Update 10-25-05

Hi,

First, from Linda Cohen Greenseid:  Funny about timing and coincidences in life.  Ellen Epstein Silver and I grew up across the street from each other in Lynbrook and became best friends.  Eventually, in our college years, we drifted apart and lost touch.  Fast forward to the end of 1970.  There I was in Long Island Jewish Hospital on November 30th, giving birth to my first child, Jennifer.  I went home four or five days later and enter Ellen, giving birth in the same hospital to her second child, Jessica, on December 6th.  We missed each other by a day or two.
    We reconnected around our fortieth birthdays and realized that we almost had our babies together.  We became really close again, and Jennifer and Jessica were friends for a time in their twenties.  Fast forward again to October 2005.  Jessica and Jennifer are both pregnant:  Jessica with her first, due around October 14th, and Jennifer with her second, due around November 12th.  So I call Ellen on her cell phone on October 23rd  to tell her that Jennifer was three weeks early and had a little boy named Daniel Grayson at 6 lbs. 8 oz. at around 1:30 AM.  Ellen is in her car on her way to Los Angeles because on October 22nd at 10:30 PM, Jessica had a little girl named Rebecca Lynn at 6 lbs. 9 oz.  Because of the three hour time difference, they had their babies at the same time.  Funny about timing and coincidences.
    We are so happy for Ellen and Alan and wish Jess and her whole family much love and luck and health.  And welcome Ellen to this Grandma thing.  Daniel is our sixth, and it just gets better and better.  

Second:  South won the North-South game.

Third, from Booker Gibson:  Thanks to wonderful Lynn Nudelman Villagran for remembering my October 20th seventy-fifth  birthday.  My wife gave me a party on that evening with my four college roommates.  For any interested baseball fans:  I was born on October 20, 1930, and a slightly more famous guy, Mickey Mantle, was born on October 20, 1931.

[Rich --  Jeez, if we'd have known it was your seventy-fifth, we would have sent candy or something.  Hope the party was fun.]

Fourth:  Happy birthday, Nancy Garfield.

Next, from Barbara Blitfield Pech:  It's  official!  Terri Donohue Calamari and I have decided to not mention the hurricane that is direct-line-targeted for Naples/Miami where we each live and have instead opted to target the second weekend in January -- Martin Luther King Weekend -- to announce the open-invitation Class of '65 Florida contingency get-together brunch.  No other plans have been made.  We will update after Wilma leaves and arrange something that includes ... olives!  Pass the word on.

[Rich -- I hope Florida dries by then.  I spoke briefly with friends of mine in Key West at noon on Monday.  They had four feet of water in their front yard, and there's generally three feet of water in the Key West streets.  And the center of the storm is 110 miles north of them, which would put it right about Naples.
    So, from friends of mine in Naples:  Wilma slammed into Florida about twenty miles south of here, but since the storm was seventy-five miles wide, we got much of it.  We had to evacuate and spent Sunday night with friends in North Naples, more inland.  They lost part of their roof and lots of trees.  We slipped home this evening despite police barricades discouraging residents from returning.  The police want people to evacuate, then won't let them back home when the storms are over.  That's why people don't want to evacuate in the first place.  Surprisingly, we have no damage to our place other than missing gutters, screens, and downspouts.  There are also loads of downed trees, including a giant old banyan which completely blocks the street in front of us.  But everyone we know is safe, and that's all that's important.
    A sidenote, from The Naples Florida Online News:  "Bjorn Again, the ABBA experience, which was scheduled for 8:00 PM tonight at the Philharmonic Center for the Arts, has been canceled due to Wilma."]

Also from Barbara:  I am waiting out another hurricane.  This isn't the Miami I had in mind when we transferred here thirty years ago, but nonetheless, it's where I'm at.  I've got my priorities for this storm taken care of:  nails, ice cream, water, gas in the car, cash from the ATM, and I'll toss in a few loads of laundry before all hell breaks loose Sunday night or Monday morning.  At least, a daytime hurricane is visible, which is somehow better than listening to the house shake in the dark.  All things considered, we have been fortunate, and I pray that our luck holds.  Actually, I am dreading having to "inconvenience" myself by schlepping the patio furniture and all that goes with it into the house again, boarding up the windows, and then dealing with the aftershock of devastation and assorted street horrors.  But, on the bright side, at least there's no snow to shovel.

And from Barbara:  From what I can see, canceling the senior prom is only cheerful news if you aren't planning to go.  But what's next?  Sock hops, football games, and study halls?  It just indicates that school administrations have buckled under and surrendered control to the students.  Of course, setting standards and guide lines for what is acceptable in a prom, and enforcing the event would be a really good start.  The Miami schools have opted to hold "all nighters" at hotels, offering prom packages including the ballroom for the prom and changing rooms so kids can switch from gowns and tuxes to swimsuits and shorts for the after-parties.  There are also a breakfast buffets at 7:00 AM, and the prom guests can hang out at the pools until 9:00 AM.  It's been a plan here for years and one that works

Not from Barbara, but for her, from Jay Berliner:  I became a grandfather for the second time.  Our grandchild was born August 13th, one month early, and is a little girl named Jamie Reese.  All are doing well.

Not from or for Barbara, but from Paul DeMartino, for everyone including Ms. Pech:  Last Sunday, a group of South alumni got together at a pub in Rockville Centre for some good conversation and general catching up.  Attendees included Dennis Shapiro, Larry Coleman, Joan Aries, Pete Panzarino '69, Art Yngstrom '69, Pat Yngstrom '67, and me.  Joan showed off pictures of her cute grandson, and Larry suggested that we make this a semi-regular event, just an informal get-together without all the planning and stress of a formal reunion.  So we will do this again in November, with a tentative date set of Sunday, November 20th,  around 1:00 PM.  The exact place has not yet been determined and will depend upon how many people respond.  All alumni are invited and can contact me at:  pdem070@msn.com

From Emily Kleinman Schreiber:  The North-South game day was fun, and, yes, we did sign up quite a few alumni for our organization.  These people also know others from South and have promised me they'd get back to me with names and addresses.  Claire Brush Reinhardt and Roberta Brill, both '62, were there with me, and I have some pictures, but I haven't formatted them yet.
    Also,  I put down a deposit today at the Knights of Columbus, the place where our class successfully held our last two reunions ('01 and '03).  Do mark your 2006 calendars -- Saturday, October 28, 2006 is the date, and the time will be from 12:30 PM to 5:30 PM.  Those of you who are regulars know that the "kids" hang out in the lounge after the party is over, and we'll do that again in '06.  We also extend the party to Sunday brunch.  So start thinking ahead in terms of reacquainting yourself with old buddies.
     In 2003, the number of attendees was lower than in 2001, maybe because we had just seen each other in '01, so this time the committee has decided to have a joint reunion.  The Class of '62 has signed on, and we're trying to locate a contact for '63.  I've also e-mailed John Willows '60, but I don't know if his class is interested.  So right now, it's definitely a '61/'62 happening, but everyone else is invited.  Again, that's October 28, 2006.

Finally, last Friday, one of my SAT students, a junior at a good private school, learned that a duck is a bird.  And that ducks can fly.  And that gooses -- which the rest of us call geese -- can also fly.  It began with a vocabulary word, "fledgling," and the student saying it was "a little bird."  I said, "Or a duck."  She said that ducks weren't birds because they couldn't fly.  I said they could fly.  She said, no, her local pond had ducks and gooses in it, and she was sure they were put there by the town, which rented them because they looked pretty and so that people could feed them.