Reunions

A tragic story ended happily Tuesday when a Garden Grove woman was reunited with her beloved dog, Fayth, who was lost in the aftermath of a freeway wreck. "She's my baby girl," said Traci Hastings, as she tugged on a pull toy with the dog, a barrel-shaped mix of cocker spaniel and Great Dane with mismatched eyes--one blue, one brown. "I just had to believe she was still alive."

Growing up in a middle-class housing tract in Orange County, inhabited by white families, I had steadfastly avoided learning about my Latino heritage. I thought of myself as a typical Southern California kid, spending long summer days at the beach or the mall. My five siblings and I didn't want to seem different from the other families in our cul-de-sac.

They spent six strained seasons together. They loved each other, despised each other, then tossed up their hands and parted company in 1985. Who would have thought that the reunion of Steve Howe and the Dodgers Wednesday would be so emotionless? When Howe took the mound for the New York Yankees in the ninth inning of an exhibition game at Ft. Lauderdale Stadium, he didn't even glance at the Dodgers' dugout. He stared at home plate. He wore no expression.

Thirty-two years ago, Charles Willgues Sr. boarded a bus for Los Angeles, leaving behind a wife and three small children in the family's home in Taylor, Mich. This week Willgues stepped off a jet at Detroit Metropolitan Airport and hugged the son who traced him to Los Angeles after Willgues led police to a Sacramento landlady suspected of killing her tenants. "This is the moment I've been waiting for for the last 32 years," Willgues, 58, said after embracing Charles Jr. in the airport terminal.

Beverly Hills High School, alma mater of Richard Dreyfuss, Andre Previn, Betty White, Rob Reiner, Corbin Bernsen and about 30,000 other people with less famous names and faces, will celebrate its 65th anniversary next weekend with a reunion of alumni and former teachers. Saturday events will include an alumni basketball tournament, a pep rally, a big band concert, a sock hop and other entertainment.

The Newport Beach Police Explorers next month will hold the first reunion in the group's 18-year history. The Explorers program, an offshoot of Boy Scouts of America, is a career-interest program for youths from 14 to 21. Stan Bressler, a 26-year veteran of the Newport Beach Police Department and founder of its program, said about 30 members of the group have gone on to careers in law enforcement.

Crew members of the spy ship USS Pueblo suffer from lingering emotional and physical wounds from their capture by the North Koreans 20 years ago, according to the organizer of a crew reunion. At least 50 of the 83 men aboard the ill-fated vessel were expected to attend the four-day reunion that began Friday, said Bob Chicca of Bonita, Calif., the event organizer who was a Marine staff sergeant aboard the ship. The Jan.

Pete Rose will not be allowed to take part in the 10th anniversary reunion of the Philadelphia Phillies' 1980 World Series championship team in the fall because of his lifetime ban from baseball. Commissioner Fay Vincent said Thursday at the New York Yankees' home opener that Rose cannot participate because the event is being sponsored by the team. Rose, the former Cincinnati manager who is baseball's all-time hit leader, was banned from baseball Aug. 24 by then-Commissioner A.

Christopher Duong hasn't seen his family since he fled to the United States from Vietnam almost 15 years ago. But thanks in part to his colleagues in the Westminster Police Officers Assn., Duong, now 30, will soon be reunited with his parents and two sisters. Duong works for the Police Department as a community service officer, and the association has raised $7,500 to help bring Duong's family to Orange County.

Helen Valentine never thought she would live long enough to see her granddaughter have a granddaughter. But at a five-generation family reunion last weekend, Valentine, 88, folded her arms around her great-great-granddaughter, Chelsea, and gently kissed her cheek. "I enjoy this. I appreciate it," she said with a smile. Family members, including 2-month-old Chelsea and her parents, John and Tonya Walkowiak, traveled from as far as Michigan for the event.