Thank you Luther for keeping the web site up and running.  And thank you to the reunion committee for putting together our upcoming 50^th celebration.  I have enjoyed reading all of the bios and have been reassured by all of the commonalities we share:  love of family and friends; travels; struggles and strifes; and enjoying life.  Although my 88 year old mother still lives in Pampa, I have not lived there since I went to Amarillo College (now something else) in ’57 (where I earned my AA degree in Radio/Television and drama  ( I actually was a late night disc jockey at the Pampa radio station for one summer).  I then did one semester at Loyola in New Orleans (loved the city; hated the weather) and moved back to West Texas State (now A&M) and obtained my  BS degree in drama and speech.  I worked for one year in Amarillo as a District Director for the Girl Scout Council.  Then moved to Los Angeles for the purpose of getting my Masters at UCLA where I worked for a year in the Graduate Admissions Department while taking some pre-requisite classes for the Speech and Hearing Pathology program.  Unfortunately, UCLA dropped their program so I transferred to California State University at Northridge where I did receive my MA degree in 1963.  The best part of moving to L.A. was meeting my future husband, Mike (Maurice V. Lustgarten), who had just graduated from USC and was finishing pre-med requisites at UCLA.  How I met Mike is a long and involved story; no room to include that here.  I worked at the Children’s Speech and Hearing Center and the Ziff Speech Foundation with children and adults with severe speech and language problems, including adults rehabilitating from strokes and accidents.

     Mike and I married on August 11, 1964, three weeks before he started medical school at University of California at Irvine.  He graduated in 1968, did one year of internship at Cedar/Sinai Hospital, after which we moved to Bellevue, Washington (with our two year old son, Kevin).  Mike did his three year residency in Psychiatry at the University of Washington.  I had our daughter, Lisa in November, 1969, and worked.  The Navy sent us back to Long Beach for two years, after which we returned to Washington where Mike was finally able to start work and making some money.  We had a ton of school loans!  He is still working in his general psychiatric practice, but has cut back to 2 l/2 days a week.  During those years, I did a lot of work including heavy PTA involvement.  I entered law school at the University of Puget Sound (now Seattle University – do all colleges change to something else???) in 1983; graduated in 1986, after which I began a general practice doing a little of everything: criminal; wills and estates; contracts; property, etc.  I eventually settled into doing only family law where I have stayed.  Currently, I am only volunteering legal services at free family law and domestic violence clinics and helping Mike with his patients’ health insurance challenges.

     Our two children and three grandchildren (Alex – 2; Maya – 8; Ryan – 13) all live in this area and we get together frequently.  We have done a great deal of traveling throughout the world (my favorites:  Africa and Israel).  We have a river-front cabin two hours away on the Eastern side of the mountains which we have really enjoyed for the past 13 years: fishing, cross-country skiing, hiking, etc.  Music has also been a big part of our life.  I took piano for nine years, as did Mike.  His mother was a concert violinist; his father was a violinist also.  Our daughter took violin and piano; our son, the saxophone; and our two oldest grandchildren are in piano and choir.

     My clearest memories of PHS include: Latin with Mrs.____ ; waiting for her husband to return with the loaf of bread; and wearing our sheet togas.  Debate with team members Vicky Pearl Osborne (Pearl is her private name), Marilyn Wells, and my partner, Tommy Strawn (whatever happened to him??).  Working on the newspaper and writing my column:  “A Mouse in My Pocket” – this was early People Magazine stuff.  Various choirs.  Those LONG halls.  Some great English teachers.

     Our Girl Scout troop stayed together and still gets together.  I am awed by all of the successful women and what they are still doing.  But I dare not take any more space.  We’ll talk about you at the reunion – though some of you are a year behind and a year ahead.

     I look forward to seeing everyone and a warm hello to those who can’t make it.

Sondra Sullins Lustgarten