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autumn '06
No.
38 Richie Davis, Medium Baron
VIRTUAL GLUE for the Class of
' 70!
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autumn '06 No.
38
Richie Davis, Medium Baron
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The Grand
Finale-E
The year was 3 B.D. (Before Dubya)
as I sat down to ponder the 30 th reunion that should be taking
place a couple of years hence.
Having last seen my friends 20 years ago at the 10th, I sent off
a message to Harold Koplewicz, one of the two people I'd managed
to stay in touch with (despite all of those yearbook promises
that we'd all never lose contact.
In NO WAY did I think that would lead to me launching a newsletter
and a website that would still be going eight years hence.
In fact, as one of those Luddites (a still proud of it) who had
no idea what was going on in Marshall Gordon's exclusive computer
enclave, I was one of those people who would have been last counted
on to be writing in code.
Somehow, though, my eighth-grade town-crier persona came back
to goad me. Back then, I posted the day's goopy cafeteria offerings
on the black felt board in front of H.J.H.S. "Magill Shipman's
Submarine Sandwiches" "French Fries a la Tauber"
and such. (Now see what you missed, you snooty Shelter Rockers?)
I've loved weaving these (ir)regular missives, in the hope that
it's providing some semblance of a loving community in these times
of terrorist nasties, rampaging neo-cons and melting glaciers.
But while I've managed enough of the tech-demons enough to keep
this up, the ante keeps getting upped along with my blood
pressure each time I try to do a mass mailing or upload to the
site.
(My apologies for not getting the spring e-union up on the site
until late this summer. I needed new asbestos sneakers to make
it over the firewall.)
So, as I mentioned last time,
the fat lady is now singing (c'est moi.) And my cry for help was
heard by Les Stoller, bless him. Together, we've launched a Yahoo
Group that will be open to all classmates, and other Herricks
friends, by invitation only. We're hoping that makes it easier
for you, and for me, to not only keep abreast of what's going
on (with reunion planning and such), but also to stay connected
with one another.
Instead of a quarterly (or thereabouts) newsletter, we'll be able
to have more timely group conversations as the need arises. And
we'll try to stir the pot when we can to see that the communication
is more free-flowing than that. You're invited to do so, too,
as we begin entering those golden years when our minds reach back
and our (ahem) GRANDchildren grow tired hearing yet another reminiscence
about John Garvey or Stan Colas, or Miss Lastra's shrill fourth-grade
whistle.
When Andrea Olicker's anniversary comes up, for example, I'd love
to see people remind us of a moment in time with her when we all
laughed and groaned together in the halls on the hill.
One of my earliest-ever memories of a dream was of walking the
farthest halls of Wickshire. It was either when I was actually
a kindergartener or first-grader at the opposite end of the building,
or more likely when I'd only visited the building because my older
brother was there. For some reason, the fifth- and sixth-grade
corridor beyond Mr. Quick's corner and the Gibbons gym was a mysterious
realm to me, and I had a dream, or a fantasy, of it being an exotic
Oriental world of dragons and flames and gongs where the fog
never lifted and the air was filled with the strong scent of incense,
and a cacophony of sounds. I suppose it was a metaphor for a
young person's wonderment of where the halls of education would
someday lead. But it harkens back now as the kind of school-related
memory, to a place and a time that was for me very special. I
think we all shared those kinds of moments (though maybe not quite
as phantasmagorical.
In a recent Atlantic magazine article about Wikipedia, I learned
that YAHOO stands for "Yet Another Hierarchical Officious
Oracle" .. As you'll read below, we're now switching gears
here to become a Yahoo group, which I prefer to think of as a
Yoo-hoo group. My preference had always been avoiding pre-packaged,
commercialized services like Classmates.com . But at least this
will be free for everyone and easy to use sans snookerism.
Regardless of what you call this
new paradigm, I hope we'll continue to bring those shared moments
together in the months and years ahead. We'll keep the Herricks
70 web site going, at least for the time being, at www.crocker.com/~rdsl.
And as always, I personally look forward to hearing from you,
either at rdsl@crocker.com or the next time you're in my western
Mass. neighborhood. Richie
WHAT'S UP,
WHO'S WHERE?? 
DONNA CALABRESE CHINNICI
writes to update
her address, which is now PVcottages@optonline.net
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RONNIE DUBOYS, a 69-er (Shofetah@aol.com)
write to say, "I'm a graduate of the class of 1969. I just
met a former exchange student who stayed with Debbie Camhi during
high school. She is coming up from brazil in 10 days and would
like to reconnect. Do you have any contact information for her?
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GEORGI MURPHY (kjm1227@optionline.net)
send this update:
"Hi...thought I would send an e-mail to give you a heads
up now that rerun season is upon us. We were watching a tape
of the "Sopranos." I thought I recognized a familiar
face ... rewound and looked again. Fast-forwarded to the credits
and sure enough, the real estate agent - Susan Varon. Has it been
over 30 years since she played "Queen Aggravain" to
perfection in the Herricks production of "Once Upon A Mattress."
Hope life is treating you well.
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Then we hear from BRUCE DICKSON (BDickson 99@Yahoo.com) He writes:
"Please e-mail me with any
info on any upcoming reunions. I live at
17 Cawfield Lane, Melville NY 11747
I played drums in HS and have recently jammed with Chuck Billera
, Joe Porto and then last week with Jimmy Sabella and Bobby Yee.
If you want to have a school jam at the next reunion it would
be a blast. Let me know
Thanks for the web site, as it brought back great memories."
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Then MERYL GERSH (merylgersh@hotmail.com) sendss
greetings from eastern Washington out West:
"I've been lax in writing
but I always enjoy receiving the newsletter and especially hearing
from you.
I had a card around the holidays from Bob Savitzky and hear once
in a great while from Michael Feinberg, but haven't kept up with
many others. So this sharing is nice to have and I shall certainly
miss it ... but right now not enough to step up and volunteer
to be the next editor.
I'm coming down the home stretch with my Ph.D. studies - finished
coursework and am beginning the dissertation process this summer.
The degree is in Leadership Studies with an emphasis on Educational
Leadership and my dissertation will involve patients' perspectives
on professionalism in physical therapy. It seems that medicine
and PT have done great jobs giving lip service to patient empowerment
and then gone ahead and did all of the defining of what a professional
is from internal expert task forces, rather than asking the patients.
Sooo - I'm going to ask the patients. It's big leap - a qualitative
research study from a very left-brained, positivistic, quantitative
girl - but what the hell.
Mind expansion is a very good thing, especially as we gray.
Hope to be done with the Ph.D. in May 2007.
My husband continues with a very busy oncology practice and murmurs
the R word every now and then but shows no further inclination
toward retirement. I continue to teach full-time in a physical
therapy graduate program, and serve as Admissions Director as
well.
Andy (26) is a first grade teacher in Majuro, in the Marshall
Islands, and enjoying the cultural change, the freedom to teach
that he doesn't have in the "no child left behind" system
here, and doing his share of surfing and scuba diving on the weekends.
Andy truly knows how to live life fully. He loves the international
experience and may look for another teaching stint abroad when
his ends next year.
Jill (23) is an HIV/AIDS prevention and health educator with
Students Partnership Worldwide (www.spw.org) in a small village
in Kapiri Mposhi, Zambia and had also started a project to teach
sex workers an alternative trade (tailoring) so that they may
have a choice of employment (which they don't currently have).
It is her small way of attacking a huge poverty, AIDS, education
crisis in Africa with an "on the ground" solution.
She has gotten two NGO's together who will fund and run the project
when she returns to the U.S. in July. She is optimistic, yet
realistic, and firmly committed to doing her part to improve life
in Africa during her lifetime. Toward this end she will enter
medical school in August, and work toward an MD/MPH in global
public health and infectious disease. So any dreams of retiring
are definitely on hold for a few more years in this household.
If you're interested in reading a bit more about her project,
you can find details at
http://www.universalgiving.org/donate/rehabilitation_project_for_sex/id2593.do
You don't have to donate - it's just an interesting project to read about. Actually the website is full of interesting opportunities.
I'll sign off for now - feel free
to post any and all of it in the next issue (if there IS a next
time - what TV show was that from?)
Be well - that is most important.
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SUSAN FRANK STARR (CANDY90S@AOL.COM) wrote to say,
"I found Richard Sherman. He is also in Florida. He will
be writing soon. Did anyone ever locate Steven Edelstein or Sandy
Jacobs?
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We received word from CAROLYN MILLER LIBERTA (cliberta@hotmail.com)
that there was an Aug. 5 memorial service for
Marguerite Britton at St. Luke Lutheran Church in Dix Hills. Miss
Britton died on Nov. 2, 2005and her ashes scattered in the waters
off Long Island .
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In our last adventure, I mentioned
tat I've begun playing music with singer-songwriter Laura Wetzler,
who mentioned to me that her cousin is MARTY MILNER.
In response to an e-mail, Marty (drmilner@hotmail.com)
responds.
It turns out that Martin Milner, M.D. is president and medical
director of the Center for Natural Medicine, Inc. in Portland,
Oregon. He's also professor of cardiovascular and pulmonary medicine,
at the National College of Naturopathic Medicine and is medical
director of the Heart and Lung Wellness Rotation & Residency
Program as well as medical editor of Health Sciences Institute
Publications at the Center for Natural Medicine, a teaching clinic
of NCNM.
(For more info: www.cnm-inc.com,
www.naturalmedicineweb.com,
www.cnm.meta-ehealth.com,
www.insolewellness.com)
He writes:
"Thanks so much for contacting me. I'm happily re-married
last August, I have two sons ages 20 and 18 and two stepsons ages
13 and 11."
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BARBARA LEIBOWITZ ARNETH (barbbillarneth@aol.com) sent us this word:
"I'm sorry to hear you are
trying to pass the torch after doing such a wonderful job these
past years! I love hearing about everyone and their families!
It's been awhile but I have kept in touch with "Georgie"
Georgianna Trask, and Debbie Biscone Cooper is like the sister
I've never had, living in California and happily married.
My husband Bill and I have 5 children and 2 grandsons keeping
us busy. My oldest daughter Jaime (29) is a real estate lawyer
in Manhattan, and her husband is also a lawyer in the Wall Street
area. They live in Manhattan. My younger daughter Korey (25) is
living in Saratoga, graduated Albany and wanting to do work in
human relations. Our sons Billy (with 2 grandsons) live in Massachusetts,
and Jonathan (19) is at University of Buffalo for civil engineering.
Michael (14) is still at home. I used to teach art in the Mineola
and Herricks school district for several years, working alongside
some of our teachers for awhile (that was a trip!!!!), then went
back to school for another degree. I work as an occupational therapist
and have been for 20+ years. It is an extremely rewarding career.
I have worked in a large NY hospital running the OT program with
interns, have been a director of OT in a private rehab hospital,
and now I work with children mostly in Special Ed programs through
the school districts. I love my work!
My husband Bill is in a management position with a leading insurance
company for 34 yrs. We live on Long Island and I still go past
Herricks every time I return to my parents' home off of Shelter
Rock Road. Great memories!!!
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KAREN WELSCH (yankeekayjay@juno.com)
sends word:
Finally, I will be retiring from teaching. With 30 years completed
I have finally graduated from high school.
I am ready to use my real estate license (full time) which I have
maintained for 18 years. I started planning for retirement many
years ago and now I have the flexibility to do what I want.
Best of luck to you now and always!
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PAUL FREIBERGER (pfreiber@pacbell.net), who I believe
was a '71-er, found us and writes:
"I came across your Herricks
e-Union stuff on the Web and it brought back memories, so I thought
I'd get in touch. I was a year or two or three after you (in
the same class as Arthur Yorinks).
I share fond memories of Mario Russo. I stayed in touch with him
for many years after high school, but not for the past decade
or so. I live in San Mateo, California; married with 2 boys,
11 and 15. For years I was a daily newspaper reporter and then
went through some career changes. Currently I work at McKinsey
& Company. I've co-authored a few books and I generally stay
very busy with work and family.
I keep in touch often with my dearest childhood friend, Howard
Bailen, and my mom still lives in New Hyde Park. However, there
are many from my class I've lost touch with and I'd love to hear
how they are."
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In response to our call for suggestions about how to continue,
we were glad to hear from LES STOLLER (LesleyStoller@aol.com):
"My mother had six siblings. These seven (including her)
had eighteen children. These eighteen comprise me, my siblings,
and our cousins. We eighteen share a Yahoo Group, and, gee, is
it great fun! I happily and effortlessly serve as the moderator
of that group.
Also, I study the writings of the philosopher Ken Wilber (whose
work I recommend). Many, many others study this work. Similarly
to me and my cousins, some of the Ken Wilber students (106 of
us) regularly converse on a Yahoo group.
It is a convenient venue which provides the opportunity for
the posting of textual entries, photos, links to web sites, a
page for more bulky file, and other simple pleasures.
This yahoo thing might be good for our class of 1970. Of course
nothing will replace the personal touch of our faithful medium
baron ... but this is something to consider. Once a group is set
up, provided e-invitations can be sent to all alumni, which will
make it easy for them to join-up."
We'll be sending you a separate invitation to join this free,
easy-to-use group in the weeks ahead, but you can do so now by
visiting
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Herricks_High_School_Class_of_1970
Or to start sending messages to us with your bnews, comments
or updates, simply send an e-mail to
Herricks_High_School_Class_of_1970@yahoogroups.com
Of course, it's absolutely free, and you can un-subsrcibe at any
time.
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