Update 6-14-11

Hi,

If you remember, the South High Senior Scholarship Awards presentation was on Wednesday, June 8th.  During this evening, the Booker Gibson, Vince Tampio, and Alumni Association scholarships were presented.

Linda Tobin Kettering has posted pictures on Facebook of the Booker Gibson and the Vince Tampio scholarship recipients.

Emily Kleinman Schreiber has posted pictures on Facebook of the Alumni Association scholarship recipients.

Booker Gibson, who was at the program, has posted comments about all the photos.

Also, on Facebook, totally unrelated to scholarships, is a series of glowing photos of Irene Saunders Goldstein.  And, from the notes to these pictures, it seems it's time to say, Happy Birthday, Irene.

If you don't belong to Facebook, you may still be able to use a search engine to get to these photos, the same way you can now get to the weekly back-up postings of these newsletters.  You just have to know what to search for, so try some different combinations of words.

Related to Booker Gibson, but not necessarily to Facebook, from Claire Brush Reinhardt:  Hey, all South High School Falcons,  Another school year is coming to an end, and your Alumni Association is planning another fun-filled night with Booker Gibson at the Irish Coffee Pub in East Islip.
    The date is Wednesday, July 13th, and the time is from 6:30 PM on.  The Pub is easy to find off the Southern State Parkway or Sunrise Highway.  We have all had such great times every time we gather to spend the evening at the pub.
    Booker doesn't start playing until around 7 PM, so we like to get there earlier for a visit with  him.  Later, during the evening, he is able to come and join us at our tables in between his sets.
    I will be making a reservation for our table, so if you would like to join us and other South High School alumni, please RSVP to me by July 1st.  My e-mail address is:  reino @ optonline . net
    Or, if you would rather make your own reservation, here is the information you will need:
    www . irishcoffeepub . com
    131 Carleton Avenue
    East Islip, NY 11730
    631-277-0007.
    The food is always excellent, it's great reconnecting with old -- well, former -- friends and meeting new people, and a good time is always had by all.  Not to mention how great it always is to visit with Booker.
    Looking forward to seeing you at the Pub.

Next, someone kindly noted that the poem Zelda White Nichols sent in last week celebrating dogs and other pets isn't just another unattributable, Internet piece.  It was written by Fleur Conkling Heyliger and first appeared in the Saturday Evening Post on the April 5, 1952.  It’s full title is The Answer (to an Adopted Child).
    The notation mentions that this "lovely, inspirational poem is widely used on cards, prints, and plaques and is very meaningful under many circumstances."  It was originally meant to celebrate adopted children, but it seems to work as well for beloved pets. 

A question from Emily Kleinman Schreiber:  I need to know the dates of the class of '65's last couple of reunions when Mrs. Margolin attended.  Can you help me out with that?

[Rich -- Without doing any research, I quickly wrote Emily:  I'm pretty sure Theresa Margolin Bargman -- and I'm not sure of the spelling of that last name -- only attended the Saturday night of our 37th reunion in Spring 2002 and the Friday night of our 40th reunion in Summer 2005.  I definitely know she wasn't at our 45th reunion last summer.  I hope that helps.
    But if anyone has a different memory or more recent contact information, that might help Emily.  Her e-mail address is:  Cre8em @ aol . com
    Also -- and I've been meaning to ask this for about a month -- if anyone has had recent contact or contact information with one of our other Spanish teachers, Martin Solomon, there's at least one of his former students who'd like to get back in touch.  Please send that information to me.]

Something from my sister, Marilyn Eisbrouch, not necessarily about her oldest brother's increasing lack of memory, but about something I mentioned last week about my increasingly loose sense of time.
    From Marilyn:  It's so funny that you said that time seems to be slowing down for you again because this is just what I've been saying.  But my point was to slow down time.  It always seemed to be rushing by, and I noticed that also seemed to be true for my daughter, Hally, when she was a kid.  Kids no longer seemed to have our childhood sense of time because their days was so crammed with pre-arranged schedules.
    Anyway, it took me over a year after I retired to really work time down to the slow speed of quiet summers and days where you could see what you actually accomplished -- like actually smelling summer or being out in summer.
    I meet so many people who are very leery of retirement.  They don't know what they'll do with themselves.
But for me, it's so nice to have the option of "Mom, I'm bored," and to smell the air, the grass, and the flowers, and to find something nice that I'd like to do.

Marilyn also mentioned:  I'm listening to the audiobook, New York, a novel by Edward Rutherfurd.  In the section covering 1925, a quick reference is made to Valley Stream, specifically in terms of railroads beginning to make commuting from Long Island possible from places like that town and places beyond.  Also, Inwood is cited as a settlement for a lot of Albanians.  Interesting.

Related to this, from Barbara Blitfield Pech:  some online research about "The Gibson Neighborhood of Valley Stream, Long Island."
    Gibson is a small neighborhood in Valley Stream that borders Lynbrook and Hewett.  It consists of older Tudors and Colonials and some newer Capes on the outskirts.  Gibson is on the Far Rockaway line of the Long Island Railroad, and it also contains it's own park, called Barret Park.
    The older homes in Gibson, the Tudors and Colonials, were built starting in the 1920s. The Capes followed in the 1950s.  Most of the homes are detached, though there are some attached homes near the railroad station.
    In the 1920s, William Gibson and his Gibson Corporation began building in Valley Stream to accommodate New Yorkers who wanted to get out of the crowded city.  The development of the Long Island Railroad and Sunrise Highway -- a major thoroughfare through all Long Island -- made Valley Stream an easy commute to the city.  According to Howard F. Ruehl in his History of Valley Stream, published for the village's fiftieth anniversary in 1975:  "Almost all of the families included at least one commuter.  Realizing that his community needed transportation, Mr. Gibson planned a railroad station.  After several years of legal negotiations, the Long Island Railroad agreed to have trains stop morning and night at Gibson, if the builder would erect his own station.  This was done at a cost of $55,000, and on May 29, 1929, the new building was officially opened.
    Gibson also awarded prizes for the most-beautiful and best-kept gardens and lawns.  He started the custom of carol singing around a Christmas tree at the Gibson Station, provided the Santa Claus, and bought candy for all the children who attended.  In a whimsical mood, he named some of the new streets after well-known liquors:  Haig Road, DuBonnet Road, Carstairs Road, Gordon Road, and Wilson Road."

Also from Barbara, a link to the Oral History Audiocasette Recordings in the Valley Stream Historical Society collection at the Henry Waldinger Memorial Library.  If you follow the link and go way down to the bottom of the list, you'll find an interview with Joseph Henry Vielbig.
    A bit about the recordings from information on the site:  Over the last few decades, members of the Valley Stream Historical Society have been busy recording the oral history of Valley Stream under the leadership of long-time society member Helen Dowdeswell.  With the assistance of other members, over 125 oral histories have been recorded.
    The link:  www . nassaulibrary . org / valleyst / vshistorical / vshistoralhistory . htm

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

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

Please delete any spaces in links or e-mail addresses before using them.  And remember the latest update is now also posted on Facebook, at Valley Stream South High School Class of 1965 -- Discussions.


Rich