Update 11-4-08

Hi,

This should be an interesting day.  In fact, we should be headed into a time perhaps as interesting as any in our lives.  But first, some catch-up mail from last week.  Then, some mail from this week.  Be aware that any time people began to get well-intentionally effusive about my contributions to the newsletter, they got mysteriously edited out.
   
    From Zelda White Nichols:  I, too, don’t often participate in, but eagerly look forward to, the newsletter every week.  I have always felt that one needs a purpose in life, and mine is to try to make a difference, whether it’s to people or to animals.  I learned a long time ago that I can’t save the world, but I can make a difference to one life at a time.  This newsletter touches many lives each week and has made a difference over these past few years.
   
    From Jay Tuerk:  Hello from Panama.  The newsletter is probably creating more re-introductions than you realize.  Actually, the newsletter has been almost as much fun to watch as this presidential campaign, and that's saying a lot.
        Two things:  I noticed that my e-mail address is incorrectly listed.  It should be:  jay.tuerk@gmail.com
    And if anyone cares to see what I am doing here, check out:  www.esanterra.com
   
    From Peter Panzarino:  Many of you are a bit older than I am, since I was in the class of '69, but I remember some of you and enjoy reading your weekly banter.
        I also recall many of the old stores previously mentioned.  In the Green Acres Shopping Center, before it was an enclosed mall, my friends and I would walk through Cookies and stuff our mouths with the pickles that were sitting on the tables.  Then, we would go into Sam Goody and look for hit 45s.  Also, has anyone mentioned The House of Hassocks or Pizza King on Sunrise Highway?  The classic hassock store eventually went out of business and gave my friends and me some free hassocks.  The poor pizzeria was a victim of Italian lightning.  With help from my friends, I rescued one of the restaurant's picnic tables, which we carried to my home on Bismark Avenue.  For many years, my family enjoyed eating on it.
        My home was also not far from Tim Chan's. So the quiz today is:  What was the name of the wine and cheese lounge that occupied the same building as Tim Chan's after it went out of business?  This was across from Gem Electronics.
   
    From your class representative from the beautiful state of Maine, Allen Moss:  Hope all is well with all my classmates as we try to keep steady in pretty rocky times
        Also,  I cannot find new class blogspot on the web.  I Mozilla-ed it -- which is like Googling it -- and came up with nothing.  What am I doing wrong?
   
    [Rich -- Allen wasn't doing anything wrong.  Other people have had the same problem.  Oddly, for being a blog created as part of the Google system, the hardest way to find the new class site is when you're using gmail.  When you're using Internet Explorer, you can simply type -- or cut and paste -- the blog address into the browser window, and you're led to the site.  But if you use any Google window, you come up with an error messages.  Also, since the AOL home pages have just been discontinued, their links are ghosting throughout the web, but they're now also connected to error messages.  I don't know how many years it will take to undo that.  I also tried to link our class contact list with the Valley Stream South High School entry on Wikipedia, but it was quickly edited out.  More news on this when I get or understand it.]
   
    This week's letters, starting with one from Marc Jonas:  I noticed that Fred Armisen, from “Saturday Night Live,” was born in Valley Stream, but it turns out he went to Central.  That took me to South's entry on Wikipedia:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valley_Stream_South_High_School
   
    A link to old Westerns, sent by Larry Kincade, who adds, "Why isn't Richard Widmark mentioned?"  http://oldfortyfives.com/thoseoldwesterns.htm
   
    And from Peter Panzarino, a similar link, which has been mentioned here before by Barbara Blitfield Pech:  http://moreoldfortyfives.com/TakeMeBackToTheSixties.htm
   
    Claire Brush Reinhardt sent two dozen pictures from South's recent Homecoming, and I suspect some of these will turn up in the Alumni Association Bulletin.  But if you're so curious you can't wait, please write Claire at:  reino@optonline.net  and she'll probably forward copies of the photos to you.
   
    Judy Hartstone wrote:  Check out my appearance on the news:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkqGpEpJMSQ    The auction was incredible, although I'm sure it would have been better if the market hadn't tanked.  We did meet our goal, but just barely.
   
    Allan Bendel sent a Lincoln / Kennedy / Conspiracy link that's been going around the Internet again but, more immediately useful, he updated his e-mail address:  ancbendel@yahoo.com
   
    Emily Kleinman Schreiber mentioned that:  the bridge that crosses the creek from Green Acres -- now Mill Brook -- to South is being torn down by the Town of Hempstead.  Since the bad incident a couple of years ago, the bridge has been chained and locked, with no passage allowed, so it's become overgrown with weeds and reeds and let to fall into disrepair.  Its destruction saddens me because I remember when the bridge was being built and how happy we were that we no longer had to walk all the way around to school -- up to Mill Road and then to Jedwood Place.  And I can still picture my friend Roxy Harris scrambling across the pilings before the bridge was completed back in the '50s.  That girl had no fear.
   
    Emily also added:  The November meeting of the Alumni Association will take place this Thursday, November 6th, at 7:15 in South's Library.  I look forward to seeing the regulars as well as many of you who live here on Long Island.  You'll feel great being back at your alma mater, and we need you to get involved.
   
    Finally, for those in the Los Angeles area, Judy Hartstone will be visiting for a few days towards the end of the month, and she wondered if Barnet Kellman and I were free for dinner.  We both said, "Sure," and I said I'd ask who else might be interested.  We've set a date -- Thursday, November 20th -- and we'll probably meet at a restaurant called The Hamlet on Sunset Boulevard.  Please let me know if you want to join us.  It should be fun.