Nancy Albright's memories

As many of you already know, Pat & I became friends in the seventh grade. We were at Pacific Beach Junior High School, (which I think of as the beach area melting pot), where Pat, Vonnie Varner, Carole Ann Smith & Cindy Meyers had come after going through Crown Point Elementary School. And, Martha Carnes & I had come from Mission Beach Elementary. We met in classes we had together, and were soon inviting each other to birthday slumber parties. After one or two of these get togethers, we did what kids did in our day. We formed a club, which we called The Round Robin Club. We even got matching turquoise blue checked gingham blouses, which we all wore to school on agreed upon days.

For the next six years we had frequent, sometimes monthly, birthday & slumber parties, at each others' homes. When all six of us had hosted a gathering, we started all over, round robin style! Pat's father, Mr. Sain, just happened to be our counselor all three years at P.B., as well as our ninth grade typing teacher. My fondest memories of our slumber parties, at Pat’s house, was our school counselor, Mr. Sain, having to come out to the living room, in his striped pajamas (but only about three times a night between 12 & 3 AM!) &, in his very gentleman like way, try to get us to stop giggling & talking, & just go to sleep!

All six of us girls had, somehow, learned to swing dance, so by ninth grade the dance parties began including a group of boys who could also do the jitterbug (like Ronnie Morton, Jerry Dinsmore, Frank Schiefer, Nelson Brav, & others, as the group grew.) These gatherings sometimes had themes like sock hops and taffy pulls, especially when they were at Pat’s house. And the music was played on 45 rpm records, on record players. No cassette tapes, CD’s, dvd's or color TV's yet existed. (Some of us had only just gotten a small, black and white TV in our homes!)

In the spring of our senior year, Pat was having one of these parties, & my now husband of 46 years, Gaylord, had just asked me out on our first date. When I told Pat, she said, “Just bring him to my party instead of going to the movies.” So I did, and our first date was at Pat’s home!

What I didn’t know, at that time, was just how intertwined Pat’s & Gaylord’s lives had been since kindergarten. Gaylord had also gone to Crown Pt. School, one year ahead of Pat, Vonnie, Carole & Cindy. Pat & Gaylord grew up living less than two blocks from each other. They had been in chorus & madrigals, together, from seventh through twelfth grades. They had performed year after year in the P.B. Kiwanis Club Shows, plus many other assemblies, & community shows, while I had just gotten acquainted with him at the Kiwanis Club show rehearsals that spring, where my dance studio group had also performed. So, as Pat has said in recent years, “We are like family!”

Throughout junior & senior high, Pat was a star & a leader in GAA (Girls’ Athletic Assoc.). Interscholastic sports for girls did not yet exist. She was also a leader in the school choruses as well as in the prestigious Deltas, at Mission Bay High. This was a hand chosen, honorary, girls’ service club.

After graduation from Mission Bay High, the six of us girls continued our Round Robin Club at least four more years, with a letter continuously making it’s rounds between us from Colorado, where Pat was in college, to back east where Cindy was going to college, to various parts of S. California where the other four of us were.

Then, throughout the last 49 years, we were always on the class reunion committee, helping to plan our MBHS ’58 reunions every five years. Pat had control of our class bank account all these many years. She was very protective of our funds, desiring to use them for the class of ’58 reunions, only. Thanks to her, we have over $5,000 saved up for our 50th. Pat continued active on the reunion committee right up to our most recent meeting this past July, where we mapped out the plan for our 50th reunion coming up in October, 2008. We have an unusually close high school class that already misses Pat very, very much.

About 15 years ago, Pat and I started meeting for breakfast once a month, so that we could stay in close touch, & keep abreast of each others’ lives. We, sometimes invited a few others to join us, like Phill Hansen, Vonnie, or Carole, when they were available. Then it, somehow, became a monthly ”class of ’58 breakfast”. And, eventually an “all ‘50’s classes gathering!” During these years, Pat’s grand daughter, Allison, lived next door to her. It was amazing, over the years, to watch Allison develop the same hobbies as Pat. She became a top notch stitcher and scrap booker. A few years ago, Pat mentioned that she was taking her daughter in law, Renee, and her grand children to Disneyland. I asked her if I could tag along, as I dearly love the Magic Kingdom. I am not sure if I went as Pat’s friend or Allison’s. I rode every ride, at least once, with Allison, and had a great time with them.

In recent years, just before I moved to Hawaii, Pat attempted to get Judi Michael, Vonnie & me into scrapbooking. For almost two years we met regularly in her awesome, in-home craft room (which, by the way, Gaylord & his dad built when Pat & Alans’ kids were very young). Pat was very organized. And, she was doing family scrapbooks like crazy. So, she would teach us some techniques of doing great scrapbook pages. Then, the rest of us would never quite get around to actually scrap booking, because we just had so much catching up to do! So, our “scrapbooking mornings” became quite a joke with our families!

Pat always had a very simple, efficient way of functioning. E.g. in high school, we girls all wore skirts with multi layer crinoline petticoats, which we stood up on top of the P.E. locker banks, because they sure wouldn’t fit in those little lockers! I don’t know how she did it, but while the rest of us were just getting our skirts & petticoats off, Pat would be all suited up, locker locked, and outside waiting for us! She could never be bothered with extra stuff like jewelry & a big variety of clothes. She had a way of keeping those parts of life simple so she had more time for what was really important to her. I have often thought that if Pat had been in the corporate world, she would have been “a top notch efficiency expert with a home spun touch.” She would have pared down everything in the company to it’s simplest, most efficient way of operating. But the conference room table would have one of her hand made quilts in the center. And the office chairs would all have needlework on their backs.