Update 4-19-11

Hi,

First, the final Tampio / Gibson scholarship report for the year:  We're done.  5 weeks.  23 donors.  Got the annual $1000 we need.  Thanks, as usual, to everyone involved.  Now, we're just waiting for the students' names from Liz King Giordano at South.

Next, thinking of Vince, Amy Lieberman, Barnet Kellman, Paul Zegler, and I finally managed to get together for lunch.  In one way, it only took 6 months to arrange.  In another, it took 5 years.
    Once we all got settled around the restaurant table, we had to figure out exactly when Vince had died.  2002?  2003?  2004?  We all remembered the traffic on the way to his funeral, and the resultant silliness, but we couldn't immediately place the year.  Then I remembered we're about to give the 8th Vincent Tampio Award at South, so that put his death in fall 2003.  It doesn't seem that long ago.
    Next, we caught up.  Amy is casting, a lot of musicals these days, she says.  Barnet is now teaching full-time at USC.  Paul is about to open in a musical called iGhost, a modern retelling of Oscar Wilde's The Canterville Ghost.  I continue to tutor.
    After that, I just listened.  Being at a table with Amy, Barnet, and Paul is like having a 2-hour master class on the entertainment industry.  I know something about design, but not about casting, directing, and acting.  We occasionally circled back to our roots at South and to Vince's influence, but we've certainly gone places he might never have imagined.  Still, we all agree, he gave us our start
    A friendly waiter took a picture of us, and I'm forwarding a copy to Stu Borman, to post on our class site -- link below.  Barnet may also post it on Facebook.  A good time was obviously had by all.

Related to the scholarships and the South students previously honored in Vince and Booker's names, from Ken Ulric:  Would you mind if I follow up on the “What happened to...” question about previous winners?  Tom Zatorski is the man who replaced Booker at South and who does the plays.  His wife became president of my local after I retired, and Tom was involved with the Long Island Theatre Teachers group that I helped establish.  I intend to give him a call and see if he knows anything about the previous winners.  Is that OK?

{Rich -- I wrote Ken that would be great.  And, today, Amy, Barnet, Paul, and I all agreed it would be nice to find out how some of these people are doing.  Meanwhile, Ken had already written back.]

From Ken:  I just heard from Liz King Giordano at South.  She said that, unfortunately, Tom Zatorski doesn’t have any contact with any of the winners.  She's going to check on her own to see what she can find out, but, because South is about to close for Easter and Passover, she and I will speak when they reopen on the 26th.  If she has information, I’ll get it to you right after that.

[Rich -- So we need to wait a bit.  Or someone with the time could just start searching out the names on Facebook.]

In other mail, first, from Zelda White Nichols:  Regarding Linda Cohen Greenseid's comments on when do you feel 64:  I had that discussion with my mom when she was in her 80s.  Even then, she said the same thing, that sometimes she would see her reflection quickly in a store window and wonder who that old lady was.  Mentally, she always felt younger than she was, and it wasn’t until her last few years in her 90s that she felt old.

Similarly, from Joanne Shapiro Polner:  Right on, Linda Cohen Greenseid!  I agree with you wholeheartedly when you say:  I still don't identify with "old" and "the spirit lives separately."  For me, I know that I am in the looking-back years, but my mind and footsteps are always pointing go-head, like when we were 40 years young!
    I'm 69 1/2, and I play tennis, weekly, with thirty- and forty-year-old women.  All of us are varied-skilled intermediates.  I can run as well or better than some.  Others sometimes respond sooner than I to the ball flying over to our side of the net.  It's great fun.  I do ten-pin bowling, too, with a 12-pound ball.  When I see those upper 70- and some 80-year-olds bowling among the 30 odd-teams, mostly women in their 50s and up, I say to myself, "I want to be like those old ladies when I grow up!"  I'm rarin' to keep going'!

A related Internet joke, recently sent by a retired friend, Daryl Wedwick:  As we get older, we sometimes begin to doubt our ability to "make a difference" in the world.  It's at these times that our hopes are boosted by the remarkable achievements of other "seniors" who've found the courage to take on challenges that would make many of us wither. Harold Schamberg is such a person. "I've often been asked," he says, 'What do you old folks do, now that you're retired?'  Well, I'm fortunate to have a chemical engineering background, and one of the things I enjoy most is converting beer, wine, and whiskey into urine.  I do it nearly every day.”

A question, from Judy Hartstone:  Why was I thinking that the airfield that became the shopping center -- and I don't ever remember calling it a "mall," always "the shopping center" -- was Locust Field, hence the Locust phone number?  Does anyone else remember Locust Field?

From Robert Fivesom, some answers to some questions from last week:
    To Sheree Miller -- for years, I was convinced the song said "the traction I fear"  Made no sense to me. "I'm a walkin' in the rain, to the barber, and I feel a pain."  Made no sense to me.
    To Eric (Boss Tweed) -- congratz on the win.  How the hell does one win first times seven?  Does that men second came in 8th?  Makes no sense to me.
    To Linda Cohen Greenseid -- Mirrors lie.  Gravity is our enemy.  Just hum the anthem of our generation:  "Forever Young."  Makes sense to me!  PS: Make sure no one hears you humming, or they'll throw you into a home. 

From Eric Hilton: Thanks for last week's mention of the photo contest I entered. The good news is, I passed the first round and will be in the finals.  Online voting for the final 15 photos starts Monday, April 25th at 12 PM and ends Sunday, May 1 at 11:59 PM.  Again, it's the Herald Tribune Mother Earth Photo Contest.  http://heraldtribune.upickem.net/engine/Details.aspx?p=A&c=28884&s=7474140&i=1&m=X#SD
    So please view the entries and vote.  You can view all 15 photos or type "Surreal Beach" and my black-and-white picture of tree stumps on the beach should appear.  You're allowed to vote once a day, and I don't mean to sound greedy, but vote as often as you'd like.  Again, thanks to all my South High friends.

Also, from Amy Lieberman.  If any of you are in or near San Francisco, The Supperclub, reinvented at 1300 on Fillmore, is debuting Billy Valentine on Thursday, April 28, 7:00 PM -- 10:30 PM.  Come be part of a night dedicated to soul music and food.  Book your reservation early because we will sell out.  In the debut for Monetta's Salon Series, Billy Valentine will be in the building for one night only, bringing you into the evening in a way only he can.  So any fan of Ray Charles, Sam Cook, Marvin Gaye, or Nat King Cole, come remember what the best of music was and still is!  $75 for the three-course dinner and show for the evening; RSVP by April 22nd.
    And back home in Los Angeles, on May 7th and 14th, from 7 to 11 PM, Billy will again be at the Casa Del Mar Hotel with the Stuart Elster Trio.  The address is:  1910 Ocean Way in Santa Monica.  Plus, as always, feel free to take a look around Billy's website:  www.billy-valentine.com

[Rich -- Also, yes, I was having some trouble last week sending the newsletter, which is why some of you got duplicates late Tuesday morning.  As a result, Marc Jonas had a very reasonable question.]

From Marc:  I'm curious.  How do people actually know when they haven't received an e-mail?

[Rich -- as I wrote Marc:  Some people like to read the newsletter Tuesday mornings and when it hasn't arrived, they write me as quickly as my former Newsday customers used to call my parents when their papers were late because I was working a soccer game or track meet.  The bigger question is:  "How do I know that the newsletters have arrived?" and the answer is: "I don't, until some people write me."  So thanks, all of you.]

Finally, the punch line to the story I sent at New Year's:  My late, former neighbor's porn collection was just valued at $355,000.  Since it filled a truck 30 by 10 by 10, that's about $120 per cubic foot.  And since it was all donated to a charity, it brought his wife a tax write-off of $100,000.

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

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


Rich