McPherson High School
Class of 1962

Who wears short shorts? Or black socks with bermudas? Who wore the same shirt to two reunions, five years apart, which made it so hard to get the right pictures matched with the right reunion? Which of those smiling faces, now missed by all, have attended their last reunions? How gracefully have we aged, or not?

There's a slew of new reunion photos on the website, courtesy of Carol Betzen Austin (and husband John) and Carol Kemp Engelland who are there with cameras when classmates gather.  Barbara Stucky Ratzlaff and husband Lynn are our other unofficial reunion photographers that we can always count on to record our memories. If you have some more reunion candid shots, please add them to the galleries.

Doesn't it make you think it might be a great idea to show up for the 50th?

I added most of the names, and apologize in advance for any errors, but let me know and I'll get them corrected.

While you're on the site, explore all the updated profiles, new messages, and additions to the Photo Gallery. And add some information or memories of your own.

Don't forget to vote in the latest poll and then check back each week. Results of all are posted in the Class Poll Results link. Every once in a while, we'll be throwing in more "true confessions" types of questions that you won't want to miss. (And we're open to suggestions. What do your inquiring minds want to know?)

Have a great summer!

Carolyn aka Geim (6-27-10)

McPherson High School
Class of 1962

Where the heck did you put that 48-year-old yearbook? Not to worry--it's now online and you can browse through it at your leisure. Check it out!

Did you remember that we had a Dance Band? No, not the Flippers. The singing "Hillbillies" are on p. 34. The who? And why is Rick Shupe walking like that in front of Mr. Estes and Mr. Randall (see pg. 55)? Quick, just how many Bullpup girls did it take to make up a Pep Club in 1962? Count 'em up on pp. 72-73. And really, did Salina beat us that bad in football in '61? Ouch!

After you check out the yearbook, don't forget to see who else has joined or posted new profile pictures or information, send a note to someone you haven't talked to in forever, and don't forget to VOTE in the latest poll!

Welcome to all the new members!

Carolyn and Lane (6/10/10)

McPherson High School
Class of 1962

Just how exciting can this website get? Dunno. But we think it would be fun to have a lot more quirky, fun, interesting, revealing trivia about our classmates...but not in a Jerry Springer, tell-all format. We'll keep it clean and pretty tame, and put up a new poll every week or so. You might let us know what you would like to know and we'll poll the group. Lane and I are just making up the questions as we go, so don't expect them all to be earth-shattering and clever.

You can vote just once. But please vote whether the poll applies to you or even interests you. For instance, if we ask how many of you snore, and only those who snore respond, then it will look like 100% of our class are snorers! We'd like a little statistical credibility here. And a poll with just 2 or 3 responses would be plain boring. So vote. Every time. And keep checking back to see the live results and weekly-ish new polls. We'll keep a running list of survey results for all to see in a link on the left cleverly called Class Poll Results.

As soon as you vote, you'll see a graph with the results. Lane and I will have no way of knowing who votes or how you vote. We confirmed that with the site developers...it's perfectly anonymous and confidential.

What are you waiting for? Log on and cast your vote NOW!

Next topic, but so important. We now have all but two obituaries of our classmates posted on the In Memory page. Please take a minute to read those and pay tribute to the ones we have lost. You can add some memories or personal thoughts to each one as you wish using the response box provided. And if anyone can send me the missing obituaries, I would be very grateful.

Carolyn (5/22/10)

McPherson High School
Class of 1962

Check out Carol Kemp Engelland's profile page. She has just posted some terrific photos she took on May Day 2010 with a bunch of our classmates and some of the "older" folk from earlier classes.

If you have pictures to add, you can either add them to your own profile or to "Photo Gallery." There are a bunch of albums already created there. I would think May Day photos would go in the "McPherson-Then & Now" album, but there are no rules here. Just put them where you want.

Sent 5/15/10

McPherson High School
Class of 1962

What's new in July?

More music from our whole time at MHS, 1958-1962, that you can play long after you are done checking out the site, all 142 songs!
The Fabulous Flippers onstage in 1965 in "Homegrown Talent."
New members and updated profiles, easy to find using the box on the right of the home page.
A handy link directly to the McPherson Sentinel.
Ted Helmer's birthday was July 10--did you miss it? And Ward Anderson also just turned 29! Whose is coming up?
A new poll question, and all the results of previous polls in "Class Poll Results."
New photos in the "Photo Gallery" and "Reunion Pics."

While you're online, browse through the topics in the "High Life Forum" and post a story, a memory, a thought or whatever of your own. Invite classmates to keep the discussion going! You can set your preferences to be notified whenever there is a new posting.

What else would you like to see? We welcome suggestions, comments and even grumblings.

Carolyn 7/10/2010

System Password  7/24/10 (Sent by Lane)

McPherson High School
Class of 1962

We have a system password that you can give to family and friends so they can see parts of the website. 

You may have noticed the website has a system password.  (If you click on almost any link on the left of the Home Page when you’re not logged on, you’ll get a request to log on or enter the system password.)  The website information says this password allows access to all areas, including the Classmate Profiles.  We thought that was too much access since you were told only classmates can see your Profile if you check the Profile Visibility box, so we haven’t given this password to anyone. 

I recently tried the password and found it doesn’t work as advertised.  The system password does not give access to the locked Classmate Profiles, the High Life Forum, or Announcements and Home Page modules that have been restricted to logged on members.  It also does not allow participation in the website – it’s read only.  It does give access to everything else as far as I can see.  This seems reasonable, if not exactly what we would like to have. 

Please let us know if you have any objection to making this system password available to all website members.  If we don’t hear any adamant objections within a week, we’ll post the password in an Announcement on the website, viewable only by members who are logged on.  You can then give the password to friends and family.  We’ve had a few requests for guest membership from MHS alums in other classes, which we turned down, but we’ll send the password to them if there are no objections. 

Sorry to bother you again, but . . .

With our 50th reunion looming, we would like to celebrate our 50th member (we know who that was but we're not telling) and the new member which puts us at the 50% mark as far as our class goes. We just need 4 more!

Would any of you charitable classmates be willing to fund these prizes? What are we looking for? I don't know, what could you give?

Just email me with your offer. No reasonable or unreasonable offer refused!

(There's a great Bill Mills story in the High Life Forum, another elitist Washington Grade School story, at least from the viewpoint of this stinkin' Lincoln alum.)

Carolyn  8/14/2010

As Corny as Kansas in August?
That’s the current feature on the Home Page of www.mcpherson62.com. Even though South Pacific (which featured that song) was the musical presented our junior year, our class provided many of the stars, and they never got their pictures in a yearbook. But you can see them here!

• 9 new classmate members in July and August
• A System Password you can give to family and friends to check out the website
• The link for seeing some photos of the 50^th reunion of the Class of 1960 that occurred last weekend, plus some new photos on Carol Kemp Engelland's profile
• A nostalgic (but very boring) photo of the drive-in as we knew it (and some comments in the Message Forum about that venue)
• Amazing sites the guidebooks suggest seeing when you "vacation" in Kansas (now in the High Life Forum archives)
• The history of movie theatres in McPherson (now in the High Life Forum archives)
• The official results of an unscientific poll indicating that 54% of our class “trespassed” at the drive-in, and 60% claim to have milked a cow by hand. Are you being counted? (See the Class Poll Results link and remember to vote in the new poll, which changes every week or so.)