Eye on the Prize

You'd think that with the holidays imminent and family get togethers about to commence, that Linda and I would not be doing classmate finding stuff. Well, prepare to be jealous. We have all the shopping done, everything decorated, everything except one late arriving item (which should arrive today) wrapped, menu planned so there. Be very jealous. We are also battening down the hatches for the supervision of our temporarily resident grandchildren during the Xmas school recess.

So what better activity could there be to search for lost classmates? Well, there is catching up to my researcher to make sure that we are both on the same page with the website and Linda's research notes. The content of the site is really filling out nicely, and our vets are certainly doing their part. So while outreach may defer a little to the holidays, it is not as though all activity will cease.

There always seems to be a delayed reaction with any line of inquiry. It's been a while, but we got an email from Caroline Czaplinski Elio out in Arizona. We also found out through Paula Hackos Damien that Janice Boehme Casey had a FB page. We had just sent the Caseys a postcard to Maryland. Now we have only to get photos from the Mastropietros and Hennemans to complete our Class Mates page! And finally, we located Nancy Jacobs Boudreau in PA thanks to Linda Lamwers who clued us in. That's the way it works. Almost forgot about Barbara Preusch Saltmarsh in Arizona

Scott Shepard emailed us this morning and asked about Paul Gurda and several other people who did not make Embers. I sure remember Paul. I'm sure many of you do too. So what happened? I'm up for finding him. He's part of the class as far as I'm concerned. There are others too. If you think of them let us know. I know I for one am past pregnancy, dropping out or expulsion as reasons for exclusion from the Wayne Valley community.

The sad news is that we discovered a death notice for Rich Kirk on Tribute.com from January of this year. We are trying to get some confirmation from family members and will keep you all informed about this. Another sobering reminder that time is slipping away. Use it well.

May we all live life to the fullest in the coming year.

There is always a way......

I recently emailed a classmate of ours in reaction to his shock at the actions of our Reunion Committee in arranging clandestinely to get the class directory shut down. I replied that there is always a way. And there is, if you are determined to provide a place where community information can be freely shared; if you truly believe that we are a community, spread far and wide and for too long with no threads to pull us back together, isolated in our own lives when we now know there is always plenty of room for classmates.

First, thank you for the stupendous show of support for the Directory. I know that much was addressed to me, but I know it is at least as much for the concept of the Directory. None of this belongs to me or anyone else. Linda and I researched and built it but it is a collective intellectual property just like Class Spirit. You don't bottle it and sell it on the street. You don't, like Classmates.com, scan a yearbook and then try to con people into buying one for $75 or $100 bucks. Our accomplishments, our achievements, our athletic records and trophies, our academic scores, our celebrations, our youthful follies when we were young and immortal. When did these things belong to any one person or group when we all did them together?

We are at a crossroad now. We can continue to push up the hill and build the Directory effort and keep building those connections to each other, or we can succumb to the malaise of most other classes and slide back down the hill. And that malaise is cynicism. Geez. I'm starting to sound like Professor Harold Hill. It doesn't rhyme with Pool. It is that grumble that says that nothing is going to change, the same people go to reunion all the time. It's just a clique. Just the other day, Tony Gravagne complained to me that his class, 1966 had just disappeared off the face of the earth. I know some local classes here in Indiana that can't even manage a 10th reunion.

Well duh folks, it's only like that if you let it be that way; if you don't take the time for one weekend out of hundreds to renew your old friendships and in doing so renew yourselves if just for a few days.  Remember, we were the generation that was going to change the world. In more ways than one, we did. Not always for the better, but at least we TRIED.

We'd really like to maintain the domain name we started with. Getting it certainly convinced the reunion committee to get a domain after all these years! But because of this dust up, we will likely have to change it to WWW.WAYNEVALLEY67.NET to get back up and running quickly. We're still working on content in the meanwhile. Especially recent pictures, folks! (That's a hint!) It should be up certainly by the weekend. I wanted to change it to waynevalley67.xxx - you know, for adults only, but Linda said "Get Real." I replied, "if all the major corporations, colleges and universities are buying up their .xxx sites so they can't be used for naughty stuff, why can't I? Besides that's what everyone is saying anyway. People should grow up and act like adults." She just gave me the wife look. Guys know the look that says "You may get your way on this one, but you'll pay buddy. And you gotta sleep sometime!" So I dropped the subject. I still thought it was a good idea at the time but discretion is the better part of valor on the domestic front.

So much like Clayton Moore, the real Lone Ranger, after he lost his lawsuit, I sit here with my sunglasses instead of my black mask. But everyone still knows who the real Lone Ranger was as soon as he opened his mouth. And I do that often. Now where did I leave those silver bullets?

And before I forget, if I don't get to say it before it happens, to all of my classmates and their families wherever they may be, please have the best and merriest Christmas of all this year from Milton and Linda Yuan

Push Comes to Shove

For those of you who have made the Wayne Valley 67 Class Directory website a frequent stop, you will discover that you can't.

The reunion committee, specifically Peter Milano, has filed copyright violation charges against our site and caused our website host to suspend the site until an adjudication can be made.
This isn't about copyrights. It is about competition for attention. It is about insecurity. It is clear that someone doesn't want the directory to be.

Push has come to shove. The reunion committee, failing to prevent the directory from existing by suggesting at first that our class didn't need one, then complaining to Facebook that Linda was using copyrighted material (your high school year book photos) to post on your pages as a reminder of your youth, now has apparently decided that it is the owner of all the Embers photos, and the images that were taken of you at various reunions and accused us of copyright violations of materials that were only posted as copyrighted retroactively.

So I am appealing to you, the class of 1967, to prevail upon the Reunion Committee to drop their invidious complaints, and move forward in the best traditions of the true class spirit of the Wayne Valley Class of 1967.

I can deal with the reunion photos, although I cannot understand any claim to own your images. I will not accept that anyone owns anything contained in Embers. You will notice that I have not complained that they used my graduation photos. I'm just not like that.  Legalisms were not a part of the equation until the directory went on line. This is not the place for lawyers. It is the place for classmates. This is not the place for divisiveness. it is supposed to be an opportunity to come together.

If you think we need a class directory so everyone can contact anyone who wishes to be contacted, if you think that our veterans should be recognized, if you think that our dead should be memorialized, if you think that this effort deserves to exist and be supported and that there is room for all such efforts including the organization of class get-togethers in addition to the official Reunion, then email them, telephone them, talk to these people and tell them to stop the madness. What is next? Creating an approved list for attendance at the reunion? Where will it end?

It is time to grow up. It is time for them to face the entire class and tell them that their actions are in the best interests of the class. If they insist on their current course of actions, we will find a way to make sure this information is available to you. Just give us a moment to assemble an alternative venue.

Thank you for all your encouragement and support. May your faith in this project bear it through this hiatus.

Merry Christmas to you all. Milton and Linda Yuan

Photo Police Deliver Stern Warning

Linda got a notice from FB this morning:

Hello,

We have removed or disabled access to the following content that you have posted on Facebook because we received a notice from a third party that the content infringes their copyright(s):

Photo from Album: "Wall Photos", uploaded on August 27th, 7:10pm PDT

We strongly encourage you to review the content you have posted to Facebook to make sure that you have not posted any other infringing content, as it is our policy to terminate the accounts of repeat infringers when appropriate.

If you believe that we have made a mistake in removing this content, then you can submit an appeal by filling out our automated form at (actual link removed)

The Facebook Team

Linda went back to that date and discovered that someone so objected to their high school photo being posted on their wall that they reported it to FB as a copyright infringement.

First, there can be no copyright infringement where there is no copyright. Your publicly available image in a yearbook that is 45 years old certainly bears implied consent. 45 years is more than enough time to be considered public domain if not specifically copyright protected through legal ownership of which there is no notice anywhere in Embers.

So why are we talking about legal ownership and copyright infringement? Is this a high school photo or what? Is this the way classmates treat classmates (well, surrogate classmates at the very least) in a not so transparent move to get someone kicked off FB?

I certainly hope that none of our all school production participants who are now members of SAG or AFTRA come after us for royalties for posting their images on the Class Directory website.

As for me, let me warn you (oh so officially blown-up-like-a-toad posture assumed), in advance about this: If any of you yearbook totin', copyright infringin', rapscallion Class of 1967 classmates, for any reason, have the utter gall to decide to use any images produced by me in the past, present or future, without notifying me, please do so with my best wishes that it might help you remember some happy time in our lives that we shared together. Infringe away with my blessings!

Life and memory are too short, that we need photos to help us remember all the important things we should remember about friendship and fleeting youth (and hair that isn't pure as the driven snow, or hair at all as the case may be.) Copyright infringement indeed. Pleeeeze!

A Book Review, a Progress Report, and Christmas Greetings

Wow. Finally finished Ray Holcomb's book, Endless Enemies. For the first time, I felt compelled to write a review for Amazon (which they are reviewing for profanity or sedition or what I don't know) before they post it to the book title. Anyway, I thought I'd share it with you not because the review is that good, but because the book is and I want you to buy it and read it and marvel that he is our classmate:

Endless Enemies By Ray Holcomb

The exploits of this career-FBI counter terrorism agent are quite enough to propel the narrative of Endless Enemies to a satisfying if not cautionary conclusion. This can be said of many first person documentary writings. This tale rewards the reader in many other ways.

The narrative is a historical zoom lens. On the one hand, Mr. Holcomb zooms in and describes the milestones of his career in the Bureau in astonishing and often amusing detail that could only come from a field operative on the inside; on the other he pulls back and is able to place these events in context on a strategic international stage. He presents the dynamic of the domestic and international roles played by the FBI; he covers budgetary constraints and internal political and personal agendas; he intelligently discusses the difficulties of recasting a large law enforcement agency into an effective tool against new and evolving foes; he caringly describes the human toll that its agents continually pay to adapt to that changing role. On a personal level, Ray wistfully recalls the emotional pull of the comfort and safety of a career in corporate law against his visceral desire to meet the security needs of the country.

What makes this narrative so compelling is that Mr. Holcomb is a self-aware narrator. He has clearly given great thought to his role in these sadly real events and it is the depth and clarity of his thinking that makes this book special. He does not posture about his role. He simply lived a life of understated patriotism to the best of his ability and to the extent of his character, and that has taken him farther than most are willing to go. Endless Enemies deserves a read. When you’re done, you’ll come away with a much deeper appreciation for the dedicated people like Ray Holcomb who are doing their best to protect us amid all the political ambitions and drama being played out in the national headlines of the past 30 years.

I don't know about anyone else but my hat is off to Ray. No one has to ask him what he's been doing these last 45 years!

On the class front,  Linda is revisiting some old lists which we are now looking at with new eyes. When first we scanned them, all we saw were the inaccuracies. Now we are seeing hidden (in plain sight, of course) clues that we glossed over. We hope that this will result in another significant grouping of found classmates of the remaining 70 or so that have not yet been either located or contacted directly. We located and called Linda Wilkes Savacool, but she told her husband to tell me that she wasn't interested. I don't understand it. It's happened to me on several different occasions that a classmate couldn't even bother to come to the phone if nothing than to say they had no connection to school any longer. Granted, I don't know whether she remembered me or not. I sure don't flatter myself into thinking that I was universally known just because of my circle of activities and friends in high school. Maybe that was it, she just didn't recognize the name. What bugs me more is that people that I knew, saw everyday for the time we were in school together, hung with socially, won't pick up the phone after getting a voicemail or email to at least acknowledge that they got them, if nothing more than to say no thank you.  Maybe it's just the holiday blahs. Just not what I was expecting...and more than a little disappointing.

On a brighter note, got an email from Bobbye Cooke Gluesencamp who has a CD of photos from our high school productions, including Teahouse of the August Moon. I wasn't involved with that one (no music) but saw it and remember it well. The CD is in the mail amongst the USPS slowdown and holiday mail so I hope it arrives intact and soon. There are classmates waiting to see them!

Speaking of the Holidays, Christmas prominent among them (no I'm not real PC. It's still Christmas to me, Kwaanza not withstanding), if I don't do this now while I'm thinking about it, I won't remember and Linda is already fed up with reminding me to make phone calls to this one and that one. So here goes: 

*

To

 each 

and every 

classmate near 

or far, In village or 

town, wherever you are. 

It may be by mail, or it may

be by phone, We'll find one and all

So you won't be alone.   Have a very

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

from 

Milton 

and Linda Yuan

Yo Ho Ho and a bottle of rum (if I've been good).

And the Beat Goes On And On

After locating Neal Gronborg, I come to discover that he is married to Sharon Fiore's sister, so needless to say, now I know where Sharon is and almost immediately called her. In the meanwhile, Janis George (John's wife) is making arrangements to get together with the Gronborgs since they live in the same FL town!

Well, Sharon is an Air Force veteran and her family's historian and another genealogist in our class, so we got to compare notes and techniques and had a good laugh about married names being the downfall of family (and classmate) tracing.

Also confirmed an email for Paul Iozzio in FL (who was in an auto accident about the time the senior pictures were being taken so he ended up without one). Aside from telling us that he has gained some weight (were that he was the only one). I told him I look exactly like I did in high school and weigh the same too. I don't know why he thought that was so funny.

Pictures are starting to flow into Wayne Valley Situation Room (our dining room table where the only situation is clearing the table for dinner). Don and Margaret DeMichino from their family. A correct photo for Mike Oates (one of our oopsies), and Sue Edwards Gutkin.


Cathy Labazetta Stalter sent in some information about Ilona Sweerus's family and we're following up  on that nearly as I write hoping to locate one of Ilona's daughters to see if we can get a current photo and some additional information about her life after Wayne Valley.

She also gave us some information about Mary Lou Rudin whose death date is reported incorrectly. We will remove the wrong information until we get the correct info and some more detail.

Linda has posted up memorial photos of our classmates gone and linked it to the Facebook Wayne Valley 67 Class Directory group which is an OPEN group for anyone in the class, and anyone who is even only peripherally connected to the class, such as a family member, in the hopes that they can help provide information about some of our not yet found classmates. There are now at least 4 Wayne groups:

I'm from Wayne (2668 members): pretty much speaks for itself. Lots of nostalgia and a fun place to hang out. I only lived in Wayne for  6 years so there's lots of stuff I've discovered myself. Shelley Black Reynolds has one of the greatest scrapbook collections I've ever seen, some of which is posted up there.

Wayne Valley High School (membership not posted): Open to all Wayne Valley students, it seems dominated by classes from the 70's and 80's and their activities. Cool.

Wayne Valley Class of 1967 (66 members -me=65): The reunion committee group of our class.

Wayne Valley 67 Class Directory (91 members): Us.

Believe me, if we could have worked with our reunion committee more successfully, we would have. If we could have participated openly in the Facebook group, we would have. As it stands, we continue on separately but supportive of the Reunion. We want it to be the Mother of all reunions with the highest level of participation and attendance ever. We encourage everyone who can to go.

The Those Who Served page is starting to get populated as I knew it would. Of course, I had to add one to Linda's class website as well and it too is receiving additions on a daily basis. Vets certainly deserve to toot their own horns.