Did I say this was a busy summer? I had 3 events to attend, 3 weekends in a row, starting in Seattle, continuing in San Antonio and then back to Seattle. This is the 2nd one.
The only Highlands High School Class of 1963 reunion I had previously gone to was the 25th in 1988, so I was determined to go to this one. It was very well attended. It was fun to participate in the "I remember that face, but not the name squinting at name tags" event. The "I remember that name, but not that face" event was also fun. I won't talk about the "is that really XXX?" thoughts many of us had.
Backstories. Many junior highs fed into HHS, so there were some of us who had gone to school with each other since then. There were even some of us who had gone to school with each other since elementary school. Scary.
I don't think there was anyone who went to my 1st elementary, Hillcrest, just west of South Flores. It looks to be in pretty good shape after all these years. My father even went there as a kid sometime between 1914 and 1920 or so. Both the building he went to and the one I did in 1952 are still standing.
I learned that our high school, built in the late 50's, was to be torn down and a new building put in its place. It was decided that it would cost too much to run it or to make it more cost efficient. Was the post-war baby boom construction really that bad?
Here's a map of the city from the Convention & Tourist Bureau. I marked my 1st house and 2nd house on it, then scanned it. If you click on it, you can see those locations better. Note how close to downtown and the missions both are.
The reunion was held at El Tropicano, built about the same time as we graduated. The best part of the hotel is the animals inside. Here's a toucan.
And a tortoise.
And an iguana. With all the reunion jokes about turkey necks, s/he needs more than one picture.
This is the hotel exterior. Yes, that is mosaic tile on the front.
This stairway has been used for more than one set of wedding pictures, I'm sure. The pool is on the 2nd level.
More of the interior. Mid-century tropical.
With a good dose of Mexican thrown in.
I loved these dial house phones.
This is the river outside. That would be the San Antonio River in its natural path. You will see later that it has been toyed with to make a great downtown destination.
Part of the bar outside and views from it.
This is the Tower of the Americas using my zoom. It's in the left center of the picture below. Good zoom.
One of the highlights of the reunion was a trip on the river. These boats, and a variety of others, take tourists all around the little nooks and crannies. If you're looking for me, I'm about in the middle of the boat on the right. Eddie Goldbeck, a classmate who stayed in the family photography business, took this picture and then put himself in digitally. He's in the UT orange to the right of the pilot of the boat on the left. You gotta click on this to see either of us.
So here we go. I had never done this, so it was great fun for me. I'll let you follow along and only comment occasionally.
Lush, semi-tropical landscaping, eh?
Note the historical looking building on the right edge of the building on the left. They saved the beauty part and built inside it.
At one time, the river was only about 5 feet deep. Now to control flooding and the water flow among the various parts, in some places it is 25 feet deep. This is one of them.
As are lots of tourist and historical locations.
Most of the tall trees along the river are cypress. When the roots need air, they make "knees" that poke up out of the ground or water. You see that a lot in swamps, and here.
This is a statue of St. Anthony, for whom the city is named.
In Bruges we saw fountains for aerating the canals. Here we have waterfalls. This is one of them.
La Villita has always been one of my favorite places. There's a great little very primitive chapel there. It was the Mexican side of the river in the very old days. For those of you who have seen Miss Congeniality, this is where people sat for the question and answer part of the pageant.
This is part of the stage across the river. These 5 bells represent the 5 missions of San Antonio. Our guide was funny when he said they represented the first 5 Taco Bells in SA. Here's a homework question for you -- what are the names of those 5 missions?
This building has some great gargoyles which are actual rain spouts to bring water off the roof to the river. It was built long before the river was a big tourist draw.
The red building ahead is the Bexar County Courthouse. It was built in 1897 of Texas granite and red sandstone and has never burned. I found my grandmother's will from 1912 there, handwritten in pencil on tablet paper.
This is a way the boats don't go. There's a 25 foot drop off ahead.
These are some pictures from the two reunion parties. I won't go into details here. If you are classmates, you know who you are. Other friends and family will see me in couple of shots.
We had a great slideshow put together by the reunion organizers. I paid too much attention to it to take many pictures. I did have to get this shot of a classmate's hair. I just loved it and it was so her.
This is another big group picture courtesy of Eddie Goldbeck. I'm in the 2nd row from the back, in that yellow top, partially obscured but just to the left of the guy in the tuxedo T-shirt.
The theme of the reunion became "pushing 70." I have a T-shirt with this logo on it and got one for Trout, too.
