In Passing

My wife's mother passed away last Friday, October 19, 2007. She died in the arms of her son in a hospital in Colorado Springs, Colorado. She fought a valiant 2-year battle against dementia, but in the end it was her heart that gave out. Madge was a gracious wife, mother, grandmother, and most importantly (to me) a gracious mother-in-law.

She loved family get-togethers, especially on Thanksgiving and Christmas. She always wanted to host the family meals at her home, and she never complained about cooking for the dozen or so people that would attend. She was a proud mother, and loved her children dearly.

We will all miss her, but we know that at last she has found some peace from her last years of confusion. She can rest now, and know that we all loved her.

Class of 57 Reunion

I graduated from Shawnee Mission High School, Merriam, Kansas in 1957. This September we had our 50th Anniversary Class Reunion and I went back to Kansas City to attend. We had a graduating class of a little over 600, and we had approximately 350 classmates attend the reunion. I think most of us that attended we were celebrating that we were still alive. I know I was. My wife and I flew in from Phoenix to join the crowd.

The reunion was well organized, including it's own web site. We had events galore, including an outdoor barbecue on Friday night and a dinner/dance at a country club on Saturday. The people who attended went so far as to organize reunions for each of the major grade schools that fed the high school. I went to the Prairie Grade School gathering on Friday morning (class of '53), and it included a guided tour of the grade school by the current principal. I had one teacher run out into the hall and introduce herself (after the principal had passed). She went to Shawnee Mission a couple of years after us and wanted to see if there was anyone in the group that she knew. Nope.

This is a photo of Don Mason, Hugh Myers, Sigrid Myers, and Jim Hixon. Don and Jim were on the basketball team at Prairie. Don went on to become a therapist (counselor), Hugh went into Mechanical Engineering and designed some of the biggest trucks in the world, Sigrid was a nurse, and Jim - well I have no idea what he did. Never did get around to finding out.


The grade school had been rebuilt after burning down in a fire in the 1980's. One of the graduates in our group was on the fund raising committee that helped with the rebuild. The committee donated enough to provide a hardwood floor for the gymnasium. What interested me during the tour was seeing the bank of 20 computers in a computer lab and all the students hard at work with their exercises. Nice facility. And the kids hardly noticed us as we streamed behind them. I think they were forewarned.

This is a group shot of some of my classmates from Prairie Grade School. I went there in the 7th and 8th grades. But was then dragged off to Van Nuys, California by my parents when my dad went to work in LA. He later was transferred back to Kansas City, where I rejoined the students as a Junior at Shawnee Mission.


My classmates at the reunion surprised me by looking old. We have all aged: most are broader of beam and thinner on the top. It was a kick to have people say hi, and to not recognize them right away. And then to see that one facial feature that gave them away (of course, we all had name tags). With one guy, it was his nose. With another, I remembered his smile. Some people, I did not know from Adam. Not even their names. But it was great to say high to all my old friends.

The biggest bonus of the reunion was spending some time with our daughter while we were in the area. She is an attorney in Olathe, Kansas and loves her job. So we got to see her home and office, and dine out a few times. Frankly, I had more fun laughing with her than I did at the reunion. She was a real joy to see.

So, am I glad we went to the Reunion? Yes. Did I have a great time? No, not really. The popular kids from that day and age started up their cliques again at the reunion. And those of that were late to join in high school (started my Junior year, of a 4 year school), were still sitting with our smaller group of friends. I may have done more with my life in terms of accomplishments, but I was reminded of all those lonely hours of high school life as I struggled to make sense out of the world as I knew it. Maybe that's why we go to reunions. We have to discover that we can not reinvent the past. We just learn to be thankful for what we made of our lives after we graduated. At least, that's what I learned.

Photoshop Elements

Photoshop Elements (PE) is not suppose to be that hard. I started with PE so long ago that I don't remember which version I bought first. I now have PE 5, and will buy PE 6 shortly. I am leading a computer club group that uses PE to work on digital pictures. So I get to buy a new version each year to keep up with what is going on. At this rate, Adobe should support me.

I also buy Photoshop regularly since I help teach some online Photoshop courses at myjanee.com. And I thought that, teaching Photoshop, I would understand Photoshop Elements without much effort. Well the joke is on me. I learned the photo editing part of Photoshop (and PE) fairly well, but my education was lacking with Adobe's Bridge and with the Organizer. So I have spent the last three weeks getting more familiar with PE's Organizer.

I use to think it was fairly worthless, but now that I have hundreds of photos on my hard drives (right - that's plural), I need better organization. So I am getting started with Bridge (for Photoshop) and Organizer (for PE): tagging and keywording the pictures.

I gave a presentation on October 10th to our computer group on how to use PE to build photo albums and get them online so friends can view them. The meeting felt to me like a bust. I had been so revved up, but I lost my energy 2/3 of the way through the meeting. Ever stand in front of a group of people, look into their faces, and see mostly blank stares? I started to pause the meeting and ask them to stand up. But they did not seem to hear my invitation, so I went ahead with my presentation. I should have just sat down. They would have noticed that. Oh well, better luck next time.