2011 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 1,600 times in 2011. If it were a cable car, it would take about 27 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

Updated Look

Not having anything SHS related to post about, I decided to update the look and feel of this blog.  Just something fresh and new.

Remember to email me if you have anything you would like to post.  Scans of old memorabilia are especially appreciated.

A group of us recently ran into Mrs. Olesik (did I spell that right??).  She isn’t Mrs. Olesik anymore and has remarried.  It was great to see her again and I know my sister, Deb really appreciated having the opportunity to share with the person who  inspired her to go into teaching as her profession.

Update on Facebook

Hi to anyone who is still visiting this blog. 

I have created a SHHS Group on Facebook.  If you are on Facebook (and yes…it is mostly stupid), please look up the group and join us.  The name of the group is “Sacred Heart High School Alumni Dearborn, MI”.  We have  47 SHHS Alumni already as part of the group.  You might find some old friends.  This weeks conversation has been about our favorite teachers.

Come join us.

Blast from the Past, Part 2

After I posted the last…post, I got an email from Bob Petras.  I have also added two photos he sent as well. (Sorry I didn’t notice them in the email earlier.)  Here is his note:

While the meeting was certainly unexpected there is even a more unusual twist.  I graduated from college in 1976 and about 2 years later I met a classmate in a bank line in Detroit.  No other contacts with anyone from SHS until about 5 years ago when my wife and I were in Joe’s Produce in Livonia where we met Deb Trapp.

Fast forward five years and “Of all the gin joints, in all the towns, in all the world” I get to meet you Linda.

Forty years out of high school and I meet three classmates and two of them are named “Trapp.”  I have a feeling this isn’t over yet!

Now  for the baseball…..

I’ve had many possessions over my life and most of them I have no idea where they are.  Except for this baseball.  It has never left me.  At first I kept it to remember a great event but over the years it has come to be something to help me remember the times, the great people and hope that all are doing well.

Coach Harrison – Linda was right about the picture.  When I saw it on the blog I felt so bad that I didn’t come to see you.  Your arm around someone just like you used to me…”Calm down, throw a strike, let’s get out of this and go hit…”  You probably don’t thnk that you had any influence over a bunch of 17 year old hard heads but you did.  And I assure you that my sons and the teams that I coached learned how to bunt like you taught us, how  run bases and to even “nose it.”  More importatnly they learned how to honor the game, have respect for your opponent and to have pride in ourselves…..Just like you taught us….Thanks Coach!

And for all of you, thank you for all of the great memories and lessons that I learned at SHS. As I told Linda, to a great extent we are what we are because of those days.  And event though we were dumb kids that did some pretty dumb stuff at the time, I’m still very proud of that time.

While I’m not sure that I will ever see any of you again (probably since your name isn’t Trapp!) I just want you to know that I hope that over these years God has kept you in the palm of her hand keeping you safe, happy and at peace.

Finally for you Linda, I cannot tell you have grateful I am that you allowed me to sit and talk with you those two nights.  Be assured that was a joy that I will never forget.

My best wishes, hopes and prayers to you all,

Bob

Blast From the Past

It’s been a while since I posted anything new, but I recently had an encounter that I wanted to share.

I was down in the Atlanta area for work.  It was one of those long days of travel, followed by driving in the pouring rain and getting lost on the way to the hotel kind of stories.  Finally made it to the hotel, dragging my luggage and myself in, only to find that the hotel was being remodeled  and check-in was a couple of folding tables and a string of computers set up in the back hallway.  I was wet, tired and hungry, but they assured me that the hotel restaurant is open downstairs.

After a quick visit to my room I head downstairs…I think a drink is definitely in order here.  I proceed cautiously down to the lower level hallway and enter what appears to be one of their meeting rooms, with random tables set up with a make shift bar.  At first I think I have entered a private get-together, but they quickly assure me this was the restaurant.

Really?

Oh well, I’m too tired and hungry to fight it and I sit at one of the emptier tables, where I join another women and we both proceed to order our dinners and read our books.

Now here’s where it gets interesting.  Soon after, a man comes across the room and says “Were you on the flight from Detroit today?”

“Yes” I say.

“Is your sister Deb Trapp?”

“Yes” I say.

“Are you Linda Trapp?”

“Yes” I say again.  ”Can I ask how you know us”

“I’m Bob Petras”

Wow! I didn’t see that one coming at all.  What are the odds that we would both be on the same plane and then end up at the same  ”pretend” hotel in Alpharetta, Georgia.

Bob and I have a brief chat that night, but when I went down for dinner the next night he was there again so I joined him.  We talked for a long time.  Probably an hour or two.  He told me about his wife and kids and what he does for a living, but as you can imagine we spent most of our time talking about our memories.

He tells me many wonderful baseball stories.  He talks about the baseball that he has from his no hitter which has Coach Harrison’s and Gary’s autographs on it.  He also tells me that he has stumbled upon this blog and really wanted to come to our reunion, but in the end…didn’t.

He then pulls up the blog on his iPhone and I identified all the people he couldn’t easily recognize.  When he got to one of the photos where Coach Harrison was talking with a group of the guys and Coach had his left hand on Gary’s shoulder.  Bob told me that this photo was his favorite, because this was exactly how he remembered Coach Harrison…coming out to talk to him and putting his left hand on his shoulder to calm him down.

Such a great memory.  Such a great accidental meeting.  We both couldn’t help reminiscing about how special our high school experience was and how it still touches us today.

Before we ended our visit, Bob wanted me to make sure that I tell everyone that he loves you all and he is truly grateful for all the gifts you gave him.

Deb…I gave him a big push that he has to attend your class’s 40 year reunion coming up in 2012.

Now Bob…I’m waiting for your first comment and for the stuff you said you would send for posting.

Our 8th Grade Gifts and Predictions

Again…Greg has come through with some classic memorabilia.  The following is our 8th Grade Farewell document.  Don’t know exactly what to call it, but it was where we “left” something for the 7th Graders and predictions for our future.  The predictions are just so odd and random, I would love to know who actually made them up.  Really priceless. 

There are also a few “interviews” and our signatures.  Not sure my handwriting has improved all that much.

Enjoy this walk down memory lane.

Page 1

 

Page 2

 

 

First Grade News…2nd Edition

Hopefully you enjoyed the 1st Edition of the First Grade News, because now we have the 2nd Edition.  Thanks to Greg Smith’s mom for keeping these copies safe for all these years.

For some reason….this copy isn’t printing out the same as the previous, but you can open the link below and it should open a 3 page pdf.

1st Grade New 2

If anyone has problems opening this file, please leave a comment so I can work on a fix.

(Greg…sorry it took me so long to get this posted)

Read All About It…

I’ve been to Miller’s a few times recently.  The first was with “the girls” for our annual August get together.

The second was with Tris and Greg Smith.  Any of you that went to grade school at Sacred Heart will remember Greg.   Greg left SHS after 8th Grade  when he moved to Florida with his mother.

We had a great time catching up and revisiting some of our memories from those years.

Fortunately, Greg remembered that he had a mimeograph copy of our “First Grade News”.  (Ah…the smell of mimeograph in the morning!)  Does anyone remember that we published  a First Grade Newspaper.  I love that we charged 2 cents.

This is just all too cute for words.  Enjoy!

Page 1

Page 2

Page 3

If you have any school stuff that you would like to share, please let me know.  My email is trapp001@comcast.net.

Linda

Blog Views

We are very close to 8000 blog views.  That means there have been 8000 clicks on the different pages of the blog.  I think that’s a pretty good number since we have’t posted much new content since the photos from the reunion.  Out of nowhere, there were 67 views on June 8.

Just a reminder, if you have any content or pictures that you would like to share, just let me know.  I’d be happy to facilitate.

Happy summer to you all.

Linda

Facebook

Let me quailify what I am about to say with the fact that fundamentally, Facebook is pretty trite and stupid.  Overall, the design is not intuitive and getting inane updates about my brother playing Facebook Poker is almost aggrevating.

BUT…it has some interesting aspects too.  It is an easy way to stay in touch with or find long lost friends or family.  It’s also pretty simple to post pictures and stay in touch visually as well.

Recently, I have noticed an increase in Sacred Heart alumni on Facebook.  So far, from our class I’ve found Mary Jo Renaud, Catherine Powers, Mike Fedel, Paul Wolski and Ray Busuttil.  I’m sure there are others.  There are also a lot of alumni from other classes on Facebook.  Rose Gansen found me and she has a ton of SHS connections.

Are you wondering at all why I’m telling you all this or have you already figured it out?  If not…then, here’s my suggestion.  How about joining Facebook?  It could be kind of fun to have a bunch of us on there so we can stay in touch just a little better. 

And from a coordination standpoint, sure would like to be able to use it as an additional tool to keep us all connected. 

Feel free to tell me to go take a flying leap.  I’m sure there are a few of you out there who are fundamentaly opposed to all this social networking.  (I promise to never ask you to join Twitter.)

Hope things are going well for all of you.

With recent announcements about Facebook selling info…I can completely understand if you want to ignore this note.

Linda