35 Years Flew by Didn’t They?

I am feeling old. Or, maybe, more accurately I am ‘feeling my age.’ Next month is my high school class’s 35th reunion. I can’t decide if I want to go or not. Is this normal?

I read a statistic that said only about 30 percent of a graduating class attends their reunions. Back and forth, back and forth, I just can’t make up my mind.

Usually, we have our LHS reunions during the County Fair and either I have a valid excuse because I am playing in the band that night, or actually playing music for our reunion like we did last time. But this year I have no excuse, my calendar is empty that night, I just don’t know if I want to go.

Those of you that know me well, know that I am not a social butterfly. I don’t ‘mingle’ well. At a social event like a reunion, I will be lucky to last half an hour before I am begging Mrs. Couso to let me sneak out the back door.

The last time I went to a reunion that I didn’t play music for was our 25th. We had it at Lassen Ale Works at the Pioneer and I think I made it about an hour before anxiety kicked in and I ran away.

Our thirtieth, in 2018, we had out at Sentimental Journey and it was awesome! Our band Forgery played so I just got to voyeuristically watch my fellow classmates from behind my keyboard. So much easier on my social anxiety. Put me behind a keyboard or a camera and I will be just fine.

I am not sure what dance this was our senior year, but that is Freddie Franco with

the crown, Russell Smith in front, Brad Birkett on the right and me in back.

The other day Mrs. Bennett, a fellow class of 88 graduate, posted a photo taken some time during our senior year of Freddie Franco, Russell Smith and Brad Birkett and I, with a prompt to buy tickets to the upcoming reunion. I’m not sure what feelings that is supposed to spark – joy? curiosity? nostalgia?

And somehow, I feel that by this point in my life I should have worked this all out and gotten past it.

But then… I just looked at the group picture we took at the last reunion, five years ago, and there are a lot of faces there that I would like to say hello to again. People who I like, that I don’t get to talk to often enough, and it might just be a wonderful evening to sit down and visit.

Just getting to have a conversation with those folks, in person, one more time, might really be all the impetus I need to go. Now I’m kind of looking forward to it.

See what poor Mrs. Couso has to put up with?

The Class of 88’s 35th Reunion celebration will be held on July 22nd at Sentimental Journey. There will be drinks and appetizers at 6:00 and dinner at 6:30. We are old, so bedtime will be around 9:30. If you would like to purchase tickets online you can follow this link.

Tickets are $50 each and, “Includes dinner, great conversation, and amazing people.”

Chamber’s Big Annual Main Cruise Happens This Weekend

Have a rockin’ good time tonight and tomorrow, at the annual Lassen County Chamber of Commerce’s Main Street Cruise. Along with the Classic Car Show N’ Shine on Saturday, the event will feature a special kick-off party tonight at the Diamond Mountain Casino, plus kids activities, live performances, food and craft vendors and music from that really awesome band Forgery.

The Cruise gets started with this evening’s meet and greet, a pre car show at Diamond Mountain Casino and Hotel, from 5:00 to 8:00.

Saturday’s Main Cruise Classic Car Show N’ Shine will be held in Memorial Park from 11:00 to 4:00p.m. Admission to the event is, as always, absolutely free.

Organizers expect more than fifty classic cars to be on display Saturday in the park, with car entries accepted on the day of the event.

Several food vendors will provide refreshments during the cruise, offering up sno cones, rootbeer floats, cotton candy, popcorn and more. Live music starts at 11:30 in the bandstand.

Awards will be announced at 3:00 and the show will conclude at 4:00 with the highly anticipated Main Street Cruise to follow.

For more information about Saturday’s Main Cruise event call the Lassen County Chamber of Commerce at 530.257.4323 or visit their website by clicking here.

Terry Berry’s 1961 Nash Metropolitan

The collapsed remains of the boy scout camp at Butte Meadows in the late 1930’s

New Campsite is Opened at Silver Lake

Construction Now Contemplated for Scouts

June 23, 1938

Construction of a new Boy Scout campsite at Silver Lake, near Susanville, is being contemplated by the Nevada Area Council, J. E. Horgan camp committee chairman, announced Tuesday.

An extensive building was outlined at a recent meeting of the council at the present Scout camp at Lake Almanor by Lester D. Summerfield, council president, who said that the program, when completed will provide local scouts with one of the finest camps in the west.

Damaged by Snow

The old camp buildings, constructed a number of years ago, were damaged last winter by heavy snows, while snow-blocked roads delayed start of the building program in time for summer camp.

Summerfield asked scout executives at the meeting to present the building program to their troop committees for consideration and to report to the council in the near future.

An unnamed donor, Summerfield disclosed, has offered to match all money raised by local districts for completion of a mess hall, sanitary buildings, a hospital building and camp headquarters. If sufficient funds are pledged to warrant the construction of a mess hall, work will start within the next two weeks.

A dining hall, 25 by 60 feet, with a kitchen, 12 by 16 feet, will be constructed first, with the building to be made of peeled logs in a log cabin fashion sufficiently large to accommodate 175 scouts. Tent platforms will also be erected to house capacity of 20 scouts and leaders.

In addition to the western division camp, Grant Smith Jr. of Elko announced that the eastern division is planning to construct a camp in Lamoille Valley. Funds have been raised and the forest service and railroads have offered their co-operation. A. R. Togerson is in charge of the camping program for that section.