Dee,
About a year ago, many of us Balteze donated some dollars to the Intrepid Fallen Heroes fund.
Today the Rehab Center opened in San Antonio, TX. I think our roving BananaBoy visited there last year.
Way t’go, BALTA.
THE CENTER FOR THE INTREPID OPENS JANUARY 29TH, 2007!
Do you recognize these recent visitors who showed up at our house?
It was great seeing all of them – Gene is exactly the sa
me as he was 35 years ago! And Jan is still the same warm, wonderful lady. It was nice to reconnect with them.
The twins! That is such a funny story! Mike enjoyed telling it to a new audience. I think he is feeling better than he was at the reunion, as far as his back goes.
Mike & Elizabeth live only 3 hours north from here, so we were delighted they drove down. Bill & Mike hope to join up for a fishing outing sometime soon.
We had a very laid back visit – until Perkins showed up of course! He is as interesting as he always was – the same bull shitter, as Bill says! What a trip down memory lane —
Hope all is well with you guys.
The Dunns
Ok, we are making Sept 24-30 the official reunion dates. We have the following 18 on our list of attendees. Hogg, Shea, BJ, Hannan, Gitt, Hayden, Dan & Hiedi, Dee & Pat, Mike & Sherri, Maddog & Carolyn, Ed & Kathy, Sipper & Flippo. Hopefully a few more will be able to join the festivities.
We need everyone to send $100.00 ASAP so we can pay the deposit. We are in the “penciled in” catergory at the moment. You can make your checks out to Mike. The address is 2853 Fike Rd., Jasper, MI 49248.
We’ll send some info in the near future about airports. There are potentially four within reasonable travel distance.
Mike and Sherri
This just in from Mad Dog:
Everyone is alarmed here now. The schools and government offices are closed in Las Cruces & El Paso, a city of nearly a million.
The reason: there is the threat of a snowflake falling on our area.
So far it’s just been a few sprinkles and a bit of drizzle and light snow in the higher elevations (mountains). The local TV stations are providing live coverage so that we might witness the snow event, the fall of the actual real snowflake.
John
Hey Everybody………Things are starting to look pretty good for the reunion. Just heard from the Hoben’s, which makes it look like 16 yea’s, 2 mights, and 1 can we change the date.Yea’s – Ed & Kathy, Pat & Dee, Mike & Sherri, Hogg, Maddog, Doug, John, Dan, Sam, BJ JB, Hiedi & Dan, Hannan
Mights (we hope will) Anne & Kristi
Is there anyone who wants to come that will be unable to come if we change the dates to Sept 24-30 so that we can enjoy Carolyn’s company. She is unable to attend the 1st week of October. Could you all let us know???
Any more takers??? We need a few more!!!
We’ll give it a little more time, and then we’ll talk deposits. We were thinking of the standard c-note.
Hope all is well in your neck of the woods. Its cold as Hell-o here!!!
Mike / Sherri
Mad Dog writes….
In November, Aaron blew through New Mexico on his way to Benicia, CA, the latest-known residence of his once-proud parents, Heidi & Dan.
He was just nice enough to stop and tell the family Mad Dog (Freyermuth & Gressitt) of his discoveries on Balta Road, and of his many adventures away from home.
After giving the New Mexicans their orders (Get out of town and discover your own personal Balta Road!) he was off for California.
The photo is called “Lunch at the Spanish Kitchen and contains Aaron, Frank, Chandra, Carolyn, Meg, Mad Dog.
These chairs could be waiting for us, guys! See some comments at the bottom of this post and add yours by clicking on the Comments link. And please respond in a timely fashion, so that the Stumps can get a good idea of the count.
This just in from the Stemples:
We have diligently been exploring possible sites for the ‘07 Balta reunion (sorta). Anyway, we found several pretty crappy places…and a couple of fairly nice ones. Then we stumbled upon this pretty cool old house in Marblehead, Ohio. It is on a peninsula, and located on the shores of Lake Erie. It seems really nice because it has a whole bunch of bedrooms / beds, and we could all stay in one place. Which for your humble hosts is very appealing, because all the other places require the multiple unit shuffle (remember Dee was going to kill herself…or at least pull out all of her hair!). Anyway, check out the link below and let us know what you think.
There is quite a bit to do in the area. Close to Cleveland – Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (a must see) , Center of Science and Industry, Pro Football Hall of Fame, Museum, ect . Also close to Toledo, which has a great Museum. There are islands (Put-in-Bay, Kelley’s, Catawba) which can be reached by ferry or jet express….they have bars and tourist type stuff. Wineries. Cedar Point, the world’s greatest amusement park (with some great coasters) is very close. Fishing too. Antiques. Marblehead Lighthouse, wildlife sanctuaries, hiking areas and Oberlin College.
Looks like Monday Oct 1 (4pm) – Sunday Oct 7 (4pm). The owner has offered us 6 nites for the price of 5, which brought it in line with all the other places. We are looking at needing 20 people minimum to cover the cost, the more the cheaper. The house accommodates thirty something.
Hopefully in the next week we will hear back from more than 20 of you that you can’t wait for the next reunion, and want to send us $$ for the deposit. If you must send nays, they will be accepted with regret, but appreciated as they will help us to know if we need to hit the pavement again in search of smaller accommodations.
The Stumps
(Sorry but I inadvertently deleted the Comments through 1/12, but I was able to resurrect them. That’s why the dates for some of the comments are all 1/14. Continue to use the Comments link at the bottom of this post, and I promise to keep my mitts off the Delete key! dee)
Mad Dog gives us this interesting item:
But did they ever play tennis?
“Grass is above all celebrated for his evocation of Danzig during the early days of the Nazi regime in The Tin Drum, the 1957 novel that made his name overnight. Yet Danzig is now Gdansk and, since the days of Lech Walesa and the 1981 Solidarity strikes in its shipyards, as important an icon in Polish culture as it once was in German.
Grass was born in Danzig in 1927 and his father, whom he described as “a typical opportunistic fellow traveller” joined the Nazi party in 1936.
At the end of the war, in circumstances that will now have to be
re-examined, Grass ended up as an American prisoner of war. In one of the titillating snippets from the forthcoming autobiography, he recalls meeting and becoming friendly with a rather shy 17-yera-old lad called Joseph who was also in the Bad Aibling prisoner-of-war camp. “I wanted to be an artist; he wanted to go into the church,” Grass recalls. He is unable, however, to confirm whether the lad was indeed Joseph Ratzinger, who admits to having been in the same camp and in now Pope Benedict XVI.”
Gunter Grass’ book will be available in English later this year under the English title “Peeling the Onion”. The book was published last year in Germany (in German) and it was one of the biggest events of 2006 there. In the US there was quite a bit made about Grass revealing only now that he had once been a Nazi.
A fuller report is here.
John
I just heard from Heidi that Google chef Nate will be on a segment of the Today Show on Monday, 1/8. It was taped at Google about a month ago. Evidently, Nate was interviewed.
Check it out.
dee
My New Years resolution is not only to be blog-olific but to actually check my emails more often. That’s all I can do!
By the way, Dan Hayden BALTA guy and great neighbor has just come home from a 9 way heart bypass (is that a nonet?). He innocently went to his cardiac Dr for his 2 year check up and was sent directly to the hospital with calcified artery build-up.
He went in the Tuesday before Xmas and was home Xmas day! There is hope for us all!! Not doing cocktails yet but vertical and feisty.
Love to you all.
My wish for the new year is that you all get colonscopies, mammograms, prostate exams and what ever else applies to your sex and individual health issues to keep you in my life!
Heidi
Here’s Snake’s message:
Hi there Heid,
I have not been good about being in touch with you. It is strange as I enjoyed your friendship so much in Bad Aibling.
We gotta get together more!
I really want to get to a reunion. Honest. It is always difficult for me to come up with the money when it is air fare and the stay while there.
Saffy is 32! GEEZ
Chapin is at Seattle University. He got a complete 4 year scholarship. Cost me 97.00 for the first quarter, plus books. Amazing. Took so much pressure off Gerry and me.
Saffy is teaching 4th grade in Helena, Montana. Such a great person.
Lucked out with both of them. But, Chapin is only 18 so I still am hoping he doesn’t go “astray”
Anyway….
I have sublet my apartment for most of January. I had planned to drive to Arizona, visit parents, then a road trip through CA, along the coast, then Napa area, then the coast to Oregon.
Now, I am just going to fly to AZ spend a lot of time with my parents. They are 85 and 82. They are very anxious for me to visit. I am the one of thier childrn that will stay with them for
a long time. My mother is difficult to be with long term Neurotic and rambles on and on!
My dad turns his hearing aid down, I think.
I was hoping to visit you on my trip. Maybe when air fares are lower, I should come for a visit. Are you close to Oakland, San Jose, SF airport? Which is better?
Maybe pee on your couch! Don’t worry, I won’t stay that long.
Hi to Dan!
503 789 3674
Call some time. Would be fun to hear your voice….
Don
