Oopsies

Once again, Milton proves he is fallible. Noticed some file naming inconsistencies that led to classmates being out of alphabetical order which of course, I cannot tolerate simply because it bothers me. Working on correcting that.

Still getting calls to add military records and a lovely email from Cliff Recanzone's wife who was delighted to hear that there would be a memorial page. She is preparing materials from Cliff's services to forward to us

Heard from Anne Hoffmann who in turn knows where Paul Wagner is. It just keeps getting better and better. I've been looking for Paul, as well as others who have been looking for over 44 years.

I encourage everyone to update their photos as they can. And if you spot a mistake, misspelling of a name, missed married name, anything at all, let me know and we'll get it fixed. If everyone allows me one mistake, that's over 600 to which I am entitled.

Fondest wishes

So far, my fondest wishes from the Wayne Valley Class Directory have started coming true. I'm getting emails and calls with additional information, military services dates and calls from people I haven't talked to in for-ever. Mollie Kroll Abend has a classmate cousin, Sally Rosenzweig Moskowitz who has been in periodic touch with Anne Hoffman, who we have had no luck finding without outside help. And so it goes round and round and suddenly we have another found classmate.

Then one of our many postcards generates a phone call from Dennis Sandfort, in Newton, who has been helping people chainsaw their way out to the street from the recent snowfall. Dennis is landscaping up there.

Rick Sasse remembers that Don Gerola is an artist in RI from a news magazine article, and reminds us of his own long service in the US Coast Guard and that Gary Luccio was also in the USCG. Sue Cowin counted off her years in the army which somehow triggered my memory that Rich Burgess was also Army.

Let the games begin! In the meanwhile, we're still working the phones for the rest of our folks.

Halloween 2011

As promised, www.waynevalley67.com is up and running, with a late burst of activity from Martha Utter Hunt providing information to contact Maureen Hoffman Abouyan. I wrote back to Maureen because there was a woman veteran, now deceased with very similar information to Maureen and we were delighted to hear from her to confirm her vitality. She said she had lost touch with Martha:

Losing touch is a common occurrence, as I am discovering in my quest to contact the entire class directly, either by phone or email so that I know I have current information.

That is precisely the purpose of the class directory. Life is sometimes too much in our vision and we lose sight of some of the more important things in life, like friends and family. If only there were a place that you knew you could go to contact those friends. Now there is. www.waynevalley67.com

We would very much like to get a recent photo of you and a short bio to post. Your email will be disguised to prevent spambots from acquiring it.

We also contacted Scott Strassler and hope to get a photo and a short bio from her shortly. We were also successful in contacting Kathy Fontan Korus.

Linda was also able to find obituaries for Laura Casadevall Robinson and Madelyn Carr Tooker which you can find on the memorial page. Also Larry Casadevall graciously provided current photos of Laura.

So now that the site has launched, let us know of any others you may have located in your travels that we don't know, even if it's just a clue. We'll follow up. Most of all, we hope that the entire class makes use of this new resource to stir things up, to re-energize the class community and add a new dimension to our everyday lives. Thank you for all your past and future information. Keep the flow going.

Unveiling

Even though the database is far from done (we're come a long way in a short time and it will never truly be done until everyone stops moving around and changing stuff so that's not going to happen), I think it's time to unveil this directory with what we've got so far. Rather than have everyone imagine what it's like, it's far easier to see it and participate. Some of the features aren't quite complete but I'm hoping that when they are seen, people will jump on board, especially vets - as I've been contacting folks, I haven't always remembered to ask. (The old short term memory isn't what it used to be - it used to be bad, now it's worse)

I'm also starting to include clues for people we haven't confirmed yet so everyone can get in on the hunt ("Wouldn't it be fun if we all could help whitewash the fence", said Tom Sawyer.....)

Quite frankly, I think that once everyone knows who is actually not yet located or confirmed, other classmates will help provide information that will enable us to find the rest.

It's been a busy few days recently. Talked to Bill Brooks, Janet Luhmann Cober, who gave me a lead on Mary (Scottie) Wallace being in Indiana, Mollie Kroll Abend who informed me that Sallie Rosenzweig Moskowitz is her cousin and provided contact information.  Got new contact information from Bill Meese who moved to help care for his inlaws. Good man, Bill. I don't envy you that responsibility, having gone through that myself. Talked briefly to Garry Meyer, who asked that I call back. He had a passle of grandkids running around and it sounded like a real circus. Been there too. Got an unexpected call from Ralph Foglia who says that he is going to talk to other classmates who likely know where some of the not yet located are. That's great, and it's always a hoot to talk to Ralph anyway.

Thought we had a strong lead on the whereabouts of Pat Snyder, but was informed by another Pat Snyder in VA who was also known as Trish, that she wasn't ours. One down in the process of elimination. Also got a lead on Carolyn (Lyn) Newton, but haven't turned up anything substantive yet. We've also got a bunch of postcards out there for people we think we've located but can't find phone numbers for. And then the Post Office announces that postcards were too cheap and they need to bump the price up to 31 cents each.

And the photos are starting to flow. Got one from Barry Makepeace, and Bob Dunlap too. So there's plenty of work to be done. It's not far from Halloween, but I did the annual pumpkin thing for my grandson. So someone is happy.

Still Working

Linda and I took a long week to take a road trip in the RV to South Dakota before the snow shut us out. We've all seen pictures of Mt. Rushmore, but it's not like being there. It was a great trip, and one of the reasons is that in the evening, the RV became Search Central. Give us a wifi hotspot and we'll confirm somebody's location and have a nice yakfest to boot limited only by the fact that I was somewhat distracted by driving the 29 footer and the tow car through the Badlands and the mountains.

Here are some classmates whose locations were confirmed last week:  Bill Vandervort, Giff Jimmerson, Doug Marzloff, Susie Loper, Gary Drach, Jim Francois, Robert Holdsworth, Marlene Zachok, Bill Altier, Eric Kostelak.

I'm cranking away on getting photos, emails and other information attached to each individual's high school picture. As the website goes up and folks get to see what's there, feel free to contact us to add information, especially military service, and we always always welcome recent photos. It has been my experience that these directories often develop their own momentum once begun as more and more people find the site. I'm hoping that will happen with this one. Remember, sometimes the smallest mote of information leads to a classmate.

It always comes as a surprise to me when a classmate exhibits less enthusiasm for reconnecting with the class than I have, not because I think everyone should react like I do (heaven forbid) but because what's the harm? A few minutes out of a day to answer an email? I do that every day just reading Amazon ads, or answering comments on Facebook. If someone wants to contact me, I figure I owe it to them for taking the trouble to respond. I'm not so important; my time is not so valuable that I can't share some of it with old classmates. Maybe I undervalue my time? Nonetheless, if someone wants to be listed as alive and doing well, that's better than "I wonder if they're still alive?" Knowing anything is better than not knowing at all. I certainly encourage all to participate fully, but it's not a requirement. It's about choice to reconnect or not.

www.waynevalley67.com - The Class Directory

Even as we continue to confirm the locations of the rest of our class, the momentum is building and classmates we talk to are telling us about other classmates and so it goes.

We have enough information now that it is time to let everyone know that by the end of October most probably, we will be publishing the framework and data that we have so far for our Wayne Valley Class of 1967 Directory which will be located at www.waynevalley67.com . It will have  the current location of as many of our classmates as we can locate and a way to contact them by email.

Aside from current photos, the site will include short biographies from those who have had the time to put brief ones together, a list of our veteran classmates, including branch of service and years in, a listing of Class Mates, those whose stories together began in high school and continue today, a memorial page recognizing our fallen, a listing of classmates by state, to enable local get togethers if folks are interested, a place to list changes of address to keep the database up to date and many other features as we think of them or as they are suggested by our classmates. It is meant to be a dynamic site, adding, growing and changing as necessary to best serve the process of reconnecting the class community.

Again, I want to remind folks that this directory is not intended to detract from the reunion website and is only meant to increase the conversation about reconnecting with classmates and old friends and what better way to do that then at the 45th Reunion.

And I want to thank all of you that have chosen to participate in this grand project. The enthusiasm I have encountered has far outweighs any negatives, and the attitudes of our classmates has often been refreshing and reaffirming to know that sometimes, wisdom can come with age, as well as graciousness, helpfulness and a whole load of great fun and conversation. I've been reminded of things I hadn't thought of in years (mostly because I didn't remember some of them) and had my fair share of stories to tell as well.

For those of you maidens on Facebook who have listed yourself without your maiden names, add it into your profile name so your classmates can find you (us too) and if we haven't yet found you, give us a shout. We want to make the directory as inclusive as we possibly can.

Here's a little update on some of the people whose locations have been confirmed in the past few weeks (I say that because with the start of school, our grand parenting responsibilities seem to have multiplied at least 3 fold from last year. Even though I used to look upon it with some dread, now I am starting to think that my granddaughter's drivers license will bring fewer miles and some idle time to the Grandparent shuttle) plus a few other good deeds that ended up punishing us with additional chores. The search for confirmed classmate locations got curtailed a little but the search goes on:

Ed Boland, Ralph Foglia, Bitsy Haslet, Donna Morales, Sue Brooks, Linda Doland, Kathy Grap, Ronnie Lucia (he doesn't count cause everyone knows where he is but we had a great time talking), Dr. Ned Ridings, among others; which reminds me that the site will have listings for those we have not yet located as well, so if you know where someone is, or if you hear about the site and go and find yourself not located, again, give us a shout, drop us an email and we'll make sure your information is updated and current.

Glad Someone Remembers

Memory is a strange friend. You're always grateful when it's there, but if it's not, you don't miss it.

I was talking to Ron Lucia, you know, of the Valley Road Lucias and he was asking about Patricia Snyder and if we had located her. I said, unfortunately not. Ron mentioned that he thought that Joe Jacelone had dated her and might have a clue as to her whereabouts. So, I emailed Joe, who replied that he hadn't dated her so he had no idea either.

He did have a story to tell about me however. In his own words:

Charlene DeShaw and I , Bob Bitter, and someone he was dating and you were in your car driving around Wanaque resevoir on the way to Ringwood manor to "hang out" for the day.  For some reason, you were stopped in the middle of the road on a blind curve. Another car came flying down the road and had to swerve to avoid crashing into us...... they stopped and were quite agitated and yelled to you "Hey, where the hell did you get your drivers license"?  To which you replied......."CHINA"!   I have never forgotten that encounter, and it was quite funny for all of us.

I told Joe that I vaguely remember that incident, I certainly remember the car, a 4-door 1957 Pontiac Chieftain, two tone blue. It sounded like the 16 or 17 year old immortal smart aleck that I was back then. The point is not that I was so funny, but that unless someone else remembers too, you kinda remember but just dismiss it as a phantom memory or you don't remember it at all. Or you think you made it up. We all have stories about each other and chances are that when we are told about it, we either don't remember it or we remember it differently. The important point, the most important point is that most of these things happened and someone remembers. 

I remember things about phys. ed class and the endless often hilarious indignities that Coach Alan Hubschman and Coach Patrick DiLemma subjected us to, collectively and individually. Slicing and dicing us with pointless sarcasm that would've been funnier if it wasn't so embarrassing. I remember the late Kevin Walsh standing up in homeroom with a wad of gum on his nose as punishment for chewing gum at all. Thinking back, you just remember the oddest things. These memories deserve to live. Get together with your friends and help each other remember.