1970

Many of our classmates have commented on the inexplicable pull which seems to be forever drawing them toward Modesto. In this column there will be plenty of space to explain that feeling . . . but first a few notes and news releases on a couple of you who haven't managed to relocate here as yet.

While his career path may have taken somewhat of a turn, Richard Ostberg's interest in education remains as strong as ever. Rich supports himself these days as an executive with Target Sportswear, Inc., in New York City, but his recent appointment to a three-year term on the Summit, N.J., Board of Education is more in line with his pursuits in the 19705. Back then Rick received a master's in education from Antioch College and taught fourth and sixth grades for several years in Wellesley and Brookline, Mass. It's great that these invaluable experiences will continue to be put to good use. And better yet, there can now be little doubt that Rick's three children will all be eminently prepared for admission to Dartmouth a few years hence.

Richard Mattern has been elected as director of the department of radiology at Mountainside Hospital in Montclair, N.J., where he was first appointed to the medical staff in 1980. Rich received his M.D. at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center prior to a fellowship in diagnostic radiology at the same hospital. His current areas of interest include angiography and interventional radiology. Rich is a member of Montclair Radiological Associates, and lives with his wife, Adele, and two children in nearby Essex Falls, N.J.

Perhaps it is fitting that we have news only of classmates in New Jersey for a column which is otherwise devoted to Modesto. Be that as it may, and without further ado, I feel it necessary to make good on the threat in this column's opening paragraph and explain why so may of you are yearning to "Come Home to Modesto." As it turns out the feeling amounts to the spiritual pull of your youth, for it was here that George Lucas grew up and attended high school before going on to produce the classic film about your youth, my youth, and just about everybody's youth in the 1960s, AmericanGraffiti. It should then be clear that those happy days are epitomized by Modesto where the movie to the finest detail is so clearly set. For instance the car race in the closing scenes was held on Paradise Road, and the real Paradise Road leads directly into downtown Modesto (naturally need I say more?).

The good news is that NOTHING has changed here, the place is utterly timeless. You can still be served a burger and fries by a cutiepie on roller skates. Saturday night cruising is still a four-mile-long bumper-to-bumper traffic jam featuring everything on wheels from semis to hot rods to skate boards. Music past the sixties is all but banned by popular convention. So check us out Modesto may be just the time warp you need to help deal with the looming prospect of turning 40. However, I dare say, even better therapy would be to let it all hang out in a newsy letter to your class secretary.

Take care until then.

P.O. Box 3934 Modesto, CA 95352