A side note about the tainted water at the NCO CLUB. ALL MY DRINKS WERE WHISKEY AND WATER. JUST AS GOOD AS RAISEN BREAD WE BOUGHT IN NAM. AT LEAST UNTIL WE FOUND THE RAISINS WERE ACTUALLY FLIES THAT FLEW IN THE DOUGH NEVER ARE RAISEN BREAD AGAIN THE LITTLE WINGS GOT CAUGHT IN MY TEETH
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In 1970 to 71 I was exposed to Agent Orange and suffered from SKIN problems for over 50 years. I was sent to Camp Lejeune where I was with Lima 3/6. Now I find out I may have been poisoned by the water. Some things just keep on giving
You might remember me from working at Linden Cleaners in the summer of 1969. I'm so very sorry to hear of the health challenges you are facing! You will be in my prayers for healing and strength.
Sad news about Steve. Will never forget the great speech he gave when running for Class President. His opening was "There is a smell in this school. The smell of apathy." May he rest in peace.
Dennis Quinn lost his battle with cancer Friday morning. May he rest in peace. Friends and family, there will be a brief visitation at Cyril F. Mullins Funeral Home in Trumbull from 12-1 pm on Wednesday March 23. We will then have a private blessing at 1 pm. Cards/flowers can be sent to our home at 13 Holbrook Street, Ansonia, 06401. We are also encouraging donations to Boys Town, a charity that Dennis supported throughout his adult life. Click to contribute
Russ Wadhams and I were roomates in Fort Greene Brooklyn 1972-3. We later lived a few blocks from each other in the West Village on the fringe of the wild-west meat packing district and saw a great deal of each other into the 70's. Russ was an industrious, cultured, and private man, holding his own in that great era of downtown. One night I took a deep breath and dragged him to see the Ramones and he loved every minute.
Just read that New Canaan lost 90% power. I have a pack of "D" cell batteries I can give them (at cost of course). I can't believe I will be 70 next week. What the hell happened.
And a reminder that Class of 69 has the record for the most beers consumed for our skipday at Pound Ridge. A record which I tried to keep with my 4 years in the Marines of which I only remember 3 years
In additon to their high academic rating, how about the level of atheletic accomplishments of DHS? Pretty great for a town of that size. Since New Canaan and Greenwich, relatively comparably populated towns, are also high up both lists what's the deal with Fairfield County? Something in the water? Impressive stats by any measurement.
On a side note, bigs thanks to Heuvel for his excellent work maintaining this site. He still has the Spirit of '69!
Hope everyone's OK during this nightmare of a Twilight Zone episode. A douchebag on the other side of the world eats a bat and the world takes a shit. Breathe carefully!!
'Made a quick trip to the market yesterday, too, for chicken, brocoli and TP. When I got home I discovered that the brocoli was actually jelly donuts. Hate it when that happens.
With my diet going in the tank hanging near the kitchen, I went to the store and bought the healthiest stuff I could find - broccoli, strawberries, carrots, bananas, etc and made a delicious smoothie!
I only know of one friend in Fairfield who has contracted covid-19. She is not a classmate of ours and believes she caught the virus on a flight from the west coast. Some guy sneezed all over her. She reported that covid is much worse than the flu, very high temp, difficulty breathing....even some hallucinations. She has now recovered but is exhausted and her lungs still hurt.
John;
I hope everyone in our class is Ok with this pandemic. Have you had any word of anyone having the Covid-19. I hope all is well. We can't afford to lose any more classmates.
Jim
For those who are asking if any of our classmates have had Covid-19. The answer is, yes, Penny Fox has been quite ill from the virus. She is recovering, but it has been a very long "storm" (her words).
Took advantage of AM "senior shopping hours" to pick up some groceries today. This particular market was not allowing customers to bring their reusable bags into the store. Instead, they've gone back to supplying free paper bags at checkout. Smart move. Then, at the liquor store they weren't even allowing people into the shop. They'd set up a table at the front door, took your order and brought it out to you and you paid out front. Glad I knew what I wanted (Boon's Farm '69) and didn't have to browse.
It's always a pleasure to bask in the afterglow of a huge gulp of the difficult to find Boone's Farm. Particularly the '69 vintiage. Exquisite!! 99/100 from Wine Spectator.
Enjoy, Patti and Craigbo!! You're lucky quarantined DHS grads! I'm green with envy, not COVID-19 (so far)!
Holy crap ... I knew that Boone's Farm was in the 90s, but a 99? That's better than my go-to alternative when my packy is out of Boone's: Kickapoo '32 - hints of boysenberry and carmelized kumquats, with a touch of road tar on the finish.
Oh PShaw! Floral essence and road tar are so yesterday. Gimme the new Boone's Reserva with dog peed road slurry....cloudy and crunchy. Or, the very rare and desirable Yocumberry Tonic. Fuiltered through wool socks, it has the organic backcountry fragrance of toe jam and mildew on the nose.
'Just spoke with my cousins in Sacramento. Prolific travellers, they are busy undoing /redoing their travel plans for the rest of the year. They report that rescheduling has been, generally, easy and trouble-free. However, one snag seems to occur when rescheduling hotel accomodations. Some establishments have required an automatic 'upgrade' to honor a reschedule. FYI.................Bye for now. Gotta go wash my reuseable grocery bags.
This is the first time in recent memory that it is St. Patrick's Day and I don't a big corned beef cooking on the stove. Not by choice, I assure you. I could find one! I made one last search yesterday and came up empty again. In fact, I couldn't find any chicken or eggs either. Whole shelves were empty. Happy St. Patrick's Day from 'Twilight Zone'.
Whole thing is weird. Stop and Shop is letting us 'old timers' (over 60) shop by ourselves from 6 - 7:30 am. With the market going down, I'll need food stamps!
OK....so, now that we're spending lots of quality time at home, we've got more time to catch up with classmates. 'Just heard from Tigger Smith from Aspen, where, I guess, the virus numbers are really high. He said that his family is 'self isolating' and that it seems to be going 'OK'. It seems hard to imagine. More soon.......................
Best wishses to Coach Trifone but really am going to miss watching his teams play. Are there any replacements being considered? Any Marinellis interested?
Dave Mixter was a cool and funny guy. To put a finer point on the remembrances here so far, below is an entry on the website of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund.
RIP, David.
SILVER STAR CITATION
David Ives Mixter
Date of birth: January 22, 1949
Date of death: MIA: January 29, 1971
Home of record: Darien Connecticut
Status: MIA
AWARDS AND CITATIONS
Silver Star
Awarded for actions during the Vietnam War
The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress July 9, 1918 (amended by an act of July 25, 1963), takes pride in presenting the Silver Star (Posthumously) to Sergeant David Ives Mixter, United States Army, for gallantry in action as a member of Special Operations Augmentation, Command and Control Detachment Central, 5th Special Forces Group ( Airborne), 1st Special Forces, gallantry in action on 29 January 1971, while serving as a member of a joint American/Vietnamese reconnaissance team on a mission deep in enemy controlled territory. After being inserted on 29 January the team moved from the landing zone and into dense jungle. The team had stopped for a security break when Sergeant Mixter detected enemy movement nearby. He readied himself for combat and alerted his team members to danger. Soon the lead element of a force estimated to be two squads of enemy soldiers came into view, and Sergeant Mixter fired on them. The enemy returned fire with rockets, small arms, and automatic weapons. Realizing they were greatly outnumbered, the team began to withdraw while Sergeant Mixter remained in his position to deliver covering fire. By his holding the enemy at bay, his fellow soldiers were able to escape the deadly trap. When Sergeant Mixter attempted to rejoin his team, a B-40 rocket landed directly in front of him, wounding him seriously. The remainder of the team was forced to withdraw from the area by the overwhelming enemy firepower and was safely extracted an hour later. Sergeant Mixter's selfless actions gave them the precious seconds they needed to reach safety. Sergeant Mixter's gallantry and self-sacrifice were in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service and reflect great credit on him and the United States Army.
General Orders: Department of the Army, General Orders No. 15 (March 30, 1972)
Congrats to Dick Costello about his dad being honored. I would like to suggest that they honor David Mixture also who was killed in combat Jan. 29,1971 while serving with Special Forces. I was about 10 miles away and never knew he was there.
On Jan 29th Dave was killed during the operation by the ARVNs in Laos. His body was never recovered and for years he was listed as missing. Dave was a Sgt in Special Forces which is no small feat. God rest his soul.
Now that it's all settled in, I thought I would express my congratulations to the 50th reunion committee for an absolutely fantastic 3 days of events. You guys pulled off the best reunion I have ever attended and will leave me with memories I will never forget. The Tokeneke Club was over the top!
It was great to see everyone and to relive so many fond, and in most cases forgotten memories!!
Thanks for putting it all together. You should be really proud of what you pulled off!
Great time! Special shout-out to some travel warriors: Vandy Van Wagener who came from Denver via Florida; Paul Dominis, Tom Lane and Gary Gibbs from CA, Dave Jefferson for his courageous trip from Colorado. Also shout-outs to Mike 'Links' Lopriore for hauling up from FL and stopping to get Benny in SC. Same goes for Paul and Kyle Hepp for making the trip from the Sunshine State. High fives to Anne Irvine and David Terry from Washington state! Also to Stu Traver and Kathy DellaFontane Goosen and hubby Marty, all up from Houston. Special thanks to Rick and Diana Poccia for coming from Kansas, right after Rick's knee surgery! If I missed anyone, let us know!
To the Reunion Committee - THANKS! You did a beautiful job and I know we all appreciated your hard work and endless hospitality. The Tokeneke Club was delightful - very summer-like, easy to circulate to see so many returning classmates and catch up on 50 years! We all share a bond that won't be broken no matter how many years pass. Lucky us!
The 50th Reunion Committee did a spectacular job of arranging a perfect weekend. Thank you all so much!! And what a turnout!! It was almost like '69 all over again. Great to see so many familiar faces, catch up and celebrate that we all made it this far.
Here's to the inimitable Darien High Class of 1969!!
Awesome time! Our class has an incredible and unique chemistry which has clearly stood the test of time. Thanks so much to the organizers for planning and implementing a flawless event!
I went to Nam in 1970 and was hit in the right wrist. I'm grateful it didn't hit me in the head. I'm also grateful that after 50 Years I'm still here. See you on Sat.
'Glad to report that everyone that I've heard from is 'OK'. Both Dick Costello and Gary Swartz elected to successfully ride out the storm at home. The most affected is Tina Rollins McKay who lives right in Wilmington. Tina evacuated Thursday to Fayetteville, to a friend's home. She reports that she has a tree down in her back yard and across her driveway in Wilmington but no sign of structural damage. In Fayetteville it is still raining hard and the Cape Fear River is still rising, predicted to crest at @ 50 feet above flood level. She is hoping to return home in a week.
Giving a shout out to Anaheid Kavoojian Vrana, Anna Lamberton Whelpley, Dick Costello and Tina Rollins McKay. Am watching Hurricane Florence and hoping that you stay safe!
These storms are just monstrous. Fortunately, I don't know of any of our classmates who were living in the path of Michael. But for the poor souls who were, I have great sympathy. Mexico Beach has been obliterated. And folks in Port St. Joe were already struggling in the aftermath of the paper mill closure. They may not recover from this disaster for a long time.
A talent show....what a great idea. I know that we have several talented musicians in our class. I would truly love to hear/see them perform. Mardie Porter's voice alone will knock your socks off. We also have several gifted visual and graphic artists as well as writers. Let's hear it for '69 talent!
Hats off to the swim team. It brings back a memory when Tom Lane, Dennis Gaven, and I swam accross the the water from Weed Beach to Stamford late one summer night. We swam so fast you would have thought it was a race-- of course the Darien police were right behind us and the Stamford cops were waiting on the other side. A quick turn around and a return swim. Thought we got away--next stop the Darien Police Station.
So very sad to read of Terry's passing. I agree, he was larger than life and a memorable personality from our class. Nice eulogy, Steve. Hope all is well with you.
Recommend the documentary "Augie" (available on Hulu). Story of Augie Nieto, founder of LifeCycle, diagnosed with ALS in 2005. He is still alive against all odds. Funny, brutally honest and upbeat.
2020
Class Comments
April (1)
You might remember me from working at Linden Cleaners in the summer of 1969. I'm so very sorry to hear of the health challenges you are facing! You will be in my prayers for healing and strength.
nee Penny Fox
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