West Harrison Class of 1986

West Harrison Class of 1986
Harrison County, Iowa

Mondamin, Modale, River Sioux, Little Sioux, and Pisgah
5 towns, all the country in between
and we still graduated 40 strong (or was it 39?)
"OH - MY - GOD!"


"Hooligan from the Hills: Growing Up Ornery in Iowa's Loess Hills" is finally done. Click the link below to purchase a copy.

Support independent publishing: buy this book on Lulu.


The 2006 Class of 1986 Memorial Scholarship of $500 was presented to Nikolas Glennie. That essentially depletes the Class of '86 funds.

 


The 25 Year Class Reunion will be on June 18th, 2011 at the Jimmy King Community Center in Mondamin


Thank you to all who have responded to the Reunion mailings. A big thanks for the scholarship donations, too.

Some people have asked how the 20th reunion went so here's a brief rundown:

Friday night I pulled onto the Slab in Mondamin, parked next to the Car Wash coin-op vacuum, and prepared to wait. It was about 8:31. The wait was short, however, since Brian W. arrived just a few minutes later, the first member of West Harrison's Class of 1986 I would see reunion weekend. We sat on the Slab in our trucks and talked for the better part of two hours, far longer than we ever had in high school. Twenty years after graduation and we discovered we had more in common than we ever knew. Around 10:30 we gave up on anyone else showing - apparently the same law enforcement agencies incapable of stopping a day light bank robbery in a town of 400 do have the wherewithal to prevent people from socializing in public spaces. Guess everyone has to excel at something. Anyhoo, I was glad I had the chance to talk to Brian.

Saturday night supper at the Pink Poodle in Crescent was a moderate success. My wife and I pulled into the parking lot the same time as Laura and her husband. We found that Tracy B. and his wife, Dawn, and Teresa and her husband, Brian, were already there. Shortly after we sat down several others trickled into the room. Stewart and his wife; Patricia, John and Dawn; Gina and her husband, Craig; Mark and his girlfriend, Tammy; Bobby and his fiance, Laura; Jana and her husband, Tony; Jodi and her husband, Pat; Cathy and her husband, Patrick; Aileen; and Tom rounded out the supper attendees. The drinks were cold, the food was good, the tales were tall, and the company was outstanding. We ate, drank, and told stories in the Pink Poodle dining area until they started turning off lights and flipping chairs upside down around us. Many of us then retired to the fine drinking establishment known as "Denny's" (a local bar, not the greasy spoon of Grandslam Breakfast and gastrointestinal distress fame) where several games of pool were played (poorly) and more lies about our school days were told. And, Stewert said I was a good looking man - not that there is anything wrong with that. Back in the day we (the whole class, not just Stewert and I - we're just friends) would have stayed out until dawn, maybe even had a cup of coffee at the Sunnyside Inn in Missouri Valley, but Sunnyside is now a church and none of us could stay awake past 1 a.m. so that's when we all left the watering hole and went home.

Sunday was West Harrison Day at Rosenblatt Stadium. Attended by Aileen, Angie, Jana and her family, Laura and spouse, and Tom and his family, we - by far - were the most boisterous group in the stands that day. Despite the strike-out that directly resulted from the "Heeeyyyy, badda, badda, badda, badda, SUH-WIINNNGG BAADDDAAA!" led by Tom and the jumbotron performance of "YMCA" by Laura's Mark and yours truly, the O Royals fell to the Memphis Redbirds. Other highlights of the day included the foul ball Angie took home and the welcome message to the "West Harrison Class of 1986" shown on the jumbotron in the middle of the fifth inning. And, Tony and I decided that it was the ballfield in Dow City that had a cornfield instead of an outfield fence.

And, finally, on Monday Aileen, my wife, and I did our best to beautify the area in front of the West Harrison sign along Highway 127. Some ornamental grass, seedum, and mulch made the area look a little better. We then went over to the Mondamin City Park and had a cookout. Teresa and, a short while later, Tom stopped by the park shelter, too.

And that concluded the festivities of the Class of 86 2x10 Reunion. Plans for the 25th will begin in about 3 1/2 years.

Class mates whom I've not been able to contact via email:
Troy Beebe, Brad Evers, John Meyer, Deana (Squier) Brown, and Ron Claypool

Please let them know I am looking for them and, if possible, email me with an update.


1986

"How embarrassing"

$1.25 Gas

Wrestlemania II

Starship

Asia

Family Ties

The Cosby Show

Moonlighting

Top Gun

Crocodile Dundee

Platoon

Ferris Bueller's Day Off

NY Mets win the Series

The Refrigerator Perry, Sweetness Payton, and Jim McMahon shuffle to a Super Bowl victory

Boston Celtics rule the NBA

Louisville wins March Madness

and the greatest group of people I've ever known graduated from West Harrison