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Donna (Baitzer) Lee, Class of 1963

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Subject:     Grandchildren - Again
Date:         Sat, 10 Jan 2004 10:34:55 -0800
From:        Donna Lee <needleworker@att.net>
To:            Keeping in Touch <needleworker@att.net>

Friends and Family,

These are the kinds of pictures you'd like to have before Christmas, so you could send them out in your cards!

Here are pictures of all four of our local grandchildren. Nicole is 12, Sarah is almost 4, Brandon is 11, and Jacob is almost 6. I'm including the picture of Sarah alone because it is such a clear look at her face, which can be hard to get. She moves all the time! It also shows the vanity we gave her for Christmas and the Cinderella slippers she got from Aunt Janis and Uncle Kevin. She is really a girl!!

I hope 2004 is off to a good start for you. Our snow is pretty much gone, and the rain has returned. A mixed blessing - I enjoy the snow, but it's sure hard to get around in! We don't have to shovel rain!

Blessings to you!

Donna

Charlie,

Thank you so much for sending the tape and CD! What do I owe you for these? I've taken a quick look at the CD, but I haven't had a chance to explore it thoroughly or watch the tape. I know I'll enjoy them! I keep thinking of names of people in your class and wondering where they are, so this will be fun.

I appreciate your thoughtfulness!

Reservations for our reunion are apparently coming in slowly, but I'm hoping the pace will pick up. I'm sure glad they chose October - have you seen the Tucson temperatures??!!??

Donna 

Charlie, I didn't know about Mr. Heslep.  I remember him well!

Charlie,

I am embarrassed to realize that I never responded to your offer of a copy
of the tape and CD you made of your reunion. Please accept my apologies! I'd
dearly love to have them!

I was very sorry to hear about George Jackson, as I remember him well. The
information about Mr. Wilson was not so surprising, but he certainly had a
huge impact on many young people. (Rather like Bill Funk!) You have received
a message from my brother, Les Baitzer (spook01@aol.com) about some of his
memories.

The invitations for our reunion are out, and I'm definitely planning to
attend. I have high hopes of seeing there some people who have not attended
in the past, like Jane Pennington and Winnie Larsen. I'm also hoping to drag
Sammie Collins with me, kicking and screaming if necessary. It will be good
to see Patsy and Joe and Karen Monrad and Twink again, too.

Spring has been busy for me, and Summer could be, too. I've been to Tampa to
celebrate and aunt and uncle's 65th wedding anniversary. My husband, Matt,
met me in Denver, as he hadn't come home from Tucson before this trip began!
(He has rentals there and usually has to spend time there every year doing
maintenance work.) I've also been to San Luis Obispo, California, to see my
mother. Add to that a 10-year-old grandson who plays baseball, and you have
some busy people!

My best to you, and, again, please forgive my thoughtlessness.

Donna

Subject: FW: Amphitheater High School Class of 1963 Reunion

Winnie and Bob

I got this today from Karen Monrad Groseclose, and you two are in my e-mail book and not, I think, on Classmates. This seems to me a good idea for contacting everyone inexpensively.

Charlie, I thought you'd be interested that planning for our own 40th has begun!

Donna
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From: kagroseclose@cox.net
Date: Sat, 13 Apr 2002 12:09:51 -0700 (PDT)
To: needleworker@att.net
Subject: Amphitheater High School Class of 1963 Reunion

This is a message from KAREN GROSECLOSE and Classmates.com.

Hello Donna,

You've been invited to the Amphitheater High School Class of 1963 Reunion!

Here are the details:    This is YOUR reunion, so please help us plan it to meet your expectations.  Patsy Hand Frannea, Twink (Ingrid Eckholm) Monrad, Sylvia Gastelum Amparano and anyone else willing to work will listen and follow your recommendations.    Please contact othersand get
them to sign up on Classmates.com so we can limit postage to those without Web access.    We will post a "lost & found list" and other information as time passes.  If you know where people are that are not on Classmates, please encourage them tojoin.  (No cost unless you want all of the extra features.)    We are looking forward to seeing all of you for our 40th Amphi Class of 1963 Reunion.

Karen Monrad Groseclose

To learn more about Amphitheater High School Class of 1963 Reunion, go to your reunion page
at Classmates.com by clicking the link below:
http://www.classmates.com/go/e/20894921/R100/RE1

Hello, All,

I thought you'd enjoy seeing this rare picture of all of our local grandchildren.
How often can you get 4 children together looking so cute??!!??

From the left, our two redheads. Jacob is 4 and is Laney and Robert's first child. Brandon is 9 and is Janis and Kevin's younger. The cutie on Nicole's lap is Sarah, who is now 2 and is Jacob's sister. Lovely Nicole is 10 - almost 11 - and is Brandon's sister. This was  taken last Summer, at Nicole's birthday party, but it is a very good representation of what they look like even today. I could go on and on about the special features of each person here, but you'd become bored very quickly! Let me offer just a thumbnail:

Jacob: 4 going on 27

Brandon: an "old soul" and our baseball player

Sarah: Janis all over again (It's not at all fair to Laney!)

Nicole: one of the kindest children you'll ever know

I am one blessed Grandma!!

Donna 

I did go back and read David Copperfield many years ago, and I really loved it. The humor came through for me then! And, I remain an avid reader, so I must have "caught" something.

A comment you made, in an e-mail exchange on your website, caught my eye. You were speaking of the ability, or lack of it, to write well. Several years ago, I had a new set of managers at work, and they decided we needed to write business cases for everything we wanted to change. (In an unregulated business, this is a given, of course. In the telephone company world, this was a new idea.) I have no degree, and I certainly had never written a business case. I did so, however, and I was gratified by my director's first remark: "This was done by someone who knows how to write." All those years paid off, and the business case was approved! I do appreciate my education!

Donna 

The movie was better than the book.  It is too bad that many of our HS reading efforts were mandated and, thus, a chore rather than a pleasure.  Rereading later in life can be better, but it may only remind one of the torture of the first time through.  Also, Shakespeare, Chaucer -- all lost in a world of academic oppression.  Spontaneity beats obligation in many things (he said, stating the obvious).

Charlie

From: Donna Lee [mailto:needleworker@att.net]
Sent: Thursday, January 31, 2002 10:05 AM
To: cjones@technidigm.org
Subject: Re: This Is a Test
 

I've often thought I'd like to read it again, to see if I could enjoy it for
what it is - an adventure story! 

Yes, adventure books need to get off to a good start, just like adventure movies.  I suppose "once upon a time" does not motivate and activate a fresh spot in the imagination.

Charlie

From: Donna Lee [mailto:needleworker@att.net]
Sent: Wednesday, January 30, 2002 11:56 PM
To: cjones@technidigm.org
Subject: Re: This Is a Test
 

Very clever. Right you are. I can remember wondering if every darned book I
read would require exhaustive analysis of the first sentence! 

http://www.salon.com/audio/fiction/2001/11/20/moby_dick/

Charlie Jones

This is a pop quiz. The attached cartoon was in this morning's Seattle Times. What book is she listening to?

Have fun!

Donna 

Hi, Charlie,

I'll take a moment now to give you a very brief summary of my last 39 years.

Married Skip Wheeler in 1964 - he was in my class. Had two daughters; he left in 1976. I married Matt Lee (originally from Benson, of all places) in 1986, and we moved to Seattle that year. He's retired from Hughes Aircraft in Tucson and Boeing here - an EE and MBA. We live in a suburb on the east side of Lake Washington - Issaquah - and I absolutely love this place and its climate.

I worked for the "telephone company" for almost 27 years and retired in 1999 as a product manager. Started with Mountain Bell in Phoenix and moved with them to Tucson, Denver, and Seattle. LOVE retirement. My two daughters live in this area, and Matt's two sons live in Phoenix and Palm Springs. We proudly share 9 grandchildren, and we are very involved in the lives of the ones who live here. (Two boys and two girls. Boys are different!!) See the others as often as we can; the oldest is 24 and the youngest is 6 months.

Do you still play your horn? When I think of the things I did in high school that are with me today, reading is certainly on the list. I'm also still sewing, as you might have guessed from my e-mail address. Hopelessly domestic, I'm afraid.

I appreciated the lists of folks on your website and will probably contact Nancy Hillhouse. The list of deceased is shocking - Art Twomey?!? How very well I remember him! Life is precious.

Donna