Comments:
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
MORE RESULTS FROM SW CLASS OF 70 TRUTH OR DARE SURVEY DISTRIBUTED AT TANNER'S REUNION WEEKEND
---69% of you said you had sex more than twice AT SCHOOL
---86% of you said if there had been the category, you would have been voted UGLIEST
---0% of you said you never had an Eighth Hour
---52% of you (male and female) have had lyposuction
---49% of you said you've been in jail more than once
---98% of you claim to be bisexual
MORE RESULTS NEXT MONTH
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TRICKS AND TREATS
PARTIAL RESULTS FROM SW CLASS OF 70 TRUTH OR DARE SURVEY DISTRIBUTED AT TANNER'S
---3% of you said you Never Ditched Lunch
---74% of you said if there had been the category, you would have been voted Least Likely To Succeed
---22% of women respondents said they had a secret crush on Mr. Greenstreet
---93% of male respondents said they had a secret crush on Mr. Greenstreet
---48% of you said you currently use Botox
---69% of male respondents said they Have To Use Viagra In Order To Have An Erection
MORE RESULTS NEXT MONTH
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Hello my name is Karen.........and I am a Reunion-aholic.
To all those I had a chance to visit with--even if for only briefly:
Judy Belzer, Susan Bentley, Robyn Black, Kevin Brennan , Ellie Coen, Carolyn Curtis , Jerry Davidow , Kirk Davis, Mandy Davis, Jan Fitzhugh , Teri Gitterman, Michael Gortenburg, Roberta Guynn, Cliff Hall, Chris Horn, Joe Krashin, Stephanie Ledgin, Karin Lichterman, Demie Lyons, Julie MacKenzie, Kathy O'Connor, Cathy Ost, Steve Pherigo, Kittie Pipkin, Gerry Reeve, Joe Settle, Mary Schieber, Chuck Sharp, Steve Smith, Phil Spiegel, Allan Stockbridge, Cynthia Sturges,Connie Swyden, Kris Whitaker, Celeste White, Bridget Witcher, Harriet Woodward, Pola Zenitsky……..and Robert Zorn
---you have left my heart soaring!
My apologies if I've left anyone out.
And BTW.......my Troost School Blood Sister and Soul Mate, Mandy Davis, was about the best friend anyone could have for that entire weekend. ZINZO FOREVER! Ya'll come see me!---Karen
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A heck of a lot happens in forty years.
A heck of a lot happens in five…..maybe four, if you’re a Binghamite, and yes, we considered you invaders.
In 1965, when I started eighth grade (the last eighth grade class at SW) from my perch within the cage of CL….(wow, remember CL??—COMMON LEARNINGS) I was able to glean:
---that popular senior girls, the Brown twins, wore cashmere sweaters with sedate A-line skirts, while senior boys Howie Saver and Irv Belzer, in white socks and Weejuns, were considered cool
--that most girls, upon graduation, were expected to be housewives
--that “Ars Medica” was supposedly a club for future gynecologists
--that a snake-eyed Greenstreet would always lurk in the shadows
Just five years later, there was no dress code, Weejuns were never seen trudging up to 4th floor, but bare feet were, all girls were expected to go to college, “Ars Medica” had disappeared, having been replaced by the Folk Music Club, and Greenstreet…………still lurked in the shadows.
You have to admit, that was a pretty intense five years.
It was already just a wee bit taxing figuring out if one could survive the brutal SW pressure to “fit in.” But the additional intensity of watching classmates get funneled off to Viet Nam, sitting home during the riot-induced curfews of ‘68, while noticing SW was pretty gosh darn white, and witnessing way too many assassinations did afford a few challenges.
I really do believe the class of ‘70 is unique beyond measure. No other class experienced such profound personal and social changes. That’s one heck of a lot for a mass of adolescents to process. I’ll bet money some in our class are still living with stigmas and/or bitterness. I was actually scared to go to the 20th reunion, but was delighted to see everyone had simply grown up. No one seemed to care anymore about “fitting in.” Personally, I never believed I fit in anywhere, so I created my own slot.
Anyway, the 20th proved to me we’d all somehow managed to forgive, forget, and merge toward an acceptable median. Ahhhhhhh Time! The great equalizer!
After those wildly fascinating five years, I went to Mizzou, graduated with the acutely practical degree of “Creative Writing,” moved to Boston, got married in the Rose Garden at Loose Park, moved to Memphis, got a Master’s, moved to Durham, North Carolina, and have been a Durhamite for 33 years. Became a high school English and Art teacher (teaching the very things I embraced in high school, thank you Mary Jane Reddoch, Bunny Glover, Ben Ireland and Charlotte O’Malley!) have been a community and political organizer, PTA president, sat on a million boards, and became mom to a truly great, blessed daughter. (Sally, now 27, soon to be married)
Have traveled, canoed, hiked here and abroad, have had writings published, had some exhibits and installations of my art, and am now finishing a novel based on my father’s memoirs of his life on the Lower East Side of NY.
Sandwiched between all the fun and games was an intriguing diagnosis I received in 1991 of Stargardt’s disease--- a rare genetic form of macular degeneration. This means your retinas start disappearing. Yay. Eventually had to quit teaching………..and!-- quit reading! Thank God for books on tape….and those handy-dandy computer capabilities of increasing font size!
But things could be worse. Have had too many friends and family leave the earth, hence, I count my blessings. Even with a pretty traumatic divorce after thirty years of marriage…….. life goes on. Life is a gift. I love Durham (though how can one love any city that doesn’t house a Velvet Freeze or Country Club Dairy?) have great neighbors, great friends, a great dog, a great editor in NY whom I hope will get my book published, I love living near Duke U., love Duke basketball, and love feeding the chunky Koi in the fish pond I built by hand in my back yard.
And all things considered, I adore my memories of SW.
To all those in the My Fair Lady cast: were you ever aware how we sabotaged the set? We 4th year art students got to work on stage. The street scene backdrop had a huge subliminal peace sign ….check out p. 44 of our senior Sachem………..you can see it! And all the books in Henry Higgins’ library had titles like “Stark Is Cool,” “ ***** You Mr.------ ” (fill in the blank) etc etc………
But the best was conning Student Council to appropriate $$$ for our ZINZO art project in the courtyard between the auditorium and the first floor girls’ bathroom. It wouldn’t have happened, of course, if Chuck Sharp hadn’t been elected prez.
And I bet most of you never knew Mrs. Glover had conned Mr. Cannon into letting TRAIL staff have our own workroom. We had our own keys! Great place to sleep, eat lunch, and ditch class! Hey, we still got out those TRAILS in a timely fashion! The wonderfully fabulous Bunny Glover also somehow conned Mr. Cannon into letting us run ads from Tiny Tim’s Magic Circus, who also sponsored a full page ad on the back page of the last, senior edition …..with a giant cartoon of Nixon smoking a joint.
True! Glover gave us bound editions of our ‘69-‘70 issues. …I still have mine, which I frequently show to dumbstruck friends. Okay, this is a test: (just to see how many of you thoroughly read your TRAIL)
The Magic Circus ad we frequently ran, showing an old engraving of Buffalo Bill, included a caption that read: (COMPLETE THE SENTENCE)
“Colonel Cody and I always get our _______ at Tiny Tim’s Magic Circus.”
A. Rolling Papers
B. Lava lamps
C. Orgy Butter
D. Love Beads
Gotta love that Orgy Butter. Honest.
But back to eighth grade. Every Friday was (the dreaded) swim day in gym. Regular excuses to opt out and sit in the bleachers in your snapped-on, white gym suit were: “I have a cold.” “I have my period.” I th
