FAYETTEVILLE-MANLIUS
HIGH SCHOOL 1956 ALUMNI ASSOCIATION
NEWSLETTER June / July 2004 Edition On
the WEB at: WWW.FM56.ORG
– Check it out!!
Guess it’s about time for fireworks and
vacations for most of you folks now that summertime has rolled around. Thanks to a few of you out there we have
some newsy items and a few pictures to share in this edition of the
newsletter. The 24-month countdown has
begun to reunion 2006 and the preliminary plans that have been put to paper so
far look like a winner. The input that
we have is very encouraging as I’m sure Jay will cover in the “Prez’s Corner” Remember: “Levity helps keep
us sane !!”
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Dick & Elaine (Soper) Marshal: We are certainly
still traveling, as we’re homeless. We
spent the first of the year (2003) in North Florida, then on to Abbeville,LA
for a week of Mardi Gras celebrations; continuing on down the gulf coast of
Texas enjoying the great weather. Next,
we stayed with friends on a 1,200 acre ranch in central Texas for a couple
weeks. We decided to travel the
"Natchez Trace" on our way east,
spending time at the famous Biltmore House in Asheville, NC. We then attended our second oldest
granddaughter's high school graduation near Atlanta in May and June found us meeting up with a couple that
we had traveled to Alaska with last year.
We left Georgia with them and traveled the Blue Ridge Parkway up into
Virginia, then to Washington, DC where we visited a couple days. Our big trip of the year really started then
as we headed to Newfoundland for the summer.
We toured the island for two months to the most beautiful scenery and
greatest people we have ever met; no tourist traps, just great people in small
fishing villages where we could, and did, park/camp anywhere we wanted to
including right on the wharfs for like 3 days at a time - Fabulous!! We returned through Nova Scotia, New
Brunswick, New England and back to Georgia for a month before heading west
again. On the way we booked a two week
back to back cruise in the Southern Caribbean on Norwegian Cruise lines. I guess that pretty well brings you up to
date as we now travel west to spend the winter in Arizona, specifically the
Quartzsite area. (Editor: As you can see, it’s not easy keeping up
with these nomads!)
E-Mail
Request!!!!!!!
Has anyone out there changed their email address, or just
gotten onto the Internet recently????
If so, please let us know ASAP so we can get your information up-to-date
and ensure that you are notified whenever class information is
disseminated. Contact Jay Hern at jrhern@aol.com or Stew Evans at pncstew@hotmail.com to get your
information updated.
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Dead Duck
A woman brought a very limp duck into a
veterinary surgeon. As she lay her pet
on the table, the vet pulled out his stethoscope and listened to the bird's
chest. After a moment or two, the vet
shook his head sadly and said, "I'm so sorry, Cuddles has passed
away." The distressed owner wailed,
"Are you sure? "Yes, I am sure.
The duck is dead," he replied.
"How can you be so sure," she protested. "I mean, you haven't done any testing
on him or anything He might just be in
a coma or something. "The vet
rolled his eyes, turned around and left the room, and returned a few moments
later with a black Labrador Retriever. As the duck's owner looked on in
amazement, the dog stood on his hind legs, put his front paws on the
examination table and sniffed the duck from top to bottom. He then looked at the vet with sad eyes and
shook his head. The vet patted the dog
and took it out, and returned a few moments later with a beautiful cat. The cat jumped up on the table and also
sniffed delicately at the bird. The cat
sat back on its haunches, shook its head, meowed softly and strolled out of the
room. The vet looked at the woman and
said, "I'm sorry, but as I said, this is most definitely, 100%
certifiably, a dead duck. "Then
the vet turned to his computer terminal, hit a few keys and produced a bill
which he handed to thewoman. The duck's
owner, still in shock, looked at the bill.
"$150!", she cried, "$150 just to tell me my duck is
dead?!! "The vet shrugged. "I'm sorry. If you'd taken my word for it, the bill would have been $20, but
what with the Lab Report and the Cat Scan....."
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Audrey (LaMontagne) Markos: I find in my "young" years I am having a ball. I live about one hour north of Atlanta, in the North Georgia mountains. I am on the 17th green of the golf course in a secured community; swimming pools, golf, tennis, lake, stables, etc. While I do not play golf, I (and some girlfriends) love to sit on my deck, drink martinis (or whatever) AND "smooze" the golfers. My three (3) children all live in the Atlanta area so I see them about once a month (they get free room & board). I am probably the "youngest" (hate the word OLD) class of '56er without grandchildren and perhaps great grandchildren. Well....it’s payback time. My youngest son and his wife are expecting in November. My daughter is expecting in September. I was beginning to think my grandchildren (if any) would be pushing me in a wheelchair instead of me pushing them in a stroller. On the other hand, that may still happen. If anybody ever travels down this way and would like a side trip to North Georgia, just give me a call. I am looking forward to the reunion in June of ‘06.
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I Can’t Look That Old (Can I?)
While waiting for my first appointment in the reception room of a new dentist, I noticed his certificate, which bore his full name. Suddenly, I remembered that a tall, handsome boy with the same name had been in my high school class some 30 years ago. Upon seeing him, however, I quickly discarded any such thought. This balding, gray-haired man with the deeply lined face was way too old to have been my classmate. After he had examined my teeth, I asked him if he had attended the local high school. "Yes," he replied. "When did you graduate?" I asked. He answered, "In 1971. Why?" "You were in my class!" I exclaimed. He looked at me closely and then asked, "What did you teach?"
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Beverly (Brown) Warner: Our chorus
won first place, again at our regional competition and we'll be competing at
the Sweet Adelines International level next fall (2005) in New Orleans. This will be our 4th international
competition. The cruise bug certainly bit me - after our reunion cruise in
2000, I went on a cruise to Bermuda with my two cousins in 2003 and in April of
this year I went on a two week Mediterranean cruise with members of my chorus.
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Karl
Lowenberg: In February, when I was returning from the
Y, I crested a hill in an area of heavily wooded sand dunes, and saw an
approaching SUV going about 50 mph. It
pulled off onto the shoulder but didn’t slow down, went across the bike path,
thru the guard rail and into the woods which sloped downward at about a 30
degree angle. The trees stopped it at a
sharp downward angle tilted steeply to the passenger side. I stopped, backed up and ran across the street
and got to the driver’s (uphill) side.
There was a lot of steam and smoke and I feared a fire as the engine was
racing. I looked in and saw a gray
haired woman crumpled on the passenger side floor and not moving. The driver side door was locked so I
couldn’t turn off the engine. I climbed
out - there was about 8 inches of snow over leaves so it was pretty slippery -
and looked for traffic. After a few
moments a car came along and I waved it down, then a FedEx truck came so I
waved him down and he called it in. I
went back to the car, the engine of which was alternately racing and idling tho
there was less smoke. Now the woman was
moving and trying to open the passenger side door. I yelled for her to cut the ignition but she finally got the door
open and tumbled about 15 yards down the slope. I worked my way around the car and got it turned off. She was sitting up and trying to get
up. I told her to not move fearing that
she would do more harm to any injuries she may have had but she continued to
try getting up as I tried to get to her.
By the time I was there, she was standing so I got my arm around her and
helped her walk up the slope. She
didn’t have any obvious injuries other than a cut hand; her face was
unmarked. The first thing she said was
"I was trying to commit suicide".
Fairly soon the police arrived and soon after, the paramedics and as I
continued to help her stand about half way up the slope, my arm around her and
a tree, she said "they’ll know me at the Grand Haven Hospital, I’ve been
there 3 times in the last month for attempting suicide. I knew there was something wrong with the
drug I’m on, I’ve never felt right since I’ve been on it". She continued up with my help - none of the
police nor paramedics ventured down - but did give her a hand when we
approached the top. The paramedic asked
which drug she was on and she replied "Prozak". I was finally given a
hand out, gave my name and statement to the police and continued my drive home,
hands aching as they thawed. I then had
the thought - glad she didn’t choose to take herself out by ramming the
oncoming traffic - namely me!.
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ROMANCE
An older couple were lying in bed one night. The husband was falling asleep but the wife
was in a romantic mood and wanted to talk.
She said: "You used to hold my hand when we were
courting." Wearily he reached
across, held her hand for a second and tried to get back to sleep. A few moments later she said: "Then you
used to kiss me." Mildly
irritated, he reached across, gave her a peck on the cheek and settled down to
sleep. Thirty seconds later she said:
"Then you used to bite my neck."
Angrily, he threw back the bed clothes and got out of bed. "Where are you going?" she
asked. "To get my teeth!"
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Erma
(Lord) Barnhart: I'm too stupid to know how to send
pics. I still continue to travel as
often as I can get Barney "in gear"!
We spent the month of January in Australia, New Zealand and Figi. I was hoping that I would have big news for
everyone from New Zealand, but it didn't come to pass. I had arranged to meet with Beverley Bourke
Carey in Aukland, but a note was waiting at our hotel saying that she had to be
out of town. She wrote that she IS
hoping to be with us all in 2006. In
connection with that trip, I have a cat story - our “Hutton” staged a hunger
strike the two days before we left. I
left instructions with the neighbor who looks after him and the house that, if
he kept it up, she was to call my daughter who would take him to the vet. He did and she did - he spent two days with
the vet who could find NOTHING wrong and presented her with a $450 bill for
us! Guess you know who's king around
here! So sorry to hear about your
“Fechit” - we worried and wondered that whole trip if we would come home to
Hutton or not. I leave soon with a 14
year old classmate of my granddaughter's for Russia. In September Barney and I sail again on our favorite sailing ship
in Greece. In between all of that I
spend a lot of time at our historical society, sing in civic chorus and look
forward to our reunion !
That's it for me ! (Editor: Thanks for remembering our “Fetchit”, he
was a sweetie!) (Erma: If you
have some pictures that you think you’d like to include in the newsletter, send
them to me by mail. I’ll scan them and
return them to you – I can do that !!)
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“Stew”
Evans: In January I went up to the San
Francisco Bay area to attend my son Scott’s wedding to a beautiful lady from
Lima, Peru. It was a great weekend and
I anticipate a very happy life for them.
He has just started a carpet and flooring business with his
brother-in-law, as well as continuing his regular job of 10 years as a forklift
technician, while his wife is attending classes to become a dental technician
(see pictures of the three of us at the end; the old man cleans up well when he
has to). Also in January, I received a
call from Kathy (McDonald) and Tom Collins who informed me they were going to
be spending a couple of nights at the Avi Resort Casino in Fort Mohave, NV
which is only about 45 miles from Kingman where we live and we made plans to have
dinner together. Peggie and I drove
down the mountain (we are at 3,300 ft and the Avi is at 500 ft) and we had a
great visit with them. They RV it all
over the place (nomads, just like the Dick & Elaine) pulling their rig with
a big old Freightliner. They cover many miles which takes them all over the
country. They took a Red Cross course
for disaster relief and check with the Red Cross whenever they hear of any
incidents taking place such as hurricanes, tornados, etc. They get approval to help and they’re on the
way to assist in any way possible. I
think they deserve a lot of credit for their efforts and I applaud them. We had a great time catching up on old
times, since Kathy and I rode the school bus together along with Diane Smith,
Jean Richer, Joyce Abel, John Roberts, and the bus driver, Leon Duva – do you
guys remember him? I just received an
email from Kathy (5/22) and she says:
“Just talked to my brother - his heart was only working at 25% when we
picked him up in Yuma AZ in Jan. - after a recent checkup the heart is now
working at 40%. They are back up in the
Spokane, WA area now. We are in
Sutherlin, OR at present - going back to Moorpark, CA soon, as our daughter's
baby is expected by May 30th. We are
now owners of a 1996 Safari Continental 40 ft. motorcoach - bought it while
here. Jumped the gun a bit, but a
friend made us a deal we couldn't refuse.
Still have the Freightliner and 5th wheel to sell. Wish us luck”. Just this past week (5/12 Karl Lowenberg and his wife
Beverly visited us from Michigan as they were staying in Sedona AZ. Karl had photos from his grandfather who had
helped build a dam near Prescott, AZ and he presented them to the museum in
Prescott. They got here about noon and
we showed them some of the sites of Kingman (that took a whole 15 minutes),
then we went over to the old mining town of Oatman where wild burros roam the
town. We wandered the town for a while
and watched the “gunfight” staged by the local gunfighters association
(donations to the Shriner’s Hospital).
Everyone bought a few items in the shops after petting the wild burros
and being careful where we stepped in the streets. We all took some pictures before leaving and driving back to
Kingman. We had a good time catching up
on the past years and we ended up having dinner back in Kingman before they
left to head back to Sedona. Pictures
follow (we’re the ones with the short ears). Some of you may know, Peggie and I lost our
five year old Flame Point Siamese “Fetchit” recently to a terminal disease
which was a tough loss for us and a “thanks” to those of you who contacted
us. I just finished a marker for both
he and his buddy “Tidbit” which is now on the back of the property and it looks
nice (see pix). We just came back from
Las Vegas and low and behold we actually found a Flame Point kitten which isn’t
an easy thing to do. He’s only 2 months
old and we snatched him up quickly. His
name is “Lil Bit” and he’s surely found his niche. Fetchit’s not forgotten, but Lil Bit is helping ease the pain
some. I’ll put a pix at the end so you
can see his scrawny lil bod (but cute).
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Don
Bligh: Frank Giocondo and his son Mark came from
the hot southland and hunted turkeys with Dan Lynch and myself this past week
(May). We dined on turkey sausage and
venison steaks. Anne was a good cook
and hostess as she had to put up with all our hunting tales.
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Nancy
(Hill) Hern: I participated in my first Elderhostel
program (downhill skiing) at Sunday River, Maine in March 2004. There were 36 attendees in the week-long
program, six being from the Syracuse area (2 from Syracuse, 2 from Jamesville
and 2 from LaFayette) – small world!
The Syracuse group ski together weekly and to this group I became known
as “Nancy from Fayetteville.” The
oldest skier was 80 years old and still going strong. Folks skied every day from 8:45 am until 12:30 pm under wonderful
conditions. There were afternoon
lectures and various trips to enjoy the flavor of New England. I urge anyone thinking of an Elderhostel
trip to sign up, this one was great!
Jay and I are taking a two-week cruise in December (7-20) on the QM2 out
of NYC to the Caribbean and returning to Ft. Lauderdale just before Christmas.
Seven ports of call, 5 of which will be new to us – many Dutch colonies. We welcome anyone wishing to join us, so
call us if interested.
Home Sweet Home
The Devil wanted a place on earth, sort
of a summer home, a place to spend his vacation whenever he wanted to
roam. So he picked out Arizona, a place
both wretched and rough, here the climate was to his liking and the cowboys
were hardened and tough. He dried up
the steams in the canyons and ordered no rain to fall. He dried up lakes in the valleys, then baked
and scorched it all. Then over his
barren desert he transplanted shrubs from Hell, the cactus, thistle and prickly
pear, the climate suited them well. Now
the home was much to his liking but animal life, he had none, so he created
crawling creatures that all mankind would shun. First he made the rattlesnake with its forked poisonous tongue,
taught it to strike and rattle and how to swallow its young. Then he made scorpions and lizards and the
ugly old horned toad. He placed spiders
of every description under rocks by the side of the road. Then he ordered the sun to shine hotter,
hotter and hotter still, until even the cactus wilted and the horned toad
looked ill. Then he gazed on his
earthly kingdom, as any creator would, he chuckled a little up his sleeve and
admitted that it was good. 'Twas summer
now and Satan lay by a prickly pear to rest, the sweat rolled off his wealthy
brow so he took off his coat and vest.
"By Golly," he finally panted "I did my job too well, I'm
going back where I came from, Arizona is hotter than HELL". (Editor: Anybody
want to visit us this summer is welcome – I’ll furnish the ice cubes!!!)
THE PREZ’s CORNER
By the time
you read this we will be less than two years away from our 50th Reunion!! Does that sound like a long time since we
were 17 or 18? Well, other than for
numbers alone, our “growth” is probably a function of attitude; We may be 50 years older, but also 50 years
wiser. We also now know what is
important in life - not THINGS - but family, friends and other important
relationships. Enough philosophy, you
get the point. Now as to the
reunion: Block 6/21-25/2006 on your
calendars NOW and start saving up for a real FM homecoming. We have a Welcome Reception, Class
Dinner-Dance, 3 hour dinner-cruise on Skaneateles Lake and a full 5 hour
clambake (Hinerwadel’s) planned for afternoon/evening activities as well as
golf, local tours (both “our own” and
the new school, Stickley's etc) and suitable 50th Reunion favors in
the works. All is ala-carte, thus you may attend what you wish. There will be minimum headcounts for the cruise and clambake however, and you will have to commit ahead on those two
items. The clambake will be “open” to
adult relatives of classmates, as well as friends from other FM classes.
Our center of gravity will be the Craftsman Inn/Restaurant & Conference
Center in Fayetteville. Most of
this has already been laid on, but more details will be coming about a year from now when it will get serious as to planned attendance. I remember when this "trip"
started in '98--at that time the reunion was 8 years away, now just two! So far so good, gang. Stay with us and I guarantee we'll have a
ball in 06!! To date we have 43 classmates and an additional 15-18 spouses who have
indicated that they plan to attend. There are also a handful in the “maybe” category.
I’m looking for a total of 100+ attendees!!!! PS:
Unless you are paid ahead, and many have, dues
are "due" now for the 04-05 year. More on that by later email.
Stay healthy, happy and enjoy the summer.
Jay
Jay R. Hern,
8709 Litwalton Ct., Vienna VA 22182, 703-560-5273, jrhern@aol.com
THE VEEP’s NICHE (and bringing up the rear)
Thanks to everybody we had a pretty “newsy” letter this time. Of course, it also helped that some of you folks came to the great southwest and I was able to visit with you as well. I surely appreciate the email that you’ve been sending to let me know what you’ve been up to and I’m sure that there’s plenty more of you out there that are just “too shy” to send me some news about yourselves. C’mon, you’re family, not strangers – open up! Hey, are we getting closer to R2006 or what? We have preliminary plans including a place to stay, a clambake, a dinner cruise, a basic menu for the banquet and a basic schedule. Now all we need to know is who’s coming, who’s staying at the hotel, who’s going to the clambake, who’s going on the dinner cruise and who’s going to pay for all my expenses (just thought I’d throw that in to see if you’re paying attention). Seriously guys and gals, lets get it all together during the next 24 months and make this the best event any FM class has ever (or will ever) put together. In the meantime, keep those emails and photos coming and make this newsletter job of mine as easy as you can so that I can give you all a few minutes of reading pleasure twice a year. Thanks for the opportunity to serve the craziest, yet greatest FM class of all time !!!
Stew
“Stew” Evans, 4953 Steinke Dr., Kingman, AZ 86401,
928-692-9233, pncstew@hotmail.com
|
Scott, Rosanna Evans and Stew in Alameda, CA. January 2004 (First time I’ve had a coat & tie on in five years) |
Stew, Peggie, Karl and Beverly Lowenberg in Oatman, AZ.
May 2004. |
|
Peggie at the vet’s with our new baby (“Lil Bit”). We found him in Las Vegas in May. It’s hard finding a Flame Point kitten so we didn’t hesitate bringing him home. |
She suspected that Karl had longer ears under that hat. |
This is the marker I made for Tidbit who we lost in April of 2000 & Fetchit who we lost in April 04. Tidbit was 15 & Fetchit was only 5, but they were, like all our boys, also “our kids”. We’ve had 9 male Flame Points since 1971, all wonderful family members. |
