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60th Reunion in the Works

Oct. 15, 16, & 17

Results of our survey found 9 votes for East, 5 votes for West, and 4 votes for No Preference. 

So we're heading East. Ann discovered a brand new Marriott Autograph hotel is opening up at 12th & Farnam May 1, and we have secured a block of rooms for our reunion at a $50/night discount. The hotel is named The Farnam, its theme is the history of Omaha, and the price for a king room for members of our group will be $146/night. The direct link for our reservations as well as more information about the rooms and the hotel is  here.  The hotel will appreciate our reserving our rooms as soon as possible.

 Lobby of The Farnam

We also found a home for our Friday night registration/drinks/food event. All of Omaha and the surrounding area will be lying at our feet when we gather at the top of the First National Bank of Omaha Tower, guests of Bruce Lauritzen, chairman of the bank, good friend of the Stinsons, and our classmate through our Freshman year at Westside.

  First National Bank Tower

Check out Tom Austin's suggestion as posted in the Message Forum!

Current state of planning:

• a Friday registration/food/drinks event atop the First National Bank of Omaha Tower

• Saturday tour of Westside (including its brand new, state-of-the-art, first-in-the-nation golf practice facility)

• Saturday  sneak preview of riverfront development plans

• Saturday evening drinks, dinner, and entertainment at Laurtizen Gardens

If you haven't signed up expressing interest, please email Linda Siert Johnson.  Here are those who have expressed interest so far (in addition to the committee).

—The Reunion Committee:

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Play the Old Song

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We have pictures of the 50th!

You attended the 50th reunion, have lost track of the class photo you bought, but want to see how terrific you looked just 10 years ago. We're here to help you out! See yourself and your fellow reunion attendees as the 68- year old version of themselves here.

We also now have the snapshots taken during the 50th reunion weekend posted. If you were at the reunion, relive it; if you were'nt, enjoy it vicariously. And, while you're at it, have a look at the pix from the 40th reunion we just got around to posting.

Did you take pictures, too?  Let us know about them, and we'll get them up so everyone can have a look. 

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Help!  Our needs are great!

• We are having a 60th reunion, so we'd really like you to join the website if you haven't already, and if you have joined, this would be a great time to update your profile!  The heart and soul of this website are the stories we have to tell of our lives since graduation.  

• We still have about 90 (!) classmates we can't locate.  Please take a look at the Missing Classmates page and see if there's anyone you know on it.  If there is, please contact us with address, phone number, and/or email address.

• Ed Reitan agreed to be an associate webmaster back in 2011. Unfortunately, he passed away shortly after our 50th reunion and we haven't replaced him. We need at least one person to volunteer to help out, at minimum to hold a spare set of keys to this car. Several volunteers would be even better.

 Though a rudimentary knowledge of HTML is helpful, it's definitely not necessary: the site interface makes adding and subtracting text, photos, graphics, music, and videos pretty simple. Ideal volunteers are those of you with ideas for things we can add to make this spot a happening place. Right now this poor website is stuck with someone with little interest in nostalgia and who really hates Facebook. If you have any interest at all, please get in touch.

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 Guests

When you look at the "Classmate Profiles" page, you will see we have some "guests" listed in addition to classmates. Guest privileges are granted by the site administrator to classmates' family members and friends and to fellow WHS alums who express a desire to be admitted to the site.  You will be able to identify in the guest's profile his or her relationship to the class of '61.

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Jukebox

This will open a new window or tab which will show up directly on top of this window. Select your tune or tunes from "The Nostalgia Machine," then come back here to browse.

You can get back in two ways: 1) by clicking on the tab (directly above this window) for Westside61. That will make this window reappear and leave the window for The Nostalgia Machine open and still playing your music. 2) by dragging the Nostalgia Machine window off to one side, revealing the Westside61 window. To do that, click next to "The Nostalgia Machine" in your browser's address bar and drag it off to the right or left.