Update 3-29-11

Hi,

Again, business news first:  We added an additional $175 in the second week of gentle fundraising for this year's Booker Gibson / Vince Tampio scholarships.  Added to the $525 we already had, that brings us to a total of $700 and leaves $300 to go.
    As mentioned last week, this will probably come in over the next few weeks, so the checks will be ready when Liz King Gagliano from South gives us this year's students' names.  As usual, as requested in previous years, the names of all the sponsors will be kept anonymous.  But I keep careful records, in case my bookkeeping ever becomes an issue.
    If you're interested in helping out, please send your checks to me, Rich Eisbrouch, at:  23030 Dolorosa Street, Woodland Hills, California  91367.  And please indicate in the bottom left corner of the check which scholarship you'd like to support, or if you'd like your money split between them.  I'll let you know as soon as the goals have been reached.  Thanks.

In other news, a note from Zelda White Nichols to Roz Minsky:  I just want to say how sorry I am about your losing your dad.  102 is a very grand age. You may not remember, but we lived across from each other on Peninsula Boulevard when we were kids and going to South.  We were in the white house with black shutters.  My folks movd to Florida 40 years ago.  Mom passed away last July at 95.  Dad left us 5 years earlier, at 96.  So there must be something in the water up on Long Island that creates longevity.
    Also, I have to tell you how much these newsletters mean to me.  They bring a note of cheer at unhappy times.  Unfortunately, we are at an age when we start to lose our parents and watch our friends go through the same heartbreak.  That can be just as bad.  Right now, I am very worried about a friend of mine who lives outside Tokyo, and I have a very good friend here in North Carolina who will be losing her mother this week.  And her dog isn’t far behind, either.  I’m not looking for sympathy by mentioning this.  Death is part of life, and life goes on.  But at a time of sadness, the newsletter is the first thing I look for on Tuesday mornings.

Then, unfortunately, a related note, from Judy Peters Sylvan:  I have some sad news for you to include in the reunion update.  My dad, Vincent J. Peters, passed away on March 20th, at the age of 88.  It was unexpected, and I am still kind of in shock.  
    I hope you all are doing well.  Thanks so much, Rich, for sharing this with our classmates.  Take care.

[Rich -- Of course, as I wrote Judy, I was as sorry to hear about her father's death as I was to hear about Roz's.  Coincidently, March 20th was my mother's birthday.  She's merely 83 and is still steering her Toyota -- through the streets of Green Acres.  And it always will be Green Acres to her.  She thinks Millbrook sounds like a vintage sedative.]

And a moment to remember Elizabeth Taylor, who hardly needs our help to stay in anyone's memory.

Totally unrelated, and back to last week's food stories, from Emily Kleinman Schreiber:  Just several comments:
    For the White Castle lovers -- the store is still in the same spot on Sunrise Highway in Lynbrook.  My brother, Stewart '58, still drives from Wethersfield, Connecticut, to buy a batch of their belly-bombs.
    And if you're in the San Francisco area, try to see a performance of Lynn Nottage's Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Ruined.  My son Mike's girlfriend, Carla Duren, is fantastic in the role of Sophie.  
    Last, the April meeting of the Alumni Association will be held on the second Thursday of the month at 7:15.
    Have a happy day.

Also from Emily, by way of a Facebook announcement some weeks ago:  Attention Class of '61 !  The 50th Year Reunion will be held on October 22nd -- 1:00 to 6:00 at the Knights of Columbus in Oceanside.  This date is final !

Back to burgers, from Steve Gootzeit:  my Wetson's stories:  I had worked there one summer.  The price of a burger had already, dramatically, risen to 15 cents.  I was a very conscientious counterman, working for a hard-driving manager who was always yelling, "Let's move the line, boys!"
    A very large pile of cooked, wrapped burgers sat in a bin behind me.  If a customer wanted a "double," we were to unwrap two burgers, transfer the meat from one to the other -- no latex gloves in those days -- wrap the double and, importantly, put the empty bun aside.
    The key was to block the customer's view of the bin as this process was occurring.  Of course, it would sometimes happen  that one of my co-workers -- never me -- would rewrap the two bun halves, creating an "empty burger."  This may be the origin of the expression, "Where's the beef?"
    Also, one day a customer asked me for a medium rare burger -- quite a trick since the patties were paper thin.  I asked the manager about this request and, without a moment's hesitation, he yelled back, "Medium burgers are in the front."
    As I've said before, you can't make this stuff up.

More burger stories:  Ed Albrecht here.  I will share a short story about Wetson's.
    It was on Sunrise Highway, heading east on the way to Lynbrook.  My brother Billy, class of '63, hung around with a fellow by the name of Earl Westinson, son of a wealthy businessman.  One day, Earl's father called him into his library and said, "Earl, I am going to give you one million dollars.  Let's see what you can do with it!"
    Well Earl told my brother he was going to open a hamburger place, as everyone loves hamburgers.  Thus, Wetson's was born.  Earl later sold the chain to McDonald for some outrageous sum back then.  Thus, the start and first location of McDonald's on Long Island.

On intentionally colder food, from Amy Bentley:  I think Carvel was on Merrick Road, not on Sunrise Highway.

[Rich -- Perhaps there were two.]

Mixing fundraising and food, from Andrea Schwartz Neenan:  My son-in-law's new book, Body Confidence, is being published by Harper Collins on April 5th, but it's presently available on many publishing web sites as a pre-order.
    Body Confidence is a book that educates every body type and every goal type -- no gimmicks, no tricks or opinions.  There are many so-called diet books that flood the market, but this book speaks real facts to real people.  My son-in-law, Mark Macdonald, will be a guest on Chelsea Handler’s show, Chelsea Lately, the night of April 5th -- Handler wrote the foreword to the book.  And for those of you in Los Angeles, Mark will be at the Barnes & Noble on 3rd Street in Santa Monica at 7 PM, next Monday, April 4th.  He'll be both speaking and signing books.  After that, he begins a nationwide book-signing tour.  I couldn’t be prouder, and I am a walking example of how well the program works.

And what would be a week without a link?  This one is from Barbara Blitfield Pech:  This  film was originally thought to be from 1905, until David Kiehn with the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum figured out exactly when it was shot.  He deduced this from a combination of the New York trade papers announcing the film's original showing, the wet streets from the then-recent heavy rainfall, the shadows indicating the time of year, the weather conditions on historical record, and even from when the cars were registered -- he determined who owned them and when the plates were issued.  It turns out the film was made four days before the great California earthquake of April 18, 1906, and then the negative was shipped by train to New York City for processing.  http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=NINOxRxze9k

The South '65 e-mail addresses:  reunionclass65.blogspot.com

The South '65 photo site:  picasaweb.google.com/SouthHS65 


Rich