We were born out of the Worlds greatest conflict WWII. My father was in Patton’s army, the Battle of the Bulge & Bastogne. My father-in-law landed in Normandy D-day he was one of 3 to live in his company. The freedom they secured for the world is almost forgotten today.

I also got a student deferrment, until that program ran out. However, I got a rather hi # (186, I think) & the DB offered me a deal: go active for a year & if we don't call you up, you're free & clear. Being a WASP college student from Hamilton Co, I never did hear from them.

My brother, Jay B Justice (class of 61), was not so lucky. He was taking ROTC at Purdue & flunked a math class. The Army told him "enter now as a 2nd Lt or later as whatever we want & you'll go straight to Nam." Luckily he spent most of the time at a missle base in S Korea. They did send him to Nam for the last 3 months of the war when they thot they could pull out alot of the equipment & ordinance. They ended up putting most of it at the bottom of the ocean or the South China Sea...Fortunately, he returned & retired a Major at Ft Ben.

I often wondered what would have happened had I been drafted. Once, we were visiting an Aunt in Dearborn MI. My Dad wanted to have some Canadian Bacon. So, we crossed over to Windsor. After breakfast, we were walking along the river & noticed everyone was smiling & saying hello. I finally asked someone why everyone was being so friendly. They thot I was a draft dodger & my Dad was visiting me!

What a waste of people & money...

Larry thanks for the reply.  One of the Committee ladies saw Dave VanZee recently and mentioned he was sort of back woods living in Brown County.  John Wood my water skiing buddy class of 1969 did that for a while, but he grew out of it now has a bank.

My point was some of our generation may have chosen not to enter the main stream world because it was so fractured in 1970.  I actually wanted to enter the military, my father & grandfather finally convinced me the Nam war was so wrong not to do it. Actually we had a deal that they'd pay half my college expenses, I'd get the student deferment, after graduation I'd enter the service.  Nixon is my favorite president he got us out of the war my senior year.

Larry our generation is familiar with tough times, tougher than what we have now.  I got into realestate in the 1970's and had some development loans that got to 20%.  Inflation was out of site in the early 80's.  We had high unemployment.  Yet we thrived to this day, thus it's time to celebrate.

The CAF was the Confederate Air Force, but that name became politically incorrect (not my opinion) so now it's Commemorative Air Force.  I've been the Indiana Wing Leader for the last 10 years, but I'm standing down next year.  I do enjoy flying the old warbirds we have 2 a PT 26 & a L-2.

I did not know you were the rebel with the side burns, but we weren't that connected with each other.  I hope we can get this forum feature going.

OK. See what you meant by living out of the main stream. I did that Thoreau trip for a summer, but was still going to college. Also know what you mean by surviving thru some tough times. I actually drove cab (on that romantic 'Lady Blue' trip) for 6 months & lived in an unheated house for awhile. I've also slopped at the public trough working for the State & the city. 

It's interesting that we lived only about a mile apart but never really knew each other. Some years we road the same school bus. I was pretty much a lone wolf quietly observing life passing by. Somebody mentioned paddle-happy teachers. After getting whacked by Principal Irvin in 5th grade for talking at lunch & in 7th grade by Mr McCauley (my fault entirely), I learned to keep my head down. Most of my free time was spent backstage in the shadows...

I was hoping more people would jump in which is why I started that rebel string. Did notice that several people have looked in. Guess people are busy...

This is GREAT!  Van Zee--backwoods---living in Brown County!!___ not hardly.

Dave lives just outside Bloomington on the Lake Lemon road on the way to Helmsburg.

He works at a dental lab where he has for 15 years or so. A couple of years ago I asked Dave for his email address and his response was: "email? ...computers are just a fad..."

Any way, dave , like I said, lives just outside Bloomington. We have kept in touch seeing each other every couple of years. Same with Ron Pearson, Don sturtz,  and R. Miller, until my mom sold our house in Carmel and moved to WI.

Dave was married , for a while, to a biker chick from LA that left him with a scar deeper than the one from the beer bottle that was broken over his head in high school.

I am sure Dave will be at the reunion-- you just won't hear from him until then.

I swear MOST of this is true!

Bob,

Thats why I apologized to Dave because my source about his life I felt might be hearsey.  I was not well known except with a few of the guys I played football with. Kurt Homann, Bill Gardner and I went to the same college and pledged the same frat.  Kurt married Carol Koss who I knew from 2nd grade.  Carol is a National Treasure to me my oldest fan and CHS friend. Carol was an swimmer great singer and actress.  Kurt is quite an accomplished attorney about to try a murder case. A hopeless case I'm tempted to go watch him in action, he'll give the defendent the best defense possible.  It wouldn't surprize if he gets the guy off.

Gardner is a candy manufacturer in Palm Beach he married a great lady too, but she knows the real me, a self centered bum who's apt to corrupt Bill.  Thus Bill is contributing $200 not a $1000.

Bob I'm really looking forward to seeing you again.  We are a special generation you and Larry Justice understand that and I sincerely hope the rest of our class catches on to that idea and uses the forum to express that.

Carl "Wink" Winkler

Quick note I did the rebel thing a bit by pledging the jokers. Thats in my profile maybe I can paste it here.

1968, sophomore year, I just barely made the football team, desperately wanted to be popular, I lacked social skills, that hasn’t changed much to this day, I was invited to pledge “Jokers”. Rodney Doom, Bill Gardner and I were chosen as I remember, but there may have been some others.

The Principal Dale Grahman cornered me at the end of a school day to discuss this.  I told him I’d miss my bus ride home, I really hoped that would spare me the meeting, but he said no problem he’d drive me home.  He didn’t know where I lived and I took some pleasure knowing the very long drive he would have to make.

Principal Grahman pointed out that a nice kid like me had a lot of good things going and the peer pressure from a group like the “Jokers” might not be the best thing for me. Very good advice and he kept eye on me that I appreciated.  He was a little pained to learn where I lived and we had a nice talk on the 20 minute drive to my house.  I got to share with him my farm boy jobs which is a fairly boring conversation.  I got him to come in and meet my parents that kept him another hour or so. Dad & Mom were impressed with him. 

I pledged “Jokers” anyway, Bill Gardner’s brother was in Jokers so he had to pledge, Rodney was pledging, so I had to support my close friends and pledge too.  We had some good times with the Jokers, but Bill, Rodney and I did pass on some Joker events too. Dale Grahman was a great principal. We were all fortunate to have his guidance. 

Side note, I considered asking Barb Grahman out several times but I lacked the gumption to ask her because I pledged the Jokers against his advice. Barb was very popular too and probably would have turned me down.

I didn't know about the Jokers. Were there any other clubs, secret societies, or cliques?

In Carl's defense, Van Zee could have just looked like he was "living in the woods" & that area is off the beaten track...definitely not like Carmel of then or today!

Larry,

There was Jokers the guys club and Debs the girls club.  Dale Graham our principal was against social clubs.  We had to make paddles for the upper classman to hit us with Bill's brother Scott explained to Bill that didn't have too much to worry about because of our repriasals on the football, but Bill had more to worry about. I don't think any of us got hit very hard.

I just got a call from Kurt Homann, we're planning trip to Hawaii next year Gardners may go too.

Wink

Never heard of either Jokers or Debs. When were the paddles used? Seems that would be an easy way to spot members...

Never been to Hawaii. I've found my paradise in Belize & will be heading back there 18 Dec-5 Jan. Will probably buy some property there someday. First tho, I should probably buy something in the States...

We're probably going to sell my parent's place on 116th...just too different from when I was growing up. Back then it seemed so far out in the country...now there are houses w/in rock throwing distance.

Larry

Paddles were used by the actives on pledges during initiation.  They did not bring them to school.

I had a nice phone conversation with Rodney tonight.  Rodney was a good football player except for his nose bleeds.  He'd get hit in the nose and bleed all over his jersey.

Rodney and I road the same school bus along with Sara Baur.

Wink

Early in the morning, just got an update on this forum's recent postings. This thread is titled "our generation" and I having been pondering the following for quite some time. this is not intended to be political and I don't wish to go down that road of debating politics, but these are my thoughts: Sometime during our senior year I believe some of us got a pass out of class to attend a speech by the President Nixon down at Market Square. Oddly enough, the only person I can remember in the group was Vicki Morton, ( but I've had a thing for Vicki since the 6th grade in the ground floor of the old high school), anyway, we were all beginning to get caught up in the counterculture and growing our hair long, etc, etc.  When we got to the event the secret service detail would not let us in--I mean we hardly looked like hard core protesters.  At the time the entire area around Market Square arena was blocked off with anti-war protestors. We were outraged.  Anyway- I don't think many of us do not think our involvement in Viet Nam took a wrong turn at some point. My issue is that I feel I was duped by the left to be a pawn in their plan. In the past year or so Bill Ayers and Bernadette Dorn received a lot of press with their relationship with our now president. It is interesting to me that their politics and beliefs have not changed. Mine have. I think we have, collectively, as americans lost touch with our roots, the reason this country was founded, and the sarifices which must be made, which our forefathers have made that make or made this country great. I guess I feel like--I haven't made any sacrifice which contributes to the greatness of our country, that I'm part of a bunch of whiners that are too involved with Self to be bothered to engage in participation.  That I am doomed to passively watch as this country goes down the tubes. It seems like everything we read and hear politically, from both parties, is the opposite of what is presented. Everything is packaged as 10 second sound bites which are intended to mislead you or keep you misinformed.

Bottom line is that I think America's best day may be in the past and that the Greatest Generation that served on foreign battlefields to protect our freedoms ultimately will de dissappointed in our generation's willingness to stand together against revisionist history and the dismantling of our country into a second class nation.

OK. Now we're getting somewhere. Politics & religion are 2 topics that weren't supposed to be discussed. Hah!

Bob Packman makes some good points. We really had it pretty good up til graduation. I too feel like I'm watching the country slide into the pit...Ima card carrying Libertarian & Jefferson is my favorite President. I don't want to get started on W...worst president I remember. Carl, you concerned me abit when you said Nixon was your favorite? Or was that just because he stopped the war? 

We gotta stop using so much oil & treating the oceans like our cess pools. When you move that much oil around, accidents are bound to happen & it seems like they're occuring more often.

Those big islands of plastic trash in the Pacific are also scary. Books like "Cradle to Cradle" have been on my reading list. But we're like a big ship that takes a long time to turn...

I wish I could read some of those messages above. But then, I'd get off ona rant...time to go read the Sunday paper like God intended...& btw, "God is not Great" was a recent read. I'll bet that will get this forum moving!

OK- guys, I hope you don't mind a little female input here and hope other gals will join in as well.

I remember watching a lot of the political unrest during our high school years on TV - the riots, Kent State shootings, burning draft cards, etc. It seemed surreal to me in my Mayberry-esque world of Carmel, Indiana.

My freshman year of college was spent in a small town in East Texas where segregation was illegal, but still practiced in many ways. Our dorm rooms had a shared bathroom between 2 rooms; there were only a few black girls on our floor so they were housed in one of the end rooms. The white girls in the adjoining room were told by the dorm mother not to use that bathroom, but to go across or down the hall instead. One of my 'Yankee' friends was called into the dean of student affairs because she was talking to black guys in the library and was told that respectable young women don't do that - at least in some respects, we've come a long way in that regard although at the time, I admit I was still carrying the inherited prejudices of my parents and grandparents. I had friends who had experienced reverse discrimination and even intimidation as their schools were integrated and even asked for a Democratic ticket in the primary so I could vote for George Wallace which really rocked my parents' world and probably anyone who was in Teen Age Republicans (TARs) with me during our high school years.

Fast forward almost 20 years - I moved to Catonsville, MD, a suburb of Baltimore. There I saw burned out buildings that were scars left on the cityscape by the race riots, a friend's husband never went to war or did alternative service because his was one of the draft cards burned by the Catonsville Nine - I even attended a meeting in the lower level of the building of the Selective Service Building and only saw a small plaque memorializing the event. Tales were told of lock downs and war like precautions similar to the black outs we learned about during WWII in the city of London. Colleagues told of their fathers being jailed during protests - it is still amazing to me how after all those years, the feelings and evidence of this still remains.

The song by The Who - "Talkin' 'Bout My Generation" keeps coming to mind when I see another message in this thread. But if you read the lyrics - it really doesn't say much about the greatness of our generation. The words "I hope I die before I get old" are haunting. I don’t know about all of you, but even though my body reminds me on a regular basis that I’m growing older, I don’t think of myself as old and I don’t share that sentiment – we certainly still have some great years ahead of us and are really just reaching our prime as far as shaping our country’s future.

So what is my point? Ours was a special generation- we've lived through a lot of unique events that have had a major impact on history. We need to remember the passion of our youth and what made our generation great in the first place. Let’s step up to the plate to shake things up again.

T Tock

I lived in Bloomington for 5 years and saw VanZee when Sandy would come to town to visit her daughter when she was attending IU Bloomington; several of us got together - Dave, Sandy, Allan Voorhis and Bobin Frost (class of '71).

My memory of Dave is that he didn't have an automatic garage door opener or a garbage disposal - might have still even had a rotary phone. He's one of those people who has an e-mail address, but my guess is - never uses or checks it.

This makes for an interesting paradox - those of us in our generation who have embraced this technology while others only tolerate it.

T

Carl you got me to remember something which pertains to a story Larry told about Don Huffer-  Huffer during my junior year slapped me so hard on the face before I went onto the mat that I guess I held against him for a long time. Sophmore year I got cleaned up by the Noblesville guy in my weight class. I had a rematch against him Junior year even though we both moved up 2 weight classes. After Huffer slapped me I pretty much took it out on the poor guy and even got a penalty point after he bit me when I delivered a pretty good forearm to his head.  Then after reading Rex Brough's profile he reminded me of our intramural team--the Midnight Cowboys- along with pete holm, brad rice we won the school championship but what I remember most is how Sturtz and I were dogged by Huffer after we quit the wrestling team senior year because they wouldn't let us wrestle and play intramurals. Of course, Sturtz and Miller et al. were on the Chain Gang but we prevailed.

Larry- Am I correct in that you played the sousaphone in the band?

Larry,

At our age we've earned the right to rant, fire away. 

Nixon was my favorite because he got us out of the war before my student deferrment expired. His wage & price controls was nuts, Kissinger was ok, but his greatest value was the entertainment value he provide Rich Little.

I'm an economist, balance of trade is so basic a concept we worry about except for energy, we basically don't have an energy policy. Maybe no policy is a policy.  We have so much natural gas.  We could run cars on natural gas and it's clean.

Clean coal thats BS.

Wind and Solar should be exploited.

Enviroment would be so much better if everyone would pick the trash they see.

Please do rant.  Over 60 have viewed our rants, probably the most attention you and I ever had in CHS. Terri & Bob contributed.  Hopefully the other 56 or so will share their thoughts.

Wink