THE LAPORTE-CULLUM FAMILY

October 6, 2006

Mary Jo writes:

We are a little proud of our kids, can you tell? This was taken at Brian's graduation last December. The cast of characters are: our adorable daughter-in-law Katie, our son David (the married one), Brian our firefighter, me and my hubby Chuck.

Chuck and I are well. We celebrated our 37th anniversary this past June. Our twin sons will be 33 yrs. old this month and both live in Castle Rock, Colorado . David is married (2 yrs. this mo.) and Brian is a firefighter. No grandchildren yet, but they say next year is the plan. We miss them terribly and have made several trips to visit. We hope to make the move next year ourselves.

As for me, I'm still a pediatric medical assistant, great job, I get to play with babies every day, and Chuck is a mortgage loan officer with Chase Capital Group.
Well, that's a brief update from here. I'll look forward to hearing how the reunion went. Give my regards to our classmates. I'm sorry I haven't responded before now, but I was waiting to see if we could get out of another engagement for the same day, unfortunately we can't. I'm sorry to be missing this one, I'm sure it will be great fun.

Mary Jo
Mission Viejo , CA

Daria Shanks Jackan, RIP

10/5/2006

Joann in the Alemany Alumni Office confirmed today that our classmate Daria Shanks is no longer with us.

I used to get emails from Daria, but I hadn't received any in a few years. She hadn't responded to any of our Reunion mailings. But when her Reunion invitation was returned to us, we really started to wonder about her.

After I made an inquiry about Daria, Joann contacted Daria's older brother John Shanks (AHS-65), who said that his sister had passed away a little over two years ago. Joann said John was sorry that his class didn't have a reunion, and he knew Daria would have enjoyed attending hers.

I last saw Daria at the new Alemany campus. It was in the daytime, so it must have been Alemany's anniversary celebration in 1996, when they were giving tours of the earthquake-damaged original Alemany site. She had an advanced case of MS, and drove herself in a van that I called her Ironsides Van (referring to the TV show "Ironsides" starring Raymond Burr, in case you don't watch TV), because her van had a motorized ramp in the back for her electric cart just like Ironside's van.

I was deeply touched by what I saw in Daria that day. I really admired her because she was very friendly and warm and still had her great sense of humor, despite her condition. Daria had gone to Our Lady of Peace Grammar School with us, so I knew her a long time.

God bless Daria Shanks Jackan.

Danny McMahon

THE ROMERO FAMILY

October 5, 2006

Here is my contribution to the Alemany Blog!

This is my Family. My husband Victor and my sons, (left) Nick, 25, on the right, Mario, 23. Nick is single and works in the world of mortgages, as well as sales with Victor's company. He's a basketball and sports fanatic who will travel anywhere to see a game. Mario, also single, is an Associate Broker at Swett-Crawford, downtown Los Angeles, he lives in West L.A. and is also a die-hard drummer. Emily is our beautiful cancer survivor who is now a healthy 7th grader.

My life since high school has been a journey of joy and surprise. We married in 1975 while I worked at U.C.L.A. clinic in the admissions department. Shortly after Victor who was working for Pac Bell at that time was transferred to No. California and we settled in the town of Walnut Creek, only to move back to the valley one year later. By then my first son was on his way and so we stayed near family for the time being until 1987 when we moved back to the No. California town of Danville. This was a great time for us as we explored the Bay area with our young boys. By mid-90's we were blessed one more time with our daughter Emily. She came into our lives healthy and beautiful with two doting brothers at her side. At the age of 10 months she was diagnosed with a form of childhood Leukemia and our lives were forever changed.

Today she is a healthy young lady who loves everything any 12 year old girl would like, she plays piano and enjoys theatre arts. By the end of her treatment we moved to Orange County and have been here since 1997.

I look forward to seeing everyone on Oct. 28th. Thanks to your help I've been in touch with some long lost classmates. It's so great to find friends again. You have all done a great job with all this reunion stuff, so I'd thought I'd join the online party with my own.

Teri (Arteaga) Romero

Yorba Linda CA

Email Interview with
Coach Mike King

One of my favorite teachers at Alemany was Mike King. He was my "B" football coach in 9th and 10th grades, and then I had him as a teacher in German in 11th grade and for Chemistry in 12th grade. Obviously he was a man of many talents and much knowledge, and a man of deep dedication.

My claim to fame is that I was one of the captains on the "B" football team in 10th grade, something of which I was very proud. (That was the only year in my four football years that I didn't "ride the bench.") I got in touch with "Coach King" about eight years ago after I attended a conference in Irvine and met a nun from Sebastopol, CA. I knew Mike King had lived in Sebastopol and asked if she knew him. Did she! I got back in touch with him then, and I've had a very enjoyable email relationship with him ever since.

He continues to have a wonderful sense of humor, or "Sinn für Humor," as we German scholars used to say in his German class. He calls me "Captain Dan," which always makes me smile. I call him Coach. He is retired, and he and his wife Jan live in Oysterville in Washington State.

Danny McMahon

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From: MCMAHONDAN@aol.com
To: janrex@pacifier.com
Date: Fri, Sep 29, 2006, 6:59 AM

Dear Coach,

Did you deliver newspapers while teaching at Alemany? That's what Brent Poirier (AHS-64), Adrienne's older brother, said.

How many children do you guys have? I know it was a lot more than 2. I don't know how you did it on a Catholic school teacher's income.

Do you still keep in touch with Coach Vanni?

Capt. Dan

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In a message dated 9/30/2006 10:53:52 A.M. Pacific Standard Time, janrex@pacifier.com writes:

Hi Capt. Dan.

Funny you should ask! It's been a couple of years since we visited with Coach Vanni. He was quite broken up over the loss of his oldest boy, Dave, who collapsed after finishing his daily workout. Dave was a super son and a fireman in the Oakland area.

Both Coach Vanni & myself had a night job part-time at the L.A. Times, where we loaded up several hundred bundles of newspapers, and trucked them to the different dealers for delivery.

Jan & I have five girls and 4 boys, and 17 grandchildren. Fortunately, they are all College Grads and have good jobs.

Have a great reunion, & I sure wish we could come, but the timing is off! Please give our best to everyone. So sorry to hear about Fr. Chris – he'll be in our prayers.

Coach Mike King