Carl Carpenter:  

Carl Carpenter here, giving a post 50 year reunion update. I attended two different 50 year reunions, the first one for Paramount High School, where I attended for only 8 months, from May of 1972, till Jan. 23, 1973. It was one of the best times in my life attending. I made a maximum effort to attend, even resorting to sending about a dozen hand-written snail mail letters to people that I remembered. Some were returned to me as "undelivered". I sent one to a gal that I remembered, vividly, from my Spanish 2 class, because she was so kind, and sweet, to me, and being of Mexican descent herself, always encouraged me to practice my Spanish. In my personal individualized hand-written letter, written half in English, and half in Spanish, addressed to her to an address back east, enclosing one of my wife's business cards. Her husband called my wife, and sadly informed my wife that she passed away in Feb. of 2025. She is pictured on pages 104,106,87136,137 and 155 of the 1975 Paramount High School annual. My hope is that after my "faith walk" on earth is finished, that I will see her again in heaven, in Hebrew, ha shamayim. I only saw three people at the reunion that I recognized, to men, and a woman that was the 1975 homecoming queen, pictured on page 11 of the 1975 PHS annual. As I picked up my name tag, at the front table, this woman very warmly introduced herself to me. I looked directly into her sparkling, sky-blue eyes, the same color as my eyes. She made my day by acknowledging me, even though she did not remember me from school. You see, even in the 10grade I was only 5ft 2inches tall. If you remember when the actor, Ralph Macchio, in 1984 was cast for the partfor the "Karate Kid", starring with actor Pat Norita, the lead people directing the movie asked Ralph how old he was, and he replied, as I recall, "I'm 24 years old". They replied back to him, "you look like you are 14 years old". Well, I was one of those "late bloomer kids, like Ralph, not growing up to my nearly current 6 ft. height, until I was 18 years old, after high school. I can not even convey how immensely enjoyed myself, along with my wife at the reunion, meeting, and speaking with so many of you, rejoicing to hear of your struggles, and successes in life. I want to thank you all for that. i urgently wanted to attend as well, because all through PHS, I was an atheist. In January of 1977 I had a miraculous "spiritual rebirth" experience. This happened as I was working servicing a swimming pool, alone...Expand for more