Happy New Year, Pirates of 1957!

What a great reunion we had in September. It was hard to believe that 60 years had gone by since we graduated from good old Yakima High School!

We missed the many who have sailed on to other shores, including our classmate Cleta Grissom Helmick who had planned to join us in September. Hopefully, she enjoyed the card we all signed and sent to her.

And, of course, we missed those who simply could not attend this year.

Thank you to Mike Smithhisler (when he ran for class president, did he have any idea that he would be for over 60 years?!) and to all the fabulous reunion committee who have been gathering us onboard every 10 or 5 years since 1957! You have all done an incredible job and we are more than grateful for your decades of hard work.

As we were chatting at the Yakima Valley Museum, a couple of questions came up that I don’t recall ever having been answered: Why was our inland high-school name “Pirates” and what does Lolomi mean? I get The Wigwam but the other two have eluded me all these years. Do you know?

Now to the future: Jim and I are beginning to plan a 61^st reunion in Yakima (when we are all 80 or just about!), probably at the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) post near our old high school. (We are active in Scottsdale’s post, and the Yakima one was my brother’s, so we are working with that.)

However, we need your input:

1. Is September still a good month for you or would you prefer another time?
2. Although we want to keep this reunion on the simple side, do you have any suggestions as to what you would like at our 61^st?
3. We may just order and pay for our own food and drinks, or have a very simple menu. This will depend on costs and attendance. Because some people may have the expense of travel, we would like to just use what is already in our budget and save our classmates some money.
4. Please be sure we have your most recent contact information, especially your email. Thank you.

Please let us know your thoughts as soon as is convenient so we can launch this reunion.

Oh, and one more thing: If you would be interested in coming to the Carefree/Cave Creek area of Arizona next year (during our warm fall weather) and ride with some of your classmates on the party boat at Bartlett Lake, please email me as soon as possible: editor@azbw.com or write to us at Allens, 7620 E. McKellips Rd., Ste. 490, Scottsdale, AZ 85257. Note: Other than our arranging for the boat, the costs of travel and accommodation would be up to you.

That’s it for now except to wish you all good health and happiness in 2018,

Carol Lemon Allen

P.S.  Since Pirate Press is a bit irregular, even if you are not a fan of Facebook, please consider joining us at Facebook/Yakima High.