Shirley Alexander

Carol, LaDean and I used to pal around with Shirley Alexander. It seems like she just popped right out of the woodwork. Shirley was tiny, cute and fun. The first time I went to her house, her mother sent her a few blocks to a dress store to pick out a dress for a party. My Mom always made my clothes and I had never just gone into a store to buy a dress. This was like a fairy story to me. I thought it was a beautiful dress and she was the lovely princess who got the “store bought” dress. She was an only child and yet she wasn’t spoiled – that made her special. (She showed up at our reunion 35 years after high school graduation married to her sweetie Kurt and she was wearing her High School sweater…sheesh!)
We supported the boys in their sports. During softball season we’d help them warm-up and hope for a forfeit, so we could just have a big free-for-all game. We’d form boy-girl teams and everybody would play.

We’d scream and yell during basketball. One year we formed a cheerleading squad; Shirley, Carol, Nan and I. Mom helped us make little green skirts and vests that matched, and we made little green pom poms to put on our tennis shoes. We practiced and practiced our cheers. We had a great time at the games, but we never had a very big audience. One night, to our utter delight, we had a huge turnout. We were so pleased that at first we hadn’t realized why everyone was waiting outside the gym. Wouldn’t you know? The biggest turnout ever and they never got the gym unlocked!

Carol Egan Starr

I don’t remember when I met Carol Egan; she just appeared in my life. We spent a lot of time together (and I get to see her often now since I’ve moved back to CA, 45+ years later). Carol was perky and zesty, full of fun and always egging me on to do things she wouldn’t do herself. “Come on, Connie, you can do it!” We never got into trouble, and had tons of fun. She had the prettiest hair, always combed flawlessly and usually topped with an adorable little bow. She always looked perfect! I thought her Dad looked like a handsome movie star, and secretly wondered if he really was Carl Betz. I thought it was so neat that her Mother made up tuna salad for sandwiches and kept it in a jar in the fridge (at our house if you opened a can of tuna, it was gone before it could be stored in the fridge).

I liked to sleep at Carol’s house. It was so much quieter than my house. One night we were at her home alone and the rain was pouring off the tin roof that covered their porch, making a lot of spooky noise. I had never worked an Ouija board before and Carol had one so we fooled around with it a little. We thought the idea of it was silly, but we’d ask it questions anyway and surprisingly it would answer with things that shocked us because they were usually true.
We asked it a question about Tim Kelley, Carol’s boyfriend at the time, and the board kept giving us the number 7. We couldn’t figure out what it was “saying” until we counted down the ever-present stack of 45 rpm records, and number 7 in the stack was “their song.” It shocked us so much, we put the crazy board away, and to this day, I’ve never touched another one. We’ve been told by Church Authorities that evil spirits power them and I just never wanted to invite them into my life, so I just let well enough alone.

Carol and I loved to switch clothes, as all girls do. My favorite outfit of Carol’s was her green and blue plaid skirt with her green mohair sweater. I felt so special when I wore that outfit. I’m not sure which clothes Carol borrowed because I don’t think I had much that was worth borrowing, but we did switch clothes a lot. Our Mothers were always asking us where some piece of clothing or another was, and we usually answered, “Oh, Carol (or Nanette) has it.”

One day while we were at Olive Vista Jr. High School, after days of heavy rains, they closed the school. Carol, Nanette and I walked home and rolled our wet hair in curlers, put on scarves, tied at the back of our necks and walked to San Fernando. (We’d roll our hair in curlers whenever we wanted anyone who might see us to think we had “hot” dates that night, necessitating curly hair.) We not only “walked,” we nearly drifted. The rains had been so bad for so long, the streets were caving in and the intersections were flooded. We nearly joined the rushing water downstream at a couple of intersections because the water was speeding so fast even a Volkswagen floated past on Astoria Street. Yet, here we were, kicking and splashing barefoot in our cutoffs in the rushing water along the curbs. We had no idea how much danger we were in, it was just fun! Thank goodness our parents were clueless!
When we got home from walking around “downtown” we called all our friends and had a party at someone’s house, probably mine.
We always had parties. One church leader or parent would let us use their house for the gang to gather almost every weekend and it created a bond between our group that has never diminished.
We spent almost every weekend at one or another’s house through 11th grade. Carol came over to my house after Seminary and after a breakfast of pancakes, we’d walk to Sylmar High School every day. I don’t remember being anywhere without Carol during all those years; parties, school, waterskiing at the lakes, girl’s camp, every church function, fundraisers, Bob’s Big Boy, and most of all the beach. We practically lived at the beach!

Carol was always falling in and out of love with boys; that is, until she met Tex Starr. Once she met Tex that was it for her. She was smitten! During our senior year in high school, she showed up at one of our parties with a ring on her finger, and I felt so happy for her. She married Tex and has lots of kids and grandkids. She’s fighting cancer now, and if our prayers work, she’ll be with us a long time. We still get together with the “Sylmar Gang” once a year and act like the silly girls we were in school.

**Carol says we met in 8th grade, at a church dance, when she was 13 and attending Olive Vista Jr. High School.

Carol died August 6, 2009...Boy! I'm gonna miss her!!!

LaDean Andersen Shaftoe

I had a lot of fun with my girlfriends. I met LaDean Andersen (Shaftoe) at Dyer Street Elementary School and we hit it off right away. I used to go to her house a lot on Sundays and eat her mother’s delicious BBQ with her family. I loved being around her sisters, who were all so pretty and nice (most of the time…siblings, you know!) and had the most beautiful voices. All the sisters would sing at church once in a while; beautiful!

I remember being at camp with LaDean one summer and we both got sick, so we went home. We miraculously got well and went to Pacific Ocean Park with my family the next day.


I had a dream while sleeping over at her house once. I dreamed I was married and I looked into the bedroom of my children. Inside were two sets of bunk beds. I knew they were for four little boys because they were wooden with wagon wheels on the headboards and footboards. I knew from that moment on I was going to have four boys. I just think God forgot to mention there would also be three girls in the picture!

LaDean and I sometimes tried to wear matching outfits and loved to borrow each other’s clothes. She had her boy problems, namely one Melvin Davis, who thought the world revolved around her and we thought of a million ways to discourage him, but none of them worked. It was always fun to strategize, hoping some trick or other would work to convince Melvin to discontinue their “relationship.” She actually had a crush on another boy in our group and dated him a little, but as with all teenage romances, it faded eventually…I think it might have been because she moved.

I really missed LaDean when she moved. I visited her in Tustin, CA once, but it was a little too far to keep going back. I caught up on news with her in Oklahoma, Houston, TX and she came to San Antonio with her sisters to visit me once. I am so glad I haven’t lost her. Too bad we just can’t keep up as much as we’d like. I do keep in touch with her thanks to the wonderful invention of e-mail!

She married Bob Shaftoe and has a handful of beautiful children and grandchildren.

The First Sylmar Gang Reunion 1997

The First Sylmar Gang Reunion
July 1997

Our first stop on the 1997 reunion "quest" was to visit Danni Waddell in Hurricane, Utah. He’d had an accident, was paralyzed from the chest down, and couldn’t attend the reunion, so we needed to go see him. `Since we'd been in Las Vegas for three days, Cousin Nanette (Sawyer) Fullen was driving my car and amazingly got us safely all the way past Danni's house and then promptly attempted to kill us when she undertook to make a U-turn right in front of a truck going about 100 miles an hour! After daughter Kelly and I let out blood-curdling screams, and Nanette jerked the car back out of the range of the truck, she made a much safer U-turn and we pulled into Danni's yard. His wife, Laurie, met us with hugs and took us inside. From the front door, I saw my Big Brother from across the room and rushed over for a big hug! He looked just like our Danni, only older, and in much better shape than I expected. He was glad to see us. We stayed for a nice visit and he promised to look up some pictures he has and send them to me. Then it was time to head to Nanette's house in Pleasant Grove, UT.

I was a little afraid to let Nanette drive my car again, but I hated the thought of her throwing up in the car even worse. So we headed for Pleasant Grove. We got to her home just in time to take part in the young people in her ward's fun evening at a karaoke place, The Wild Burro. I almost dropped my chin on the floor when Russ got up on the stage and went to town! He was competing with sweet young things called Brie, Shay, and Tava and holding his own! (This wasn't the Russ Fullen I remembered back in 1965, but it was fun seeing the change in him and I could tell that Nanette had had absolutely no control over him all these years.)

The next day, Thursday, we took off for the airport where we parked and ran in to meet Steve and Rita Hobbs. We were a little late and Steve was leaning back against the seats, but we recognized him immediately (quieter than I remembered, but very nice looking with his white beard). Hugs were in order. We met Rita (and later got to love her dearly) and then had to run back and find out where we were supposed to meet Carol (Egan) and Tex Starr. We were haulin'...and rushed up to the gate, late again, and found out we had to wait another hour. When they arrived with their son, Mike, we all hugged again and took off for the car (Carol looked exactly the same and Tex was the same Tex - minus the hair). As we got to the top of the escalators, we saw some people that looked familiar. Tex immediately recognized our old Bishop and Sister Spendlove. At first Bishop Spendlove just kept looking around like he was wondering why he was seeing Tex Starr, and an Egan, and a Sawyer, and a Fullen, and a Kemsley, and a Hobbs... we were all hugging and saying how weird this was, but how neat, too. I was so shocked I forgot to get pictures.

When we got back to Nanette and Russ' house, we all started sharing stories. In a little while Shirley Alexander and her husband, Kurt (so quiet, so nice), arrived (Shirley still fit in her senior sweater, of course. She's as cute and petite as ever. And bubbly? She can out bubble bubbles!)
First through the door was Dave Fort (seeming quiet and reserved...no gray hair!) and his wife Lila (what a nice person) and two of their daughters and everybody knew him immediately, and a little later, Dan Towsey (somebody took the leash off him and he became Wildman... but left some hair behind) and his wife Pat (so cute!) made their appearance and added to the merriment in the room. Russ came home from work, and the gang was complete for the evening. We had a great night just gabbing and sharing pictures and stories. It was comforting to see that at one point or another EVERY person in the group had to put on glasses of one form or another. Floyd Kitchen called and said he'd be there on Saturday. We finally agreed on what we'd do the next day and everybody headed to their respective hotels and beds.

Friday morning my sister Miki (Kemsley) Thomas (looking prettier than ever), Carla Rae (Fillmore - cute as a bug!) and Cindy (Sorenson - she hadn't changed a wink in ALL those years!) and her husband, Chuck (what a wonderful sport), were the first to show up. After screams and an exchange of pictures, Kris Christiansen (as good looking as ever and fit ... hubba hubba!) and his wife Carolyn (Fort - so pretty and young looking) showed up. Shirley tackled Kris and we all jumped in for more hugs. When Tex, Carol, Shirley and Kurt finally showed up at the house we all left for Thanksgiving Point to have lunch and wander around the gardens and gift shop. Every time this group even slowed down, we'd find a place to sit and share stories again, and again. We'll probably never forget the famous "Shrunken Zucchini" comment no matter how hard we try. When we ended up in the gift shop, of course, Dave Fort found a spider. We all thought he'd changed over the years, sort of mellowed, you know... but he hadn't. He still had to have a bug in his proximity.

We all decided to go to the park for the fireworks and ordered pizza! Nanette's brothers and their wives showed up for a fun time. Believe it or not, Dave Fort found a snake. Sheesh. It was a nice fireworks show and when it was over Nanette lit the candles on my birthday cake and everybody sang "Happy Birthday" to me. All of a sudden we noticed that the whole park was singing "Happy Birthday"... I'm sure they thought we were singing it to America, not me...and I wonder what those children who were singing this year will think when they don't sing it next year? Or maybe we started a tradition.

Floyd (looking trim and a little tuff..) showed up early in the morning and everybody was sharing hugs again. Shirley and Kurt had to leave so we decided to get the "group pics" while we had most of us there. As soon as we'd posed with most of the group, Kris and Carolyn showed up and we started all over again.

We'd decided to meet in the morning and go on a breakfast picnic in American Fork Canyon, but by the time we all got there it turned out to be a luncheon of breakfast foods. But we didn't care. We were sitting again, and that meant talking. We ended up at Golden Corral for dinner and more gabbing. And then everybody got spiffed up for the dance of the century!

We grabbed the karaoke machine and headed to the church. Steve McAdam (looking as suave as ever!) and his wife Donna (so beautiful!) showed up and everybody got out the hugs once again. Carla Rae's husband, Brian (a fun guy), came, too, and that made the group as complete as it got. Dan Towsey showed up without his inhibitions or his shoes and gave us all a bunch of colossal laughs.

First dance of the evening was shared by Carol and Steve Hobbs as she strolled across the dance floor to ask him to dance. Thirty-five years earlier he'd sadly disappointed Carol with a "No"...but this time he said "Yes"...and we were all relieved that she wouldn't have to kill him. The first "real" dance of the evening was, of course, Louie Louie... and no, children, we were NOT learning to line-dance. We INVENTED it!!! Everybody went crazy while going down the line... what fun to see Dave, Dan, Tex and Russ let loose! And the spouses were right in there with us.

Then it was time for karaoke. The guys started it off with "Wild Thing" and the girls topped 'em with "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?" Then everybody got wild and sang everything we could feed into the machine and then some. We had some super laughs! And more dancing, another Louie Louie, and a lot of talk, talk, talk, made it a wonderful evening.

Forts were the first to leave, but one-by-one, as each of the others had to leave, the party thinned out and a lot of hugging and a few tears were shared. We all decided we have to do this again next year.

The next day, Nanette, Russ, Steve, Rita and I went to church together (Well, I got lost and Russ had to come look for me, so he missed most of the meeting)... but it was a wonderful feeling after all those years to be in church together and a pleasant way to end the reunion for those of us "left-over." (Did I fail to mention that Nanette had NOT changed one iota? In perfect shape for an old lady.)

Until next year…

Sandee Kaul

Sandee Kaul and I were linked from the first day I met her with a bond stronger than most people ever achieve…alphabetically! I sat behind Sandee in every class we had together from first grade through high school. You just can’t break a bond like that. I remember her on the first day of first grade a the new Dyer Street Elementary School, in Ms. Whitford’s room (She told us to remember her as a White Ford…and I still do!), sharing the wooden blocks.

I envied Sandee; she seemed to have a perfect life. She only had to put up with one younger brother; I had two. Her nice mother worked for a movie studio and Sandee got to go to Hollywood premiers that I knew only important and lucky people got to go to; my mother was gorgeous and always had men flirting with her, which was fun sometimes, but embarrassing others. Sandee had a housekeeper, Mrs. Smith, who kept Sandee’s clothes and house clean; we had to clean our own rooms and the house. Sandee had a pair of black velvet oxfords and the cutest clothes; my mom made my clothes most of my life and I remember putting cardboard milk carton squares over the holes inside my shoes. She had the greatest birthday parties each year with Walt Disney movies and an ice cream cake, generously sending each of us home with a gift; I hardly had a birthday party because everybody was with their own families, so we ended up at the park to watch fireworks after a day in our pool.

Sandee had real baby clothes for her baby doll. I had my own baby doll, but Mom made the clothes for my doll and they usually matched a dress she had made for me. I never appreciated that amazing gift. I thought it was special that Sandee had store bought clothes for both herself and her baby doll.

Now that I think of it, we both had great lives! Who knew?

We had fun times together. We’d do our homework at Sandee’s dining room table, which always had a fresh bowl of gardinias on it. There was always a treat for us in the refrigerator. Once we were drinking “Hi-C Hula Hyball” while we were telling jokes and we were laughing so hard, Sandee had red Hula Hyball dripping out of her nose. We’d sit at the table and try to do our homework, but usually ended up sharing secrets about boys. Silly as we were, I remember confiding to her my deepest crush on Tom Manley and she whispered her heartfelt feelings for Dan McCaslin, but we only did it as we were hanging upside down from our chairs and whispered to each other across the bottom-side of the table. We just couldn’t get up the courage to tell each other face-to-face.

We tried to catch birds in her backyard with a string tied to a stick, propping up a box. We ran the string behind the garage and waited for the birds to snatch the bread so carefully placed under the box. But the birds were smarter than we gals and never fell for our trap. Maybe they heard all the giggling behind the garage, but we loved the suspense anyway.

We’d walk home from Olive Vista Jr. High as far as we could together. She’d walk me halfway home when I studied at her house. One day my cousin Nanette, sister Miki and I were at Sandee’s house and she decided to walk us the usual halfway, which was at Dyer Street School. When we reached the school, we noticed a sleek black car creeping slowly behind us.

We tried to stay calm, but our over-imaginative little brains couldn’t handle the fear, and the long, long block of nothing but chain-linked fencing ahead of us caused us to panic. We didn’t dare split up and run, so we kept walking as fast as we could until we looked back and saw a man get out of the car. Then we ran as fast as we could, thinking only of getting to a safe haven. We got to the corner and ran into the first yard we could see. Sandee, Nanette and I ran up to the door, but as we looked back for Miki, we saw she had collapsed to her knees on the lawn and covered her head like we were taught to do in a drop drill at school.

We were so stunned, we all just began to laugh and couldn’t stop, scaring the guys in the car away. Luckily for us, they were easily scared because no one ever answered the door at the house we’d so depended on for safety.

After we collected our wits - and Miki - we hid in bushes and behind trees as we wound our way slowly toward home. Each time we heard a car, we panicked and hid until we were at last in our own yard. Sandee was still with us, so we called her mom and told her we’d bring her right home. It was a while before we visited Sandee again!

Sandee wasn’t involved in this one, but as long as we’re talking about black cars, I’ll tell you of another little episode. One night when Carol Egan, Nanette and I were at an Olive Vista Jr. High School Silhouettes dance we were again chased. There was a rule that we had to be picked up by a parent after the dance, and it was Nanette's mother's turn this time. She was late and we were getting worried – our membership cards would be taken away if we weren’t picked up by 15 minutes after the dance.

We began to pace the sidewalk and little by little found ourselves halfway down the long block. Then we saw the black car. This time we could see it was a carload of teenage boys, probably drunk, looking for fun. We high-tailed it back towards school as one kid jumped out of the car and gave us chase. This time it was dark and we were scared to death! We ran, screaming, back to the school and around the corner into the gate just as this kid grabbed my coat. Lucky for us, right inside the gate was our huge, handsome, hunk of salvation, Coach Cain! The guy took off back to the car and we all collapsed and began to shake in earnest. We’d never been so grateful to be caught “sneaking” back into school – even if we did lose our membership cards for two weeks.

When my daughter Kelly was three I took her to visit Sandee. She had been teaching school for a couple of years and looked just as I knew her. In 2001 Sandee came to visit me with her two beautiful teenage daughters and wonderful husband (who died in 2004 of cancer).
Because we were similar-looking, Sandee and I went through school as “twins” – getting each other into a little trouble but mostly just confusing our teachers through no fault of our own. I think it was all those freckles!

Our bond was stronger than either of us could imagine. One time, Cub Scout Den Leader Mom took Nanette and I to the Scout Jamboree at the Los Angeles Fair Grounds; a gigantic area filled with scouting booths from all over the country. Nan and I were acting “Den Chiefs” because there were no boys the right age that would help Mom out, and since we were teenagers and interested in “Scouting Boys,” we were given the task that summer. As we entered the Fair Grounds we were immediately approached by several Boy Scouts to act as “tour guides.” After a while Nanette and I paired up with two adorable boys about our age, who showed us a nice time.
We had fun seeing all there was to see and then these guys told us they were supposed to participate in some Indian dancing. We sat in the bleachers to watch them perform their dances and when it was time for the audience to learn a little “Indian Two-step” our guys rushed into the crowd and grabbed our hands to step into the ring with them. When Nanettte and I joined others in the ring, right next to us was Sandee, who we hadn’t see all evening, and her partner was my partner’s TWIN!

I consider myself blessed to have had a wonderful friend with high morals and deep loyalties and cherish our communication by email and far too few visits through the years. She’s happily married again and enjoying life!