Update 2-6-07

Hi,

The cold temperatures keep people inside and writing.

First, some sad news, relayed by Dennis Shapiro:  I just wanted to let you know that Paul DeMartino's father passed away.  The wake was held last Thursday and Friday at the James Funeral Home in Massapequa.  Please pass this along to whomever you think should know.  If anyone needs further information, please let me know.
   
    [Rich -- Our best to Paul and his family, of course.  I believe Paul's father was in his early eighties, not that this makes this easier.]
   
    Next, some thoughts about Erick Wohlgemuth:
   
    From Zelda White Nichols:  I haven't been writing you very actively since opening my gallery, as it takes up almost all my time, but I do still enjoy reading the newsletter every week.
        I was deeply saddened to learn of Erick Wohlgemuth’s passing, as I had tried to find him a number of times over the years.  As I've mentioned here before, he was one of the first people to befriend me when I moved from Brooklyn to Lynbrook In the third grade.  I attended William S. Buck school and felt I was a complete outcast because the class was much more advanced than the one I attended at PS 222 in Brooklyn.  I was also very insecure with my unusual name and a few other things that made me a bit odd at the time, including the fact that I was the only one to wear glasses -- I remember being called "four eyes."  I have always remembered Erick and how kind he was.
        If Eric Hilton is reading this, or if anyone else is in touch with Greg Wohlgemuth, please pass on to him that Erick and his kindness are remembered.
   
    From Robert Fiveson:  In order to be as close to pleated skirts as possible, I played on the JV football team -- going into the season, we had six years of never having won a game.  One of my teammates was Erick Wohlgemuth.
        Erick had a unique ability -- he could unhook his fingers from their joints.  They would hang from his hand like so many broken things.  Early in the practice season, he said to me, "Watch this!"  He then unhooked his fingers, and when the ball came to him, he dropped it and started screaming as he waved his hand, and his unhooked fingers flopped around like so many... unhooked fingers.
        I nearly peed my pants.  I have told many people about him and this stunt over the years, and I am sad to hear that he is no longer with us in body.  At the end of the classic and eclectic novel The Sheltering Sky, and in its film version, the narrator says -- and I'm paraphrasing -- we all have certain memories that we relive over our lives.  They could be of a birthday party when we were six, or a great meal with friends, or a classmate doing something no one else would ever do.  The number of times we will relive that memory is fixed -- finite -- and our lives are measured by the number of times we have those reveries.  Each, perhaps, the last.
   
    On a subject closer to earth, some possible answers to Allen Moss' TV questions:
   
    From Barbara Blitfield Pech:  Given my track record of recent birthday and date errors, I will now begin every note with "to the best of my recollection" or "if memory serves."  Still, I want to take a stab at the TV trivia questions.
        The sketch pad -- Jon Negy?  Also, the only puppet character that could possibly match the duck/dashhound -- Flubbadub?  By the way, preceding all the Saturday morning shows in this line-up was the very early morning "Modern Farmer," a fascinating show for a five-year-old since it centered on tractors and feeding chickens.  And, sometime later in the day, I loved "Ray Forest's Children's Theatre," but I have not been able to find any reference to it in any of my TV trivia books.  Then again, noting my apparent memory lapses, who even knows if it was a real show?  Ummm, there really was a Miss Francis at "Ding Dong School," right?
   
    From Eric Hilton:  Allen Moss asks some very tough, memory-draining questions.  I think -- and my spelling sucks on this one -- the sketch pad was from "John Neggey," the frog was from "Andy's Gang" (before that called "Ed's Gang," I think), the color pink I have no idea about unless Allan had seen my mother carrying a box of Tampex in Bohacks, and the cross breed duck/dachshund was either from the "Howdy Doody Show" or something created at Plum Island Labs, along with the twelve-claw lobsters.  Please ask Allen if these are close, as I won't be able to sleep until I get the correct answers.
        Also, for your information, my cousin was associated with the "Howdy Doody Show" and had gotten us tickets to be in the Peanut Gallery.  Due to my having the mumps, I had to watch the show from home and see my sister on TV eating my Hostess cupcakes.  Does anyone know who played Clarabelle the clown and went on to have his own TV show, which I hated?
        Allen, don't feel bad about the cold weather in Maine.  Today, in Sarasota, the temperature plummeted  to sixty-two degrees.  I had to put on a long sleeve shirt!  Barbara Blitfield Pech has it made as she lives in the Miami tropics.  I'm in the subtropics, which are at least ten to fifteen degrees colder.
   
    From Marc Jonas:  I'm working on the TV shows based on your oblique hints.  "Kukla, Fran, and Ollie?"
        Meanwhile, the first car I remember was my father's 1948 Studebaker, black with some orange (?) details around the wheels, and 2 buttons on the floor below the pedals.  One was for the high beams, and the other was the starter for the engine.  The looks of the Studebaker were ahead of its time, which probably explains its eventual demise.
   
    A travel advisory, from Helen David to Linda Cohen:  You will be making the mistake of your life if you skip Antarctica on your future travels.  This is from somebody who escaped from the cold and snow of Valley Stream to move to arid Arizona.  But the Antarctica trip is so exciting that you won't even know that it is cold outside.  In fact, somebody asked me if it snowed when we were there in December, which is the height of their summer.  I said "no," and it wasn't until we looked at our videos that we saw that it did indeed snow.
        Each person is given a red parka by the cruise line, so that anyone wandering off, which isn't likely, can be spotted against the white background.  Underneath the parka, you wear a multitude of clothing layers, and a knitted balaclava can be pulled down over your face if necessary.  In addition, you must purchase rubber boots and waterproof pants -- and gloves, of course!  To top everything off, you wear a condensed life jacket, which will allow your body to float in the water in which you'll only survive the first two minutes of immersion.
        Still, it's so exciting to be surrounded by penguins, to walk past sea lions, or to have them or some small whales swim under the rubber raft -- Zodiac -- that roars you to shore and back.  In fact, it is an absolutely euphoric experience.
        My husband and I have also traveled to and returned to all the other continents, but Antarctica is one of the most outstanding among the rest.  We took that trip while we were still living in Valley Stream, so a winter trip was welcome.  Now, anything we can do to escape the desert heat in the summertime is wonderful, so we are back to flying to Europe again.  This year, we found a non-stop plane that takes us from Phoenix to London.  Our ship will then take us to the North Cape of Norway, starting from Southampton and returning there.  By contrast, last summer, we went from the sauna to the steam bath, when we returned to Tahiti for a lovely cruise on the Paul Gauguin.
        Also, to Booker:  How well I remember those days of your marriages and the births of your children.  We use to talk about them when we had our coffee in the morning in the teachers' cafeteria and shared "the eight o'clock pot."  I'm glad that everything is going along well.  These pupils of ours are talking about reaching the Big Sixty.  My husband Charles and I celebrated our sixty-first wedding anniversary this month.  If you count that time back, it gets you to the years of the painfully slow return of the veterans of Archie Bunker's "Big War" and to our marriage date.
        Love to you all.
   
    A reunion advisory from Andrea Schwartz Neenan:  Could you please add this in your newsletter?  The 40th reunion for the class of ’67 is scheduled for July 28th at the Huntington Hilton.  Anyone can contact me for more information at:  aneenan@tampabay.rr.com.
        Also, this is for Eric Hilton, who mentioned the Wohlgemuth family:  We have been looking for Greg Wohlgemuth and would appreciate an e-mail address for him.  Thanks.
   
    A fast question from Steve Cahn '70:  Was either Sherry or Randy Gordon in your class?  Or does anyone know how to reach them?  I am trying to get in touch.  Write me at:  Genghisaha@aol.com
   
    An address change from Margaret (Peggy) Grubmeyer Holbrook.  My new e-mail address is: mgholbrook@gmail.com
   
    An announcement from Amy Lieberman:  The new website for Billy Valentine is up and running.  Check out the pictures from his CD release party and more at:  billy-valentine.com
   
    An observation from Emily Kleinman Schreiber:  My concern about the alumni association is its continued growth.  I'm not unhappy with our current numbers.  But once the first membership year is over, it may be difficult to get people to send in checks again, even with the hundred dollar lifetime membership offer.  Many of our present members joined on March 11th, at South's Fifty-Year Celebration.  I get additional members when I visit class reunions.  Your class has eleven members in the association, and I know from the newsletter that you're in contact with more people than that.
   
    [Rich -- Yep, the newsletter goes to about 150 people each week, maybe 120 of them from the class of '65.  From the last treasurer's report, it looks like there were at least 300 members of the alumni association, which is about six for each graduating year.  But the figures skew less evenly than that because people don't seem interested in reconnecting with old friends until they haven't seen them for twenty years.  So figuring 300 members divided by thirty years, the class of '65 would seem about average in terms of membership.  But Em just sent me some surprising numbers about the following classes:
        '60 -- 12
        '61 -- 50 (her class)
        '62 -- 26
        '63 --  7
        '64 -- 24
        '65 -- 11 
        If close to half the alumni association members come from just six early classes, maybe people don't want to reconnect until after they haven't seen their old friends for forty years.  I guess we could set an example.  I'm ready to grab my hundred buck lifetime membership next September, when Emily told us to send in the money.  If I want to take advantage of this bargain, I've only got to live for another seven years.  And this seems an easy incentive.]
   
    Finally, more Junior English In Action -- an excerpt from an 11th grade student's essay answering the question, "How do you measure a person's worth?"
        "Today in our history, the U.S. has George W Bush as president.  Many people consider him to be a worthless, bad president, mostly because he has horrid grammar, makes a few mistakes, and comes off as an idiot.  In reality though, he is a father, a husband, a human being.  He should be judged on that, not on his low level of intelligence and his semi-unsuccessful presidency."