Update 8-22-06

Hi,

It's about time to continue our interrupted series of reminiscences from the Alumni Association's Memory Book.  But first some notes and links sent in this week.
   
    From Peter Rosen:  This is pretty good.  Click on the link below, then enjoy.  And make sure your sound is on.  http://usaattacked.com/100_years_of_pictures.htm
   
    From Barbara Blitfield Pech:  We've had pieces of this Newsday article in the newsletter before, but here's a link to the whole thing.  "The Long Island I Miss" by Andy Edelstein.
    http://www.newsday.com/community/guide/lihistory/ny-hometown_andy,0,573227.story?coll=ny-lihistory-navigation
        By the way, do you think there might be any interest in planning another mini-reunion in 2007, for our ultimate 60th birthday party?
   
    From Jerry Bittman:  First, I would like to thank Lynn Nudleman Villagran and Robin Feit Baker for their compliments.
        Next, to Marc Jonas:  Wasn't Tahoe incredible?  I worked in a casino there many years ago, though I'm quite sure the city is built up since I've been there last.  I have been to all forty-eight of the continental states, and I've mentioned many times to other people that Tahoe is the most beautiful place I've seen in the United States.  I have great memories of the city, too.  I saw my all-time favorite entertainer Sammy Davis, Jr. there about six times.  I also saw a Johnny Mathis concert while standing on the side of the stage.
        In other news:  I'm so proud of my daughter Katie.  She graduated last week and landed a fantastic job as an MRI technologist.  This week, she's training in Pueblo, Colorado, Artie Halprin's old stomping grounds.  Speaking of Artie, who I still believe looks like David Letterman, I want to say "Congratulations!"
        Another thought:  The winner of this year's World Series of Poker won $12,000,000.  I remember dealing in a poker tournament in 1978 in which the comedian Gabe Kaplan won $188,000.00.  Things sure have changed.
        Finally, This is one-hundred percent right on.  Go to Google and type in the word "failure."  Then hit search.  Look what the first subject matter refers to.
   
    From Carol Bunim Okin:  We have moved six miles to a new house in an active gated community (that's code for fifty-five and over) and are looking forward to enjoying the new lifestyle.  Please note our new e-mail address is:  the.okins@verizon.net.  Our address is:  65 Turnberry Drive, Monroe Township, New Jersey, 08831.  The phone number is:  732-521-4364.
   
    From Karen Stagg Simon:  I'm moving from Florida to Takoma Park, Maryland next Tuesday.

    From Robin Seader Cottmeyer:  A quick note of thanks to Barbara Blitfield Pech for sending on “Old Age”.  Lovely!  And to other people, just an acknowledgment that although we all might not have something to comment on or share on a regular basis, please know that we’re out here.
   
    From Arlene Lynn '66:  Hi Barbara.  I loved the piece you forwarded on aging.  Very apropos.
    Take care.
   
    And the memories, first, from Bern Cohen, '60:  Several years prior to South's opening, I moved to Valley Stream from the Alfred E. Smith Housing Projects in New York City's Chinatown.  I went from a New York City dilapidated school to feeling like I was living the dream life in the country, where you could actually go outside for gym.  South's campus looked to me like a college campus.  So much lawn!
        South High School let me dream of a future, whereas my Chinatown school years were in survival mode.  I eventually became a teacher and a high school principal.  I first sensed the importance of teaching and education as a member of Future Teachers of America at South, after that group got me involved with "teaching" fourth graders at Harbor Road Elementary school across South's big lawn.  I would go to that school during my study hall/lunch double periods once a week and return to South feeling really pumped, like I had done something important.
        I also became an actor at South.  At age sixty, I returned full-time to professional film and stage acting and have surprised even myself with success, after not having acted for thirty-five years.  If you go to http://www.imdb.com/ and put "Bern Cohen" into their search engine, you'll see that I credit South for introducing me to acting and for showing me that I had talent.  Subsequently, that talent translated into a full scholarship to Adelphi University.
        The teachers who directed the shows at South were kind and supportive.  When I became a high school principal, I changed the directors of the plays at our school because I wanted our students to have the supportive experience I had known in high school.  I even fondly remember the time when a senior jeopardized my chances to win the One-Act Play Contest as a junior by switching the jelly sandwich I was to eat on stage with a sandwich healthy laden with peanut butter.  My jaws stuck together when I was supposed to be speaking over the phone in Sorry, Wrong Number.
        I've never told anyone this because it sounds too unreal, like in a Hollywood script, but after graduation I received a phone call from a guy named Bruce Ferguson, who was producing summer stock tours.  He'd been at our South High One-Act Play Contest to see his niece or nephew, who was a ninth grader.  He saw me win an acting prize that night, took note, and later followed up with my first professional acting offer, roles on tour that summer in Annie Get Your Gun and West Side Story.  Go South!
   
    From James Perine '60:  I remember four years of wrestling for coach Dennis Kiley.  I'd get physically drained from nervousness and pulling weight (145 pounds) before a match, but I managed to get my varsity letter.  (I wonder what became of it?)  It sure seemed important at the time.
        And I remember failing physics and eleventh year Regents match at the same time.  I figured my future would somehow involve hamburgers and Wetson's, which, pre-McDonalds was on Sunrise Highway between Valley Stream and Lynbrook.
        So I spent thirty-seven years as an English teacher, due in part to Roger Elliot, who I think was my eleventh grade English teacher.  Somewhere between a beatnik and an "out-of-his-rightful place" intellectual, Mr. Elliot ("Call me Roger") inspired me to read The Catcher in the Rye and On the Road.  I felt smart and hip and all that.  Thank you, Roger, wherever you are.
        And thank you, Johnny Cohen, who wrote our class's one-act play and promo skit.  We sang "Seventy-Six Big Bones Has a Dinosaur" to the tune of "Seventy-Six Trombones" from The Music Man.  Years later, I met Johnny again when we were both teaching summer school in Jamaica, Queens.  Long after that, someone told me Johnny had died.
        Finally, I remember the yearly North-South football game at Fireman's Field.  It was one of the events of the school year.  We had lots of fun carrying on before and after the game, which had nothing to do with football.
        South High was a great place for learning, good times, and enduring friendships.  I still see my good friend, and our class president, Joe Fiorillo.  I hope the school's still doing well.
   
    Finally, from Doris Rice Herman '61:  Remember when it was someone's brilliant idea to put all the twirlers in a Volkswagen Beetle to make the grand entrance at the half-time show for the North-South game in the fall of 1960?  We could barely walk when we got out to perform.