Maybe Paula & John will see you in Florida

After attending the Virginia Tech-WVU basketball game in the WVU Coliseum with my sister, Jackie Olesky Straight, Class of 1955, of Rivesville, having dinner with other Monongah High alumni at the Three Ways Inn in Fairmont at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 30, I’ll be leaving Marion County Wednesday, Dec. 31 to board the Amtrak Auto-Train in Lorton, Virginia for the three-month stay in The Villages, Florida with Paula.

I will arrive in Samford, Florida at 9:30 a.m. Thursday, Jan. 1.

I will have my laptop with me so that I will be able to continue posting on the Monongah High Alumni blog at jo4wvu.blogspot.com while we’re in Florida through March 31.

If you’ll be near The Villages in January through March, call John Olesky at (330) 388-4466 and we’ll arrange a Monongah High alumni get-together.

As a bonus, March 1 will be West Virginia Day Picnic in The Villages, so you may see thousands of Mountaineers in one place. Call John if you can make it and he’ll try to arrange a table for MHS grads.

I know that Pat Meredith Wills, Class of 1950, and John Matkovich, Class of 1948, and wife Dolores Sweede Matkovich, Class of 1953, plan to be there. Pat and husband Don Wills have a winter home on Crescent Beach south of St. Augustine Beach, Florida and spend summers in Fairmont. John and Dolores live in Palm Harbor, Florida, which is near St. Petersburg.

If you will be in Sarasota on Friday, Feb. 6, 2015, join us at the 3^rd annual Monongah High Alumni Reunion/Sarasota. It will begin at noon 2015 at the home of Bill Meredith, Class of 1957, who lives in Sarasota with wife Roleta, a Clarksburg Washington Irving High graduate.

Call John Olesky at (330) 388-4466 or Bill at (941) 342-0030 so that Roleta will know how many to prepare food for and so that Bill can give you name to the guard at the guardhouse entrance to their complex so that you can have access to their street.

Bill’s directions to his home:

3201 Charles MacDonald Drive. 

To get to our home from I-75, take exit 207 (Bee Ridge Rd.) and go east about 1½  miles to Gary Player Drive.  Turn left onto Gary Player Dr. and proceed to the gate.  All names will be given to the guardhouse.  Once through the gate, go to the first stop sign (Tom Morris Dr.)  Turn right on Tom Morris and go to the first street on the right, which is Charles MacDonald.  Turn right and proceed about 1/4 mile to our home on the right side at 3201.  The number is on the mailbox.

If you live in Florida or will be vacationing there Feb. 6, 2015, email John Olesky at jo4wvu@neo.rr.com to let him know if you think you can make it.

If you’re near The Villages, Florida in January-March, 2015, call John at (330) 388-4466 and we’ll arrange a Monongah High reunion of former Lions. 

John even has a second set of golf clubs in case anyone shows up. Just saying . . .

JOHN OLESKY, CLASS OF 1950