Sent July 29, 1999

Produced by Gretchen Kraft and Diana Waldron

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If you have comments or content for the site, please contact Yvonne Yang at [email protected].

A number of us have photos of our Pine Ridge days that would be great to have on the site. If you can help by scanning some in, please let us know.

http://classmates.com/

www.planetalumni.com

I just had the funniest revelation. The company that I work for has a partnership with three local schools--the elementary school that it partners with is Greenbriar West (near Chantilly High School). Anyway, I volunteered to go on a field trip to the National Gallery of Art with a class of 6th graders.... So, I'm standing in the gallery with the gaggle of kids, and I realize--that is how old we were when we were at Pine Ridge!! And here we are, years later, trying to reconnect.

As I looked at the kids, I tried to summon up images of my classmates from that time in my life. It's such a funny time--most of the girls were tall and leggy--beginning to turn into young women. Some even had a little bit of make-up on. And the boys-- they were still short and goofy! There was one boy who was the spitting image of how I remember Blake Mason. Short, skinny, with glasses, and a great sense of humor. I actually had a crush on Blake at one point (even though Marc Farrar was my true love-- and I knew he liked me because he hit me all the time).

On the bus, the girls were playing hand clap games, but I didn't recognize any of the them. However, in the back of my mind I was hearing "Miss Mary Mack, Mack, Mack...All dressed in black, black, black ...With silver buttons, buttons, buttons ...All down her back, back, back." Seeing all the girls reminded me of the slumber parties -- lip synching to that awesome 80's music ("She Blinded Me with Science"), doing levitation, playing Truth or Dare, talking about which boys we liked.

The weirdest part is that the teacher of this class is younger than I am now!! Can you imagine having a young teacher instead of Mrs. Hansen, Mrs. Shaffner, or Mrs. Purcell? Not that they weren't great, but still....

Just thought I'd share!!

I am hereby officially tendering my resignation as an adult. I have decided I would like to accept the responsibil- ities of an eight-year-old again. I want to go to McDonald's and just swear it's a four-star restaurant. I want to sail sticks across a fresh mud puddle and make ripples with rocks. I want to remember M&M's are better than money because you can eat them. I want to lie under a big oak tree, make pictures out of the clouds, play with bugs, and run a lemonade stand with my friends on a hot summer's day.

I want to return to a time when life was simple. When all you knew were colors, multiplication tables, and nursery rhymes, but that didn't bother you because you didn't know what you didn't know and you didn't care. All you knew was to be happy because you were blissfully unaware of all the things that should make you worried or upset. I want to think the world is fair again, that everyone is honest and good. I want to believe that anything is possible. I want to be oblivious to the complexities of life and be overly excited by the little things again. I want to live simply again.

I don't want my day to consist of computer crashes, mountains of paperwork, bosses, deadlines, arrogant drivers, red lights, staff meetings, bank statements, office gossip, stiff joints, or receding hairlines. I want to believe in marsh- mallows, the power of smiles, jumping a bicycle over a wooden ramp, justice, butterflies, peace, baseball, dreams, my imagination, humankind, and snow angels.

So, here's my checkbook and my car keys, my credit cards and my electric bill. I am officially resigning from adulthood. And if you want to discuss this further, you'll have to catch me first, cause, "Tag! You're it."

By the way, some folks have said they thought they could get in touch with this or that classmate (you know who you are). How's that going? We'd love an update!

Here's the latest on who we've contacted and who we're still trying to find:

We have some leads on the following folks, but haven't heard back from them and so could use more information:

Dana Adkins

Kiran Beyer

Chris (Toph) Cannon

Beth Cantu

Eric Chang

Scott Cheek

Steve Curtis

Sheila Desai

Kerry Frey

Joe (Joey) Gresko

Laura Hurd Ott

Jennifer Juul

Blake Mason

Terence Nelan

Eric Raecke

Calvin Schneiter

Tonya Viscomi Hutson

Andy Wills

We don't have leads on these folks yet:

Renee Anderson

Judy Bardsley

Cindy Bilby

Bryan Blackburn

Chuck Butler

Patricia Chiu

Angela Coin

Kurt Daub

Brendon Gibson

Valerie Granfield

Richard Hung

Jean-Paul Lacy

Colin Lang

John Lautenbacher

Sumner McCauley

Patrick McNeil

Kathi Moss

John Pieper

Sara Plantz

Steven Savich

Matt Schultze

Amy Stults

Drew Thompson

Pam Willis

Winona Wilson

Sara Wood

Krista Zimmerman

Kinds of information to think about: did you know middle names or names of parents or siblings? Where did they go to junior high or high school? Did they move out of the area? Where and when? Have you had any contact since Pine Ridge? Where and when? Send in what you know, and we will compile and share it and follow any leads. Our goal: 100% location.

• What have you done since Pine Ridge which would most surprise/shock/appall/ impress your ex-classmates?
• What sorts of things do you do for fun?
• What are your dreams for the future?
• And of course, fill us in on all the standard stuff, like partners and children, where you live, what you do, and where you finished your schooling post Pine Ridge.
• Feel free to add other items of interest.

We look forward to hearing from everyone and sharing our stories.

I finished an internal medicine residency at University of Virginia this June and move to Durham, NC to do a gastroenter- ology fellowship at Duke (about three years.)

I'm engaged to Kevin Campbell and as soon as our new jobs give us our schedules we'll set the date.

And here's an update from our latest "found" alumna, Carol Shubinski:

I went to law school and practiced in D.C. from 1995 till January 1999. Then I moved to Hartford, CT, to join my husband who was already up here. We met in law school and did the distance thing for a few years. We got married on October 31, 1998 (yes, on Halloween). So, now I'm working for a law firm up here. We bought a house this spring and seem to be settling into domestic life. In our spare time, we like to play golf and travel and cook.

• most embarrassing Pine Ridge moment
• secret or not-so-secret crush
• mischief you got away with
• mischief you got caught for
• dark secrets of Pine Ridge (heretofore unknown to the general class public about our time at P.R.)

Please send us your memories for publica- tion in future issues. Anonymity granted upon request!

Gretchen Kraft

20 South Old Glebe Road, #305

Arlington, VA, 22204

or call:

(703) 979-3651.

We are accepting submissions of all types. Tell us what you're doing now, what you remember from the old Pine Ridge days, what the gifted program meant to you, what you'd like to get out of the newsletter and reunion project, what post-Pine Ridge information you have or would like, and more. We are also looking for slogans for the e-mail signature text--don't be shy!