1966
Dianne Beebe Barske
dielbarske@alaska.com

I am turning over this class column to our 50th reunion committee and an update received from Ginny Wheeler Jones, M.A.’88. Yes, we are nosing up against 50 years since we graduated! Before I quote Ginny, I want to thank the committee members. Along with Ginny, they are Pat Vozar Bailey, Sarah Bruce, Susan Worth Fiala and Judy Messina. Save the dates—June 10 to 12, 2016. Here is Ginny’s update, written at the end of June 2014, “The 50th reunion committee has moved a little farther ahead! Pat Vozar Bailey and I were able to visit Hood and attend the alumni luncheon on June 7. We wanted a look at how things were organized for our big sisters’ 50th reunion! We had a great time and learned quite a few things. We enjoyed the campus and the chatting of ’66 memories between us. One of our highlights was talking with the chair of the 50th reunion for the class of ’63, Bobby Campbell Rickman ’63, M.A.’75, P’96, who was most helpful in planning our 25th! She has already shared a packet of useful details and ideas, making our attendance well worth it. From our visit, we learned there are some things we can begin to do now: 1. Start our own collection of photos and memorabilia from our Hood days, especially if this is a time of down-sizing for you–SAVE these things! 2. Consider if you, someone in your family or a friend would be willing and able to make a DVD to share at the reunion using photos collected from classmates. 3. Consider if you, someone in your family or a friend likes scrapbooking and would be willing and able to put some photos and information about each of us into a booklet to be copied. 4. Consider if you would like to help arrange the chapel service on Sunday morning of our reunion weekend that is led by our class. The College is extremely helpful with the planning of this big reunion! We have researched and it looks as we will be able to have a lovely place on campus for a sit-down dinner as requested as we left our 45th reunion! The committee will plan for another alumni weekend visit in June 2015 to gather final ideas then begin the real effort for our 50th reunion, as fund-raising can officially begin July 1, 2015. Our exciting time to be together again and celebrate our 50th will be here before we know it! If you would like to help in any way mentioned, please contact me at virginia.w.jones@gmail.com and I will share your interest with the committee. With thanks.” Ginny refers to downsizing. That is exactly what we did around Christmas, a few months ago, a drastic downsize! Our little home is about one-third the size of our big, old Anchorage house, home for 35 years. We love the new home, just a few minute walk from a pretty, little lake and a creek down the road, with miles of walking/biking trails. Among our first visitors, this past June, was one of my Hood roommates Jane Dearstyne Veeder and her husband Chuck. It had been 41 years since Janie and I had been together and the years just melted away as we visited and toured around Anchorage together.  Now, I have recently reconnected through Facebook with graduate school roommate Esther Paist who promises to visit next summer (I am putting this in print, Estie, to make it a real plan). Estie and I roomed together at the Univ. of Wisconsin in Madison. In July, we planned to leave for a Big Barske Beach family reunion at the Connecticut shore, and head off on a Prairie Home Companion Cruise to the Baltic––flying to London and sailing from Dover on to Copenhagen into a port in Germany connected to Berlin. Then, travel to Estonia and to St. Petersburg, Russia; Helsinki, Finland; then to Stockholm, Sweden. Let me pause there for a minute, since I am very happy about Stockholm. I planned to see Eva Redvall ’67 who was a Swedish exchange student while we were at Hood. I think a lot of you will remember her, very involved in music and now a European opera critic! I could not wait to see her. From Stockholm, we go back to Denmark and on to Dover to fly home! I hope a lot of us will begin planning for our 50th reunion!