Posted on: Mar 23, 2024 at 1:33 AM

Happy Birthday Greetings from rain-drenched Berkeley!

Hey Jon, it's been good to connect with you in our post-Palyverse. I hope you had a fun time on your birthday! Keep those days rollin'...

I'm quite touched by y'alls rememberences of Steve, one of my favorite friends from high school. We were both on the tennis team, and along with Greg Florant formed a formidable Class of '69 trio in the SPAL. Steve and I had a spirited ongoing jostling to see who could climb higher on the ladder; he eventually overtook me during our senior year*. He had a more consistent game than I did, but I found that if he made a few unforced errors he'd start browbeating himself, and the psychological edge I gained by that would enable me to beat him. He'd always say, "I'll get you next time, Webster," but never with any malice, and we were always on good terms on and off the court. I also knew his dad Ned, also a tennis player; we even played as doubles partners a few times in tournaments. My dad (also a tennis player) was good friends with Ned, as well as with Steve's mom Joanne. Everyone in his family was always nice to me, with a total lack of pretension. Just a good bunch.

At one point in our senior year, Steve came to stay with me and my family for a while; the reason, I think, is that his mom and dad moved out of the Bay Area and Steve wanted to finish up at Paly. Our house on the corner of Bryant and KIngsley had a third floor where guests could spend the night, so he moved in up there. Unbeknownst to us, though, he was somewhat of a somnambulist, and one morning he woke up to discover that he had climbed out a window and lay down back to sleep on our house's pitched roof! He felt a bit sheepish about it, but we were just glad he didn't fall off.

We always connected at reunions, but it's been a while since I've seen or heard from him, so finding out about his getting ALS and dying from this dreadful disease made me feel sad. (One of my wife's sisters had ALS, so I know what a toll it takes.) Ted's description of how he'd tape a tennis racket to his hand because he couldn't hold it well enough--well that just speaks volumes about him, doesn't it?

So here's to ya, Steve.

* Our tennis "coach" at the time, who threw me off the team for no good reason, had something to do with it.

Posted on: Nov 29, 2023 at 4:20 PM

Happy birthday Lauri??

I never realized Paula was a fellow Addison 6th grader because she was in Mr. Thompson's class, not mine (Mr. Marion). This is the first time I've seen a picture of her class, and I also recognize a few other classmates, notably Paul Pearson, who lived across the street from me. Paul is also deceased.

Posted on: Mar 23, 2023 at 1:33 AM

Posted on: Mar 23, 2022 at 1:33 AM