Thursday, June 18, 2015

Success!

Last weekend was Cleghorn's 125th celebration, and mother nature was kind to us. We were threatened with 3 inches of rain earlier in the week, thank heavens it did not come to fruition!

Friday was a busy day putting the last touches on things that had to be done before the 5:00 opening ceremonies. Bruce hauled our gator and a golf cart uptown so we would have transportation and did they ever coming in handy. Rosanne and Kaiza arrived with cameras, batteries and camera cards ready to capture the celebration for posterity. Our house was finally clean and ready for company who would arrive later in the day. 

This is Bruce deep in discussion with Jim Thompson and Rick Nelson. All the people helping with QQI had bright orange tee shirts with 'Staff' on the back. I loved it, it was easy to find a Bruce in a crowd. 


A family picture with the sisters who made it home, Janet and Gerald on the right, Carol peeking over Jean's shoulder, John on her left and Bruce and I in our bright orange tee shirts. We missed you Shirley! 


Opening ceremonies with Bob Blair at the pulpit, one of our favorite people, Jim Thompson in the back and Bruce running the sound system. That was his big chore for the entire three days, and he did such a good job. 


Charlie Brown and Tony Ehrig raising the flag in front of the community building. 


We even had an ultralight airplane fly over to check things out, ET phone home! 


Saturday morning we were up bright and early to partake of the free breakfast by the Cleghorn firemen before we had to get to work. As you can see here, we are sitting with some other workers planning our day. 


The first thing on the agenda was the five K fun run or walk. "And their off!" 


Even the dogs got in on it with their owner are carrying their poop bag. Dogs really must think they rule the world with people walking around picking up after them. 


Carol and Janet met up with some young Cousins enjoying the day. Abby on the left, Anna next to her, Carol, Janet and Emily. 


Sue Briese riding in the White Horse Patrol carriage, she has worked tirelessly for the last five years to make this day a success, and she succeeded! 


The famous White Horse Patrol from Sioux City, it was quite a coup to get them here to our small town parade. 


Bernice Mcintosh and Emmitt Wolf were King and Queen of the parade.


 Bill and Mary Mcintosh were Prince and Princess. 


Bruce's sister, Jean, was front and center on this float, The Class of 1965.


Our good friends, Roger and Opal Rupp, with their immaculate GTO in the car show and then Bruce stepped in to photo bomb. 


The White Horse Patrol performed at the football field, four of the riders were dressed as women and they did a square dance routine.





One of the lovely women!



More than 540 alumni signed up for the all school reunion, the gym was bulging at the seams and more tables had to be set up. 


Bob Blair rounding out the weekend at the pulpit of the church services in the big tent. Sunday was a pretty quiet day but we did have a successful chicken dinner and ice cream social afterwards. 


Bruce and I were late in joining the committee that had been meeting for the last five years planning this. We have so much respect for all their hard work, we both received so many compliments from alumni and visitors to our small town. It was very heartwarming and we quickly passed all the congratulations along to the committee members who then shrugged it off as though it was nothing! 

The hard work was yet to come, removing all the tables and chairs from the gym, returning all the picnic tables, taking down the two big tents and returning the generator lights.A lot of the small stuff was done by Sunday night even though we were all tired we wanted to get a start on it. To reward us, the committee fed us the leftover food from the reunion and ice cream for dessert. We didn't go up to help take down the tents but Bruce spent Tuesday afternoon hauling picnic tables. A good time was had by all and that made the work and the planning very worthwhile, people had such compliments and they knew how much work it was. 

But we're glad the 150th is 25 years away, we think we will be too old to help!  
  

3 comments:

  1. Julie, it was a wonderful weekend and very well done! I had such a great time, seeing people "from the past" and meeting new ones (like the 1953 grad, from Florida now, who shared a shuttle ride with us).I certainly appreciated all the work the locals put in, to make this a success. The pancake and sausage breakfast was outstanding! And the all school reunion dinner went off very well, considering the amount of people and the space constraints. It was fun to see the old school again, too. And I finally met (the legendary!) Kim Ames! :)

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    1. It was a great weekend. I never made so many trips back and forth to Cleghorn. It was very fun meeting new people, especially the French Girls !!!! All of the entertainment was wonderful. Everyone put a lot of time and planning in the weekend and it showed. Everything went well. Way to go !!!

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  2. I was sure sad to miss this and to catch up with many old friends that I have reconnected with on Facebook. But, grandson's first birthday is something not to be missed, who knows he may be the only grandson we will have!? Looks like a ton of fun.... and hard work. Thank you for being part of the team who provided the fun to the entire town and alumni!!!!

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