiness and there is beauty in all of nature.

Therefore, if you are so inclined, here is the link to my Christmas column, which is meant to be a sort-of-Christmas card and will, I hope, bring back a few treasured memories of your Christmases Past.

http://www.morganhilltimes.com/lifestyles/271304-scenes-from-christmas-in-the-south-valley

Blessings to you at Christmas,
Gale
P.S. The top picture is a portion of our Christmas tree this year...you may notice in the lower portion a small photo of a young couple, which is actually an ornament made for me by a dear friend in San Francisco in 1974. It's a picture of my husband and I the year we were married and our first Christmas together. AND - the little munchkin below is a picture of me that my parents took for their Christmas card - circa 1948 or '49 at our home back in Pueblo. Like all of the photos on this blog, you can click on the photo to see it full size...
HAPPY HOLIDAYS, EVERYONE!

TWO CENTRAL GIRLS A LONG WAY FROM HOME...

Last week a promise made 5 years ago finally came to pass. At the 40th class reunion, Ethie Corcodilos Campagna and Gale Hoover Hammond (that would be me) decided we should get together since we live only 20 miles or so apart in Northern California...Ethie in San Jose and me in Morgan Hill, just south a few miles south.

Ethie contacted me last month to relay the news that Lorraine Tortessi Reilich had recently passed away (see post of November 22 if you missed the entry about Lorraine). With this sad reminder that life is just way too short and opportunities that come our way may not come our way again, we set the date of December 8 to meet for lunch in my town of Morgan Hill.

So on that stormy, rainy day, Ethie braved the elements and drove south to meet me at Rosie's at the Beach, a seafood place popular with the locals, and which isn't actually AT the beach, but close enough, for a lunch of sea bass and LOTS and LOTS of catching up - about 45 years worth.

What we decided: the 45th reunion was the one where we REALLY needed name tags, Ethie and I had led seemingly parallel lives in California without even realizing it (one startling revelation after the next) and having grandchildren truly is one of life's greatest blessings. And a whole bunch of other stuff!
Our waitress took this photo for us (Gale to waitress: "Would you take a picture of us please? We went to the same high school together back in Colorado." Ethie to waitress: "Yes...about 10 years ago!" Way to lie like a rug, Miss Ethie :) )

The time passed amazingly fast - way too soon it was time to head back to our separate lives with promises to do this again soon and get our hubbies to join us for the next outing. (We learned they'd both worked for the same company - in this HUGE Bay area, what are the chances of THAT?!!! Parallel universes...)

So - back soon to still more photos on this blog from the class reunion...in the meantime, if you have photos or stories - or both - that I can post on the blog, please e-mail them to me. Please note that I have a new e-mail address..it's galehooverhammond@yahoo.com. I would love to hear from you - and I know the rest of our classmate friends from the Class of '65 would, too. Take care everyone :)

Who's Who at the New Central

The last photos from Joe Klune - Sunday morning tour at Central - and WHAT a lot of wonderful changes were made to the school...Pete Falletta led a fantastic tour of the facility that ended in the Central High School Gym...we also saw the beautiful (and BIG) school cafeteria and Ed Lesar Hall of Central History. And the first photo below is the entry to the cafeteria sporting a sign made by current students of the Central High art class. Quite a nice welcoming touch, wouldn't you agree?!

Now...at the moment you'll note there are photos but no descriptions/names of alumni. That's because I'm giving you the opportunity to play "Name that Classmate!" No, that's not quite true...what IS true is that I uploaded (downloaded? I never know which) these photos and then got caught up in the Christmas rush. But I didn't want to withhold showing you these pictures any longer.

In a few days I will be back to the blog to label these photos as I've done in the past. But for now - here's your chance for a little guessing game.

What I WILL give you is a giant hint...in these pictures you'll see faces of friends that you didn't see in either the Friday or Saturday night photos like Irene Blea, Miriam Price, James Cain and Mary Middleton, to name a few. Enjoy!

Thank you, again, Joe, for providing your wonderful pictures for us all to enjoy here on the Central Alumni blog.