Note: To those of you who have taken the time to drop a note—THANK YOU!! It creates an enjoyable spot of time for those who are unable to meet face to face with their former colleagues. It also serves as a reminder that there are still those who are "striving rather than just surviving" in this troubled time of ours. If you did not enclose an up-date on your life this fall, why not plan one for the springtime. Your message, which may seem insignificant to you, springs forth happy memories of the past for others.

BILL & MARY LEWIS - Bend, OR

In late May and early June we spent three wonderful weeks with Elderhostel in Athens, and on the Greek islands of Paros, Santorini, and Crete, visiting other islands en-route. Upon our return home to Sunrive

been spent putting our house on the market, selling it, purchasing a new house in Bend and moving. We are in the process of settling-in and enjoying the views of mountains, hills, ponds, and trees.

Next week we will be going to Whistler, British Columbia, for two weeks. The Northwest really is blessed with moderate days of Indian summer and beautiful changes of the season. If anyone travels through Central Oregon, we’d love to have you stop and spend a few days with us.

OSCAR LITTLETON - Long Beach, CA

I thank everyone connected with Cerritos College for the good years I enjoyed there: my fellow teachers, the administrators, the board, the students, the "classified: (why they were so called I never figured out—can’t remember what I was called—the marinated?) and of course the people who picked up the tab, the taxpayers, who furnished the be-all and the end-all, sine qua non, without which, nothing.

I wish I had gotten around campus a little more rather than staying under my desk reading books on how to teach good. After retirement, I found out as a member of CCRFA that the place was loaded with remarkable, talented people I hated myself for not getting acquainted with earlier (Explain that sentence, English teacher.) I’ll mention just one who is no longer with us, whom I never suspected I would get along with because he was in cops and robbers and I was in verbs and nouns—Carl Specht. (Hope I’ve spelled his name right, never could spell, tough for an English teacher). Carl turned out to be the best fellow to work with, great organizer, congenial, fantastic craftsman (visited him at home), just a first-rate guy in every way. I know there were dozens I missed. That’s my big regret.

My un-regret is that I got a chance to work at a J.C., something I never dreamed of when I went to USC on the G.I. bill back in 1946 to get my credential and my MA. I guess I should thank Congress and then the President and the American people for their generosity. Okay, so I did.

ROBERT HINCHBERGER - Cathedral City, CA

My wife and myself continue to reside in the Coachella Valley, which continues to grow in housing and population, especially in the City of La Quinta. Nothing spectacular is happening in our lives, but activities will pickup as the temperatures improve, i.e., 110+ degrees during the summer.

We are both active with the La Quinta Art Foundation and Festival which continues to expand each year. I remain active with the Riverside County Probation Department as a volunteer (my 10^th year) and serving on a committee to build a Catholic high school. Our progress is slow, but we will be successful. Also, I am occasionally involved with orthopedic work as needed at an office in Mexicali, Mexico.

My best and good health to all of my retired colleagues.

LOUIS WILSON - Bakersfield, CA

I am enjoying our great granddaughters and great grandson and playing golf. I am still active in the Church.

Jean Weber-Cristea – Grass Valley, CA

Just back from a tour of China: Shanghai; Chonquiong; Wuhan; four days up the Yangtze, to see the Three Gorges and Lesser Gorges before the dam floods the area; Xi’an, to see the terra cotta soldiers; Great Wall; Bejing; the dam. The trip was a gift from an ex-student, Gary Storer, and I traveled with his wife. I surprised myself by walking Tianamen Square and through the Forbidden Palace to the North Gate without too many time-outs. Our plane was the fourth international flight to arrive in San Francisco on September 16^th.

This year I’ve been to Hawaii, Ashland OR, and China. A trip to Las Vegas in October for a horse-handicapping contest should end my travels for the year, other than up and down I-5 like a regular commuter. My health is fine; otherwise, the trip to China would have done me in.

I’m still waiting to see if I can develop my land in Grass Valley, after I’ve had so much fun fixing up an older house. Then the question will be "Do I move back to the L.A. area or build a house—where?" Ah—to see fifty again! I’d try to do it all again. Hello to my friends from Cerritos.

JERRY SHOPFNER – Fountain Valley, CA

Sorry, can’t attend the luncheon this time. Hope to see you all in the Spring. Thank you all for your hard work.

WAYNE REW- La Mirada, CA

Golf once a week (love those senior rates). Three-year old granddaughter, Shelby, now has a baby sister, Mia, born 9/4/01. Wife, Loretta, still active on Cerritos Foundation’s Monte Carlo Committee and with interior design jobs. I don’t miss the local politics—haven’t been back to one City Council meeting. In June, L.A. County Supervisor Don Knabe appointed me to the L.A. County Regional Planning Commission/Airport Land Use Commission. Meet once a week plus additional public hearings. Lots of homework.

STAN PORTER – Los Alamitos, CA

Sorry! Can’t attend Oct. 16 luncheon. My wife, Lorraine, and I will be spending about a month in Pella, Iowa helping our daughter and family during latter stages of building a new house. We’ll also be enjoying our grandchildren while there.

A side trip to Hamilton, Ontario, Canada will enable us to attend the installation of our son, Stan, Jr., as Principal of McMaster Divinity College, the seminary part of McMaster University, a high respected Canadian institution of approximately 20,000 students.

Enjoyed our seaside party at Fran’s and look forward to the April meeting. Had planned a cruise for the winter, but our favorite cruise line (Renaissance) went bankrupt so we are examining "Plan B". Best wishes!

FRAN NEWMAN – Newport Beach, CA

Traveled to England and Scotland last summer. This summer has been filled with Lake Mead water ski trips. We just celebrated my husband, Jack’s, 80^th birthday on Lake Mead with 20 friends on September 23.

Continue to teach in the MA & Ed.D. programs at Azusa Pacific University and the University of Redlands. I enjoy the teaching, but deplore the grading. All graduate students today expect "A" grades and open book tests.

ARLENE MYERS – Brea, CA

Enjoyed a wonderful 14-day cruise with our family in the southern Caribbean area—St. Thomas, St. John, St. Lucia, and Barbados. Also spent a week driving through Arizona to Santa Fe and Albuquerque where our grandson participated in the soccer competitions. Took him back home to Oregon and stayed there for 10 days.

DON HALL – Scotts Valley, CA

We are still living in Scotts Valley and enjoying this area as much as ever. We go to Idaho to visit our son, Dan, and his family. We have one granddaughter graduating from the University of Idaho this year, another one in college as a sophomore, and one in high school. We also have a grandson who is a senior in high school and he is an outstanding football player. We try to go back when they get into the State playoffs.

We still play golf several times a week and enjoy our friends at the club. We have upgraded our home heating by taking out the wood stove, which we have had since 1979, and replacing it with a gas log stove with blowers and thermostat. The wood stove was our only source of heat so it will be much easier with the next stove. Hope you have a successful luncheon. GO FALCONS !!

WILFORD MICHAEL – Santa Ana, CA

A year ago Jean and I enjoyed a sixteen-day tour of Italy, which included Rome, Florence, Venice, Assisi, Sorrento, Capri, Taormina, Agrigento, Palermo, Naples, and back to Rome. It was a great trip.

The rest of the year we have enjoyed our family, ushered at church, volunteered at the Toshiba Senior Golf Classic, participated in the Laguna Festival of Arts, and Pageant of the Masters, served on the Cerritos College Foundation Board, served on the Rotary Club of Bellflower Board, and kept busy with other local activities.

Socially we walk most mornings at the Main Place Mall in Santa Ana and through this have met many friends to visit after walking.

ROY MAKI – Palm Desert, CA

For 13 years my wife, Anja, and I have enjoyed the best of two worlds—six months in the desert and six months in the mountains. We have sold our Mount Shasta property and plan to live in Palm Desert until we find the "perfect" location. Our decision to leave Northern California was not influenced from reading the article in the October issue of National Geographic about volcanoes. Our home is within a few miles of the majestic Mount Shasta, which can be seen on a clear day from a distance of more than a hundred miles. The reason for giving up this truly wonderful location is simply we are getting too old to care for two residences. (Ed. Note—Roy, you will never be too old—remember retired Cerritos faculty really improve with age.)

DON LAYTON – Fallbrook, CA

The first of two happenings was Joan Laicari’s retirement party at John Bogles where we whooped it up; ate it up; and I shed two tears (product of two beers). I gave my last class in mineral identification (6 weeks) at the local mineral society. Instead of taking cigarette breaks, I called for breathing breaks so I could use my inhaler—but it was still too much talking and arm waving for me to do it again.

I was loaned a wheel chair so we tripped up to Fairfield to visit my sister in her new snazzy military retirement enclave at Travis A.F.S. Our next social activity will be my aunt’s 90th birthday blowout in her little town of Sequim, WA. Unfortunately, this will happen on the old Armistice Day which is well after blackberry season (usually a daily high-point when we are RVing). (Ed. Note: Don, I really enjoyed your "rose" seal. I noticed it just after I opened our latest SCE bill. Nice timing!!)

JEAN LANG – Cypress, CA

Greetings to everyone. I have no exciting news about travel. However, I almost succumbed to Leukemia the end of May. The new miracle drug (Gleenec) for Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia was started June 1^st. I am now back to full functioning and appreciating each day and the many friends who helped during the rough times. (Ed. Note: Sounds as though you care not only a survivor but a striver as well! Best wishes Jean.)

ROSE MARIE DOZIER – Garden Grove, CA

In the beginning of the year my daughter, Patricia, an ESL instructor at Cerritos College, passed away. She was only forty-eight years old. My husband had Alzheimer’s disease and he did not accept her death. I had to put him away in a nursing home where I go to visit him everyday. It is a horrible experience of emotional blackmail. This is the reason why although I have a very warm souvenir of my Cerritos College colleagues, I still do not have the courage (yet) to face them.

MANUEL E. DE LEON – Tucson, AZ

Still living in this Arizona retirement community called Saddlebrook,--about 25 north of Tucson, situated at an elevation of 3500 feet. Greedy land developers and corrupt politicians are gradually devouring this gorgeous, tranquil land of high plain drifters. Gamble quail, bobcats, javelinas, hawks, snakes and deer still roam our golf courses and, sometimes, our back yards. Our house pet is a beautiful female scorpion with bar room hips and she loves martinis on the rocks.

Travels this year to Europe, New York, Pennsylvania, and Western New Mexico enabled the study of thousands of painting and the opportunity to paint landscapes in the historical west.

I play that silly expensive game occasionally, where you try to put the little ball in the hole. The hole keeps getting smaller and the implements keep getting more expensive. I still teach drawing and painting workshops and an occasional art symposium. I will be exhibiting 15 paintings in a group show at the CALSTRS Art Gallery in Sacramento, January through March of 2002. I also joined a quintet as percussionist background music for clubhouse activities.

CCRFA members are always welcome. We have an inside guestroom and a studio/guest room with a view of the Catalina Mountains.

JOHN DOWDEN – Irvine, CA

My activities have centered on family and significant others. Spent a week on the Monterey Peninsula in the gallery of the California Men’s Amateur Golf Tournament. Grandson Kyle Dowden qualified as the youngest player in the 120-man field for the second year in a row. Pebble Beach never was lovelier when the 16-½ year old eagled the second hole. UCLA, Stanford and Arizona State are interested.

This past spring Dolores and I spent 17 days in China on the standard tour; deluxe hotels in the cities, excellent food and tourist stops. Lots and lots of walking; five days on the Yangzte was the highlight, excepting the Great Wall and the Terra Cotta Warriors.

Also attended the 50^th reunion of the 130 member graduating class of Orange Union High School. Go Panthers !

(Ed. Note: John you appended a note about misplacing Bob’s envelope and asking me to forward your reservation and check. No! You did not have a "senior moment". Bob Allen is gallivanting around on a month-long cruise in the Pacific area and I am the substitute money taker. Therefore, you did not misplace anything—you did everything right—at least in the area of reservations and newsletter items for CCRFA. Congratulations!)

FLORENCE DARNALL (courtesy of Mary Ann Vancel—daughter-in-law.) Bellflower, CA

Florence is currently in the hospital recovering from a broken hip. She will be unable to attend. If you have any questions, you may telephone me at 562-929-7680.

KEITH & JOYCE ADAMS – La Quinta, CA

As I write this message I’m wondering if the desert summer will ever be over. The temperature is predicted to be 105 degrees today, but has been running higher. I guess that we are noticing the heat more than usual because we have not been far from our home this year. Last year at this time Joyce and I were traveling the U.S. with our travel trailer.

Our only travel this year has been to our granddaughter’s high school graduation in San Antonio, Texas. However, we will get on a plane next week for a trip to Ohio and Washington, D.C. Local travel, for the most part, has been to our place in Big Bear. Joyce and I enjoyed seeing many of the retired faculty at the spring social hosted by Fran and Jack Newman

Keith continues to try to improve his golf game and is doing some work for the College of the Desert. Joyce continues her support and keeps the day-to-day activities on track. Outside of the aches and pains of getting older we are getting along fine.

We are sorry that we can’t be with you at the luncheon. There is an appointment that is in conflict with the meeting that we have cancelled before and must keep this time around. We hope that this message finds all of you in good health.

JULIETTE VENITSKY – Lakewood, CA

I extend my personal greetings to all friends and former colleagues and want you to know how much I enjoy reading about your activities, travels, etc. I regret that my various medical conditions have not enabled me to attend CCRFA for the past three years. (Have been housebound with 24-hour caregiver.)

Thanks to the officers and others who continue to make CCRFA a viable organization and wish you all good health and happiness in your endeavors. Phone calls and other contacts are much appreciated. (562) 867-3253; 5208 Knoxville Ave., Lakewood, CA 90713

JOAN WALKER – Huntington Beach, CA

I am still enjoying retirement, however, I truly believe it is far more tiring than teaching full time. I don’t know if I push harder for fear of vegetating or if I am just getting older—a thought difficult to admit.

I am very involved with different groups and organizations. I also take a discipleship class and teach two afternoons a week. I enjoy participating in charity walks and recently completed the Race for the Cure, and the Alzheimer’s Memory walk. Next weekend we walk in the CHOC walk. Last year I moved to a mobile home in Huntington Beach, which has a big yard that requires WORK, but I love it even though my manicurist doesn’t.

Gil and I had a wonderful time at the fantastic beach party hosted by Jack and Fran Newman in their beautiful home. I’m looking forward to seeing everyone at the luncheon meeting.

SHERILL & CATHY MOSES – La Mirada, CA

In May we spent a delightful week in Napa Valley with close, long-time friends from Omaha, and in Berkeley with our daughter, Terri, who was in the midst of some very secret planning that she wouldn’t tell us about.

On June 23, we found out what the secrecy was about—our children and their cousins from Utah and Alaska threw a fabulous "Triple 50^th Wedding Anniversary Celebration" in Laguna Woods for us and Sherill’s sister and twin brother and spouses. All of us had been married within one month of one another in Salt Lake City in 1951. It was a wonderful reunion with our dearest friends and relatives, some of whom came very long distances to be there.

LEE WESTERLIN - Norwalk, CA

For the last few hours I have been enjoying myself reading the above notes. I must confess. Any errors in context are entirely my fault. Arleen Myers and Jon Fults will have to find their own mistakes to confess about. I couldn’t resist dropping in an editorial comment now and then. It is extremely difficult to just sit and let your fingers do the keying. If any of you should find this "quirk" a little offensive or pushy, I will gladly allow you the joy of being the Newsletter Editor. (It really isn’t such a bad job and I think someone out of the English Department should take over. Sometimes those individuals in the Business Division try to simplify too much. Oscar writes with charm and John D. is tops with substance.)

We haven’t traveled outside of California in the last six months. It seems as though family gatherings and care has taken up much of the time. My parents now live in Visalia—my father is 99 ½ and my mother is 96 years old so you can understand why I am frequently on the road. Whenever I travel the Ridge Route I look at the rock formations and strata and think of "Mr. Treat". He was my geology instructor eons ago and he fostered a previously unknown curiosity in the "dirt" around me. He also enlarged my vocabulary with the word "crudite." I hope all of you realized in the past and still realize what power a teacher has. I count my blessings almost daily (well maybe weekly) that I fell into that whirlpool "education." It brought forth a feeling of achievement, of joy, and especially of companionship with people who are excited about something other than the "soap operas." To all of my colleagues—a huge thank you.

BOB ALLEN – La Mirada

Hi to All My Friends!

As you now know, I was not at the door to our luncheon greeting and meeting. Truthfully, I couldn’t get Norwegian Cruise Lines to change their sailing (more later).

Planning ahead, I asked Lee Westerlin to sub for me at the luncheon and she gratefully and graciously said, "sure."

This last year, Jeanne and I have gone on three cruises. She does real well hanging up her clothes and enjoying the freedom to do as she feels for a week or so. So when this cruise came along I had to do it. We’ll take a Panama Canal cruise for fifteen days from Dec 29 to Jan 13, 2002 later.

We leave September 24 and fly to Vancouver. We embark the Norwegian Wind for a twenty-two day cruise ending in Beijing, China. Six days to Dutch Harbor, Alaska. We’ll do a two-hour shore trip. Eight days to Sapporo, Japan. A four-hour shore trip here. Two days more to Vladivostok, Russia. Four hours to see some of the 17^th and 18^th century icons. Two days to Pusan, Korea. Three hours to get some Korean atmosphere. The next day, we’ll stop at Nagasaki, Japan and have three hours to soak up the area and to stand at the memorial where they say the A-bomb hit. That really ended the war for Japan. As I remember, I was in Key West, Florida in August 1945 and had my orders cut for the South Pacific. I was a Chief Commissary Steward and was headed for the invasion. Those bombs dropped and I was out of the Navy on August 28, 1945 and headed home to go to the University in Detroit. So – I want to see the ground "0" place that made a lot of difference in my life in a short flash of light. Next day to Kagoshima, Japan and a four hour shore trip. We then cruise the East China Sea, then the Yellow Sea and disembark on the 16^th at Beijing, China.

I have opted for a three day extension there to see all the things I have heard about. We fly out the 19^th to Tokyo and then to LAX.

I’ve had a lifetime of memories of this area. My first sea duty in 1939 was on the USS Sacramento. It had just returned from around the World from China. All the sailors were from the China Patrol. The Sacramento, Pinay, and San Pablo were our Navy in the Yangtse Patrol. The Japanese sunk the Pinay in 1937 and the other two were the station ships. The "Sand Pebble" movie with Steve McQuen was the story of that time on the San Pablo.

Those China sailors (all American) sure taught me a lot in the four plus months we took to raise our sunken submarine, the USS Squalus off of Kittery, Maine. Now I get to see and hear the wonders of the area.

This will be a life’s dream trip for both Jeanne and me. Bon Appetite! Bob