Volume 9, September 2001

Please remember, I am locating to Oklahoma City for eight weeks, so I will not being using my normal e-mail account. I did set up a hotmail account though, and you can use that address as a way to contact me with the information that you would like to share with all of us. That address is laurireedeckmann@hotmail.com. Please keep the information coming, so we can keep the newsletter up to date and going strong!
See ya next month! Lauri

OOPS!!!!
Last month I listed all the couples that I knew of from our class. In the list I have one of the names flipped around. It should read Scott and Terri (Albrecht) Keller, NOT Scott and Terri (Keller) Albrecht. Terri prob. wouldn’t mind it that way, but Scott; he might not go for it! MY MISTAKE!!! You know I read that this thing a least 10 times before I send it to Dan for posting, but, typo’s still happen! So sorry Scott and Terri!!!!

Another oops, was that I missed another person who was in attendance at the reunion, but not in the class photo, it was Kelly (Weigel) Barak. How I missed her I do not know, I actually talked to her and her husband for a while on Friday night. For those who are interested, she had a great time at the reunion, is well, happily married and living in MN.
So sorry, Kelly!

"Beth (Elizabeth Loos) and I (Greg Johnson) enjoyed the reunion, the
activities and the entire weekend! Look forward to seeing everyone again,
hopefully at a 25th anniversary reunion. Let's not wait for the 30th year to reunite."
Greg and Beth (Loos) Johnson

"I had an excellent time!! You guys can be very proud of yourselves."
Ray Wangler

"I had a great time at both reunions...so good to catch up in both places...I was so glad to see you and Shari...you guys have not changed....the reunion committee did an awesome job....so proud of all of you..THANK YOU!!"
Paige Jones

"Thanks again for all of your hard work with the reunion. You and all the
others did so well with the organizing and planning. It was done with very
good taste, from the nametags to the events to ..just everything."
It was a great time!!
Sara (Jensen) Fritz

!CLASS OF 1982 NEEDS OUR HELP!
The class of 1982 has begun the daunting task of locating classmates. If you know the whereabouts of ANY 1982 graduate please contact Sandy Keller (Wally’s wife) at wskeller@qwest.net. Please note in your e-mail which school they graduated from and how you know this person, i.e. sibling, friend, cousin, etc. She in turn will then pass the information on to the appropriate class coordinator. Thanks for helping everyone!

Name: Mary Kraft Rostad
Career/occupation: Office Assistant in the Collections section- ND State Tax Dept
Home: 3237 Crocus Ave Bismarck
Family: Arlen, Jamie, Charlie and Ashley
Spouses occupation: Income Tax Auditor ND State Tax Dept
If applicable, how did you and your spouse meet? Let’s see, when I started with the Tax Dept., Arlen was working here and I had actually worked for an attorney that represented his ex in their divorce so his name was familiar, but I was still married and later on Tom and I would go out with Arlen and his fiancé and other friends a few times. Between the divorce process and Arlen not being happy in his relationship, he would make a few flirtatious remarks when he would come down to screen returns and I was working in the mailroom. Arlen and I became good friends and here we are, Mr. and Mrs. Rostad.
Greatest accomplishments: Seeking out myself and finding the Lord
People whom you admire and why: My Mother…she has given our family memories since we were children and still continues to do so. She has been loving and supportive of any decisions I have made, even the trying ones. She volunteers much of her time and keeps her retired life busy, but most importantly, she has set the perfect example of what a true parent is.
What do you have in your pockets: Kindness and Love
Fantasy (or reality) job: Social worker
Latest book you've read: "Letters to my Son"
Favorite music/musicians: Country/Tim McGraw/Faith Hill
Recommended movies: "For the Love of the Game"; "Bounce"
Where have you traveled? Black Hills, Minnesota, Las Vegas, Colorado and Canada
Favorite place to vacation? Any place you would recommend? Hot Springs SD…there’s a wonderful Log Cabin hotel with the nicest couple running it and makes you feel so welcome to their little town.
Favorite foods: Sweet-n-sour shrimp or chicken and super nachos with extra tomatoes
Hobbies/second career: Helping Ashley with homework and trying to keep myself in shape
What if any community service organizations are you involved with? None right now, but have helped with a few church needs and plan to get involved with the Elks and further needs of the church.
Pet peeves: None really
Memories of Bismarck (good ones): Growing up with wearing uniforms in grade school and having the opportunity to attend Catholic schools for most of my upbringing and of course, the kindness of BHS classmates for my last two years of high school.
Memories of BHS (good ones): Considering I was pregnant in my junior year, I felt very welcome by the students that I had the opportunity to have classes with and meet. Their friendliness helped me feel a little more at ease.
Favorite teachers at BHS and why: Mr. Gorder. Even though I didn’t particularly like the class, he put some humor to it.
Favorite high school hang-outs: My hangout was my parents house. Since I had the responsibility of being a parent, that took over priority, along with homework.
If you could, would you change anything about high school: Well, I can’t say that I wish I wouldn’t have gotten pregnant, cause Jamie was such a gift. I love him wholeheartedly. I do wish I would have went to college and furthered my education though.

Name: Victor Pfund
Career/occupation: Business Management Mgr (Dealer Development—Gulf States Toyota)
Home: Houston, TX
Family: Gay and Gabrielle (age 5)
Spouses occupation: Product Development – Texas Instruments
Greatest accomplishments: In 1998 while with Nissan North America, inc. finished first in the nation for extended service contract sales
People whom you admire and why: Jack Welch and Howard Stern—They have a vision of what will make them successful and they stick to their vision no matter how controversial or unorthodox
What do you have in your pockets: Carmex and keys
Fantasy (or reality) job: Margarita Quality Control Manager for the City of Cancun
Latest book you've read: "The Alchemist" by Paulo Coehlo
Favorite music/musicians: Anything by Eric Clapton
Recommended movies: I have not seen a non-animated movie in 3 years but I remember Caddyshack as being pretty good
Favorite cities and why? Austin and Munich—good food, great people and fantastic scenery
Where have you traveled? A little in Europe, a little in the Caribbean and 4 weeks in Australia and Fiji 9 months before Gabrielle was born
Favorite place to vacation? Any place you would recommend? Australia was awesome, but it was a real pain to get to. We went to a wedding in Cancun last summer and really enjoyed it—especially if you get away from tourist areas.
Favorite foods: Mexican Food
Hobbies/second career: Reading, cycling, and weightlifting
What if any community service organizations are you involved with? When I was in Dallas I tutored inner-city kids at a Methodist church.
Pet peeves: Negative attitudes and people who will not do anything about changing them.
Memories of Bismarck (good ones): The autumns were nice (both weeks).
Memories of BHS (good ones): The bonding experienced on the Darryl Anderson coached cross-country teams.
Who were some of the people you hung out with? Chris Horne, Scott Jacobson, and Dean Ramos
Were you involved with any extra curricular activities, if so what? Cross Country and Track
Favorite teachers at BHS and why: There was a creative writing teacher that really made writing interesting (shorter guy with glasses—what is his name?)
Favorite high school hang-outs: Anywhere there was a keg!

Nadine (Schaffer) Morelli just finished her Bachelors in Professional Business Management from Barry University and in October will be going for her Masters in Human Resources.
Her husband Aaron has completed Fire Fighter's school, and his EMT and has one more
exam on August 31 to complete. They are also moving to Cape Coral, FL in
mid-October as soon as their new home is finished! They will keep us posted!
Congratulations to both of them! Great Job!!

Jay Yeager recently received a TELLY Award for a video production that he
wrote, directed and produced for UPS. According to their website, www.telly.com,
"The Telly Awards were founded in 1980, to showcase and give recognition to outstanding
non-network and cable commercials. The competition was expanded several years
ago to include film and video productions."
Congratulations JAY!

Country Music Television (CMT) will begin airing in October the music video
in which Doug Rian (nee’ Arnts) plays the lead for a tune called
"Desperados in Love" by the Bellamy Brothers.
Congratulations Doug, we will be watching for it!

TAKE NOTE:
If you have something about your child that you would like to add to the
congratulations section of our newsletter, please contact me with a story!
We would be happy to celebrate their successes with you and your family!
Please also include whom I need to acknowledge for the story credit.

Liz (Tippett) Ketchum sent us a life highlight that she wanted to share with all of us! Her latest endeveour in life was taking 18, yes 18 teenagers, on a backpacking trip in the Big Horns! She wasn’t sure if it was interesting or crazy, my vote: CRAZY!! She also mentioned that she really enjoyed seeing all the great reunion photos!
Hope you had fun Liz!

Doug Rian (nee’ Arnts) also sent this us this short update…
"I'm writing songs again in Nashville, and David Bellamy
(the writer and singer of the song for the video I star in)
and I hit it off so much between takes that he's interested in one of them."

Matter of fact, for another North Dakota connection here, he told me he and
his band had just been up in ND at the Turtle Mountains playing a show and
that he loves the people and the land there. He heard me singing between
takes (I was strumming a guitar, and remember, I'm a drummer) and was
surprised because actors usually don't or can't sing (truth be told,
many singers can't really sing without studio tricks).

The whole thing has been like a movie though--I've been living pretty much
out of my explorer this whole time, and suddenly the commercials, videos, and
songs come up."

Sue (Seitz) Ott’s husband Mark, is STILL recovering from that great slide he did at our class reunion softball game! I had no idea that he had such an ugly war wound, but I can tell you, from personal observation, it is still pretty scary looking! Rumor has it that it was a great slide for an "old" guy, but was it worth it Mark???? We wish him a speedy recovery, and I am sure he will take great pride in the scar that he will wear at our next reunion!!

Larry Kessler has let us know that Ethan did very well with his third, and hopefully final reconstructive surgery. They are presently staying at the Ronald McDonald house in New York City while Ethan continues to recover. He appreciates all the postive thoughts and hopes that they will all be home very soon!

Lori (Jamison) Greer and her husband Rick welcomed their second child, Dylan Robert
into the world on June 16th! Accordingly to Lori, he weighed a whopping 8 lbs. 15 oz at birth!

Paula (Springan) Wager and her husband Glenn, welcomed their second child, Brooke Kristine, into the world on August 9! At birth Brooke weighed 5 lbs. and was 18 inches long.

Valerie Hinds and her husband Thomas Patrick Gleason welcomed their first child, a son, William Walter, into the world on July 26. William weighed at 9 lbs. 7 ounces at birth!
Our sincerest congratulations to all of them!!

We have new e-mail addresses for the following people:
Terri (Albrecht) and Scott Keller, Mary (Kerzman) Kraft Rostad,
Shari (Janke) Schmit, Liz (Tippett) Ketchum. Kevin Bender, Wally Keller, Chris Andrews, Lori (Bender) Meier, Diane (Blohm) Schneider, Della Boutrous, Melody (Carlson) Karlberg, Deanne (Fields) Flowers, Julie (Friez) Brugress, Thane Grewatz, Kevin Nelson, Marcus Roehrich, Toby Schatz, Renae (Blatchford) Ulrich, Blaine Clausnitzer, Lori Hoffer, Victor Pfund, and Paula (Springan) Wager.

We also just received new home addresses for Lori (Jamison) Greer, Valerie Hinds and Gordy Greinsteiner and a complete address, phone, and e-mail listing for Ray (Kim) Horner. He grad. from CHS but has asked to be added to our data base and reunion books so his info. was not in our original book.

If you would like any of the new info., contact me!
(For privacy reasons, I will not post that type of info. on this web page.)
We now have e-mail addresses for over 200 classmates,
if you would like to find someone let me know!

!SPEAKING OF E-MAIL ADDRESSES!
DO WE HAVE YOUR E-MAIL ADDRESS????
IF NOT, AND YOU DO NOT MIND SHARING, PLEASE CONTACT ME!
Periodically I send out info. which is not included in this newsletter, like e-mail changes, address changes, etc. For privacy reasons we do not post that type of info. on the web page, unless someone includes it in their personal interview. We will try to update all of that info. via e-mail only. I would love to keep you informed also, but I need to know how to contact you!

Remember when……
"hash" jeans, plaids, embroidered clothes were all the rage? I just went shopping for some clothes for my four year old, and guess what? She wanted flair legged jeans, tummy tops and a plaid skirt! Oh, this mom is struggling with that look! It makes her look so old! I am just not ready to go there yet, I need more time to adjust, she just can’t grow up yet. As a side note: I also saw a skirt that was so similar to the skirt I wore in my senior picture, that I couldn’t believe it. Those plaids are back for adults also. Yikes, I’m not wearing those plaids across these hips anymore. 20 years out of high school has taught me that plaids across these hips are not a good look for me or darn near anyone else. HAPPY FALL SHOPPING EVERYONE, you will find me in the basic black section and Rachel, well she will be in the "little" girls section where she belongs. I will let go in a couple of years, but not quite yet!

-slow news month! I haven’t talked to my folks for a couple of weeks, (vacations) so I am lacking in this department! Yeah, Bismarck classmates, anyone have something to add???

-for reasons unknown, the Houlihans restaurant in Bismarck is no longer. As of the first week in August the owners decided to call it quits. Bummer…I liked that restaurant.

 
WHAT DO YOU WANT TO KNOW ABOUT, WHERE DO YOU WANT TO SEE US GO?
I am having great fun doing this for all of you every month! I am more than welcome to your ideas! Feel free to let me know your thoughts and impressions on where you would like this newsletter to go or what you would like to know more about! Also, if you are willing to be interviewed, contact me, we would love to hear from you! See you next month! Lauri keckmann@packersrock.com