WELCH HIGH SCHOOL
ALUMNI COOKOUT -- 2004
(just wanted to share with you some of the special
moments I experienced on my way to the picnic - Donnie)
Hard as I tried I
couldn't drag them away from Florida for the picnic. But we did
get together for lunch in Orlando:
Reva Baker Stevenson, Donnie Collins Skuja, Dee Santo Qualls (all from
the WHS Class of 1961) and her mother, Ellen Santo who also attended
WHS in the early '40s. YES, the 40s! Doesn't she look
fantastic?
On the drive from
Florida to the picnic in Welch, I stopped for a few days at Smith
Mountain Lake where I visited with my former Maryland neighbor, Rhonda
Newbauer, and Ginny (Bolt) and her husband Marty Loula. Ginny was
a member of the first WHS May Court
and, as you can see, she's still quite a lovely lady.
Bear with me
here.....this is one of those "small world" stories. Ginny &
Marty's neighbor at Smith Mountain Lake is Lillian Pearman.
Visiting Lillian was her daughter, Vicky, and some of Vicky's
friends from northern Virginia. One, who overheard me talking
about the WHS Alumni picnic, indicated she'd recently been in Welch for
her husband's 40th
class reunion. Below (all "dressed" up to play a joke on
another friend) are Vicky, Bonnie (wife of WHS Class of '64, Tom Bary),
and another friend. (Sorry, I don't remember her name.)
But
wait....that's not the end of this story. A few months after the
picnic, Ronnie showed me some grade school pictures he'd recently
acquired and one in particular jumped right out at me. I sort of
"recognized" one of the boys in the picture, flipped it over and there
was his name, Ron Pearman. Ron, Vicky's older brother, attended Welch
Elementary through 4th grade with some of the WHS Class of '64 before
his family moved to Coalwood. Here's a picture of Ron in a 3rd
grade skit called "Winter Wonderland."
Please contact Donnie Collins Skuja
at dskuja02@sprynet.com if
you have any
questions/comments/additions
for this web page.