Wallace Thompson 11 South 12th Street St. Charles, IL 60174-4968 (630) 584-7316 wallrena@aol.com Because of the extraordinary encouragement and patience of Chris Gray, I ended up speaking with some of our classmates during the recent phonathon. I'm glad that i did. For me its been 35 years. Since high school, I've had some wonderful times and some difficult times but feel very lucky overall. I've worked in various manual trades and have gone back to community college whenever I wanted to learn something specific. I built and rented some houses and ran an appliance repair, heating and ac business. Trimming trees in the late seventies and mid eighties was probably the most enjoyable. The business and the rentals have been sold, and i live in a small house with a big shop, the shop being where i feel most comfortable. These days, I work part time on my father's farm equipment, thinking about a new direction. Music has always been in my life, and part of me would like to write lyrics, songs and comedy, of all things. Believe it or not, I can get on a pretty good roll (sounds dangerous). I remember St. Paul's as though it were yesterday, and I think of everyone as they looked then. Our conversations put high school in some perspective. Good words were passed and some poignant memories of those "awkward teenage blues." My best to a good bunch of guys, Wallace (waffles) Thompson