Ronald McCloskey

In 1999 opened a franchise store of Wild Birds Unlimited. Plan to retire from that in August 2010. Then if I get bored I can always be a greeter at Wal-Mart.

Actually I have had motorhomes for about 15 years and still have one that I wish I could use more. When I quit the store I hope to do just that.

Actually that decision is now cut in stone. My lease is up on 8/31/10 and that is the end of my career in retail. I would like to sell the store because I know a lot of people will be upset if it closes. I have advertised for sale but so far no one is coming in waving money at me. If it doesn't sell we will have a monster sale and lock the door. Then??????

Well, that is exactly what happened. Store closed on 8/31/10. However contrary to expectations I sold the motorhomeand bought (sight unseen) a trailer permanently on site in a campground on Pine Island which is Gulf Coast off Ft. Myers and Cape Coral, I got here Oct and plan to stay until about April 1. This is the same campground where Joy and I spent her last stand four winters. I stand in the pool when it is warm enough, play poker two nights a week and blackjack on the casino boat that goes out from Ft. Myers Beach.
Nothing terribly excitng but it sure beats freezing my butt in Pennsylvania.

I lived on Devon St in Malverne near Lakeview Ave. Devon was only one block long and ended at Aberdeen St. which ran along the south side of the high school fence. Harold Horner applarently lived just across the field from me but that was like another world. I dont thing there was a cross street between Aberdeen and School St. anywhere from Ocean Ave, to Rolling St. After sixth grade at Davison Ave. we moved to Lakeview into a small enclave we called Sunken City because we had to go down a short sharp hill to get in and originally that was the only entrance and exit. A lot of MHS lived there. From our class alone there was me, Jack kleis, Lorraine Fols(my first sweetheart), Sallie Ellner, and later Anne Postal. Proabably at least a dozen others from other classes. We had a whole lot of fun in Sunken City, a lot of it led by a fun-loving Jack Kleis who my mother, until her dying day, always called "thatdamnjackiekleis" - one word. P.S. I was actually born in Brooklyn.

One Small World experience - McGill had only one tiny dorm so 99% of out-of-town students stayed in rooming houses throughout the city. I started in one about a 15 minute bus ride from the campus. The first few days I kept seeing the same student on the bus and finally we spoke. It turned out he was Myron Jacobsen, the son of the owner of Jacobsen's Shoe Store in Lynbrook. We then roomed together for the next 2 1/2 years.

Aside from blackjack mentioned elsewhere my life now revolves pretty much around my family, all of whom luckily live within a half hour which makes it nice, especially on holidays. I have five grandchildren (one boy, 4 girls) ranging from 19-24. The youngest is Kendra, a girl from my daughter who died very suddenly from complications of asthma when Kendra was three. There has never been any favoritism at all but that does make Kendra a little special. From this group I also have two great-granddaughters, one at nine months and the other at 15 months (as of March 2009)

I have no wish to get political but I'm afraid I do not see a bright future for my grandchildren and beyond. This has nothing to do with them personally but I believe things beyond their control are going to make life much more difficult in their future. Then again my grandmother probably thought the "Roaring 20's" was going to be the end of civilization.

If you have any faith in the Mayan Calendar then December 21, 2012 is going to be the end of it all anyway.

About three years after MHS the family moved to Westwood NJ. I was in college at the time so I never spent much time there. I went to McGill University in Montreal and had a hell of a good time there. I was a Sigma Chi and was Consul (president) in my final year. Got very lucky with a job. The summer before my llast year I applied for a summer job at American Smelting and Refining Co (a copper refinery in Perth Amboy, NJ.They did not normally hire summer help but because so many of their permanent hires that year decided to go elsewhere they gave me a job. I then went full time the following year. I also married Joy that year (1956). She lived in Schenectady and was introduced to me by Bob Penny (1951) who was going to Union College there at the time. In fact he wanted to go out with her one weekend and didn't have a car so he asked Joy to get a date for me so I could drive us up there. Eventually Bob dropped her and I stepped in and the rest is history. We were married about six weeks shy of 45 years when she succumbed to emphysema.

We moved around but never far. We lived in East Brunswick, NJ, then up to Randolph, NJ, and then to Oxford NJ where we had seven acres and raised and showed dairy goats for 15 years. Then to a townhouse near Doylestown PA and finally to a small ranch in Roseto PA a little town near the Delaware Water Gap. After Joy died in 2001 I stayed there a few years and then decided to move into my son Brian's house into a comfortable three room apartment on his third floor. I figure to stay here until the steps get to be too much.

When Joy was alive we travelled some. She was English and had many relatives there so our first trip was more or less a relative hop. We went to England a couple more times, also to Ireland and Wales. Went to Brussels for a conference and went on to Amsterdam and Copenhagen. Even took a trip to Russia, where Joy tripped and sprained her ankle so badly the nurse in the hotel insisted it must be X-Rayed. That trip to the hospital wa quite an experience. Bare walls, cigarette butts on the floor and no equipment to be seen (this is Moscow). Joy, who had worked for GE said the X-ray was ancient. The people though were extremely friendly.

Out last and best trip was to Israel. Because Joy needed a wheelchair by that time we arranged for a personal guided tour and it was fabulous.

At about age 45 smoking gave me up. I say that because I really didn't want to stop but suddenly cigs tasted terrible. I changed to at least six brands before I decided that was not going to help so I just stopped. It wasn't easy but the terrible taste made it impossible to continue. Then around 55 I stopped drinking for about the same reasons. Halfway through a drink or glass of wine I would start to get a headache and all the symptoms of a hangover. I finally just stopped. About the only vice I have left is blackjack. I do enjoy occasional trips to Atlantic City and casinos in other areas - some trips are profitable and some are not but I do enjoy it (at least most of the time)

Two Christmases ago my son gave me a subscription to Netflix to which I am seriously addicted. I have finally been relieved of mostly lousy TV. I am a huge fan of bagpipes, as was my wife, and both before and since she died, I/we made several trips to a huge Scottish Games in Ontario the first weekend in August. If you like this at all just imagine the massed bands at the end of the weekend when you have in excess of 1500 pipes and drums on the field playing Amazing Grace. I get the chills when I hear it.

There is an old English saying which I learned from Joy's grandmother who came from England. When things get bad "keep your pecker up".

May 2011 be a wonderful year for all and may succeeding years be even better. In all honesty I have my doubts but let's be optimistic.