Dear All,

I never imagined that I would live in Indianola, Iowa, again. I certainly didn't think that I would have two sons graduate from Indianola High School or have a son who attended Irving School in the SAME room where my first teacher was Mrs. Downey (she lived across the street from Jim Mikulanec "back in the day"). One very nice, and also unexpected, outcome has been that our youngest son, Dan, and John Criswell's son, Tom, were friends from the fourth grade through graduation. They were both swimmers in high school so we saw John and Chris lots, too. Both Dan and Tom are now at the U of Iowa. Our oldest son, Christopher, is married and living in Des Moines.

Mac and I have gone from Iowa City to Buffalo, NY, to Chicago, back to Indianola, to Cedar Falls, to Missouri, to Des Moines, to Champaign, IL, and back to Indianola again.

I have written employee publications; I served on the admission staffs at Simpson and Drake for a combined 20 years; I did a stint with the Career Services Staff at Simpson -- and for the last six years I have had my own Web site business.

I love working independently -- not the least of which is that I don't have to go to never-ending meetings. I still have meetings with clients about their sites -- but they are usually one-on-one, really enjoyable gatherings.

Greetings to all who won't be able to attend this year. I'll see the rest of you soon!

Mary C. MacKenzie

Hello! I am happy to see so many have posted on this Blog already. It's interesting to read what you have written about yourselves. We are fortunate to have Mary in our class who has the skills to set this up. I hope many more of you will post soon. Thanks to those of you who voiced appreciation for planning the reunion, and thanks to the others who helped find addresses for the mailing---the most time-consuming part: Steve Pfaff, Ken Mika, Diana Fry Pfaff, Ruthie Utsler Smith, Jon Rinehart, Lynne Van Clark, Sue Sorden, and John Criswell.

Off the bat, let me say that I was not able to fulfill my class prophecy: to become a comedienne on the Johnny Carson show. Johnny retired and he never called anyway. Waa! Serially, I am living in Indianola and love it here. A couple years ago my mother moved to The Village retirement community and I bought her home (where I grew up since 5th grade-1959). I work at an insurance company in Des Moines and hope to be there until I retire. My bachelor's degree is in broadcast journalism, so I spent time working at WHO Radio and KCCI-TV in Des Moines, as well as a radio station in Indianola, and newspapers in Indianola & Des Moines. I still do writing, editing and proofreading in my current job, but now I don't have to drive home after the 10 o'clock news or make it to the station in a snowstorm! Looking forward to seeing you all at the reunion August 3!