Reunion Setup

The below images relate to setting up the banquet hall for the reunion. These photos are from Friday, Sept. 27th and Saturday, Sept. 28th.

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Reunion Setup
The below images relate to setting up the banquet hall for the reunion. These photos are from Friday, Sept. 27th and Saturday, Sept. 28th. If you click on most of the photos below, it will open up a larger version of that photo. Clicking that photo, will usually zoom in much closer. Also, there may have been some updates to this page. So refresh the page with CTRL-R key combination or click the refresh icon which is usually at the upper left of the screen.
(Friday, Sept. 27th, 11:17am) The set up of the Time Tunnel began Friday morning in the garage of my house. Classmates Dick Ostermeier and Brian Ballance came over to help load the Time Tunnel walls into a U-haul that Dick Ostermeier had rented.
The 8 x 5 x 5 foot U-haul was just the right size to hold the 23 walls. Most walls were hinged together in pairs. Sometimes there were three walls hinged together and therefore carried together. Fortunately, these extruded polystyrene walls were light weight but just bulky. We used the bed of Dick's truck to carry the lights, extension cords, tools, ladders, and other supplies.
I'm really glad Dick helped with the moving. With Brian and I being much taller, our backs would have been sore bending over to carry the walls into the U-haul. Even Dick had to do some uncomfortable leaning over to work inside of the U-haul trailer. And it was kind of hot in there too.
At this point, about a third of the walls have been loaded.
Here's a view of the some of the walls in the garage. I placed them in the garage about 3 days before the walls were to be transported to the Sheraton. I didn't want them in the garage too long because of the heat, but I needed them set up so that I could navigate around the front and back of them. Before being placed in the garage, they were scattered throughout my house, mostly leaning up against walls which prevented me from seeing both sides. My garage was too small for them to open up as wide as planned, but I was still able to add photos to both sides of the walls if I shifted their positions.
This is toward the back of the garage. I'm glad the walls were cut down to 7 feet instead of their original 8 feet otherwise setting them up in the garage would not have been possible.	$View of walls in back of garage\$
When we got to the Sheraton, Dick backed the U-haul into the loading dock area (see the red pickup and U-haul trailer). Then we carried the walls down to a loading dock adjacent to the banquet halls where the reunion was held (orange arrow). The weather was hot and humid at the time we were unloading the walls. So the photos and the walls were over a hundred degrees. The temperature inside of the banquet halls were starkly different at around 60 degrees. It felt good to us, but the wide temperature swing had a negative effect on the photos and walls. Remember, you can click on these photos to see the larger version. I'm impressed with the quality of Google map's aerial photos when you turn on the 3D feature.
Friday, 2:24 pm We started setting up the string of walls that were going to face towards where people would be sitting. The negative effect on the photos and walls was that the walls had shrunk more than the photos. So about half of the photos had large bubbles and wrinkles. Some were also falling off. I had brought spray glue and double-sided tape, and used those to reattach the photos to the walls. So that was a troubling development that I kept a close watch on. Classmates such as Mark Holmesley, Ron Rosenlof, Rick Coffman, Arlo Morrison, Rick Coffman, and others showed up to help set up the walls.
The diagram on the right shows the layout that needed to be followed. The walls were to be tied together to make three long walls. Two string of walls on the outside and one down the middle. The black lines in the diagram are the cultural walls (Movies, TV, Music) and the purple dashed lines were the walls with classmate photos.
2:44pm This photo shows all of the walls have been placed according to the diagram. On the right against the east room wall were the Time Tunnel walls that had the photos for cultural influence from 1965 through the 70s. The right side of the middle walls were dedicated to classmate photos from 1965 to the 70's. On the left side of the middle walls are classmate photos from the 80's to 2019. The left chain of walls had images for cultural influences on their right side (inside). The left (outside) of these walls had photos for faculty, veterans, 8th grade, and the memorial photos. At the top of the walls are wood strips that can be swung out so the lights can be attached to them. That's what I'm doing. Photo taken at 2:44pm, so it only took about half an hour to get the walls stood up and the hinges between them screwed on to make three long walls.
It was sometimes hard for my helpers to stay focused on the task at hand because there were so many photos that would grab your attention. Here's Rick Coffman checking out some of the classmate photos, including some he had given me.
Dick and Ron are assessing what needs to be done next. (Remember, you can click on most of these images to see a larger version. One way you can tell if the photo can be enlarged is your cursor will change from an arrow into a pointing hand when the cursor moves over the image. Use the back arrow at upper left of the computer screen to come back to this page.)
Dick, Ron, and Arlo love to build things. So they were having a good time assembling the Time Tunnel. To save time adding longer bolts to the tops of the wood clamps, one of these 3 guys (don't remember which one) had the brilliant idea of using one bolt to hold two of the light hangers. So they are moving the hanger from the inner bolt to the outer bolt. The inner bolt could then be attached to the white cross beams that would tie the tops of the opposing walls together.
This is the light diagram they needed to follow. It shows the light hangers as brown lines and the lights as white lines. About half of the light hangers were already attached to the walls, but several had to be added after the walls were set up. Also, the hangers had to be swung out to either 90 degrees or 60 degrees depending on whether the pair of walls were angled inward our outward. So it was a bit complicated.
Here is Rick Coffman on ladder getting ready to place some wing nuts on the bolts that hold the wood hangers for the light fixtures.
This is me hanging one of the 38 light fixtures. Fortunately, I had designed the light fixture to magnetically attach to the wood light hanger strips. So this part of the setup went pretty quickly.
Rick and Arlo are also hanging the light fixtures. The lights are LED strips enclosed in a plastic tube. There were only 20 watts each but put out a lot of light. I picked LEDs that were classified as "natural light" which means they had the color of an object heated to 4,000 degrees Kelvin, which is practically the same as 4,000 degrees Celsius, which is 7,200 degrees Fahrenheit. LEDs don't have to be heated to make light, but the old fashioned incandescent bulbs have to be glowing hot. Time is 4:33pm, so it's been about 2 hours since beginning the assembly of the Time Tunnel.
We also needed to install 6.5 foot white cross beams that linked one wall to the wall across from it. This added a lot of stability to the walls. I want to thank Dick Ostermeier for making those.
After we got the light fixtures up, we needed to connect them to power. This is the diagram I made for us to follow. The solid red lines are long extension cords. The long dotted redlines are 6 foot extension cords. The yellow curved dashed lines are cords with an on/off switch that go from extension cord to one end of the light fixture. The small dotted curved red lines are short jumper wires to get power from one light fixture to another. We ended up installing 38 light fixtures. At only 20 watts each, that only added up to 760 watts, which even just one outlet could easily supply the power. I felt this was one amazing fact about the Time Tunnel considering how many walls were getting lit up.
Here is Dick working on either replacing shorter bolts on top with longer ones or connecting power to the lights. Debbie Dorius was there a little earlier to add the vinyl title of "Land of the Free" to the veteran wall.
Mark Holmesley is on the ladder still hooking up power to the lights. A couple of the wifes (Laura and Terri) are checking out the photos on the walls. He apparently set down his camera to help with the assembly. (Time: 5:01pm)
Dick and Ron are still hooking up power cables to the lights. Mark is working from the other side of the wall. We can see that Debbie Dorius had put up the vinyl letterson the veteran walls saying "Land of the Free...Because of the Brave". I think the large vinyl lettering looked great on these walls. We can also see she needed to put up the vinyl lettering for the memorial walls, but she would do that the following day (Saturday and day of the reunion).
This shows a wide shot of the room and the Time Tunnel at the far end of the banquet hall. Ron, Dick, Rick, Arlo, Mark, and myself are still working on the Time Tunnel but almost finished.
Friday, 5:14pm The assembly of the walls are finished and Dick and Mark are now free to get a preview of the Time Tunnel photos. Assembly of the Time Tunnel finished on Friday at 5:14pm. So it took a little over 3 hours to put it together. Not bad for something the size of a small gallery. However, if the room had been booked for a lunch function on the day of the reunion, we would have needed to do this at 3pm on Saturday, and we would not have been finished at the time people arrived. So I'm relieved that the room was not reserved and we were able to get in on Friday afternoon.
Ron is now taking some time to look over the classmate photos from 2000 to 2009.
With the Time Tunnel up and operational, I was finally able to relax. It appears that Ron's wife, Terri, is also glad the Time Tunnel is up and ready so that Ron and she could go to the Friday get-together.
Here I took a photo of another view of the walls. I was quite pleased with how the whole Time Tunnel looked. This was the first time I was able to see it set up properly. I couldn't set it up at my house because there wasn't enough space. Even when setup in my garage it was scrunched together so much as not to be able to walk through it.
Meanwhile at Debbie Dorius' house, Kathy Norris and Chris Perry were working on the centerpiece decorations for the tables at the reunion. Tom Eggert was there to supervise and test Debbie's wine.
I thought they just bought the Pom-poms, but I can see from these photos they had to do a tremendous amount of work to make the pom-poms from scratch using tissue paper with Washington High colors.
These center decorations are diverse. We have 45 rpm records from songs from our high school days, a megaphone often used by cheerleaders, a basketball to represent our athletic teams, a Mardi Gras mask to symbolize the party atmospheres, and in the photo above, I see a horse. Not sure why a horse, but in the classmate photos since high school, you will see many classmates did ride horses. Not easily seen in this picture is the "Class of 69" cutout. Not yet added here but is seen in the above photo is the sparkly 50 sign in the shape of a star or heart. From photos taken during the reunion, you will see different variations of these center decorations. So zoom in on those centerpieces to see the interesting things they added. All in all, a lot of work was done to make these creative centerpieces for the tables.
Chris Perry found a second use for the pom-poms; use them as a wig. I thought this Cleopatra style hair looked good on her, so I went ahead and gave her a Cleopatra hairdo. Do you think she should come to the next reunion as Cleopatra or, at least, a cousin of Cleopatra?
Here Chris cornered me between a couple of the Time Tunnel walls to take my picture. I prefer to take the photos rather than being in the photos; however, I agreed with Chris; we needed to have a picture with me next to my newest creation. If I were to do the Time Tunnel again, I would probably have the walls as screens where the images would be projected onto the screens. One advantage would be the images could turn into video clips with sound. So that would add a couple more dimensions to the walls.
I really like this shot that Chris took of one of the tunnels of the Time Tunnel. The symmetry and angles are well defined. Even the circles in the carpet seem to compliment the sharp angles of the tunnel.
I was glad to see that Chris took photos of the signs I placed at the entrance and exit of the Time Tunnel.
Saturday, 9:34am Kathy Whittaker (Winters) and Mark's wife, Laura, are starting on the wrapping of prizes for reunion trivia contests. In the foreground is a box of candy labeled "1951". Mark Holmesley picked that up as a trivia prize. It has candy of the kind made in 1951, the year when most of us were born.
Kathy appears to working on the prizes that will be given out at the reunion.
Saturday, 9:54am Tom Eggert checks out the senior panoramic photo hanging with the 8th Grade graduation photos.
9:55am Table decorations are being assembled and placed on the tables. Dick built the record stands. Kathy Norris and Chris Perry put them together. I think Patty Sweeney, Ron and Kathy Kohl also helped.
9:56am Kathy Whittaker is taking a break to look at some of the Time Tunnel walls.
10:11am Sara Myers and Gary Wynn get a photo taken in front of a Time Tunnel wall.
10:15am Patty Sweeney and Kathy Norris are getting the vintage candy ready to be placed on the vintage candy table.
10:22am Kathy and Ron Kohl plus Kathy Norris are setting up the table decorations.
10:36am. Chris Perry parks her beloved '69 Firebird near the entrance to the Sheraton lobby. A sign was placed on it so that classmates would know it was part of the 50th Reunion decorations. At this point, Mark Holmesley who had taken most of the photos shown above, needed to leave and go to Washington High School to take photos for the tour that was offered to the Class of '69. Those photos are found in the WHS Tour section of these web pages.
Here's a photo that Chris took of her low flying Firebird. The car truly is a classic with a great looking profile. And fast too. It's 4 speed manual shift with a 350 cubic inch engine. In her senior year at Washington High, she try to get her father to by her a new 1969 Firebird, but that didn't happen. Fortunately, in 1972 she found one on a used car lot located on a chicken farm (a weird combination but it was in Buckeye). It only cost $1400, and she's been in love with the car ever since.
Time: 1:31pm Mark is back at the Sheraton taking more photos. Gary Wynn, Kristen Hauser, and David Moreland are getting the gift bags ready to be handed out to those attending the reunion.
(Saturday, 1:32pm) Debbie Dorius and Dick Ostermeier are putting up the vinyl lettering on the memorial walls. Debbie said these new vinyl letters weren't nearly as easy to work with as previous ones she bought. I think I even heard a few cuss words coming from her direction. She really wanted the veteran and memorial walls to look good, and she really put in the effort so that they did turn out nice.
2:22pm The vintage candy table looks great. I believe it was Debbie Dorius, Kristen Hauser, and Patty Sweeney who set up the table. We should also thank many of the reunion committee members for tracking down and purchasing all of this candy that we knew as kids. Be sure to click on the picture to load up the full size version of this photo. Then click on that again to get even a more close-up view. You'll be able to read the labels on most of the candies. I think the candy cigarettes are the funniest. Mark is using a Nikon D7100 camera that takes 24 megabyte photos. 24 megabytes would require 12 computer screens to show all of the pixels of just one of these photos. Also, note the photo on the right is 34 times smaller than the original photo.
Here's the right end of the vintage candy table. Again, click on the photo to load up the large version so you can check out the candy on this end of the table.
2:23pm I'm not sure who this is (David Moreland, perhaps), but he is putting up the vinyl letters for the right wall of the two memorial walls. Debbie and Dick had done the left wall earlier in the afternoon.
Betsy and Debbie Dorius are double-checking the gift bags. Betsy was a little under the weather, but she was determined to get things done right.
Annelle Cook and Melvin Schlink are working on the memorabilia table. Be sure to click on this photo to load up the high resolution version. Click on that image to cause it to go to maximum size. That way you can read more of the writing on the memorabilia items.
2:30pm. The word "Memory" is still being put up on the memorial wall. If you click on this photo to load up the high resolution photo and click again, you will see Betsy on the phone. Behind her is Rick's wife, Cheryl. Then to the right is Ron Rosenlof talking to Mark's wife, Laura. On the far right is Kristen Hauser and Chris Perry working on the gift bags. The table decorations seem to be completed, but the tables still need to be set.
Along the back wall, we can see reunion committee members still working. On the left is Kathy Norris, Patty Sweeney, and Dick Ostermeier working on the vintage candy table, or perhaps they're just sneaking a bite of some candy. On the right is Annelle Cook and Melvin Schlink still working on the memorabilia table. 2:31pm At this point, it seems Mark Holmesley has left to get himself ready for the reunion because there are no more photos taken by him until 5pm.
5:02pm It appears that the DJ "Big A" has arrived and is getting ready to provide the music for the reunion. I remember when "Big A"who is about 6 feet 5 inches tall took a walk through the Time Tunnel, he was a little worried he might bump his head on the light brackets or cross beams. However, the 7 foot Time Tunnel walls gave plenty of clearance for him to walk under their light fixtures.
5:02pm The Sheraton staff are now setting the tables with silverware, napkins, tea, and water. This concludes the reunion setup photos. Mark started to take photos of classmate arriving and checking in. Click the below link to jump back to the home page of the 50th Reunion Web site. From that screen you can find the link to go to the Checking-in photos. 50th Reunion home page.