Ten Year Anniversary of the Class of '79 web page

Just thought I'd mention that today marks the 10 year anniversary when I first uploaded this site onto the world of the internet. I can't remember when I actually began the process of scanning yearbook photos, but it must have been sometime after Christmas. I had heard about the plans for the 20 Year Reunion and the original website created by Jim Robison. I thought I'd post our old class photos in the hope of getting more people excited about going to the reunion to see old friends. As 1999 progressed, I found more stuff to scan and post. The 20 Year Reunion was a great success in October of 1999. The website remained online after that event, although the updates were much less frequent.

Our Generation, part 2

Okay, I posted Neil Howe's piece on our generation the other day, and I promised to give my opinion. I've been intrigued by Howe and his late writing partner William Strauss' series of books on American generations for many years now. This Post article is largely based on the conclusions reached in their Generations book.

At first, I was insulted. (I also didn't care for the unnecessary dig at Sarah Palin. Somehow, it's always Democrats like Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama who are the smart ones, while Republicans, like Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush and Sarah Palin are simpletons.) I think he overemphasized the importance of test scores and college graduation levels as a measure of intelligence.

But, frankly, as a generation, our parents kind of dropped the ball. I think a lot of them were seduced by the lure of the Seventies "freedoms" in areas of sex, drugs, and the like. They let their kids get away with way too much. Remember the smoking areas that our parents and school officials set aside for high school kids who wanted to smoke. Their attitude was that the kids were going to smoke anyway, so let's get it out in the open. (See the Wolf Print articles and my earlier comments on the 70's smoking area debate.) Basically, parents gave up on us because they bought into the notions espoused by the cultural leaders of the day. Certainly, not all parents bought into this, but we have to admit that enough did for it to have an impact on our birth cohort.

But looking a little closer at Howe's piece caused me to largely agree with him. I like his concluding paragraphs which demonstrate that we have learned from our parents failures and will seek to lead our own children to great success.

Most early Xers know the score. Graduating (or not) from school in the early 1980s, they saw themselves billboarded as a bad example by blue-ribbon commissions eager to reform the system for the next generation, the Millennials. Angling for promotions in the early 1990s, they got busy with self-help guides (yes, those "For Dummies" books) to learn all the subjects they were never taught the first time around. And today, as midlife parents, they have become ultra-protective of their own teenage kids and ultra-demanding of their kids' schools, as if to make double-certain it won't happen again.

Does America need to worry that this group is taking over as our national leaders? Probably not. Early Xers have certain strengths that many more learned people lack: They're practical and resilient, they handle risk well, and they know how to improvise when even the experts don't know the answer. As the global economy craters, they won't keep leafing through a textbook. They may be a little rough around the edges, but their style usually gets the job done.

Just don't tell the early Xers that today's youth are the dumbest generation. Not only is that jibe factually untrue, it also calls into question all the family sacrifices the early Xers are now making on behalf of these youth. Let Generation Jones keep the "dumbest" label. They know it fits, and they're tough enough to take it.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/05/AR2008120502601_pf.html

Frankly, I'm proud to be from a group that is resilient and knows how to improvise rather than the one that posted the highest SAT scores!

Our Generation

My Sunday morning Washington Post had an interesting article in the Outlook section today. It was no doubt inspired by the election of a man who was born in 1961. I've posted a snippet of it below and a link to the whole article at the end of the snippet. I'll make some comments about the author's thoughts in my next posting.

The Kids Are Alright. But Their Parents ...

By Neil Howe
Sunday, December 7, 2008; B01

It is the prerogative of every generation of graybeards to look down the age ladder and accuse today's young of sloth, greed, selfishness -- and stupidity. We hear daily jeremiads from baby boomers who wonder how kids who'd rather listen to Linkin Park and play "Grand Theft Auto III" than solve equations or read books can possibly grow up to become leaders of the world's superpower. The recent publication of "The Dumbest Generation" by Mark Bauerlein of Emory University epitomizes the genre. His subtitle -- "How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future" -- says it all.

Generational putdowns, Bauerlein's included, are typically long on attitude and short on facts. But the underlying question is worth pursuing: If the data are objectively assessed, which age-slice of today's working-age adults really does deserve to be called the dumbest generation?

The answer may surprise you. No, it's not today's college-age kids, nor even today's family-starting 30-somethings. And no, it's not the 60-year-olds who once grooved at Woodstock. Instead, it's Americans in their 40s, especially their late 40s -- those born from the late 1950s to the mid-1960s. They straddle the boundary line between last-wave boomers and first-wave Generation Xers. The political consultant Jonathan Pontell labels them "Generation Jones."

Whatever you call them (I'll just call them early Xers), the numbers are clear: Compared with every other birth cohort, they have performed the worst on standardized exams, acquired the fewest educational degrees and been the least attracted to professional careers. In a word, they're the dumbest.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/05/AR2008120502601_pf.html

Turkey Bowl two days away

It was tough, but I have agin resisted the very strong temptation to fly out to the Bay Area for Thaksgiving. As I wrote earlier, the usual way it works is if you don't buy your plane tickets by early September, the only decent fares are all gone. Well, this year turned out to be the opposite. In September, fares were horrible and flight selection was worse. But then the economy sunk and gas prices sunk lower than ever. I could have been on a flight with 48 hours advance purchase for $109 each way, non-stop, coast-to-coast. I saw that fare Saturday morning and considered it. I love the Turkey Bowl. The players have changed and the majority are no longer the same old friends from San Ramon High that played for so many years. But Bob and Rick Riley are always there. Brian Robinson as well. Plus, we get visits from Scott Bisson and Jud Drennan in most years. So, it is something I will miss greatly. I hope that the players that show up have a great and safe time.

Reunion update

I got an email from Jay Briggs and Jim Robison.  It looks like they are working hard to get out the word about the reunion.  Jim did a great job in 1998-99 creating the 20 Year Reunion Committee website which had a form for class members to update their address information as well as attempt to reach out to "missing" alumni.  This time, they were comparing the websites Reunion.com and Classmates.com and came to the conclusion that Classmates would be better for us because they have so many more members from our class.  I used them in 2004 to send out announcements for the 2004 reunion which was only announced about six weeks before the event. I think almost everybody knows Classmates.com as a site to check when you're wondering about a potential reunion.

Jim also let me know that the new location of the website:

http://homepage.mac.com/johnbramsey/SanRamonHi/classof79.html 

is not showing up in Google.  This surprised me as it WAS there last week, alongside the now defunct listing for the aol.com site.  Perhaps the Googlebot saw it as a duplicate site and not a replacement and removed it from its listings.  Hopefully, I can get it back up there so it's easy to find for everybody.  I'm working with Google sitemaps and trying to figure out how to properly upload those things.

Turkey Bowl

I've been playing football in Alamo on Thanksgiving Day since the mid-70s. High school friends Rick  Toft, Will and Rich Tauchar, Steve Tienken, Britt Burns, Bob and Rick Riley and others would get together on Fall Sundays and play football.  After our high school days, we used Thanksgiving weekend as a chance to catch up on each other's lives.  After college, we still kept it going, and in 1986 Nick Manadalou began videotaping the games with his camcorder.  I see games like that going on every week in my own neighborhood out here in the Maryland suburbs.  This year's Turkey Bowl will again take place on Thanksgiving Day at Rancho Romero School in Alamo.  See our website for more on the Turkey Bowl.

This year will be only the fourth time in my twenty years living in the Washington DC area that I will not be flying out to California to make the game.  I had a good excuse in 1999, when our second daughter was born just nine days before Thanksgiving.  This year, at first it seemed that air travel would be expensive, but it turned out that as oil prices decreased and the economy slowed, airfares were reasonable.  But there are still five plane tickets to purchase for my family.  And we are anticipating a 30 year reunion in 2009, so we have just decided that we will have to miss out on the fun of Turkey Bowl weekend.

Over the last 20 years, the weekend grew to include a Thanksgiving-eve (later moved to the weekend) poker game, a Friday breakfast and finally a hike in the Las Trampas Hills.  It's been a blast and a lot of new friends as well as family members have joined in the fun.  I look forward to being back for the 2009 weekend.

30 Year Reunion Planning e-mails

Jay Briggs recently contacted me to tell me about some e-mails he had exchanged with other class members interested in getting the 30 year reunion organized. He asked me to share this with as many others as possible. I've snipped out address and phone numbers as well as non-reunion related discussion. Please leave a comment here if you want to have input into the 30 year reunion.

John

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From: Jay Briggs [mailto:address & phone hidden for privacy reasons]
FW: SR reunion
Date: October 15, 2008 12:55:39 PM EDT

John,

I hope all is well with you these days. I wanted to give you a heads up since you tend to be interested in this. Please let us know if you can help out. Please share this with anyone you think also would be interested.

Thanks.

Jay K. Briggs

{address & phone hidden for privacy reasons}
www.JayBriggs.com
------------------------------------------------------
From: Ben Deane [mailto:address & phone hidden for privacy reasons}]
Sent: Tuesday, October 14, 2008 8:05 PM
To: 'Jay Briggs'; 'Jeff Nelson'
Subject: RE: SR reunion

I think that's a great idea. I'd be happy to pitch in as I can. Ben
------------------------------------------------------

From: Claudia Gravelle [mailto:address & phone hidden for privacy reasons}]
Sent: Tuesday, October 07, 2008 3:21 PM
To: Jay Briggs
Subject: RE: SR reunion

[snip]

I have had some emails from folks showing interest in a 30 year class reunion. I think it would be great to have it jointly with 78.

No one, that I am aware of, has been planning anything for the 30 year. I am certain that I have a little extra time on my hands to help makw something happen. Devon and Katie Benson have both told me they are on board to make it work, too. I hope you will be on the team!

Maybe we can get together soon for cocktails/lunch/ soon and discuss in detail. Let me know how your schedule looks! Would love to see you!! I know Devon and Katie would be happy to be there for the brainstorming. Will cc them, as well as Chuck Douros who definitely was a big part of our success last reunion.
------------------------------------------------------
From: Jay Briggs [mailto:jaddress & phone hidden for privacy reasons}]
Sent: Tue 10/7/2008 2:59 PM
To: Claudia Gravelle
Subject: SR reunion

Claudia,

[snip]
I was contacted recently by Guy Houston who was seeking to do another joint reunion with our class at the 30 year mark. Has anyone been in contact with you and is anyone currently organizing around a 30 year reunion for our class?

I hope things are good with you.

-Jay