Alumni banquet includes delicious dining, avid visiting and touching memorials

While strolling, I wondered whatever happened to Carl Roberts.

Happy birthday to Jeremy Perry, Pete Dooley, Harley Ressel, Caitlin Cannon, John Nation, Erica Powers, Betsy Jester, Nancy Pruett, Gilbert Eichhorn, Chris Cannon, Gail Shy, Jimmie Haney, Joan Seabaugh, Jamie Dumey, Nick Lambrou, Tori Burton, Carolyn Mills, Harvey Wolfe, Katherine Reischman, Genni Ourth, Clara Gramlisch, Wayne McAlister, Gayliene Glency, Blake Senciboy, David Halter, David Schaefer, Jerry Beck, Jane Cook, Billy Phillips and Alex Bader.

Happy anniversary to Andrew and Lisa Stagoski, Randall and Sandra Hibdon, Harvey and Avis-Jean Wolfe, Blaine and Morgan Swinford, Bill and Mary Ann Hagan on their 55th, Jim and Rhonda Emerson, Marcus and Virginia Seyer, Andy and Jodi Palisch, Danny and Gail Walter and Hank and Eva Golightly, who are celebrating 69 years of marriage.

October is a blissful month with the changing colors and cooling temperatures. It's a wonderful time to complete outdoor projects and take a hike through the woods.

The Chamber of Commerce Residence of the Month is the home of Marie Elfrink at 425 Cook St.

City Hall reminds landlords to inform your tenants that trash cans are not to be left out all week.

Taxing telephone calls

A little unfinished business after a few of you inquired about the calls I received on my Chaffee landline from the IRS, threatening a lawsuit for unpaid taxes. Just so you know, the caller ID came through as "out of area 1" and the recorded message requested a callback to 509 area code. Obviously, do not answer these hoax calls, much less return them.

A great evening

Those of you who skipped this year's Chaffee High School Alumni Banquet really missed a great evening. The food by Two Chefs Catering was delicious, and best of all was visiting with friends and former classmates, some of whom many of us had not seen in years! There were 273 reservations from alumni, with 249 attending. Laura (Chambers) Dement traveled the farthest, 1,155 miles, from Florida City, Florida. There were alumni from 1940, Mary Bell (Alsobrook) Verble, to 1995, Angela Hester Sadler.

It was the first time there has been representation from every decade, from the 1940s through the 1990s. Introduced were 2014-15 scholarship recipients Chelsey Whitlow and Brody Swinford.

We had the added pleasure of seeing former teachers Richard Kiehne and his wife, Beverly; Barbara Lorberg and her husband; and JF Dopp and guest.

Our thanks to Tom Davenport, Darlene (Long) Crocker and everyone who contributed to making this another successful event. A special thank you to Rick and Tenae (Hampton) Choate, who took this event into the social media realm. A special thank you also to Jim Bob Stephens, who creates the class-by-class directory of those responding. This year he asterisked those respondents who could not attend. We also thank Tommy Gibbons for leading us in the singing of "O' Chaffee High" -- the guy still has it!

The Class of 1965 celebrated its 50th. During the remembrance portion, it was announced that a $500 anonymous donation had been made to the scholarship fund in memory of Ronnie Gene Dobbs, Class of 1965, who lost his life in Vietnam. There were also significant memorial gifts given in memory of Betty (Burnett) Dooley Mirly and Linda (Jones) Dowd, who are sorely missed. Both were founding members of the CHS Alumni Association and the Chaffee Historical Society, and Linda was secretary of the association when she passed.

Mark the calendar

The CHS Alumni Banquet is always the second weekend of October -- mark your 2016 calendars!

My sister, Carolyn, and her husband, Bill, of Dothan, Alabama, attend every year, and it is the only time Richard and I get to visit with them. I did catch up with former boyfriends and/or crushes of my two other sisters -- all of good looks that can still turn heads.

Yuletide trip

I took Carolyn to the Yule Log Cabin in Commerce for her first visit. Not certain which impressed her more -- the selection of beautiful Christmas ornaments or the drive through the woods to the cabin.

Special words

Remember to tell those special people in your life that you love them -- those three words mean so very much.

Our sincere condolences go out to the family and friends of Ruth Sullivan.

Our thoughts and prayers are with those who are missing loved ones, our homebound, those in hospitals and nursing homes and those undergoing cancer treatments.

Email your news and comments to darbuck2@airmail.net or leave a message at (573) 887-6430 or (214) 207-7839.

And then ...

Then there was the stellar 2015 CHS Alumni Banquet.