Update 5-1-12

Hi,

As usual, sad news first -- from Evelyn Roedel Read, '59:  It is with heartfelt sympathy for his family that I bring you the news of the passing of Ralph D. Renna, class of 1960, on April 6th, 2012.  Ralph was a resident of Middletown, New York.  He is survived by his two sons and his four grandchildren.

Evelyn added:  At least, one of his sons believes his father was in the class of 1960.  Perhaps you could check with people who read the newsletter.  Thanks.

[Rich-- Obviously, I'm doing that.  But first, I wrote our alumni authority Emily Kleinman Schreiber and asked:  Was Ralph Renna in your class, '61, or in the class of '60?

Emily wrote back:  I don't recall any Ralph in my class, but I'll take a look in my yearbook, and I'll send messages to my contacts in the class of '60 and to people in my class as well.

[Rich -- While waiting to hear back from Emily's contacts, if anyone else knew Ralph Renna and knew what class he was in, please tell us.]

Next, something Barbara Blitfield and I have been casually discussing.  It started with her comparison between the flat-roofed extra room built over the garage of the house she used to live in on Jasmine Lane and a similar extension built on the house my mother still lives in on Forest Road.
    Barbara described her upstairs room as being used as her dad's law office and having dark, knotty pine walls and small, odd-shaped windows.

I wrote back:  No, it sounds like a slightly different set-up.  The extension on my mother's house is actually two rooms, with a set of open stairs with a wrought iron railing leading from the living room where the guest clothes closet used to be.  That set of stairs leads to a landing.  To the right on the landing is the door to the main bedroom.  Straight ahead on the landing is a normal sized-window and there's another window the same size to the left.  We have open shelves, floor-to-ceiling, on both those walls for books, but the light from the windows comes around the books and shelves. 
     Also leading from the landing is a second set of steps, in the opposite direction from the first.  They lead to a smaller bedroom, 6 by 9, with a gabled ceiling, a single normal-sized window, but no closet.  That was the guest room until my sister decided she wanted it when our younger brothers needed separate bedrooms.  When I went to college, my sister took the main bedroom upstairs, and I moved my stuff to the guest room.  When she went to college, she got to keep the room because my parents didn't want my younger brothers -- the older was already 10 -- away from them.
    I was 12 when my parents built the main bedroom upstairs for me.  That was 1959, soon after the first of my brothers was born.  The rooms were modeled on an extension built on Beverly and Harold Berger's house, on one of the Elderberry Lanes.  The same company built both extensions, but they messed up Beverly and Harold's and had to go back and raise the ceiling above the second set of steps.  If I remember correctly, the small room in their house was Harold's at-home law office.
    The main bedroom in both extensions has a lot of light -- the whole front wall is windows, and there's another pair of windows on the adjoining outside wall.  No knotty pine, just white walls.  That room's about 9 by 12, and there's a small bathroom with just a sink and toilet, and a walk-in closet about the same size.  Each is maybe 4 by 4..  The attic entry is a 3 by 4 door partway up the back wall in the closet.
     Now the extension on Andy Dolich's old house has a flat roof, and I think is only one room, just over the garage.  You used to get to it from a narrow stairway in the kitchen, immediately to your left when you enter from the dining room.  That stairway replaced some cabinets.  I don't know if the layout is still the same.  That kitchen may long ago have been enlarged.

Barbara wrote back:  Wow.  Exterior looks were certainly deceiving.   And the wrought iron railing was something I may have overlooked in my earlier description.  But we only had a two-step entry and curlicue double wrought iron posts on each side
    As I mentioned, the room was initially my dad's office and had just about the same timeline your sister had with her room switch.  I brazenly moved all my dad's office furniture downstairs to my soon-to-be-former bedroom -- the first one off the living room -- and took the room for my own.  While this was an act of sheer guts on my part, somehow my dad turned the other cheek and not only didn't kill me, he now met his law clients in a lavender room.  It stayed that color until he sold the house in 1973, and my family moved to North Woodmere..
    Also, my parents were good friends of Yetta and Mac Dolich, and I was in their house many times.  But I don't remember an upstairs extension.  Any idea when they added it?
I wrote back:  I don't remember the Dolichs adding their upstairs room, so it may have been there when my family moved to Green Acres in 1953.  Maybe Andy remembers.
    Also, I suspect a number of younger sisters and brothers moved to somewhat more desirable rooms after their older sisters and brothers moved out.  I guess some of it depended on how many kids were in the family.

[Rich -- And I still need to write about my bike riding, and it should have been this week, since we just got back from three days in Davis, California, a university town well-known for almost everyone riding bikes.  They even have a bike museum.  But another time.]

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

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

Please take out the spaces.


Rich