Update 5-3-11

Hi,

Interesting week.  Interesting times.  We probably wouldn't want to live in dull ones, but still...

A good chunk of the letters this week were generated by my seeming inability to get this simple newsletter delivered dependably by AOL.  People wrote:  "I got it," or "I didn't get," or "I didn't get it yet," or "It's 7:22 and no reunion page."  Later, other people wrote, "I got tries 1 and 3, but not 2."  And, "I got 2, but not 1 and 3."   Jay Kinder graciously wrote that he'd rather have the newsletter 3 times than not at all, but as I wrote him, even twice makes it seem like spam.
    In any case, I'm going to send it earlier tonight and see if that changes anything.  As I also wrote to several people, I meant to do that last week but got distracted by some last minute student essays which needed to be checked and quickly gotten back so they could be turned in Tuesday morning.
    So how come I didn't have someone to proofread my essays the night before I turned them in?  Maybe because I was still writing them in the class before they were due.

In other notes, thematically, Jerry Bittman just wrote, "You might have heard by now what Bin Laden's code name was for the operation.  It was G-E-R-O-N-I-M-O."

[Rich -- Of course, I needed to do a little research on that to determine that -- as reported by ABC news, among others, "Geronimo was the American code name for the operation that sent two teams of 12 SEALS zooming by Blackhawk helicopters to a walled compound in Abbotabad, Pakistan, on Sunday to kill or capture the most wanted man in the world."
    Jerry's connection is that his e-mail address is: crazygeronimo @ yahoo.]

From Zelda White Nichols:  I'm not sure this has a place in the newsletter.  If not, I understand.  I'm just trying to get word out about the needs of some of the earthquake evacuees in Japan.  This a part of a letter from an Australian friend, Janelle, who's married to a Japanese man.  They live near Tokyo.  If you're interested in helping out, please follow the link after her note.  Thanks.
    "Most evacuation centers in the Japan's disaster region now can offer warm meals thanks to the charity soup kitchens, but thousands of people are still missing fresh fruit.  These are young children, the elderly, and the infirm.  For $12 you can send a person a ten-day supply of fresh fruit.  The donation will be processed through Second Harvest, a famous food bank charity in Tokyo.  The distribution starts in a few days, and they are currently only about halfway to achieving their target number of donations."
     http://volunteerakita.wordpress.com/2011/04/12/tohoku-relief-the-fruit-tree-project-fund-proposal-2/

From Eric Hilton, an update on the Herald Tribune photo contest he's entered.  As of 4-27-11, I have 53 votes; one guy has 115, and some 90.  The contest is more about how many people you know, instead how good your photograph is.
    In any case, by the time everyone reads this, the contest will be over, so I'm not asking for more votes.  But thanks to everyone who voted.

From Ray Staley:  Thanks for giving me the credit for originally finding the Curtis Field site, but it sure wasn't me.  I do member reading about it, but I have no clue who furnished it.  Do you archive past newsletters?

[Rich -- I have all but about the first 6 months of the newsletters.  Those were lost when AOL stopped supporting its free home pages.  Occasionally, I have to dig back through some of the newsletters for something I need -- like the date Vince Tampio died -- but the newsletters aren't searchable as a group.  If I thought there was any interest in them, I'd do something to protect them.  But when I do skim them, I notice how absolutely topical they are.  That's why no one else saves them, either.]

From Amy Bentley:  I just got this from my brother.  Is it true?
    “Before the formalities of the meeting, the group learned of and discussed the planned demolition of the Cloverfield Pedestrian Bridge, which links the school to the Mill Brook (Green Acres) neighborhood.  The commission of a serious crime and the poor condition of the bridge have resulted in the decision to eliminate it.”
    Did they tear down the bridge from Green Acres to South?  Did you write about this in the newsletter?  If so, I don’t remember.  If they took down the bridge, then how do the Green Acres students get to South?  Via Mill Road then Jedwood Place?

[Rich -- Yep, we've discussed this over the past few years.  The center span of the bridge was taken out, and the bridge is locked off behind the chain link fence and is unusable.  But I don't know if this meeting is about tearing out the rest of the bridge.
    As for how students get to South:  a lot of them have their parents drive them, or they drive themselves.  And I guess some of the closer students still walk.  And it's a surprisingly short walk to South from, say, the Forest Road School area by way of Mill Road.  It just seemed longer when we were 15.

From Amy again:  The excerpt is from a 2008 alumni meeting.  I feel happy that I was able to walk over the bridge each day.

From Barbara Blitfield Pech:  Did I make this up, imagine it, or do I actually remember either Miss White or Miss Meyers, our junior high Home Ec. teachers, teaching us that the only way to tell if eggs are fresh is to run your hand over them and feel a roughness.. If they're smooth, they aren't fresh.  I hope the taught us this, because it would at the very least validate why I do this every time I buy a dozen eggs.  Or I'm just egg-ceptionally crazy.  Either answer is OK.

From Emily Kleinman Schreiber:  I just received this from Bette Silver.  I'll post it on Facebook for her, but it's unfortunately a little too late for the latest Alumni Bulletin:
    Opening this Friday, May 6th, The Northport--East Northport Community Theater presents THE SOUND OF MUSIC.  Evening performances are May 6, 7, 13 and 14, at 8.  Sunday matinees are May 8 and 15, at 2.   Our "midway gala" doors open an hour before each performance.  
    Tickets can be purchased by contacting Bette Silver at:  631-896-5970 or bdsilver@optonline.net   $12 for students/seniors and $18 for adults.  Please don't miss this opportunity to join with us as we celebrate our Ten-Year Anniversary.  Our production includes a few unique and lovely, not-to-be-missed additions to the usual renditions of this show -- along with outstanding performances, music, costuming, and set design.  For a flier, please contact me.
    Thank you, and we hope to see you at the show.   

[Rich -- Oh yeah:  If something does mess up with AOL again, and you get more than one copy of this in the morning, please just delete the extras.  If you block them as spam, that could trigger another whole problem.  It seems if too many users block e-mail from a particular address, sometimes mail from that address is simply blocked server-wide.  A nice feature when you need it.]

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

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


Rich