Class Of 1973 40th Renuion, Ottumwa, Iowa

                                       Friday 7/12/2013

Before my 40th class reunion I went for a manicure and pedicure (a special treat once a year if that)!  This guy gave  me  leg rubs so hard I ended up with some bruises a day later. 

Our first night of the reunion started out at the "after 5 on Friday night" in the park. I had taken this picture the day before, knowing this would be our first stop. .

I got this picture off Facebook, because I forgot to take my camera that night. The park was full of reunion and non reunion people.

After the "after 5" in the park we went to the Tom Tom Tap in the Hotel Ottumwa for dinner. Joe and I had the huge tenderloins. They are very good and I highly  recommend them. After dinner we went up stair where the casual first night of the reunion was held. We left around 12:00 because Joe was a bit bored with it all. We had taken a cab to the reunion, (only cab company in town) and the same cab driver came to pick us up to take us back home. On the way home, the cab driver had his girl friend with him, who told us she had just downed a beer. The crazy cab driver was driving a bit too fast, and I told him I had called so neither of us would get picked up for drinking and driving, but now I was wondering if that would be better than to be killed by him. Then on the country road to the mobile home park, the cab driver past a car on a curve, and I asked what the heck he was doing. His girlfriend piped up and said not to worry, he was a good driver. Needless to say Joe didn't give him much of a tip.

The next night Joe and I decided I would drive, rather than get in the car with that crazy cab driver again. Our pre 40th reunion party was held at JoEllen and Tom's home.

JoEllen, Myself, Lauri, Sally, and Myra( Left to right)
JoEllen  (in the long pink dress next to me) and Lauri (on the other side of me in the stripe dress) were grade school friends. I ran around with JoEllen, Lauri, and Sally in high school. Myra was a friend of Lauri's and an acquaintance in high school.

Kendig ( friend from grade school) who has forever called me Chumley, Fred, and Steven, classmates from Jr. high through high school.

Picture that I took from the upper deck. I drank water after a beer and some horderves before the drive down to the Hotel Ottumwa for the second night.

At the class reunion this picture was taken of two other old girl friend from grade school. Lauri, Kathy, JoEllen myself, and Janet. ( I am not crazy about this picture of me, but it is good of everyone else, so I made the sacrifice for them. I'm also the shrimp of the group) Doug in the back held all the pre reunion parties before he moved to Las Vegas when he retired. I knew him in Jr. high through high school.

After the class reunion Kendig invited a lot of us out to his place for a post reunion party next to his fire pit in the back yard. It was so good to see so many old familiar faces and revisited our much younger years. We went home pretty early again, because Joe was driving me crazy to leave. Every since I met him, he always wanted to leave the bars, parties, or friends,
and go home around 11:00. I always told him that was when the party started. He always told me he was not a party person!

 We left Cedar Rapids, IA. on Wednesday, and are currently visiting my younger sister Nancy and her husband Jim, in Two Rivers, WI.