Jack Hayes

You 'da man, Fred!

Donna Salamon (Bree)

Fred, you have my gratitude and thanks.  May 2017 shower you and Shelly and your family with many blessings.

Marty Campbell

i don't know, man.

Marty Campbell

Dear Fred & Patrick.

i have a suggestion for an alternate layout "to make it easier to follow the conversation without opening each topic individually and trying to piece together the flow". 

first i tried copying and pasting Robert's poem that followed mine right in, as a comment, under mine to see how that would play out:

http://www.eths1964.com/class_forums_messages.cfm?tid=48461

to me it looks fine, like a way to show follow/flow without opening each individually.  and if Robert did it, it would have his picture.

then, i just now opened a new topic in the apocalypse user forum to try it out, and it works:

http://www.eths1964.com/class_forums_messages.cfm?mid=260600#260600

so if we, each exiled, could plead nolo contendere and then volunteer to place our piece in exile (from here in Message Forum) our selves, with a good bit of conducting and concertoing (and "no, but after you, my dear Alphonse. / ah but after you my dear Gaston"), we could do it in order, in the order they were originally, with the first posting first, down to the last. and voilà it would be in order, one time, one place.

we could even have the two exiled forum titles become sub-titles under one initial, say, "one-time exiled Message Forum Posts, in Memoriam, January 2, 2017, here preserved in benign User Forum where they should of been in the first place.  use these posts as examples of what should not be placed in the Message Forum.  otherwise your post there will be deleted without being saved, if it is judged by the Administrator in violation.", if the User Forum and replies can nest in tree-form like that.  i might find out if i looked at some topics-and-multiple-levels-of-replies in the Nam User Forum, as it looks most developed; i offer that to you, as i'm spending so much time with my real-time remaining life i have not even gotten to entering my own post there.  just barely squeeking time here to mourn the exile of friendly fire classmates. — or better yet, put both exiled forum titles together as one title "exiles from Message Forum: elections, environments, & prognoses", then line all 18 in order, as replies to each other in the original order, somewhat much as they were.  voilà!

Fred, is it possible i just saw some Message Forum posts BOTH left here AND put in exile from here into User Forum?  if so, have you explained that subtlety of the process to all of us fellow classmates?  i didn't see it in either your letter or your post above.  i do thank you for the loving precision, brevity, yet thoroughness of both your announcement/explanations, before and after.  i also deeply appreciate your preserving the dates posted, and trust we can recall the order in which multiple posts on the same date occurred.  i am here of course agreeing with Patrick's request.  i do also second his apology to you for all you put into this site way beyond overtime and call of duty.  even or expecially when it's controversial, it stands still and more-so-every-day the singular greatest, most precious, and happiest single institution of connection with my h.s. classmates since before we met each other, through all 4 years, through each realtime reunion, and until ever moving now.

please may this not be political, controversial, otherwise inappropriate, or even provocative to anyone.  my deepest feeling and intention is love, if not humility and kindness.  but if it is, any of these things taboo, i trust with all faith in your judgement over mine, we will not be reading it for long.  (I'll save a copy for my self.)

respectfully submitted.  hoping all minutes of all secretaries may be duly ratified in the all-desired peace-filled future.

Fred Brostoff

Marty and Pat,

I will investigate your format suggestion with the website contractor and I will get back to you with their comments.  In the meantime, I'd prefer that further discussions on this matter be handled via direct email and not by posting on the Message Forum.  Thanks for your understanding.

Robert Lindner

The Point

“What is the point? Is there a point?” I ask

Myself, as I awaken from a dream,

That makes no sense. A dream in which a task

Was constantly repeated by a team

Of dreamed up people, that included me.

There was no point, of course, except for sleep,

Which I do every night, repeatedly,

And perhaps that is the task that I will keep

Doing without knowing the point of it.

Then again, points make up a line and line

And point are geometry, and I sit

And write lines of poetry, or design

A garden, as the world was designed, though

Not by me. I believe there was a point,

A singularity, which then would blow

Up in a big bang from which some conjoint

Activity would create gravity,

Then pull a universe out of a hat,

And then subsequently create me,

The point of which is sleep, and the dreams that

Do not have a point because they are dreams

And not reality, where my knee joint

Sometimes bothers me. The pain, it seems

Is there to remind me. But what’s the point?

Ouch! I'm awake.

Robert Lindner

Freezing Rain

Let the rain pitter patter, But it really doesn’t matter,

If the skies are gray. Long as I can be with you,

It’s a lovely day. Isn’t This A lovely Day By Irving Berlin

Another winter morning, skies are gray,

And I don’t know what I’m doing today.

As the world slips and slides in freezing rain,

I run to the John, she runs to the Jane.

Ice pellets are falling in between drops

Of rain. I can’t go out until it stops.

So I’ll have to sit writing and reading,

As time is passing, dragging not speeding,

To tomorrow for a change of weather,

I’m waiting and holding it together,

Sitting in my easy chair, staring at

My dog, I’m wondering if he thinks that

The day is dragging, if he feels passing time?

The dog probably does not think what I’m

Thinking, as he lies there with open eyes

That look at me and then close as he tries

To sleep, I’m a distraction, as I rise

And stretch my legs. As I devise

My next rhyme, the rain continues to fall,

As I walk to the window, down the hall,

And to the kitchen, the dog follows me.

In case there’s food, but all there is, is tea.

Then we return, I to my easy chair,

And the dog to the bottom of the stair,

Where he has his bed. And I look at all

Of this and see the pictures on the wall,

Each one reminding me why they are there,

To frame the times when my life was somewhere

Else. But now I’m happily here, although

There’s freezing rain and I don’t want to go

Out there, but I feel happy and not confined,

My writing frees a world that’s in my mind,

A world defined by words that I’ve learned to

Find. A world that I’ve often returned to

Through open doors of thought and memory,

A world where it’s so easy to be free.

Though the rain is freezing. I’m not, I’m warm

And safe, tucked away from today’s ice storm.

I’m back from the John. She’s back from the Jane

We’re all back together, where we’ll remain,

Till tomorrow, holding it together,

Till tomorrow brings a change of weather,

We’re happily here in a world defined,

By thoughts of comfort, so it’s not confined.

A world, where it’s so easy to be free,

In a world of words, where we want to be.

In an easy chair, with worlds in my head,

You’re next to me, and the dog’s safe in bed.

Jim Gustafson

http://www.jimgustafson.com

A bit of shameless self-promotion.  My newest collection released today.

Ruth Gross

Jim,  I love the title and cover picture!  Congratulations on publishing your collection.

Nancy Schroeder

Congratulations on  your new book. I forgot you lived in Ft. Myers. Maybe we can get a group together and meet in your neck of the woods since you are in middle between those in Naples and those in Tampa.

Something to consider...

Tom Payne

Congratulations Jim.  Terrific title.

I'm having lunch with J P Rosenau today.  If you are

Ever in this area, you must join us.

John O'Boyle

Kudos, Jim!  Get togeher again soon?

Kathy Dalgety (Miehls)

Jim, OK if I promote your book in the upcoming ETHS alumni newsletter?

Gale Glassner (Twersky)

Thanks for letting us know about your book. It is so exciting to get your thoughts into print and spread your insights that are inspirational. Congratulations and all my best!

Wendy (Wynn) Garber

Jim, I'm with Ruth. What a great photo and title. Congratulations on getting your book published. The title rings loud and clear to me, especially given my current circumstances. About 2 weeks ago, I took a spill--went running up the outside stairs in the pouring rain, and my wet shoes slipped on the entry way tiles and I went down, cracked my pelvis and sprained my wrist. I'm now confined to living at home, actually to the upstairs only, since I'm unable to walk up and down the stairs. It's been quite an adjustment. Apparently, the pelvis heals itself; it just takes 6-8 weeks for the bones to knit back together. But during the interim, my everyday life now requires a lot of assistance.  This incident has made me so much more aware of the mobility issues people face as they grow older.

Sherwin "Jay" Siegall

2017 SouthWest Florida ETHS MEET AND GREET. Had so much fun Feb 13, 2015 that we are going to do it again! Plans are tenative and forming.

​​​In addition to class of 64 being invited, this year will be an all year ETHS event with Dr Witherspoon (the current superintendent/ the Loyd S Michael of today) and Alumni or ETHS Educational Foundation staff as featured guests.

​Date to be Monday March 20th at my home in Miromar Lakes Florida (5 Minutes from the Ft Myers/Naples area airport) likely at Noonish.

​For your reference my address is 9933 St Moritz Dr Miromar Lakes, FL 33913

​I am advised tenative plans are for Dr Witherspoon to be at a similiar event in the Boca Raton Fl area on the east coast of FL on Tue the 21st. Of course for the event at my home I am pushing for class of 64 classmates as in the past.

​Would love to see as many of you or more than were able to join us in 2015.

​The ETHS Alumni office or ETHS Educational Foundation will be coordinating RSVP's Hope to have 50- 80+ attend.

​Fred: If you could make a general announcement of these tenative plans, that would be appreciated.

​Wishing good health to all in 2017.

Sherwin "Jay"  Siegall  jay@siegall.com

Rosanne Bass (Keynan)

Sounds great, Jay! Please be sure to let all -- including the current supe and the ETHS Foundation -- know that the class of '64 has made its first-ever group gift (and quite a gift) by establishing an annual award, in honor of our distinguished and Pulitzer Prize-winning classmate. Within days, we'll total up and announce the amount we raised and announce, at the same time, the winner of the drawing.

Sherwin "Jay" Siegall

Will do Rosanne! So sorry we missed you last trip. May go to Memphis this summer. Is Elizabeth still there

Kathy Dalgety (Miehls)

Please take lots of photos at your party and email them to me for the spring issue of the alumni newsletter! 

Fred Brostoff

The following message is posted at the request of Jack McCabe.

ETHS high school classmates went to Schubas Bar and Grill on the north side of Chicago to hear Tom Payne play his many instruments.

Picture: Steve Bruhn, Jack McCabe, Jerri McCabe, Tom Payne, Carol Bruhn, Barb Thompson and Charlie Thompson.

Rosanne Bass (Keynan)

I second what Ruth wrote!

Robert Lindner

The Chinese And Japanese Gardens

At the Huntington in Pasadena

The Chinese garden has angrier stones,

Than the Japanese garden that’s derived

From it. But, in both, rocks are still the bones

Of their gardening styles, that have survived

The new century of modernity,

In which we live, when the lawns have displaced

The forests. And trees are where they must be,

Lining the avenues, that have replaced

The roads, on which the horse pulled fiacres

Threw dust into the air, where now a car

Spews exhaust as it goes past the walkers.

But in the gardens modernity is far

Away and rocks, pines, and flowering trees

And bushes, that surprise the stones, arise

Between the forest’s shaded mysteries

Gardens, where mushrooms grow before the eyes,

Becoming stone lanterns that catch the snow

In Japanese gardens. Great rough stones and

Dragons appear in Chinese gardens so

They can protect those who will walk and stand

To observe the garden’s chi and reflect

Upon the nature that it represents,

Upon the nature that is the subject

The gardener brings into their presence,

The nature that creates us and that we

Can create in our gardens to remind

Us to respect the world that has beauty

To see if we will just seek out and find

It. It is in the bones of the earth in

The stones of gardens. It waits in the heart

And in the mind, there where all things begin

It is in nature and gardener’s art,

That I can see as I walk through today

And view the gardens where my nature waits

To be fulfilled by nature in its way

The natural way that the earth relates

Its wonders for me to be a part of

And take part in by gardening in stone

Here in this place, I see where there is love  

To share, since love can’t be for me alone.

Robert Lindner 2-3-17

Susan Spiegel (Pastin)

Very nice!

Jack Rakove

I cannot tell the Class how excited I am that we have completed the fund-raising for the Class of 1964/Rakove Prize with such great results. As a (still) working historian, I know that establishing something that will exist in perpetuity is a tough challenge for anyone. But knowing that the Prize will last indefinitely is extraordinarily sweet--especially when the guidance of the Social Studies department at ETHS proved so helpful in ensuring that the Prize would recognize genuine achievement and growth, and not simply native ability.

I also want to thank everyone who helped to make the Class of 1964/Rakove Prize possible:

     Rosanne Bass Keynan, who missed our reunion but still came up with the original idea

     John Ver Steeg and Preston Cook, who did so much on the fund-raising side

     Kathy Dalgety Miehls, for doing all the coordinating at the ETHS end of things

     Fred Brostoff and Art Hallstrom, for great service with the website and other helpful tasks

and most important, all the old friends and classmates who contributed to the Prize and helped us to realize it.

Alice Rosengard