News from Derek, 29 July,2006!

Well, here it is 2006. Forty-Three years and counting from our high school reunion and 3 years since our 40th reunion.

That was a good time.

It seems that  Doreen Faulkner was talking to Wayne Carson and they decided that this year would be a great time to get together.

Wayne has kindly volunteered to host an afternoon/evening at his place.

They decided that July 29th (Saturday) would be a good time.

Start time: 4:00 p.m. Wayne's place.

End time: when they kick us out.

We have all been asked to bring an appetizer. 

It's been a crappy summer weatherwise so far, so I have decreed that July and August are going to be beautiful.

I'm hoping that anyone who can possibly make it will come.

I know I have an extra bedroom as do many others, so, if you are counting pennies, just find the bus fare and get over here.  Someone will be happy to put you up.

Wayne and Dianne's address is:

[Available from Derek directly or through the webmaster.]

Drop me a note if you have any questions.

Oh and if you are coming an email rsvp would be great so Wayne has some idea of how many lawn chairs to scrounge up.

Speaking of which, if you are local, toss a couple of lawn chairs in your chariot;  old butts need to sit.

Ciao

Derek

On this page we will have correspondence and notes about doings by alumni and such other material as we all think fit. Email addresses are not put up here because of spam and other problems. If you wish to contact somebody in these pages, send a note along to the webmaster and your address will be passed to the poster.

Carol Miller writes (990817):

Hi John

It looks really good. I'd forgotten so many faces! Have to find the annual

and have another look. I do remember that Mr & Mrs Orr were chaperones when we went to Europe and I have slides of that trip that I can probably dig out with Oak Bay people. There'll be Roy Mercer and a few other teachers in the slides as well I'm sure.

....

Have you heard from any other former Oak Bay Grads? I'd like to find Judy Chamberlain but don't know where she is or her name now.

...

Well must go. Good luck with the web page .

Carol

Carl Cohen is in charge of the Oak Bay High website. He and the author had corresponded about this page at the end of the first week in August, when the first two pix had been done and the site itself was just hot air. Carl came back from holidays to see the first fruits up on the web.

(990821)

Hello John,

I just returned from holidays. Your site is magnificent! You have obviously laboured over this for many (dozens of) hours. I will

put a link to your site up on our "happenings" page when I do the next update (soon I hope). When we finally put together the

new alumni site, I will link to it from there. Great job!

Carl

"Labour" is the word, Carl. Trying to stuff new information into an old brain is labour indeed. Technical documentation is more my bag, this material is a bit different!

Lorne Bradshaw had his email address on the Oak Bay High website so he was invited to take a look at this beta version. He wrote to say:

(990830)

...

It was great looking through the old photos and reading your comments. What a great idea, and well done too!

...

Lorne Bradshaw OBHS alumni 1963

Lorne then told John Lund about the site. John took a look and wrote right away to say that he had had a kick out of the site. He thought that it was neat to have this history available on line. He identified Bob McLaren on the track meet page.

He is loaded down with work at the moment but he is going to scan a couple of pix of himself when he gets a moment and send a paragraph of biography for posting on the site here. Everybody else, please do the same!

Andy Cleland writes (990902) that Lorne Bradshaw told him about this test site. He has had a look and enjoyed the pix. Though he is a '62, he recognized many faces. He is disappointed that the '62's haven't a site on the net. Well, Andy, they are sure welcome to camp here. We can make a bit of space for you guys by shrinking down pictures or increasing the compression.

[990905 1962 notice board and reunion discussion page established. JN]

Andy wrote a great email identifying faces and making useful observations. Andy likes the idea of offering a place here not just for the '63's but for everybody who graduated in '61, '62 and '63. Well, '64's are embraced here, too, Andy. He is going to solicit photographs for the site from others.

From what Andy says, Mr. Orr was married by the summer of '62. Gentles, does anybody know what happened to Mr. Mercer after we left?

Oh, yes. Andy, ahh, "raises" the matter of hemlines. This matter is growing serious. We need chapter and verse on the yo-yoing hemlines of the O.B.H.S. cheerleaders in the early sixties! Andy's 1962 annual shows Donna Bishop and Sue Stoddart in little skirts yet in these pix the girls have long skirts and your author recalls distinctly that cheerleader skirt length was addressed at some length by Chas in a p.a. announcement, apparently in response to complaints. Did Chas force already raised cheerleader hemlines back down in 1963? This has become a matter of great import on this site! We need a contribution from the girls here.

Andy has one last question, this about "Oak Bay Senior Secondary School". The name seems to have been changed from Oak Bay High School and then back again to Oak Bay High School. Who can tell the tale?

Carol Miller (990904)

Hi John I recently heard from Eileen Davies(Shool). She;'s now in Tasmania married to a minister.I've sent her your website so you'll probably hear from her soon.

Reunion idea sound[s] great.Say Hi to John Lund for me.Where is he now?

Have to go get dinner on Take care

Carol

Eileen Davies (990909) writes from Hobart. Eileen was a teacher in Australia and moved to Tasmania 18 months ago.

John!!!!!

My goodness you never know who'll you'll meet when you enter the world of cyber space.

...

Great to hear about the reunion ideas...

Great to hear from you and to know that

SOMEWHERE out there people are interested in keeping the OBHS Spirit alive!

Cheers

Eileen

[There have been some technical difficulties at Eileen's end in reading the html. Let's see if the old webmaster can beat the bugs out for her. Hmm, maybe she is using Mr.Bill's software!

Here's a little levity for those who have wrestled with Microsoft's products and Microsoft's documentation.

+++++

If Restaurants Functioned Like Microsoft...

Patron: Waiter!

Waiter: Hi, my name is Bill, and I'll be your Support.

Waiter. What seems to be the problem?

Patron: There's a fly in my soup!

Waiter: Try again, maybe the fly won't be there this time.

Patron: No, it's still there.

Waiter: Maybe it's the way you're using the soup. Try

eating it with a fork instead.

Patron: Even when I use the fork, the fly is still there.

Waiter: Maybe the soup is incompatible with the bowl. What

kind of bowl are you using?

Patron: A SOUP bowl!

Waiter: Hmmm, that should work. Maybe it's a configuration

problem. How was the bowl set up?

Patron: You brought it to me on a saucer. What has that to

do with the fly in my soup?!

Waiter: Can you remember everything you did before you

noticed the fly in your soup?

Patron: I sat down and ordered the Soup of the Day!

Waiter: Have you considered upgrading to the latest Soup

of the Day?

Patron: You have more than one Soup of the Day each day??

Waiter: Yes, the Soup of the Day is changed every hour.

Patron: Well, what is the Soup of the Day now?

Waiter: The current Soup of the Day is tomato.

Patron: Fine. Bring me the tomato soup, and the check.

I'm running late now.

[waiter leaves and returns with another bowl of soup

and the check]

Waiter: Here you are, Sir. The soup and your check.

Patron: This is potato soup.

Waiter: Yes, the tomato soup wasn't ready yet.

Patron: Well, I'm so hungry now, I'll eat anything.

[waiter leaves.]

Patron: Waiter! There's a gnat in my soup!

The check:

Soup of the Day . . . . . . . . . . $5.00

Upgrade to newer Soup of the Day. . $2.50

Access to support . . . . . . . . . $1.00]

+++++

Eileen has written again (990914). She is going to send along some prints for scanning. They will be put up on the site upon delivery.

Eileen's prints arrived on the 22^nd of September. They will be scanned, edited and put up on the site as soon as possible. To make room for them, the photographs in the athletic pages will be reduced in size.

This is where your note will go.

Reunion

John Lund shares with the author the idea that we all ought to get together again before we are all in wheelchairs or have lost our smarts.

Sooner is better, let's do it in the year 2000. It need not be the huge production the hard working committee put on in 1988. If nothing else, we might consider laying on a dinner in Victoria in the summer of 2000 to allow the main players in a reunion to see each other and to talk about what should be done for a comprehensive reunion, John's suggestion, in 2003, the 40^th year. In fact, an annual dinner is not a bad idea of itself. It would be great if the girls could haul out all the stuff they produced in 1988. We would like to see it all again; it borders on being memorabilia in itself now.

Part of the response to John's suggestion is this page. It had not been intended to put up this notice board with the site in its nascent state but it is important that we have a nucleus for the class if there is going to be another reunion. This site will serve in the absence of any other.

Reunion Progress

020425

Derek Hamlet wrote at the beginning of April to say that a committee had been formed in Victoria to arrange a reunion of the 1963 class. Responses were sent off to Derek's suggestions and a place holding website was put up at once on a utility site for the committee. Derek said in his last email that the committee was to meet on the evening of the 23^rd of April. Derek was asked for a report of the deliberations. At this writing, no information has appeared.

020429

Derek has sent out the first of what we hope will be many emails updating the reunion committee's progress:

+++++

Hi,

Well, the 20 year reunion went so well, a small group of us have Decided that we should try and do something for our 40th. We have had a couple of meetings, discussed a few ideas tentatively, assigned ourselves a few tasks and hope to proceed from there.

I volunteered to try and start some communication. Until, necessary I'm hoping we can avoid paper, envelopes and stamps to find information, contact folks, share information etc.

John Nightingale has already created a website. It is his own, very vintage Jungle John and a treat to visit. It can be found at:

http://munrotechnical.com

[dedicated reunion site at: http://members.shaw.ca/relays/ ]

John has graciously agreed to assist those of us who are more cyber Challenged (me) in putting together some stuff, pages, links etc. As I get enough information I will post a list of names and email addresses plus, of course, encouraging people to register on the OBHS site like you did. This will not only aid in knowing where people are, but, also allow those who go there a chance to contact people.

The organizing committe is small. At present it consists of (graduating names, not other names picked up along the way) Donna Bishop, Bruce Parker, Judy Vaio, Derek Hamlet, Bob Hall and Wayne Carson. Linda Poyntz will join us starting next meeting. As tasks become defined, we'll try and inveigle others to join, maybe have subcommittees etc. (Damn thought I'd left all that behind me when I retired).

We hope to steal every good idea we can from other people's experiences, our own experiences with the 20 year reunion and input from anybody and everybody. Beyond that there is little more to say right now.

We need contact information. If you know the locations of any of our 63 class members, please drop me a line at <derekhamlet@shaw.ca> with names, addresses? And emails so we can include them in communications.

Thanks and talk with you soon.

Derek Hamlet

Victoria, British Columbia

+++++

The Year 2001

The year 2001 has come and now just about gone as this is written on the 7^th of December. No open reunion took place but maybe we can meet in Victoria in 2002. Please, everyone, understand that actuarial reality is chasing along behind us and, year by year, gaining on us, the class 1963. We are like so many caribou "run" down a frozen lake by wolves as we flee from middle aged to elderly. The wolves, for us, are our years and the growing pack of them has begun to bring us down. By the time we are 65, a good third of us won't be able to attend. Sooner is better. How about giving the girls a rest and just having a dinner, maybe with others from the sixties, too? Maybe plans could be laid at that dinner for something more organized for our fortieth, only a year away, now.

Gerry Hagberg

Gerry Hagberg has written! He and your webmaster have been corresponding and Gerry is able to contribute to the site substantially. The first fruits of the collaboration appear in this first update since the Spring and the availability of a high speed connection. Have a look at School Life, Page 8. There is neat class picture and Gerry has nailed all the names but two. Help us out with those two names, please.

The photograph with the best technical quality is that of Bernd and his date at the dance. Gerry identifies Bernd's date as Jane Hassen.

Server Space

"Uhhhh, Huston, we have server space!"

Oh, do we have server space now. Send in your pictures one and all!

The repeated periods of down time on the old server may be at an end. As some reported, there were periods when the site was unavailable and, in both this Winter and last Winter, months at a time when the machine was not available. It was free space and we owe a debit of thanks to the fellow who hosted the site from the Fall of 1999 to the present.

There is a brave new system at your webmaster's operation now. When an acquaintance heard that a router had gone in there (there seemed to be something odd going on with the computer and a little more security was in order), the last piece of an idea he had had for some time fell into place. He had been chatting for some while about putting together a server out of odds and ends. This fellow scrounged up the makings of a server all the way down to keyboard and monitor, set it up and debugged it and then announced that he did not want to invest the time in administering it. Unlike your webmaster, he is still tilting with Maxwell's realities (and those of Murphy!) in advanced radio. How could your webmaster say: "No"? He couldn't. He is the administrator.

In spite of the unpromising candidate thrust into the role of systems administrator, this set up will have better up time than its predecessor. That will be the case since it is right here on site and can be doctored at once should it be feeling poorly. Its predecessor did not have on site attention for long periods.

With this system now operating with some integrity, an f.t.p. service can be operated. An anonymous f.t.p. server is an open invitation to bad guys so those of you who would like to move data in truck load quantities, send along an email to the webmaster and he will assign you a user name and password. There is a great advantage here. Many of you will not be in a position to manipulate photographs that you have. Now that is not required. Simply have the photograph scanned at medium to high resolution and upload the file to the server here. Probably the fellow who does that scanning job can then send the file to the web master for you and right then and there; it will be easy for him, he will know just what's required. When begging his services, it is important to emphasize that none of his time will be burned up in correcting and editing the digital image. It can be sent off as is and that's the end of the matter to him.

If you haven't sent material by f.t.p. before and would like to learn, we can chat by telephone and you can be talked through the process in real time. Web browsers (Internet Explorer and Netscape, for instance) do the job just fine so the only application you will require you already have or you wouldn't be reading this!

If you would like to do that, you may even brew your own complete suite of web pages and that can go up on the site. The content must be about O.B.H.S. in our era and today, not mail order vegetable slicers.

Committee News 030113

Derek has just sent out an email to everybody whose email address he has:

+++++

Greetings Class of 1963

The Christmas Season is behind us and the reunion committee wants to get updated information out to you so you can make plans for attending the 40 year reunion in June of 2003.

For some you this will be the first communication on the 40 year reunion plans for others the second. So please bear with me if some of this is repetitive. To keep costs down and to speed up communication, we'll communicate by email where possible. So, please give us your email in addition to address, postal code and phone number. You can email the information to: Linda Campbell (Pointz) at cordova300@shaw.ca or mail it to her at :

5145 Cordova Bay Road,

Victoria, B. C.,

V8Y 2K1.

For those of you who don't use email communication will be a bit slower. Here are the plans at the moment. The dates are set.

The 40 year reunion of the Oak Bay Class of 1963 will be the weekend of June 25-27 [Attention: these dates are in error, the actual dates are June 27-29. The logo and other information are correct, this email is wrong. See Derek's correction below.] in Victoria. At the moment we have the following things already planned. On Friday evening there will a casual drop in, meet and greet at the beach front home of Linda (Poyntz) Campbell in Cordova Bay. Linda has graciously offered us the use of her home, patio and beach for the occasion. If it gets really crowded then we can use Bruce Parker's place as well which is about a ¼ mile up the beach. This is intended to be a casual meet and greet BYOB occasion for the grads; a chance to leave partners and spouses away from it all and reminisce with old friends. So dress casually and bring the liquid refreshment of your choice. We'll arrange nibblies (did I use that word) and mixers and have contingency plans ready in case of rain.

Saturday evening will be a more formal get together intended for grads and/or grads and their partners and spouses. We have booked the Victoria Golf Club who is very experienced in hosting such events and are particularly pleased to have another Oak Bay reunion under their roof. We have made some tentative plans already around menus, entertainment etc., but, are open to hearing from any of you about things to do to make it a memorable evening. The golf club can handle special dietary needs so if that's you please let us know so we can give them some advance notice. Some grads have suggested that we should try and arrange a "walk through" at the school, recreational activates etc. for Saturday during the daytime. That is certainly a possibility. Please share any of your creative ideas along these lines. Needless to say there are costs involved in all of this. Wayne Carson agreed to act as treasurer and he is looking forward to receiving your cheques to ensure your place is reserved for the events.

When you contact Wayne please note on your envelope that it is regarding the OBHS Class of 63 Reunion.

The contact is:

Wayne Carson,

OBHS63 Reunion.

1491 Kersey,

Brentwood Bay, B. C.,

V8M 1J5

[Derek advises the webmaster (030114) that cheques should be made out to Wayne personally. Derek explains that a business account was not opened for the reunion because of the expense and the pack drill. Wayne has established a separate account in his name in order to handle the funds.]

Here are the proposed costs:

· Weekend for 1 -$100

· Weekend for 2 - $160

The weekend for 2 idea is for couples not finding your old buddy from the class of 63 to keep costs down.

If you can only make it to one event, then the cost per night is:

Friday night $25

Saturday night $ 75

The registration deadline is May 15th. At that time we will have an Early Bird incentive draw and the person or couple whose name is chosen from a blind draw will receive their registration free. After that time there will be a $10 dollar surcharge on registering. So get those registrations in to Wayne. I'm sure you have questions and hope you will jot them down and send them to the committee via my email address (derekhamlet@shaw.ca) or via letter, which would be:

Derek Hamlet,

C/O OBHS Class of 63 Reunion,

989 Foul Bay Road,

Victoria, B. C.,

V8S4H9.

Below is a list of those folks we have not yet found. If you have any information on how to contact them please let us know. And finally, here are the names addresses and phone numbers of the committee members. Please feel free to contact us with your creative ideas.

Regards,

The Committee

OBHS Class of 63 Reunion

Still Missing List

Derek Hamlet

Victoria, British Columbia

Committee News 030114, Derek's Correction Email

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Hi all,

Well apparently if I looked at the 2003 calendar instead of 2004 we'd all be much better off. Bruce Parker phoned and said, "don't send that email". A tad late for that, but, thanks Bruce. The dates are: June 27-29 2003. That's the Friday through Sunday.

Bruce also suggested that the memo should have said, "Make your cheques out to Wayne Carson". We were going to set up separate accounts with a special name and all that good stuff, but, discovered that makes it a business account with additional costs so we just set it up as a personal account in Wayne's name.

Derek Hamlet

Victoria, British Columbia

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This is where your note to the class goes!

Oh, yeah, just so you don't forget:

Names Hard Coded

To allow better access by the 'bots, the names appearing on the site are hard coded here. In order to find one of these names, just go up to the top of this page and press the "Index" button.