Class of 76 reunion party

Sinai party scene from "The Ten Commandments" film.

April 2, 2016, from 3-8 pm.
Party will be at the clubhouse where DeLands live, at 15555 Frank Lloyd Wright Blvd, Scottsdale, AZ 85260.
Map from Thunderbird campus to DeLands' complex.

Wear casual indoor-outdoor clothes. Valley high temps can be 75-95. And breezy, so be sure to glue your toupee tightly. 

Bring food (side dishes, desserts) if local, and/or contribute to the grocery $$ bucket. 

If you have pictures, bring on a USB drive to plug into laptop connected to big-screen TV. If you can make a video of classmates at the party for those who aren't able to attend, that would be great. Christy can embed the video in the class blog.

Complex  includes a pool, BBQ grills, a kitchen, and indoor/outdoor seating. We will be keeping it simple with grilling burgers/grillers and hot dogs/vege-dogs. If anyone who lives in town would like to make a side dish or dessert or appetizer, please let Bonni know. 

PLEASE RSVP by March 25 so we may begin shopping. We need to know if you prefer vegetarian food.
Bonni @ 928-242-0607
or Cindy @ 602-540-6506

If you're interested in dinner out on Friday night, call Bonni.

Official Thunderbird alumni weekend events: http://www.thunderbirdacademy.org/new-page-1/

Lisa Vickery Ruffner

Hi Everyone!

Wow! Hard to believe it's already been 40 years! Soooo, a little about me....

I am a widow, I lost my husband Jon Ruffner on Aug.15, 2012.

I and my almost-39-year-old son Jonathan have lived here in South Carolina for almost 10 years. My 35-year-old daughter Johanna lives in Colorado. My son-in-law is a Captain in the Army Reserves. 

I'm a grandmother of four, ages 4 months, 3 years, 13 years, and almost 17.

Granny Ruffner in her
little black dress.

 
I'm a former childcare teacher and I paint cartoon-themed murals. We also had a music ministry called Praise 3 and would play to nine nursing home facilities a month. We would do concerts for the White Memorial Medical Center (Los Angeles) and Loma Linda University Children's Hospital.

Lately, just trying to get by and make life count every day.

 
♡♡♡♡♡♡

Sheila Ramos

Sheila, center, with daughters

Since leaving TAA, I got married and had two daughters, Tabitha and Casey. I worked in a preschool for awhile and then after 10 years of marriage, I found myself a single parent with two small children.

For the next 30 years, I worked in retail, the last 19 years as manager for Sally Beauty Supply, which I really enjoyed. I won a lot of trips to Cancun, Riverar Maya, two trips on cruise ships to Bahamas on the Royal Caribbean, and went to Catalina Islands and Ensenada on the Carnival Cruise. Really cool.

In June 2014, I had to leave SBS because of my health. I had been living in Yuma and I moved to Williams, Arizona. In April 2015, I was diagnosed with ALS. I’m doing good—I have a slow progression of the disease, considering I had the symptoms for the last five years, which was misdiagnosed. I have my "toys" to help me get around. Great doctor and his team at Barrows Neurological Institute in Phoenix.

 

I plan to be around until at least 90. I wake up every day blessed to be alive. I’ve been married for the last 24 years, and from my daughters we have six granddaughters and one grandson who happens to be the youngest. So I am very truly blessed.

Christy Robinson

Hi, classmates.

I'm not very excited about it being forty years since we were sprung from Thunderbird. Forty. Shoot, who could even think about being 40 years old back then, much less being those late-50s geezers that come back for alumni weekend? I've been on the TA campus numerous times over the years, including four years as the academy piano teacher, and a couple of recent guest shots talking to the English classes and a chapel service, so it's not the real estate or the institution that gives me chills of delight. But I'm pretty excited about seeing all of you again!

Over the last (gulp) 40 years, I've lived in California several times (Riverside while at La Sierra University, West Covina while working at USC, and Redlands/Loma Linda while working at LLU and La Sierra and The Quiet Hour). I lived in Phoenix from '82 to early '97. I loved traveling when I had the funds: Canada, Australia, New Zealand, UK (5 times), Ireland, Netherlands, Jordan, Ukraine, Russia. And I nipped over to Mexican border shopping when I had foreign guests. My passport has cobwebs now.

I'm an always-single (it seems), so rather than brag about my gorgeous, successful husband and awesome children and grandchildren that I'd have to totally invent, I could talk about my cats. I love my two cats. Oh, wait. You're not interested in hearing about the Crazy Cat Lady' cats?

Alrighty then. Maybe I could brag about my career? Meh, you can read about it at LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/in/christykrobinson But in a nutshell, I bit the big one in the Great Recession when a third of my fellow employees were laid off, and being old and decrepit at 51, I couldn't get a new job to save my life--or my home (sold it) and lifestyle. In 2010, I moved from Redlands, CA to Peoria, AZ, where I took up my old standbys, playing keyboards at churches, teaching piano, and editing book manuscripts and writing website copy for clients.

That year, my first book was published by Review and Herald, and then I began researching and writing my next three books, based on real events and real people. Once those were published, I started my fifth book, a nonfiction genealogy resource and travel guide called Effigy Hunter. It was published in September 2015. I have an idea for a novel, but can't say I've done anything more than planning it. Meanwhile, I use my two popular history blogs and several Facebook sites as platforms for my books.

Family-wise, my brother Brian and his wife moved to Texas last year, and my father, who had several cancers and was part of the reason I moved back to Phoenix, died in 2012. So there's nothing holding me here, except the inability to afford a move without a promised job. It's bare economic survival and worsening allergies. I'm applying for jobs in California, but haven't been invited for an interview.

So there you have it: all the factoids without the pouring out of intimate details. I look forward to learning about what makes you tick, and hearing your funny and sad stories both in this blog and at the reunion party. Bring your phone-camera galleries to show your families and gardens and the people and things you're proud of.

See you at the party or online, or both.
Blessings to you!
Love, Christy

Websites and blogs:
Businesses: http://ChristyKRobinson.com
History: http://MaryBarrettDyer.blogspot.com
History: http://RootingForAncestors.blogspot.com
Devotionals: http://christykrobinson.blogspot.com 
Amazon author page: http://bit.ly/RobinsonAuthor  

Oh, OK, since you twisted my arm, here's a picture of my fur-children.

OK, I'll go first

Welcome to the Thunderbird Class of 76 newsletter blog.

I hope you'll send an email or Word file to me, Christy Robinson, with one or several images you'd like to share with classmates, and several paragraphs updating us on where you live, what you've been doing over the last few years, if you have kids or grandchildren or (like me) in lieu of children, have become a Crazy Cat Lady. A general rule might be to release info similar to what you'd write in a Christmas letter. You don't have to be serious and grownup unless you really are serious and grownup. If you have something to be proud of, share it. Tell us what you do for fun. If you're confessing a murder or that you sneaked out of the dorm when you were a teenager, please save it for law enforcement. If you're the non-communicative type, get a Significant Other to be your amanuensis. Or talk to your video phone, upload it to You Tube, and send me the address (URL), and I can post that.

I'll post your article and images in this blog, and put the link in our class Facebook page when there are new posts to show. If you're not in Facebook (why not??), you'll need to bookmark this blog and check on it periodically.

It's best not to list your email address, as spammers and phishers have bots that look for addresses, especially with the @ sign. If you have a blog (I have several) or a website (got one of those, too), please include the links to them if you want us to look them up.

After each blog entry, you may leave a comment or reply to other people's comments. They won't appear with the article until I approve them, though. That's how I avoid spammers giving links to elephant rides in Jakarta, Ukrainian hot babes who want your citizenship, or Nigerian princes offering to make you rich.

Hey, we may be 57-60 years old, but with this blog, we're more high tech than any other class, ever.  As they say,

 Muahahaha!