Update 10-19-04

Hi,

Various notes that came in along with the 40th reunion votes. In the order they were received:

From Marc Jonas, before we picked a site: How about the Keystone state for the "venue" of the next reunion? It has so much to offer -- if only I could remember exactly what that is and how the heck I landed here.

Lynn Nudelman Villagran, on voting once unless you're triplets: Sounds fine to me. Sounds fine to me. Sounds fine to me.

From Bernie Scheidt: ...now that I live in Atlanta...

From Barbara Blitfield Pech: aw heck..i'll be more than glad to arrive on the 29th and stay through the 7th...assuming that i will enjoy the extended company of "classmates" who also need a long overdue home base touch!

From Ellen Epstein Silver: My sincerest sympathy goes out to Jerrie and Mickey Rachoi and their family. Do you have their current home address? I would like to send a card and note to them.

[Rich -- I don't, unfortunately. Can someone else help?]

From Stuart Kandel: It's a nice hotel with a very large bar in the lobby.

From Michele Cohen Collins (soon to be Stafford): Just some happy news to pass along from me: Sunday, John and I will be married. Some of the folks met John at the last big reunion and at one of the get-togethers at Lilly Flanagans. Also, my youngest daughter and her husband had a beautiful baby girl in March.

[Rich -- Congratulations, of course, on both accounts, from all of us.]

From Roz Minsky Bobrow: We just had our daughter's wedding, a month ago. Our wonderful new son-in-law works in Melville. AND they live in West Hempstead!

[Rich -- More congratulations, from all.]

From Judy Peters Sylvan: I'm sure I'm not the first to say it, but, "Can it be three years already?" Yikes!

From Moss in Maine: GREAT JOB everyone. Thanks so much!

[Rich -- Thanks for the committee's work was offered by a lot of people.]

From Martha Morenstein: Though I certainly did NOT graduate from high school 40 years ago, I'd be happy to attend a reunion celebrating that auspicious event.

From Zelda White Nichols: I am very excited to announce that the offer we put on a house in North Carolina has been accepted. It's on High Rock Lake in Lexington, North Carolina, and we are looking to close at the end of January. Due to schedules on both our and the current property owners' sides, that is the earliest date we could arrange. We are eagerly anticipating coming home to the East coast.

From Rachael Robinson: Thanks for the wishes for safety in the hurricanes, but I'm no longer in Florida, so I was out of harm's way -- although I still have a son, daughter, and ex-husband there.
Also, I just got a note from Liz King Giordano, Principal Stephen Lando's secretary at South, saying, "The Vince Tampio and Booker Gibson plaques are finally hanging in our main corridor across from the main office. Enclosed is the invoice." The plaques were a bit more expensive than we'd been told -- $350 total, rather than $200 -- but, hey, things work that way. We'll just have to sell some extra cookies on Vince's and Booker's behalf.

Finally, some educational filler, from a friend of mine who spends too much time reading the Farmers' Almanac. Here's what things were like in the United States only 100 years ago, in 1904:
-- The average life expectancy was 47 years, with more than 95 percent of all births taking place at home.
-- Only 14 percent of all homes had a bathtub, so most women only washed their hair once a month, and they used borax or egg yolks for shampoo.
-- Only 8 percent of the homes had a telephone, and a three-minute call from Denver to New York City cost eleven dollars.
-- There were only 8,000 cars and only 144 miles of paved roads. The maximum speed limit in most cities was 10 mph.
-- Sugar cost four cents a pound. Eggs were fourteen cents a dozen. Coffee was fifteen cents a pound.
-- The average wage was 22 cents an hour. The average worker made between $200 and $400 per year. An accountant could expect to earn $2000 per year; a dentist, $2,500 per year; a veterinarian between $1,500 and $4,000 per year; and a mechanical engineer about $5,000 per year.
-- 2 of 10 adults couldn't read or write. Only 6 percent of all Americans had graduated high school. Ninety percent of all physicians had no college education. Instead, they attended medical schools, many of which were condemned in the press and by the government as substandard.
-- The American flag had 45 stars. Arizona, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Hawaii, and Alaska hadn't been admitted to the Union yet. Alabama, Mississippi, Iowa, and Tennessee were each more heavily populated than California -- with a mere 1.4 million residents, California was only the 21st most populous state. The population of Las Vegas, Nevada was 30,
-- The five leading causes of death in the U.S. were:
1. Pneumonia and influenza
2. Tuberculosis
3. Diarrhea
4. Heart disease
5. Stroke
-- 18 percent of all households had at least one full-time servant.
-- There were only about 230 reported murders in the entire country.
-- Marijuana, heroin, and morphine were all available over the counter at corner drugstores. According to one pharmacist, "Heroin clears the complexion, gives buoyancy to the mind, regulates the stomach and bowels, and is, in fact, a perfect guardian of health."
-- Canned beer hadn't yet been invented.

Rich