The Beat Goes On

We found Keith Schneider yesterday. That's the good news. I first met Keith when I came to Wayne at the beginning of 7th Grade at Anthony Wayne JHS. He lived in Minnisink, I lived in Mountain View. Bike distance down Parish, hang a right past the golf course, past the old dairy, past the airport, past Two Guys, over 46. Try that nowadays and take your life in your hands. Long summer days collecting junk on which  only 7th grade boys place any value. Expeditions into the city on the bus to visit Times Square junk stores before gentrification. Lots of pocket knives and such. Well, Keith is in Seattle, essentially doing the same thing. He's in the antique and antique toy business. Been there since 1969 or so. Still gets back to Wayne every now and again. He'll be there next May. He'll be in the big directory too. He didn't know he was lost either. He also said that he attended the 10th but it doesn't show on the website.

I also finally connected with Bob and Kathy (Reed) Sherger, who are still well connected with that magical championship football team. I got a lot of great information from them in the process of catching up and also confirmed that Mike Calderone had indeed passed away from cancer. Bob also said that he had attended all the reunions but the last one. That too is missing on the website.

It seems like there is a critical mass being achieved. The more people we locate, the more people we seem to be locating from information we are collecting in drips and drabs from the located. Every little bit is a clue; a step toward that telephone "Yup, that's me!"

That's the end of the good news part of this post.

If you'll recall, I speculated about asking teachers to attend the 45. So I got to thinking about the teachers that I had. That line of thought brought me to the bad news part. I have every reason to believe that Maggie Erdman passed away in March of this year. For those of you who did not have the good fortune to have her for either Theatre Arts or a sophomore Public Speaking semester, Maggie was more than just a teacher. She was combination All-School Production producer/director par excellence; social worker, guidance counselor and reader of souls. She had a presence and an incisive insight that at times could be almost frightening, but at the same time was whimsical and devastatingly engaging. A remarkable woman for a remarkable time in so many of our lives; most certainly in mine. Here's a photo of her at her best; looking over her reading glasses, waiting for enlightenment to dawn. Sometimes it was a long wait! (photo credit: Embers '64) She was the only teacher I came back to visit after graduation. It was at her urging that I went to Yale.  Well, not all things turn out the way we think they will when you're fresh out of high school.