Teachers Page Published

We're back from the presurgical cruise (Linda knew she'd be holed up in the house for a few weeks so jammed in a cruise prior to surgery; any excuse is fine with me.) So the surgery went well and the recovery is proceeding apace. It's never fast enough and while the surgery went faster than expected, you can only heal so fast. I will say that we were supplied with island dressings that had some of the most aggressive adhesive we either of us have ever seen. Until we abandoned the cursed bandages for more conventional ABD dressings and paper tape, there was much cursing and swearing at the Yuan household and a lot of needless suffering.

So we're back and we've been busy....

We have completed scanning the teacher yearbook photos and including them by department and the page is published at http://waynevalley67.net/html/theteachers.html There are only a few for whom we have current information and we invite all to dig in and share what you know. I would think that all teachers are automatically invited to the reunion but you never know.

I was delighted to find an article about Adrian Van Zweden who at 92 is apparently still delighting kids with his practical knowledge. We also found Esther Van Kampen on Facebook and provided a pretty complete biography.

I suppose I was as guilty as anyone in objectifying teachers with whom I either didn't have classes or didn't know that well. They all had lives too though.

I do know that Lindas Eckert and Ucko are working on a 7-3/8-4 get together prior to the reunion with the Piagets. If you were a member of this group, make sure to contact them if you can attend.

Ah, back in the saddle again.

No Snowflake........

No snowflake ever thinks it will become an avalanche. But that is what is happening. In reality, Evansville got its first little snowfall which resulted in a moment of idyllic winter scenes. Then people started playing demolition derby on the streets. It wasn't enough to cause a run on bottled water and milk at the local Walmart though, and the stores aren't out of snow-melt either. On the class front, we also have an accumulation. Of news.

Rick Sasse sent this link to me. Don Gerola's been at it again up in Rhode Island:

http://news.providencejournal.com/arts-entertainment/2012/01/artist-weaves-city.html

We've also been in touch with Shigemi Suzuki who says she'll be to the Reunion.

Additionally, when we get back from vacation, we will begin filling in content for our teachers page, which will include much information about all our teachers, living or deceased. Where we can, as we have for classmates, we will be providing obituaries and contact information where available. Moreover, we will be inviting you, their students to provide anecdotes and comments which we will post with the listing. You know how proud you are of your accomplishments in your various careers. We are their accomplishments, and ultimately their legacy. We have so much to tell you about them. Something to look forward to. The page that will be published today is just a sample of what is to come. They have left their imprint on more than just us.

Holiday Cheer

After taking a little break for the Holidays from this blog, it is a little bit amazing how much connecting is happening on Facebook. For those of you not yet addicted to the social network scene, don't feel left out because you can now go the the Wayne Valley 67 Class Directory and locate many of your old friends there. Drop a dime (is that showing our age?), Drop 'em a line; If they're within driving distance (you can check the state listings (which by the way will be updated in the next few days) get together for real and break bread together.

Thanks to all for the holiday cheer and greetings. If we missed anyone who was gracious enough to send us greetings, our apologies. Like everyone, things were in a total frenzy right up until the final countdown. Even though the website activity slowed a little, the research didn't and we're still cranking away. We are hoping to get info for Mike Williams from Rick Sasse, I think Mike was one of the few I know for sure who understood what Mr. Grundy and Mrs Thompson were talking about.

Doc Piaget

Darth Tunis

Speaking about teachers, it seems fairly likely now that there will be a get together for the Anthony Wayne 7-3/8-4 block class of Dorothy Tunis and Dr. Al Piaget over the Reunion Weekend. Linda Ucko and Linda Eckert are arranging the details. The Piagets (I'll always say "Pie-A-Jet" but "Pee -ah-jay" seems to be the preferred pronunciation nowadays) are happily retired and in Wayne. Doc, you may know, helped found the Benway School originally on Black Oak Ridge but now I hear recently relocated to Valley Road).  To those of us who had them for block those two incredible years, they represented enlightenment, new horizons and self exploration not typically encouraged in the Wayne of the mid sixties. Their current photos  adorn the website in the activities area where you will find a teachers page. If anyone else has current photos of our teachers, please send them in and I can arrange a location of greater prominence on the site. There are also active threads about teachers of our era on the I'm from Wayne Facebook group with many of the old Anthony Wayne faculty photo pages.

And speaking about photos, I encourage everyone to send in their own current photos from the scads that had to have been taken over the holidays. I know you've got them. Everyone wants to see everyone to either gloat or sympathize (depending on your own self image I suppose).

And by all means, visit the Return to Senda page of the website. If you have any clues about the whereabouts of any of our lost classmates, good news or bad, please feel free to let us know so we can follow up. I for one have no intention of just letting a classmate go that easily. So even it means following up on a long shot "six degrees of separation" clue, we'll do it.

On a far more sad note we just learned yesterday of the passing of Richard J. Geraghty, on October 10, 2011 in Manahawkin, NJ. An obituary can be found on the Memorial page on the class directory website, http://waynevalley67.net/html/inmemoriam.html.