News from Elaine Stanley Guaraglia

Elaine Stanley at the California Academy of Science, San Francisco, June 10, 2009

Since retiring from 40 years of teaching in elementary schools, Elaine keeps active by becoming a master gardener, walking dogs, and conducting tours for Canine Companions for Independence - an organization that trains dogs to assist persons with disabilities. Elaine and her husband also go out on Bodega Bay fishing. Elaine's daughter and son-in-law (who hails from New Hampshire) are both specialty veterinarians in Tucson, Arizona. Exercise is important to Elaine, who does Scottish Dance on Monday Nights and walks briskly five times a week in her Santa Rosa, Califirnia neighborhood. She invited us to view her performance with the Redwood Country Cloggers as they perform "Cajun Moon" at the Cloverdale Old Time Fiddle Festival in northern California, on YouTube. Click on the link to see Elaine dance. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYXe-T-d_Tw or enter Redwood Country Cloggers in Google or your favorite search engine. Elaine says that clogging is like tap-dancing, square-dancing, and folk dancing all melded together. She dances with her group at farmer's markets and fairs.

News From Laurie Blacquiere

Laurie Blacquiere

Many GHS classmates will remember Laurie Blacquiere as a very outgoing fellow - always with a crowd around him - but few know that he transferred from Notre Dame High School to Gardner High School. Following graduation, Laurie attended the Stockbridge School of Agriculture at UMASS where he majored in Ornamental Horticulture. He then enlisted in the United States Air Force. Upon discharge he went to work for Pratt & Whitney Aircraft in East Hartford, CT. In 1966 he left to return to Gardner and took on the task of expanding the Gardner Munical Golf Course from nine to eighteen holes. March of 1970 marked the beginning of Laurie's long career as a firefighter in the Citty of Gardner which included earning an Associates Degree in Fire Science Technology. Laurie retired from the Fire Department in 2001, but still maintains a few horticulture accounts and enjoys doing work on his own property. Laurie and his wife have been married for 43 years and now live in Otter River. They have two adult boys and five grandchildren ranging in years from 17 to three. "The last one is a wonderful little girl after four boys," says Laurie.

Laurie has been a member of the Gardner Lions Club for forty years. He was chosen to receive a "Melvin Jones" fellowship - the highest award given to a Lion at the local level. Laurie is curretly the chairman of the sight and hearing committee. He has also volunteered three years of service with other businesses for construction of the Gardner Animal Hospotal on West Broadway.

Laurie is one of 28 other GHS Class of 1960 classmates currently on Facebook. You can contact him there or send a message to him via ghsclassof1960@gmail.com.

Editor's note: Laurie J. Blackquiere, age 67, died on Wednesday, January 27, 2010 at UMASS Medical Center in Worcester.

Save the Date for Our Reunion

The Westminster Village Inn

Please save the date for our 50th Gardner High School Class Reunion Dinner

Saturday, July 24, 2010
The Wachusett Village Inn, 9 Village Road, Westminster, MA 01473
(978) 874 5351 http://www.wachusttvillageinn.com/

Reunion registration forms and details about other reunion-related events, including times and locations of all weekend activities, will be available in January, 2010. You can continue to get reunion updates, hotel reservation information, news from classmates, and more here ar the GHS web log.

The Class of 1960 Reunion Planning Committee includes Judy Heino Collette, Linda Giles Merikanto, and Douglas S. Fleming.

Do you have a question? Need some more information? Please contact Judy Heino Collette at (978) 632 3806 or e-mail to judyccats@aol.com .

A text-based version of this posting was sent to all classmates with e-mail addresses. Postcards were mailed to other classmates. Just in case we missed anyone, we hope you will share this information with friends and classmates.

At The Beach 1960

A Day at the Beach

Here's a black and white photo provided by Linda (Giles Merikanto. Linda and her younger sister sit with Carolyn (MacIntosh) Fratturelli as Barbara (Osborne) Rameau and Jacqui (Tier) Sanford kneel behind. This photo was taken at athe Polish American Country Club beach in Gardner, MA on July 6, 1960. To me, that looks like Len Erickson in the background, but I don't have a forensics lab to create better resolution. Recognize anyone else? Got any other hunches?

If you have some high school photographs you can share with the 50th High School Class Reunion Committee, we would enjoy scanning and posting them to our web log. Please send us a message at ghsclassof1960@gmail.com . We will return your orignals promptly and safely.