Update 12-2-14

 

Hi,

 

First, a good and useful deed from Barnet Kellman, forwarded from Facebook:  Do you need someone to take care of a parent or loved one?  When my mom passed away at 88, we looked for someone to take care of my 90-year-old dad.  Heaven sent Virginia Stussy to be his caregiver and companion.
    She is, without question, one of the most loving, caring, responsible, and hard-working people I have ever met.  She is an excellent cook and kept house spotlessly.  She looked after Dad’s health as if he were her own parent.  She is an educated woman and engaged his mind with interesting conversation.  She was a brilliant companion and was tireless in her efforts to keep my father active, taking him to plays, ballets, movies, and museums.  She arranged several complicated trips for him to attend reunions with his Army regiment, and, even, an extended visit to New York City to revisit his old haunts.  I believe she kept him alive with loving care and stimulating company.  At the end, as his health failed and his needs became less pleasant to meet, Virginia was unwavering in her devotion and in her efforts to bring my father comfort.  Dad passed away 15 years ago, and Virginia has remained a dear and cherished member of our family.
    Since Dad’s passing, Virginia has worked for two other families, who we know.  She has been with her most recent charge, a wonderful lady in her 90s, for 10 years.  That lady is now going into assisted living, and Virginia will soon be available to be an angel in someone else’s life.  If you, or someone you know, is in need of such an angel, send me a message – bkkellman @ ca . rr.com (remove the spaces) – and I’ll put you in touch.  Also, I was asked if Virginia would leave Los Angeles, where she currently lives, and I’m checking.

 

Next, another good deed, this one from from Mary Sipp-Green:  Would you please post this in the next newsletter?  Thank you.
    If you are considering making purchases on Amazon, there is a program called Amazon Smile where The Circle – the foundation Paulinda Schimmel started years ago to raise money for ovarian cancer research – will receive a percentage of your purchase.  The link is:  smile . amazon . com   Please let your friends and family know.
    And best wishes to everyone for a wonderful holiday.

 

[Rich – I’ve been waiting to order Mary’s book through Amazon.  It was supposed to be available November 1st, then that got pushed to November 30th, and when I went to order it today, I discovered that date’s now been moved to March 31st.  I did an online search to see if the book was available anywhere else and discovered Barnes & Noble and Walmart also have it listed for March 31st.  But, apparently, it’s presently available in England, so I ordered it from a site called Wordery.  The list price is $75.  Amazon has been listing a preorder available for $50, but that's now gone up to $57.  Same price on Barnes & Noble and Walmart.  But Wordery charged $50 US, with no shipping or handling charges.  I’ll see if it turns up in 2 weeks as promised and report back.]

 

Meanwhile, here’s the description Mary’s book, Every Hour of the Light:  American landscape painter Mary Sipp-Green, based in the bucolic Berkshire Hills of Massachusetts, is exceptional in her ability to draw the viewer into her atmospheric landscapes and seascapes.  The intensely saturated colors in her works evoke an immediate sense of place.  Building up layer upon layer of paint, Sipp-Green achieves an ethereal quality that imparts a refined serenity.  Many of the subjects she paints – salt marshes, barns, meadows, rivers and the occasional cityscape – are captured in the beautiful light of dusk or a luminescent sunrise.  In a statement, she describes the appeal of a life in painting: "to be always and everywhere involved in the mysterious dimensions of the everyday, in the extraordinary way in which the visible world can articulate something meaningful through the medium of paint."  This is the first substantial monograph on her marvelous oeuvre.

 

Also, if you’re in the mood to spend a couple of hours in rural, northeastern Alabama in the 1940s, a former boss of mine, Price Hicks – now retired head of the education committee at the Television Academy – has published a collection called Thursday’s Child and other stories.  99 cents through Amazon, readable on a Kindle or through a Kindle app.  10 bucks in paperback through Lulu . com.  You can sample most of the title story on Amazon.

 

And if you’re interested in more reading about the South, Zelda White Nichols commented about my note last week which mentioned Porgy and Bess:  Folly Beach is a book written by Dorothea Benton Frank.  This beach is just outside of Charleston and is, in part, where Porgy and Bess was written.  Folly Beach is a novel about relationships, but it's also about the writing of Porgy.

 

Next, again on Facebook, Amy Kassak Bentley posted a photo of the 1953-54 Forest Road School faculty: 12 women and 3 men.  About 3 dozen former Forest Road students have been trying to identify the teachers.  I got Ruth Sussman, Louise LeJeune, Miss  Mandiberg – whose first name I can’t remember – Larry Cid, and the principal, Maurice St. Mary.  I recognized two of the other women but couldn’t get to their names.  One has been identified as Miss Dykeman, and I think the other is Miss Bronner.  Al Stevens isn’t there, and Marilyn Clark and Dolores Stein hadn’t turned up yet.  Also, I can’t recognize my first grade teacher, Miss Ryan.  Sadly, someone noted that Larry Cid had died recently.  But Dolores Stein is in her 90s and living alone – with plenty of community support.

 

Amy Lieberman sent a suggestion for people looking to make New Year’s Eve plans in Los Angeles:  Billy Valentine will be playing two sets – at 9:30 and at 11:30 – at Herb Alpert’s Vibrato Jazz & Grill.  It’s $215 per person for a 4 course meal with champagne at midnight.  Amy notes:  the reservations have started coming in already, and they pack the place every year.  People show up at 9:00 and stay the night.  In case you’re thinking you’ll come and sit at the bar, like so many people like to do, they’re charging the same.

 

Finally, some thoughts about the holiday just passed, first from Zelda White Nichols:  What has happened to Thanksgiving?  It's my favorite holiday, and it used to be something people prepared for in a big way.  The Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade kept everyone glued to their TVs.  Markets sold all sorts of specialty foods and decorations.  And the holiday was to give thanks to our fore bearers for all we have today.  This year, it’s as if the holiday was being skipped, and stores went right from Halloween to Christmas.

 

[Rich – Oddly, a friend of mine wrote from Orlando, Florida, to say Halloween there seemed to be skipped as well: in early October, Christmas decorations went on sale, and there were no signs of other holidays.]

 

The class of '65 50th Reunion:  Friday, April 24 through Sunday, April 26, 2015, Hyatt Regency, Hauppauge.

The South '65 e-mail addresses:  reunionclass65 . blogspot . com  (please remove the spaces)

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


Rich