Monday Update

75 Pages·2017·3.4 MB·English

Monday Update

A weekly newsletter dedicated to those who
remember & celebrate Vallejo as it once was.

Vallejo St. Vincent Hogan St. Patrick/St. Vincent
Apaches Hilltoppers Spartans Bruins

January 30, 2016

The Monday Update is published weekly, on the
John Bunter Memorial Computer
by Harry Diavatis, who is solely responsible for its content.
Please send correspondence, photographs and archival information to
[email protected]
The Monday Update is posted every Monday on www.VHS62.com
To receive a free subscription and have the Update sent directly to your
email address, Copy and Paste this Constant Contact link to sign in
http://tinyurl.com/Mondayupdate

HH = Hogan HS SV = St. Vincent’s HS SP = St. Patrick’s HS FF = Former Faculty
G = Guest VJC = Vallejo JC SCC = Solano Community College

Year Only (ie: ’60) = Vallejo High School

Hello Classmates, Schoolmates and Friends:

In this edition: Frank Arellano ‘61, Diane Backovich-Greene ’61, Larry Boone ’64, Dale Bullock
’62, Judy Cloud-Metcalf ’62, Joyce Coggburn SV63, Roger Corda ’54, John DeLacy ’60, Charlie
Gebhardt ’61, Jerry Grassi '58 , Paul Henderson ’64, Karl Jacque ’60, Pam Johnson-Alderson
’63, Laurie Johnson-Kee ’66, Margie Jorgenson-Fraser ‘66, Frank Joy ’67, Larry Keez VJC 60,
Mitchell Lane ’70, Linda Lewis-Shuyler ’62, Tom Libby ’61, Paula McConnell-G, Mike McCurry
SV60, Frank Metcalf ’62, Carmela Piccolo-Coakley ’58, Jim Porterfield ’55, Nick Razes ’56,
Wyngene Stock-Akins HH63, David Tanner ’87, Elaine Whitcomb-Torres ’62, Stephen White-G,
Allan Yeap ’89, and Bob Young ’60.

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Index
This ‘n’ That .............................................................................................................. 2
The Mailbag .............................................................................................................. 20
Apache Review of Arts by John Parks ‘62 ................................................................. 30
A Cup of Joe by Joe Illing ’61 .................................................................................... 34
A Stroll Down History Lane ........................................................................................ 38
This Week’s Newbies ................................................................................................ 49
Plucked from the Headlines ...................................................................................... 50
In Memoriam ............................................................................................................. 55
A Word Among Friends ............................................................................................. 55
MU Calendar of Upcoming Events ............................................................................ 57
PSA (Public Service Announcement) ........................................................................ 57
Reunion and Event Announcements ......................................................................... 59
Missing Classmates .................................................................................................. 60
Yearbooks on CD ...................................................................................................... 60
The Monday Update Directory (MUD) ....................................................................... 62
The Fine Print ............................................................................................................ 75

 
This ‘n’ That
This was sent to me by one of our readers… if you’re interested in Sly
and the Family Stone, check it out, but I warn you it’s addictive and
you can spend all night, and then some, watching it.

Michael Rubenstone, a first-time filmmaker, and a Sly and the Family Stone super-fan,
sets out to find the band's leader, the reclusive funk legend, Sly Stone. In doing so, he
manages to make the most comprehensive documentary on the band to date, while also
bringing Sly out of hiding for the first time since his Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction
in 1993. Part road movie, part rock doc, "On the Sly" follows Michael over the course of
12 years, across the country as he unearths the true story of the band and chronicles
how a musical icon fell from grace.

http://ontheslymovie.com/
https://fromtheheartproductions.givecorps.com/projects/23176-
documentaries-on-the-sly-in-search-of-the-family-stone
http://www.thecoli.com/threads/on-the-sly-in-search-of-the-family-stone-
documentary-coming-in-2017.488389/
The documentary “On the Sly” was shown at the Sundance Film
Festival last week.
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Sylvester “Sly” Stewart, through the years

Senior Picture Top of the world The old man A rare performance
. . .

Tarantino’s at Fishermen’s
Wharf:
Great view… great food… and great
people to share it with. Crag ‘62and
Claudia (Downs ‘63) Parker took Sally and
I there on December 21, the night before
my surgery.

. . .
Cookies From Home:
A small way of saying thanks

to our men and women in uniform

Donations from our readers to provide cookies for our servicemen and
women in uniform have picked up in the last week. Please participate
if you can. This past week we raised enough money through your
donations to distribute 74 bags of cookies. Donations have ranged
from $10 to $100. I’m aiming for 300 bags so if you haven’t made your
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donation yet, please do so, in order for us to show a little appreciation
to our servicemen and women, and perhaps brighten their day.

Our donors to date:
Jerry Orr ‘61
Art ’61 & Lillian (Morgan HH64) Rust
Glenn & Connie Savoy ’62
Diane Snowder ’61
Donna Wiggin-Barth ‘58 Patricia Dennis HH63
Linda Rolff-McHale ’63 Barbara Lowe-Louie ‘64
Bob & Donna Lawson ‘64 Dalt Williams ’51
Crag ‘62 & Claudia ’63 Parker Frank Arellano ‘61
Anonymous P Ann Lemke ‘62
Rick & Sharon Silveira ‘64 Ron Beckmeyer ’62
Jerry & Marilyn Hinton ‘50 Anonymous S
Ann Salvadori-Lewin ‘66 Harry Diavatis ‘62

For every $10 donated, Truffle Berries will give away a half dozen
assorted freshly baked cookies to every uniformed active duty military
personnel who comes into the shop and/or through the Travis AFB USO.
If you donate a check for $100, for example, we will give out 10 bags of
cookies. Each bag will be labeled with the donor’s name and address.
It’ll look something like this.
All donors names will be

mentioned in the MU as well
Truffle Berries as the donation label. If you
731 Texas St. - Fairfield wish to remain anonymous
“Cookies from Home” just say so on your check.
Donated by:
Your name
Address
City, St, zip

We will run this program through February 18, so PLEASE participate
and make a kind gesture to show your appreciation to our service
people.

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Make your check payable to Truffle Berries and mail it to me.
Harry Diavatis
5087 Green Meadow Court
Fairfield, CA 94534
. . .

HD: On the Path to Health Log

Day 33: (January 23)
I had a good night’s sleep, in part because I didn’t take any Lasix,
therefore I didn’t have to get up five times in the middle of the night to
pee. I got up around 9 a.m., came downstairs, made myself some
coffee and a bagel, waited for the housekeeper to show up (she was
late as usual) and then went out for my longest walk so far (16 minutes
- about half a mile). It wasn’t easy, but it’s getting easier. I like
getting the walk over with so I don’t have to fret on it all day.

Day 34: (January 24)
I didn’t walk very far today, but I did other outdoor gardening type
chores to compensate a little.

Guess who finally is back home and called. Yep, the
“Bad Penny” (MFB) has returned. Has he come by to
see his ol’ buddy yet? Nope, after all he would have
to get into his car and drive all of a half a mile.

Day 35: (January 25) (Five weeks out)
I’ll start my day off by telling you of a dumb-ass thing
I did. A couple of days ago I noticed that General Motors (GM) stock
had been going down, but had a positive prognoses, so after the
market closed I put in a buy order for the following morning. The stock
had closed at $36.65 so I, the dumb-ass, put in a buy order at a $36.60
limit assuming it might go down a little bit more. It did not go down
but up… up… up. It’s currently going for $38.28. That’s what I get for
being greedy.
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Anyway, got a decent night’s sleep, came downstairs brewed some
coffee and made a couple of pancakes. I let the caffeine take effect
and then went out for my half mile walk. Glad that’s over for the day.

Patsy Dennis HH63 came over and gave me
another massage… Boy! Is that relaxing.

Later in the afternoon, His Highness Melvin F.
Brooks Jr. finally showed up bearing gifts. I
mean the man is generous to a fault (the San
Andreas fault.)

He gave me this lovely apron he bought in Mexico.
(Full of double entendre, of course.)

…and the brought me delicious Mauna
Loa Macadamias from Hawaii.

I LOVE macadamia nuts… but there was this one little
problem.

Melvin, the scoundrel,
replaced the macadamia
nuts with peanuts.

Hmmm… I guess it’s the thought that counts, but wotinell was he
thinking?

All in all, however, it was a very good day.

Day 36: (January 26)
I slept in shifts last night. Slept for 6 hours, was awake for a couple,
and then back to sleep for about 2 and a half more.

My mind had a little conversation with my body this morning about my
daily walk. The body doesn’t want to do it, but the mind browbeats the
body until it agrees.
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Some of my hesitation goes way back over 55 years. Let me tell you a
little story. When I was playing football at Vallejo High and the coach
said “Take a lap” there was a collective groan as if he was telling us to
run a marathon. In truth, a lap was only 440 yards around the track,
but we hadn’t been exposed yet to the running craze of a few years
later, so 440 yards was a hell of a long way. Now, when I set out to do
my walk, I think back to those days and realize that I have to walk
TWO of those. It’s something I wish I could forget. Later during the
running craze, I began jogging to lose weight and there was a time I
was running 8 miles a day. I even ran around Vallejo once… over 11
miles. But it’s that lousy track at the high school that still has me
spooked. LOL.

And to think that Karen Herlihy-Houston ‘62 used to run “Ultras” of 50
miles. What a gal!

Did a little gardening… mostly fed my citrus trees… I think I have about
17 of them. This’ll give them a little shot in the… stem? My gardener
still hasn’t finished pruning my trees so we can spray them. It’s
starting to get late as my peach tree blossoms are already straining to
emerge.

Day 37: (January 27)
This could be an interesting day, since I only got 5 hours of sleep last
night. Feel fine this morning… fried up some ham and eggs and made
my coffee.

I had my longest walk so far, but I still feel awfully weak. I’m getting
kind of tired of it. Hopefully, I’ll start to regain some strength in the
next 2-3 weeks.

Even with only five hours sleep I still managed to function, but now I’m
going to bed to read… and then, hopefully, to sleep.

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Day 38: (January 28)
Got to sleep at 10:30 p.m. and got up this morning at 7:30. Now, that’s
more like it.

For the first time I walked around the entire park a block from my
house. Felt tired but quite pleased with myself.

My cousin Nikko, called from Greece and we had a very nice conver-
sation. It turns out that one of my cousins had the same operation I
did but a couple of months before mine and he’s doing fine. I really
miss my cousins. I have 8 cousins in Greece: 6 on the island of Corfu
and 2 in Thessalonica. A few of them have visited here in the States
but I’ve only been back once, in 1993. I’m way overdue for a visit.

I decided that I needed to talk to my daughter Wendy about the
Cookies from Home program so I drove over to her Bakery. That’s the
first time I’ve driven since the surgery. I forgot that she always closes
on the last weekend of each month, so we spoke on the phone. We’ll
begin giving the cookies away today (Monday, 1/30/17)

Day 39: (January 29)
It’s beginning to look and feel like spring around here but I know it’s
not going to last. We’re supposed to have more rain by the end of the
week. I just hope that my fruit trees don’t blossom too early only to
have the rain knock them off and lose most of my fruit.

I wasn’t able to do my walk today, because I have a toe that’s hurting
and that’s excuse enough for me. Sally and I wanted to head up to St.
Helena and the Napa Olive Oil Co., one of our favorite places to buy
olive oil, various cheeses, dried olives and other sundry Eye-talian
foods, however, she still has that lingering bronchitis so we didn’t go
after all..

All in all it proved to be a very quiet and uneventful day around here.
. . .
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Fed Up with the School District? Sign the Online Petition
If you’re as curious as I am as to why the District spent $19,000 on 130 blazer
jackets for the Hospitality Academy, you just might want to sign this petition.
For months, community members have been asking Vallejo City Unified School
District (VCUSD) to be transparent with purchase orders. Demand that the newly
elected VCUSD Board and Superintendent Ramona Bishop instruct staff to answer
questions about purchase orders whenever the public asks. We need them to be
transparent and accountable to the public.
https://www.ipetitions.com/petition/tranparency-for-vcusd-purchase-orders-3

From: Allan Yeap ‘89
This is why the district should be careful about unnecessary technology expenses like
the below:
1) 34 inch curved monitor when a regular 34" flat screen monitor will do.
2) Brand new 60-75 inch monitors at the ISA (ex Vallejo Jr High School) still
not being used - room is not ready
3) 130 blazers for Hospitality Academy
4) New MacBook Air/laptops with retina display for district office staff

The district needs to prioritize its spending habits, educate students and retain/hire
teachers not continually buying brand new laptops/monitors, etc.

What is the technology plan for all the sites? Why does the Technology Dept not look
into buying refurbished equipment like other school districts?

How do you justify any of the above purchases?

Allan, I’d like to know the following:
1. How many members are there of the Hospitality Academy?
2. What is the function of this Hospitality Academy?
3. When and why would they wear the Blazers?
4. Do they get to keep the Blazers or are they checked out
to them as needed the way band uniforms are?
5. Why did they spend so much per Blazer when you can
purchase good quality Blazers for $100 from JC Penny?

. . .

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A Weekly Report in Support of Change to
the Vallejo School Board and Administration
The Tangled Web…

Time to Topple the Bishop

“The underlying problem is a complete lack of accountability
and awareness. And Burky Worel makes that point for us. No
outrage about the potential flagrant misappropriation of public
money for a 34 inch curved monitor that serves no justifiable

purpose. Huge outrage about public scrutiny." …Allan Yeap ‘89

When Burky Worel was elected to the School Board there was some
hope that he would help create positive change but, so far, that hasn’t
been the case. He has been contentious with the other Trustees and
does not appear to be a team player in the least. He is sarcastic and
caustic and, if he hasn’t already, will lose the trust and confidence of
his fellow board members… he’a already lost mine.

Allan Yeap, on the other hand, is a concerned citizen who is asking all
the right questions of the administration and shining a light on their
complete failure to follow procedure… their OWN written procedure.

Mr. Worel, rather than working with, and praising Mr. Yeap’s efforts has
chosen to demean him and insult him at every turn. Here is a recent
transcript of conversations between these two men that clearly show
that Worel considers Yeap as meddlesome. Personally, Allan’s my
hero.

From: Allan Yeap
Mon, Jan 23, 2017 at 7:47 PM
To: All
So we found the 34” curved monitor, thanks to Marianne Kearny-Brown and Bob
Lawson. We visited the district offices and the monitor was sent to technology upstairs.
We spoke with Lucius McKelvy, IT Director for the district. They bought this monitor for
one of his staff to use. These are the 3 reasons he gave for the purchase. I'll let the
public decide if these are credible reasons, but I'm in disbelief.
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