First of all,I am so glad you all are back!! I thought maybe OLYMPIC FEVER had caught you all (along with me) and you were just staying away from your computers, or all had changed over to the chat room.

I loved both Eric (all those childhood games) and Melanie's memories!! I too had forgotten the double stick popsicles, mostly shared with my sibs.How many of you made something with popsicle sticks, toothpicks, and of course milk cartons and paper towel/toilet tissue roll centers back when. Also the River Rock memories!!I think Tujunga being a Foothill community, all of us had experiences with ROCKS in our yards!!

As I mentioned on earlier e-mails, my dad and grandpa built our house on Kyle St. in 1947-48 on a lot formerly used to raise turkeys, grow fruit trees,and also have a second lot used for storage of Grandpa's building supplies, like sand, gravel,a cement mixer and wooden HODS for carrying the cement into the house to make the walls/ceilings,all sorts of painting tools, and all sorts of building tools.They even wore the old white carpenter overalls back then. That way the paint/cement splatters didn't show up so much. Grandpa had a little old wooden shed at the back of the lot big enough to hold all his garden equipment, hoses,plant fertilizer and was strong enough for my sister, girlfriends and I to sit on the roof of it,and count clouds, dream dreams and talk talk talk. Amazing on how teenage girls can find constant conversation, even after spending all day at a friends, and/or school and have to call that same person the minute you got home!! But back to the rocks!! We pulled more rocks out of those two "sandy gravel" lots than I ever thought possible. We literally had a huge Rock pile in the farthest corner of the back yrd. My mom was adamant that we grow a beautiful dichondra lawn (hell to take care of!!) and of course the fruit trees, berries, veggies, and lots of flowers. So we hauled fertilizer(the REAL AUTHENTIC smelly kind!)top soil and soil amendments to overcome the gravel, rocks, puncture weeds, and scare off the horny toads that were all over the place!! If you have never stepped on a puncture weed,OUCH!!! you didn't grow up in Tujunga!! As for the horny toads, no they were not oversexed (that I know of!!) just a funny looking toad with little spikes all over their backs and the variegated brown/grey colors to blend in with the sandy Tujunga terrain.

As for TEENAGE ANGST, I am sure all of us have our tales to tell, most having to do with our teenage lack of self confidence and worrying too much about our peers opinions, and why we weren't more popular, pretty with a perfect figure,(or handsome and more muscular).

This is why I am so looking forward to this reunion, where at our advanced ages, we are not worried about the superficial things any longer, no need to impress others,and just glad to wake up each morning, have families and friends still around for us to love and enjoy!!

Most of all to have old classmates still around to reminisce with about those good old days, that our "techie, stressed out,keep up with the "Jones"(who are the "Jones" anyway???)current society cannot even relate to.

Hope to see you all there!! Kathleen Artica S'58