La Canada High School Class of 1971 Reunion

Paradise Canyon Elementary School Memories

01/18/03 I would like to contribute to this sight.
I was the very first student to be SPANKED by the principle, ANNE ARMS in 1958.
My fifth grade teacher, karen Elgin is my most memorable teacher ever. Now, at the age of 57,   44 years later, I loved Paradice Canyon School and wish that I could go back to those early years of 1952 when we watched the hills over Paradise grow with houses, and smoke coming up over the hill from JPL. Little did we know that that smoke would lead to the landing on the moon 17 years later. My friends from elemintary school and  the first graduating class at La Canada High School are always in my mind. Because of the enternet, I am able to keep in close contact with some of them.  Last May, I was able to set down with Karen Elgin and her husband at Berkley Calif and talk about our lives over the last 44 years and all that has happened.  Then a few days later, I was able to talk to 90 year old Anne Arms the principle of the 50's.   I now have no other things that I want to accomplish in my life.
I have compleated my goals.  life doesn't get much better then haveing great  OLD frinds that you grew up with as little kids.
Harlan Hal Updegraff  1958

08/30/2001 A few more Paradise Canyon alumni I forgot the first time.

Anderson, Jeff

Beasley, Becky

Hilton, Sue

Ludwig, Lisa

Perry, David

Phinney, Dennis

Rankin, Ross

Van Meel, Leslie

08/30/2001 "Cheryl, You really do 'have it going on' with this website. I am enjoying it immensely. I was happy to read that Todd Vrebalovich has come back from the dead. But the news of Marilyn Black's death hit me like a sharp kick in the stomach. Marilyn and I didn't hang in the same crowds a lot in school but I can still remember in Mrs. Durian's 4th grade class at Paradise Canyon when she said something nice to me. Isn't it funny how a classmate can say something nice to you when you are this nine-year old kid and forty years later you still remember it? 

Marilyn's father was one of the coaches of our Gray-Y basketball team. Our team was the Thunderbirds and I remember how cool I thought I looked when I put on my maroon and white Thunderbird t-shirt. And of course we always had one of the Black twins, either Marilyn or Bob in our class because they didn't want twins to be in the same classroom. 

The entire Black family was "good people." What a loss. Dennis Phinney"

08/28/2001 "Cheryl, I went to Paradise Canyon for six years (counting kindergarten) and I distinctly remember there being other kids at that school besides me. I racked my brain and here's my list (including some who moved away). I had a few more but my computer crashed so I apologize to those I left out. Distinguished Alumni of Paradise Canyon Elementary School (a partial list)

Ap Roberts, Jan
Andrade, Roualdo
Arman, Bill
Baker, Teresa
Bakerink, Mary Sue
Bittner, Craig
Black, Bob
Black, Marilyn
Boothby, Sally
Buffalino, Toni
Burlingame, Janet
Casselman, Laurie
Constable, Barry
Davis, John
Dunn, Robbie
Filerup, Robbie
Frame, Greg
Fredericks, Jack
Gayle, Janis
Goulden, Ben
Hale, Jenny
Haley, Kevin
Hauter, Fred
Hobart, Janice
Incikaya, Phil
Gayle, Janis
Green, Valerie
Hobart, Janice
Kile, Karen
Krauss, Barbara
Krauss, Dennis
La Valley, Mel
MacDonald, Duncan
Mc Millin, Janet
McPherson, Georgie
Methgen, Ken
Murphy, Trisha
Naeve, Bill
Parks, Gary
Porter, Bill
Priester, Bob
Purvis, Steve
Rembac, Stephanie
Rodgers, Tom
Smalling, Gary
Smith, Steve
Stabler, Kathy
Stipe, Nancy
Stone, Bruce
Thomas, Rick
Thompson, Rick
Vickers, Alison
Volle, Dan
Wells, Kerry
Wheeler, Sharon
Widmayer, Robert
Worth, Wendy
Young, Kevin
Zeller, Kim

Teachers
Kindergarten Mrs Templin/Mrs Green
1st Grade - Mrs Amsden/Mrs Colley
2nd Grade - Mrs Parker/Mrs Fowler
3rd Grade - Mrs Howlett/Mrs Irby
4th Grade - Mrs Durian/Mrs Heimer
5th Grade - Mrs Mate/Mrs Laren
Spanish - Mr. McPherson
Nurse - Mrs Fuel
Custodian - Smitty

I remember in fifth grade in Mrs Mate's class we had 18 girls and only 13 boys. This created a serious problem because each week we elected a "class president" and a class "ball monitor." Guys voted for guys and girls of course voted for girls (We hated each other back then.) Being outnumbered, we boys always got stuck with some creepy girl as class president and another creepy girl as ball monitor. The ball monitor position was especially crucial because there were only two balls in the ball box that would actually bounce. When recess came, the girls of course ended up with both of them. The "president" position was also critical because whenever Mrs Mate stepped outside for a smoke, the girl president only wrote boys names on the blackboard and we had to stay after school.

So one day during recess we sat around on our flat Voit utility balls and organized the United Boys Political Party, or something like that. I think the boys nominated every girl in the fifth grade for class president that day and enough of the girls voted for themselves that we actually won the election. Each week after that we threw our support behind one guy from for "class president", one for "ball monitor" and one for line leader. (The line leader was a political plum we handed out to waverers to keep them in line.) It worked great for about three months. Our entire slate of candidates swept every election. The next time Mrs Mate stepped outside for a smoke, the boys took their wooden rulers out and tried to see how many pencils we could launch into that pink foamy stuff they put in our ceilings while our newly elected "class president" scribbled every girl's name he could think of onto the blackboard. It was bitchen while it lasted. Then some boy had a girlfriend and secretly ratted us out. We had to report to the principal's office for a lecture on "subversion of the democratic process."

That was the same year the girls got to see the special movie that the boys didn't get to see. Of course we HAD to KNOW what this movie was all about. Bill Arman overheard Toni Buffalino say something about "ministration" after school. Radio Free Paradise Canyon clicked into action and by four o'clock we boys were calling each other on the phone trying to find the word "ministration" in our Funk and Wagnalls. We were heartbroken when the word wasn't even in the dictionary. S

peaking of vocabulary lessons, I seem to remember one time when we had "euthanasia" as a vocabulary word. Bruce Stone wrote down "little Chinamen" for his answer and the teacher thought it was so funny she gave him full credit.

We had our own special slang at Paradise Canyon, which I'm not sure made it nationwide. In first grade, if something was good, it was either "tough" or it was "neato." I remember using "boss" in third grade. I'm relatively certain that Sam Riddle and the Real Don Steele "kiped" that word from us. "Bitchen" came into use in about fourth grade, but if your teacher was listening you said "twitchen" instead. And if somebody "kiped" your ruler it meant he stole it from you. Remember the cafetorium? They had these little yellow squares of cake in there with this weird white frosting so disgustingly sweet it tasted like you were eating a Fizzie. They didn't sell every square, so they kept putting the same pieces of cake out every day until some unsuspecting first grader accidentally bought one of them. Hopefully the poor kid didn't have any permanent teeth yet. We had a food fight one day. Somebody threw one of those things and broke a window.

Once a week they served this greasy orange stuff in there for lunch that they called "lasagna pudding." Why did they call it "pudding?" Was it to trick us into actually eating it? You couldn't leave for recess until you held your finger up in the air and a teacher would excuse you if she thought you had eaten enough of your lunch. Every time a kid got up to leave you'd beg him to take away some of your "pudding" in his lunch bag so you could leave for recess too. It got down to where there were only two or three kids left and you would scramble to find places to put that "pudding." Like smearing it underneath those green fold-up benches and tables. I'm sure Smitty loved cleaning that stuff up."

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