Vegas was a bash

Tue, 22 Nov 2011 15:54:17 -1000

Hi Rough Riders…..and Tigers….and Falcons…..and Bull Dogs,
There were 128 of us class of ’69 alumni and guests that just came back from Las Vegas, and are slowly coming out of La La Land and back from the Past!
There were 67 from Roosevelt, 24 from McKinley, 22 from Kalani and 15 crashing the party from Kaimuki Class of ‘70.
We got in on Wednesday and everyone showed up at the Hospitality Suite, raring to get the party started.
Luckily, Wes Mukawa and Bart Martinez did all the beverage and snack shopping the weekend before.
Every night we closed the hospitality suite around 3:00 am! We had to make 2 more runs for beer, wine and bottled water! We had two suites set up for all of us.
Thursday, first morning we had our Ice Breaker Breakfast at the Main Street Garden Court….92 showed up.
After breakfast we had our slot tournament. There are only 30 slot machines so we had 3 rounds. The top three heats won CASH!
The winners were:
1st round Roberta Aono 2nd round Debbie Parker I set a new world record (in my mind) for most points in the 3rd round and won.
That night we took over the Island Sushi Restaurant, with 102 of us, at The Plaza Casino and Hotel. Terrence Fong, the owner set up a pupu style salad, sushi and his signature custard malasadas. We jammed the place out!
Then the surprise for the evening, we were entertained by a Kam School grad, Mahi and he was just fabulous! Pam Frendo Punihaole went up several times to dance the hula for us and Arthur Akana played the guitar and sang a couple songs too. Too bad Gregory Fong and Glen Okano were not there, Russell Shiroma and Dexter Suzuki were and we could have had the Calientes perform again for us!!
Friday, McKinley High, organized a bowling Tournament at Sam’s Town; 73 of us showed up and we had two rounds: Crazy bowling and Bingo bowling.
There was no conventional bowling as you know it. Started with right hand, then left hand, two hand roll, one leg right, one leg left, 3 hops, ten steps, 3 skips and then between the legs with your back to the pins! A score of 70 was very good.
During the round I saw Randy Chang spread eagle across the foul line in the gutter. Must be Lenard Morales first time bowling, he didn’t see the step up to the alley and ended up on his back laughing up with all of us. Sky Pilot Harold Fujii tripped and found himself in the gutter. He can’t walk straight and he flies a jet fighter for the Hawaii Air National Guard! After bowling we all were laughing so hard that I forgot who the winners were!!
Right after bowling we went over to the Fremont Seafood Buffet.
Ipo Cullen led us right thru the VIP line, by passing the long line waiting to get in!
After dinner everyone showed up at the Hospitality Suite for the long awaited karaoke grudge match between the guys and the gals! If you remember at the 40th Reunion the scores were Guys 2 and the Girls 2. The guys won by 3 points and gals demanded a rematch!
The evening started light hearted with everyone sharing what fun they had the last 2 days.
Then I started the Roosevelt Class of 1969 Karaoke Championship, by calling up Captains, Janie and Randy Chang.
That was when all hell broke loose: the heckling, calls for a review of the rules, even disqualifications!! It was worse than a WWF wrestling rematch.
Don’t worry I had it under control; I let them vent their frustrations and release some of the tensions.
Captain Janie and Captain Randy had 5 minutes to get their teams together to select the songs that would lead them to victory! The Guys made their selection within 4 minutes and was raring to go. While the Gals, being down 3 to 2, knew they could not lose another, took 10 minutes debating which one between the final two songs that would humble the Guys.
Captain Randy selected, Evil Ways by Santana for the Guys and Captain Janie selected, Proud Mary by Credence Clearwater Revival.
Janie won the flip of the coin and elected to go after the Guys. The Guys sang like true champions, chest out, hands up in the air and their facial expressions showed they were into the song and scored 81.
The Gals knew after that performance they had their work cut out for them and could not leave anything on the table, for they were down 3 to 2.
They sang.
Simon Cowell would be proud of them; they scored 85!!!
The Guys came up front in single file and gave three bows to the victorious Gals.
Guys -3 and the Gals -3………..stay tuned for the next RHS69 Karaoke WWF VII Rematch.
Yes, we ended the evening singing Venus and our Alma Mater…..Hail, hail, hail!
Saturday, McKinley had the Hawaii 6-0 Scavenger Hunt.
There were 15 teams of 4 and each had 1 hour to find 33 items and answers. We all met at Main Street Hotel and from there we had to search all over downtown, even ventured pass the Fremont Hotel.
Arthur Akana said; “The best story I heard was Donna Miller being propositioned by an old Japanese tourist outside the California Hotel while she waiting for her scavenger hunt team”. He walked up to her, looked her over and said, "I like! Luckily Robert Ishihara was nearby and came to the rescue - for the Japanese guy. Donna would have beaten him up!
After that Dayle Hoopai led the shoppers to the Premium Outlet Mall, while Harold Fujii car pooled 18 of us to the Indoor Kart Racing.
After the racing, half went down to Primm for more fun at the Roller Coaster and the rest went to join up with Dayle and the shoppers.
That night 47 of us went to the Rod Stewart concert. The neat part was we rented two Bell Trans shuttles. There were no lines to wait in and we entered the Caesars Palace from the back, near the showroom.
Those of you who have been to Caesars know how huge the Palace is and how easy it is to get lost! In fact every place we went to we used rented Bell Trans Shuttle at $7.00 round trip per person, no hassle, no parking, no rent a car and no delays for all of us.
Sunday, the Shoppers still did not have enough, and lead by Dayle Hoopai, the shuttle took everyone to Planet Hollywood (formerly the Miracle Mile) then at 12:30 pm the shuttle picked them up and took them to the Fashion Mall.
Wes Mukawa and I picked up the shopper’ packages at Planet Hollywood to give them hands free for their next shopping attack! That night 44 of us went to see Human Nature: 4 guys from Australia singing Motown. They were fabulous and you would not believe your eyes - white guys singing black music. Boy, did the Roosevelt Guys need them this year!
Monday, time goes by go quickly and before you know it we are all on the plane coming back home.
It’s good to be back at home, but it was great to put prime time with old friends and meeting new ones from McKinley, Kalani and Kaimuki High!
I know everyone had a great time by all the emails we are getting. At our next meeting I think we have to be prepared with everyone asking “when we going again?!”
Thank you, to the Committee and thank you to everyone that celebrated our 60th in Las Vegas.
To the ones that didn’t go….you missed out!
Time is getting shorter, come on and join us at our next Pep Rally! Check out all the pictures everyone is sharing, on our website. Also check out McKinley and Kalani websites for their photos.
Looks like from now on when I have to address all of you it has to start as, “Hi Rough Riders, Tigers, Falcons and Bull Dogs”! As Nora Clark Taylor says ~ “T ‘is with hearts full of pride dear alma mater……”

Vincent

60's Birthday Bash

Wed, 27 Jul 2011 13:43:42 -1000

Holy Moly!

It took me all day Sunday to recover from our Kaimuki, McKinley, Kalani and Roosevelt 60th Birthday Bash.

I thought I was back in high school at one of our dances with the Calientes playing all our favorite songs.

I danced with all the girls and got a kiss from every one of them………I was down memory lane and loving it! I even got to perform on stage with the Calientes, right next to Gregory Fong. Girls, eat your hearts out! I even hugged Gregory at the end of the performance!!!

Sounds too good to be true? Well, it was real, every bit of it, my 2 minutes of fame with the Calientes! It was one hell of an evening which everyone enjoyed.

It all started at check in where banners from each school decorated the lobby. You were given your own special school name badge and raffle tickets for prizes given throughout the evening.

Our own Nora Clark Taylor donated two Alan Wong gift certificates and Keith Kurahashi from McKinley donated a Vacations Hawaii Vegas package for the grand prize!

Entering the ballroom you saw four slide shows of past activities from each school. At the opposite corner were displays of 1969 memorabilia and photo albums.

The gamblers were treated to a full casino: 4 blackjack and 2 crap tables. We even had a roulette table! The pupus and full buffet were delicious.

While all of this was going on, the Beat Boys, led by our Russell Shiroma, entertained us with oldies but goodies and Uncle Tom Moffat made a surprise appearance and worked the room taking pictures with everyone!

t was great to catch up with old friends and having the Calientes come out of retirement to play for us! But the best part was dancing with all my old girlfriends and yes, a kiss after each dance.

Okay…. okay…. I’ll come back down to earth. But for these precious few hours, we were all back in time, dancing the night away! If you were not there, you missed a great evening. If you were there, you know what I mean…THANK YOU FOR THE PRECIOUS MEMORIES!

The steering committees from the 4 schools will hold a post event meeting within 2 weeks. We are already talking about next year! Dexter Suzuki and Gregory Fong both told me that if we are going to have this again, the Calientes will be there!

We may only have a few more good years left to be able to dance the night away, listening to some great live music, and reminisce with old friends. Do not miss another opportunity to do it.

See you at our next reunion!

Vincent

The Calientes Return

Thu, 2 Jun 2011 15:00:48 -1000

The minute we made the surprise announcement that the Calientes are reuniting and will play for us at the 60th Birthday Bash on July 23 at the Japanese Cultural Center - the first 19 signed up.

The list looks like this:

Guy Blackiston, Alan Nishimoto, Vincent Yim, John Takara, Harold Fujii, Lisa Chang, Abigail Chase, Syl Cho-Moody, Lani Harrington, Nellis Kunieda, Jo Ann Oshima, Robin Yafuso, Nora Clark (all the way from North Carolina), Linda Tong, Gerry Simoes Romero, Sandy Kersten, Doreen Matsumoto, Jane Ohta, Wendy Yim, and Sandy Nishimoto.

Yep, that’s 5 guys and 16 gals!

Now, I know there are at least 10 more of our classmates who said they are coming. At this rate it will be ladies night out and we may have to hire security to surround the stage.
They are a little older now and may not run as fast as they used to!

Come on guys, the Calientes got the ladies coming out and they want to dance!

Vincent

Rockin' and Rollin'

Fri, 27 May 2011 17:55:07 -1000

Hi Rough Riders,

The Ala Moana Hotel has been putting on a '70's Reunion Show for years and the Manager is a very good friend.

The rumors is this will be the last one……maybe!

In the past the committee has gone to several of these events. A lot of fun! Check out the information in the flyer below.

Vincent

1969 Plus Zero Fundraiser

Mon, 2 May 2011 15:55:28 -1000

Hi Rough Riders,

It’s been a while since I last wrote about our “1969 Plus Zero” fundraiser, which I sometimes refer to as The Pledge, a 5-year effort to raise $19,690 (or more) for Roosevelt.

We began collecting pledges and first-year contributions in 2010.

So far, about 50 of our classmates have responded with pledges totaling $17,500, including $2600 collected so far...and it’s not too late to join us.
Click on this link and make a pledge to help make Roosevelt High a great experience for all its students!

When we made our first donation of $2600 to the Roosevelt Alumni Foundation, I was asked to join its advisory board. After several meetings I realized that the Foundation’s sole purpose was to raise money for scholarships, whereas our reunion committee wanted to help not just a few students through scholarships, but the entire student body through facility improvements.

Besides, when we were students we really beat up the place and we figured it’s now our time to fix it up! I have since stepped down from the advisory board and have arranged with RHS principal, Ann Mahi, to establish a separate nonprofit account with Roosevelt. So now the procedure is to make your donation check payable to “Roosevelt High School”, writing “Class of 1969” in the memo section of the check then mailing it to:

RHS Class of 69
c/o L.L. Reed
P.O. Box 10700
Honolulu, 96816

We will record the donation and forward it to Roosevelt High. It will deposit the check to the “Class of 1969”account and allow us to decide how the funds are used. Your entire donation is tax deductible.

With the “Pledge” funds we initially planned to enclose the Senior Patio, but we ran into building code issues because the louvered windows in the patio ventilate the cafeteria. Enclosing the patio would require us to air condition the whole cafeteria, requiring BIG BUCKS! No, we are not giving up on this project. No GOOD deed is ever so easy. I have a plan that will not require air conditioning. I just need to see if it will pass.

Another possibility is a project Ann Mahi has been working on for the past 2 years. The 65-foot long fence enclosing the courtyard and senior patio is rusting, leaning, and needs to be replaced. Ann would like to install a really nice fence with an arched gateway. She envisions the gate to be used as a ceremonial entrance to Roosevelt for incoming freshmen and as a symbolic exit to the greater world for graduating seniors.

Can you picture it? Should be great! The Class of ‘59 has been involved with this project and if we join them, two plaques, one on each end of the fence, will say “Donated by the Classes of 1959 and 1969”.

I’ll keep you informed on the use of these funds as plans develop.

T-E-A-M Yah TEAM! Join us in the effort, make a Pledge!

Vincent