I knew Maggie while she was there. I also remember her being close to Jason Mitchell, a member of my peer group. We arrived in summer of '84 and graduated summer of '86.
Jason Mitchell is doing well last I saw him a few years back. He was attending the CIA (Culinary Institure of America, not the Intel Agency) and was specializing in Kitchen design, which is not what it sounds like. It has a lot to do with knowing what wines to stock and other things and not just where you should put the stove and oven. Bee-sting was his nickname. A good guy.
Jason was buddies with Mike Bird, aka: The Coca Cola Kid. Mike is living in south Florida near Palm Springs.
Geoff Sprague was also in our peer group, he lived in the New York area and we are great friends to this day. Talk every single week.
Brian Bates was not a student but a nerdy staff member who came on in late '86 or early '87. Tall, lanky fellow who played semi-pro soccer as a goalie. His famous words that most recall were his nodding his head at you and then saying, "Yeah, I hear what you're saying but we are going to do it my way." Which was typically the wrong way.
I live in the San Jose, CA area, and I bumped into a student who had been pulled about a year into her program named Michelle Falk. She is doing very well, looks like a model, and runs a very upscale hair salon in Palo Alto, CA.
Ron Fichera lived in Denver last I saw him. I lived out there with him for about two years, but he never overcame his severe alcoholism and though I tried and was successful once in getting him out of the bottle, he just kept going back to it. RMA tools only go so far.
Heather Thompson lived in Dallas, TX last I saw her. We bumped into each other in a Mall out there when I moved there to be closer to Susan, the girl I caught kissing in the Springroom walk-in freezer in Feb, 1986.
Lisa Hawkenson and one of her closest friends who I can never recall her name (jet black hair, short, same peer group), both lived in San Jose after graduating. I ran into them both and we had dinner together.
Mark Lim I saw in 1990 at my brother's wedding in Los Angeles. He seemed to be doing well, happy and we chatted for a couple of hours about old times and who we had bumped into. Mark was a much older student and had arrived probably in '83.
I went to a parent/student group here in the Bay Area in 1990 or 1991 and ran into Doug Kim Brown and a couple of the oldest students ever. Phoebe and another girl, can't recall her name. (Hey, it was 20 years ago!)
Also two guys in a peer group below mine, same one as Lisa Hawkinsen and Kim... Almost have her name... Gormann? I don't know if that is right, but pretty sure her name was Kim. The guys I now can't remember, give me a few more lines, and I might recall. But they both lived in Cupertino, home of Apple Computers and my home town. They lived together and were good friends and had some kind of scam going on where they could get me free plane tickets to fly down and see Susan.
Last I heard Melissa Lanier was living back in Raleigh, North Carolina, was married and had a kid.
A girl with the last name of Weisser, same peer group as Kim and Lisa and those two guys whose names I still can't form in my head but I am working on it, she lived briefly in Denver, dating Ron Fichera before leaving to go back to California claiming Telly Savalis was after her along with a White Slavery ring... Seriously.
Craig Moyer, known most for his music ability with the guitar and writing and playing some cool songs while at RMA was last seen in Palo Alto, CA. He told me had quit playing music. That was only a couple of years after his '85 graduation and my '86 graduation.
Guy Mayer, upper peer group, was living in North Houston, TX area. I last saw him a few years back in 1999. He was doing well. Saw him a few times actually. Not married.
Susan Ellenburg lives in Anchorage, Alaska. She did the college thing, moved home, is currently divorced and has 3 kids. We broke up in 1989 because I was an idiot. We will leave it at that.
We had been together 5 years including RMA.
And, contrary to the popular legend, we were not doing the wild thing when "caught". We had been, but we weren't at the time Bruce Wilson walked in to get the easels for the Challenge Night. And Bruce was the only one there. There was not a collection of other staff all standing around gawking as is one version I have heard. But I will never forget that Spring Room.
Kevin? Cameron? Still can't quite place those two guys in the peer group below me. Strange since I did some business with them.
All in all, everyone I saw is doing well. Common theme was that everyone experienced a period of traumatic shock after leaving RMA. Their education suffered from that lack of it at RMA. Many returned to using the same drugs they were kept away from in Idaho but had used before going there. Everyone said they were dirty with one or more students at the graduation party in Couer d' Alene. Some did college, some continued to have problems with their parents.
Oh, I also saw Loanne Wolpert somewhere. Not sure where. She seemed as caffeine charged as ever.
Kevin Devorak? That's one of the names... he and the other guy were inseparable.
Bailey Holt I never ran in to, but I understand he commited suicide shortly after leaving RMA.
The reason there were good times to remember at RMA despite the trauma and the mind games, is similar to those who go to war. You and your buddies form a bond, and that friendship is all that keeps you from dwelling on the misery and suffering around you. RMA was not the place for us, but we found ourselves there with others our age, with similar problems, who might have been screwed up before arriving there, but were all fairly decent people. We got along because we had to. Seeing the same 100 people every day, living in close quarters. We laughed because the place was so absurd. There were good times, but most important there were so really good people who go sent there. RMA sucked, and most of us felt that way. It was probably a little easier when we older folk went there, but we saw the changes coming. The staff party where they all came down drunk. They had no judgement and no idea what they were doing, and because of that, and the experimental therapy based on the writings in the book The Prophet, we underwent a hellish, unguided two year period of our lives we will never be able to fully understand or forget.
In time it fades in memory. All except the good memories. That is why some of us only remember the good stuff. The bad just fades with time.
I hope some of you remember the names of the people I listed above.
In a totally unrelated topic... Someone made a post about remembering being on Full Time and building the rock wall between the parking area and the field during a parent visit weekend. I recall that person being Chris Taylor who was an older student one or two peer groups ahead of me.
Chris, I hope you are doing well.
And finally, I often wondered about the lack of a reunion. Emily Harris was supposed to have been in charge of planning our peer group's 10th year reunion, which was 10 years ago and never happened. Has anyone else ever been to an RMA reunion. Do they happen? Would anyone go to one?
That's it folks...
--Bill,
