Renee (Bernie) Diroff:  

Life I just want to say "hi" to anyone who happens to come upon my profile and reads it. I am married, have a daughter Kelli Christine who is 34 and 2 granddaughters, 9 year old Jaidyn and 14 month old Keira. We live in Canton and also have a cottage on Lake Huron in Caseville. Candy (O'Grady) has a cottage up there and I do see her in the summer. Of course I see Chris all the time (she lives up there too) and I talk to Dian (Clyne), Judy (Ellis) and Kathy (Freno, when she isn't traveling all over the country) quite often. It sure is nice to hear that everyone is doing well. Jay Bilkie (Class of '68) lives up in Caseville and I have ran into him a few times. School The teacher who most inspired me was Mr. Balazy, not only was he a good teacher, he was funny and made learning fun. If I had to do it all over again, I think, no, I know I would have studied more but not given up my fun times. I think the craziest times in school was anything Chris and I did. I can sit here and think back on many things we did that were crazy but maybe only to us. The funniest time was when we were in Balazy's class and I turned around and Chris was falling out of her seat and I was laughing so hard I couldn't help her and she fell. Or in Madame Burney's French class when we would go into the lab and her and I would plug into each other's headsets and her and I would talk and Madame would smile at us thinking we were studying our French. There were actually some more but they were "you had to be there moments". We still talk about the things we did and of course we still laugh about them as hard now as we did then. Our husbands who by the way are also best friends say "they are glad they didn't know us back then because they would NOT have liked us at all". They were the very studious, serious, maybe "geeky" guys in their schools, guys who we would have never given a second look to back then but ended up marrying. Chris and I have stayed friends for all these years and I would have to guess we will be for another 40 more. I would like nothing more than to have another reunion but can't do it on my own. I tried to get together with 2 of the other classes to see about a combined reunion but couldn't get anyone from the great class of '67 to help out so if anyone out there is reading this and wants to try for one let me know and I will be more than happy to do what I can to make it happen! Friends I really like the fact that I am still friends with Judy and Dian as I have known them since we were all 5 years old. I met Kathy Patenge in Jr. High so I have known her for a very long time also. Chris, Freno, Candy, and all the rest of my friends I have known since we were in high school but to be friends for 53 years is really nice. Judy and I will get on the phone and talk about our Douglas days and half the kids we don't really remember but I think that comes with age not that they didn't leave an impression on us. I was just telling her about some of the girls that I hung around with in elementary and junior high that I don't see or hear from a...Expand for more