50^th Reunion

Saturday, September 22, 2012,  7 pm - 11 pm

Coral House, 70 Milburn Avenue, Baldwin,  NY

 

WE DID IT!!!

What a great party.

Thanks to all who organized this event and all who attended.

Here is Walter Harrison's speech:

 

50th Reunion Class of 1962

Malverne High School

September 22, 2012

 

Hello, Everyone, or, since I now live in Nashville, in “New Yorkese Southern,” it’s, “Hey, ‘Y’awll.’” My name is Walter Harrison. We were once classmates. I know Idon’t look like your classmate Walter Harrison from 1962. Back then I was shortand skinny with hair on my head and none on my chin. Now I’m still short and not so skinny, but with hair now on my chin and none on my head, I don’t move as fast, I forget more, I wear glasses and hearing aids .… but I’m still on the right side of the grass and smiling, so the day’s a success. We’re all older, but with a little luck, we’ll get a lot older, stay healthy, and still know what’s going on- sort of. I feel better now seeing that most of the guys are also older, fatter, balder, move more slowly, and forget more. You ladies, of course, still look lovely and don’t forget anything, which is how it usually is. Lord knows we guys are beyond salvage. Of course, I don’t know who anyone is anymore, but then again, none of you do either, except the women probably do.

 

Before we start, let’s observe a moment of silence for our 32 classmates, who are no longer with us: Lois Allen, Ken Altman, Robert Cherrington, Robert Cimberg, William Clemens, Roland DeNoie, Samuel Fields, James Gilmartin, NormanGoldsmith, Stewart Greenspan, Walter Harris, Richard Herpfer, Alan Hirschorn, Frederick Incorvaia, Harry Jacofsky, Vernon Jones, William Kennedy, AnthonyLamana, Andrea Leeds, Peter Lepolstat, Patsy Lomangino, Bruce McMillan, Richard Moderno, Michael Ober, Frank Peretta, Jay Powell, Richard Rever, Walter Saunders, Arlene Shudlow, Ronald Sterckx, Walter Stromberg, Gloria Winston, and Richie Galgano, who died just last Tuesday…..Thank you.

 

We’d like to welcome home our Vietnam Vets. Jim Lorne made you guys some desk signs. Thank you for serving our country.

 

I'd like to recognize Marc Saperstein, who came all the way from England, andRobert Krasnow, who came all the way from Brazil. Also, Harry Neu is here in spite of a double transplant a few months ago, which is a tribute to medical advances, G_D, and his positive attitude. You all getting a free DVD. We’ll also begiving a free DVD to Charlie Nardo, who gave $150 despite not being able to come,and to three of our classmates, who paid their deposit, but are unable to come.

 

As indicated in the flier about the class picture and the DVD’s that everyone received as they came in this evening, we do have enough money left over to raffle off 5 DVD’s.  Cathy Scherer Ehrenberg had earlier made up a bunch of slips with everyone’s name. Cathy, Come on up, mix up the papers, and pick five please. The winners are ………… Please come up and pose for a picture with Harry, Marc, and Robert. When the DVD’s are ready, we’ll send them to you unless they’re ready tonight. Please give them a round of applause.

 

 

I’ve had the honor and the pleasure of leading this reunion committee. What’sgreat is talking and corresponding with so many of you and finding how much we’ve all changed and also remained the same. In high school people were judgedby their athletic prowess, brains, or beauty- none of which do I particularly have,say my kids. Now we can see how shallow that all was. Many of us are now pilots, actors, physicians, lawyers, indian chiefs, artists, or have/had their own businesses. Most importantly, a lot of us have turned out to be very nice people with good values… anyway, at least some of us have.

 

In retrospect, I'm sorry that we haven’t had regular reunions over the years. I'vediscovered that there are several classmates who lived within 15-30 minutes from where I had been living in Massachusetts and I had no idea that they were there.

 

Reunion companies figure on possibly getting 25% of the class. For our class,that’s about 50 classmates. We have 80 classmates and 120 people here tonight- about 45%. That’s fantastic! It’s great to see so many of you here even if I don’t know who you are; I think I knew 50 years ago, but I can’t remember. Thank you all for coming and making this such a great reunion.

 

Many classmates helped make this reunion successful. We started out with the initial list for our 25th reunion put together by Alan Viewig, Julie Bizzoso, Nanci Pollack Baker, and Sharlene Schmidt Vichness. This great turn out tonight is due to our Sherlock Homes classmates: Roger Cohen, Cathy Scherer Ehrenberg, Roger Sobel, Stephanie Mudry Bail, Grace and Don Levonius, and Wayne Palmer, who tracked so many of our classmates down. Grace even scouted obituary notices! We also owe a big thank you to Gloria Schwartz Gordon and Paula Cohen, Roger’s wife, for formatting and repeatedly updating the list. Let’s give them all a round of applause.

 

We had an absolutely terrific reunion committee! We basically had booked the Coral House, the Holiday Inn Express, a DJ, and a photographer, had a web page, the beginnings of a class list, a search committee, and nametag honcho, most within about 3-6 weeks! That’s really something!

 

I’m happy to announce that our reunion came in under budget because:

 

• Don and Grace (Comerford) Levonius researched hotels, places to eat, got us a good rate at the Holiday Inn Express, got Joe Accardi, our digital photographer, and our table centerpieces. They also sponsored the Friday night Meet and Greet.

 

• Sharlene Schmidt Vichness arranged the conference calling.

 

• ?Karen Alexander Cohen and Valerie Bejarano Hamilton made up theMemorial Wall and name tags and scanned our yearbook pictures on to the name tags. They also sent to our website our 25th reunion “Catered Affairs” booklet andmany other school documents.

 

• ?In addition to searching for classmates, Cathy Scherer Ehrenberg alsoresearched venues and picked the Coral House, found Doug Yadanza, the DJ, andgot and covered the cost of the banner.

 

• ?In addition to searching for classmates, Roger Cohen also helped mebalance our checkbook and reimbursed many classmates for monies they hadspent for the reunion.

 

• ?Mike Ziegler made the wonderful stained glass artwork, which you can see here tonight, and which is on the cover of our class booklet. He arranged to have ithang in the school library. Jim Lorne made the very nice handcrafted MHS signand the Vietnam Vet desk signs.

 

• We had an Anonymous Donor, who gave us a lot of money.

 

• ?Charlie Nardo contributed $150 even though he couldn’t come.

 

• ?Julie Bizzoso donated our Koozie can coolers.

 

• ?We also need to thank Wayne Palmer, Bill Dangoia, and Peter Lobo. Peteris taking candid pictures tonight for Shutterfly posting. Wayne and Bill set up and printed the questionnaire responses. Wayne also searched for classmates and setup Shutterfly. The Shutterfly directions are on the MHS Reunion website. Bill mailed our class booklets to those, who couldn’t come tonight.

 

• ?We also owe a special thanks to “Spider Woman,” our very own Gloria Schwartz Gordon, [hit it, Doug] for doing a ton of work on Class Reunion “Web”Page. She put together our Reunion Web Page with information about the hotel,the car service, places to eat, photo galleries, 25th reunion memories with the video,Bonnie Sanabria’s poem, and Carole Ashkinaze Kay’s newspaper columns. She added old MHS documents, 1962 history and videos, missing classmates, amemorial page, and Shutterfly directions. Gloria put in a lot of effort on our reunion booklet. If you have corrections for our class list, please email or mail Gloria.

 

• ?I particularly want to thank Gloria, Don and Grace, and Cathy for being my “Executive Board” and for giving me good counsel.

 

• A very special thanks goes to Jackie Harrison, My Queen, for putting up with me collecting money and composing, printing, and sending out the conference call agenda, a zillion emails, and letter updates. Jackie also spent a lotof time checking to be sure that what the bank said we had agreed with what I thought we had. As always, Jackie’s kept me balanced, as far as that is possible. I love you, Sweetheart. You’re stuck with your very own Malverne Mule, whom youmarried in a moment of weakness.

 

If I left someone out, I apologize. Thank you all for your input and help. Would all of the people I just mentioned please stand. Let’s all give them a round of applause.

 

I’ll be sending a Post-Reunion email/mail the end of Oct. or early Nov.

 

 

        Once again, Everyone, thank you all for coming and enjoy the evening.

 

 

 

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