A Baby Boomer's Scrapbook

Return to School Life

Carol Heppner's Page:

In Mr. Anthony’s Art class, I think Carol Heppner, Dana Wint, Rose Mason and Pat Varner used to sit together most of the time and, if someone else didn't get there first, I always tried to sit with them.  Pat was often quiet and I think that she may have had a steady boyfriend. I'm pretty sure that Dana was engaged to an older guy with nice car and a steady job and she was quiet most of the time as well. Carol was not quiet.  She was fun and funny and would giggle or laugh at the drop of a good dirty joke.  As a matter of fact, she was probably the one who most often had a joke to tell. I even remember one that I can attribute to her (probably because she repeated it to several people within earshot of me). 

"What are a girl's favorite articles of clothing?"

One night a few of us heard about a drinking party in Sanford so we talked someone's older brother into buying us some beer and we headed for the woods to find the party.  I think I was driving my folks Corvair van.

Carol Heppner wrote in my yearbook:

"Max,

Next year you won't be back, eh?

Well, good luck in the big cruel world.

Too bad you weren't at our party Sat. night.

We really had fun. But you know when the next one will be.

Don't ever forget Art Class and all the fun we had.

God be with you.

Carol"

I don’t know if that was the night but one night when we went drinkin’ in the woods, something happened that seemed very funny at the time. She probably won’t remember or will think that I’m makin’ it up but I hope Carol won’t mind if I tell what happened.

It was pretty dark in the woods that night and, other than the occasional match to light a cigarette, nobody wanted to turn on any lights to attract the attention of any potential adult intruders (ie… police). Of the several people who were there (more than a dozen or so), I only remember Jerry Palmer and Carol (although it could have been the same night that I was with Butch, Audrey and Sharon).

After probably an hour of drinking and talking, someone suggested that it was time to take a pee so everyone headed into the woods to unload their beer. A few minutes after we all gathered back at the cars (and the beer), somebody noticed that Carol hadn’t returned. After calling her name a whole bunch of times and getting no response, we all scattered back into the woods to find her.

It took a while but eventually somebody (I think it was Jerry) came back with Carol who was all right except for a little (but not much) embarrassment.

It turns out that the reason Carol couldn’t answer our loud calls was because, as she sat down on a log to take care of business, she fell over backwards. With her pants caught on the log and lying on her back with her feet in the air, she was giggling so hard at her predicament that she couldn’t get up. She also couldn’t stop laughing long enough to answer yell back so we could tell where she was.

Eventually someone heard her giggles and helped her up and back to the cars where the rest of us were.

An email from Carol Heppner Dekraker to Max Bishop in June of 1999:

…I haven't lived in Sanford since high school.  I've lived in S. Carolina, Florida, and moved to Traverse City when I returned to Michigan.  I've only kept in touch with a few people.  Jerry Beebe and Dave Fink have attended the reunions that I've been to and several other of the people that you mentioned have been.  I haven't attended all of them but hope to go next year again.

 

My husband and I started a manufacturing plant almost nine years ago in Traverse that we relocated to Tennessee two years ago.  We build fiberglass products including therapeutic bathing systems and barrier free showers for hospitals and nursing homes.  We also manufacture 70% of the Burger King booths and patio furniture in the world.  Jim knows fiberglass and does design work and I do the finances.  I was a hairdresser for 20 some years before that.  We just started doing some production work for Dassault Falcon Jet.  We are building sinks for their jets.  It's a small job but it pays well.  We just formed a marketing company and are going to introduce our own line of products in October at a health care show in Chicago.  So life stays interesting if not stressful.

 

I have two children and four grandchildren and they are all here in TN with us.  Both the kids work for the company.  I've had a pretty good life and I think the ups have outweighed the downs.  Getting older doesn't seem like much fun but it beats the alternative I guess.  Well, it's late so I have to run.  It was nice hearing from you…

 

Carol

Oh, and by the way… Carol’s punch-line was “Slipper, Pants and Jumper…”.