Jim Ned '87, '88, '89 combined 20 Year Reunion

Read below to see how British Ski Jumper "Eddie The Eagle" figures in to the Jim Ned High School 20 year reunion. The world held its breath as Eddie the Eagle competed not for a medal but simply to land upright in his competition. He had only trial runs on a grass ramp prior to his efforts on real ice at the 1988 Winter olympics. The applause he received was greater than for the actual gold medal winner's jump. For one Jim Ned Class -- and one class member in particular -- he was the stuff of legend.Julie and I pictured with our friends Jon and Schel Hoebelheinrich at my Jim Ned High School reunion. Jon "Hobie" Hoebelheinrich was a classmate of mine. He is one of the few that I keep regular contact with.

Julie allowed me to drag her along to my 20th highschool reunion (19th actually). I had a great time and of course Julie was gracious throughout the evening. I was certainly proud to show off my pretty wife. As far as seeing people for the first time in 20 years, fortunately we had a website set up to post current pictures prior to the reunion that allowed the shock value to dissipate ahead of time in regard to how much people had changed.

This is my older brother Todd on the far left ('87) and Daniel Kollberg ('88). Daniel was an exchange student from Sweden. He currently lives in Denmark but made the trip to see the rest of the old crowd. Some of my favorite memories involve Daniel. Some of them had "international incident" written all over them. One memory was when I held the football while he kicked an extra point for the only score in Jim Ned sports by an exchange student. Another was the locally renound rabbit hunt (rabbit annihilation).
Scott Boeshart and I go way back. I had no clue who he was at the reunion because when we graduated we were both about the same height and both weighed about 135 pounds soaking wet. I told him that I would have to stare at him for 10 minutes just to begin to see my old buddy. He thought it was hilarious.
Here is the group that showed up from our particular class out of the original 50 students in my small town class of '89. I hadn't seen or heard from my childhood friend on the far left, Michael "Gibbie" Gibson, for 20 years. He was a sea captain on a sailboat taking tourists to Caribbean islands. He said he likes Jimmy Buffett songs just like anyone else but 24/7 of listening to "Cheeseburgers in Paradise" can get old.

The guy third from the left, Scott Cantrell, with the glasses was a good friend back in school. We nicknamed him "Eddie the Eagle" after the winter olympics ski jumper from England. The two of them could have been "separated at birth". SEE ABOVE

Bart (tall guy to my left) was born on the same day at the same hospital as I was and never missed a day of school -- his claim to local fame. Since he had a name like Bart -- he required no nickname. The guy on the far right is Michael "Whitey" Whitehurst. I just like saying "Whitey" Whitehurst.

That is Jon again on the far left and standing next to him is Melissa "Moe" Martindale. My chromed out 1983 Black Chevy pickup was the truck to have "back in the day". Moe and I used to turn off the headlights to her brown car and my black truck after basketball games. We would race our vehicles in the dark back to Lawn where our parents lived. Stacey "Pumper" Lawless, standing next to me, and my brother dated for a short and traumatic period of time. It ended abruptly when they found out they are kin to each other. My grandmother was attending a relative's 50th wedding anniversary when it was discovered that same relative was Stacey's grandmother. Our grandmothers were 1st cousins after all. I enjoyed rubbing that one in for a while. You can tell Todd is standing to the back and on the other side of me. Clay "CT" Shott and I wonder if Todd is having bad flashbacks to 3rd grade dodgeball or his dating history. By the way, that would explain why I didn't date in highschool and found a girl to marry who was from Albuquerque. Todd ended up finding one from Michigan.

Thinking that in today's world I surround myself with people that have almost everything in common such as church, or work, or family. It was quite the trip to hang out with old classmates that have only one thing in common and that was attending school together 20 years ago. It was fun.