UPDATE - JEFF BODWIN & STEPHANIE GARDNER

I couldn't find a picture. But I did find an update on Jeff, as to where he lives and works. You can find the information in his entry. There's also a very small update on Stephanie Gardner, in her entry.

As for Greg, there's a brief blurb about him in his entry. And lastly, in regards to Sarah, I found a recent picture of her. You can see it in her entry.

ENJOY!

UPDATE - DEAN LICHTERMAN & JEFF BODWIN

I uploaded Dean's clip from the senior video. I was also able to locate a recent photo of him. It's all in his entry.

And for those of you who may have forgotten what Jeff Bodwin looked and sounded like 18 years ago, you can see his senior video clip in his entry as well.

Enjoy!

MRS. LEWANDOWSKI

Mrs. Lewandowski (Frances) was a teacher at L.B. Clarke School. She taught 7th and 8th grade students. She was in the northeast “wing” of the school, next to Mr. Monka, and on the other side of the curtain to Ms. Meehan.

Lewandowski was a rather large woman with a round face and curly hair. Of all the teachers in that wing, she is the only one I never had. I think all she taught was reading courses. But I might be mistaken about that. I think I only entered her room a couple of times during my years at Clarke. And that was only in 7th grade, when Mr. Fencl (my reading teacher) brought our class into her room so that all the reading classes that hour could watch a film strip or something from time to time.

Speaking of that, I do recall being in her class for one of those movies. We ended up watching some classic story – “Gift Of The Magi” or something. Anyway, it was introduced and narrated by Fred Gwynne (from “The Munsters.”) When Fencl gave us a quiz on the film, one of the questions was, “Who is telling the story?” I answered, “Herman Munster.” He didn’t appreciate that.

Anyway, because I never had her, I had very little dealings with her. However, she did yell at me (sort of) once. It was in 7th grade. It was right after lunch. I had gone to my locker to drop off my stuff, and was hustling down the hall to get into Mrs. Westberg’s class before the bell rang. Either Kevin Dehne or Ron (Cuyler) Gretz was with me. We whipped around the corner and almost slammed into her as we scooted down the hall. She told us to slow down. We both said, “Ok.” But neither one of us did. As we were approaching the office area, she yelled out, “You guys just got a detention.” We then both responded by saying something about having to get to class so we don’t get another one. We ended up making it. And as it turned out, Lewandowski never followed through with her threat.

Although I never had her, I think most kids liked her for the most part. She seemed friendly enough.

After I left Clarke, I never saw her again. Today it looks like she lives in Green Bay. I believe she’s married. I also believe she has retired from teaching. She’d probably be in her mid-to-late 60’s by now.

WELCOME - ANDREA BURNS

Class of 1990's Andrea Burns has just logged in. Thus far she has left comments for Becky Koeppel, and her own father, Mr. Burns. Her user name is Burnsy1990.

Welcome Andrea!

MS. MEEHAN

Ms. Meehan (Gwen) was a reading teacher at L.B. Clarke. She dealt with 7th and 8th graders. She was in the same wing with Ms. Lewandowski, Mr. Monka, Mr. Kern, Mr. Fencl and Mr. Trembley.

I was thrown into her class during the third quarter of 8th grade. I was not happy about it. Prior to then, I’d been in Fencl’s class. I believe Lewandowski had the “smart” students, Meehan had the “dumb” students and Fencl had everyone in between. Granted the smart and dumb labels are a little crude, and not entirely accurate. But I think most people will know what I’m talking about. Anyway, although I didn’t really “act up” in Fencl’s class, he and I simply didn’t get along. I was rude and obnoxious to him most of the time. I think he just tired of dealing with me, and had me shipped off to Meehan’s class.

Meehan’s class was somewhat of a culture shock to me. It was filled with all the derelicts from the future class of 1990 – most of whom never graduated. Bob Antonie was one of them. Although Bob wasn’t dumb. He probably didn’t belong in there either. I think the only fellow eighth grader in there was Scott “Gokey” Gauthier. See my entry on him for a story of how I stole his reading book – several times.

Anyway, I was sort of a mute in there at first. Mrs. Meehan was very nice though. And eventually I warmed up to my surroundings. I also thrived in there. Since the lesson plan was sort of “dumbed down” to accommodate the students, I ended up breezing through with A’s. I didn’t really pal around in there with anyone. But I got along with all the guys. We sat in one area of the room. I remember talking with Bob and Chad Lichterman a lot. No one talked to Gokey. The 7th graders despised him as much as us 8th graders did.

Not a whole hell of a lot happened in that class. And surprisingly, despite the students in there, the class was really well-behaved. I do have a couple of memories though.

Our library had “Choose Your Own Adventure” and “Which Way” books. They were the books that would give you options as you read them. It was stuff like, “If you want to take the left road, turn to page 62. If you want to take the right road, turn to page 85.” A lot of the books were paperbacks. And I had a habit of folding the entire book, so it could fit in my pocket. Of course by doing so, it pretty much destroyed the cover and warped the pages. But I did it anyway. Well one day all the guys saw me pull one of the books from my pocket and start to read it. They thought that was hilarious.

One day they opened up the curtain between Meehan and Lewandowski’s rooms. Then Mr. Fencl’s class came in. And we all sat and watched a filmstrip. My old friend Mark Schreiber came from Fencl’s class. So we sat by each other and talked the whole time. And for whatever reason, I had this small piece of wood in my trapper keeper. And I decided to tap it on the desktop, rather loudly. Why? Who knows. But I wanted to see how long I could go before people started looking at me. I think I did it about 20 times before I got a lot of people to turn around in their seats to see what the commotion was. I guess that was entertainment for us.

I did have one negative event take place in her class. On some assignment of mine, I had drawn a small picture of a guy sticking up his middle finger. It wasn’t directed at Meehan. It was just a random drawing. Well, Meehan found it to be inappropriate. So she folded up the paper, stuffed it in an envelope, and addressed it “To the parents of.” It arrived at my house the next day.

Now, over the years, my house received dozens of letters addressed that way. For the most part, my parents didn’t get home until after 5:00 or so. So I always got the mail. And I don’t think my parents ever saw one envelope that came addressed “To the parents of.” They certainly weren’t going to get this one either. She’d sent a pretty brief letter saying something to the effect of how it was inappropriate, and how she feels that they (my parents) could handle this situation better than she could. Well, they never got the opportunity. On a related note, I do remember once being accused by Mr. Vogt and Mr. Slattery of “playing mailman.” How right they were!

After 8th grade, I don’t believe I ever laid eyes on Meehan again. At the time, I think she lived in Manitowoc. In fact, I think she lived by the YMCA, down by the lake. Because I think her house had a deck in the backyard that began to slide down the great big hill, when the ground collapsed a bit.

It looks like Meehan got married (or remarried?) and is now known as Gwen Meehan Braun. She’d be about 80-years-old today, and still lives in the area. Based on some stuff I found on the internet, it appears as if she enjoys playing in bridge tournaments.

ANOTHER BLOG

I decided to create another blog. I've linked it on the side of this page, under the title "ME." It's going to be my personal blog for non-classmate related matters. I've been wanting to do it for quite awhile. I finally got around to it now.

In other blog-related news, it looks like when Jason Anderson came by last week to address all the recent drama, he deleted his own blog. It's gone! Speaking of Jason, at his place of employment, he has a new employee today. It's none other than fellow classmate Jeff "Meff" Messerman. Small world, huh?

Carrie Franz also left a new comment for Ellen Dawidowich.

Enjoy!

MR. MONKA

Mr. Monka (Ron) was the 8th grade social studies teacher at L.B. Clarke. For the most part, he was a pretty nice guy. He was probably around 50 years old, and wore glasses. He was also quite proud of his Polish heritage.

I had Monka for 4th hour. I sat on the right side of the room, right next to the curtain. Tom Grassman sat behind me. I think the seat in front of me was empty. Jenny Malley sat to my left. And I believe Mark Schreiber sat in back of her. I liked all three of them. So it was a good place to be. Come to think of it, I think the reason why the seat in front of me was empty was because Kevin Dehne had been there for a short time. But if memory serves, Monka separated us. So Kevin got moved to the absolute front of the class.

Other people in that class were Becky Koeppel, Teresa Vohwinkel, Keith Welnicke, Ron Gretz and Brian Belongia. Obviously there were a lot more than that. But I’m drawing a blank right now. Oh wait, maybe Robin Richmond and Chris Staudinger were there too.

Monka had a couple of habits. For one, if he caught you talking during class, he had a tendency to throw an eraser at you. Of course some of us (well, Kevin and I really) would purposely try to get beaned with one. I can remember turning around in my chair talking to Tom, and saying, “Is he looking? Is he grabbing the eraser?” The next thing you know, boom, you were in a cloud of chalk dust. Of course one time he actually nailed Ron Gretz in the eye. Ron yelped, then whipped the eraser back at him. Monka scolded him. But gee, can you blame Ron?

Monka also had a thing about the baskets under our desks. They were designed for putting our books in. Of course they were also perfect as a foot rest – using the desk in front of you. But Monka wouldn’t allow anyone to do that. If he caught you, he’d make you sit on the floor, squatting in the catcher’s position. See my entry on Teresa Vohwinkel to read a clever attempt on her part to get out of doing the squat.

I don’t know what I did. But one day Monka got mad at me and sent me into the hall – desk and all. He had me positioned basically in the middle of the six-roomed wing, but where he could teach and still keep an eye on me. I thought I’d have some fun with him. So I turned my head to the right, and looked in Mrs. Meehan’s room. Then I started to move my lips, as if I was talking to somebody. Of course I wasn’t. In fact, they were watching a filmstrip in there. Everyone’s back was turned anyway. I did this for 10 or 15 minutes. And Monka never noticed. I was getting frustrated. So I decided to get a little animated – gesturing with my hands and arms. Still, it took about 10 minutes before Monka finally noticed. I knew instantly, as his voice suddenly stopped, and the room got quiet. Then I looked in Monka’s room and saw that he was straining his neck trying to get a better look at me. Everyone else in class also turned to look. Then Monka came out and said, “Who are you talking to?” For once, I was honest with him. I said, “No one.” He looked into Meehan’s room himself. And from my vantage point, all you could see was darkness. He was baffled. He turned around, said nothing, then went back to his room. I got a kick out of it. Yes, it was very juvenile. I know.
At some point during the year, my mom ended up going to school for some parent/teacher conferences. I think she met with a couple of my teachers at once. I believe she met Monka, Mr. Kern and Mr. Fencl in that meeting. My mom stressed to them that I was supposed to be wearing my glasses. Truth be told, I’d had glasses since I was in first grade. When I lived in Manitowoc, I actually wore them. But for whatever reason, once I moved to Two Rivers, I refused to wear them. I guess I was just self conscious about them. After all, they were some hideous-looking things. Of course back then, all glasses were big and hideous. Anyway, the three of them assured my mom that they would make me wear my glasses. Kern never bothered to try. He didn’t care. Fencl asked me once. But Monka asked me every single day. I think he was trying to embarrass me into wearing them. Of course I would have been more embarrassed had I actually put them on. So everyday at the start of class, he would ask me in front of everyone, “Burt, did you bring your glasses?” Of course my standard answer was, “Nope!” After maybe six weeks of this, he finally let up. Needless to say, no one ever saw me wear them. Today I’ve had Lasik surgery done. And I’m much happier for it.

See my entry on Randy Ertman for an action story about Monka involving punches and squirt guns.

See my entry on B.J. Lutterman for a story about Monka and Polish jokes.

Sometime after my days at Clarke, my dad used to go to the YMCA and run in the winter time. Sometimes I’d tag along. I didn’t run myself. I just explored the building and would wander around into places I shouldn’t. But anyway, quite often Monka would be there. He’d run too. He remembered me and was always nice.

I’m not sure of the date. But I think it may have been in the early 1990’s, I recall seeing a newspaper article about an incident that happened at Clarke. Apparently one of the teachers got in trouble for being a little rough with one of the students. I believe the incident happened at night, as the teacher was chaperoning a dance or something. Someone once told me Monka was involved. In fact, just recently, someone else told me that Monka had gotten fired for hitting a student. Did it happen? I don’t know. Is it the same incident? Again, I don’t know.

Today I believe Monka is in fact retired. He appears to live in Two Rivers to this day. I couldn’t find anything else about him, other than the fact that he may have gone on an Alaskan sea cruise at some point.

DRAMA!

I think I had a similarly titled post several months ago. Well drama has reared its ugly head once again. In this case, the person involved is Jason Anderson. Yes, some anonymous blogger came in and ripped him. Word eventually filtered back to Jason, who responded in kind. Yesterday, just prior to his response, I sent him a personal E-mail. Even though I take a hard stance in removing anything that's been written here, I felt that the particular comments that were left for him were a little harsh and one-sided. And mostly, they just didn't belong here. So I intended to ask Jason if he'd like me to remove them.

Anyway, before the day was over, I had received E-mails from not only Jason, but his wife as well. Incidentally, his wife confirmed that neither she nor anyone she knows was responsible for the nasty comments. Both of them know exactly who's to blame. Per a request from Jason, I have removed the nasty comments. He kept a record of them. I too have an E-mail confirmation of them. But they don't need to be seen.

I hate being involved in this drama. No one was mad at me. But still...

Anyway, back to the real purpose of this blog. I still have plenty of teachers to profile. I promise to get at least one done this week.

In the interim, Tammy Franzen has come back. She's left new comments for herself, as well as Nick Novachek, Ellen Dawidowich and Tim Petri.

Also, the mysterious "TIN" has returned and has left new comments for Jason Anderson and Mr. Heidner.

Who is "TIN?" I still have no idea. There was some thought that it may have been Tina Kust. However, if memory serves, Mr. Heidner only taught at Washington for my freshman year. And if "TIN" had Mr. Heidner, then he/she was either a potential member of the class of 1989, or someone older.

TOM GRASSMAN - YOUTUBE

Tommy G. sent me a video montage of some of he recent performances. So I put it on Youtube. You can see it below.

WELCOME - ?????

Someone named "TIN" has signed in and left comments in the entries for Drew Konop and Greg Flemal. Who is this mystery person? I have no idea.

Anyone?

UPDATE - JASON ANDERSON

Well, about a month ago, one of my readers alerted me to a newspaper article which featured Jason. There was even a picture - which I now have. Based on the information in the article, it was clear that Jason was involved in a divorce. I chose not to mention it. Stuff like that happens.

However, today someone else chose to bring the topic up. In fact, this person chose to leave an absolutely brutal comment in Jason's entry. A few people have already asked me who left it. I don't have an answer to that. But it's obviously someone who has intimate knowledge about Jason, intimate knowledge about his workplace, and also had prior knowledge to this blog of mine. So it seems clear to me that the person who left the comment is somebody associated with Jason's wife. I don't buy the "I'm almost positive you are" part of the comment. This anonymous person knows exactly who Jason is, and knew exactly where to go to leave a nasty comment about him.

UPDATE - REBECCA SHEDLOSKY

I did a little digging today, and found some recent pictures of Becky online. I put them in her entry.

Enjoy!

BIRTHDAY CARD

Cindy Rohrer sent me a birthday card which she still have. It dates back to L.B. Clarke. She's not sure what year it's from. But I'm guessing it's from 7th grade. There's some interesting names here.

UPDATE - TAMMY FRANZEN

Tammy sent me six photos. They feature her, Cindy Rohrer and Carrie Collard - as well as their families. I put them in her entry.

Enjoy!