Ray attended San Miguel Elementary School for second through sixth grade and moved to the Philippines after spending seventh grade at Madrone Junior High School. Now 41 years old, she lives in Oklahoma with her husband and two daughters.

In an attempt to locate her former friends, she signed up with an Internet service that finds old classmates. And several days after she signed up, Joyce Wood, her closest friend during that time in Sunnyvale, contacted her via email.

"I was so excited I started crying," Ray says.

After seventh grade, Ray kept in touch with two friends until each of the three young women graduated high school, got married and had children. But she thought about them often and was "thrilled" to finally talk to them again.

"It makes me feel more complete, reconnecting with childhood friends," Ray says. "I did contact some friends from my time in the Philippines, but I have not attended any high school reunions."

Wood, who moved to Union City after seventh grade, now lives in San Ramon. She says she had attempted to find Ray over the years but was unsuccessful.

"It was a goal in my life to find Vicki," Wood says. "It is pretty unique we were all so close at that age and we had an interest in seeing each other again."

Ray was able to find 30 of the 60 students in the San Miguel Elementary School class of 1973. She did so through the Internet class search website, an Internet phone book search, people contacting others they had kept in contact with and finding classmate's phone numbers through parents who still lived in the Sunnyvale area.

Many of those 30 people had lost contact after junior high school, when they went to different high schools throughout the Bay Area.

"The first time I contacted some of the people, they were very excited to hear from someone in their past," Ray says.

Ray Atondo was searching the Internet for Sunnyvale High School classmates when Ray emailed him. He had lost contact with San Miguel Elementary students even though he still lives in Sunnyvale and works for the public works department.

In June 2001, 20 of the former elementary school students attended a reunion at Washington Park in Sunnyvale, where they had a barbecue, viewed old yearbooks, reminisced about the past and met everybody's spouses and children.

Although Ray says some faces were unrecognizable after 28 years, she recognized Larry Mullin after seeing the resemblance his son bore to him.

"A lot of us put on a few pounds," Atondo says. "It was incredible to see everyone again."

Classmates traveled from as far away as Oklahoma, Colorado and Southern California to attend the reunion. Others live in Morgan Hill, Gilroy, Sunnyvale and other cities throughout the Bay Area. They work in a wide range of industries, ranging from construction to the computer industry and education.

Ray says Sunnyvale has changed since the 1960s, when she and her friends played tag in the streets and rode their bicycles to the Sunnyvale mall, where they had lunch and bought candy. When she visited her old neighborhood and schools, she says, she did not see many children riding bikes.

"Even in the town where I live in Oklahoma, kids aren't out alone as much as when I grew up. It's a sign of the times," Ray says.

After the barbecue at the park, the group went to a restaurant in Sunnyvale. However, Ray says she feels she did not enough time to spend with everyone, so she plans to have another reunion this spring or summer. In the meantime she hopes to find those classmates she has been unable to locate.

For more information about a San Miguel Elementary School reunion this spring or summer, call Vicki Ray at 580.475.0121 or email vraymkay@yahoo.com.