A Great Big Thank You To Everyone

Well our 50th reunion has come and gone and so we wanted to post some thank you's and final thoughts before too much time had passed.

First we want to thank everyone who attended, you all made it a success. It was a huge turnout, too many people to be able to talk to everyone, which was frustrating, a "wealth of riches." But it was a special time, the weather was perfect, the location very elegant, the decor was amazing, including several historical boards which brought back so many memories of growing-up in Tacoma! And, all that was just wonderful and exciting, but the true gift was spending time with so many friends, saying hello over and over and talking seemingly non-stop. It was so nice to see everyone again and catch up. It was practically perfect! Perfection would have been to talk to everyone!

Next, we've had several requests to list all the committee members who all helped put this event together and get the word out to as many classmates as we could find. We spent over a year working on this, sometimes in bursts of activity, other times in periods of calm, but the stone kept getting pushed up the hill and our work finally all came together in a series of unique events that made it a wonderful four-day celebration.

The Woodrow Wilson High School 1965 Reunion Committee:

4th and Final Reunion Event - Picnic in the Park

Sunday, September 13, 12 - 5 pm
Titlow Beach Park
8425 6th Ave. Tacoma, 98406

After all the events of the weekend, this is our chance to unwind, relax, enjoy each other's company and savor lunch alfresco in the great Pacific N.W. outdoors. Food, beverages or picnic accessories are not provided, you'll need to bring your own. We will have the covered picnic area reserved for our group during the scheduled time. There are 4 tables under the shelter and 6 outside.

Some of the amenities that will be available:

• Restrooms: Yes
• BBQ's and Stoves: 1 small bbq
• Electricity: Yes, 110 volt outlet
• Water: Sink; Also a hosebib nearby
• Parking: Limited on-street parking. Overflow parking available in Titlow Pool parking lot.

There are also walking trails that wind along the beach and through the wooded area.

Now for our musical interlude, a song that wasn't from 1965, but a few years earlier, however it so perfectly captures the feeling of the cool breezes drifting across Puget Sound and rustling through the grasses and trees on a carefree Summer Sunday afternoon.



Come to Titlow Park for one more opportunity to continue conversations with friends and classmates.

The Main Event - Fircrest Golf Club

Saturday, September 12 from 6 - 11 pm

Fircrest Golf Club
1500 Regents Blvd
Fircrest, WA 98466

This is the Grand Celebration Soirée with a delicious gourmet dinner catered by the Club, music, dancing and of course lots of conversation with friends.

For your enjoyment, a no-host bar will be available and it will be CASH ONLY. There are cash machines just across the street (Regents Blvd) at Columbia Bank, Key Bank or Sterling Savings Bank.

Cocktail Hour (6 - 7:30) preceding dinner, will offer hors d'oeuvres: trays of fruits, vegetables, cheeses and crackers.

Dinner at 7:30 will be buffet-style and the entrées available will be Prime Rib and Apple Vin Blanc Chicken. Sides will be roasted fingerling potatoes, green beans amandine and Caesar salad. A delicious dessert will follow dinner.

Dress Code - business casual. Dress appropriately for a private club, so, for example, no halter tops, sweat suits or hats may be worn in the clubhouse.

The Fircrest Golf Club's course opened in 1924 and was designed by Arthur Vernon Macan, an Irishman who moved to British Columbia in 1912. Although he was a skilled tournament golfer, Macan's legacy in the Northwest are his brilliantly designed golf courses. From the start of his course design career in 1913 until his death in 1964, Macan designed or renovated more courses than any other Northwest golf course architect. Among other skills, he had an uncanny ability to design greens with drainage suitable for the Northwest's wet climate.

The Fircrest Golf Club's 33,000 square-foot clubhouse opened in 1997 to such rave reviews its design team was hired by three other leading private clubs in the area.

Hopefully you have your ticket, you can still buy them online for $85 through Friday, they will also be available at the door, but the door price will be $100, so don't wait.  Speaking of tickets, here's another classic from 1965:




We've had some requests to list the attendees, there is a list on the sidebar of the registration form, but that's tricky to find, so continue reading for the public list of attendees (only showing those who checked to give permission). This list is not necessarily complete and may change by the day of the event:

2nd Reunion Event - Narrows Brewing Taproom

Join the gang for another informal get together with food and lots of terrific beers on tap plus wine and spirits. Friday, September 11 at 6 pm at the Narrows Brewing Taproom.

Narrows Brewing Company is a waterfront brewery and taproom located in the Narrows Marina. They opened their doors in July of 2013. The brewery and taproom were built in a 100 year old mill building and have scenic views of the old and new Tacoma Narrows Bridge. The taproom also overlooks the boat slips of the marina, the Boathouse 19 restaurant, plus 100s of feet of dock space. Early in 2015, Mike Davis took over as brewer at Narrows Brewing. Mike is a familiar name to beer enthusiasts around the Northwest because of the many years he spent working as head brewer at Harmon Brewing.

Narrows Brewing Co.
9007 South 19th Street
Tacoma, WA 98466

The Taproom

Food is not sold in the Taproom, but there are many options for dining:

• Pick up food from the Boathouse 19 restaurant next door.
• Purchase from a great BBQ food truck parked just outside.
• Have food delivered or bring your own.

It's going to be really nice on Friday, in the 80's. It will be nice to be on the water, chatting with friends, the orange sun setting. Reminds me of this classic hit from 1965, one of the Billboard top 100 songs of the year...

The West Coast has the sunshine and the girls all get so tan...

First Reunion Event - Mau Mau at the Cloverleaf

Looks like we're going to have beautiful weather for our reunion week. The first event is this Thursday,  Sept. 10, 6 pm at the Cloverleaf, a Tacoma institution.

It's not called the Cloverleaf Tavern anymore, just The Cloverleaf, but it carries on a tradition of fantastic pizza. The Cloverleaf Tavern was opened in 1950, then pizza was added in 1961 after Larry Turco purchased it. Larry brought the pizza dough recipe from his business in Ponders Corner, in Lakewood. It's a different kind of dough, thin and crispy, but not crumbly like a cracker. The dough recipe was never written down, just taught from one pizza maker to another over the years until current owner Debbie Brese spent a year standardizing the recipe from all its variations.

This is a no host event, come and enjoy pizza and beer with friends at this Mau Mau event.

The Cloverleaf - 6430 6th Ave., Tacoma, WA 98406

Definition: Mau Mau - noun - 1. An impromptu takeover of an event or establishment. 

Wilson 45th Reunion meetup at the Cloverleaf in 2010.

The more the merrier for a Mau Mau, this will be the first chance to party with your Wilson Rams, be there or be square. There's only one song that seems appropriate for a Mau Mau ---- --- -- - -

Wilson Class of '65 Yearbook Photos

Our 50th Reunion is almost here, so to get everyone revved up, we present a post we've had in mind for quite some time. We scanned all the senior photos from the 1965 Wilson Yearbook and have them posted online in an photo archive for you to view. Take a trip down memory lane with these photos of your classmates, the boys with their dark suits and skinny ties and slicked back hair, the girls with their peter pan collars and their 1964 hairdos which might flip out at the sides or be whipped up into a massive bouffant (or sometimes both).

Continue on for the link to the archive and brief instructions on navigating it.

And Now For Something Completely Different...

Here's a post of reflections and reminiscences by our reunion ringmaster, Gary Johnson:

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Perusing the local funny pages one morning, I noted a profound description of a class reunion: a par-tay where everyone looks older than you. So, come and bask in your youthfulness and cluck at the aging of your classmates. There is still time to contact your “crew” from Maynardsville and twist their arms to join all the events of REUNION WEEK! Hit the freebies for relaxed and open camaraderie and reminiscing. Do not miss this event…

The Puyallup Fair, oops The Washington State AND Puyallup Fair, begins this week [Fair runs Sept. 11 - 27] and who can pass up fresh scones and elephant ears followed by recuperative insulin shots. Yum. If you haven’t been for years take time to grab the grand (even great grand) kids for a nostalgic romp. Unfortunately The Olde Mill has traveled the way of the Dodo… oblivion.



So too did my favorite chicken house, Netties. Our family always met for dinner before the night show and stuffed ourselves with fowl.  These fair days repeated five or more times each year and continue today. (Except Netties) More importantly…I have never paid. I know and have used almost every ruse to ”crash” the gate (all legal of course). I have baked cookies and cakes, participated in market research and found teachers who did not use their freebies. Yes, I do love doing the Puyallup.



Please check our missing lists and help us to ensure that we have the emails or phone numbers of the quick and the names of the dead. We always need help tracking our classmates.

A final thought, Remembering Mrs. Vanhaus’ kindergarten class and my nascent neighborhood, locate those little rascals and reunionize your neighborhood friends as well. I remember Aldens Lusiuch, Allen Erickson, Betty Burton, Pam Browning, Barbara Royce, and many others. What a great time to reconnect and share pictures of grandchildren, or in my case grand cats. Sheesh. (I am not responsible for name misspellings. If they wanted perfection they should have chosen Smith or Jones. )

Gary Johnson

1965 Puyallup Fair photos from the Western Washington Fair Photo Collection and the Tacoma Public Library Image Archives. Photos © Western Washington Fair Association