Greencastle High School
Class of 1988!
In the Spotlight ... Moose Hecko, Diane (Kendall) Pierce, Sherith Pankratz
and Jay Covert ...
Sherith Pankratz
I think my memory is starting to fade (ahh! old age) but I still have a ton of great memories from high school. One of the most general is just how simple life was then, compared to now, when we’re all supposedly “adults.” I certainly have plenty of days where I still feel like a 16 year old. (Although my hair isn’t permed anymore, thank god…just getting gray, which you may or may not see in October depending on when I can get an appointment at the hair salon...) A few specific memories:
- Mr. Ross’s Latin Class (“around the room!”)
- GHS boys basketball winning the regionals and sectionals our junior year and how excited the whole town was about it
- Going to see Bon Jovi with Tracy Plessinger and losing our voices
- Hanging out at Michelle White (“Nu-nu”)’s house, and going to her mom’s salon in Cloverdale when it was closed so Michelle could pierce our ears
- Moose stealing Campbell’s soup cans from my house
- The skating rink
- Skipping school, driving around town in Chris Hutchings’ convertible and trying to avoid seeing my mom (she isn’t going to find this website, right?)
- Spending enormous amounts of time with Susan Gibson and Tracy Sutherlin
- The senior trip to Washington DC
- Vickie Parker: an amazing teacher and person – and still is
- Mr. Dobson, Mr. Ware, Mr. Stark, Mrs. Madison, Mr. Miller…
- (Do I want to remind people of this one?) Getting busted on prom night junior year with Angie Archer and having to do community service at the fire station … we had so much fun with that one … they didn’t make us do anything!
Lest I sound like I continued a rebellious lifestyle, I did manage to get a B.A. from DePauw, after which I moved to: San Francisco (1 year); Los Angeles (4 years); Chicago (6 years); New York City (3 years); New Jersey (3 years) and now Jonesboro, Maine, a town MUCH smaller than Greencastle, on the coast of Maine, about an hour from the Canadian border. My husband Steve and I have a 200 year old farmhouse with 14 acres, complete with apple trees, wild blueberry & raspberry bushes, coyotes, and lots of deer, and our “baby”, Josie, a 3 year old miniature poodle mix, whom we got from a shelter. We are both in college publishing; I am an Acquisitions Editor at Oxford University Press, and he is a Publisher at Taylor and Francis. Our offices are about 4 blocks from one another on Madison Avenue in Manhattan, but we have fabulous managers who let us work off-site – all we need is a high-speed internet connection and a nearby airport! I do a lot of traveling for work, and it’s always nice to come back to our creaky old house, a constant work in progress.
It’s also nice to go back to Greencastle – I do so about twice a year, since my parents are still in the area. Dr. Frisbie was still my dentist up until he retired recently! And I still ask Jerry Hecko questions about cars. Some things don’t change much. Yes, Schultz’s and IGA and Burger Chef are gone; and Super Wal-Mart is there, and there are a lot more stoplights, and people actually have phone numbers that don’t start with “653” (remember when you could dial just the last 4 numbers??), but enough things have stayed the same that I still think of visiting as “going home.” After 20 years away, and life in many different cities, I have a particular fondness for the simplicity of life in a small town.
Look forward to seeing you all in October!
Hello to all my Greencastle fellow students of The Class of 1988! It is hard to believe that 20 years have come and gone so quickly. You can not redeem the hundreds of yesterdays of the past 20 years nor can we really do anything about the future tomorrows all we have is the right now. My senior year is filled with many memories, some good, some bad and many ugly but believe it or not I still remember and recall those days of yester years. I am not a burn out you know. I should be but I have a great mind and memory, yes some memories I would rather forget but those days of being a senior in high school have shaped me and made me the man I am today. I was voted most likely not to live before or past my 21st birthday and I can tell you at 21 years of age I almost died several times from mishaps, car wrecks, a motorcyle accident, drug overdoses and close run ins with the law. I checked myself into a program May 9, 1991 called Teen Challenge a drug treatment center and I have been clean now for 17 years. I also took a course in life many would not have imagined but I have be in ministry now for 11 years serving as a pastor, inner city missionary and the newest title Bishop. I have planted churches in Washington, DC, East Saint Louis, IL and on Oct 12th I will launch a third church plant in Washington Park, IL Spring of 2009 me and my UO Crew will plant a hispanic church in the St Louis Metro Area. I have plans of planting inner city churches in Gary, IN Louisville, KY and Cleveland, OH in the next few years. Who would of imagined I would travel to North Africa and be detained by the Morroccan Goverment for smuggling bibles into a close country to Christianity. I recently traveled to Czech Republic and toured the country preaching in 5 different cities. That is a world apart from America. Next year I plan to travel to China and Israel. I may look somewhat the same with my hair but as a person I am a different man. A family man yes my wife and I have been married for 16 years and we have two children Simon 7 yrs old and Miranda 15 yrs and she got her learners permit this week. Now I work with addicted, afflicted and hopeless people everyday trying to rehabitate those hurting and homeless, I find myself weekly in the housing projects of East Saint Louis loving and mentoring children from broken homes, and trying to make a difference in a city known for crime, violence and murder. With 31,000 folks we had 42 homicides in our city in 2007. Our church is in the most blighted and dangerous part of the community. Within a 2 block radius of the UO Church every building is burnt up, boarded up, barred up or torn up. The neighborhood looks literally like a civil war zone. My past has been my asset to my future, seeing people making changes from the lifestlye I once knew but know no more as an addict but as a victor. I see people whom many have given up on reclaiming their hopes, dreams and future just like I did 17 years ago. I look forward to seeing old friends and starting new friendships with the future in mind as I am learning just really what is important in life............... Life and living everyday to the fullest. See you in a few weeks.
Blessings on you,
Jay S. Covert
check out our ministry:
www.uoesl.org
www.churchplanting.ag.org/urban_outreach.cfm
www.pentecostalevangel.ag.org/articles2006/4834_urban.cfm
Moose Hecko
As I sit behind my desk in Seattle, Washington, high school seems like a completely different life, time and place. I have lived in Seattle for most of my adult life, moving here when I was 24. The Seattle lifestyle and way of thinking have chipped away at my conservative, small town roots ..... my jeans, my beliefs in traditional family values and sneakers have been replaced by plenty of tie-dye shirts, liberal views and birkenstocks........and what is most
amazing of all is that I am a TEACHER IN A CATHOLIC HIGH SCHOOL!
Reflecting back, it is remarkable that I actually got into college; I spent most of my time in high school lusting after Mrs Krieble! Other than lusting after Krieble, I do remember a few things......making daily post-lunch trips with Berish and Flint to McAnally, rushing to get my homework done at break while eating
undercooked (although delicious) chocolate chip cookies, avoiding being placed in Mr. Ross' closet, being introduced to "Shane" in Remsburg's basement and not appreciating that it IS one of the all time great westerns, pushing a clunker of a car into the school as a prank (hopefully the statute of limitations has run out on this one), taking 2 years of Spanish yet never LEARNING ANY SPANISH,
being the worst catcher that has ever donned a varsity baseball uniform and playing on arguably the best basketball team in school history. I hope everyone is doing well and hope to see all of your old, sagging asses in October.
~ Moose
Diane (Kendall) Pierce
Yes, 20 years later and I am still here at good ol' GHS. I am one of the secretaries in the front office at GHS. And I LOVE MY JOB. The school has went under a few minor renovations since we went here. But nothing major. The students have not changed that much since we were here either. They really are a great bunch of young men and ladies. Sadly though, the school spirit has went way downhill since the class of '88. Football and basketball games are just not as exciting as they were in the good ol' days. But I know that will change for me as my son is in 8th grade next year and will be coming to the high school soon. He plays both football and basketball and the parents of that class of kids are phenomenal. They have great school spirit and pride. My daughter is a junior here at GHS. She likes school and has a lot of the same teachers that I had in school. Mr. Ward is the most notable: telling the same stories as when I was in school. There is also Mr. Mason and Mrs. Parker. Mrs. Parker is retiring at the conclusion of this year. The auditorium was name "Parker Auditorium" for her many wonderful years of molding young minds. All in all. GHS is still the same great place as when we were in school. I can't wait to see everyone at our reunion. And let's cheer on those Tiger Cubs at homecoming and show them some school spirit!!!
