Update 5-26-15

 

Hi,

 

First, a note from Evelyn Roedel Read:  I’m so happy I thought about the science scholarship in the first place and am especially thankful that Mr. Saffrin is still around to know how much he was loved and respected.  I’m sure his family will read him the letter announcing the award.  I also again want to thank everyone for working so quickly on this.  And a big thank you to the anonymous donor for supporting this scholarship so generously.

 

[Rich – That check came in and has been deposited along with Evelyn’s toward future years.  Considering his health, I’m not sure Irv Saffrin will be at South’s Senior Awards Night next Wednesday, June 3rd, but if anyone else wants to be there, it starts at 7 PM in South Hall.  In the wise and experienced words of Booker Gibson and Robert Fiveson, “Bring cushions.”  I also hope that someone at South writes as nice an introduction for Irv as Linda Tobin Kettering wrote about ten years ago for Booker and Vince.]

 

Next, from Barbara Blitfield Pech:  I'm seeing, via Facebook, more and more of us former South people living in Florida.  Is there a good chance we can have an "mini" reunion some time very soon in the area?  I'm open to planning it although I’m in South Dade County / Miami and most everyone else seems to be in Broward County / Palm Beach.  I’ll also gladly co-coordinate with anyone else who is here and interested.

 

[Rich – At the 50th reunion, there was some talk about getting together a party soon in Florida, for exactly the reason Barbara mentions – a lot of South grads live there.  I’m kind of in slow, California pre-summer mode, and I don’t intend to get on a plane for at least a year except for a family emergency.  But I’ll certainly pass on notes to Barbara and anyone else from here.
    Connected to that, we’re pretty well at the end of our business for a while.  Several class reunions – ‘63, ‘64, ‘65  – have come and gone, our annual scholarships have been funded and a new one added, and people tend to stop writing in till it gets cooler in the North again.  So expect to see notes lifted from Facebook, and recipes, and links, and information from Amy Kassak Bentley’s – now the official Valley Stream Historical Society’s – page, also on Facebook.  To start that off, here’s another section of the Green Acres history article that left off two months ago.]

 

When we last left Crusader Rabbit and his friend Rags the Tiger, we’d just learned:  “These footpaths are so arranged, in turn, that the shortest and most direct route between points on its borders is by way of the footpaths."

 

To continue:  Development stopped during World War II, but work resumed in the 1950s.  Between 1951 and 1959, the Chanin Company built Green Acres Phase II.  This phase included the construction of the shopping center, the elementary school (built by the school district), as well as the remainder of the residential neighborhood.  During Phase II, garden apartments also were built, creating an appealing buffer between the single-family homes and the shopping center. P hase II houses are essentially a standard post-war residential development, with connecting curvilinear streets and no cul-de-sacs or pedestrian paths except for the area adjacent to the old section. One nice touch,
however, is that all utility lines run through backyards, giving the streets a somewhat more elegant and less cluttered appearance.
 Thus it is the old section — the area built before World War II — that is the unheralded planning landmark.  While Chanin and his team laid out their own site plan, the similarities to Stein's plan and thinking are readily apparent.  In each case a complete network of pedestrian paths was a fundamental feature. In each case an elementary school was planned for the center of the site. Like Radburn, the blocks end in cul-de-sacs leading into the shared park.  Two great architects/ planners collaborated, although not directly, to make this neighborhood unique and special.
 The Green Acres, or Mill Brook, neighborhood today is still a very appealing single-family suburban neighborhood.  There are only three main access points to the neighborhood, making it a very secure, quiet, self-contained development.  It is possible to get from every residence in the original Green Acres neighborhood to the Forest Road School without crossing any major streets.  For this reason, most of the students in the community are able to walk to school, which is a wonderful amenity for prospective homeowners.

 

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

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


Rich