Update 10-13-09

Hi,

Now here's an interesting thought:

From Allen Moss:  Hi, Moss in Maine here.  Hope all is well with everyone.
        In my recent talking and e-mailing with Judy Peters Sylvan, Stu Kandel, and Judy Hartstone, the subject of a possible 45th reunion came up.  You can count the three of us as ready to go, and I was wondering whether you had heard anything from the other Falcons.  I suspect our 45th might be a bit like our 40th -- fewer people and a bit less frenetic than our 37th.
        But I think that was what was so good about the 40th.  People sat around and chatted and just relaxed.  I know a whole bunch of us spent several hours at the pool, just talking and taking an occasional swim.  It was wonderful.  Of course, everyone got geared up for the dinner-dance, but I think, over all, the atmosphere was less "charged."  Not that the 37th, with all its high voltage, was not the best, but again, the 40th just was different.
        So please let us all know if there is a tally and how it is coming.  Thanks.
        P.S.  It's peak colors in Brunswick right now, and there is no other place I would want to be.  I keep getting reminded that this was one of the reasons I wanted so much to move to Maine.
   
    [Rich -- as I wrote Allen:  We could try to get something small planned for late spring or early summer.  The East Coast seems best, probably between New York and Washington, DC, since we have groups in both places.  Let me stick your suggestion and this comment in this week's newsletter and see if we can get twenty-five people organized at their own expense.  No fancy party.  Just a restaurant that has room for us all, maybe once or twice, for dinners or breakfasts.  The rest of the weekend, we can gather informally in whatever size groups please us.]
   
    On another subject, from Marc Jonas:  I note, with some disappointment, Paul Zegler's failure to mention a Valiant Falcons discount for his show's tickets.  Must be the distance.
   
    From Eric Hilton:  I just wanted to repeat what I said in an earlier note -- that former South graduate, James Martin Kelley, class of '72, will be appearing on CSI:NY tomorrow night.
        Also, I will be flying to New York for the Jacob Javits Photo Expo and will be staying in Valley Stream.  I'll be there from October 21st to the 25th, and I've been in touch with Arlene Ainbinder.  She's trying to get as many people together as she did for my visit last year, probably at the same pizza place in Lynbrook.  It was such a great time.  Lots of wine and many laughs.  Please contact Arlene at arl448@aol.com if you can join us.
        And for those of you who remember this:  in 1965, my band opened up for the Tokens at an inter-sorority dance at the Sands beach club.  The Tokens were the group who sang "The Lion Sleeps Tonight."  Two weeks ago, I was in contact with the members of the group, and they remembered that dance, even after forty-four years.  Graciously, they invited my wife, me, and three of our friends to hang out with them at a concert they were playing in Ft Meyers, Florida.  If they are playing anywhere in your area, try to see them.  They were a great bunch of guys from Brooklyn, and they're still a lot of fun to hear.  I'm attaching a recent photo of them with me, and I hope you can upload it to our class of '65 web site.
   
    [Rich -- I asked Eric to send the photo on to Stu Borman.]
   
    And Stu just wrote:  Eric, the photo of you and the Tokens is now on the class photo site in your folder.  The site address is listed at the end of the update every week.  If you need to amend the caption in any way, please let me know.  Thanks for your contribution.  Regards.
    .
    The caption:  “After the concert in Fort Meyers, Florida, with old friends”
        Starting from the left:  Mike Johnson, keyboard; Jay Leslie, sax (played with Sha Na Na); me -- Eric Hilton -- guitarist with the Veritones; Noah Margo, drums; Phil Margo, original band member; and Mitch Margo, original band member.
        Noah is Phil's son, and Mitch is Phil's brother.
   
    From Barbara Blitfield Pech:  I see myself in some of this song.  Yikes.  Is this what Paul McCartney meant by "When I'm 64?"  http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=7lSliucgygc
   
    Finally, the rest of Val Manzo's class of '69 reunion piece, as promised last week:
        Now, it's my turn to describe the weekend.  "Stunning" and "amazing" readily come to mind.  The electricity in the air for three days was almost palpable.  At times, on Saturday evening, August 29th, I would just step back and watch the reconnections.
        Lynda, Anne Marie, and I could not interrupt it.  The announcements and welcoming song we had so carefully prepared had to wait -- until the DJ told us we'd better get going or the event would be over.
        We watched you all.  What a sight!  George Kapner and I just wrote each other about how it was so different from our reunion in 1988.  Was it our age?  The fact that fifteen of our former class members are now dead?  Maturity?  Or the Internet reminiscing that preceded this weekend?
        All of us must be eternally grateful to David Mekelburg.  The chat room set us all ablaze.  It helped us connect with the lost.  It helped us connect with the found.  It gave us a mechanism to share photos, thoughts, dreams, and memories -- good and bad.  What was most unexpected -- remarkable, and almost unimaginable to me -- was that the party was completely lacking in the very obvious "pecking order" present for six years at South High.
        I can't tell you what most of you do for a living -- or did, if you are retired.  Who cares?  We were there,
    for good or for ill, together, in our formative years.  Our Wonder Years!
        My reaction on Saturday to the men and women who, as boys and girls, made me feel welcome in "the Latin class" was visceral.  In 1963, I felt as if I had been beamed by Scotty onto the moon.  All my Brooklyn Avenue buddies except Bob La Rossa were gone.  Where was I?  Where was Barbara Callow, Joan Mahoney, and Loretta O' Connor?  Where'd everybody go?  Some people made me feel so welcome.  They stepped out of their comfort zones with their friends from elementary school and bothered with that kid
    from Brooklyn Avenue.
        When those folks came up to me on Saturday, I immediately felt who they were.  I didn't care where they lived, what they did, whether they were married or single, or if they had kids or not.  They were my old friends, the ones who cared then when it mattered, when I was 12.  And all those Brooklyn Avenue buddies I had lost -- Joe Santigate, Bill Taylor, Sue Slater, Andy Vidra -- the ones not seen in almost forty-six years, well, seeing them again, as adults, was amazing.  I felt the loss of them, and then finding them again, in my bones.
        The whole event was almost indescribable.  Never again will we let the rest of our lives so consume us that we forget who we were in 1963.  And I look forward to seeing you all again in New York City on September 17th at Rick Goldsmith's movie premiere.  Or thereafter.
        This is not over.  It is only the beginning.  God Bless you all.
   
    The South '65 e-mail addresses:  reunionclass65.blogspot.com
   
    The South '65 photo site:  picasaweb.google.com/SouthHS65
   
   
    Rich