Rodney Barnes:  

School North Eugene in the 60's was a fantastic experience. We had a great student body and terrific teachers. Our class, 1966, established some key benchmarks. We were still a "new school" about 5 years old. We were the first football team to get into the playoffs and our basketball team won state. We were not taken very seriously by the Portland media. They predicted Sunset would win. We opened up a 20 point lead and never looked back. The guys showed great teamwork. I did well in cross country but gave it up for Thespians primarily because the other guys were prima donnas whose heads had been corrupted by Bill Bowerman of the University of Oregon. Every school has its hot shot jerks. Ours were in cross country. I chose to letter in Tennis. My biggest achievement was to be elected State Vice President of the International Relations League. We worked with the University of Oregon and each year did some mock world issue problems. We studied, Africa, the Common Market and the Sino Soviet split. I was responsible for the State Newsletter and was exposed to some really neat people [The late Wayne Morse and Maureen Neuberger]. In high school I loved to dance. I dated a lot of girls at least once but only had three real relationships. I still keep in touch after all these years. Real friends last forever even when you go separate ways. After High School, I was tired of dating so in college I really limited myself to group activities and tried to concentrate more on work and school. I had one really great girlfriend at the University of Oregon but like most guys at that time Vietnam made the idea of a committment to someone difficult. I had already lost several friends and saw...Expand for more