They Say It's Your Birthday

Today is the fiftieth birthday of our favorite CHS rock star, Mr. Christopher Ortiz. He grew up, got a good job, has a lovely family — but he still hits the stage and rocks out on the occasional weekend. Wish Chris a HAPPY BIRTHDAY in the comments box.


We're glad it's your birthday, Chris. Happy birthday to you!


p.s. Don't forget to send us your birthday if you want to be included on the navbar list. E-mail us or leave your birthday in the comments box.

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A Willowy, Mysterious Birthday Gal

Many of the Facebook’ed classmates were mystified when the mysteriously monikered Willow Green started appearing in our community. She played it shy, she played it coy, even requesting that we not acknowledge her birthday. And that lasted, oh, about 48 hours. The girl could not incognito us — or miss out on birthday attention. So kids, scream out a HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Tina Holt, who turns fifty today!


Tina's requested that we all meet up at the Sing station for a beer on our way to the office. Too bad the Sing sang off Atlanta Road long ago.

p.s. Don't forget to send us your birthday if you want to be included on the navbar. E-mail us or leave your birthday in the comment box.

p.p.s. You non-Facebook folks are missing out. There are about thirty of us getting a head start on the reunion fun by reconnecting and writing on each other’s walls. Give Facebook a whirl. Have questions about how it works? E-mail us.

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First, the Good News

In less than two weeks — thanks to Gwynne and Facebook — we have e-mail addresses for 77 of our classmates.

The Bad News

We still have more than 225 folks to track down. Are you still in touch with someone from those fabulous mid-1970s years, someone we have yet to find? Let us know, and encourage them to send in their information. Or maybe you know someone's married name; that helps. You can e-mail us with their details and we’ll pester them, or you can send them this blog URL and the e-mail address. We’d love to have at least one hundred e-mail addresses by the end of January.

When are we going to throw this bash? You have a voice in that decision. Check out the poll on the navbar, and pick the date that best works for you.

We’re also collecting your favorite memories of our teachers. (Check out the Coach Duncan column below.) Coach Anderson and Mrs. Fellows are next to be lovingly remembered. E-mail your anecdotes.

And finally, consider joining Facebook. There are about thirty of us chatting and catching up over there.

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We Remember: Coach Duncan

Several of our classmates are on Facebook, and this week we got into a fun, rambling conversation about some of our CHS teachers. We’ve broken up that conversation by teacher to share with you. (Next up: Coach Anderson.)

If you’d like to share a remembrance about one of our teachers, or a funny story from 1974 through 1977, or any CHS-related topic (we've drifted into music now), leave it in the comments section or e-mail us. And if you’re curious about Facebook, sign up and come find us!


Gregg Banks
I teach 8th grade (Lord help me) here in Macon, GA and have taught now for the last 20 years. Do you remember Coach Duncan who taught us math? The good ol days at Campbell High.



Sam Chapman
Who could forget Coach Duncan?





Beth Coffey
I loved Coach Duncan! Our class was overcrowded our freshman year, so he let Holly Hubbell and me sit on the floor for several weeks. Didn't learn a thing about math, but I like to think I developed some writing skills while Holly and I scribbled notes to one another.

Chris Ortiz
Wow! Coach Duncan. He was something else wasn't he?




Mark Harris
Speaking of Coach Duncan, he was one of only two teachers to toss me out of a class. Larry Marks sat beside me and kept pestering me. I finally had enough and told him to shut up. Of course I was the one who was speaking when Coach snapped his head back to see what the ongoing noise was about. Even so, I still liked him. He was just a nice guy, and a decent teacher.

Beth Coffey
Damn. I missed all the fun classes. I can't remember anyone getting thrown out of a class. Maybe I was daydreaming.



Janet Barentine
Coach Duncan kept me for chewing gum one afternoon. Sorry dawg as soon as the last bus was gone he looked at me and said "OK, Ms Barentine you can go now.” Wish I had more classes with Mark though. He sounds like he was the life of the party.

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Happy 50th, Jeannine!

We're celebrating another milestone here at Fifty '77: Jeannine Roush Smith turns fifty today!

Wish our girl well on this auspicious day. Hopefully, we'll share a beer with Jeannine in a few months.


p.s. Don't forget to send us your birthday if you want to be included on the navbar. E-mail us or leave your birthday in the comment box.

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Happy 50th, Nancy and Greg!

We're celebrating TWO fiftieth birthdays today:

Nancy Godwin Hamby

Greg Halleck

Grab a glass of champagne and toast the youngsters. And leave them your birthday wishes in the comment box.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Nancy and Greg!


p.s. In case you missed it, on the navbar are some of our classmates' birthdays. Want your birthday listed? E-mail us or leave it in the comment box.

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Seriously? Y’all don’t want a party?

Beth is worried since we haven’t heard from many of y’all. I got her roped into this (well, chained, actually) because I never heard about any of the reunions — and I’d like to see everyone, dammit.

I’ve recently reconnected with a few folks from my CHS past, and it’s been a helluva lot of fun catching up. I haven’t seen most of these people in more than twenty-five years, but it felt like I saw them last week. That’s why we're eager to throw this birthday bash. Who knows how many of us have shared the same experiences or have the same interests — or who just wants to share a beer or seven with us?

Let’s get this party rolling! Leave a comment to this post if you want to go to our fiftieth birthday party.

One more thing: Phillip Barge suggested listing everyone’s birthday so we can toast each of us on as we cross the milestone. [I hit the 5-0 this Wednesday — and I want some drinking in my honor!] Want your birthday listed on this here blog? E-mail us at the Yahoo address, which you can find by clicking that profile link to the right. [We’re trying not to publish the actual address on the home page so the spammers don’t start pestering us. Because they will.]

Finally, forward the link to this blog to anyone from our class you’re talking to. We want to track down everyone we can.

Posted by Greg Halleck

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So, what's this about a party?

I joined Facebook a few months ago, and one of the first CHS’ers with whom I reconnected was Greg Halleck. We’ve had fun catching up, but many of our conversations include Greg’s “I haven’t been invited to any of the reunions” whine. One night over beers we decided to throw our class a fiftieth birthday bash. Not a full-on reunion, but a good ol’ party (much like the one at Renae Edge’s house just before graduation, without all the underage drunks).

Let’s get started. Our first step is to track down as many of our classmates as we can.

Gwynne Knap, who helped plan the November 2007 thirtieth reunion, gave me her address lists (and answers to my many questions). I keep up with a handful of our classmates, and we’re cross-referencing our address books. I’ve Facebook’ed many of you, and I went gold on Classmates.com to track down others.

Addresses to date: 62. Nearly 250 missing.

That’s where you come in. Have you stayed in contact with some of our classmates? Let us know who they are. You can leave the names in the comment box, but send the contact information to the Yahoo account we’ve set up for this shindig effort. You can find the e-mail address if you click on the navbar profile link.

You could be one of the many missing. If you received the e-mail blast with this URL via the Yahoo address, you’re on the list. If someone else sent this blog address to you, you’re missing. We’ll post the list of the missing later this month.

Next step: the when (probably this summer) and the where.

As for this blog, let’s use it to plan, to network, and to reminisce. We can post photos, your favorite stories, a much-needed shout-out. You can contact us at the Yahoo address.

Posted by Beth Coffey

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