WASHINGTON HIGH SCHOOL TWO RIVERS WI CLASS OF 1989

Wednesday, January 11, 2006

LISA KOCH

Why not? I mentioned her in my first post. So let's talk about her. Hmm... not much to say. We went to school together for four years. And if I'm not mistaken, we had a total of one class together. That would be College Prep English with Mr. Hensel, in our senior year.

To my knowledge, we have never spoken with one another. As I recall, she was a cheerleader of some sort. I remember this because in that class, she sat behind Lisa King (Mr. Hensel had us seated alphabetically). And Lisa was also a cheerleader. So the two of them stood out in their cheerleader outfits whenever it was deemed that they needed to be.

As I recall, she was dating a guy named Jim Messman. Jim also graduated with us. He was a nice guy. I have one little tidbit about her. I have no firsthand knowledge of this. But I overheard a couple of classmates talking about how much fun Jim was having at one of our dances - perhaps prom... I don't know. The other classmate suggested that the reason he was having such a good time was because he knew what he and Lisa were going to do after the dance. In other words, he was insinuating that something did happen after that dance - perhaps for the first time? Of course this is all heresay. I have no idea about the sex lives (if any) that these two shared. It's just something I overheard.

Again, I never knew her. But I do know this. She was absolutely beautiful. She was a "real" woman, not fat, not a waif, but just perfect. Where she is today is anybody's guess. However, there is a teacher at our old school with the same name. Could that be her? No. I believe Lisa Koch, the teacher, is actually the former Lisa Bennin - older sister of fellow graduate Chad Bennin.

UPDATE - 2/4/06 - Lisa has been alerted to the blog, and has added some updates of herself within her comments section. She's married, and is now known as Lisa Tushaus. She has two kids. A recent photo of her with her daughter is below. Click it to see the full-sized, clearer version.



UPDATE - 10/17/06 - Lisa ran in a 26-mile marathon on 10/1/06. It started in Grafton and ended in Milwaukee. Joining her in this race were fellow graduates Josie Scott, Julie Scott, Paula Jonas and Tina Short. Brenda Gordon and Erin Hynek drove and acted as cheerleaders along the way. I was invited to come down and see them off, as it would have been a great photo opportunity. But my birthday was the night before. And I simply was in no condition to be awake, let alone drive. So I missed out. Anyway, it should be noted that Lisa's finishing time was good enough to be eligible for the Boston Marathon. Yes, that's a big deal. Just finishing the marathon is impressive in itself. But qualifying for Boston is even more impressive. So congratulations to Lisa! Incidentally, Julie was participating in her fourth marathon of this year. Damn!

UPDATE - 11/10/06 - Here is Lisa from our senior video.



UPDATE - 6/18/07 - Thanks to Shannon Koch for providing these graduation photos of Lisa. Shannon (as well as Brett Gruetzmacher, Randy Klein and Brian Klein) can be seen in some of them as well.











8 Comments:

At Fri Feb 03, 05:46:00 AM PST, Blogger Lisa said...

Hello,
Well Burt, it looks like word is getting around! I was very surprised to see my name in here, and more so that I was one of your first listings! Although we had very little, if any, contact in high school, I can say I never held any animosity towards you, just never knew you. I appreciate that you had some nice things to say about me. Here is a little update on me: I graduated from UW-Milwaukee with a bachelor's degree in Health Care Administration. I have been married to Bret Tushaus, (director of IT at an architecture firm in downtown Milwaukee) for 10 years, we live in Brookfield, WI, have two children, Haley and Turner and I am a stay at home Mom. I have been running for several years and will run my first marathon in the fall. That's about it for me! I'm excited about your blog and it's been fun reading about everybody you have posted about so far! I'll be checking back!!

 
At Fri Feb 03, 06:37:00 AM PST, Blogger TWORIVERSWALRUS said...

Welcome aboard Lisa! There, now we've conversed for the first time.

How did you find this place???

Anyway, I'm glad all is well. Come back anytime. And please, comment away with anywhere you want to. Since you and I never had any contact whatsoever, you probably have a lot of memories that I don't.

 
At Fri Feb 03, 02:51:00 PM PST, Blogger Lisa said...

I was forwarded an email with a link to this site but the person who sent it wants to remain anonymous until they see what you have to say about them!! Sorry, can't give you more than that!

I will be back to post some comments and memories, although I don't I think I can compete with your memory Burt!! Where have you stored all of this all these years?

 
At Fri Feb 03, 04:39:00 PM PST, Blogger TWORIVERSWALRUS said...

Hmm... Now I have to guess. I'm going to make a few educated guesses this next week. Once I post on this person, will you reveal it? Or will this person chime in on his/her own?

Let me ask you this. How did this person find out about the blog? Random google search for someone's name?

Anyway, welcome again. I look forward to your comments. By the way, if you're not shy, I'd love to put a recent pic of you up here. If you're brave, E-mail it to me at WALRUS20000@YAHOO.COM

Talk to you soon!

 
At Tue Feb 07, 09:28:00 PM PST, Blogger SonnyKidd said...

Tushaus huh? One of our competitor's in the city. Maybe they'd like to hire a Sales Manager extraordinaire away from PC Mall?

Lisa was always nice, even after we broke up. Good to see you landed on your feet all these years later! LOL!

Come on Burt, I must have some more ex-girlfriends out there for you to slander...

 
At Tue Feb 07, 09:37:00 PM PST, Blogger TWORIVERSWALRUS said...

Give me a few names. I'll see whatI can do. LOL

 
At Sat Dec 09, 09:33:00 PM PST, Blogger CreativeMuse said...

Hi Lisa,

Did your parents have an aquarium full of piranha, or did I imagine that...? And a land-based "treehouse" in the back yard? My parents and your parents used to hang out "back in the day" with the Kohls'.

I think you used to babysit for my sisters, Becky, Heidi and Amanda. :)

Take care,
Monica Knutson
Class of 90

 
At Thu Mar 12, 11:25:00 PM PDT, Blogger JED said...

Hi, Lisa:
I don't belong on this blog. I stumbled onto it googling "John Palmer Kern" and laughed my ass off when I ended up here. The blog about his dad is excellent ... my compliments to the author. I was a Class of '90 member, but always wanted to be part of the Class of '89 ... that's why I hung out at the lockers of Jim, Jeremy, and Jeff every morning. We even changed my name to Jed (real name Ted) so that I would fit in with the other three "J's".

Anyway, you and Brenda were so incredibly nice to me in high school. I had a small amount of popularity because I played basketball, but was pretty much a nerd and a social invalid ... didn't drink, didn't "party", didn't date, got good grades, and didn't reach puberty until my sophomore year of college ... LATE BLOOMER INDEED!!! However, you and Brenda were so nice to me when I ended up at countless parties I had no business attending (only there because I was on the team). You both made sure my night wasn't spent just sitting in the corner, drinking soda, and calculating how long it would actually take me to walk home. THANKS for being so kind. I hope that life has been as kind to you as you were to me.

One of my favorite memories from high school (best 4 year of your life ... MY ASS!!!) was getting you and Brenda a red carnation for whatever loser tradition was being celebrated (Valentine's Day, Sweetest Day, ???), just to say "Thanks!". Well, red carnations were supposed to be sent and received by "couples only" and Jim was dating Lisa and Jeff was dating Brenda, so it was quite the scandal. Forget the fact that I was 5ft tall, weighed 120lbs, had no pubic hair, and barely growing a penis, both Jim and Jeff wanted to kick my ass. High School sucked for me, but I have fond memories of that "scandal", sitting next to you in Trig class and, again, remembering how kind you and Brenda were to me. I don't know if anyone reads this stuff anymore (it was started over 3 years ago and the comments don't state the year of the post), but I thought my personal walk down memory lane was worth posting.

Great things should happen to great people, so I HOPE YOU HAVE A GREAT LIFE!!!

 

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