The following is the recollections of Alex's thoughts on the Mini Reunion after returning home

the mini-reunion was a great success We had about 20 come to it. Sidney Ashton and Eddie St. Clair came the fartherest, from Kansas and Oregon. The reunion was at Claudia Bachtel's lovely home in El Mirage. This is the reunion from my viewpoint. Rosemary and I drove from Albuquerque dragging our trailer. We look for any excuse to take a trailer trip and this was no exception. It was about 420 miles through the Salt River Canyon. That route is the shortest and a lot more intesting than through Flagstaff. You can still see the remnants of the old road through the canyon. My folks never tired of talking about the Salt River Ordeal when they first came to Arizona in '39. I could see how the narrow road snaked its way back and forth and up and down the canyon. It must have been hellish. You can also see the remains of the fire that burned to Show Low a year or two ago. It goes on for miles. Saturday morning Gary Christofferson and I met at a golf course near Claudia's. No one else was available apparently. We had a great time in super weather playing and talking. Neither one of us would give Tiger Woods a scare, but it was fun. Gary and I were on the golf team in high school, though to watch me play, you would have to wonder. Gary is retired after 30 plus years with Qwest. He has three daughters and is expecting his first grandchild. He and Sue have been married for 35 years and are trying to figure out what to do with their retirements. We got to Claudia's about 4 and there was Sidney walking in. Margaret Anders was also there, as was Peggy Braffert. Sidney is a great KU fan having gone to college there. Kansas was playing in the basketball NCAA semi-finals against Marquette. Sid is building a house out in the Los Caballeros area where she intends to spend some of the year (probably not July and August, huh Sid?). Margaret has custody of two of her grandchildren so her retirement from the City of Glendale has not turned out as carefree as she and Gary had hoped. But, as she said, family comes first and these kids need her. This was the first time I got a chance to see Peggy Braffert since 1957. She hasn't changed a bit. Well, maybe a little. Her brother-in-law died Thursday so she was afraid his funeral would interfere but it was planned for Monday so she could come. Joanne Olea came and didn't look like she had aged a bit. In fact all of the girls looked really great. Marilyn Davis came and brought the class pictures from Mr. Friece's fifth and eighth grades and Mr. Hickman's seventh grade. We had quite a time trying to figure out who some of the kids were. Some we had no clue. Once Bill gets them posted, maybe some of you will remember who the missing might be. Margaret Anders told a funny story about when she worked at the Sahuaro Theater and tried to spill some ice on someone from the camera slot. She missed and hit the woman in front of the guy. When she went down to see who she got it was her mother! Her mother balled out the guy sitting behind her for nothing. Sidney, in a similar vein, told about teaching her mother how to use the remote keyless entry on the new car her mother got. When it locked, the horn beeped. Her mother thought it was the guy next to them that honked the horn and before Sid could get her straigthened out, her mother had given a piece of her mind to this bewildered guy. I had a nice visit with Ricky Ball who off-the-cuff paid me a great compliment. He said he was telling someone about me and said that I was very, very smart but you'd never know it to talk with me. Wait a minute …. Jim Lisac and Bill Amavisca, the Aguila boys, came again. Bill is in the reserves and expects to get activated soon. Carol Lee was there. She told a story about this couple who woke up one morning and found the battery to the car gone. They used the other car and when they got home the battery was on the front porch with two tickets to the Suns game with a note saying that they borrowed the battery because they were desperate and sorry but to make it up they got them the tickets. They thought that was considerate. They used the tickets and went to the game. When they got home their house was cleaned out. Scary, huh? There were a bunch of others like DiNel Jenkins, Sandy Altmire, Gary Christofferson, Diane Stadler and others. I think Sharon Crissman was there bu t I'm not sure. Forgive me if I forgot anyone. I'm not getting any younger you know.

These are the brave souls that attended the gathering with there betterhalf!

The pictures that follow, were candid shots taken durning the event!