Where do I begin? I guess back in July of 1958 when I entered the Army where I spent the next three years in New Jersey, Georgia, Germany, and finally Maryland. I spent almost 2 years in southern Germany with the 7th US Army Division. I loved Germany and did a lot of traveling to different parts of then West Germany. It was an experience that I still carry with me. 

After the Army I came back to Plainville where I worked at Royal Typewriter up in Hartford where I served an apprenticeship in tool & die. In 1966 I went to Pratt & Whitney Aircraft for two years then went to work for Sundown Electric out of Bristol where I served another apprenticeship for electrician. I worked the trade until 1978 and went back to Pratt and stayed there until my retirement in 2002 where I worked as a machine tool technician. 

In the interim I married my first wife in 1964 and have a daughter Marie and two beautiful grand daughters Kelsey and Sara. On my second marriage, which lasted about 20 years, I have 3 children, Lisa, Cheryl, and Kevin. Lisa is my yuppie and is still single living in Simsbury. My daughter Cheryl is married and has a daughter Haley. My Son Kevin has two daughters Taylor and Grace. In 2004 I married my 3rd wife (I know, "What is wrong with this man?") Joann who is my love and life. We have traveled in Europe, Canada, and the US coast to coast and are blessed with good health and happiness.

Hobbies are fishing, hunting, gardening, cooking, music, traveling. Looking forward to the Class reunion next month. 

God Bless, 

Tom Wickstrom

......ps I haven't used the name Tom, it is really my middle name, since high school. My first name is Charles so I go by Chuck and have the nick name 'Cookie'. (I love cooking and do it all at home, the Wife & family love it to.) God Bless, Chuck (Tommy) Wickstrom

(Webmaster:  It was fun to meet Chuck and Joann at our 45th Reunion in 2004. Looking forward to seeing them again in October.  JRT)

From: edlolall@aol.com Sent:  Tue 4/3/2007 2:26 PM Subject: CHECKING IN HI RALPH,  JUST TO LET YOU KNOW THAT LOLA & I ARE STILL KICKING. WE ARE NOW VERY BUSY IN REHEARSAL MODE WITH THE PLAINVILLE CHORAL SOCIETY, WE WILL BE PRESENTING  THE MUSIC MAN IN MAY, SO SPREAD THE WORD, THE DATES ARE SAT, MAY 12, 2:00 PM. & MAY 18 & 19 AT 7:00 PM, IT WILL BE PERFORMED IN THE NEWLY RENOVATED P.H.S . AUDITORIUM. ITS A GREAT SHOW, LOLA HAS A MAJOR ROLE IN IT, YOURS TRULY IS PART OF THE BARBERSHOP QUARTET IN THE SHOW. HOPE TO SEE YOU THERE.  ON A SADDER NOTE, ANOTHER ONE OF OUR OLD TEACHERS DIED LAST WEEK,MISS.  EVENLYN COOKE PASSED AWAY,SHE WAS 86,SHE WAS MY TEACHER IN OUR SENIOR YEAR IN THE PROBLEMS OF DEMOCRACY CLASS.  HOPE TO CATCH YOU DOWN THE ROAD.  ED & LOLA WISHART

Hi gang! 

Well, I took the 'giant step', a year ago now, and retired from my second career: 21 years with Raytheon and before that 22 years with the Air Force. Good God, that's an eternity!  But what memories... Please note that I said that I retired from my second career. I am not fully retiring. I can't afford to do that... Rosemary is too expensive. She is definitely high maintenance.

I do miss my European friends (associated with my work in Europe for Raytheon), the Germans, the Spaniards, the Danes. We'll be joining some of them in Rome on the 19th of April for a long weekend. It will be good to see them once again. Rosemary and I will stay on to do some of the things that we've always wanted to do in Rome but never had time to.

Rosemary and I are doing quite well. We still talk now and then of our Class Reunion in 2003. That was fun, for sure. So, for the past year, I took that time to work on some of my genealogy and history projects that I had not been able to work because of my 'day job'. I just completed a biography of my 4th great-grandfather Charles. I feel good about that. But my genealogy work still beckons (I've been getting hate mail from my Theriault cousins who have been working with me on this. I try to divide my time on these projects with other civic and parochial duties. Our parish was recently clustered with two other parishes (one priest for the three parishes) and we are looking to build a new church. It looks like that will take up some of my time.

So my mornings are generally spent in my Study with my weimarahner dog, Lili, either reading or working correspondence or writing or updating my websites at my computer. It's quiet time. Afternoons, Lili and I go for our daily walk and then I get on with my other chores with my home projects or with the parish.

Rosemary is not retired yet. She loves her work... so why should she quit?  Besides this gives me a chance to see what it's like to be a 'Kept Man'. I always wondered... you know?  I'm sure some of you guys probably also wondered. 

As to the rest of our family, well, my dear Mother passed away last June. It was a huge lift to see some of you guys at the wake. Thanks, again. I don't think that a day goes by that I don't think about her. She was a giant in our family.Our two little girls are doing well. Nikie (married to her work at AOL) is still in Oklahoma City while Jill and her husband Ron continue close by with their two boys (21 and 19 now) and their horses. Jill continues to be very active in the American Quarter Horse show circuit. Josh commutes to Emerson College in Boston and Matt (19) is still trying to figure out what he wants to do when he grows up. (Sound familiar?) 

We make a point of keeping up with our friends and relatives. In fact, I'm proud to say that 3-4 years ago, I discovered (over the Internet) that my kindergarten teacher (Mother Saint Conrad) was retired and still leading an active life in Old Orchard Beach, Maine. So, I drop in on her periodically. We have a tradition now of having lunch together during the Christmas season. She goes by her given name now, Sister Olla Laplante. She was only 19 when she took on my kindergarten class. Talk about gutsy, huh?

Last year as I was winding down my career with Raytheon, I had a 'short' (12 month) assignment in Fullerton, California. I loved it! Not just for the weather, but everyone is Republican there. Unbelievable!  Rosemary joined me now and then. In fact, here's a photo of us with our friends, 'Earl' and Joannie. 'Earl' is a good Catholic boy (altar boy, no less) from Greenwich, CT. He and I worked the Space Shuttle program together in the Air Force. He's done pretty well for himself. He is founder and now CEO of SSI Commercial Spaceport in Lompoc, CA... the only commercial spaceport (so far) in the continental US. If you live in southern California and see a fast-moving contrail heading south on a polar orbit, it's probably one of Earl's launches. Our favorite pastime when Rosemary and I lived in Santa Maria was wine-tasting... so here we are reliving some of our fun times in the wineries of the Santa Ynez valley. Great time!

I need to leave room for the others on this page, so I must wrap this up. Let's keep in touch.

Ralph

Hi.

I am Barbara Wysocki's husband Donald.  Some of you know me but for those who do not know me. Hi.

Barb and I are doing o.k. In the past year we sold our property in Florida, a small building lot we bought in 1960. We were going to build there and spend our retirement years down there but the hurricanes of late scared us away from that idea.

We used the money to invest in a home in Plainville and we are renting it to our son. It is an older colonial and he loves it there.

Barb is doing okay. Age has taken its toll on her though. She has a deteriorating spine that has her in a lot of pain at times but she does not let it get her down. She has her own stain glass bussiness. She has had it for 16 years now and she does very well with it. She does 3 or 4 craft shows a year. She takes in about $400.00 a year with it. She will not get rich but she loves to do it. She also took on a part-time job in the Plainville school cafeterias. She works mostly at the middle school with Donna Burns [Capperelli] and some times she works at the Plainville High School. She goes in at 9:30 a.m. and gets out at 2:00p.m. She has fun with the kids.

I was diagnosed with prostate cancer last year. I had the radiation seed plant done in November and now there is no sign of cancer so everything is fine there.

Well that is it for now. Have a good day.

Donald
 

Hi gang,

I'm back! It's been a little busy since we last met at our fun reunion but I
will catch up here during my holiday vacation. I'll have those reunion
photos up before the New Year... promise!

Rosemary and I wish you all a joyous and peaceful Christmas. We're
optimistic about the new year. And... we wish you all a very healthful and
successful 2004!

Best regards to all,

Ralph 

J.R. Theriault

p.s. when and where is the next party?
 

HI GUYS, 

JUST TO LET YOU  WE'RE STILL ALIVE AND DOING WELL. BOTH LOLA & MYSELF WERE VERY BUSY THIS PAST YEAR WITH THE PLAINVILLE  CHORAL SOCIETY, THAT'S WHY YOU HAVEN'T HEARD FROM US FOR QUITE SOME TIME. 

PLUS WE HAD A VERY OLD COMPUTER WHICH TOOK A LONG TIME TO DO ANYTHING ON IT, SO WE FINALLY BOUGHT A NEW DELL. WE JUST GOT IT LAST WEEK, SO NOW WE HAVE TO LEARN ALL THE NEW STUFF ON THIS ONE. 

SO WILL SEE YOU AT THE REUNION IN JULY. STAY DRY WITH ALL THIS RAIN. 

ED WISHART 

Hi,
I sent an email through the class website and it's now in Never Never Land.  So glad to hear from you. 

If you want to see pictures of me and my family go to my website http://gecko.gc.maricopa.edu/~msekholm/Rebecca/Becca/.  I took a class at Glendale Community College where I work and made this up for my granddaughter.  It's still a work in progress.  It takes a long time for everything to come up but Rebecca loves it.  Don't send any messages through that email, though, because I rarely go into it.

I'll be attending a writing conference in NYC from July 15 to July 20 so I'll be in the area.  I'll cut off some time from the conference so that I can attend the reunion.  I'm really looking forward to it.  Thanks for contacting me.

Marion
 

 " Married a Smith ". Have five children and eleven, twelfth on the way in Jan., grand-children. I am presently living in Florida. 

Hi guys, 

This is Ed Wishart checking in to let everybody know that my wife & I are alive & well. We are really enjoying our new mobile home, hard to believe we have been here almost a year already. Time flies when your having fun. 

Catch you all later. This is a great web site. Thanks to all who made it happen. Ed & Lola 

Hi Guys,

This is Barb Wysocki Pahl. It is great to hear from all of you.

Don and I have been married for 42 years now as of May 14. I have been doing real well. I have my own stain glass business. I am not getting rich off of it but I like doing it. I make sun catchers and boxes, and card holders and anything else anyone wants to have made. Maybe some day I can send you some pictures of what I have done.

Thank you Ralph for the birthday wish. It was real nice of you.

Love to all 

Barb.

Hi Ralph,

Here's my check-in.  I hope you know how much our classmates appreciate all that you're doing with the website.  I know I certainly do.  Thank you.  By the way, the pictures and everything is fine. So go ahead and do whatever you do with the pictures and the other things I left with you.  I really enjoyed seeing you some weeks ago.  Maybe we can get together again when I'm down that way, or you can stop by when you're back in Maine.
____________________________

After graduating from PHS in 1958, I went to Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine.  My academic career was mediocre, but I enjoyed the school and the friends I made there.  I enrolled in ROTC on a whim and upon graduating in 1962 was commissioned as a 2d LT in the U.S. Army Infantry.  I entered active duty in November of 1962 after spending the summer knocking slag off welds at Plainville Electrical Products, where my father was also employed; not knocking slag off of welds I might add. 

I had no intention of staying in the service for a career when I went in, but my first assignment was to the Infantry School at Ft. Benning, Georgia where I began my training in the  Infantry Officer's Basic Course.  After graduating, I volunteered for paratrooper school at Ft. Benning, completed that training and then volunteered for Ranger School.  I received my Ranger Tab in April of 1963 and headed for the DMZ in Korea.  I served there as a platoon leader for a year.  Having volunteered for Special Forces when I was in Korea, I was assigned to the Special Warfare Center at Ft. Bragg, North Carolina in April of 1964. There I trained to become qualified as a Special Forces officer and went almost immediately to Vietnam.  In country, I commanded a four-man team that was assigned a special mission in the Central Highlands, the details of which remain murky, but basically we worked with the mountain tribes fighting the Viet Cong.  The mission lasted about three months.  I was then
assigned as the Executive officer of a Special Forces "A" Team in the foothills of the Central Highlands.  We opened up an area that had been under Viet Cong control for six years.  Our biggest worry  was the family of brown kraits living in the team house we built as they are deadly poisonous snakes.  When in camp, we tucked our mosquito nets beneath our mattresses very tightly so they wouldn't share our bunks on the colder nights.

I returned to the States in January of 1965 and was assigned as a general's aide de camp at Ft. Jackson, South Carolina.  After doing that for a little over a year, I commanded a training company which was training infantry soldiers how to fight in Vietnam.  I was married during this time to Janet..., a southerner.  Left there in 1967 for another Army School at Ft. Benning, Georgia where my first child, a son, Devlin, was born.  And then back to Vietnam.  This time I was in the Mekong Delta as a District Senior Advisor.  I advised a Vietnamese Major on military and civilian operations.  I was promoted to Major during this tour.  Being an advisor to the Vietnamese on both of my tours, I learned to love the people and the culture, a love that remains as strong today as it was 33 years ago.

Upon returning from Vietnam, I was selected by the Army to attend graduate school to obtain an MA in English in preparation for a tour as an instructor at the United States Military Academy, West Point.  I went to UMass, Amherst, received my MA in 1971 and taught at West Point for three years.  My second child, a daughter, Shannon, was born there in November 1971.  My wife and I split in 1973, but I retained custody of the children.  Left West Point in 1974 and was assigned to be a student at Command and General Staff College in Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas.  Traveling across country in an old VW hatchback as the only adult with two young children was an experience I will not ever forget.  After a year there I was assigned as a plans and operations officer at Ft. Devens Mass.  There I was married again in 1976 to Surah..., originally from ...Mass.  I think she liked my kids, but we remain married to this day.  My tour at Devens was cut short as I was asked to return to West Point to teach again and run the Fine Arts program.  We stayed there for three years and I was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel.  The last assignment in my 20-year Army career was as an Inspector General in Germany.  My last child, Rose was born there in the small German town of Kircheimbolanden in the Pfalz region.  I retired from the Army after 20 years, and we all returned to the states in 1982 and moved to ...Maine.  After a few months of getting my bearings in the civilian world, I became an instructor of English at (a college in) Maine.  I have been here ...ever since.  I taught for a few years and then became the Executive  Assistant to the President in 1985, then Executive Assistant to the Vice President for Academic Affairs and then Executive Assistant to the President again.  I stayed in the administration ... until 1997, when I decided that I wanted to close out my career here teaching full time, a job I love beyond all others.  I remain active in Maine's veterans affairs being affiliated with Vietnam Veterans of America both locally and statewide. 

My son, Devlin, is a chef in (a small town in) ...Maine.  My daughter, Shannon, is a free spirit in (that same area) ... and my daughter, Rose, is a sophmore at (a) ...college in Los Angeles, which I might note is the reason I am not retired now.... My wife, Surah, teaches at (a) ... college in Maine (where we live).

If you're in Maine, drop by or call us anytime.  It's so great to reestablish these contacts after so many years.  Although my dad died five years ago, my 93-year-old mom lives in (Connecticut) and is doing fine, living by herself and still driving. 

One last item, I returned to Vietnam in 1995 to visit all the places I was assigned and got to talk to some of the Viet Cong soldiers I fought against. It was a wonderful experience and the old soldiers told me that they did not hate Americans as I thought they must after all the damage we did.  They told me that we had all lived a page of history together and that horrible things happened to and were done by both sides, but now it was time to turn the page and let bygones be bygones, which was, of course, exactly what I needed to hear.

Bob

HI EVERYBODY ---

THIS WEB SITE IS FABULOUS!   MY FAMILY HAS LIVED IN TEXAS FOR THE PAST 30 YEARS, BUT PART OF MY HEART IS STILL IN CONN.  I HAVE BEEN IN CONTACT WITH BARBARA, AND SHE HAS KEPT ME UP TO DATE ON WHAT SHE KNOWS. 

MY HUSBAND, DON, AND I WILL HAVE BEEN MARRIED FOR 40 YEARS THIS SUMMER.  WE HAVE A SON 38 WHO HAS THREE BOYS --AGES 8, 6, AND 4. WE ALSO HAVE A DAUGHTER 37 WHO HAS TWO GIRLS-- AGES 13 AND 10.

WE LIVED IN NORTH TEXAS FOR 20 YEARS AND NOW IN THE DALLAS AREA FOR 15. 

I WORKED AS A TEACHER HERE IN TEXAS FOR 32 YEARS, BUT RETIRED LAST YEAR.  MY HUSBAND STILL WORKS FOR THE SCHOOL DISTRICT.

I HOPE TO GO TO CONN. SOMETIME THIS SUMMER---PROBABLY LATE JULY.

IT WOULD BE GREAT TO HEAR FROM Y'ALL. (TEXAS LINGO)

KENLYN (WESTERGREN) LAWRENCE