Randall Petersen

Friends,

Jan Wilde has passed on.  You can view an obituary on the mortuary website at the following URL;

https://www.memorialutah.com/obituaries/jan-wilde

Randall Petersen

Robert J Quigley (Quigley)

Thanks Randall for letting us know. I have fond memories of Jan. She was one of the few members of "the gang" I hung with in High School.

Preston Miller

Thank you for the notice of our fellow classmates. I updated the "In Memory" page . 

Darlene Webster (Joneson)

So sad to hear.  I thought the world of Jan and have many happy memories of our times spent together.

Richard Smith

Neil Roberts

I am sad whenever another Cubbie passes on. Jan was truly a beautiful soul and will be genuinely missed by all who knew her. Where ever we may be today, we all have fond memories of those days at South long ago to cherish. 

Preston Miller

Speaking of fond memories of sweet people in our history..... I have spoken with several friends from South and we have agreed to each post a fond memory from our days and years at South High. Here is just one of mine.

I quickly recall being sooo frightened that I may not make the sophmore football team. I ran a mile or two each summer day and built a home made gym in my garage so I might be ready for the tests the coaches would put us through at tryouts. Anyone wanting to tryout also met and ran around Liberty Park as a "group " led by seniors to show we were ready for tryouts.

As we came to the South High practice fields with all the coaches  there and after days of running the "gauntlet" to prove our worthiness to make this team, I did something wrong and subsequently said a SWEAR word. Coach Sylvester heard my manly word and then said, "Miller run a lap"!  I was the type where a word like that wasn't in my vocabulary too often and he knew it. WHAT A LESSON FROM HIM TO ME. Honor as a person then athlete.

When we pause for a moment many memories come to mind from our time at South. May I invite you to pen a few thoghts for our classmates to smile about?  

Charlotte Warr (Andersen)

I remember the ramps at South High. They were much funner to use than stairs were. Lots of people would hang out on the landings.

Believe it or not I had one of the first pairs of platform shoes in the school. (They weren't flashy shoes but they did make me taller.) I was coming down one of the ramps and Mr. _______ (I'm ashamed to say I can't remember his name at the moment, but he was the AP History teacher.) was coming up. He actually had to stop and comment about how cool my shoes were. That was probably the first and only time I got a comment about my apparel from a teacher.

There's my lame offering for the moment.

Charlotte Warr (Andersen)

Dale Charlie Salazar

My favorite memory from South was half way through Junior year Dr. Bachman stopped me in the hall and asked me to come to his office.  The goofball I was made me wonder what sort of trouble I was in.

But instead he asked me to represent South speaking with Administrators at the District office about my experiences as an ethnic minority in the City Schools.

I was so honored that he would choose me for this opportunity.

As an aside, A JOKE ABOUT OUR RAMPS:  Why do they have ramps at South? Because kids there aren't smart enough to use stairs. (YUK)

RIP Jan

Charlotte Warr (Andersen)

Brent Barnum

Thanks for your memory, Chuck. Dr Backman was a class act and he seemed to care about every student.

I have so many fond memories from South High School. At risk of repeating myself, I am going to share my craziest one which was shared publicly at our last class reunion (in case some of you weren't there):

In March/April of our senior year, Ken Hollen and I were feeling bored one Saturday night, so we took off for a ride in his ('66 or '67?) Mustang up Parley's Canyon. We soon found ourselves in Evanston,Wyoming when we came up with the very teenage idea of just continuing our drive to see how far I-80 would take us. It was the trip of a lifetime as we picked up hitchhikers along the way and often would end up sleeping in their homes. But more often than not we slept in the car. We made stops in Scranton,PA; Brooklyn, NY; Stowe, VT (where my brother was a ski instructor); Boston, MA; Ft Monroe, VA (my uncle was the commanding General); and a small town in Georgia where we stayed with the parents of Ken's boss, the owner of the Yardstick fabric store (I know many of you shopped there). Our final layover was in Fountain, Colorado where we stayed with another uncle (ya gotta love family, right)? We were dead broke for most of the trip and we actually ended up coasting into SLC from the top of Parley's Summit, navigating every once of gas we had. 

We had been gone for 8 days and upon returning to school on that Monday morning, it didn't take long before I was called into Mr Blackhurst's office. He wasn't happy with my idea of what I characterized as "... the best week of education I had ever had." He suspended me for two days (do you get the irony of that edict)? 

On South High....

Brent Barnum

BTW, I have heard some GREAT stories over the years about so many of your experiences. Let's all share at least one with your classmates. Remember we are all in the 4th quarter of our lives and for some of us, there are only a few minutes left in the game. We can all use a laugh or an uplift from our common backgrounds!! Go Cubs!

Charlotte Warr (Andersen)

As Yearbook Editor, there were certain people who gave me minor headaches. But now I find them hilarious and they make my yearbook dearer to me.

If you look at the 2 pages that show A'Cappella there is a doppelganger. Since the group was so large it had to be shot in two sections. Jeff Chivers managed to get himself in both shots. He has a very "pleased with myself" expression in the one on the left.

Was Koji Hiranishi actually an office worker? I doubt it since he front and center with a cryptic smile in that photo.

In the photo of the soccer team there seems to be a group of three that don't belong. Preston Miller, Koji and Jeff are all front and center again, with no uniforms.

Do we think that Jeff and Koji were actual participants in the Philosophy Club? Jeff has a studious expression on his face. Koji is wearing sunglasses. In my yearbook, Koji has written philosopher on his chest in the photo.

Speaking of which, Koji has written all sorts of enigmatic notes throughout my yearbook, one of which says, "THANKS FOR THIS YOU CREEP" on his All-Region Wrestling photo. Did you not like the picture, Koji?

Then we have the silliness when Mike Vranes borrowed (snatched it away) the scarf I was wearing the day we were taking photos. You can see him wearing my scarf in his All-Region Football photo, the Junior Varsity Wrestling Squad (for some reason Preston is in the Varsity Squad photo) and, if you look on the Student Government page Mike and I are wearing the same scarf.

I hope you all still have your yearbooks. It is one of my cherished possessions.

Charlotte Warr (Andersen)

Charlotte Warr (Andersen)

Charlotte Warr (Andersen)

Paul Michelsen

Colleen Strand (Hansen)

Wow, those are some amazing memories. Thanks for sharing Charlotte! I wish my memory would serve me better from those days, but I do have an experience with Mr. Armont  Willardson, that I will never forget. I'm pretty sure it was junior choir and I think we always practiced songs for the current school musical that was being performed that year. That particular year I think it was the music man. Mr. Willadsen always made me so nervous because he liked to call people out of the choir seats to do impromptu renditions of songs and do it "solo" I had escaped this challenge for many months but one particular day, he called me down in front of everyone  to sing "Good night my someone"....I'm an alto and there was no way I was going to master a soprano song especially one done so well by Shirley Jones in the movie! I gave it my best shot and I remember Jan Wilde patting  me on the back afterwards and reassuringme that I wasn't a total flop. Jan was always good that way;)

Koji Hiranishi/Sato

Hello fellow Cubbies!! So its been so long that I been on this message forum that I had forgotton my password. Now that I am in, I want to explain some of the comments that Charlotte made. Ist I want to say she had to have incredible patience of anyone at South to take on the editor of the Yearbook. She did a great job inspite of some of us that made her probably wanting to resign after a little time on the job!! 2nd Yes I was actually a office worker, Can't remember who I had to paid off to get the job but all I know is I never was so popular when I had in my hands with Blackhurst signature on both Pink and Yellow slips that I could give or sell anyone that needed a excuse to be out of class (PInk Slips) or authorization to have missed a class (Yellow slips) 3rd. Yes Miller, Chivers and I were never on the soccer club (It was a club back then) But we always thought we could of made the soccer club since we were good at kicking each other when needed. I recall one day it was announced that pictures for the soccer club was to be taken after school. WE ran to where the pictures were being taken and of course not having a uniform decided to take our shirts off thinking that would officially make us an honorable team member!! As for the Philosophy Club. I am still not sure what the Philosophy club did every day but I could Philosophise??? with the best of them. And yes the sun glasses made it official! Sorry Charlotte for putting that  comment "Thanks for this one creep!! I don't remember why I would of wrote that except maybe the picture of me was at a bad angle?? (Which I felt most my pictures were at bad angles!  And yes we all remember Vranes  picture with the scarf, but never knew why he put it on or where he got it>>> now we know the rest of the story!!  Sounds like Mike!! 

Koji Hiranishi/Sato

I forgot I need to put down a memorable experience!! I do appreciate all of you who brought back some great memories so far... Everyone keep it up! So speaking of the ramps at South. How many remember the skit where Sonia Keys picked me up and body slammed me to the floor!? Ok you can stop laughing now!!!  Well most of you probably didn't know this but this was not only a skit but something like this really did happen between us!! It must of been like the first week of school and as always I was late for class and was running down the ramp going 50 miles an hour! (remember how dark and slippery it always was on the ramp) and ran into Sonia knocking her off her feet. Stupid me but I said something like sorry but you need to watch where your going?? And then something even stupider came out of my mouth like I know its hard to believe but said " I think the lights are out" because I really dindn't see you!! or something stupid like that How could you miss her?? But hen I saw how big she was and I could see that she was not a happy camper and grabbed me by my shirt collar and tossed me at least 20 yards down the ramp!! Anyway when someone suggested to do the skit scene based on that I was this highly big state wrestler and she would body slam me on this mat that was only 3 ft X 3ft wide and only 1 inch thick to begin with. She even mentioned several times giggling that she colldn't wait to do the skit and she reminded me if I remembered when I knocked her down on the ramp!! The whole time giggling again... Of course I told her a million times I was so sorry and I didn't mean anything when I said I couldn't see her coming down the ramp!?? Anyway she picked me up like a 10 lb sack of potatoes and body slam me and of course missed the mat which wouldn't of matter anyway It really knocked the wind out of me and I couldn't breath for at lease 5 minutes She could see I was in a lot of pain and kept saying I'm so sorry...The lights were so bad i didn't mean to miss the mat . Anyway we became good friends after that and always made a point to say hi to me and asked if i wanted to do the skit again!! Great Memory!! 

Charlotte Warr (Andersen)

Love it, Koji! Thanks for filling in more details. And don't worry about the comments. They make my yearbook a lot more fun.

I believe the skit you got body-slammed in was the yearbook skit. (You were a predessessor to AndyKaufman!) The yearbook skit was written by my staff and I. If I remember correctly it was a pretty lame skit. But then several of you took it off the rails, including Sonja and you. I was aghast at the time but now I venture that it's the one short skit from high school that everyone remembers.

For some reason there is no video I can find of Andy Kaufman doing this bit. you'll have to do with Jim Carey.

Bob (Buck) Post

And all this time I thought Mike was wearing an Ascot! I do believe he is the only one who could get away with it.

I have alot of great memories of our high school days. Mostly the lasting friendships we made and how cool everyone was. But I do remember some days not having time to get breakfast at home. The nice lady that ran the lunchroom made THE best sweet rolls in the morning and only charged us a nickel! They were always nice and warm with plenty of frosting. Anybody hungry yet? Hope all is well with everyone and that you all still sing On South High in the shower! 

Jeff Chivers

It's been fun reading everyone’s comments and reflections of great times we shared together at South. Brings back sooooo many memories. It's hard to believe that small, 3-year snippet of time at South had such a profound, lasting impact on our lives. Many of my fondest and most vivid memories are of those years; not to mention many of my closest, lifelong friendships having their roots at South - a real rarity in this world of superficial, fleeting relationships. 

I've often wondered what’s the "glue" or "secret sauce" that has held the South High Class of 1970 together these many years in contrast to other schools and classes whose relationships have all but withered and died. I attribute it to several things:  1) The fact that we all came from pretty much the same middle class "blue collar" background, mostly free from the "have / have not" cliques apparent at other valley high schools. 2)  A healthy mix of many races, cultures and ethnicities blending well together. That's not to say it was seamless or perfect, but generally we all seemed to get along exceptionally well.  And 3) key people from our class that have kept the spirit of our class alive over the years - Preston Miller's generosity in establishing and continuing to fund this "South High Class of '70" website enabling us to stay close and keep our relationships strong; Char Warr and Paul Michelsen's website contributions keeping us interested, informed and entertained; Tony Divino (and others too numerous to mention) for being a driving force behind the organization and success of our fabulous class reunions, kept fresh with the reunion videos posted on this site . . . plus the contributions of many other class members, also too numerous to list individually.  I believe you'd agree the rare success of the durability of our class in no accident, but the result of a tireless labor of dedication and love.

One more thing I wanted to mention that has been close to my heart over the years, the "In Memory" section of this website with names and photos of our class members who have passed on all-to-soon.  Take time to look at that page, reflect upon the friends no longer with us remembering their special contributions to our class and our lives. After all, we're all on the same bus, some of us not having arrived at our appointed stop quite yet . . .

(See Char, maybe I did belong in the “Philosopher’s Club” photo after all!!)

Charlotte Warr (Andersen)