Update 4-16-13

Hi,

 

When I work from home, which is most of the time these days, I'm fairly insulated.  I start around eight in the morning, take a break near noon to check my e-mail and the news and to walk the dogs, and then I go back to work.  At noon Monday, the worst thing that was happening seemed to be the stock market tumbling.  When I finished up work at four Los Angeles time, I checked to see how far the stock market was down and found out about Boston.

    To me, it feels like September 11th again though later stories in the Times compared it more to the Olympics bombing in Atlanta in 1996.  Reading the earlier Times stories which mentioned the precautions that accompany any public event like the Boston Marathon again made me realize how well protected we are by the police and national security and how grateful we should be for that.  It also reminded me of something I'd heard recently on NPR about Baghdad -- that just a tiny portion of the violence there is reported internationally.  This is probably true of other countries.  So this is just a taste of what other people live with daily

    Finally, though, this is an alumni newsletter, not a pulpit, so I'll keep my feelings to myself.  But I couldn't send out the newsletter tonight without mentioning what happened in Boston.

 

In other notes:

 

From Ryki Zuckerman:  Should it be of any interest to anyone, I've just had a full-length book of poetry, titled Looking for Bora Bora, published by Saddle Road Press, Hawai'i.   The book is available at amazon . comand barnes&noble . com  (for both sites, please remove the spaces).

 

From Steve Gootzeit:  Barnet Kellman's reference to Boy Scout Troop 267 brought back memories that had not occurred to me for many years.  My family and I arrived in Green Acres in 1956, and one of the first things I did was enroll -- enlist? -- in Troop 267.  This represented my first encounter with karma, since I had lived at 267 Ovington Avenue in Brooklyn (OMG).

    My first "management" role occurred in 1960, when I was the Patrol Leader of the Tiger Patrol, the original

Dirty Dozen, whose ranks included Ira Mitzner, Elliott Weinger, Perren Krowne, and others.  Let it be known that all three of them did not attend the patrol meeting of February 8, 1960.  For reasons I will never understand, I still have the attendance book.

    On a related/unrelated note, I have recollections of making sure I got home early enough on Monday nights -- the nights of the troop meetings -- to watch Uncle Miltie host a show called Jackpot Bowling.  It seems he signed a long-term contract with NBC and was obligated to do, within reason or not, anything the network wanted.

    Anyway, thanks, Barnet, for reminding me of these days.  And as for you, Ira, I still think you rigged the election for Senior Patrol Leader.

 

From Valerie Nelson Gillen:  You can use any of my Facebook postings as you choose.  And my husband, George, is fine.  We're enjoying twelve days in St Kitts

From Larry Rugen:  About electric cars -- on Long Island, at 23 cents plus per KW hour for a recharge, in addition to the later cost of battery replacements, I'd like to know the cost of ownership of any electric car.  compared to the same or similar size gas or hybrid auto.

    About travel:  my wife and I are soon off to Germany -- Wiesbaden, Heidelberg and towns and wine fests along the Rhine and Mosel -- and then we're taking the ICE train from Frankfurt to Amsterdam and on to Bruges, Paris, and back to Brussels and Gent.  Anyone interested in combining a class reunion with a class trip in the United States or Europe?  But no yellow bus

    Also, any retirees in the Spring Hill, Florida area?  My wife and I still live mostly on Long Island, but we've purchased property in Spring Hill.)

 

Finally, from Amy Kassak Bentley:  I remember someone writing a piece on Green Acres -- how it was conceived and built.  It was a woman who wrote it.  Do you have it?  Could you forward to me?  She might have written it for a college paper, I seem to remember.

 

[Rich -- A book's been mentioned in the newsletters about the history of the south Valley Stream area -- The Lord's Woods by Robert Arbib -- and information about that was sent in by a former South student.  I want to say it was Joanne Shapiro Polner, but it might have been someone else.  All this is in the old newsletters, and I have most of them, but, unfortunately, they're not searchable.  Also, over the years, I've lifted information about Green Acres and Curtis Field from various Long Island history blogs, but I can't remember if one of the sources was a term paper.  If anyone else remembers the article Amy's talking about, please let me know.  Thanks.

    Also, Amy and I got to discussing the two drownings in Mill Creek.  I didn't realize there were two.  I only knew of the older boy who used to live near the corner of Forest and Flower Roads -- the intersection nearest Forest Road School -- who went missing I think in the late 60s and was later discovered drowned in the creek.  His first name may have been Dennis.  But Amy remembered another one, which she later found information about on Facebook.  That was in the early 60s and involved three boys, one of whom -- perhaps Johnny Cairns -- drowned.  I'll add those entries in here next week.  But if anyone has more information before that, please let me know.]

 

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

 

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

 

 

Rich