WASHINGTON HIGH SCHOOL TWO RIVERS WI CLASS OF 1989

Monday, January 16, 2006

CARRIE COLLARD

Carrie Collard has the distinction of being the first girl I ever had a crush on. When did this crush occur? Kindergarten! Probably unbeknownst to her, Carrie and I shared Mrs. Walters' kindergarten class at McKinley school in Manitowoc. I have a program from some sort of Easter show that our class put on that year. Sure enough, both our names are listed. After that year, the school closed.

The next time I saw Carrie was several years later, in Two Rivers. We joined up at L.B. Clarke in sixth grade. We had Mrs. Casey's class together. Carrie was still a pretty girl. At that time she was kind of fawning after John Steltz. I got to know her a little bit that year. She was incredibly nice. And she had the cutest smile. One day, Carrie wore a skirt to school. Marcus Petkevicius took it upon himself to run by, lift it up, and reveal her panties to the room. Way to go Marcus! Carrie was good-natured about it. But I think she changed into a pair of pants shortly afterward.

At some point at Clarke she found a boyfriend in Rob Kumbalek. After high school, they were married. Talk about a long-lasting romance. Unfortunately, I don't think it's lasted to this day. She's apparently been chasing him for child support payments. Rob may actually be in jail at this exact moment, for failing to pay.

Carrie sticks in my mind for one incredibly brave thing she did. I was never one for attending school functions. In fact, in my entire Two Rivers school career, I believe I attended a grand total of one school-related activity. It was the Halloween dance in 7th grade. I was hanging out with Jim Colby and Toby Schwartz at the time. The three of us decided to go together. I hope I enjoyed myself. The following year, the school put out a list of those students who were banned from attending. Yours truly was on it!

The school had hired some local band to play. The band was very loud too. You couldn't get near their speaker system. Anyway, the band repeatedly invited people to come and dance on the floor. But no one would. No one was brave enough. The students just milled around, socializing on the bleachers or by the door. But then Carrie did something I'll never forget. She wandered out onto the floor, in the middle of the gym, and started dancing all by herself. It wasn't a real dance so to speak. She kind of just shook her head back and forth. There she stood, the eyes of 100 people staring at her, as she did her thing. Within a minute or two, she was joined by a few friends of hers. And then the floodgates opened. Nearly everyone was on the floor, mimicking Carrie's head shake. Carrie, that was one of the coolest things I've ever seen! Way to go!

I ran into Carrie a few times at the video store. She may have moved to Manitowoc. She may have been employed at a hospital in some capacity. And she was still as cute and friendly as ever.

UPDATE - 7/11/06 - Carrie and her husband had a baby girl on July 7th. Also, I never mentioned it before. But Carrie is remarried, and is now known as Carrie Dunphy.

UPDATE - 7/20/06 - Kevin Dehne and I stopped in to see Carrie on July 15th. One of her sons wasn't home. But the rest of the family was, including of course the new baby. The pictures below are from that visit. Carrie's husband hails from Maine. I believe he said he works for the nuclear plant.





UPDATE - 11/10/06 - Here is Carrie from our senior video. The girl can't help but smile when she talks. Too cute!



UPDATE - 11/22/06 - Here is some video from that July 15th meeting.



UPDATE - 1/2/07 - Thanks to Tammy Franzen for providing this picture of Carrie, along with herself, Cindy Rohrer, and their families. It was taken in July, 2006.

4 Comments:

At Sat Feb 11, 12:06:00 PM PST, Blogger jenny said...

Something you all should know what an amazing person Carrie is. A few years ago she signed up as an organ donor and donated a kidney to a complete stranger because it was a perfect match. That is quite incredible. thanks Carrie for being so giving..

 
At Tue Feb 14, 02:04:00 PM PST, Blogger TWORIVERSWALRUS said...

Wow! That is an amazing story. I'd like to find an article about that. Nice going Carrie. I'm not surprised.

 
At Fri Apr 07, 01:31:00 PM PDT, Blogger karmadog said...

That's really awesome.

 
At Fri Apr 07, 05:14:00 PM PDT, Blogger TWORIVERSWALRUS said...

If anyone can find that article, I'd love to post it. So Carrie's remarried. That's cool. Maine is a beautiful state. We visited there back in 2004. We're going to spend a week in Bethel, Maine over Memorial Day week, 2007.

 

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