Update 7-8-14

 

Hi,

First, some follow-ups from last week:

The photo Barnet Kellman sent of the class of '65 prom mug has now been posted on the class photo site by Stu Borman.  picasaweb . google . com/SouthHS65  (please remove the spaces)  Look in the Barnet Kellman folder.  As usual, thanks, Stu.

From Valerie Nelson Gillen: The article about Mildred Dickman was on Facebook on the "I Lived in Green Acres" page.

From Jay Berliner: I'd like to confirm that Mildred Dikeman definitely locked me in the closet.  As I remember, it took many years before I told my mom.  And I've got to tell you that I was never a good student in school and always wondered if this wasn't part of it.

[Rich -- as I wrote Jay:  Wow.  That's scary.  And it appears she was still doing it 3 years later, to kids in my sister's class, so who knows how long she'd been doing that and how long it was an accepted practice.  I wonder if there were any complaints?
    Also, when I saw Rich Sternhell for lunch recently, he said something about being a student that I hadn't thought about.  He said that by reading the newsletters over the years, he realized there were a lot of good teachers at South.  But he added that they didn't function for him.  You may have been in the same situation.]

From Jay again:  I think Rich Sternhell is right on the mark.

[Rich -- I also wrote Zelda White Nichols:  I hope Hurricane Arthur didn't do any damage to you.  I see the storm's been downgraded.]

Zelda replied:  Thanks.  The hurricane came in at Kill Devil Hills on the Outer Banks of North Carolina.  Our beach houses are in South Carolina, and that’s one of the reasons we chose that area.  If you look at a map of the South Carolina coastline north of Charleston, it's straight for a bit and then curves inward like a half moon.  We're in that curve just below Myrtle Beach, and the hurricanes follow a straight path and usually miss our beach.

 

[Rich -- and I had to confess:  I got my Beauforts mixed up.  When I heard the storm had made landfall near the city, I was thinking of the one in South Carolina, even though I knew Kitty Hawk was in North Carolina.]

 

Zelda continued:  We do get some wind and rain but nothing serious.  Our houses are on stilts, so we don’t worry about ground floor flooding, and in that area it's mandatory that we have wind, hail, and flood insurance as well as normal structure and home owner's.  Today, it's gorgeous, cool and sunny.  By "cool" I mean about 85 and lower humidity.  We had our annual pool party, and everything was perfect.  We were out on the lake for fireworks on the 4th.  We are in such a strange area, it pours rain all spring and becomes like California in the summer with no rain at all.  Still, it’s as if God has blessed us here to make up for all the fire angst in California.

From Peggy Cooper Schwartz:  I  have reserved my room at the Hyatt for the reunion.  My husband,
Les, is coming with me.  After 42 years of marriage, I'd like him to meet some of the "kids" I grew up with.  Plus, we're making this a mini-vacation and are spending some time in the Hamptons and Montauk after the reunion.

From Barbara Blitfield Pech:  I copied this from the Facebook "I Moved From New York And Now Live in Florida" page:  "I heard that some of the big hotels on Long Island (eg Marriott) are beginning to offer snowbird specials.  You live there for three summer months, they serve two meals a day, and you can use their amenities. If anyone knows more about this, please post and tell us. It sounds like a nice idea for those of us who don't want to be in Florida for the summer, but don't want the responsibility of two homes."
    Barbara adds:  I'm willing to suggest "Plan B."  I will gladly stay there and hostess any party the class of 65 has.  LOL.

Amy Lieberman writes:  Billy Valentine and the Stuart Elster Quartet will be performing at the Laguna Festival of the Arts in Laguna Beach, California two early evenings from 5:30 to 7:30.  Saturday, July 19th and Thursday, August 28th.  It’s a fun and artsy outdoor venue where the famous Pageant of the Masters has reigned supreme for many a year.  There are also lots of arts and crafts for viewing and for sale.
    Billy and the Stuart Elster Trio will also be at the Vibrato Jazz and Grill in Los Angeles on Wednesday, July 9th.  They go on at 7:30 with a second short set at 9:15.

[Rich -- Emily Kleinman Schreiber wrote asking what the weather was presently like in Los Angeles because she was considering coming here briefly to pick up several awards. Of course, I asked for the details.]

 

From Emily:  I'm the editor/layouter for two newsletters.  One is for the New York State United Teachers Retiree Council 18 and the other is for the Malverne Teachers' Association Retiree Chapter.  I submitted both newsletters -- The Linkage and The Retiree ReView for communications competitions.
    Linkage won the following in the American Federation of Teachers Competition -- that's the convention in Los Angeles: second place (tied) for Best News Story; second place for Best Feature Story; third place for Best Profile; third place for Best Editorial or Column; and third place for Best Original Illustration or Photo. The Retiree ReView won the following: second place (tied) for Best News Story; second place for Best Original Illustration or Photo; and third place for Best Layout.
    Most of the text and photos are written/shot by me in both newsletters.  Some text/photos are contributed by members.  Considering that American Federation of Teachers is a national organization, I'm pleased that its judges liked the newsletters.  I spend a lot of time creating them.  Also, one of the photos in The Retiree ReView won Best Photo.

Finally, an excerpt from a recent New York Times: In the fall of 1956, Michael Brown and his wife, Joy, help usher To Kill a Mockingbird into being. The Browns had met Harper Lee through her friend Truman Capote, and in 1956, Ms. Lee, an Alabama native, was living in New York. Her longed-for career as a writer was stymied by the need to pay the rent, and she was toiling away as an airline reservations clerk. That Christmas, visiting the Browns, she spied an envelope with her name on it in the branches of their tree.
    "I opened it and read: ‘You have one year off from your job to write whatever you please. Merry Christmas,'" Ms. Lee recalled in a 1961 essay in McCall's magazine in which she did not identify the Browns by name.  "It's a fantastic gamble," Ms. Lee, in the words of her essay, told Mr. Brown. "It's such a great risk."
    "He looked at me," the essay continued, "and said softly: ‘No, honey. It's not a risk. It's a sure thing.'"
    The result, To Kill a Mockingbird, was published in 1960, and for nearly a half-century afterward the Browns and Ms. Lee kept their secret. News of the gift -- Ms. Lee insisted that it be a loan -- came to light in 2006 with the publication of Mockingbird: A Portrait of Harper Lee, a biography by Charles J. Shields. In an interview last week, Ms. Brown declined to specify the amount of the loan but said it had long since been repaid.

 

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