You missed the 45th reunion? Sorry to hear that. You can see pictures at this link. At the top of the page are links to each day of the 45th. Click on any photo to see 'the big picture.'

The party started at the Abbey on Friday night. We had a nice buffet and lots of visiting. Jim VanRiper introduced the evening and the events for the next couple of days then invited jokes from the crowd. Lots of fun and laughs by all. Alma (Grabow) Elder along with Joe and Ruth Morelock sang a ditty for everyone. Emma and Jim had put together a great presentation board with records and pictures from many of our reunions and gatherings. Everyone went hotel/motel/home happy.

Saturday's meeting place was The Owl. The Owl seems to attract us at every reunion. Good malts and terrible hamburgers are the usual choices. It takes a couple of hours to feed 20 people when we invade the usual crowd there. That makes for lots of visiting time and all attendee's enjoy that time together. Then people went their own way till the evening.

Picture at 5 was the plan. We just about got rained out for pictures but mostly, just slightly wet. That over, we went inside to a nice setting for the evening meal. Then an unexpected surprise occurred. We were visited by "The King" of Rock & Roll. Yes, Bert Hathaway dressed as Elvis sang and entertained us with lots of old Elvis favorites. We laughed, smiled, clapped to the beat and sang along as Bert reenacted Elvis before our eyes. Phyllis (Shultz) Sartor received the 'hands on' Elvis style. Bert had performed his rendition of Elvis over 300 times since 1977.

After the entertainment, the table decorations were handed out to the attendee's by drawing. There was some background music as Jim V. asked Don Ready to draw numbers from a hat full of tickets and you guessed it, he drew his own number for a door prize. Then he drew the number of his guest for the next door prize. That ended Don's career. We retired from the evening about 10PM.

Sunday morning was a brunch hosted by VanRiper's at their home in the North part of Cañon City. Pancakes from the BIG grill, along with sausage patties, scrambled eggs, biscuits, home made jellies were the feast for the morning. Finally, Alma had brought a video tape of Elvis and what made us "Rock and Roll."

That ended the 45th. Next time, won't you come along and join us. We're looking for volunteers for the communication committee right away. You can contact Chuck Starck or Phyllis Sartor if you are interested in helping. We need all the help we can get to hold together the group of names and addresses to keep you informed of the 50th.

If you have photos of past reunions or picnics that you would like to share, you may send the photos by e-mail in .jpg format to 1961@chuckstarck.com. I suggest that we only send 2-3 photos per person.