Update 2-19-02

The Special Allen Moss Edition.

But first, business:

Paul DeMartino's address:  (Please remember to make your check out to Paul DeMartino, note South '65 Reunion somewhere on it, indicate how many people it covers, and, if you wish, add a contribution toward the hospitality suite.)
       Paul DeMartino
       10 Saltaire Place
       Massapequa, New York  11758

Next, the coming informal New York gathering:
When:    Saturday, March 9, 2002  1:00 PM
Where:   Lily Flanagans, 279 Sunrise Highway, Rockville Centre
Contact: Paul DeMartino: PINA_1@msn.com or 516-799-1590  (Or just show up.)

Information about our on-going juke box quest:
       From Paul DeMartino:  I called a place on the juke box rental.  $350, for one night, which includes delivery and pick-up.  It's a modern unit, not the old fashioned type, and holds a mix of 100 CDs, mostly oldies.
       From Judy Peters Sylvan:  I took the liberty of asking the AV guy at the hotel what he can do for music on Saturday night.  He suggested setting up a 5-disc CD changer for us and said he would also set up a sound system for the room we're in.  The cost of this would be $200 since the room they have us in has no built-in sound system. He said the room we are in is like a night club, so piped-in music might be a good idea.  While I was at it, I also went on the web and located two places that rent juke boxes in the area.  One only had a weekend rate which we don't need.  The other gave me a price of $325 for Saturday night, which includes delivery and pick-up.
       More from Paul:  I visited the juke box rental store which is located in West Babylon and talked to the owner. The juke box is not too large to handle (about 4.5 feet high, 2 feet deep, and 3.5 feet wide) and holds over 1000 songs.  The owner said there are mostly oldies albums and compilations in it, and there was no way to hear all of them in one day.  There are a couple of other assorted albums in it too, but he assured me that it is 80% oldies.  The total cost is $353, and that includes tax and delivery.  He wants to pick-up after midnight, which means we will have to switch to a boombox afterwards at the hospitality suite.
 00020000062D00000886 627,       From Marc Jonas:  If the juke box idea holds, can we get a list of records from the rental company and select those we want?  Gotta have Silhouettes.  And 50's and 60's music, I think.  Lion Sleeps Tonight.  Beach Boys.  Twist.  The Stroll.  At the Hop.  Those oldies but goodies remind me of you.  NO DISCO.  NO DISCO. 

More from Judy Peters Syvlan, this time about the video:  the hotel doesn't have anyone who can do a video, but for $190 the AV guy will set up a camera in the hospitality suite on Friday night and will leave it there until Sunday morning.  We'd have to operate it ourselves.  The price is not bad, but I suppose if someone coming from the area has a camera and tripod, and can bring it with them, it will only cost us the price of a tape or two.

Rich again:  On both the juke box and video questions, we could use some reactions to guide our choices.  The advantage of a juke box seems to be that people could program it as they'd like, though I doubt it would provide better sound than a good boom box.  Also, as many women as men have asked me, off the record, whether they'd actually be expected to dance to whatever music is eventually selected.  Seems they never learned and don't want to now.  So are we providing background or entertainment?

A thought from Barbara Blitfield Pech:  With many of us arriving at MacArthur/Islip Airport on Friday, I would be more than happy to collect flight arrival and car rental information and get a schedule compiled so we can buddy up on the drive to the hotel rather than waiting for the jitney.
 00020000065400000EAD 64E,
More from Paul DeMartino:  I got in touch with Newsday and they aren't sure they can run our announcement anymore since they've run it four times and supposedly are inundated with requests.  Also, I'm holding off sending you the pictures of the February 9th New York gathering since I took only half a roll.  I'll finish the roll on March 9th and send it to you then.

Also, introducing a new series of running totals:  So far 16 people have paid for their Saturday night dinners---that's a total of $720 toward the projected $4000 cost.  Plus, we have $480 donated toward the hospitality suite.

Some RSVPs:

From Linda Iaquinto O'Hara:  Please add Dennis and me to the list for the reunion.  It sounds like it's going to be great fun.  See you then.
       
From RoseMarie Cassillo:  The time is getting closer, and I really can't wait for this reunion.  I had to miss the New York gathering on 2/9, but hopefully, I will make the one on 3/9.  Also, I was looking through the pics on our reunion site and in William L. Buck's Mr. Cellura's sixth grade class, I noticed that to the left of Mr. Cellura was a question mark for the long haired blonde.  She is Joan Sunderberg.  I also have my sixth grade picture of Mr. Walter Kregal's class at Buck, and will send it to you soon.

From Jerry Bittman:  I love getting these updates.  I think everybody is having fun with this, and old and new friendships are developing.  I will hopefully be at the reunion, and am looking forward to seeing everybody.  Has anybody heard from Eddie Bonlarron -- who led us to victory over North our senior year?  Also I know that a lot of you northerners would like to look tan for the reunion, and I know that Pete Rosen has a case of Man Tan he is looking to sell.  I am trying very hard to get
down to my fighting weight before the reunion arrives (oh, by the way, did I say that I used to be a sumo wrestler?)  Recently, I've spent a lot of time on the computer, and approximately 9 months ago I began to write a book that I hope to complete in the next year.  I visit many chat rooms -- everything from Sports to Cultures -- and I even spent a night talking with kids in a Teen Sex chat room (they know more than I did at that age).  Anyway, I've had hundreds of people e-mail me stories about their experiences on the net.  Some are humorous, some are romantic, and others are business adventures.  No names will be used in the book, but I would appreciate any
anecdotes anyone has to offer.  Just e-mail them to me: crazygeronimo@yahoo.com  Thanks.

A regret, from Jim Holecek:  I would love to attend the reunion, but I live in Central Florida, and New York is a little too far for me to travel.  But please say "hello" to all the people at the reunion, and to all others, my warmest greetings.

An oversight, spotted by Jane Wolff Katz:  You forgot me, too.  I'm planning to bring my spouse since we'll be at a resort-type place.  Also, I like Judy Hartstone's idea -- at my husband's reunion they put the yearbook photos on the name badges as well. Plus, they put together a post-reunion book, including contact information, old pictures, and new pictures.
  
A new e-mail address for Louise Wiemer:  Lsbeckert@hotmail.com

Some new pictures on the home page from Diane Fruzzetti.

A sad note:  Mr.Maggio, a Math teacher, and Ms. Wiedman, a Gym teacher, have both died.

Unrelated, I think today's Alan Finder's birthday.

Finally, this week's guest commentator, Allen Moss:

       And now, Bob Fiveson, move over as I get my dibs in with a bit of baby boomer stream of consciousness.
       When I read the piece about Irish McCalla (Sheena, Queen of the Jungle) passing away, it really got me thinking about the television hero and heroine role models of our childhood years.  It might seem ludicrous to think that Irish McCalla, an inexperienced actress running around a Hollywood backlot in a cheesy-looking costume while fighting rubber alligators and fake lions, might be any type of role model.  But I wonder whether, for some of our women Falcons growing up in that era, it was their first real glimpse of something that was to come many years later, and only with great effort and emotional sacrifice:  the emergence of an empowered woman who was confident, athletic, and could hold her own with men.
       Interestingly, there are some incredibly striking similarities between good old Sheena in her jungle suit and our latter day strong women character roles like Lt. Ripley from Alien, or Xena from the recent TV series of the same name.  From that perspective, one could think that Irish McCalla's character was an incredible ground-breaker into 1950's girls' collective consciousness!  Sure, the women Falcons still had a long way to go considering that Harriet Nelson, June Cleaver, Gidget, and their like reigned supreme for quite awhile.  But that makes it all the more remarkable that the show was created and survived during that period.  Would it be too much of a stretch to think that, on the women's' evolutionary empowerment scale, that Sheena begat Honey West (Anne Francis' s tough, confident, private eye of the early '60s) who begat Emma Peel from the Avengers, who begat Cagney and Lacey, who begat the strong women we now see on television?
     Now admittedly, when you look at video reruns of shows like Sheena, Ramar of the Jungle, Wild Bill Hickock, Roy Rogers, and Rocky Jones, Space Ranger (and his woman scientist assistant Vena Ray), they clearly demonstrate how laughably cheap and poorly done they were.  But those 1950's characters really embodied far more meaningful heroic qualities, I think, than today's models.  They were what we had to feed our imagination and give us, initially, some foundation consciousness of the type of person we might want to become:  confident, smart, adventurous, and with decent values.  Yes, they were sort of simplistic, somewhat one-dimensional advertisements for what high principles and goodness were supposed to be about, but, at the very least, they were untainted by scandal, spin, media-hype, money, and the abuse of power to which many latter day generational role models have succumbed.  I, for one, am really glad that I was growing up in the Golden Age of Television with so many of those heroes and heroines from which to choose.
       I would also like to believe that these characters embodied things that were central to the values and skills we would soon need to face the pretty screwed up adult world we were entering -- the world in which many of our classmates would have to raise their children, and prepare them to raise their own children (which became -- dare I say it -- our grandchildren -- Yikes!)
       So all this nostalgia over the death of an actress who had her 15 minutes of fame in 1956 by running around in an old Halloween costume?  YES!  Some people might say, "Get over it!" but I answer back with a resounding appreciation for all our past wonderful heroes and heroines.  There will never again be the likes of Jon Hall (Ramar of the Jungle), Gail Page (Annie Oakley), Guy Madison (Bill Hickock and Zorro), Richard Crane (Rocky Jones) and many more whose images flickered across our little television screens.  At least for me and, hopefully, for some of you, they were part of a unique time that all of us, no matter who we are now, or where we live, or what we are doing, will always share.  And I think it is great to know that!
      On a more personal level, since rejoining our group several months ago, I have been e-mailing and talking to many of my high school classmates, and it has been an incredible experience- -- lots of shared memories and lots of laughs.  It certainly sounds like it has been the same for all of us who have connected with many people that shared our lives during those years.  For me, it can't get much better that Linda Iaquinto O'Hara e-mailing me a wonderful hello the other night.  Not only were we classmates, but we were across-the-street neighbors from 1955 until graduation.  We played as kids, and she was my "heavy date" for my bar mitzvah in 1960.  It was just wonderful hearing from her, and we will certainly share a special moment when we see each other in April.


Currently coming in April:

Joan Aires                           Alison Altman                      Fran Bellucci Johnson
Jay Berliner & wife                Jerry Bittman                       Barbara Blitfeld Pech
Barbara Brill                         Tom Calise                          RoseMarie Cassillo Digilio
Linda Chanes Abel               Marsha Churnin Soroka        Michele Cohen Collins
Peggy Cooper Schwartz        Jerrie Clamp Rachoi             Steve Davidson
Grace Dibble Kincade           Terri Donohue Calamari        Paul DeMartino
Carmine DeSanto                 Andy Dolich                         Richard Duncan
Wes Eddy and wife               Rich Eisbrouch                    Barbara Endy Ianniello
Ellen Epstein Silver               Carol Ewig Duran                 Alan Finder
Robin Feit                            Emily Ferber Sondheimer     Marc Fishman
Robert Fiveson                     Mike Flomp Floyd                Diane Fruzzetti
Henry Gabbay                      Peggy Galinger Menaker      Nancy Garfield
Jay Gladky                          Stuart Glasser                     Rick Glickman Wall
Marc Goldberg                     Neil Guberman                     Art Halprin
Judy Hartstone                     Sharon Hoenig Barry      Marilyn Horowitz Goldhammer
Linda Iaquinto O'Hara            Cynthia Ingolia Kammerer     Marc Jonas
Stu Kandel                           Barnet Kellman                   Rob Kelman
Jay Kinder                           Ralph Kramer                       Ira Levy
David Licht                           Roz Minsky Bobrow             Ira Mitzner
Jeryl Monsees Denois           Martha Morenstein               Allen Moss
Ken Nolan                            Ellen Nudelman Davidson     Lynn Nudelman Villagran
Dennis O'Hara                      Audrey Olsen                      Judy Peters Sylvan
Dennis Pizzimenti                Rachael Robinson Rizzo       Peter Rosen
Sam Ross                           Larry Rugen & wife               Jane Ruzow Tiell
Irene Saunders Goldstein      Bernie Scheidt                     Paulinda Schimmel
Robin Seader Cottmeyer       Dennis Shapiro                    Robin Singer Taylor
Mary Sipp Green                  Ray Staley               Benette Steindam Pizzimenti ('66)
Jay Tuerk                             Gayle Ulrich Ramesh           Linda Vicinanza Marrs
Louise Wiemer                     Janice Williams Teewe         Jane Wolf Katz / husband
Paul Zegler                          Barbara Zingman Braunstein

Fast Address Link: http://hometown.aol.com/reunionclass65/myhomepage/profile.html

Home Page Link: http://hometown.aol.com/falcons1965a/myhomepageprofile.html


Rich