Update 5-14-13

Hi,

 

Eight notes, the last two connected to the 50-year-old Green Acres drowning mystery.  Of course, that story isn't a mystery.  The man's unfortunate death was determined to be an accident right after it happened, but we're trying to remember his name.

    I was going to include more of the research Amy Kassak Bentley and I have been doing about that, and we've been aided by at least a dozen former South people who've answered -- or tried to answer -- our questions.  But I like to keep these newsletters to 1000 words, and we'd easily go beyond that.  So more next week.

 

Meanwhile, from Valerie Nelson Gillen:  That creek was behind my house, and we swam in it all the time.  Of course, you needed to take a shower immediately afterwards.

 

From Peggy Cooper Schwartz:  Several years ago, I mentioned that I had recently had the pleasure
of sitting at the same table as Leona Chanin at an event in honor of Israel's Technion University.  Leona Chanin is the widow of Irving Chanin, who -- as noted last week -- built much of Green Acres.  The Technion is Israel's MIT.

    Leona Chanin is in her mid-nineties now and is still active in many charities here in the Palm Beach area.  I recently attended another Technion event, where she was again honored.

 

From Peter Rosen:  For the first time since high school, I'm living in the same city as my mother.  We just moved her from Sarasota to Atlanta, into an independent living place here.  She’s 93.

    Also, some of you already know that my Facebook name got hacked.  It’s very frustrating, and I may not be back on Facebook for a while.

 

From Amy Kassak Bentley:  Family Tree premiered this past Sunday on HBO at 10:30 PM.  South's Deborah Oppenheimer is one of the executive producers, and the show was developed by her group, NBCU International TV Production, and Lucky Giant for HBO and BBC2.  It will air on BBC2 this summer.

    Family Tree is a half-hour mockumentary directed by Christopher Guest, who's often credited with creating the form with This Is Spinal Tap in 1984.  The first season has eight episodes and begins in England before it moves to the United States in episode 5.  At that point, American actors often associated with Christopher Guest from his earlier films -- like Michael McKean and Fred Willard -- will join the cast.  It's gotten very good reviews.

 

From Zelda White Nichols:  A throw-down challenge for Allen Moss of Maine.  I lived 20 minutes from the northern Massachusetts coast for 21 years.  Within an hour, we could hit Newburyport, Massachusetts, and drive the New Hampshire coastline up into Maine, so we ate a lot of chowdah at lot of restaurants.

    Believe it or not, the best New England chowder my husband and I have ever had is in Murrells Inlet, South Carolina, at an extremely popular restaurant called Drunken Jack's.  We just returned from a week's vacation there and went to the restaurant four nights just for chowder and a cocktail on the back deck that overlooks the marsh.     

    The chowder is thick and chock full of clams, not just potatos like many chowders, and it has a wonderful taste and aroma -- no pepper is needed.  You know the clams came right from the sea, which makes it even better than what's served at Legal Seafood in Boston.

    Murrells Inlet has the Marsh Walk, which takes you out into the marsh and also along the restaurants that line restaurant row.  All the restaurants have outdoor dining on decks that face the marsh, but the main courses are eaten indoors because they're so big they always follow us home in take-out cartons for late night snacking.  We start out with chowder and a drink at Jack's while we watch boaters and the goats and peacocks that live on Goat Island.  Then we restaurant hop, eating dinner at Bovines, and dessert at Sarah J’s.  This restaurant not only has Key Lime Pie but also Mango Pie.

    Murrells Inlet is the seacoast capital of South Carolina, so fish and shellfish are always fresh.  We love it there so much, we've started house hunting for ourselves -- to find out if we want to live on the ocean, marsh, or river, as this will eventually be our home at least for the winter months.  We like being near the marsh for the incredible bird life and accessible seafood, but you have to be careful as South Carolina is the land of sugar and fried everything.  In fact, fried food and sugar are considered vegetables, and many restaurants boast that their vegetable dishes include ingredients such as macaroni, cheese, and fried apples.

 

From Amy Miller Cohen:  Gail Kimmel Potash and Caryl Snapperman Avery are going to check out the space at the Cornell Club in New York City.  If you'd like to attend the class of 1963's  50th reunion lunch on October 12, 2013, please contact me at: YmaRellim @ aol. com.  We need 25 people to sign the contract, and we don't have 25 deposits yet, though we have well more than 25 people interested.  The lunch is $75 per person, and spouses, partners, and friends are welcome.  Several have already signed up.

 

Finally, the two notes related to Green Acres:

 

From Ryki Zuckerman:  The creek flowing behind Cloverfield Road -- and the one we walked over on the bridge to South -- was Hook Creek, according to records I found online years ago.  Perhaps it had different names in different neighborhoods, or the name was changed over the years.

 

[Rich -- Yeah, actually, Amy Kassak Bentley discovered that many maps mislabel the creek.  The part that's Hook Creek starts at Jamaica Bay and then hooks north just west of Brook Park -- that's what used to be the empty lot on Brook Road opposite Valerie Nelson Gillen's old house.  From the hook east to what's known as Mill Pond, the creek's real name is Watts Creek, and that's the section along parts of Brook and Cloverfield roads and under what's left of the South bridge.  I have no idea what the section Valerie swam in possibly at the end of Brook Road is called.

    Also, the real name of Mill Pond is Watts Pond because both it and that small section of the creek were probably once part of Watt's or Watts' farm.  This is mainly important if you're trying to research the drowning.]

 

From Steve Zuckerman:  All the information concerning the accidental drownings 50 years ago is interesting.  In the deep winters, very often the creek would freeze over, and some parts of the water would have thicker ice than others.  If you dared, you could run across the ice to get to South High using that as short cut instead of safely walking the long way around, crossing the bridge, and taking the long path to school.  It was a quick way to get to the school early on weekend nights when there were activities such as dances.

    Of course, you took a big chance of the ice breaking under your feet and dropping you into the frigid waters in the dark with no around to help pull you out.  But when you're a 15-year-old, you think you can do anything and never mind taking risks.

    I also knew that the creek was dangerous.  It was very deep in some sections, and the bottom was pretty darn muddy and had a undertow to some degree.  When the tides were high, the creek could be the most treacherous, and after the area was hit with a strong storm, you could count on flooding in the backyards that were next to the creek

 

[Rich -- Again, the information about the creek freezing is mainly important if you're trying to figure out how the man got into the creek in January in the first place.  It connects to something Larry Rugen wrote about the drowning happening during an especially cold winter.

    To be continued.]

 

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

 

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

 

 

Rich