Paul Blazer Class of 1988

In lieu of Flowers...

In lieu of flowers, the family has requested that donations be made to the

Gary Bailey Memorial Fund, which has been established for the benefit of his daughters, Kaitlyn and Olivia.

Gary Bailey Memorial Fund

c/o North Dallas Bank and Trust

5150 Keller Springs Road, Dallas, TX 75248

UPDATE ON GARY BAILEY...

I wanted to let everyone know that Gary is really having a difficult time and seems to have taken a turn for the worse.  Please remember this family as they are struggling to get through this.  Here is Gary's website for those of you who would like to leave a comment and let Gary and his family know you are thinking about him.  Gary Bailey   Also please keep in mind that Gary's children are very young - maybe 1 and 3 - and unfortunately will have limited memories of Gary should something tragic happen.  I think it would be nice if we all could write down a fond memory you have of Gary for his girls to read later in life.

Julie

GARY BAILEY......

Unfortunately Gary Bailey is not doing very well.  He is stable but on a vent.  I have contacted his wife twice about our idea to make a donation to them but I know she has more important things to focus on right now.  Here is the link to Gary's Page: Gary Bailey   It does have a place to donate on there but if you read the info it states it does not go to the patient but to the Caring Bridge Company. 

I want to share something.  We all know Bryan Barber as the funny man, the life of the party, never in a bad mood - always happy.  Always smiling and always making us smile.  But I never knew how wonderful and sensitive, thoughtful and caring Bryan was.  Not that I thought he wasn't but I don't see that "serious" side of him.   Here is the Journal entry he wrote to Gary.  I cried when I first read it and I am crying now typing this.  Bryan I hope you don't mind that I have blown your cover.

Hey Gary! I haven't seen you since high school and we missed you at our 20 year class reunion!! Just wanted to say get your ass out of that hospital and get back to work!!!!! I am putting you on the prayer list at church and will have you in mine. By the way are you sure those beautiful children came from you!! You have a beautiful family and I am proud of you buddy! Keep the faith strong, the good lord works in mysterious ways. By the way I'm single, never married (imagine that) no kids living in Cin. Oh as a purchasing agent and loving life. I hope you know that I saw you everyday of my 12 years of Ashland education from Charles Russell and then Homeroom all the way through message center together our senior year!!! Take care bud and I will be hoping to hear back from you!

Your friend,

Bryan Barber    

                                                  

ONE THING I DID NOT EXPECT...

When I started this BLOG I was hoping that it would help the '88's reconnect and help find lost classmates.  One thing I did not expect was for it to help me reconnect with classmates who did not graduate with us.  Because of this BLOG Lara Bucklew has called me (Lara if you are reading this please email or call me back - I accidentally deleted your number :) I am dying to catch up) Also Mandy Conley and I have enjoyed catching up via emails.  Mandy moved away in 8th grade but she was here with us long enough to snap and keep some really great images of our Middle School journey.  Here is my personal favorite.

Will Tanner, Elliot Caggins and Wee Blake.  I  hope Elliott's wife and children see this image.

Elliot and Dove Gevedon.

Joe Avila, Matt Dixon, Jason Durham, David Douglas, ?, Toni Blevins and Heather Chaffin.

Don't worry.  Mandy has promised me there are plenty more where these came from.  I can't wait to see them all.

~julie

A GREAT IDEA FROM KIM REGARDING THE CD...

I haven't seen a post here in a few days and I 
haven't seen too many posts about the photos 
so I have a few comments. First I would like 
to say to those of you (Christy Ford) and 
others who have near perfect grammar skills 
please don't make fun of me too much.lol I 
did fail English my junior year and barely 
graduated my senior year. Secondly I don't 
mean to step on anybody's toes by any
comments I make, this is only my opinion.
I'm sure most everyone doesn't know this, 
but I worked for Winnie Greer
my senior year in the co-op program and 
some, in the years that past. I
mention this because while doing so, I 
learned a lot of the things that
go on behind the scenes that most people 
don't see after photographers
take their photos. They try to capture 
what they hope to be the perfect
picture or the perfect memory for you. 
But after that, there is much more work 
to be done. They have to go through all 
the photos, get rid of all the ones that 
they don't want you to see, the ones that you
don't look so good in. They touch up 
photos so that you don't so that you 
don't see little imperfections, otherwise 
the photo may you may not have looked so 
good in the photo. Then a slideshow put 
together just so you could see it as the 
night went on and all of your friends came
together after 20 years of seeing each 
other, for some, maybe not others.
For me, this was a slideshow that I would 
watch again and again. Only hoping to have 
some of these photos to download, 
so that I could put them into an album to 
keep handy and show my kids and my 
friends as well. 
I would love to ask Julie to do this 
but at the risk of offending her,
I wanted to post this instead......
................ Julie I truly thank 
you for taking all of the  photos 
at our reunion, and the whole weekend, 
for all of us, so that we can remember 
this wonderful time we shared with our 
friends and their families and their
children forever. 
I know it is possible that you can make 
these photos on CD format but
from past experience I don't know 
whether you would be willing to
accept any money for doing so. 
So, I would like to suggest something if 
you are willing to make these
available to us on CD's and will not 
accept money for them. Since we
didn't get to have poker night to raise 
any money for Gary Bailey, maybe you 
could instead set a price and it be 
donated to him to help with his health 
care expenses. I think it would be a 
great way for us to help out a fellow 
classmate and show our appreciation 
for all that you have done.         

Great Idea Kim.  Anyone who would like to  
donate to Gary Bailey and his family I will 
send a CD including all the images from 
our reunion weekend.  For those of you who 
don't know Gary was recently diagnosed with Acute
myelogenous leukemia .  Here is the link to 
Gary's Blog Gary Bailey 
Please contact me or Kim Maupin
for further details:  kimaup2000@yahoo.com or 
info@juliethackerphotography.com

WILL TANNER'S VIDEO...

Will I hope you don't mind me sharing this here.

WHEW.......

Wow what a great weekend.  All the headaches from planning were quickly forgotten when Friday night rolled around.  I had so much fun that I think we should do it all over again this weekend!  Anyone else up for that? 

I have had several requests to post the pictures so here is part of the slide show I have put together.  This is from Day 3 - the family picnic.  I started downloading these first because kids are so much cuter than 38 year old men :).  Anyway bare with me as I try to go through the 1000 images I took and prepare them for a slideshow. 

Class of 1988 - Reunion 2008

Just a little side note - during this planning period and especially the last two weeks I neglected my house, my husband and my kids.  This will be evident when you see my daughter Jillian giving herself a bath in the cooler water.  Please don't judge me.

Julie

**UPDATE**  I HAVE ADDED DAY TWO AND DAY THREE FROM THE REUNION ON THE SLIDE SHOW.

A NOTE FROM KIM MAUPIN...

Julie,
I loved all the pics and I had a great time this weekend. You guys did a fantastic job of putting everything together and I was glad to see everyone. I heard mention of a 5-year, is that true? Anyway, keep the pics coming, we love them.

A NOTE FROM CURT CLEVENGER...

I just finished looking at all of the pictures, and I have to say " They Rock ". Julie you have been a true blessing to all of us with your camera skills and all of your help in the planning. Hats off to all of you all for putting on 1 heck of a show. Missy we as a class can't thank your Mom enough for putting up with all of our intoxicated asses all weekend. Chris you did a great job husseling everyone for our cash, Leslie I can not say enough about the planning and Donna what can I say that I already have not said a thousand times over to you. I wish I could have made the Sunday event it looked as if it was probably the best part of all. I totally agree with Bill Tussey you women looked awesome. I must have asked everyone at least once who they thought changed the most or looked the youngest or the one that you just couldn't take your eyes off of. Come on now it was not just me, we all did it. Mr. Eby you by far looked the youngest, How do you do it, is it the cheeses up there in Wisconsin. Cheryl Hutt, Donna Ison and Carrie Huber "WOW" those athletic bodies was still up to the challenge, and it is 20 years later baby, I wanted you all to play some beach Volleyball Friday night instead of going to the football game. I said we all had the one we couldn't take our eyes off of didn't I. You 3 just about made me cross-eyed.
In ending I can honestly say we all still have the kid in us at heart. All of the secret crushes and all of the 1st boyfriend or 1st girlfriend lust. That is what has made the PGBHS CLASS OF 88 standout.

A NOTE FROM MIKE GRINSTEAD...

I am just now cooling off from a 
terrific weekend with great friends
and crazy memories. i was so glad 
that i came to the reunion. it ranks
up there in those things you will 
remember no matter what. i saw tons
of classmates that i had not seen 
since that grad day at Putnam
stadium. looking back at it all, 
not just the reunion has me
thinking....what a great bunch of 
kids we were and still are. we were
so lucky and didn't even know it. 
kudos to all who came this past
weekend.laura and i will be ready 
for the next one and lets not wait
another 10, lets try 5....88 is 
different in so many ways. 
we need to all plan on being 
back in 5. 

much love....mike