UPDATE JANUARY 2015
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I APOLOGIZE for not getting to this update until today (January 25). The college where I do my volunteer work did not start the new semester until last Monday (January 19), and it has been a very busy time for me at the college over the past week. As someone who does not have a computer or other modern technology at home, I check email only when I am at the college campus where I am right now.
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THE EARLY-BIRD SPECIAL for the June 2015 reunion is rapidly approaching. The early-bird special of $40 per person must be received no later than January 31. Online payments can be made on the Paypal website, at which the “Send” option should be clicked on the home page and then type widefield65reunion@yahoo.com in the box titled “their email.” Be sure to click the “Friends or Family” tab so there will be no charges to reunion organizers. In the note section, leave your name and contact information. Payments via postal mail can be sent to:
Judy Christian
323 West Illinois
Fountain CO 80817
Open to ALL classes of the 1960s, the 50-year anniversary for the Class of 1965 will be held on Friday and Saturday, June 19-20, 2015. People who do not pay the early-bird special by January 31 will pay $50 per person for the two-day event. Soft drinks will be provided on both days with a cash bar being available at the event center, which is near Widefield. Only cans of 3.2 beer will be allowed at the picnic. While there will be tables at the picnic, locals are urged to bring lawn chairs and blankets.
In addition to some of the Class of 1966 members named in the November 2014 update, our classmates Barbara Garrison and Ron Petty have indicated that they will be attending the June 2015 event. Our classmate Glenda Windle Armstrong wrote:
“I would like to have a 50th reunion for just our class. Having said that, I am not there to help so feel like the “workers” should make the decision. Maybe we could do both. Some people might not want to travel for just one day, but maybe they would be satisfied with attending the 1965 reunion. June is the one month I have trouble getting off work, so I’m not sure if I can attend the 1965 party. I am going to try. If we do have a reunion or a mini reunion (Kwik Shake parking lot) next year for our 50th, please try to do it in a month other than June. Whatever the group decides, I will support. A special THANKS to all of you who have worked so diligently so many years to bring us together as often as you have.”
Inquiries about the June 2015 two-day event can be sent via email to widefield65reunion@yahoo.com
Updated information also can be found on Facebook by searching:
“Widefield High School Class of 1965 Reunion”
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TO VISIT OUR CLASS WEBSITE that was assembled and is maintained by our Class Committee member and Webmaster, Paul Snell, please go to: www.1966whs.com
The software that Paul used to build the website allows people to access the website through a regular computer as well as a smartphone or digital tablet. At the bottom of each page of the website is a link to a Facebook page that can be used by classmates who have Facebook and want to communicate and receive information through Facebook. Please be sure to bookmark the website address on your computer so that you will have it handy whenever you want to visit the website.
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OUR CLASS COMMITTEE consists of several classmates who volunteer their time, at one point or another, regarding issues pertinent to our class. Our Class Committee members are: Gillie Walker; Bruce McAlexander; Marcia Hagans Allin; Ron Petty; Donnie Collier Martinez; Paul Snell; Mike Adragna; Bruce Brian; Linda Nolin Weber; Ken Loveless; Roy Manuszak; Mary Ellen Brada Manuszak; Jerry Moyers; Barbara Billingsley Massarano; Warren Knight. Other classmates are welcome to be part of the Class Committee.
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THE 2015 OSCAR NOMINATIONS are the focus of my essay, which is enclosed herein at the tail-end of this update immediately after my farewell remark “I don’t care what people call me, just call me.”
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WE ARE VOLUNTEERS. Please do not ever take it personally if you do not hear from the Class Committee or the Website Committee right away. As volunteers, we have only so much time within which to do our volunteer work as well as tend to other aspects of our personal lives.
Delays in my replies, in particular, are due to me not being awake very much anymore as sleeping long hours is the only time period during which there is total relief from my neurological illness for which there is no cure. It is now ten (10) years that I have had massive nerve damage. With this neurological illness continuing to take center stage in my life each day, there cannot be very much so-called normal or routine activities on my part as long as a state of normalcy has not been returned to my life. As noted in my update in July 2013, another reason for delays in my replies is that I have been “slowing down” more and more since late 2012 – it takes me forever to get something done. My doctors attribute the slowness to me getting older, not the neurological illness.
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This update was prepared by me.
Respectfully submitted,
Donnie Martinez, WHS Class of 1966 Committee
Known at WHS by stepfather’s surname Collier
Martinez is my birth certificate and legal surname
a/k/a Butch, family nickname since childhood
a/k/a Don, presumably the adult version of Donnie
a/k/a Primo (Cousin) to dozens of my Martinez cousins
a/k/a El Aguila (The Eagle), a version of Gillie’s name for me
a/k/a Nitpicker Supreme, a title lovingly given to me by Gillie
a/k/a Frank to older women saying I look like their idol Frank Sinatra
a/k/a Dee Dee, a fun name used by people to mean Dear Donnie
I don’t care what people call me, just call me.
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THIS YEAR’S OSCAR NOMINEES
by D. Martinez (January 2015)
Just as I have done for many years, my picks for the Oscar Awards are now once again shared with friends, relatives, activists, neighbors and people with whom I went to school. It is now ten years of my ongoing neurological illness for which there is no cure, yet my spirits continue to be lifted whenever my health challenges allow me to get out to a movie theater.
BEST ACTRESS NOMINEES are: Marion Cotillard; Felicity Jones; Julianne Moore; Rosamund Pike; and, Reese Witherspoon. Noticeably absent from the list is Jennifer Aniston for her role as a support-group member who faces her own tragedy while grieving a support-group member’s suicide, as conveyed in the movie “Cake.” Ms. Cotillard is very good as a young mother who tries to convince her factory co-workers not to accept a bonus for covering her shift when she takes time off due to a nervous breakdown, as conveyed in the French film “Two Days and One Night.” Ms. Jones is very good as a young wife who faces numerous challenges upon being the caregiver for her young physicist husband who deteriorates from an incurable neurological illness, as detailed in the true story “Theory of Everything.” Ms. Moore is very good as a professor whose health declines with the early onset of Alzheimer’s disease, as conveyed in the film “Still Alice.” Ms. Pike is very good as a scheming and manipulative socialite whose husband becomes a suspect in his wife’s sudden disappearance, as conveyed in the mediocre film “Gone Girl.” Ms. Witherspoon is very good as a young woman whose divorce and mother’s death prompted her to set out alone on a long and dangerous hike on the Pacific Trail, as detailed in the true story “Wild.” Julianne Moore is my choice for the award, but I won’t be disappointed if the award goes to Marion Cotillard or Felicity Jones.
BEST ACTOR NOMINEES are: Steve Carell; Bradley Cooper; Benedict Cumberbatch; Michael Keaton; and, Eddie Redmayne. Noticeably absent from the list is David Oyelowo for his fine performance as civil rights activist Martin Luther King in the true story “Selma.” Carell is very good as the DuPont family billionaire who gets mixed up with two Olympic-winning wrestler brothers in a true story about wealth and power detailed in the well-done film “Fox Catcher.” Cooper is very good as a U.S. Navy SEAL who survived the horrors of direct combat during the U.S. war in Iraq yet was killed in his home town in Texas by a fellow military veteran, as detailed in the true story “American Sniper.” Cumberbatch is very good as the young British mathematician who helped win World War II yet was later prosecuted in England’s criminal court for being gay, as detailed in the true story “Imitation Game.” Keaton is very good as an aging movie actor who tries to revive his fading career by staging a love-themed Broadway play, as conveyed in the film “Birdman.” Redmayne is very good as the young British physicist who succeeded academically and other aspects of his life despite his deterioration from an incurable neurological illness, as detailed in the true story “Theory of Everything.”
Benedict Cumberbatch and Eddie Redmayne are my choices for the award.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR NOMINEES are: Robert Duvall; Ethan Hawke; Edward Norton; Mark Ruffalo; and, J.K. Simmons. Duvall is very good as a retired Judge who is brought to court for covering up a crime, as conveyed in the well-done film “The Judge.” Hawke is very good as the father of a boy whose life is chronicled over a 12-year period in the well-done film “Boyhood.” Norton is very good as an actor in a Broadway play staged by an aging movie actor who tries to revive his fading career, as conveyed in the film “Birdman.” Ruffalo is very good as one of two Olympic-winning wrestler brothers who get mixed up with a Dupont family billionaire in a true story about wealth and power detailed in the well-done film “Fox Catcher.” Simmons is very good as a music teacher who is obsessed with anti-gay rhetoric in the course of being excessively cruel upon expecting perfection in his students, as conveyed in a well-done and at times a difficult-to-watch film that is appropriately titled “Whiplash.” Edward Norton and J.K. Simmons are my choices for the award.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS NOMINEES are: Patricia Arquette; Laura Dern; Keira Knightley; Emma Stone; and, Meryl Streep. Ms. Arquette is very good as the mother of a boy whose life is chronicled over a 12-year period in the well-done film “Boyhood.” Ms. Dern is very good as the mother whose death prompted her daughter to set out alone on a long and dangerous hike on the Pacific Trail, as detailed in the true story “Wild.” Ms. Knightley is very good as the devoted friend of the British mathematician who helped win World War II yet he was later prosecuted in England’s criminal court for being gay, as detailed in the true story “Imitation Game.” Ms. Stone is very good as the recovering-addict daughter of an aging movie actor who tries to revive his fading career, as conveyed in the film “Birdman.” Ms. Streep is very good as a witch whose curse results in a married couple’s inability to have children, as conveyed in the fantasy film “Into the Woods.” Keira Knightley is my choice for the award, but I won’t be disappointed if the award goes to Patricia Arquette or Emma Stone.
BEST PICTURE NOMINEES are: “American Sniper”; “Birdman”; “Boyhood”; “Grand Budapest Hotel”; “Imitation Game”; “Selma”; “Theory of Everything”; and, “Whiplash.”
“American Sniper” is a film about the U.S. Navy SEAL who survived the horrors of direct combat during his four military tours of the U.S. war in Iraq, yet he was killed in his home town in Texas by a fellow military veteran. Because the SEAL provided misinformation about two incidents that allegedly occurred on his return to the U.S., it made me wonder about the validity of other aspects of his book upon which the movie is based.
“Birdman” is a film about an aging movie actor, who at one time was famous for playing a superhero character and whose contemplation of suicide is interwoven with his attempt to revive his fading career by directing and starring in a love-themed Broadway play adapted from a 1980s short story by real-life writer/poet Raymond Carver.
“Boyhood” is a well-done film that used the same actors and actresses over a 12-year period to chronicle a boy’s life from age 6 to age 18.
“Grand Budapest Hotel” is a film about a European hotel supervisor who provides superb service to his hotel guests, yet he becomes the main suspect in a murder case involving one of the elderly women who stayed at the hotel.
“Imitation Game” is a well-done film based on the true story of the British mathematician who helped win World War II by figuring out a secret code used by the Nazis, but he was later prosecuted in England’s criminal court for being gay.
“Selma” is a well-done film based on the true story of unrelenting police violence that was an integral part of events leading up to March 1965 when 25,000 people of all races joined civil-rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. in a 50-mile march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama to protest against Selma government officials denying African Americans their constitutional right to vote.
“Theory of Everything” is a well-done film based on the true story of the young British physicist who succeeded academically and other aspects of his life despite his deterioration from an incurable neurological illness. Still alive today, he lived 50 years beyond the mid-1960s diagnosis that gave him only two years to live.
“Whiplash” is a well-done film about a music teacher who is obsessed with anti-gay rhetoric in the course of being excessively cruel upon expecting perfection in his students, one of whom is a talented drummer.
For me to enjoy a movie, it must almost always have two main qualities: (1) it reveals events of a historical era unfamiliar to me, or (2) it is set in a geographic location or situation unfamiliar to me. Because they were set in locations unfamiliar to me and they had many historical details that I did not know until seeing the films, “Imitation Game,” “Selma” and “Theory of Everything” are my choices for best picture.
My picks for best documentary are the nominees “Citizen Four” (about the loss of privacy in the U.S.) and “Last Days in Vietnam” (about the chaotic evacuation in 1975 when the U.S. lost the ten-year war). Noticeably absent from the nominee list are “Ivory Tower” (about the mounting debt for a college education) and “Fed Up” (about unhealthy eating habits in the U.S.).
ABC will televise the Oscar awards on Sunday, February 22, 6:00 p.m. Colorado time.
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