Time

At a recent memorial, the speaker referred us to the line on the program that defined our friend's lifespan: 1942 - 2013.  He directed our attention, not to the years of her birth and her death, but to what really mattered--the "dash" in between--where her life took place.  I thought about that as we've all been trying to focus on the dash between 1964 - 2014, in writing our respective autobiographies for our class Memory Book, each of us consolidating 50 years of life into one side of one page, with photos.  It's an exercise in paring it all down so our classmates will have the substance of what we've done and who we are in the lifetime of years since we were last together--the essence of that dash.

The concept of time is so amazing, ticking faithfully on and bringing inevitable change.  It's fascinating how small variations in each day eventually combine to make everything different, almost unrecognizable, from how it was just a few years before. The subtle changes are hardly noted day to day until we pull up short realizing we got lost trying to find Glacier in the old neighborhood we once knew so well, our children are the age we think we should be, and we don't recognize that person in the looking glass over the sink!   "Swiftly fly the years!"*

It's incredible to consider how life has changed, one day following the next, in the time since we left Glacier.  From the people in our lives, to how we spend our days, our realities have changed. And they continue to change each day as we approach 70 years on this earth.  At our age, we find ourselves considering how we got here from there--lucky breaks, bad breaks, daily decisions of life and our circuitous paths. It's meaningful now to consider our past--the influences from our teachers, friends, families, community, sixties culture, the media, classmates, the environment at our schools--to connect the dots looking back at the progression of our lives.

Preparing our autobiographies has us thinking about all this, our growing up years, the Glacier years, and the people and events that influenced our path. Like calendar pages flipping by in old movies, the time, in retrospect, has gone fast and, unbelievably, it will soon be September 6 and time for our 50th reunion. That evening, we will be keenly aware of the passing of time as we try to recognize one another and remember old times at Glacier and before. We will salute the young people we once were, the senior citizens we've become, and the classmates who are no longer with us. And we will be reunited as a class to celebrate a time we all shared and the gift of these past fifty years-- the gift of time, and of this life--the dash in between.  See you all there!

* selected lyrics from "Sunrise, Sunset" from "Fiddler on the Roof"

FIFTY YEARS PAST BLAST:  
MARCH/APRIL, 1964
Like a time capsule from fifty years ago, here’s a blast from our past:  world news headlines, cultural trends, and Glacier happenings from our senior year.

We were heading into Spring Break to begin March 23.  (Remember when Spring Break always coincided with Easter--that year on March 29?) A whole week to forget about homework and studies before the big push to April 3 and the end of third quarter.  Our senior year was going fast!

NEWS HEADLINES

MARCH

-- First Ford Mustang Produced

The original 1965 (1964 1/2) Mustang-Wimbledon White.
Went on sale April 17, 1964, selling more than 418,000 in first 12 mos.

 --US Reconnaisance Plane Shot Down Over East Germany

--Sixth Grammy Awards - "Days of Wine & Roses" - Henry Mancini won two for Best Record and Best Song

--Jimmy Hoffa Convicted of Jury Tampering - Sentenced to eight years

--Jack Ruby Sentenced to Death for Lee Harvey Oswald's Murder

--USSR Performs Nuclear Test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk

--UCLA Completes Undefeated NCAA Basketball Season (30-0) and Wins 26th NCAA Men's Basketball Championship:  UCLA Beats Duke 98-83

--Egypt Ends State of Siege (1952-1964)

--Earthquake Strikes Anchorage, Alaska: 131 die from 9.2 quake and resulting tsunami; the most violent quake in U.S. History

--UN Troops Arrive on Cyprus

--36th Academy Awards (Honoring Movies Released in 1963)

• Best Actor - Sidney Poitier in "Lilies of the Field"
• Best Supporting Actor - Melvyn Douglas in "Hud"
• Best Actress - Patricia Neal in "Hud"
• Best Supporting Actress - Margaret Rutherford in "The V.I.P.s"
• Director - Tony Richardson, "Tom Jones"
• Musical Score - John Addison, "Tom Jones"
• Best Picture - Tony Richardson, Producer, "Tom Jones"

APRIL

--IBM Introduces the IBM System/360 Mainframe Computer

--USSR Launches "Zond 1" to Venus - No Data Returned

--US and Panama Agree to Resume Diplomatic Relations

--Unmanned "Gemini 1" Launched

--New York World's Fair Opens in Flushing Meadows

--Chesapeake Bay Bridge Opens - At 17.6 miles long considered the world's largest bridge/tunnel complex

--First Game at Shea Stadium, NY Mets Lose to Pittsburgh Pirates 4-3

--28th Golf Masters Championship -- Arnold Palmer Wins Shooting a 276

--Sandy Kofax Throws His 9th Complete Game Without Allowing a Walk

--Jerrie Mock Becomes First Woman to Fly Solo Around the World

MOVIES YOU MIGHT HAVE GONE TO SEE: (SOURCE: WIKIPEDIA #1 U.S. FILMS BY WEEK)

• Dead Ringer, Warner Bros., with Bette Davis, Karl Malden, Peter Lawford

• Kissin' Cousins, MGM, Starring Elvis Presley

• The Pink Panther, United Artists, with David Niven, Peter Sellers, Robert Wagner, Claudia Cardinale

• The Carpetbaggers, Paramount, George Peppard, Alan Ladd, Carroll Baker

Books on the NY Times Best Seller List:  (top five adult fiction a/o March 29, 1964)

• The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, John le Carre (would run as #1 from Feb. 23 - September 27)

• The Group, Mary McCarthy

• The Venetian Affair, Helen MacInnes

• The Wapshot Scandal, John Cheever

• The Hat on the Bed, John O'Hara

TV events and programming:

• March 30 - Game Show "Jeopardy" Premiered on Daytime TV (NBC)

• The Flintstones

• My Three Sons

• The Lucy Show

• Mr Ed

Music you would have heard (on your transistor radio?): 
(Source: Billboard #1 Singles 1964-click on the title to listen)

It was all about the Beatles!

• I Want to Hold Your Hand, The Beatles (#1 weeks of February 1 - March 14)

• She Loves You, The Beatles  (#1 weeks of March 21 - March 28)

• Can't Buy Me Love, The Beatles (#1 weeks of April 4 - May 2)

Around Glacier

(Gleanings from "The Avalanche", "Student Handbook 1963-64", and other sources)

EDITOR'S NOTE:  The archives of "The Avalanche" available to me do not include this March-April time period in our senior year and my call for old copies went unanswered.  Here are some stories of note from other months and years of our high school days.  

• Flash back to the December football game between the junior and senior girls on Glacier's football field (mud).  I still hear talk about this game!  Read all about it!  (click on image to enlarge or hold down CTRL button on your keyboard and hit + key)

• Tennis Team turnout was March 1 and the first match was against Kent-Meridian March 26.  Tennis matches were held each Tuesday and Thursday until the playoffs scheduled for May 14. 

• Service Club was busy preparing for a hayride to be held at the Aqua Barn Ranch in April. What did the Service Club do?  Among other things:  served at the Father-Daughter Banquet, sold pop at home basketball games and provided crowd contol as fans departed the basketball games.

• "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court", by Mark Twain, was performed March 19 & 20.  Mrs. Betty Fitzgerald, drama teacher and play director cast the following:  Ed Fowler, Hank; Glenn Graves, King Arthur; Marcia Wynn, Merlin; Guy Nearing, Clarence; Rick Raber, Sir Sagramore; Lonnie Nuss, Sir Lancelot; Iris Oldham, Queen Guenever; Charlene Preedy, Morgan LeFay; Pat Ledbetter, Sandy; Jane Adams, Elaine; Sue Simmons, Marion; and Jean Skinner, Mrs. Bennet. Production Staff: Jerry Childress, Rick Lyons and Jo Bechdoldt on sets; properties, Ken Wick and June Thomas; prompter, Sandy Ashe; costumes, Michelle Beauchamp; business manager Jim Thompson; make-up: Diane Thompson and Marla Beers.

• Senior Class Spaghetti Dinner -- Preceding the school play, the senior class offered a delicious spaghetti dinner, chaired by Bill Finch.  

• March 3 -- Basketball Awards Assembly

• March 6-7 -- League Basketball Playoffs

• March 11 -- Band Festival

• March 14 -- Sophomore Tolo

• March 23-27 -- SPRING BREAK!!  Do you remember what you did?  Dance at the Spanish Castle?  Movies at Lewis & Clark?  A trip to Ocean Shores with your family?  

• Baseball Season began March 24 -- Enumclaw at Glacier with games scheduled most every Tuesday and Thursday through May 14.  

• Spring Track Meets began March 27 with Glacier at Mt. Rainier with meets scheduled Fridays and some Tuesdays until May 15.  

• Golf Season began the week of March 30 with Glacier, Kent and Highline playing at Glen Acres.  Matches were held each week through the week of May 11.  

• April 3 -- End of Third Quarter

• Remember the "Car of the Month" Column in "The Avalanche"? Here are a few "Cars of the Month" owned by guys in our class.  Wonder if they still have these cool cars in their garages?

And so it went fifty years ago.  Lots of sports, activities and school events to fill our days along with the studies and sitting in class.  And Spring Break!  After Break we knew we were nearing the last quarter of our senior year, graduation and the rest of our lives.

Flash forward to 2014 and we're revisiting that time here as we count down to mark our 50th reunion. Our New Year is going quickly with invitations mailed last January 6 and the deadline now passed (March 15) for submitting autobiographies for the Memory Book.  (As of this writing 104 biographies have arrived!) 

As the days pressed on, in 1964, to graduation, they now press on to our September 6 reunion. There will be just two more of these bi-monthly blogs to waltz you down primrose lane until we celebrate the passage of 50 years' time. 

"Time has no divisions to mark its passage, there is never a thunderstorm or blare of trumpets to announce the beginning of a new month or year. Even when a new century begins it is only we mortals who ring bells and fire off pistols."

--THOMAS MANN, The Magic Mountain

We may not "ring bells and fire off pistols" but it will be a worthy celebration with all of us there!

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Submitted March 21, 2014

Diana (Stillwell) Carew

GHS '64