Update 6-27-06

Hi,

Four notes, and then the beginning of the high school reminiscences from the Alumni Association's Memory Journal.  You'll be seeing these all summer.  Many are short, and they seem to be in the book chronologically.  First, this week's notes.
   
    From Barnet Kellman:  Can you please tell Amy Miller that, "Yes, Doris Cohen is Jon Cohen’s sister -- and the daughter of the Mr. Cohen who taught the college board course."  And does Amy have any further information?
        Also, I'm really glad to see the Tampio and Gibson awards continuing.
   
    From Linda Tobin Kettering '69:  Yes, Doris Cohen's father is the person who used to give the SAT prep classes.  I'm not sure if her brother is Jon Cohen, but I'll ask around.
   
    From Peter Rosen:  The CNN piece on Boomeritis came out better than I expected.  It turned out that I was kind of the poster boy.  And I got a nice note from Gayle Ulrich, who actually stayed up and watched it.
   
    From Robert Fiveson:  Attached is a photo of Jay Tuerk and me taken at my son's recent graduation from high school.  Nothing ever changes.
   
    [Rich -- Barnet obviously answered Linda's question.  I'm sure Amy will have more information on Doris Cohen eventually.  I congratulated Peter and told him I've never known a poster boy before.  And I'll try to get the photo of Robert and Jay online.  The issue is space.  Though Jay and Robert don't look all that different from the 37th reunion, four years ago.]
   
    From the Journal:
   
    From Thomas Richard (Dick) Bentley '58:  One memory comes to mind immediately, and you probably won't hear it from anyone else.  When I was at South, the physics teacher was Walter Stem.  We actually called him Walter "Avogadro" Stem.
        Osmosis was one of his favorite processes.  Why knows why, but he emphasized it, and he had a strange way of pronouncing the word "osmosis."  This speech anomaly was probably due to the fact that he was a tobacco chewer.  For a person with this ugly habit, the physics lab was an ideal venue since the sinks were handy spittoons, and Walter frequently used them as such.
   
    From George Case '60:  I can remember Mr. Budde, the assistant principal, walking into the boys' bathroom between classes.  The cigarette smoke was so thick, you could cut it with a knife, and water pressure in the area of Jedwood Place dropped drastically because everyone in the room simultaneously ditched heir butts and flushed.  Mr. Budde's words were, "I'm glad no one is smoking in here."
   
    From Joanne Shapiro Polner '59:  I remember the day I taught a bowling lesson to the Leader's Club as my exercise to be considered a leader.  I thought I failed at gaining their approval, but I did get into the Leader's Club, and that remains a very personal, strong, and happy memory for me.  I am a leader.  I have been since the women's liberation movement set me free to be more of the me that I was supposed to become.  But in high school, I was a follower.
        And I remember being chosen to play on the Hofstra University Globe Theater stage in the high school "Scenes from Shakespeare" competition.  That was another highlight.  We went to New York City to try on costumes.  I was the widow in Richard III.  Hooray for Mr. Elliott, who made theater a very strong experience for us at South.
        For the senior class play, I remember only the moment when I first stepped into the back of the auditorium at South to begin my walk to the stage.  I was playing Miss Giddens, one of the principle characters in The Innocents.  I was so nervous, I thought I wouldn't be able to speak, but my voice came out.  And I almost tripped up the stairs, but I didn't.  Jerry Waxman and others built a staircase for the play.  That was amazing.
        Once, hanging around the stage for some production, I got hit with a Spaulding ball that the guys were throwing about, and I was very startled and upset.  Either Ronnie Plotkin or Bob Sheldon threw it, and one or the other, or both, came over and comforted me.  Maybe they gave me a hug; I can't remember.  But I was comforted, not left alone.
        That was different from Frank Jeffreys' behavior at one of Patty Connolly's parties.  When Frank won the Spin-the-Bottle turn with me, we went into the furnace room, but he refused to kiss me.  And when he was pledging a fraternity, the guys in charge made him spend a whole day, possibly more, staring at Sheila Hart.
        Also in those days, I never got the meaning of any of the sex jokes people were telling.
        But I still have my notebook from biology.  At the last multi-class reunion, Mr. Saffrin was there, and I asked him to sign my book again.  He said, "Did I teach all this?" and I said, "Yes, and not only that, you tested us on it, too."  He danced with me that day, and I am very happy to recall that.
        I try not to remember the week or more it took my parents to get the garbage out of my hair after stupid pledging and hazing by the Blue and Black sorority.  I was totally humiliated.  Marion and I together, maybe with Diana Flomp and whoever else was in the group, changed the system after that.  There was no more hazing, and we were proud to stop those horrible experiences.
        And I remember getting my nose done during the summer before senior year.  Marion did also, and we wore nose protector masks in the basketball games.  We must have looked specially shocking to the Garden City team, all geared up like that, and I think that's maybe why we won.  But that may be a dream.  Garden City was tough to beat, no matter what.
   
    [Rich -- Finally, to spring back to the present, some notes from California:  I just got home from my bike ride, and passing the local high school, I spied a kid who was probably under 18, probably over 350 pounds, with a beer in one hand and a cigarette in the other.  What do you think will kill him first?
        Further down the road, I was sitting on a curb, drinking from my water bottle, when a convertible pulled up across the street, and the driver honked her horn.  No response from the house twenty feet away.  The driver honks again, and when there's still no response, she gives a Rebel yell.  Nothing.  So does she get out of the car and ring the bell?  Nope, she pulls out her cell phone and calls.
        And does anyone remember that before there was Tony Kushner, Arthur Conan Doyle made the Avenging Angels of Brigham Young's Mormons the villains of a novel, A Study in Scarlet?  Yep, Doyle's Holmes writings are my summer reading.  I haven't looked at them since I was maybe twelve.]