Update 12-4-12

Hi,

 

It looks like on Monday night I'm going to be away from a computer I can edit on, so let me send these out now.  Otherwise, I'll get way off schedule by the time I go away for the holidays mid-month.

 

First, in the Look Before You Forward category, I guess I should have looked at the "Hitler Finds Out Obama Won Re-Election" video before I so casually passed on the link.  A couple of people found it offensive, and I certainly didn't mean it to be that.

    In fact, I was totally unaware there was a whole series of "Hitler Finds Out..." videos on YouTube, all set to the captioned footage from the movie Downfall.  Of course, once I was properly checking out the first video, I got sucked into watching a number of others.  My favorite title, of a video I didn't watch because I'd had enough, was "Hitler Finds Out Obama Ate His Dog."  My favorite actual video of the series is "Hitler Finds Out His Videos Have Been Canceled."  It appears the movie's director has finally pulled permission for YouTube to use his film.

    I suspect a lot of these have been created by college students.  They have that kind of feel.  And if you have that kind of sense of humor and nothing better to do for a while, go investigate.  Just be warned.

 

In an actual letter, a follow-up from Zelda White Nichols:  Regarding Jay Berliner's mention that pictures don’t do justice to the present condition of the beaches of New York and New Jersey -- not only do they not do justice, but, all too soon, the news crews go away, and what they reported just becomes another story.  After a while, the news stories become less frequent as life in the rest of the world goes on.  But the victims of Hurricane Sandy are still living through the numbing shock and heartache of loss.

    As I've mentioned before, from three personal experiences that occurred while I was living in a fire zone in southern California, I have collected bits of advice that can, in a small way, help victims of events like Hurricane Sandy, people who may need psychological comfort.  I am not a licensed psychologist -- I'm not even close -- but I do know some of the things victims will need after the Red Cross, FEMA, and all the other professional agencies have gone away.

    Last year, we had a killer tornado touch down several miles from our home here in North Carolina, and I was able to help then by connecting with a church that serves that neighborhood.  I was also able to co-write a useful article with a journalist of our local paper.

    If any of our classmates need someone to talk with who has also lived through severe devastation thanks to Mother Nature, or if you know of someone who doesn’t know how to handle various situations like these, perhaps I can help.  Please feel free to e-mail me directly at:  zelda.nichols@high-rock-lake.com.

 

Next, another informative note from Steve Zuckerman, who I always imagine swinging in a hammock in Puerto Rico.  Steve writes:  In the letter from Robert Fiveson in last week's newsletter, I caught something that got me thinking about our school days.  He mentioned recollections of his friend from Canada on a visit to Valley Stream in 1964.

    Robert's friend wrote about a rumble with guys from Central High.  Now, I passed Central almost every day one year when I was headed home after summer school at Memorial Junior High, and I was witness to numerous fist fights in front of the school and on side streets in the area.  I also saw a "real life, not made for TV," switch blade knife fight in front of Central High.  Thank god that was completely stopped in time by some brave teachers and two police officers.

    True, Central had its share of street tough guys, and the first mainline drug users which I ever learned about.  That was through my brief friendship with a couple of guys from Memorial Junior High during that quick, after school education I got while walking home.  And I was really glad to get on home all summer long.

    There used to be  members of some street gangs who would venture over from Rosedale on the weekends, just to hang out in the shopping center and the bowling alley.  They were just looking for trouble and trying to start fights, and they seemed to think of the shopping center as their extended turf.  And, of course, there were plenty of fights at the bridge over the creek or on the grass between South and Harbor Road School, always around three in the afternoon.

    On a totally different subject, back to my on-going interest in history, the government just released documents from the early sixties about a plan that was hatched by some of our brilliant thinkers at the Pentagon.  It seems that the Atomic Energy Commission, with some assistance from NASA, planned to slam rockets into the moon with, I quess, plenty of TNT or a few H-bombs and thermonuclear devices to blow it up completely. This was just to teach the Soviet Union who the real masters of the universe were and who really controlled outer space.  Think of all that cheese floating around in space.  And this would have been paid, in part, by tax dollars from U.S. citizens.  Thank god someone with half-a-brain put a halt to this.

 

[Rich -- That kind of sounds like "Hitler Finds Out The Allies Blew Up The Moon," but nothing really surprises me when it's brainstormed by almost any government.]

 

Finally, Robert Fiveson wrote saying that his friend from Canada really had meant me when he wrote, "My sides were splitting listening to this joker," and he wasn't referring to one of the many other guys named Rich in our class.  Robert insisted, "The names and comments I cited were verbatim."

    I wrote Robert saying, "Since as mentioned I was working days, it must have been some evening that we all met.  Still, that was a pretty heady group for me to be hanging out with, so maybe it was on a dull summer night in the parking lot at Forest Road School.  I also added, "The only reason anyone thought I was funny in high school was because I was something of a jerk.  But at least I was a hard-working jerk when it came to building scenery."

    Robert wrote back, "You were never a jerk. Ungainly, dweeby, lovable, sincere."

    I think he wrote that in my yearbook, too.

 

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

 

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

 

 

Rich