Update 4-12-11

Hi,

The quick business report:  we added another 50 bucks to this year's Booker Gibson / Vince Tampio scholarships, bringing us to $875 and leaving $125 to go.  If you'd like to help, please send your check to me, Rich Eisbrouch, at:  23030 Dolorosa Street, Woodland Hills, California  91367.  And please tell me which scholarship you'd like to support, or if you'd like your money split between them.  Thanks.  We're almost there. 

Next, an important announcement from Emily Kleinman Schreiber, president of South's Alumni Association:  Our next meeting is this Thursday evening, April 14th, at 7:15 in South's library.  I hope to see many of you there.
    The Board that attends has been quite productive over the past five plus years, but we need new -- younger -- leaders to move the Association ahead.  I'm sure some of you would welcome the opportunity to become officers or trustees.  They're not time-consuming positions, and they're very rewarding.  How about it?

Then a suggestion, from Robert Fiveson:  I think an occasional update on the Tampio / Gibson award recipients might be interesting.

[Rich -- I suspect a number of us feel that way, but I don't really know where to start.  One place might be a Facebook search.  If anyone has time and skill to take that on, here are the names of the 14 students:
      Gibson Award                                            Tampio Award
2004 – Vanessa Spica                                2004 – Paul Ianiello
2005 – Anderson Lee                                  2005 – Jeffrey Lashansky
2006 -- Abigail Fabro                                  2006 -- Jenny Weinbloom
2007 -- Peter Olson                                    2007 -- Andrew Karp
2008 – Amy Kim                                        2008 – Rebecca Topol
2009 – Kimberly Faust                               2009 – Emily Sherman
2010 – Amy Ryan                                      2010 – Christopher Alonzo]

Related, from Linda Tobin Kettering:  This is my last year as a South High School parent, so I'll be attending the Awards Night anyhow.  So it would be my pleasure to present the awards.

[Rich -- As I've already written Linda, her work is greatly appreciated.]

A request, from Eric Hilton:  Not sure if I should be asking this, but what the heck.  Last month, I entered 7 photographs in the Sarasota County Fair, and all 7 took first place, 3 second place, and 1 best in class.  I just entered another contest for the Sarasota Herald Tribune, which is judged by the amount of votes.
    I wanted to ask our fellow South High classmates if they would look at my entry and place a vote -- unless they think this is not appropriate.  But since the photo was very well received at an exhibit I had in Israel, I wanted to enter it in my local city’s photo contest as well.  If anyone would like to see the image in advance, please e-mail me at:  thephotomaker@comcast.net  The photo I submitted is a black-and-white landscape.  It's called "Surreal Beach" in this contest.
    Hope all is well.

A reflection, from Linda Cohen Greenseid:  I remember when the Beatles song "When I'm 64" came out in 1967.  I hadn't even turned 20 yet, and I thought 64 was awfully old.  I felt sorry for all those old people who were 64.  
    Well, this year most of us will be 64, and I still don't identify with "old".  Maybe my back is old, or with two surgeries and a set of railroad tracks running up and down it, kind of new.  My head and my heart are still very much young and perhaps headed toward middle-age.
    I wonder when, if ever, you really feel old, in your mind, that is.  I know the body will play dirty tricks on us, but the spirit lives separately.

Kind of related, a link from Barbara Blitfield Pech -- which she titled, "Not What I Remember."   The connected article begins:  "The Green Acres Mall is a large, old shopping mall located just barely outside of New York city limits on Sunrise Highway in Valley Stream, a Long Island suburb.  At 1,635,000 square feet, it’s one of the largest malls on Long Island, and also the second oldest, after Roosevelt Field.  The Green Acres Mall was developed by the New York-based Chanin corporation, and first opened in 1956 replacing Curtiss Airfield, and was one of the first suburban shopping centers in the New York metropolitan area.  The mall’s name is somewhat indicative of the post-war optimism of the time; it was an era when this area’s population was rapidly exploding, and it was necessary to provide more out-of-town shopping options to the sprawling Levittowns of Long Island.
    The link:  http://www.labelscar.com/new-york/green-acres-mall

A social note about Judy Hartstone and me:  We had a great lunch about week ago, on a beautiful day in a seafood restaurant at the foot of a pier in Ventura.  That city's on the ocean, and it's about halfway between where Judy lives in Santa Barbara and where I live in Los Angeles.  Among other things we discussed was why it's so difficult to get even two members of our class together, especially since we have so much fun whenever we do.
    It's just rough to schedule people.  It's amazing.  And I don't think it entirely has to do with people being old friends.  I have as much trouble getting together with my neighbors, three houses down from me.  Things just keep coming up.
    But if anyone in Southern California does want to get together, we could make another stab at dinner.  I think the last time we succeeded was when Peter Rosen was visiting, a couple of years ago.  And, as usual, it was fun.

Finally, something completely unrelated to South, but related to kids and grandkids.  A note from a friend of mine, Sheree Miller:
    So my daughter Katie's in her room practicing her guitar, playing along to a CD.  The song is "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing."  So I'm bopping by her room, and she hears me just as I'm singing, "I'd like to buy the world a Coke..."
    "Wait," she says, stopping me.  "Coke?  I thought it said 'goat'."
    "Goat?  You wanna buy the world a goat?"  And we laughed.
    So I walk into our bedroom where my husband Jon is working under the bathroom sink to tell him the story.  Katie plays the song on the CD for him.  He chuckles at the story.  Then Katie asks us, "How do you keep a 'Coke' company?" 
    "Huh?  No, you're keeping the WORLD company!  Not the Coke."  No wonder she thought it was a goat.  Although why she thought someone would write a song about keeping a goat company is beyond me.

[Rich -- And I wrote Sheree:  Ah, yes, goats.  Years ago, when I was trying to learn to type with more than three fingers and a thumb, I was using the song "Suzanne" for practice.  One day, I typed, "...you can hear the goats go by, you can spend the night beside her..."  So those damned goats are everywhere.
    Go buy yourself a drink, Sheree, and get Katie a Shirley Temple.  Then try to explain what that is.]

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

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


Rich