Update 4-8-03


Hi,

First, a song from Jerry Bittman:
      Happy birthday to you,
      Happy birthday to you,
      Happy birthday, Lynn, Ellen, and Nancy,
      Happy birthday to you.
      It's not quite April 11th, but it never hurts to plan ahead.  Also, I just got back from my singing lesson, so I'm in good voice.  Only kidding -- some things are beyond repair.  In high school, Peter Rosen, Kenny Seelig, and I used to sing "Help Me, Rhonda."  The three of us were so bad that we actually thought we harmonized.  Now if anybody wants to hire me to sing at a reception, my fee is one large New York pizza, one gallon of Italian ices, one box of Entermann's chocolate donuts, and a meal at the Wood-Ro Deli.

Next, a song to Jerry Bittman, from the rest of us.
      H spells H,
      HA spells Ha!
      HAP spells Hap.
      PY spells Py.
      Happy Birthday, Jerry!
(Lyrics care of an obscure Broadway musical called Let It Ride!)

From Janice Williams Teeuwe:  Hello, all of my favorite classmates.  I need your prayers for an exam in my anthropology class on Tuesday.  I really am enjoying going back to school, and I decided to get a degree in anthropology.  I don't quite agree with everything, but I do enjoy learning.  Also, I have been writing to Steve Zuckerman in Puerto Rico, Zelda White in California, and Ellen Epstein in Texas, and I am enjoying all of their correspondence.  What fun it is to be involved with their lives once again.  Zelda, Ellen, and I plan on getting together in the near future.  What fun we will have.  I can hardly wait.  Please let me know when we will be having the next big reunion, as I want to be there.  As for recent news:  well, we did get hit with tons of snow.  We had over four feet, were housebound for four days, and had to be plowed out.  Of course, my husband was in Maryland for schooling when the blizzard of '03 showed up.  I am anxiously awaiting for my dirt roads to clear up again so I can go riding my Harley.  I have not skied yet this year, but I still plan on doing spring skiing.  That is really a lot of fun -- you wear shorts and a tank top, and away you go.  I still am involved with Habitat for Humanities, I have built four houses with them, and I am their caller for volunteers.  Also, my daughter Brittany is doing great.  She just took the Iowa Test, and, as usual, tests way above her grade level.  Must be because I home school her ... pat, pat, pat.  When I get a good photo, I will have my brilliant 15-year-old scan it and send it.  Anyway, I will close for now, but please  remember to keep all of our military in your prayers.  And God bless you all.

Some further Bonlarron information from an informant who prefers to remain anonymous:  Another dead end on the Bonlarron lead via the Long Island Gladiators.  Who ever would have thought there would be two Eddie Bonlarrons -- and on Long Island, to boot!   Anyway, here's a quick note I got back from one of their reps:  "Eddie played briefly for us in 2001.  He would be 37-years-old today, and he went to school in Syosset.  Possibly, his family is in the electronics business.  If you play softball, we are based in Dix Hills, and play in Western Suffolk.  Thanks, Dave."

James Karl has picked up his blind e-mail from Classmates.com.  But no confirmation from Frank Bonlarron.

A series of notes between Robert Fiveson and me, stemming from last week's newsclippings:
      From Robert:  Let me state at the outset that I certainly have views on this thing we are calling a war.  But my feelings about it are irrelevant.  I must ask, though, with the power of a bully pulpit, what your greater point is?  Let's review:  Bush is an imbecile with no real world view.  Patriotism is non-partisan when it comes to rulers.  The new media is hurtful.  That by attacking (Bush?) Lenin, Communism (The Republic?) collapsed?  Either I am denser than I thought, (very probable as I suffer from delusions of adequacy), or this is some elliptical, syllogistic cul de sac of an intellectual treasure hunt I have lost sight of.  The point being....?
      From me:  There's no point, though I don't mean to use the updates as any kind of pulpit.  I just electronically clip interesting quotes, mainly to fill space when I'm short on letters.  I'm pretty much a featherweight, politically, but I read a lot.
      From Robert:  Yes, but what you didn't pick up on is that your perspective comes through very obviously!  Thus, my reference to the bully pulpit.  Then again, getting everyone to think is commendable, though I have a feeling the updates are veering toward a coffee-clotch-antiwar-forum.  That's OK, but it's exclusionary.  Still, anyone is welcome to chime in otherwise, I am sure.
      From me:  Yeah, I knew I wasn't being particularly subtle.  I just wasn't being completely obvious.  As for who's reading the updates:  who the hell knows?  I don't think any of the commentary has turned anyone particularly off, except by its triviality.  I think there are mostly people who read, and occasional people who read and write back.  As I've said before, several times I've felt the weekly updates are something that's time has ended, but I keep them going as a conduit.  Electronic bulletin boards don't seem to have as much immediacy as something delivered weekly to your computer, even if it's only slightly more elevated than spam.  The war has, rightly, destroyed most of the interest in the updates, and I'm just on the edge, again, of  discontinuing them, as I've been doing way too much writing for them lately and very little editing.
      From Robert:  NO!  Do not let me piss on your leg and say it's raining!  You're doing fine.  I just wondered what your political point was.  And maybe an electronic  bulletin board would let those who really want to make an effort do so.  But I don't know.
      From me:  As I said, this is a conduit, which, at the moment, is staying in place.  Though if anyone would like his or her name deleted from the weekly mailing list, please let me know.  I'll only contact you when something important happens, like a death or a reunion.

On a related subject, something else that arrived from a friend:  My pulling back from things is merely temporary.  I still have very pleasant memories of last April, but am at an age now -- aren't we all? -- where I guess I'm trying to sort through the past to make better sense of the future.  I sometimes think I'm too strongly connected to the past, and am trying hard to avoid inevitable feelings of nostalgia that sneak up on me from time-to-time.  So I'm not too eager to hear from people who want to talk just of the old days -- wasn't it Carly Simon who sang: "These are the good old days"?  That sort of encapsulates my feelings at the moment, although, God knows, I'm sure this is all somehow related simply to aging.  Though I can say, somewhat unequivocally, that I'll look forward to seeing everyone again in the near future.

Which brings up a timely reminder:  Only 26 days till the 38th reunion.  Oh, that Clara Hoogenboom were alive to join us.  Meanwhile, contact Paul DeMartino for details at PINA_1@msn.com

Some fast business:  I'm going to close ReunionClass65@aol.com for two days, from late Monday night, April 7th, till late Wednesday night, April 9th.  This is just an attempt to stop some spam, and it worked on my other address.  Most people who send me stuff for the updates write on Thursdays and Fridays anyway -- I don't know why.  But if you absolutely need to e-mail me on Tuesday or Wednesday, please use my other address:  REisbrouch@aol.com   Thanks

This week's news clips:  From Jon Lee Anderson's "Letter From Baghdad," in the April 7th New Yorker:  "The sandstorm is coming back," one of the doctors said.  I asked him how he knew, and he sniffed the air.  "You can smell it," he said.  "It smells like earth."  This had a special significance for him.  "Whenever I smell this, it reminds me of dead people," he said.  "Think about it.  Think of Iraq's history.  What is that history but thousands of years of wars and killing?  This is something we have always done rather well, and a lot, right back to Sumerian and Babylonian times.  Millions of people have died on this earth and become part of it.  Their bodies are part of the land, the earth we are breathing."

Also, from the New Yorker, April 7th:  In August of 1990, Hassan found himself conscripted into Saddam's Army and was sent to Kuwait.  He and three comrades managed to desert their unit in the first week of the occupation.  After walking all night, they wound up in Saudi Arabia, where Hassan eventually turned himself over to coalition troops.  "And they gave me to Nebraska."  By 1994, Hassan had a job in a meatpacking plant in the town of Schuyler.  "Very boring in Nebraska," he said.  "And too much cold."

Finally, for Mr. Jonas:  Once, God was missing for six days.  Eventually, Michael the Archangel found him, and he asked God, "Where have you been?"
      God gave a deep sigh of satisfaction and proudly pointed down through the clouds.  "Look, Michael.  Look, what I've made."
      Michael looked, then asked, puzzled, "What is it?"
      "It's a planet, and I've put Life on it.  I'm going to call it Earth, and it's going to be a great place of balance."
      "Balance?" Michael asked.  And God explained:
      "For example, northern Europe will be a place of great opportunity, while southern Europe is going to be poor.  The Middle East will be a hot spot.  Over there, I've placed a continent of white people, and over here, a continent of black ones."
      The Archangel, impressed by God's work, pointed to a large land mass and asked, "What's that?"
      "Ah," said God. "That's Pennsylvania, the most glorious place on Earth.  There are beautiful lakes, rivers, sunsets, and rolling hills.  The people from Pennsylvania are going to be modest, intelligent, and humorous, and are going to be found traveling the world.  They will be extremely sociable, hard working, and high achieving, and will be known throughout history as diplomats and carriers of peace."
      Michael gasped in admiration, then said, "But what about balance?  You said there would be balance!"
      God smiled wisely, then replied, "Wait till you see the idiots I've put around them in New York, New Jersey, Delaware, West Virginia, and Ohio."

The home page:   http://hometown.aol.com/falcons1965a


Rich