Bitburg American High School Reunion~40 years later

I have returned from my high school reunion, no worse for wear! I had a wonderful time. There were people there from all over the United States. One person actually came all the way from Switzerland, where she has lived for 20 years. Our reunion was held in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Why was it there, you may ask. Well, one of our fellow Barons lives there and is an event planner. He told us about Germanfest being there this month, and he planned a mighty fine reunion. He had lots of help, mind you, but he and his wife were the masters of the art of planning in their own town. He had many activities for us that were wonderful. He got us into a very exclusive country club for our first night there: The Wisconsin Club. Then, he planned a night for us at the Germanfest (good food). He also planned a riverboat cruise, complete with fireworks that were put on just for us. We ate at a great German restaurant called Maders, right before the cruise. There were several optional activities that we could do. I went to a wonderful art museum. Some people took a bike ride in the park. Others went on a tour of the brewery there. Milwaukee has many things for people to do. We stayed at the hotel called The Pfister, and it was a wonderful place.  Saturday night, we were supposed to dress "Hippie Chic". This couple was a hoot, Joe and Cathy. You can see Joe in the farewell picture that I posted lower in this post. He brought his long hair and headband with him for the night! I love Cathy's rose colored glasses, too!!

Bitburg American High School was located on the Air Force Base in Bitburg, Germany. I lived in Spangdahlem, Germany on the Air Force Base. Back in those days, the high school was in Bitburg. Nowadays, the Bitburg base is closed, and the Spangdahlem base has a high school. Spangdahlem has the largest runway for the airplanes, so I guess that is why it is the one that is open. "Spang" was always the smaller base of the two. Now, Spang has new housing and several new schools.
Back to the original posting!

Our program...

This is a picture of those of us who arrived at the same time. Denise and I were on the same plane from Atlanta, even though she flew in from Texas!! Renate is from Texas, too.
Here you see Denise Brown (75), Renate Ritchie (74), and ME (73).

A friend of mine started a facebook page for Bitburg Alumni from the graduation years of 1969-1975. She decided that it would be much better for people who actually attended school at the same time to be on a page, rather than those who attended the school from the 1950's up until 2012! We have more in common, being the same age. There is a website for our school, and there are reunions for the whole school, but the age range is VERY WIDE~~ Those of us who joined together this past week remember each other, or we remember who we were, or maybe just remember someone from a yearbook picture, or from afar. Although everyone may not have been best friends, or even acquaintances, back then, we all became good friends at the reunion. It was a Love Fest!! Everyone was so very happy to see each other. I am going to copy my post from our facebook page so that you can understand just why we were all so happy to see each other. You see, military brats hardly EVER get to see each other again in their lifetimes. We all move so much, to so many places, and then retire back to our parents' hometowns, or our parents' last assignment. Anyway, we had FUN!
Here is my post from the Facebook page:

‎"My bags are actually packed. I'm very ready to go. I'm waitin', and waitin' to leave on a jet plane to-mor-row..."
I'm headed to Milwaukee to a high school reunion with a bunch of my fellow military brats from Bitburg, Germany!! Yippee! I cannot believe that the day is almost here, but it is! Forty-one (41?) years later, and I will be reunited and reacquainted with lots of my high school friends. Who would have ever thought that any of us would ever see each other again? Military brats don't usually cross paths again in their lifetimes, but we will this weekend! This event is going to be truly amazing! Thank you, Dawn, for starting this whole facebook adventure and making it possible for all of us to be together again. Thank you to the entire committee for all of your hard work and committment to this task this past year. We are truly blessed to have you all!
Come on jet plane. Let's go!
Auf Wiedersehen, Savannah! Hallo and Guten Tag, Milwaukee!

This picture is from our farewell brunch. Here you see Christine Clark (75), Joe Martino (71), Dawn Grant (73) my best buddy from 8th grade and the one who started this whole facebook adventure, Gary Clark (73), and ME (73). Yes, Gary and Chris are married. How about that!

Many of us did not get to actually graduate from Bitburg, because our fathers were either transferred back to the states, or they retired (like my dad). Some had to leave DURING their senior years, even! Can you imagine!! Some left the summer before their senior year. I left the summer before my junior year. Others were only able to attend their freshman year. Some were there the first part of high school, while others were there the last part of high school. Some were even lucky enough to be there all four years, but that number is very few.

I have a Bitburg Diploma now, too, so I scanned it for this post! I'm a Bitburg graduate after all!!

SO, we all have the same thing in common - We LOVED our time in Germany, and the friends we made there are very, very special. For some reason, everyone says that their time in Germany was the best and most memorable time in their lives. There is something about being a military brat that is just amazing and like family.

One of the events scheduled for us was to attend the Germanfest that is held in Milwukee every year. Here is a picture of me and Kay Langford at the Germanfest. Notice our t-shirts and buttons! They were made for our reunion. The buttons had our senior pictures on them, or pictures from other years that were in the yearbooks.

In Germany, we all lived in big apartment buildings. There were three different stairwells and four floors. We lived in the C stairwell. Two of the people at the reunion lived in the A stairwell of my building, Denise and Cheryl Brown. Here is a picture of them together at the Germanfest.

Denise Brown (75) and Cheryl Brown (72).

By the way, the numbers in parentheses are the graduating years for us! I hope you have enjoyed my brief review of the reunion. While I was posting, I had to stop and buy more google storage for pictures. I had let my larger coverage lapse, and it caught up with me!! Enjoy the rest of your day!!