Hello Fellow Classmates,
My name is Dan Youra. I graduated in the Class of 63 from St. Lawrence Seminary in Mt. Calvary, Wisconsin. Yes, I am a Hill Topper, an alum of the Poor Boys Seminary, a proud graduate of The Hill of Happiness, not to be confused with The Inn of the Sixth Happiness, the 1958 Ingrid Bergman film we did see one movie night, sitting on those creaky wooden chairs on the basketball court.
I began checking around with fellow classmates, whose email address I have or who show up in my Friends list on Facebook, to see if there were any plans for a 50th class reunion. Of the three addresses/Friends I have (Ahern, Kedinger & Niederehe), it became apparent that we'd have problems coordinating a reunion date, so I proposed a Virtual Reunion to see how many classmates we could find (who haven't died - Requiescant in Pace), who might like to share a few thoughts with other 1963 Poor Boys on how they ended up where they did, what they would have done differently 50 years ago, and their current insights into the meaning of meaning.
So what is a Virtual Class Reunion? I don't know, but I thought I would try to put something together that might work. I've been programming computers since 1968. I figured I'd create a blog, the SLS63.com blog, which is what this website is. It will be a long way from working with Don Becker on our 1963 Laurentian Yearbook, drawing graphics such as the scroll with our class motto – Quid Christus nunc faciat? Do you remember what that means? Blogging won't be as messy as that crusty ink bottle and that drippy quill pen. Those were the days! Listening to Greenfields by the Brothers Four on the radio, I inked our names onto our class picture.
I created 6 pages (see TABS across top of each page) each with one page from our Graduating Class yearbook. In this blog each classmate has one page to use to describe anything you want related to your life that you'd like to share with your classmates. To share information about yourself, send me an email with your Magnum Opus and I'll copy and paste it into your own page. Your page will be linked from the same page where your yearbook photo is. You can see my entry as an example. My link is on Page S-Y (under the yearbook page), which goes to my one page. There is no limit to how many words you can submit. Sure, email some photos, too, if you want. Three pictures equals how many words? Three thousand, right? Do you know how long it would have taken Franczak, Gilgenbach and Father Vianney to set type for 3,000 words?
To help the interactivity of these pages, you'll notice that there are boxes for COMMENTS beneath the PAGES and beneath the POSTS.
To increase the distribution range of this SLS63 blog, we need those of us who participate in our Virtual Reunion to dig up email addresses of other classmates and share them with the blog, plus encourage classmates to go to SLS63.com. George Niederehe shared 4 email addresses. Now I have a total of 8 – George's 4, my 3 and mine. George also suggests that some of us might have the email addresses of classmates who were with us in the three years before we graduated. Let's include them. It is not the fact of graduating that is the big deal. Being part of the class spirit is where it is at. How many times did the padre coaches tell us, "It's not the score at the end of the game, it's the moral victory that counts?" As we hover around 70 years on the planet, do you think that advice is still valid?
I'll keep adding features to this blog to make it more interactive, hopefully enjoyable and easy to use.
Notice that there is a way to SUBSCRIBE to this blog. Enter your email address in the box in the left column and you'll receive an ALERT, whenever a new POST is published. Each new entry for a classmate will be a POST. You don't want to miss any. This blog will be a sort of gathering place. What was your favorite gathering place on The Hill? The Chapel, the Canteen, the Food Locker or the Moron's Club? This blog will be the 21st century version of all four. It will sculpt together meditation on Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor, Eskimo pies, mom's home-made, peanut butter cookies and plastic rosaries. You don't want to miss a memory!
That's about it. Lights out at 9:20 pm.
Dan
dan@youra.com
Do You Still Have Your Diploma
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