Hi Terry:

The 56, 57 & 58 Akelas are on hand at this moment. We will have to dig up the Jordan books and those later Akelas that belonged to Winona's daughter JoAnn. As soon as we have them in a box I'll shoot you an e-mail.

I have virtually no memorabilia left from my high school days. My mother was the attendance secretary (Marie Anton) and this, coupled with my quest for adrenaline, somewhat cramped my high school style. I was allowed to join the Marines in exchange for a promise to complete my JBHS requirements with correspondence courses, and so I left Burroughs in late Spring of 55. What with boot camp, advanced infantry training, electronics technician and aviation radio repair school, I didn't complete my correspondence courses in time to graduate with my class. I "think" I actually graduated in 57 or so. Again I "think" I remember seeing an Akela in the possession of my mother that had a picture of me (In a Marine uniform) in the book????

Perhaps she pasted a picture of me in the book when I completed my requirements, since she was displeased at my decision to leave school early??? On the other hand, since she worked at the school, did she have the picture put in at a later date?? I know it doesn't appear in any of Winona's books through 58.

I can't say how impressed we are with your 'Class of 55' web site. I really wish there was someone in my class of 56, and Winona's class of 58 that had kept track of all the members. Had either of our classes had such a web page, Winona and I would have gotten together much sooner.

After schooling, I was stationed at MCAS El Toro and met Winona who lived just over on the next street. We were very strongly attracted to each other. However, since I was Catholic, my mother very strongly disapproved of Winona. On the other hand, Winona's mother liked me a great deal, but NOT as a Catholic son-in-law. So what with overseas duties, my mother not passing on queries from Winona, we lost contact. Winona went on to marry my arch rival Jack Ellis.

Skip ahead to the present day-----I had retired from the military, retired from industry, and my marriage had been dead for years. I decided to start over. I attended a Community College course and got my FAA A&P mechanics license. I had planned to modify my small plane so I could safely take my West Highland White Terrier "Dollar" with me and fly off into the sunset leaving my wife to watch daytime television and old westerns.

Not a week had gone by that I hadn't thought about Winona--I have a daughter near 40 who was named after her. I had tried to find her many times to no avail.

Well I happened on your web page last year and while searching either on your page or a link from it. I saw an ad for Classmates. I was leery of signing up since I abhor spam, so I used a Hotmail address. At this time the web was awash with a worm and the hotmail account mail box would fill up in a matter of moments.

Two messages away from being refused due to a full mail box, came a message from Winona. She had been single for over 30 years and had been looking for me. (She had kept a picture of me all these years with the notation on the reverse saying, " This is the man I should have married".) Her Classmates subscription had 2 more weeks until her subscription was up.

We haven't looked back since. Winona put her San Diego house up for rent and moved up here to Washington to marry lucky me. This was better than winning the Lotto , and your web page played a significant role in bring us together.

So that is the long & short of it. As soon as we dig out the rest of the books, we'll get them off.

Cheers:

Paul & Winona Anton