Update 3-6-07

Hi,

To begin with, I was reminded twice that Grace Dibble Kincade's birthday is on February 23rd, and I still forgot to mention it last week.  Memory?  What memory?  But happy birthday, Grace.  And happy birthday for next year, too.
   
    Additional people have written in, saying that the February 20th update didn't reach them.  The problem must have been the included links, unless AOL was just having a bad night.  In any case, I'll be careful about including links in the future, and I'm resending the February 20th update in addition to this one, this time without the links.  If you've already read the older newsletter, please toss it out.  Thanks.
   
    From Zelda White Nichols to Ryki Zuckerman:  Technically, we are both correct, as the it started snowing in December 1976 and snowed every day until the blizzard hit in January of 1977.  And to answer your question, it took two weeks before our moving van could escape.  There was another devastating storm in 1978 that hit Boston -- sorry, it’s been so long I got my years mixed up and all that cold must have frozen my brain.   twenty-seven inches of snow fell during the Boston storm, and the entire city was closed for a week.  We lived forty miles north of Boston and had to commute to Wilmington, which is just north of the city.  Both my husband and I worked for a large company that manufactured electronic typesetters for newspapers nationwide and for Canada.  We were both in the service division.  After the second day of the storm, we got special permission from Governor Dukakis to go in to work because my husband headed up the department that scheduled field service calls, and I was in parts order.  Both jobs were crucial to keeping the nations newspapers running.  I may have forgotten the timing, but I will never forget being the only one on the road during rush hour.  We were not allowed to use the main highways, but, fortunately, there were back roads we could take.  Passing over Interstate 495 and seeing it totally deserted except for snow plows was amazing.
   
    From Barbara Blitfield Pech:  For whatever reason, I do not recall any of the words that Robert Fiveson wrote to "The Merry Mailman" theme, though I do remember the ones Rich included the week before.  And there was always that other catchy theme to sing up, "Hello, it's me.  My name is Pinky Lee."  Also, I think  Office Joe Bolton may have hosted the daily "Our Gang" comedies after school.
        Also, I'm now using GoodSearch.com to search the Internet.  Every time I do, money goes to my favorite charity or school.  My favorite charity is the Susan G. Komen cancer-fighting foundation.
   
    From Bernie O'Brien:  I enjoyed reading about Ray Heatherton because I had a personal connection to him.  On August 27th, 1960, I was married at St. Agnes Cathedral in Rockville Centre and "The Mailman" was the featured "Cantor" -- and yes "Joey" was there. She graduated two years after my wife from St. Agnes High School.  Ray and his wife were very active with St. Agnes High School and with their musical groups.  That history is too long to write about, but Heatherton was always very cordial and made you feel as though you were part of his family.  He was a very religious man, as was his wife, and with all the ups and downs of Joey's career, they suffered within themselves a great deal.
        Stay well, all of you.
   
    From Hiram (Chaim) Rosov:  I read all the newsletters with great interest.  It is satisfying to know the  current events of the lives of many of my former students.  This is one teacher who loved the twenty-eight  years he spent at South.  When I retired in 1985, the district twisted my arm and made me assistant principal of adult education.  In 1990,  I packed it all in for the sunny climate of Boca Raton, Florida.  During the years, I have been here I continued teaching part-time, had a few of my short stories published,  won  three awards for my Judaic sculptures which are on permanent exhibit at the Miami Jewish Museum, helped to organize the Boca Raton Chabad Synagogue, and -- a few years ago -- received the Jewish Education Teacher of the Year award.  As you see, times have not changed:  I still get involved in everything, and love it.  Good to see that Peter Rosen celebrated his sixtieth birthday.  I have a few years on him.  This July, I will celebrate seventy-eight.  Regards to all my former students.
   
    From Arlene Ainbinder ' 66, for Barbara Blitfield Pech:  Hi.  Are you in contact with Judy Weber?  She never showed up at our reunion party in November.  I called her but have not been able to reach her.  Do you know anything.  I hope she is okay.
        I've been reading the newsletter and enjoy the notes about old TV shows.  Being a big TV fan myself, I can recall shows like "December Bride," with Spring Byington,  "People's Choice," with Jackie Cooper and the Bassett hound Cleo and "Mr. and Mrs. North" and their dog Asta.  There was also a show with Ann Southern as a secretary.  Old Westerns were a favorite too, especially "Gunsmoke" and "Have Gun, Will Travel."
   
    [Rich -- Actually, Asta was Nick and Nora Charles' dog in The Thin Man novel and in the movies and TV show based on that.  But the Norths might have had a dog, too, though I don't remember its name.]
   
    From Marc Jonas:  Thanks to Allen Moss, I no longer think that I spent too much of my youth watching television.
   
    From Betsy Fels Pottruck '67:  I was wondering if anyone remembers the show "Sky King?"  I believe it was also on Saturday mornings.  There was Sky, his plane the Songbird, and his niece Penny.  I am waiting to hear if Allen Moss remembers this one, since he is really good at this.
   
    From Andrea Schwartz Neenan '67:  Hope it’s not too late for one more response on TV shows.  The "Our Gang" comedies or as we called them, “The Little Rascals,” did have a host.  His name was Chubby Jackson, and the show was on each morning as we were getting ready for school.  I think it was on WPIX.  They also had a talent spot, where local children performed.  I know that because I was one of them.  I wrote to the show, told them I could sing, and, boom, there I was on TV, nervous as could be, singing “Winter Wonderland” in the middle of June!
   
    From Carol Ewig Duran:  Well, clearly I was one of the people who missed last week's e-mail, or at least the question about any alumni living in Chicago. I have been living in Chicago since 1976.  Now, what was the question and who asked?
   
    [Rich -- Someone was thinking of visiting Chicago and Louisville, Kentucky, and wondered if there were any former classmates living there.  So far, Carol, you're the only one who's responded.]
   
    From Ray Staley:  Does anyone remember Wall's Bakery in Hewlett?  Or most of all, the seven or eight layer chocolate / whipped cream cakes that were absolutely awesome.  Is that bakery still there?
   
    [Rich -- It's still there, Ray.  My mother send me their Passover macaroons if I remind her.  And I still remember Shlucker's from the shopping center.  But from what I've been able to find, that bakery -- which started in Brooklyn and had several branches -- closed in 1968.]
   
    Finally, RoseMarie Cassillo sent in a long piece that's been going around the Internet since 2005.  It's about the dangers of kids using aerosol driven household cleaners as inhalants.  The piece checks out on Urban Legends, which makes the point of saying the biggest danger of these cleaners is they seem so harmless because they're so common, and they can be fatal, in seconds, on first abuse.  For more information, put the words "Jeff Williams" and "dusting" into Google.  Or simply got to Urban Legends and put in the word "dusting."
   
    And happy birthday, again, Grace.