Update 12-30-08

Hi,

Another of those chains of letters to start off the new year:

From Allen Moss:  Good morning, folks.  Just wanted to take a moment to wish you all a wonderful holiday season and the very best for 2009 for you and yours.
        Hunkering down today for a blizzard that is on its way here and should hit late this afternoon.  Already have had lots of sub-freezing temps and snow in the last month.  Should make for an interesting winter.  I am getting that generator all cleaned up and ready to go.
        Just got back from New York City for my annual trek to visit with friends from graduate school, see a few Broadway shows, and eat like a pig.  New York is as nutty and vibrant as ever, but it was wonderful to come home to the quiet and comfort of my little home town of Brunswick, Maine.  Going on my thirteenth year here and am still happy that I found the town.
        You know you folks are always welcome.  Maine is wonderful in the summer and fall.  Come on up or across.
        Hugs from here.
   
    From Eric Hilton:  Good afternoon, Allen, and thanks for the invitation.  I know that comes from the heart, and I would only stay a few months.
        I just had a long talk with my camera and decided the two of us have a burning desire to photograph fall’s changing leaves in Maine.  Being sixty-two years old, I am planning on doing this while I still have my teeth and can bite on a Ben & Jerry’s ice cream cone.  How far are you from the town of Bahhh Habaa?  Loving lighthouses, I want to drive up the coast and countryside, shooting everything.
        Perhaps we can get the entire class of '65 to join you.  As I've mentioned, I can cook for over 500 people at a time.  How many spare rooms do you have?
        A safe and happy holiday to you and your family.  Regards from the Sunshine State, which is about 80 degrees as I write.
   
    From Stu Kandel:  Hey Allen and everyone else,
        Good to hear from you.  Speaking of waiting for a snowfall, I am sitting here on Long Island, watching the rain wash away the last remains of a two-day snow fall.  Not what you are used to in Maine -- only about three to four inches here -- but it also isn't as pretty as Maine.
        I think Eric had a good idea:  we'll have the next reunion at the home of Allen Moss and his beagles.
    And by the way, Eric, The Nubble lighthouse in Cape Neddick, Maine, is absolutely a must if you are taking lighthouse pictures.  The waves breaking on the rocks in front of the lighthouse really show what the Maine coastline is all about.
        In any case, I hope everyone has a happy holiday and a healthy new year.
   
    From Lynn Nudelman Villagran:  Happy Chanukah, Merry Christmas, and Peace in the New Year to all of you, from sometimes sunny, recently freezing, California.

    From Allen again:  Hi Eric, Stu, Lynn, and all,
    "Bah Harbaw" is only a few hours north of me.  Aside from Cape Nubble, there is the beautiful Portland lighthouse just about forty-five minutes south of me and, of course, the neat city of Portland.  Would love for all of you to visit, but nix on putting you all up in the house.  Not that I wouldn't love to -- now that would be a terrific weekend -- just not enough room unless folks camped out in my basement.
        Snow is really coming down heavily now.  Looks like no work tomorrow.  I can handle that.
        Again, happy holidays to all.
   
    From Irene Saunders Goldstein:  This is the season for weather conversation, I guess.  Today, actually, is my favorite day of the winter because the days start getting longer.  Today, it was below freezing in Washington, D.C., but I'll enjoy warm and forgiving sunshine in Florida tomorrow with my mom.
        It's always great to have a chance to say hi to you all.  And thanks, Allen, for your encouragement to come north.  I just may do it this summer.
        Happy holidays to all you lovely people.
   
    From Robin Feit Baker:  Warmest wishes to everyone.  Have a happy, healthy, and safe New Year.

    From Eric again:  After watching Silence of the Lambs last night, I am not going into any basements ever again.  That’s why I moved to Florida.  Not for the weather, but because there are no basements to bury me in.
        Again, just a quick wish to all for a happy and healthy new year.  I would have loved to see a white Christmas and New Year's Day, sitting in front of a fire place, drinking wine and listening to cheerful holiday music.  Instead, I was stuck in 78 degree sunshine and had to walk on the beach watching the sunset.  Sometimes, life is very unfair.
        Be well.
   
    Separate, but related, a holiday poem from Barbara Blitfield Pech:
   
    A brand new year!
    A clean slate on which to write
    our hopes and dreams.

    May this year be a year of...
    Less time and energy on things;
    More time and energy on people.

    May you find, enjoy, appreciate & share...
    All of life’s best rewards,
    deepest and finest feelings,
    greatest satisfactions,
    May you know the comfort of good friends, warm friendships and dear family and life bonds
    Good health and grand times, many joys & no sorrows....
   
    2009 HUGS
   
    A reminder from Emily Kleinman Schreiber:  Hello Fellow Alumni.  First of all, I'd like to wish all of you a fantastic 2009.  Next, I want to inform you that the January meeting of the Alumni Association will be on Thursday, the 8th, and the February meeting will be on Thursday, the 12th.  Both are the second Thursdays in their months.  Also, I hope that many of you local South High grads will try to add the Alumni Association meetings to your calendars for 2009.
   
    Finally, a sweet fable forwarded by a college friend:
        A woman had two large pots, each hung on an end of the pole she carried across her neck.  One of the pots was perfect and always delivered a full portion of water.  The other pot had a crack in it, and by the end of the long walks from the stream to the house, the cracked pot arrived only half full.
        For two years, this went on, with the woman bringing home only one-and-a-half pots of water.  The perfect pot was proud of its accomplishments, but the poor cracked pot was ashamed of its imperfection and miserable that it could only do half of what it had been made to do.  After two years of what it perceived to be bitter failure, it spoke to the woman.
        “I am ashamed of myself because the crack in my side causes water to leak out all the way back to your house.”
        The woman smiled and said, “Did you notice there are flowers on your side of the path, but not on the other pot's side?  That's because I've always known about your flaw, so I planted flower seeds on your side of the path, and every day while we walk back, you water them.  For two years, I've been able to pick these beautiful flowers and other people have been able to see them.  Without you being just the way you are, there wouldn't be this beauty to grace our lives.”
   
    Again, best to all.
   
    The South '65 blog:  reunionclass65.blogspot.com
   
   
    Rich