Update 6-10-14

 

Hi,

First, I'd asked Emily Kleinman Schreiber to give me a quick report about South's Awards Assembly last Wednesday.  Usually, Linda Tobin Kettering sends me a recap because Liz King Giordano, the assembly coordinator, is busy with end-of-the-school-year business.  But Linda has moved on after nicely forwarding her introductions about Booker Gibson and Vince Tampio to Liz, and I knew Emily would be at the assembly, presenting the Alumni Association awards.

Emily's report:  All went well Wednesday night.  Attached is a photo of Booker with his scholarship recipient, Dawn Lupeke.  I also asked Liz to send me the photos that were taken by the yearbook photographer, so I hope to include some of them in the next Alumni Association Bulletin.
    Dan Creegen, the teacher and band director who was the presenter of the class of '65 awards, did a good job.  I'd sent Liz scanned photos of both Vince and Booker, and these were projected on the screen behind Dan during the presentations.  Booker was also there with his wife, Frances, and, as always, he was treated with great respect.

    He's feeling a lot better since he's gotten into an exercise routine at his physical therapist's gym, and as you can see by the photo, he looks wonderful.  Both Booker and Frances hope to be at the Alumni Association's end-of-the-year dinner on June 18th at the Nautilus Cafe in Freeport.
    That's all for now.  I'm off to Maine.

 

[Rich -- Booker looks terrific in the photo, and Dawn Lupeke is smiling beside him.  As Emily notes, the photo should be in the next Alumni Bulletin, and maybe she'll let Stu Borman post it in the online archive.  Also, members of the class of '65 may have originated the Booker Gibson and Vince Tampio awards, but they're supported each year by people in a half-dozen South classes, this year notably by members of the class of '63.]

 

From Jay Kinder, some useful information about rewards credit cards:  Depending on the frequent user program you're in and how high up on the levels you are, you may receive one point or possibly two or three points per dollar spent.  If you have a United Airlines or Marriott credit card, you also get points when you purchase non-travel items on the card.

 

[Rich -- That's following up Peter Rosen's mention that he got a huge discount on his hotel reservations by using his Hyatt Gold Passport.]

 

Speaking of the party, from Henry Gabbay:  I will be at the reunion.

 

[Rich -- Someone else asked how many people had made reservations for next April.  Since we didn't reserve a block of rooms, there's no minimum to reach, so there's no urgency to track reservations.  But, as noted in previous updates, several people have reserved rooms.  Far more people have said they'd be at the reunion but wouldn't need to stay at the hotel because they live on Long Island or nearby.  Presently, about 25 people said they'll be at the party, but I won't really start counting till next January.  We don't want to peak too soon.]

 

A report about Paul and Becky Zegler's tortoises:  Paul wrote a while ago that he and his wife had inherited a pair of 6-year-old, 80 pound tortoises from an 86-year-old woman who felt she could no longer give them a good home.  She's raising chickens instead.  And Paul and Becky invited me to visit the tortoises, but I didn't do that until I had a friend visiting from Georgia.  We toured the Reagan Library, the back entrance of which is up a dirt road from Paul and Becky's hillside home, and then we met AZ and Touche -- that may be how you spell the tortoises' names.

    They live in an outside pen, maybe 10' x 20', and they spend a good part of their day in a hutch that's about the size and height of a queen-size bed.  They like to stay warm because they're native to the edge of the Sahara desert, and they eat grass, hay, and bright things like roses.  Paul handed a nice red one to my friend Beate, and she fed AZ petal-by-petal.  We never did see Touche, and Paul was surprised that AZ was out of the hutch because it was late afternoon and past his feeding time.

    Paul's wife Becky walks the tortoises, but not on a leash.  She opens their pen and lets one of them at a time come out and follow her around.  "They walk quite far, and they're surprisingly fast," she said, "and they like to be out."  When she wants them to go back to their pen, she puts a piece of plywood in their way and guides them into turning around.  But, like kids, they don't want their play time to end, and when they reach the pen, they walk in circles instead of going inside.

    The other thing Paul told us is the tortoises start small, about the size of the pet turtles many of us had as kids, but grow fast.  There's also a tortoise rescue center for people whose pets have gotten too large for them.  Eventually, this pair will reach several hundred pounds each and could live about a hundred years.  That makes Paul and Becky only temporary guardians.

    

 A second quick report, about the possibility of the newsletters being archived online:  I'm kind of stuck about this.  Only 2 people have gotten back to me, but they're people I trust a lot, and they both felt the newsletters shouldn't be made public.  But that means that by default the other 198 people who get the newsletter each week either think it's a fine idea so didn't bother to comment or didn't care.  This might be one of those ideas where even one "No" vote can stop it, or it may be that -- as one of the people mentioned -- we simply remove their contributions for privacy's sake.  The reason I need more advice is because there are a lot of useful stories here, and the newsletters would be linked to a web site focused on Long Island history.  I'd hate for the first hand information to be lost, but I understand the thought about people's feelings.  I also don't want to stop people from contributing.

 

A link to some other historical color pictures, these from the United States in the early 1940s.  They're great, but there are 70 of them, not the dozen-or-so linked previously from early 1900's Russia.

    extras . denverpost . com/archive/captured . asp  (please remove the spaces)

 

From Amy Lieberman, some upcoming performance dates for jazz singer Billy Valentine in Los Angeles -- in case you missed him recently in London or San Francisco.

    June 19th, Vibrato Jazz & Grill, Los Angeles, 6:30 to 10:30  (Billy around 8:00 or 8:30, for 1 or 2 sets)

    June 20th, The Baked Potato, Studio City, shows at 9:30 and 11:30

 

Finally, the repeated upcoming reunion information:

 

The class of '64 reunion:  Friday, October 10, 2014, 6 to 11 PM.  $70 per person, cash bar.  Hyatt Regency, Hauppague, New York.  Committee phone numbers:  Tom McPartland  570-223-2577.  Ken Silver: 631-463-2217.  Bette Silver: 631-463-2216.

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

 

Rich