Update 9-14-10

Hi,

Sometimes good things can come out of terrible ones, and I'm reminded now, nine years later, that what happened on September 11th, 2001, put an urgency into many of us wanting to see each other again.  As was mentioned in a Public Radio interview Saturday, regarding the New York bar and club scene in the fall of 2001, "It was wild.  Everyone was partying.  People just wanted to be together."

In less reflective thoughts, a note from Stu Borman:  Sorry about the long wait -- my associate was on vacation last week -- but I think Bill, the Good Humor man is a little beyond hope of improvement, at least in a photographic sense.
    I fixed the photo a little in a single step with a freeware program (see filename ending with IrfanView), whereas my associate, a professional photo-editing expert, fixed it up with expensive software (see filename ending with Photoshop).
    This rarely happens, but I personally like mine better.  My associate thinks his version is much improved, but although it is better exposed, a side effect of the editing process is that it also got terribly grainy.  Please see what you think, and I'll post the version you select.  The original photo is also attached as a reference.
    The basic problem is that the original photo doesn't have hidden information in it that can be usefully brought out.  In addition to Bill and two kids, the photo seems to show a torn version of a sign that originally read "Buttered Pecan" and had a photo of that product.  I personally would not have been interested in that flavor, but I still recall Bill's wonderful, cheery personality to this day.
    My mother was a devotee of Carlton Fredericks' radio programs on nutrition -- which I can still remember hearing her listen to on radio station WOR -- and she was a healthy eating enthusiast.  So my late sister and I were not among Bill's regular customers, and I still remember feeling kind of left out of Bill's inner circle.

[Rich -- As I wrote Stu:  Yep, I think your version is better.  And I don't think the "Buttered Pecan" sign is ripped.  I think it's being blocked by Bill's white hat.
    Thanks again for you work.  I'll pass word about the improved photo on to the class.  And sorry you were slightly ice-cream-deprived, but I'll bet you have better teeth because of it.]

Stu wrote back:  Thanks. The photo has been uploaded to the Barbara Blitfield Pech album.  I didn't realize that the sign was being blocked by Bill's hat, but now I see that, too.

[Rich -- Note also that, in addition to the old and reunion photos Stu has posted on the class photo site, a number of people from South have been posting recent, often travel photos on Facebook.  In the last week, I've seen pictures from Mark Perlman, Robert Fiveson, and Barnet Kellman.  These postings often don't stay online more than a few days, so if you want to see what some people you may know have been doing, you might want to check Facebook several times a week.  And make sure you'd made friends with everyone else in the extended South loop.]

In a more intimate social arena, Irene Saunders Goldstein reports that she and Ellen Epstein Silver had a delightful dinner together last week, near Old Towne Alexandria, Virginia.  "We never had such a long conversation before this," Irene says, "and it was great!"

On a more serious matter, from Zelda White Nichols:  Some of those who attended William S. Buck and Valley Stream South may remember my mom.  I just wanted to mention that she passed away on July 16, 2010, at the great age of 95.

[Rich -- Of course, I wrote Zelda back:  Sorry to hear about your mother. But 95 is a very good age.]

And Zelda wrote:  My mother had a very good and long life.  And part of life is death, as we learn from our pets.  They teach such good lessons.  Speaking of which, how is your new puppy?

[Rich -- The new puppy is now eight-months-old and is teaching me not to be attached to possessions.  She regards them all as chew toys.]

Zelda also added:  As we all get a little older, we develop occasional health problems.  I am currently battling some neurological problems stemming from a spine injury and a severe leg fracture years ago -- two different accidents.  Other than that, all is well, and my husband is doing very well with his company.  He co-owns and is president of itSM Solutions LLC  www.itsmsolutions.com   We will be attending a conference in Louisville, Kentucky, from the September 19th to the 22nd, and an announcement will be made then regarding his company and two of the major companies in the IT industry.  We are very excited.

Separate from that, but related to Zelda, Joanne Shapiro Polner writes:  Thank you, Zelda White Nichols, for the link to the site with a chart of symbols and how to make them with the Alt Key on the computer.  NOTE: If you want to print out the pages for ready reference, click on View the HTML Version, click Select All, and paste onto a blank document page in Word.   Go back to the original site and look at the original version that was presented.  Scroll down to 5. and copy that part to your Word document (place it after the end of the chart), for when you selected the HTML version,  5. was omitted.  I have a laptop, so it is important for me to have that 5. directive on my print copy (3 pages).  You might want to type at the top of your page 3 "On a Computer with a Number Pad:"  Be sure to copy the link address onto the top or bottom of your Word document so you have your source ID.

Finally, more lifted pieces of obituaries from The New York Times, about people who were important to us while we were growing up or somewhat after.  The full obituaries are available at: nytimes.com.

Kevin McCarthy, the suave, square-jawed actor who earned accolades in stage and screen productions, but will always be best known as the star of the 1956 science fiction movie “Invasion of the Body Snatchers,” died Saturday. He was 96.
    Mr. McCarthy continued acting well into his 90s.  His last screen appearances were in 2009 in “Wesley,” an 18th-century costume drama, and the short film “I Do.”  Interviewers rarely asked him about subjects beyond “Invasion of the Body Snatchers.” (He loved to tell the story about leaving Ms. Wynter a nostalgic trans-Atlantic telephone message: “Becky, it’s Miles. Wake up!”) But in 1991 he told a critic for The San Diego Union-Tribune about his feeling that purposeful employment was a remedy for many ills. “I try to get as much work as I possibly can,” Mr. McCarthy, then 77, said. “I love to work. I love to be in things.”

David Dortort, a television writer and producer whose idea to create a western drama based not on shoot-’em-ups but instead on the travails of a loving family resulted in “Bonanza,” one of the most popular shows in history, died on Sunday.  He was 93.
    Because the show was to be partly shot on location, and because color television sets were on the verge of being readily available to consumers, Mr. Dortort urged the network to film “Bonanza” in color, and it became television’s first full-hour western in color.  “Bonanza” appeared for the first time at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 12, 1959, opposite “Perry Mason” on CBS.  Two years later it moved to 9 p.m. on Sunday and became a dominant hit, running for 14 seasons -- including three years, from 1964 to 1967, when it was the most-watched television show in the country.

Harold Gould, a widely recognizable character actor in film and television who specialized, especially late in his career, in playing suave, well-dressed gentlemen in popular sitcoms, died Saturday.  He was 86.
    Mr. Gould was probably best known for two television roles in which he played dignified, self-possessed and understanding men trying to look out for the women in their lives.  In the 1970s, on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and later on its spinoff, “Rhoda,” he played Martin Morgenstern, the father of Rhoda Morgenstern (Valerie Harper), the best friend of Mary Richards (Ms. Moore).  It was a role for a charmer; Martin was the patient and consoling parent, a foil for his brassy wife, Ida (Nancy Walker).  A decade and a half or so later, he was a regular guest star on “The Golden Girls” as a sweetly dashing widower who courts, more or less successfully, the sweetly ditzy Rose Nylund (Betty White).

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

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


Rich