Reunion Book - First Draft. Time To Send Reservations for MHS 66 Reunion

Larry Easter (upper left) was in Linn County, after high school. I am posting this picture to help him remember to send his reservation.

The reservations should be mailed to the Reunion Committee, so they can get an accurate count for the festivities. We are looking forward to seeing old friends.

My wife Chris would not miss it for anything. She thinks the 1966 class is great. She often brags about it when she talks to her friends and relatives.

A lot of us are having fun on Facebook, keeping up daily contacts, admiring photos of grandchildren and pets.

I have a rough draft done of the reunion book. This way we can have a printed book to keep with photos and bios, past and present. The cover is better than I imagined, M madras on the front, a photo of the Mississippi on the back. The graphics I posted do not really show off how good it looks.

The current draft can be downloaded free here. Additions and suggestions are welcome.

The two biggest additions will be:
1. Current bios.
2. Reunion photos.
3. An improved list of accomplishments.
4. Better editing.

I am not going to publish more than you want in the bios. Contact information is best left on the reunion website, where people have to register to get at the list.

The best reunion photos are head and shoulder pictures, with readable name tags showing. Unlabeled photos are not much help. You can send me photos or I can get them from your FB pages.

The final edition can be bought as a printed book with a black and white interior, four-color cover. The PDF is available as a free download, and all color photos are the same inside. But there is no cover with the PDF, of course.

The only way to print color on the inside is to pay for all color pages, even when they are black and white. That is very expensive, especially since we were cutest in black and white, back in the 1950s.

Kym Dennhardt Whatley wanted this book done, so you can thank her for the constant urging.

Thanks to Print-On-Demand, the book can be edited and improved easily. I have done a dozen books this way, so it is second nature.

Successful Author John Boland - MHS 66

John Boland

The October issue of Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine leads off with my story "Swimming in Fog." They've posted an online excerpt, but believe it or not the magazine is still printed on paper.

Welcome to Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine!

www.themysteryplace.com

 

Some people treat crime like a game—but to win that game, you need an air-tight plan and the stomach to see it through. Just ask Yarnell, protagonist of R. T. Lawton's Holiday Burglar series, who makes a s-l-o-w getaway this month in "Labor Day." Of course, you also need to know what game you're in—...

Cover Done on the MHS 66 Reunion Book

I set up the project, which makes it easier to revise and check on the PDF download.

Above is a thumbnail front cover. The madras may look familiar.

Y'all know what the high school looks like. We are a Mississippi River town, so here is the back cover, full size.

I Will Produce a Reunion Book for the MHS 66 Reunion: Helpers Welcome

Kris Streed practices nursing skills on a brave but terrified Patty Puck.

I heard that a reunion booklet was too much trouble, but some of us think a booklet is a valuable treasure to keep. The fact is, some of us will not be around for the 50th. We used to take that sort of thing for granted, but we have lost too many friends to deny reality at this stage.

The reunion website is convenient and many will enjoy that. The reunion committee chose a good tool for that, and Judy Marsh Ramsey has done most of the work to get that going.

I publish with Lulu.com regularly. I can produce a reunion book, the size of a paperback, with a four-color color cover, for a reasonable cost.

If cost is a problem, the book will also be available as a free PDF download.

The book can be revised, expanded, and corrected easily.

I am producing a dummy cover at the moment. I will also have some content done for the inside, reserving 50% of the space for a list of Dave Coopman's most recent books about the Quad Cities.

Those who want to contribute their stories and memories to the book are welcome to do so.

Time To Register for the MHS 66 Reunion: September 30th and October 1st, 2011

Moline Sr High School Class Of 1966

MHS Class of ’66

Believe it or not but it’s time for our “45^th” class reunion.  You know you are only as old as you feel, so get ready to kick up your heels and have a great time with all of your classmates.

Our celebration will be on September 30^th and October 1^st, 2011.  We will begin Friday at Casey’s Tap, 1512 15^th Street, Moline starting at 6:00 p.m. with a cash bar and snacks.

Saturday we will meet at The Rock Banquet Facility, 302 - 1^st St., Coal Valley.  The social hour will be from 5:30-6:30, and a hearty buffet starting at 6:30; with music by “The Night People.”

Rock n Roll is the theme for our casual Saturday night event. So if you want to come in a poodle skirt or madras plaid you are more than welcome.  We want this to be a fun night for all.  The cost for Saturday night will be $45.00 per person.  There will also be a 50/50 raffle.
 

If you are interested in a round of golf, details are listed below. Also, for those nostalgic at heart, a tour of the High School will begin on Saturday at 9:30 a.m. Meet at the M.


For those coming from out of town, Kym Dennhardt Whatley has arranged a group rate at the Comfort Inn. Please call 309-762-7000 to reserve your room under the group name "MHS CLASS OF 1966".
 

Please don’t forget to send us yourupdated email and/or physical address.  Our email address is: MolineHigh1966@yahoo.com  We now have a really great website where you can create your own profile, enter pictures and connect with old friends. It is truly a great experience. Simply go to:  www.MolineHigh1966.com and sign up today. 

“We hope to see you all there”

Please mail back your reservation with payment to: Delma Winter Reakes, 2484 31st St. Ct., Moline, IL 61265 no later than September 1
_____________________________________________________________________________

Please send me ____ tickets for the “45^th Reunion – Make checks out to: Moline High Class of ’66

Name: ___________________________________ Maiden Name _____________________

Address:  ___________________________________________________________________________

City, State, Zip: ___________________________________________________________________________

Golf Outing

The following locations have been arranged:

Friday Sept. 30^{th  -}  Hawthorne Ridge, Aledo, IL  (309-562-5641)

    Play your own ball:-  5 tee times starting at noon – every 8 minutes
 

Saturday Oct. 1^st  -  Byron Hills – Port Byron, IL  (800-523-9306)

    Scramble -  6 tee times starting at 11:06 a.m. – every 8 minutes
 

Questions?  Contacts:

Tom Gramkow – 309-685-1700          tom.gramkow.bzyt@statefarm.com

Bill Serandos  -  309-799-3274          wserandos@mchsi.com

 

Any Other questions email me at       MolineHigh1966@yahoo.com

Judy

·   

http://www.MolineHigh1966.com

Ingredients Matter - Melo Cream Doctrine

Three fathers: Homer Jackson, Greg Jackson, Martin Jackson. We let my wife pose for the calender too.
Martin and Tammy's son, Alexander, looks just like Martin in this pose.

Classmates still talk about Melo Cream doughnuts. When the Hasty Tasty bought out Melo Cream, to keep producing the same doughnuts, the first objection was the cost of the flour.

Doughnut flour can be bought from any wholesaler. My father insisted on a special flour from California. Shipping hundred-pound bags from California to Moline, Illinois, is rather expensive. Hasty Tasty was not amused.

We used the best chocolate for icing. Nibs were melted slowly, with vanilla icing added after. Chemical chocolate was available. Many companies use a form of carob. Remember the husks the pigs ate in the Parable of the Prodigal Son? They were carob. Pig food. We used rich, dark chocolate.

Two kinds of sugar can be used. Beet sugar and cane sugar are exactly the same in their chemical formulations. However, any baker will say, cane is better. A room of beet sugar smells funny. Not bad, just off. We used cane sugar always, and it cost more.

We added such things as pure cinnamon, nutmeg, and flavor enhancers.

Bread doughnuts were made with wet yeast, which we had to buy from Johnson's Bakery. We were too small to be a stop. Dry yeast works too, but wet yeast is better. We added eggs (not dried eggs) and potato flour to the mix. We even kept old dough in the freezer because a lump of old dough made a fresh batch even better. These were extra steps, but they added to the quality of the bread doughnuts.

The nuts we used were superb. We bought the biggest and best pecans and walnuts, not the crumbles. We got boxes of top quality coconut. Raw peanuts were the large size. We fried them, using them ground for Barlow doughnuts and peanut topped doughnuts. Going to the basement for supplies was fun. I could nick a warm danish from the cooling rack at the top of the stairs. Finishing that, I had coconut, walnuts, and pecans to enjoy while searching for that elusive pail of flour. "Have you found it yet?" Quick swallow - "Not yet. I'm looking."

Coffee was another opportunity to save a few pennies. We had a Maxwell House sign up, but we blended it with Yuban for better flavor. Instead of perking cheap coffee, we used a drip maker and the blend - gourmet coffee for 10 cents a cup. When the coffee was a little bit old, we threw it out and made more. More than once I threw it out as a customer protested, "I don't mind. I don't mind."

I am drinking my own home-made gourmet coffee now.

Perfectionism works well in making good food and deserts, but not in making a lot of money. Most people do not know the difference between the best recipe made with painstaking care and a mediocre recipe thrown together by an uncaring slob.

Many people are publishing essays that say, "Thanks for the life lessons, Dad."

I am simply saying, "You ruined me, Dad. I cannot settle for second best."

My father is on the far right, his brother a little bit to his left.
The shop was at 1313 - Fifth Avenue, near WQUA...forever.

Near the Historic Site of Melo Cream and WQUA: To Become Loft Apartments

Moline building to become loft apartments

Developer Mark Roemer plans to create loft apartments and retail space in the former Phillips mini mall in downtown Moline. (Jennifer DeWitt/QUAD-CITY TIMES)

 

A Quad-City developer has plans to bring a downtown Moline building back to life as loft housing.
Mark Roemer has a contract to purchase the former Phillips Mini Mall, located at 1320-1322 5th Ave. Through his Phillips Lofts LLC, he plans to convert the four-story building into 18 two-bedroom, market-rate apartments with 2,400 square feet of commercial space available on the ground floor.

“This is just a good project that I think will help Moline,” he said. “There is a lot of exciting stuff going on in Moline and I just want to be part of it.”


The Phillips Lofts project will restore the one-time Phillips furniture store and former furniture warehouse to an active use, said Ray Forsythe, the city’s planning and development director. “The good thing about Mark is he is already in downtown Moline and he knows the market.”


This will be Roemer’s fifth apartment project since 2002 in downtown Moline, where he owns about 44 apartment units with adjoining commercial space.


Forsythe said the Phillips building has sparked many inquiries from other developers over the years, but previously the owner, Roger Colmark, was not willing to sell. Colmark is the Sterling, Ill., developer who began restoring the historic John Deere House in Moline about 15 years ago, but was forced to abandon the project due to a foreclosure.


“Roger had the (Phillips) building full of John Deere memorabilia that he was going to use to fill the John Deere house,’’ Forsythe said. “Once he lost the John Deere house, he was willing to let go of that property and Mark seized the opportunity.”


Roemer said he hopes to close on the purchase in August and begin what will be a renovation of about nine months. He estimates he could begin leasing the lofts next April or May. He would not disclose a purchase price.


He said he knows demand is there from his other downtown properties. “We always have a steady stream of inquiries and a lot of times we do have a waiting list,” he said, adding he sees a lot of potential on the west end of downtown.


Roemer also is acquiring the 50-space parking lot directly to the west at 1312 5th Ave. to provide secured parking for the Phillips Lofts tenants as well as for some of his other downtown tenants. Any available spaces will be rented to the businesses that now use the lot, he said.
“Anytime you have cool loft-style living space that will attract younger people,” Roemer said, comparing the latest project to his Boston Lofts at 1441 5th Ave. He added that many of tenants are young professionals and downtown employees.


This is Roemer’s first project to involve tax increment financing, or TIF, and historic tax credits. According to Forsythe, the Moline City Council approved a TIF rebate of up to $240,000 at its meeting on Tuesday. He said Roemer will receive the rebate over five years from the additional tax increment the improved property generates.


The project also is in an Enterprise Zone, which allows for a sales tax exemption on all construction materials, he added.


The Phillips Lofts renovation comes as several other development projects are in the works in downtown Moline. They include the 69-unit Enterprise Work-Live Lofts at River Drive and 19th Street and development of a new Amtrak station, Forsythe said.