Well, it was Sunday, 9-23-2018...the third and final day of the Class of 1973's 45th get-together in the Des Moines area.
This time, the final major activity of the reunion was scheduled to take place at the very school itself: West Des Moines Dowling Catholic High School.
Nope...not a pep rally.
No, not another sports event.
It was a Mass.
And two of our classmates- now men of the cloth- were tabbed to say that morning's Mass.
But first...it was time for interested classmates to tour the very school that gave so many of us so many great, great memories. (This was the tour that was originally scheduled for the previously Friday afternoon.)
And, thanks to a recent construction project, the physical plant at 1400 Buffalo Rd. is bigger and better than before.
Our host for the understandably brief tour was Ron Gray...the longtime (and legendary) DCHS head wrestling coach who's now the longest-tenured teacher in school history.
He's been at it for a whopping 41 years!
We got a chance to tour the hallways (lockers, trophy case, and all) and Ron's classroom. (By the way...in addition to currently being the school's head boys' golf coach and head girls' golf coach, he teaches economics and social studies.)
What if we'd had this kind of a classroom back in the late 1960s and early 1970s?
Okay...it's not really the size of the classroom (or style of classroom) that counts.
Now it was 10:30 AM...and time for Mass.
I hadn't been to an out-of-town one since Saturday, 6-11-2005.
It's a long story (and a possible blog post in itself), but after high school, I largely stopped going to church (only to go back to Mass on visits to Des Moines while an Iowa State student).
I'd had my fill of the downbeat messages the monsignor at the Catholic church I was going to in DSM was giving his parishioners. (Whenever the church wasn't taking in enough money to suit the monsignor there, he'd tell the churchgoers: "You're throwing defiles in God's face!")
I switched to the Unitarian Universalist Church not long after I first moved to Omaha in 1980...only because First Unitarian is within walking distance of where I first lived when I moved to the Big O on 8-2-1980. (I moved back here on 3-29-1997.)
Moved to Sioux City, IA on 6-30-1988 to manage a used-record-and-tape store...and spent the next five years and two months shunning church services.
All this time, though, I'd still go into church basements and get some practice in on those congregations' old-fashioned upright pianos (something I started doing in October 1976, back in Ames).
Well, that all changed in February 1994.
That was the month I decided to fill up the hole in my life and join the United Methodist Church.
I've felt more comfortable as a United Methodist than I ever did as a Catholic.
Even so, that wasn't going to stop me from participating in a Mass that Jim Gould and Dennis Wright were to preside over.
It was supposed to be Mike Peters teaming up with fellow Catholic priest Jim G., but Mike P. got called away to another assignment.
So Dennis W., now a deacon in the Des Moines area, took Mike's place. (I remember Dennis' cartoons in the school newspaper...the publication originally called The Aquin but renamed The Paper once the old, all-boys' Dowling merged with the all-girls' St. Joseph Academy in time for the 1972-73 school year and set up shop on Buffalo Rd. in the 'burbs.)
The Mass took place at DCHS' brand-new St. Joseph Chapel, a much bigger one than the chapel that originally came with the new Dowling.
And it went beautifully...from Julie Russell Craven's music (she played the hymns on an electronic keyboard) to Jim G.'s homily to everything else.
Once the service- meant to honor the 29 classmates who've passed away- was finished, we went right to the school lobby for coffee and donuts.
This coffee-and-donuts session was more enjoyable than those I was able to attend when I was younger and going to a church whose top priest railed away about all those defiles.
Tom Meyer, Ron G., Jim G., Dennis W., Julie R., hubby David Craven, and I got together with Joni Hockins Edwards, Lisa Lamberto (one of Joni's fellow cheerleaders), Meg Tibbetts Williams, Margo Munoz O'Meara (never had a chance to see her at the other reunion events), and so many other classmates to talk up old memories and current goings-on.
We had such a great time that our time together ran into overtime...and the DCHS Class of 1973's 45th Reunion broke up around 12:15 PM.
All I can say is:
Please, please, PLEASE let circumstances allow me to get to the 50th Class of '73 get-together!
About that Mass I went to on 6-11-2005: The Mass was actually a wedding of Matt and Liz, a young couple I met earlier that year at the Omaha Children's Museum. (From October 1997 to June 2006, I volunteered at the OCM, where they let me entertain visitors of all ages on an old-fashioned upright piano in the museum's music room. The best part of it all: When I wasn't playing, I got a chance to hear the children and some of the adults they brought with them tickle those ancient keys.)
After they heard me play, Liz and Matt invited me to perform at their wedding reception. I said "yes," and on the second Saturday in June that year, I traveled to Shenandoah, IA, to watch the two of them become husband and wife.
I'm Jim Boston...thanks for reading this blog!
Well, it was Saturday, 9-22-2018...the second day of the Dowling Catholic High School (West Des Moines, IA) Class of 1973's 45th reunion.
It started out with a golf outing put together by classmate Mike Chenchar.
But not for me. (I'm not a golfer at all. My younger brother is.)
Instead of trying to embarrass myself at eighteen holes, I had my heart set on going bowling with my younger brother Mike and my thirteen-year-old nephew Jordan (my younger brother's and younger sister-in-law's son).
Last year, our favorite Des Moines-area bowling center, Plaza Lanes, burned down due to an electrical fire.
So, this time, we got together at Air Lanes (4200 Fleur Dr., Des Moines, IA 50321; 515 285-8632).
I'd never been to Air Lanes before...despite the fact that the bowling center opened in the late 1960s, at a time when I was finishing my growing-up years right there in America's Raccoon River City.
You know how at most bowling centers here in America, the large-screen TVs show you sports events in between the scores the customers are rolling up?
Well, at Air Lanes, in between the scores its customers are racking up, you get music videos.
That's cool, too!
On 9-22-2018, Air Lanes became the very first place where I ever won a game in a family bowling outing...and it came down to the very last ball Mike B. rolled in the third and final game.
Speaking of firsts...all the time I was a Dowling student, I'd never gone to a "mixer."
Well, back in June, when classmate (and former varsity cheerleader) Joni Hockins Edwards sent me the letter announcing the 45th get-together, I not only said "Yes!" to the invitation, I decided I was going to, at long last, get to that "mixer."
The reunion's "mixer" took place at another Des Moines landmark, Christopher's (a restaurant at 2816 Beaver Ave., 50310; 515 274-3694).
Jeff Gass and I arrived at Christopher's party room just before 6:00 PM, the "mixer's" start time. Already, a good-sized crowd had gotten seated, awaiting the chance to eat the great food the Saturday-night event promised...while some hits from the 1970s poured out of the stereo speakers in the party room.
I was able to recognize Dwayne Carter, Chris Adams, Rick Vasquez, Paul Koester, Ann Gladfelder Lawson, Rick Benson, Meg Tibbetts Williams, Bill Lawson, Tom Naughton, Paul Duwelius, Mark Cooper, Ron Gray, and Dan Mueller from the night before at Fire Creek Grill in West Des Moines.
But the Christopher's get-together attracted some classmates I didn't see (or don't remember seeing) at Fire Creek: John Nesbit...Kelly O'Brien (I ran track alongside him)...Mary Manning Bracken (she works for Iowa Public Television; she and I took photography our senior year)...Mary Gallo Eckerman...and two classmates who go back to the eighth grade with me: John Duffy and Greg Murray.
It was fun, fun, fun being able to reminisce (as well as being able to dish on what we've been doing since 1973)...and Jim Gould (he's now a priest in Virginia),
Sue Boesen, Jim Conway (ran track alongside him, too), Cecelia Kirvin (a classmate from senior-year business math), Molly Maloney (she was a varsity cheerleader), and Joni herself came in to the party room to join in on the fun.
The food was, according to the reunion brochure, supposed to be "heavy hors d'oeuvres."
It turned out to be one heck of a spread instead.
Besides the hors d'oeuvres, Christopher's offered a veggie tray, two kinds of pizza, meatballs, and four kinds of cupcakes...as well as your choice of alcoholic and nonalcoholic drinks.
Among other things.
And then- among the other things- there was the table full of yearbooks and old newspapers in the tap room.
Some of us- especially John N., David Craven, Julie Russell Craven, and I- just got lost in the yearbooks and old Des Moines Register copies.
Matter of fact, it got to the point where those of us who'd turned the tap room into a library were the last ones to leave Christoper's.
So...it was off to the bar at Christopher's, where we watched Iowa blow a 17-14 fourth-quarter lead and end up coughing up a 28-17 decision to Wisconsin.
That bar's also where I caught back up with CeCe Lynch...and caught up with Larry Quijano. (Larry and CeCe run their own eatery, too. It's Quijano's Bar and Grill, at 1930 S.E. 6th St., 50315; 515 243-9595.)
Not long after the Wisconsin-Iowa football game came to an end, it was time for me to go back to the hotel (EconoLodge Inn and Suites on Merle Hay Rd.)...and time for me to get ready to do something else I hadn't done in ages.
I'll let you know what that was when I come back.
Last weekend, I traveled to the Des Moines area to meet up with people I hadn't seen in forty years (and a few I hadn't hung out with since the mid-2010s).
The occasion: West Des Moines Dowling Catholic High School's Class of 1973 45th-year reunion.
It was a tremendous success.
And it was fun, fun, fun!
First event on the reunion agenda was a football pregame warmup at a West Des Moines restaurant, Fire Creek Grill (800 S. 50th St., 50265)...owned by a classmate named Meg Tibbetts Williams, who used to be one of Dowling's varsity cheerleaders.
I didn't know what to expect once I walked inside Fire Creek's party room (once I found the restaurant) at 5:20 PM on 9-21-2018.
Within a minute or two, it felt like home again.
Good thing they gave us name tags to fill out, because without the name tags, I couldn't recognize many of the classmates who came to the event.
I met back up with Bill Lawson...Ann Gladfelder (she married Bill)...Marty Ades...CeCe Lynch...Rick Benson...Cathy Vonderhaar...Mike Timmins...Don "Doc" Henry...Dwayne Carter...Chris Adams (he now sports a white beard!)...Rick Vasquez...Mark Cooper.
Yeah, I know.
We didn't look the same.
But it didn't take us long at all to remember all the good times we had during the 1969-73 period...or to get up-to-date with each other.
Fire Creek Grill is several blocks away from Valley Stadium, a high-school football facility built in 2002 to replace the famous 1938 structure of the same name.
Well, at about 6:30 PM, the Two Ricks and I walked from Fire Creek to Valley Stadium to check out the 2018 version of DCHS football (the Maroons were set to play host that night to the Ankeny Hawks). When we took that walk, we met up with two other classmates: David Craven and Julie Russell (they're now husband and wife).
Julie, David (he was a debater in high school), and I talked football.
Once she found out I now live and work here in Omaha, the question came up: "Since you live in Nebraska now, are you a traitor?"
Nope.
Sorry, but...I just don't get the same vibes about Husker football as I do about Iowa football and its Iowa State counterpart. (The nitpicking done by many of my fellow Omahans about everything UNL football was the clincher.)
Getting back to prep football, well...I hadn't attended a high-school football game in person since 1976.
Dowling (Iowa's five-time defending Class 4A football champ) had lost its last two games...and things weren't looking so good in Maroon Nation.
However, on a cold, windy night, behind a spectacular performance by RB Jayson Murray,
the Maroons crushed the Hawks, 42-0. [By the way...Ankeny was the most recent team other than DCHS to rule Class 4A grid action in the Hawkeye State (the Hawks turned the trick in 2012). In all, Ankeny, Dowling, and other Central Iowa Metropolitan League teams have snared the last eight big-school (that's what Class 4A is in Iowa) football titles and nine of the last ten, with Iowa City High spoiling the party in 2009.]
Rick V., Rick B., and I left after the third quarter came to an end, and the three of us walked back to Fire Creek Grill.
And in the party room, a big-screen TV was playing the rest of the Ankeny-DCHS game.
All the while, I was able to hook back up (and reminisce) with some more fellow 1973 Dowling grads: Paul Duwelius...Dan Mueller...Steve Heithoff (by the way, Dan, Steve, and Paul were two of Bill's football teammates)...Jim Bugler (he played football, too)...Paul Koester.
Well, the 45th reunion of the first coed class to graduate from DCHS (a previously all-boys school that, in 1972, merged with the all-girls St. Joseph Academy; the two newly-merged high schools left Des Moines and moved out to a new building in West Des Moines) was off to a rousing start.
Wait 'til I tell you how the Saturday leg of the get-together went. (That when I come back!)
For the first time ever, I'm giving you a blog post from someplace other than the apartment building I live in back in Omaha, NE.
This post is coming to you from the Sheraton Four Points Hotel here in Peoria, IL...the venue that, for the second year in a row, is hosting the World Championship Old-Time Piano Playing Contest and Festival.
2013 is, officially, the second year for the contest to kick off on a Thursday...meaning that I've been on the road since 5-22-2013, when I left the Big O to come to the Two River City (none other than Des Moines, IA, where my younger brother, younger sister-in-law, and nephew- Mike, Angela, and their son Jordan, respectively- live).
After visiting with Mike, Angela, and Jordan, I left Des Moines (home of Drake University) yesterday to come to the city where Bradley University (42,000 students strong) is located.
Got here at 4:08 PM (CDT); two hours after checking in at the hotel, I made it to the place where OTPP now gets launched...the Sky Harbor Steakhouse (1321 N. Park Rd., West Peoria, IL 61604).
From 5:00 PM to 8:00 PM (or until everybody's exhausted), the Sky Harbor (309 674-5532) hosts the contest's "tune-ups," an event that previously took place in a couple of hotel meeting rooms.
No...I'm NOT a contestant this year (I'm shooting for 2014).
So the Sky Harbor get-together served as my prelims and semifinals.
The restaurant has two pianos- a spinet (we didn't get to play it) on one end of the place and an old Grinnell Bros. upright (we did get to play it) on the other side.
The buffet was great (especially the chicken and the refills on iced tea)...and after I got done eating, I was able to put over "Red River Valley," "Barney Google," my version of what could've been Del Wood's version of "Grand March (from 'Aida')," and a 1902 number written by a St. Louis composer named E. Warren Furry, "Robardina Rag."
Man, it's a good thing I spent the last three weeks trying to get some practice in!
Even better than that, it was really great to hear "Perfessor" Bill Edwards, Adam Swanson, John Remmers, and former Regular Division contestant John Yates- to say nothing of the man behind OTPP, Ted Lemen- play.
There's a lot more playing to see- and do- before this weekend comes to a close.
And when I come back, I'm going to let you in on some of that.
Stay tuned!
When I got home from work last night, I went right to the Internet. After I got online, I checked out the news headlines on my ISP's Website and saw this:
"Gingrich weeps as he recalls his mom."
The man who served as this country's House Speaker from 1995 to 1999- who wants to get back into politics by going right to the very top- was at a coffeehouse in Des Moines to give his campaign one final pre-Iowa caucus push.
At some point or another, the discussion came to memories of the woman who adopted the Harrisburg, PA native when he was a child (she died in 2003).
Newton Leroy McPherson Gingrich (that's his full name, folks) told the coffeehouse crowd about how his adoptive mother had to battle bipolar depression, talked about how she lived a happy life, and then...he teared up.
I just hope that his tears the other day were truly genuine.
When USA Today did the story, the reporter told the world that Gingrich's tears were reminiscent of when, in early 2008, then US Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) answered a reporter's question about the rigors of campaigning for the most talked-about job in politics...only to shed some tears.
I remember how those same reporters, coming into 2008 itself, talked about how Rodham Clinton "lacked the warmth" supposedly needed for her to succeed as a presidential candidate. (They'd been after the former first lady since 1992, after all!)
Now many of these same media people are out there speculating over the idea of HRC trading in her gig heading up the State Department for the vice presidency.
Anyway, after the story about Rodham Clinton's tears broke, she ended up getting plenty of support- especially from the reporters who savaged her over events like her and husband Bill's 1992 interview on 60 Minutes.
And now, we're told that Gingrich's teardrops might pull more people toward supporting the former US representative from Georgia.
We shall see.
All I know is this: Many of the things NLMG has done since coming on the national political scene in the 1980s (especially masterminding two government shutdowns during the Bill Clinton years) have driven many people to tears.
And then you've got some of things Gingrich has said here in 2011 alone...especially his desire to rip the textbooks out of inner-city children's hands and replace those books with brooms and dustpans. (To say nothing of his contention that there's nothing American about the man who's got the job the ex-college prof and six other Republicans are after: Barack Obama.)
Above all, I'm wondering if Newton ever weeps as he recalls the two marriages he walked out on before he met a woman named Callista.
Oh, well...it was just a thought.
Well, that's all I've got for now...except: I'm Jim Boston, and I'll see you in 2012! Thanks for reading this blog!
