Date: 10 January 2004
From: Bonnie

ANOTHER HOME RUN!!!
---What can I say? After about 20-25 years of digging and snooping and questioning and checking and following up on one lead after another, guess what? Today, from noon until about 1:30 p.m., I was on the phone with none other than---get ready---WILLIAM MCKINLEY ROHLER!! Yep, I got 'im! Bill and I rehashed every ornery prank we ever pulled and if your ears were burning, we were probably talking about you, too! Among those whom Bill and I pointedly mentioned, in our lengthy conversation were AARON COUCH, RICHARD CALL, COLIN KELLEY, JUDY SAMUELS, EDDIE KELLY, (Boy did we have a conversation about YOU, Eddie!), and MARTHA CARTER. We covered all the bases and recapped a few fun incidents from high school, too, of course.

He was innately curious as to how I'd tracked him down and I told him of all who had helped me and about your big tip, SUE SOWERS. Once I'd managed to unravel the name of the California city, which was only slightly misspelled, I was able to confirm the fact that he was probably at least receiving mail there (or at least some- one with his same name) and that's where I sent that letter of December 23. Bill lives 17 miles from his mail- box, though, and gets his mail but about once a week or so, easily understandable.

He's in fair health and in his tenth year of being a school bus driver in Riverside County, California. He's been married to Betty (who's from Tennesse) for the past 39 years and has never been to Las Vegas, but for one time, when they married, and that was just for a weekend
and I'm happy to say we can lay to rest those Mafia stories and the idea that Bill is dead. He's definitely with us! He hasn't been to Ohio since 1985 and you just know I tried hard to coax him to our annual alumni gig, but he says it's not going to be possible in 2004, but he will try for 2005.

Bill and Betty did not have biological children, he told me, but they had a heavy hand in rearing no less than 5 children, during their 39 years. Bill has done many things during the years since we all graduated, including carpentry, welding, ice cream vending, and he's also a veteran, having served honorably in the 82nd Airborne Division, as you suspected, MIKE WEST. Bill is up for hearing from anyone who might like to contact him and he's terribly happy to know that all of us didn't forget him. His mailing address is P.O. Box 292, Niland, California 92257-0292. There is no mail delivery at his home which is located at 2183 Second St., Bombay Beach,
California. He is but about 3 blocks from the shores of a body of water called the Salton Sea, which is the largest inland body of water in California (or is that in the United States, Bill)? Anyway, you get the idea. Bill likes to fish, drink a few beers, smoke some cigars, and he's going to put in for his Social Security this year, just like many of us, even though he tells me he will continue to work for a while. If anyone wants to call him, he's fine with that and make sure you remember that he's on Pacific Standard Time out there. He's WAY DOWN in the south part of California, just about 65 miles from the Mexico border. His number is 760 354-4050. Bill says he's still living in the 1960s, and has neither a cell phone nor a computer. I've assured him that's not a problem and that I will add him to my list of WC alumni to whom I postally mail the bulletins. I'm happy to do so and am thrilled to have finally found you, Bill! I wish you well and you can believe me when I tell you that many of us will look forward to seeing you when you get to Ohio! So, folks, we wind up one more successful search. I want to sincerely thank each and every single one of you who put forth efforts to help me find Bill. I truly appreciate it. Isn't this just such a thrill? We must now close in on the focus to find NINA KNISLEY, so everybody get cracking! No word yet from NANCY KERR, but surely she will answer me. DEE TAYLOR, find that address book.

Also, everyone remember to be on the lookout for any and all WC yearbooks. I'll take them all, bar none! I still desperately want an original 1936 and 1941, too, and I have a list of other wanted years, for WC people.

So now that I'm on here, I may as well go ahead and do another whole bulletin, right? Hey, why not? On the request of DANNY L. WALTERS to find ROBERT "TANK" TANKERSLEY, his old high school friend, we got back instant responses from both BERTHA JAN HOERNER and BRUCE E. CHENOWETH, telling us that there is one in the Dayton phone book. I passed the info to Dan, instantly. Unfortunately, it proved to be a dead end. Nice people, wrote Dan, but not the one I needed. We're not giving up, Dan, so hang in there. If we all keep working together, believe me, we can find anyone we want to find. I'm still hoping to make contact through his first wife (who is my former step-sister), NANCY BOWMAN. I'll let you know right away, if I do. I think I already told you that I've written to her, on your behalf. Let's keep our fingers crossed.

Many thanks to my classmate, THOMAS L. WOLF, for the report that another classmate, CHARLES A. "BUD" LOWMAN, had surgery on January 4. It's not life-threat- ening and we expect a full recovery, right, Tom? I feel sure Tom will keep us posted on both Bud and our other classmate, DAVID MAYS, who had recent surgery, too. I understand Dave is doing pretty well.

The infamous, "AOL monster" was in full force again, on my last bulletin. Every single transmittal to an AOL address was returned to me, as were the 3 CS users. I am in hopes that, since that time, all of you have gotten that bulletin, through either Bruce, BILL HOWARD or GARY BARNES. I tried to "go through the back door," so to speak, so that you wouldn't miss out. Bill told me he turned off his AOL filtering system and he hopes that helped. But hey, here's where the blogspot comes in, folks. Remember that? It's being done by MIKE WEST and with joint efforts from NANCY ERTEL. Every one of my bulletins is posted on that website, so if you go two weeks and don't hear anything from me, either I've died or you didn't get a bulletin. Check the blogspot and read it, anyway, hear? It's http://wchs.blogspot.com Don't forget that! It will solve all these sorts of problems.

Nancy is also busy posting a lot of photos I sent to her from the Frisch's Frolic of October 10 and the annual alumni gig of October 11. We'll soon be able to see all of them. There are some good ones on there.

COOKIE BOWIE writes with more assurances of being with us on March 28. That's coming at us, faster than a speeding bullet. What with all the bitter winter weather, it will be a welcome respite, by then. Heck, I'm freezing right now, at 40 degrees in Florida, and trying to grasp living again where it's 40 and 50 and even 60 degrees colder than THAT!

A young man named MARK BECKER has asked for my assistance in compiling WC sports records from the very early years, due to my library of yearbooks. I assume he is a WC grad and of course, I'm just thrilled to be able to help him and will do so, post haste.

GENE ZINK writes that he'll try to make it to one of the WC events this year. I sure do hope so! My apologies to our glamorous MARGIE MILTON for misidentifying her as the 1957 class. Margie was 1958, and I knew that. It was a typing error more than lack of knowledge. Still, I wanted to correct it.

Bruce is willing to send photos to any and all who may want them, from the alumni gig. Just send him an e-mail, he told me. If you don't have that, let me know. I'll give it to you. BILL MCNABB sent along a great reminder that we are all responsible for our own level of happiness in life and he is so right. It's not what happens, rather how we reACT to it, which determines who we are. We can all do well to remember that. PHIL WOLFORD, I have received my first issue of your gift subscription to me of the magazine, "Reminisce." It's great! Thank you SO much! Also, thanks to BARRY RUSSELLO and to SALLY GILLETTE for mailing copies of the article on Mr. Huffman. Bill wanted a copy and I told him I'd send one. Since I got two of them, I can do that, and still have one to put in my WC scrapbook.

Realizing that this is a brief bulletin (for ME), I'm going to close and go and try to get warm. I have several ideas in mind on just how I intend to achieve that goal. No, I will not be sharing all of them with you. So I leave you all with my usual wish---glowing health, great happiness, peace- ful serenity, and boundless prosperity. Ciao!

---And there you have it! More at 11--- B

- posted by Mikey @ 5:59 PM