I'm currently working in Huntsville, Alabama as a contract mechanical designer in the aerospace/defense industry. I still have a home South of Muskogee and I manage to get home about every 6 to 8 weeks. I spent almost 8 years working in Oklahoma City and then I became a "contractor" in Jan 08 and have worked in Tulsa, Maryland, Virginia and now Alabama. I love the work I do and the feeling of accomplishment and pride that it gives me to be able to continue to support our country and troops.

It is hard to believe that it has been 40 years since we all parted company and began our seperate journeys. Some paths crossed once or numerous times, and others have crossed from time to time or are about to cross at the upcoming reunion, and others never to cross again.

I grew up on the West side of Muskogee, across the street from Longfellow school, along with my brothers and sisters, Danny, Mary, David and Regina. At one time we had pet ducks. When they got to be more than we could handle, we took them out to Honor Heights and set them free. See enclosed photo. Danny is the one holding "Buttons", his duck and David is petting my duck, "Dusty". Dad still owns the home where I grew up and the location of the enclosed photo, and he has finally decided to move out of it into Kate Frank and let my nephew live in the house until it sells.

There were quite a few of us "kids" that grew up in that neighborhood and on the streets of Boston, Columbus, Garland, Denver, Arline, Carolyn, Pine, S23rd St., Junction, Broadway and too many more to name. It was a great neighborhood to live in and like so many other neighborhoods it too had a Mom n Pop grocery store, across the street from the school on S23rd St.

I know I will forget some names and I apologize now for that but the one's that I do remember are Sarah Campbell, Jane Gulick, Becky Barnette (my very first girlfriend in the first grade), Ronnie Doyle (Ronnie and I tried to out do one another one year in winning Becky's affection by buying her increasingly larger boxes of Valentine's candy), Beverly Warwick, Jim Raney, Mike Johnston, Janet Foster, Leon Mulligan, Nancy Kennedy, Robert Stevenson, Matt Brown, John Reynolds, Nick Fuller, Bill Baker, and many more, who's names slip my memory at the moment. We all went to Longfellow and played and enjoyed each other's company in those early years. During the summer months most of us gathered and played at Rotary Park or on Longfellow's school grounds. Many games of baseball, football and basketball were played during those years. There was a lot of mischief as well.

We had some of the earlier years' classmates that lived in the neighborhood as well. Sisters Dee Ann and Vicki Butler, Ruth Shelton, Asa & his 2 sisters Martha & Sharon Adamson. Spent many days playing in the neighborhood with them. Always enjoyed getting to play softball with the "older" (no pun intended) classmates. Those Butler girls and Ruth really wore me out on one summer's day, chasing me all over the neighborhjood. I won't say why. Vicki could really play a mean game of thether ball as well.

From Longfellow to West Jr High was another memorable experience. While at West the circle of friends increased greatly. I played cornet in the band and to this day I still love music but I don't play. I love Rock n Roll (50's 60's and early 70's). I was on West's track team and lettered my freshman year. I was the long distance runner. Just never could beat some of the other guys in the sprints. Played baseball during the summer for the Muskogee Times Democrat team.

There are so many stories and not enough space or time here to tell them all. Hopefully we can remember a few of them together at the reunion. Wishing the Class of 69 the BEST!!! God Bless you all!

Since our days in high school it seems that the lives of far too many of our classmates have been cut short.  And now that we're nearing the 40th anniversary of our graduation, the list on the In Memoriam page seems impossibly long.  Each person on the list means different memories to different ones of us.  Some we remained close to as adults and others are but a vague recollection from the days of our youth.

Sometimes it seems that death is all around us.  One after the other the people who lent texture and color to our lives, they pass on.  Far too frequently the final chapter in the life of someone we knew, or still know, is played out.  And with the closing of each chapter the affect these people had on us is what is left behind of them.  I pray that each person on the list brings a smile to the face of at least one of us; that the influence they had on us was a positive one.

Each one of we remaining members of our class shares the responsibility to leave a positive influence on everyone we have contact with.  Know that each of us (indeed every human) affects for good or bad, the lives of everyone we meet; both those with whom we get up close and personal and those we merely meet in passing.

Let's all be aware daily of the kind of affect we have on the people around us as we go through life.  Notice, does your indifference toward others breed indifference in them?  Does the affect of bitterness in your heart bring sadness to their souls and breed bitterness for them to pass on?  Or does your smile and kind word give them a bit of strength and breed love for them to pass on?

Let us all strive to not be the source of another person's indifference, sadness or bitterness.  May the stories told about the members of  Muskogee Central's class of 1969 cause only smiles and be a source of strength to those who remember us! 

I went to Houston Elementary where the schoolyard backed up to Galveston Street; we lived on that street and the school, with its baseball field and the sand-box, was a huge part of my early years. Sadly, some of my Houston classmates are now on the "In Memoriam" site. 

There was Ricky Colburn, who was so much fun; I got in BIG trouble at his house.  He had learned how fun it was to jump from his dresser to the bed and bounce a couple of times.  Thought it would be more fun with a friend.  We had a good time until his momma put a stop to it!

There was Terry Ball who was kind, sweet and sort of quiet as I remember him, then years later he stood up on that stage and sang "Oklahoma" with such talent and confidence.  He was just a really good kid who grew into a really good man. 

And then there was Margie Day.  We were best buds in elementary school.  I always paid attention to the rules and Margie made her rules as she went along.  She took me places I would never have gone on my own.  It didn't always work out so well though.  When we were in 6th grade, Margie figured she had waited long enough to drive a car.  Her momma worked shift work and was sleeping peacefully one afternoon while Margie drove the family car across yards, over curbs, into a ditch and back out again.  I couldn't even speak, I was so scared.  We were soaring down some back road when we passed her teenaged brother.  He made it home before we did and the rest was too painful to share. 

Margie and I drifted apart in later school years, as friends sometimes do -- but we came closer later in life.  She moved to Pea Ridge Arkansas and we would talk on the phone.  She always asked, and I always planned to take a drive down there to see her.  I finally took that drive -- unfortunately it was to attend her funeral service.  That still hurts...

And just one more...there was a little neighborhood store, Mrs. Huggins' store, which sat across N Street from Houston School.   If you went to Houston, you stopped in there for a pop or something from the long glass candy counter.  There was a little wooden step in front of the candy counter for the little kids -- and at one end of the store there was a meat and cheese counter where Mrs. Huggins made sandwiches for the "big boys" who were already in Alice Robertson Jr High.  Those boys always got my attention, although my mom told me never to talk to them.  Many years later I was married to John Nelson; he was older than me and didn't go to Houston, although he grew up in a nearby neighborhood.  He told me his favorite memory of school was stopping by Mrs. Huggins' store to get one of her homemade sandwiches.  We couldn't help but wonder if our paths had crossed much earlier than either of us had known.

Well those are tonight's memories of lost friends, a sweet lost love, and a little school that used to sit on Galveston Street. 

When I was in the fourth grade and my sister was in the first grade we lived across the street from Longfellow school on Garland.  We'd get up and check the newspaper to see what was playing at either the Ritz or the Roxy theater.  Then after breakfast we would go around the corner to the city bus stop at 24th and Denver.  It cost a dime for the ride downtown (you had to remember to get a transfer for a free trip home).  Then after a short trip to downtown we would either go to Kress for a little look see shopping or directly to the movies.  It cost 15 cents to get in.  Of course we had to have a coke and popcorn (the coke was a dime and the popcorn was a quarter).  After hours and hours of B movies and black and white action heroes and cowboy stuff like Roy Rogers and Hopalong Cassidy it was time to think about catching the bus and heading home.  We couldn't go home without a trip to Carnation.  So, from the Ritz it was down Court st and over the viaduct to Carnation.  Ice cream cones were a nickel a dip.  Then it was back to the bus stop and home.  Can you believe it my sister Donna and I would make a whole day on less than a dollar?  Parents today wouldn't allow there children to do this kind of stuff for lots of different reasons.  This just stuff that makes ya say HMMM.  See you in July!

Living across the street from Alice Robertson Junior High School was an adventure all its own.  The site of all Rougher victories and heartbreaks; favorite place to conduct tests with fireworks in every crack and crevasse around the building on each 4^th of July; pride in watching the trees grow that so many of my classmates and I planted in the early Sixties still amazes me at each visit home.  The house is still there and so is the school, but neither are as I remember them.  When I think of AR I think of Jim Rainey in my seventh grade homeroom (did we ever take anything serious?); of meeting a Beatlemaniac who would later turn out to be my BFF (still luv ya Mikey); Ms. Norfleet and her idea of a student newpaper; stretching beneath the stars and watching for UFOs with Vickie Rider (figured there was plenty of landing room in the AR school yard); but strongest memory of all was coming back across the street from lunch with news on November 22, 1962 that the President of the United States had just been shot.  My first news scoop and what a scoop it was!  I had just watched Walter Cronkite make the announcement on our new 19-inch big screen console television and I had to go back to school.  One of the first people I ran into was Cheryl Fuller. I don’t think I really believed what I said when I told her the news and I am not sure even she believed me.  Not until all students were sequestered back inside their respective classrooms did the announcement over the intercom make the news official.  I think that was the day I truly understood the Power of the Press and the role of the modern journalist.

             Who would have ever guessed that 30 years later I would morph into Ms. Aldridge as the matronly (if not even a little crusty) student newspaper adviser attempting to make a new generation of neophytes understand the reasons for finding truth and reporting it?  My experiences in Muskogee and attending Central High School became the foundation upon which my life has been built. Pretty Cool!