September newsletter: We are celebrating 25,000 hits on our blog. Follow links to the stories you might have missed.

September newsletter: We are celebrating 25,000 hits on our blog. Follow links to the stories you might have missed. View this email in your browser Hello Classmate Milestone: 25,000 Hits on Our Class Stories Your stories about life at Central in 1963-1966 and what's happened to you since then has been a smashing success.  We have reached 25,000 viewings of our blog. In celebration of the milestone, we've put together a video making a little fun of some of the people behind the scenes at the blog.   You must watch this video to the end, because like dessert at a dinner party, the really good stuff comes at the end.   See Carole Tonigan dance on the bar. Watch Rory King shake his marimbas. And marvel at Terry Rawstern, Bob Couser and Tim Schreiner doing the shimmy-shimmy-shake.   Click on the video box below to watch the video. Southern Boy in a Strange Land: Ferrell Greene's Move to Aberdeen   In his junior year, Louisiana native Ferrell Greene moved to a new town and new school because his pastor father was asked to minister to a local church. He was a stranger in a strange land, to be sure. Here are his stunning reflections on attending the 50-year reunion. Read Ferrell's account here ... When Opposites Attract, or How I Met My Best Friend Joan Wiederhoft had bangs to her eyebrows; Linda Strecker wore headbands. One loved the Beatles, the other loved music from The King and I. Despite their differences, they became best friends — for life. Check out more of Joan's story, her love for her friend and the sorrow that came when that close friend died. Love At First Bite Al and Shirley Breaw came back to Aberdeen for the 50-year reunion, but it wasn't the best reunion in their eyes. The 20-year reunion can't be topped for them. They hated each other in high school. Then, at the 20-year reunion, they found that they didn't hate each other. Soon after, they were married—and they're still together. You'll smile when you read their romantic story ... If Mr. Ellis Were Principal in 2016 We all thought Willard Ellis was a bit old-fashioned and out of touch in 1966. David Liem talks about how Ellis would handle Central's 2016 students. Read David's thoughts ... Civic Auditorium: The Stage For Our Lives As children we went to the Shrine Circus in this building; we graduated by marching across its stage. The place saw everybody from Roy Rogers to John F. Kennedy, Jerry Lee Lewis to Merle Haggard. Here's a link to a post about its history and our recollections of what we saw there ...   Jo Wiederhoft Davis' story on the importance of the Civic Auditorium ... Facing Our Mortality, Rory Talks About the Real Meaning of Success Yes, there's money and power, but in one of our most popular posts, Rory King shares another concept of success. Read his thoughts by clicking here ... From Central to Saudi Arabia: Skip and Donna after school Classmates Skip Johnson and Donna Petersen Johnson tell the story of their lives in the Middle East and their retirement in Mexico.  See their first-hand account here ...   More Stories From the Class of 1966 In case you missed it above, and if you want to watch it again, here's a link to a blog post on our video celebrating 25,000 hits ... Carole Tonigan's memories of the x-ray fluoroscope, a salesman's best friend for fitting shoes on our young feet — — — Webb's Shoes, in business since 1909 and a staple on Main Street, is closing. Who remembers the sports store in the basement? — — — Six Stories of Potential: The Citizens Building, where we visited the doctor, bought our insurance and hired our lawyers ... — — — Henry Neill Elementary School, its founder, its history and our early years there. It is now gone. Story by Bob Couser ...  — — — Travel back in time to see Aberdeen as it really was. Old photos of some of the important places and buildings in our fair city ... — — — Rich D'Amico's time working at our favorite service station, M&H, where gasoline was cheap and access to the bathrooms was essential   Copyright © *|CURRENT_YEAR|* *|LIST:COMPANY|*, All rights reserved. *|IFNOT:ARCHIVE_PAGE|* *|LIST:DESCRIPTION|* Our mailing address is: *|HTML:LIST_ADDRESS_HTML|* *|END:IF|* Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list *|IF:REWARDS|* *|HTML:REWARDS|* *|END:IF|*

How Would Willard E. Ellis Handle Discipline in 2016 by "Bad to the Bone" David H. Liem

Let's compare our Class of '66's disciplinary experiences with those of 2016 students. In our era, school infractions were dealt with swiftly and decisively by our beloved principal Willard E. Ellis, or simply, WILLARD. Today's students, aka Snowflakes, do not tolerate Microaggressions, demand both Psychological Safe Zones and good grades to augment their Self-Esteem. Today, a college administrator comes into a class and says: "How's everyone doing?" and a student exclaims, "I suffered a microaggression, I didn't have a trigger warning about the subject matter in today's class". THAT'S 2016!

We knew how WILLARD dealt with our school infractions in 1966.  I thought it would be interesting to speculate on, assuming he was coerced by the current Politically Correct (PC) culture, how he would hand out discipline on the same infractions today. 

Infraction 1966: Smoking in the bathroom.

WILLARD PC: May I suggest filtered cigarettes, less tar and less nicotine.

Infraction 1966: Busted for Graffiti on school walls.

WILLARD PC: Good job! I love street art. 

Infraction 1966: Dropping a deuce into a classmate's tennis shoe in their school locker (one of my sons actually did this in junior high school).

WILLARD PC: A-OK! Getting enough fiber in a diet is good. 

Infraction 1966: Giving an underclass male student a "SWIRLY" (sticking one's head in the toilet and flushing it).

WILLARD PC: How kind of you for washing your friend's hair. 

Infraction 1966: Doing donuts on a frozen high school parking lot.

WILLARD PC: Wonderful, He must be prepping for his winter’s Driver’s Education course. 

Infraction 1966: TP-ing the principal's home. 
WILLARD PC: Double ply, great choice!  We will recycle this tissue. 

Infraction 1966: Giving an underclass male student a "Melvin" or an atomic wedgie in the hall.

WILLARD PC: Oh, I see you're wearing HANES. Good choice! 

Infraction 1966: Having sex in the back seat of your car in the school parking lot at lunchtime.

WILLARD PC: I see you are wearing a condom!  That's being very responsible!

Infraction 1966: Putting ex-lax in cookies given to cheerleaders by the home economics class just before a pep rally.

 WILLARD PC: It's important to be regular!

Infraction 1966: Drinking Johnny Walker Black in a flask in the library.

WILLARD PC: Good choice! May I suggest you pair that with a Scotty’s cheeseburger?


Infraction 1966: Drawing a penis on the face of a sleeping classmate with a sharpie during history class.

WILLARD PC: Oh good, the penis is circumcised. Makes for good hygiene!

Fortunately, for the Class of '66, we were blessed in that WILLARD was allowed to be WILLARD!

Nevertheless, I, David H. Liem, graduated impervious to WILLARD's well intended interventions and have remained unwaveringly, "Bad to the Bone!"  

Click on the video link below to see how I turned out. This blog is meant as a humorous anecdote.