Update 11-8-05

Hi,

First, from someone we haven't heard from for a while and were getting concerned about, our man near Omaha, Jerry Bittman:  Luckily, Hurricane Wilma sidestepped us here in Nebraska.  However, a hurricane is forming in the Virgin River and is expected to reach here in a few days.  There really is a Virgin River, located in eastern Nevada near Utah.  The admiral of the Nebraska navy has named this new hurricane Alpha Beta Ate A Potata.
    Several years ago, I had the good vision to build a concrete barrier around my outhouse, so I will be spending my time during the hurricane staying in the outhouse reading my many copies of Outdoor Living magazine.  I also am well supplied with food.  I have an emergency supply of popcorn, corn-on-the-cob, sweet corn, Spam with corn, corn burgers, corn pies, corn picatta, Corn Flakes, sweet and sour corn, corn latkas, corn pudding, corn muffins, cornbread, corn dogs, corn lasagna, and my favorite, corn ice cream.
    Fortunately, out here in the wilderness, we don't use or need electricity to communicate with others.  I will still be in contact with my neighbors via my great-great-grandfather Crazy Geronimo the first's tom-toms.  I am also quite fortunate that my teepee does not have any windows or furniture to get destroyed.  And the natives are taking careful precautions to protect our greatest export:  fourteen thousand Nebraskans will be holding the world's largest tarp during the hurricane in order to save the Kool Aid trees.
    In these perilous times, you really do find out who your friends are.  My good buddy Andy Dolich will be traveling here by horseback in order to save my canoe by rowing it back to his house in Memphis, Tennessee.  And I am taking the survival advice of my kemo sabe Barney Zinger, who spent the hazardous time of Hurricane Wilma, plus the week after, in bed with his beautiful wife Helen.  I am planning to do the same, and I sent a stagecoach to Florida just to retrieve Helen.  In case she doesn't arrive in time, I have an alternate plan:  there's a scarecrow outside my window named Miss Patterson, after my sixth grade teacher.  I'll bring her inside for warmth and comfort.
    In conclusion, I will change my life around if I survive this wretched hurricane.  No longer will I get a buzz at the skating rink on Saturday nights by drinking those darn high energy beverages.  Plus, I will no longer lust after my neighbors wives.  Instead, I will try my hardest to have affairs with all of them.  And I will discard my 60-years worth of Playboy magazines and donate them to the local boy scout troop.  So everyone please pray along with me that the Pony Express rider can avoid this storm and deliver this message to you.

And from someone still sorting out after Hurricane Wilma, Barbara Blitfield Pech:  Just a note after a very long day.  While my two immediate areas, home and office, are powered, at least sixty percent of random areas in the city are still without electricity.  This makes road travel, shopping, dining, and commuting a nightmare.  And my favorite, morning drive radio station tower is gone, so the traffic seems even more apparent and is now miserable to be in.
    Still, I look forward to all of us being around for a long time together.  I occasionally take things for granted, but more often, I make a point to enjoy life.  I also realize how amazing it is that now, over 40 years after graduation, almost one-hundred-and-fifty of us are still hanging out together.  I marvel at the full circle we have all made, especially in mixing into new groups of former classmates who many of us never had the opportunity to know in school.  And I'm still giddy over Rachael and Ira's marriage.  Finally, a South High alumni association is a great idea.  I have no interest in my college alumni, but I can certainly embrace my high school.

Which leads into the latest information from alumni association organizer, Emily Kleinman Schreiber:  So many of you have gotten back to me that it's wonderful.  Most of you preferred Wednesday, November 30th for our South High alumni association planning meeting, so it will be held then at 7:00 PM at South High school, hopefully in the library.  At this time, a steering committee has to be established, one that includes alumni from the '50s through the '00s.  Nancy Russo Rumore, a former teacher at South, has already arranged with Stephen Lando for us to meet at the school, and I know you'll all bring your energetic enthusiasm along.  I'm truly looking forward to getting this association up and soaring.
     Also, I recently received a letter regarding the American Education Week program at South on Friday, November, 18th from 9:00 to 10:30 AM.  The letter invites community members to "Come Visit a School" during the week of November 15th through 18th and also mentions that the open house programs will vary from school to school.  But they all should include:  a complimentary continental breakfast as people arrive; a welcome from the Superintendent of Schools or other district administrator; a presentation about school programs and achievements; and a chance to ask questions and receive informational materials.  Since I work part-time and can be flexible with my schedule, I plan to attend the program, but I was wondering if any other alumni will be also there.  If you're interested in going, please contact me at: Cre8em@aol.com.  I have to respond with the number of people planning to attend.
  
Also from Em:  I'm replying to Marc Fishman's note from last week:  My mom is eighty-eight and is also living in Delray Beach.  Like Marc's dad, she's an upbeat optimist.  She heated her meals on Sterno and didn't worry about eating food that had been in the electricity-free freezer for several days.  When all the grandkids wanted me to persuade her to come north, she said, "I'm fine!  It's not hot, and I enjoy sitting out on the patio at night."  After her power went back on and then off again, she was getting a little annoyed.  But, still, maybe Marc's dad should meet my mom.

And from a friend living with her teenaged kids in Broward County:  It's been a rough few weeks, but we are okay.  Other than trees and fences, our property was spared, and power has now returned.  We've been out of school for two weeks, but are scheduled to begin again on Monday, November 7th, though I'm not sure how the district is managing that.  Electricity is still out in many places, and traffic lights are not only broken, but were often blown away.  Personally, I'm not going anywhere after dark until the trash and trees have been cleared away and the lights are fixed.

[Rich -- Also, a number of people have been sending me forwards lately.  While I thank you for them, I don't open forwards anymore.  I messed up my computer last June and lost a batch of files I thought I had doubly backed up.  Mainly what couldn't be replaced were the newsletters from June 2001 to September 2003.  I lost both my online and offline copies.  While it's not really important that we have these, because it's unlikely anyone will read all five years of them again, it would have been nice to keep them as records.  So if you happen to have any of those updates in your files, could you let me know?  Then we can figure out the easiest way to transfer them.

Finally, as a result of the flooding in Valley Stream last month, my mother just had the sheetrock in her basement torn out.  My brother only planned to take out the bottom couple of feet, then he got carried away.  He also ripped out the ceiling.  So my mother may now have the only unfinished basement in the community formerly known as Green Acres.]