About a month ago, Ed Chiosso phoned, and told me that one of our classmates in high school, John Leslie, had died. This was a shock, and even more so was that I had not seen John in forty hears. His early and sudden passing, the passage of time, and our being out of contact surprised, shocked, and saddened me. I realize many of us went our separate ways, as people often do after high school, and especially we alumni from St. Joe's who were from all over the western states and Hawaii. Yet that doesn't mean there isn't some sort of bond there, for the times and experiences and dreams we shared one given place and time.

Anyway, Ed and I, collaborators from back when we worked on the Campus Crew tegether, thought it would be nice to set up some vehicle of communication with our high school and college classmates. A newsletter, e-mail, or something over the Internet, since that was a fairly easy way of doing this. Since I had taught web page design, I thought that would be a nice way to reconnect. Somewhere down the line someone might even organize a class reunion.

But those were tough times, more so than usual, even by seminary standards: the country was torn over Viet Nam, we were torn over a changing church, and many of us were confused and angry over these changes even in the midst of our confusion of growing up. Every age has its challenges, and so we were having ours, and judging the number of classmates who attend reunions over the years, we were pretty much caught in the middle.

Are we ready to do this? Are we confident enough to accept and revisit the bitter-sweet memories of our youth, our aging, and some of the unique pain and pleasure of being institutionalized for x-number of years in a very unique setting? I hope so. I hope you do too. Ed and I are running this by Buz and a few others to test the waters. We also welcome your comments, suggestions, and, most hopefully, your written and/or photographic contributions.

If you support this concept of trying to reconnect with your classmates in this way, let Ed or me know via e-mail (echiosso@earthlink.net or jobarlives@yahoo.com ) or regular mail: Joe Barile, 1227 Foothill Street, Redwood City, CA 94061. If you want to give us a little update on what you been doing for the past forty years (wow, tempus really does fugit), or even attach a photo of yourself or your family, let me know. Just as important, e-mail or mail this introduction (http://idisk.mac.com/jobarlives/Public/sjs/sjs.html) on to classmates whose e-mail or addresses you may know. We do not have any lists. I hope we can make this happen. I believe it's well worth the effort, and I hope you agree. Thanks.

--Joe Barile, November 25, 2005