Update 2-28-06

Hi,

A series of short notes, then a heartwarming saga.  The short stuff first:

From Fran Bellucci:  Personally, I am doing well.  I am still trying to locate all the papers I need after my husband's death.  If any of our classmates haven't made a will or organized your important papers or documents yet, do it now.
   
    From Jane Wolff Katz:  Sorry I have been out of touch, but I really enjoy getting the reunion notes.  Just a quick update.  I retired from Fannie Mae and am in my dream job in Washington, DC, working in the international area of Habitat for Humanity.  I've done a bit of traveling and communicating daily with people all over the world (Habitat works in about 100 countries).  On a personal note, my oldest daughter got married this summer and is teaching Special Ed in western Maryland.  Another daughter just graduated law school, passed the bar in New York, is living in the East Village, and works for an entertainment law firm.  And the youngest is finishing college at Towson University, majoring in sports management, and is currently working as manager of the men's basketball team (although I think her dream job is to work for the New York Giants).  My husband and I are almost empty nesters.  All the best to all of you.
   
    From Amy Miller:  I just finished a South High quilt for the silent auction at the March 11th celebration.  The quilt is sixty-five inches square, and there's a falcon in the middle.  I thought you might want to mention it in your next newsletter, and if anyone would like a photo of the quilt, please let me know.
   
    From Barbara Blitfield Pech:  Have you heard from anyone else in our class who is planning on attending the 50th birthday celebration?
   
    From Steve Cahn, '70:  Putting out an all points bulletin for either Andy or Fred Cagan.  Also for Gene Barkin and Sherry Gordon.  All lived in what used to be Green Acres.  Anyone know their whereabouts?
   
    From Judy Hartstone:  No sun yet here in Seattle.  A bit of rain and hail today.  We were supposed to get a lot of rain, but that hasn't happened yet.
   
    [Rich -- We've got your rain here in LA.  And we need it.  But it's better a little at a time.]
   
    From Emily Kleinman Schreiber:  Hello!  Following is a letter I plan to send to the former faculty members.  Also, please remember that we want to present a little Decades Fashion Show during the concert, so all ideas would be welcome.  The letter:
        Dear Former Faculty Member,
        I'm writing to you on behalf of the new Valley Stream South High School Alumni Association.  As the Association's president, I want you to know that the former students of South High are hoping to see many of you at South's 50 Year Celebration on Saturday, March 11, 2006.
         The Alumni Reception Area will be in the library on the main floor.  There should be signs pointing the way.  We will be there to greet you at 11:00.  That's also where former students and faculty will be having their luncheon from 12:30-2:00 -- right after the 12:00 Rededication Ceremony in the Gym.  The cost of the luncheon, combined with the concert, is only $10.
         In case you don't have the luncheon form, I'm enclosing it with this letter.  Also, the Alumni Association Board of Directors and Trustees would love to have you join our Alumni Association.  Therefore, a membership application is also included in this mailing.
         Our next meeting will be held in South's Library on Thurs., March 9th  in case you wish to attend.  You are definitely welcome to become involved.
         I look forward to seeing you at the Golden Anniversary!
   

Finally, the heartwarming saga, from Joanne Shapiro Polner:  Thank you for your encouragement and help in trying to find Lucille Cassillo.  She is found.  Unfortunately, she recently lost her husband and is obviously very sad.  So we've temporarily postponed our reunion.  I will write to Ray Staley though, to thank him for his help as well.
    I spent time yesterday reviewing your class list and selecting potential siblings for some of our class of '59 missing alums.  From the contact/bio link, I have chosen ten to write to by e-mail.  I tried writing to a few before I mailed this epistle to you.  Two notes out of the four I sent have come back as undeliverable. 
    Story 1:  Do you have updates on contact information for Joanne DeGennaro?   My e-mail to the address listed with her name on the class of '65 site came back.  That means, perhaps, that the e-mail address listed on your class site is not even operable for her sister (who is, I was hoping, Judy, from my class '59 -- or it could be Joyce DeGennaro from '58.  The remark on the site was, "Reach me at my sister's.") 
    This comes up on Switchboard for a Joanne DeGennaro in the whole United States:  DeGennaro, Joanne, Chesney Court, Palm Coast, Florida.  However, I called there and got an answering machine message, "Hi you've reached Joanne and Rich," and I looked up Richard DeGennaro and he's listed -- so that's not our South High Joanne.
    Plug in Judith, my classmate:  Judith is not degennaro at prodigy.  That one is a San Diego high school grad from '57   No other Judiths.  But there are over one hundred J. DeGennaros in  New York alone, though I can't find a Judy.  The only one in Bellerose, New York (Queens) said "Wrong number" and hung up.  She obviously went to a different high school.  And the one other Bellerose listing for DeGennaro is a male and not at same address.
    Meanwhile, I looked up on Classmates.com a Joyce DeGennaro and did find our South High Joyce: married name:  Nagel.  For about an hour, I searched down Nagels, and I am giving up now, many calls later.  Two nice older people called me back -- well, each sounded like an old grandpa and grandma -- and the rest I actually talked to or got clues on answering machines.  Like for Richard DeGennaro, the person I want wasn't part of that family.
    I am left with a finding on Google:  a Joyce M. Nagel in California and a Rebecca Nagel who together showed a mini-schnauzer in December in LA though the Rebecca lives up in Sacramento.  Do California people come to LA for dog shows?  Maybe I will call her then.  Can't get a Joyce M. in California to come up on Switchboard.  And a John C. associated with the Joyce name at Verizon.net has six listings, none near New York City or in California.  Lastly, in early February, I left a message at Gennaro DeGennaro in Valley Stream looking for Judy, and no one called back.  Help!  What happened to your Joanne?  Who knows her?
    Story 2:  What happened to your Marc Goldberg?  I am trying to find Fred or Frederick Goldberg, '59, and Marc may or may not be a sibling in your class.  There are over one hundred Marc Goldbergs in the United States, over sixty Freds, and seven Fredericks.  Your Marc had a clever e-mail address, mpoloo.  Mpolo must be taken as probably marcopolo, too.  But where is our wandering guy?
    I found three M. Goldbergs in Bellevue, Washington, the town where Marc is listed on the class of '65 website.  Two families I called do not know a Marc, and the third number is disconnected (now I am not happy with Switchboard). 
    Other information:  your Peggy Galinger Menaker lives about a half hour from me in New Jersey, so I will send a hello note.  And your Mary Sipp Green is probably the sister of Herb Sipp, who left South early to attend an academy from which he graduated.  I read in Mary's bio on the '65 site that Mary is an artist who has shown her paintings on Martha's Vineyard.  My husband Alex and I think that we viewed her work not knowing she was our high school compatriot (although if she showed with the name Sipp-Green and not just Mary Green -- I think she is hyphenated all the time, by the looks of Google sites -- we should have noted the Sipp part.)  But maybe we just didn't happen to note her name, but looked only at the paintings.  Or maybe we missed the time she was up in the gallery.  We may also have seen her work in the Berkshires and not known it.  As we will be visiting both places again this summer and the coming October, I will write to her.
    Also, I am sorry that all the bio information on your website isn't dated.  Whenever someone writes and the information is put on the website, is it possible for a new date to be added?  A dated bio would allow for changes to possibly occur, and the reader would at least have an idea if the bio is really current or not.  One day, a classmate reads about a friend from way back, and all looks all well and good.  But I wonder how life is for this person four years later?  Some people may be happy to leave the painted picture, no matter how long ago it was painted, no matter what changes.  I don't know.
    Some other responses:  Mike Floyd wrote back and gave me information for his sister Diana Flomp '59 -- she's in Valley Stream!  He remembers my brother and me and our street.  Ellen Epstein Silver wrote saying she is not related to our Alan Epstein, '59, but she wrote a great note, really friendly.  And I found out by a cross-search yesterday, just before starting to write to Jay Kinder, that his brother Ira, died in January 1999.  Ira, who was in all theater things at South, was a Plantation, Florida, high school drama teacher.  I was so sad to hear of his death that I wanted to cry.  So please pass on my best thoughts to his brother.
    And I need to thank you from way back.  What follows is the search story from when you helped me before.  Remember when you wrote to me once in 2001 or 2002, to ask if I was the sister of a David Shapiro?  I said no, but said I had a question to ask you.  I was looking for a high school classmate who also went to college with me, and she had disappeared.  I thought if I could find her brother, who is very much younger, I could find her.
    You said to call Hy Rosov in Florida, that he just retired from South, and he knew everybody.  So I did, and Hy suggested I look in Valley Stream.  Can you believe it?  The man I was looking for was at his parents' old home.  I called during the day when I thought he'd be out to work so I could tell lots of details about my friend, his sister, and he would know that I was honest and true.  Four days later, my friend called me!
     Anyway, persistence and the luck of you writing to me paid off.  My friend was happy to be found, even if it was months after we had our thirty-out-of-sixty-women, Forty-Years-Went-By Reunion, But We College Sorority Sisters Are Still Sisters.  After my success in finding these sisters -- with the help of another sister with some nice connections, and the college alumni office for one lady -- I felt that in 2006, I could find some of my one-hundred-and-sixty-seven fellow 1959ers.  And so far I have:  I am happy to report finding a dozen.  But I still have lots more to locate.  They probably won't turn up before South's 50th anniversary day, but like that northwest Mountie, I'm gonna bring them in.  Meanwhile, best regards to all.  And tell people to write each other.