The graduating class from Short High School in Liberty, Indiana held a celebration on June 23rd in honor of the 45th anniversary of its graduation.  While attendance was sparse, it was a spirited gathering including several attending who were unable to attend the reunion  in 2007.

We are extremely grateful to Coach Joe Stanley and his wonderful wife Ginger for continuing to make the effort to attend so many of our events after all of us departed the school in 1967.  They had a huge impact on our lives as young people and for them to have the desire to be with us yet today is very rewarding.  Zella Drake also continues to join us these many years later.  Her late husband Kellas, a Short High School teacher and coach, was another influence on our lives including joining with Zella to sacrifice a week of their lives to be the chaperones on our Senior Trip to the east coast.

Otherwise, this post is merely to make some pictures from the event available for viewing by our classmates.  I hope the 1967 alums enjoy.

Union County Educational Excellence Program (“UCEEP”), the charitable foundation that supports unique educational opportunities and college scholarships for students attending Union County schools, is proud to present its first major fundraising event.

“Bob Jenkins Presents – A Classic High School Sock Hop” will feature Bob Jenkins Spinning the Oldies and “Forever – The Tribute,” the world’s most entertaining Beatles tribute band.  It will be an evening of music, dancing, visiting old friends and the opportunity to relive some of those memorable high school days.

Bob, a 1965 graduate of Short High School, has spent over 30 years as an award winning auto racing broadcaster including a stint as the “Voice of the Indianapolis 500.”  He is the only broadcaster to anchor the coverage of all three events held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

“Forever – The Tribute” has been thrilling audiences since 1996 and is internationally known as the world’s most fun and entertaining tribute show.  The band includes members from the touring cast of Beatlemania and The British Invasion from Disney World’s EPCOT.

“I am thrilled to be able to return to Union County to host this event to support educational opportunities for students living in my childhood home of Union County,” Bob said.  “It will be a fun filled evening of music, dancing and memories.  I urge everyone to save the date, find a date and get in shape for a fun filled evening of music and dancing including my special dance contests.”

“Bob Jenkins Presents” will be held on October 6, 2012 at 7 pm at Union County High School.  Event sponsors are needed.  Contact Connie Rosenberger at Union County High School for more information on sponsorships.

Konnie chose a trip to Manhattan to celebrate the 2012 version of her birthday.  While it is my third trip in the past three and a half months, there is never a shortage of things of interest to do here and, now that we have been here frequently this past decade, we have our favorites to return to also.

So for this trip our shows included George and Ira Gershwin’s “Nice Work If You Can Get It” with Matthew Broderick and Kelli O’Hara, a musical comedy full of Gershwin standards that continue to be recorded by artists today, and “Newsies.” “Newsies” is a Disney production that is mostly a song and dance review.  Entertaining, but a song and dance review none the less, with no song I had previously heard.

On Friday we spent the day at the New York Botanical Gardens, a mere 250 acres of vegetation in the Bronx.  We previously visited there to see a Dale Chihuly exhibition and made the return trip via the Metro-North Railroad this time to visit their Monet’s Garden exhibition.  We roamed the grounds most of the day including making our first trip to the Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden, a worthwhile destination for its over 4,000 rose plants (www.nybg.org/gardens/rose-garden/).

Dining this trip included Novita (www.novita.com), a small Italian place on 22nd Street that we return to every trip.  On a Thursday evening they had eight specials plus the full menu as well as the usual accommodating and personable Italian wait staff.  We were 30 minutes early yet the owner gave us glasses of prosecco for our wait.  I told him we were early and he did not need to do anything complimentary.  He said “we call it hospitality.”  Totally contrary to what we have grown accustomed to at our local Italian eatery in Cherry Creek where there is no consideration for frequent customers and you now might even get seated at one of the incredibly tight two top tables next to the wine refrigerator that is now situated in the middle of the dining room.

After that it was Naya at 64th and 2nd (www.nayarestaurants.com), a new Lebanese place for us that had about the most interesting interior design of any restaurant we have visited.  The space is probably all of about twelve feet wide but with the white plastic panels on the walls with lighting behind the panels, they have made it quite interesting and the food was very good as well as reasonable.

We tried Otto, a Mario Batali restaurant in Greenwich Village.  It was a very large space that was very busy and loud.  Despite its famous owner, probably a one shot deal for us.  We finished up with a repeat visit to Raddicho (www.radicchiopastaandrisotto.com/), a very small space that seats a maximum of 30 diners on East 53rd Street.  Respectable food at slightly less than Denver prices.

That’s all for this trip.  Coming up, another high school class reunion and Baseball Tour 2012.