Gary (Shane) Sanders - New Division Charter Class
Date: Saturday, May 26, 2001 12:42 PM
Incredible finding you guys! I am not a web person at all so please call me
at 319-337-7739 or write 1124 S. 7th Ave, Iowa City, IA 52240.
Gary (Shane) class of 1966-67
Even though I am not computer literate in any way, shape or form a friend
built me a web page for a local TV show I did in 2000. See my web page at
www.crankyguy.com
Gary
Thoughts on the New Division
Date: Friday, September 07, 2001 01:57 PM
Thoughts on the New Division: I really want to attend the reunion and see people,
but is this reunion just for New Division, or for all of Nasson College, since we
would only be a small minority of an all-college reunion. Also, I must confess that
the New Division was not the greatest experience for me. I found that our tiny cluster
of 70 seemed to form groups that I didn't fit in with. . But I was probably too
alienated in my own way, and I certainly apologize to anyone who I might have hurt in
my attempts at being "cool". I definitely wanted to get the hell out of there and
left before the school year ended when my friends from Detroit came to pick me up in
that '58 Buick. Damn what a car! By the way, I was the first (possibly only) student
taken before our student run "court". I was charged with "having a messy room visible
to others". Luckily, we settled when I volunteered to keep my door closed. But I
do have fond memories of several people, and being a nostalgia type anyway, I do want
to hear from people. BUT NOT ON MY FRIENDS BUSINESS E-MAIL. I am not computer literate
and am a Luddiite, so please call or write:
1124 S. 7th Ave., Iowa City IA 52240 319/337-7739(I will be in Eastern Long Island
from Sept.. 11-14 and would have time to visit .if anyone lives there)
Short bio: Left Nasson May '67. Answered ad in magazine for sailing to South Pacific
on homemade 36 ft. trimaran (3 hulls). November 67 hitchhiked to Mexico and met the
two other guys who were at the boat. We left Acapulco harbor on Jan. 3 '68 and sailed
for two long months--3,300 miles. Heat, boredom, no refrigeration, no radio transmitter
(something I neglected to ask about before the voyage began) and one huge three
day/night storm with waves crashing into us every 30 seconds with an explosion-like
cacophony. We lost one of our masts, and just about ran out of food (thank goodness
we caught fish) and were down to one cup of water ration per day. Plus the two other
guys (who also didn't know each other at the start) began to hate each other and wound
up not speaking to each other for the last few weeks. Anyway, we somehow made it to
Honolulu harbor on Feb. 28,1968. Probably the happiest day of my life. Spent a few
weeks hitch-hiking around Hawaii, which was incredible. Also somehow remembered
that Barbie Douglass was at Kauai Community College, and visited her for a few days.
(Where is she, does anyone know?)
What happened next is the one law that I am sure we have all discovered; the Law of
Unintended Consequences. My father had recently retired from Ford Motor Co. in Detroit
and was afflicted with severe arthritis and wanted to move someplace warmer. He took
one look at my pictures of Hawaii and decided that he was moving to Hawaii. Well,
my mom didn't want to leave her friends, family and good job teaching in Detroit, but
it was a different era, so she moved also. They lived in Hilo until 1990, when my dad
died and my mom moved back to Detroit. I spent a lot of time in Hilo between '69 and
'76--- finished my B.A. at U Hawaii- Hilo. and substitute teaching, swimming in the
ocean and just hanging out. I would fly back to Michigan (usually Ann Arbor for 6-8
months, substitute teach, come back to Hilo (usually I hitch-hiked across the country,
but one year I rode a freight train for three days/ nights --another great adventure.
And lived there for a few months. It probably sounds great, but it was very, unsettling
going back and forth (maybe you'd have to have lived in the backwater of Hilo in the
early '70's to understand). In the midst of Hilo/Ann Arbor I also hitchhiked to
New Hampshire in Nov. '71 and volunteered in the McGovern for President campaign.
Spent three months in Manchester, NH. (Saw Laura Argyros, and Martha Murray) . Then
there was more aimless wandering. Different blue collar jobs. Decided I didn't want
to live or even visit Hilo, and through the grace of the goddesses stumbled into
Iowa City Iowa in '77-78. Except for extended stays in Hilo after my father died
and in '94 teaching G.E D. to laid off sugar cane workers (and unsuccessfully chasing
one of my shiksa goddesses) I have been in Iowa City ever since..
Hard to believe that I have been here that long, but it's a great town,. My first job
was a waiter at Hamburg Inn, (old family owned diner) and I starting meeting people.
Got involved in politics--Democratic Socialists of America (met Michael Harrington)
then got very involved in Democratic Party, and have remained very active on local,
state and national politics. Also been involved in environmental groups, and
especially in labor unions, which I still see as the only force that can at all be
a counterweight to (dare I say this on a chatty reunion letter) "international capitalism."
(I'm typing this on my friend's computer in the back room of his wonderful store
The Soap Opera (filled with soaps, oils, candles, etc--- I am totally in favor of small
locally owned businesses.)
Had lots of jobs here-from waiter to teaching assistant at the U. Iowa Labor Center to
GED instructor to newspaper columnist to used bookstore clerk to temporality owning a
little used bookstore. Also done many different series on local access television,
mostly political/social justice type interviews (Eugene McCarthy, Paul Wellstone,
Barbara Ehrenreich, etc.). This year I did a spoof "Who Wants to be a Melon-aire",
where I asked trivia questions about Iowa and gave away melons . Last year I did a
show that got some national publicity:--- "Who wants to marry a short cranky middle-aged
guy with no money." Never been married or even in a "serious" long-term relationship.
Or really a "career". But with all my activities I'm known around town as an activist
and "Gadfly", and that suits me perfectly. This is a very friendly college town of
60,000. I have friends who are college instructors , bus drivers, business people, and
maintenance workers, just about every other profession. A few are semi-retires,
and a few have died.
All in all I've had a great life. My only regret is that I didn't make it to Europe.
I expended all my travel energy going back and forth to Hawaii. And since '78 and I've
been here I don't have the energy or the money for Europe. I do go to a little town,
Bridgman, in the Southwestern Corner of Michigan every summer. It's on Like Michigan,
Just a nice unpretentious little town where you can swim in Lake Michigan every day
and watch the sunset. I also taught in a high school for drop outs there for a year---
very interesting experience. Of course, my other regret is that I am not 19, as I was
when started Nasson, so I could do the whole damn thing over again. I miss the energy,
the total lack of planning ahead, the spontaneity, and not worrying whether your
friends or your mom are going to die soon--- the usual gown up stuff.
Again, I would definitely like to hear from people. Call or write(regular mail)
and I will respond.,
Gary(Shane) Sanders
