Jutta Hager Helps Take Blog to a New Level

From the beginning, this website was to be a lot of things -- certainly more than a trip down high school memory lane. It was conceived as a place to share news about our 50th anniversary reunion next year, photos, ideas and information about ourselves and our families from childhood to the present. Here’s how we put it in the very first post in April 2007: "Greetings, fellow members of Clearfield Area High School Class of 1959! This is your website, created especially for our 50th year reunion in 2009. Come early, come often and share your thoughts, insights and memories of the marvelous and not-so-marvelous moments we shared and all that has happened since."

Since then, we have shared many wonderful moments, photos and contributions– particularly from Joyce Moody, Herb Maney, Peggy Jo Knepp, Sue Sherkel and Karl Nagle, Sonia Borst, Peggy Borst, Orvie Kline, Tom O’Day, James Boron, Virginia Mabie, Barb Martell and others.

Lea Davidson, Ann Bartley and Phil Graham also have sent a number of great photos which will be posted in the near future.

We also have had some laughs. Who can forget Wilbur Shirey and the mythical girl scouts who invited him to his fantasy dances at non-existent venues in the Eighth Grade – and the back-and-forth chatter that ensued from his story?

Then there was Orvie Kline’s memory of a smiling Herb Maney posing for a Bison photo and stymieing Keith Knepp’s attempt to load a nuclear fission exhibit into a van.

Amidst all this, only few of us – primarily James Boron (See April 19 posting below), Wil Shirey and the blogmeister - have shared anything resembling a “life story.”

This has changed.

We are delighted to present (drum roll, please) the delightful, serious, studious, brainy, high-achieving Jutta Hager, who came through last week with some marvelous photos. With some gentle prodding, she produced even more.

Jutta says she looks forward to attending our 50th anniversary reunion next year, and we certainly look forward to visiting with her.

So, without further ado, we present the life and times of Jutta Hager, with photo captions in her own words. Here’s hoping Jutta’s response inspires other classmates to come forth with their own stories and photos.

- Dennis Mollura

Jutta Hager - In Her Own Words

Except for a year in Washington, DC., I've lived in the Boston area since coming here for college. After working for several years as an editor of earth science textbooks, I went back to school in geology (why not?).

After getting my Ph.D. in 1978 I taught on and off, but have been in consulting since 1984 and for the last 15 years have had my own (small) company ( See http://www.hagergeoscience.com/).

(Editor's Note – Jutta is overly modest. Check out her company's website. You will be impressed.)

I have a significant other, but no husband (divorced 2), 4 stepchildren and one son, who graduated from Northeastern in Boston and is currently finishing his first year of medical school at USC in Los Angeles.

I couldn't make the reunion planning meeting of April 5th, but am definitely planning on getting to the reunion next August.

- Jutta Hager

Jutta and Her Mercedes 190 SL, As Beautiful as We Remember

Hi Dennis, You are correct. The car was a 190 SL, and that is Margaret Long. The other girl in the car is a German friend from my pre-Clearfield days, who was visiting at the time. Her father was a colleague of my father's in Huntsville, Alabama, where we lived in the early 1950's. My father gave me the car in pristine condition as a wedding present in 1964, so I got to drive it around the Boston area for a while. The sad tale is that the maintenance and insurance costs were so high that I eventually had to sell it.

Jutta with Son, Carl

Here I am with my son, Carl, who started medical school in LA last fall. There were some tough times during his teens, so I'm especially proud of his accomplishments. As seems typical of many in his generation, he's both adventurous and idealistic--he'll be volunteering this summer in Uganda at an AIDS clinic--and plans to climb Mt Kilimanjaro on his way back home.... His girlfriend is from Bellefonte, and my visiting her family brought about a recent Clearfield photo (see below).

Visit to Former Home on West Cherry Street

Photo in front of my old house in Clearfield last summer. I was visiting friends in Bellefonte, and they thought it would be fun to drive over, since I hadn't been back since we moved my freshman year in college.

Christmas in Clearfield

Jutta & Josie

I don't know what you've heard from other alums relative to the reunion, but I had a wonderful time going through old photos (my mother, who died in 1996, saved them all). What's interesting to me is that thinking about those days got me back into horseback riding, which I really loved, and I've been taking lessons here since last September. It's very relaxing and a great stress reliever.

Great Minds. Great Classmates!

This clipping from The Progress recalls such great memories. Jutta and Susan, always at the head of the class. We admire both of them as friends and classmates. Jutta says she plans to attend our 50th anniversary reunion next year. Believe it's her first. Sue is putting together a special keepsake booklet for the event. We look forward to seeing them and sharing the memories.

- Progress clipping courtesy of Jutta Hager

Peggy Borst Offers Some Interesting Photos

Thank you, Peggy, for a glimpse of some memorable moments.

Maybe This Is More Like It!

Apparently, the Third Ward boys photo below fails to excite. Almost no reaction from the classmates. Not a single attempt to identify the striped-shirt dears until Orvie Kline checked in early Friday morning (see below). Maybe this is more to your liking. Left to right, Judy Selfridge, Sonia Borst, Peggy Borst and Judi Rolley in 1957. No identification of the auto in background. Perhaps a Mercury or Ford.
- Photo submitted by Sonia Borst <> Thank you, Sonia. Thank you very much.

Check Out This Great Photo From Kirk High

Kirk High came through with this great photo of our elementary school classmates. The school looks as if it might be Third Ward. I spot Martin Elbell, Guy Graham and maybe Bud Graham. What do you think? Give us a left to right if you can.
- Dennis Mollura

Orvie Kline starts the ID process

Martin Elbell is a definite (kneeling center - 1st row) and Guy Graham is also a definite (2nd from left - 2nd row). The rest are tough, but I think 5th from left - 2nd row is J. Nicholson, and 5th from left - 3rd row (partially hidden) is Jim Walthers.

Working on the rest!

Orvie

Clearfield, Our Clearfield

Intersection of Third and Nichols Streets, from bottom of Brewery Hill.

Ritz Theater marquee, on a Saturday night.

Quiet night in downtown Clearfield.

Looking west on Market Street.

Evening, Courthouse Plaza.

- Photos by Dennis Mollura

Say Hello to Classmate James Boron

When I got out of school I went to Va., and started my own business. Then I sold it and came back to Pa. in 1966 and started to work at Pa. Elec. Power Plant at Shawville, Pa., where I put in 33 yrs., and then retired.

But I couldn’t sit at home, so I drove Motor Coach for Fullington for 3 yrs and then went to Cole Transportation Charters and Tours. After that I got a Job at PENNDOT. I work in the summer from May to the end of Oct., painting lines on the highway. I had four kids, 2 girls and twins, boy and girl, and 3 grandkids. They all are doing well. I live with my wonderful wife Judy. I live in Morrisdale, Pa. We have a Pomeranian, white. His name is Tony after the race track driver (Tony Stewart).

Lew Marrara Shows Them How

Classmate Lew Marrara, President of Mosquito Creek Sportsmen's Club, explains coyote characteristics to some hopeful members prior to last year's annual coyote hunt.

Where I Grew Up - A Small Town in PA

Where I grew up is a small town in the Pennsylvania mountains.
And the men rise early in the morning,
And walk to the great black holes in the ground,
And walk to the huge gray dust bins,
And fire the round kilns that roast the golden brown clay blocks,
And walk home at night, tired from a hard day's work.
This is where I grew up.

The trucks carrying in the black shiny coal,
The trembling of the shaker that empties the railroad cars,
The scurrying of the mine cars carting the black gold to the surface,
The screeching and hissing of the trains hauling the coal away,
All became daily routine to me.

And the coal went to the big round kilns,
And the men shoveled and heaped as the temperature rose,
And the ovens cooled as the fires died,
And the fans hummed that cooled the ovens,
And the men loaded the bricks in railroad cars that screeched and hissed as they left town.
This happened daily where I grew up.

Then the signal of Sunday morning was heard.
People streamed to the small brick church in the center of town.
People sang hymns and heard the pastor pray.
People paraded home with a unique scent of dinner as they passed each house.
And the men rested after the Sunday meal, preparing for the week ahead.
And children played as the dogs barked joyfully at their heels,
And the sun went down behind the hills ending another week in the town where I grew up.

Poem by Wilbur Calvin Shirey
Tribute to Bigler, Pennsylvania
Written while a sophomore at
Indiana University of Pennsylvania
1960-61

Great Meeting. You Should Have Been There!

Front row - Bonnie Henchbarger Powell, Herb Maney, Joyce Shugarts Undercofler and Suzy Sherkel Nagle. Back row - Joyce Schultz Fuge, Dennis Mollura, Wilbur "The Girl Scout Dancer" Shirey, Joyce Moody Fletcher, Orvis Kline and Anna Unch Davis. Peggy Jo Knepp Thompson also attended, but did a graceful pirouette out of the meeting before Karl Nagle got the picture.
- Photo by Karl Nagle

We had a great reunion committee meeting at the Shaw Library on Saturday. Best attendance ever. Lots of progress and lots of fun and laughs, too. Tom O'Day, who had planned to attend from North Carolina , came down with an acute case of bronchitis, but still managed to contribute mightily via an elaborate phone hook-up. Watch this blog for a full meeting report in the near future.

-Dennis Mollura

Say Hi! Again to Virginia Mabie Daub

After receiving her Most Wanted Poster, Virginia Mabie Daub sent these photos. We hope all our other classmates will follow suit and send some of theirs. Virginia sent some other photos, and we will publish them in the near future. Hello again, Virginia. So glad to hear from you.