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02/12/20 01:26 PM #1191    

 

Helga Zirkel (Schwarten)

Balance is most important at our age and can be quite tricky to keep......my best wishes to Jerri.

And backtracking a bit, well done Fred and Shelly on your 53 years of marriage !  Love your reasons for success and fully agree......Tom and I just had our 50th.  

About the Blizzard of '67,  never deterred by a good storm I took the train from Evanston to my UofC evening class in the loop only to find that it had been cancelled due to the intensifying blizzard.  (must have skipped my day classes at Art Institute)   So back to the subway which by now was filling with anxious folks looking to escape the city.  I feared being inadvertently pushed off the edge of the station platform and onto the tracks by the growing mass. One could feel the tension. Only a portion of the crowd made it on to this very last train to leave the city heading north, and we were packed in.  When the train began to move, there were audible sighs of relief.  What happened next was pretty amazing and truly wonderful, as this was not the norm on the subway, ever.  Strangers talked to strangers.....even smiled.  Differences were set aside......kindness and concern and gratitude prevailed.  It was awesome.....a beautiful happening.  

 


02/13/20 08:05 AM #1192    

 

Arthur Gechman

Enjoyed delightful conversation and lunch with Leo Schlosberg on Jan. 16, 20220 in San Diego. I believe it is over 50 years since we have seen each other.


02/13/20 09:46 AM #1193    

 

Alison Van Swearingen (Brown)

Wishing Jerri a speedy recovery!  Growing "old" is not for sissies!  More "mature" has a better sound to it, not as final sounding as "old".


02/13/20 01:04 PM #1194    

 

Robert Lindner

Hey Helga.

Clara and I have also reached FIFTY-THREE

Which required me to write some poetry.

So Here Is:

 

My Stardust Song Of Paradise

“With A Song In My Heart, I behold Your Adorable Face”

With A Song In My Heart By Rogers and Hart

“The nightingale tells his fairytale of paradise, where roses grew
In my heart it will remain, my stardust melody, the memory of love's refrain.”

Stardust By Hoagy Carmichael

 

Each day I wake and find you’re there, I must rub my eyes because I’m sure there’s stardust

In them and I must be dreaming. But there you are with the melody in the air,

That stardust melody where loves’ refrain beats in my heart where our song will remain

In yesterday’s stardust with love’s refrains which find my heart where that love song remains,

When I am once again with you, each kiss an inspiration for a song like this,

 

A song of dreams of when our love was new. The song of paradise where roses grew

Beside the garden wall when stars were bright, then I dreamed of you all through the night

And you were in my arms, a fairytale, a melody sung by a nightingale,

A stardust melody where loves’ refrain beats in my heart where that song must remain

With yesterday’s stardust, as love’s refrains find my heart where the melody remains.

 

And there today it sings of Fifty-Three years of marriage and of my destiny,

My bashert, and the path to heavenly love, which luckily was waiting for me

With a love song, a stardust melody, a lovely face that was a fantasy.

But now in purple dusk of twilight time, as up in the sky the little stars climb

I wake and you are still there, so I must rub my eyes because I’m sure there’s stardust

 

In them and I must be dreaming, but there you are with that melody in the air,

That stardust melody with love’s refrain that finds my heart where the song will remain

And with that song in my heart I behold your adorable face and what was old

Is new again. Beside the garden wall, the stars are bright. And Stardust says it all.

That stardust melody, the memory of love’s refrains, remains. And steals with me

Across the meadows of my heart, as stars climb into the purple dusk of twilight time


High up in the sky the little stars climb into the night time and once again I’m

In stardust’s song like when our love was new. For I am once again with you. And you

Are in my arms. A stardust melody, the fairytale the nightingale tells me

Of you, my beloved and my destiny and the Fifty-Three years of fantasy

That fairytale of paradise with you. That song of paradise where roses grew.

A stardust melody that will remain in the song in my heart with love's refrain.

 


02/13/20 08:00 PM #1195    

Suzanne Linfield (Spindler)

How lovely and romantic.

02/14/20 10:48 AM #1196    

 

Kathy Dalgety (Miehls)

Happy 50th Helga and Tom! A lovely, long time.


02/15/20 09:31 PM #1197    

 

Helga Zirkel (Schwarten)

Thanks Kathy.....as they say, time flies when you're having fun.....or something like that. 

Another wonderful poem, Robert.   Congratulations to you and Clara on your 53 years.

Lois, at this age our previously hidden expiration dates tend to become a little bit clearer.....I'm so sorry that yours is now even more in focus.  Much love to you and wishes for countless beautiful days ahead.  Keep those doctors guessing. 


02/16/20 01:07 PM #1198    

 

Robert Lindner

We all may have and Expiration Date

But as for me I'll just say it can wait

While I try to spend my time having fun

And imagining the Lost Horizon 

 

Horizons

 

The sky seems endless, but we know that space

And a universe lies above this place,

We call earth and that the sky is just an

Atmosphere, high above the world of man.

 

And it has been here for a long, long time,

Much longer than the mountains we can climb

To reach the endless sky and peer out to

Horizons that spread everywhere around you.

 

Horizons of earth that gave us life to

Use to do whatever we choose to do.

It is our choice that makes us different,

Since we can decide how our life is spent

 

But life is not endless. We all know we

Are on borrowed time and hoping we’ll be

Somewhere pleasant for as long as we can

And not waste our borrowed time. That’s my plan.

 

So I’ll trust to luck since I’ve been lucky,

So far. Considering the history

Of my family and of mankind, I’m

Glad I was able to borrow the time

 

I was born into and hope to borrow

Some more. Though “Tomorrow and tomorrow

And tomorrow creeps in this petty pace

From day to day,” I’m done with the “rat race.”

 

I’m enjoying my borrowed time and I

Prefer to imagine an endless sky.

As long as I can dream and fantasize,

My world shall have mountains with endless skies

 

To see and remember till “dust to dust,”

I will just be ashes, as we all must.

But I will still imagine I can fly,

Into Horizons of an endless sky.

 

 


02/16/20 07:00 PM #1199    

 

Ruth Gross

Robert, lovely thoughts for us all! Helga and Tom, congrats! I was a late bloomer, so March 18 will bring Hans and me to 40 (officially) and 48 (really). Lois, hang in there! Experts don't know everything!


02/16/20 10:32 PM #1200    

 

Susan Spiegel (Pastin)

We have the opportunity to spend our lives as we wish BECAUSE WE ARE FREE!  So, in these troubled times, let'sbe careful to defend, and not lose, our freedom! 

Thanks for the poem, Robert!


02/17/20 12:10 PM #1201    

John Harris

Was on my way to Wesley hospital for spinal surgery. My dad and I took the train down. Not something I would not want to repeat. The surgery or the snow storm.

02/18/20 12:38 PM #1202    

 

Helga Zirkel (Schwarten)

Ruth, I think the real should always out beat the official......so an early Happy 48th to you and Hans !

 

 


02/18/20 07:46 PM #1203    

 

Lincoln Krochmal

Robert,

Great poem. Thanks for sharing your creativeness with all of us. Yes, we all do have expiration dates(maybe some are misprints)! It just means we needd to appreciate each new day we have and enjoy it to the utmost letting our loved ones know how much we appreciate and love them!

Be well,

Lincoln


02/19/20 06:02 PM #1204    

 

Karen Holby (Fornell)

Helga and Tom, Happy Anniversary!! Hope all is well back in Lake Bluff. 


02/20/20 03:11 PM #1205    

 

Helga Zirkel (Schwarten)

John, glad that the blizzard did not interfere with your surgery.  Best to you always.

 


02/21/20 10:18 AM #1206    

 

Helga Zirkel (Schwarten)

Thanks Karen.  All is well in Lake Bluff, we are plodding along.  Trust all is well with you. 

Tom and I look forward to seeing you at the parade July 4th.....bring Jerry  :)  


03/19/20 02:49 PM #1207    

 

Robert Lindner

Here is Hoping that you all stay far from

The madding crowd with the new virus that's come

To town. So for your own self-protection

Stay far from those crowds with the infection.

 

I want to see you again

At the next reunion

SO

STAY WELL UNTIL THEN

 

Today, I will keep my old age away

From a pestilence that we all now fear.

A worldwide plague, that like a bird of prey

Hovers, waiting for my age to come near

 

To strike at my body’s slow defenses

That come with the age I have managed to

Reach, fortunately, with all my senses

Still intact enough to know what to do

 

To try to avoid the new infection

The new virus spreading round the world from

China and coming in my direction

Through trade and travel and now there are some

 

Cases here. Just a few, but increasing

In number, increasing the fear, that I

May get infected by this virus thing.

So I’ll hide out and keep working on my

 

Poetry and try to follow my well

Trained Doctor’s brain for my self protection

And follow what current research will tell

Me about the course of the infection

 

And the diagnostic and treatment tools

That should improve with time. In the meantime

I will watch the world, as we close our schools,

To slow the spread and I’ll hope that when I’m

 

Ready to go back in the world again,

The world will be a safer place to be.

But for now I’ll just say stay well till then,

To all our ETHS family.

 

Robert Lindner


03/19/20 04:09 PM #1208    

 

Rosanne Bass (Keynan)

Thanks, Robert. Here's hoping that all our classmates stay healthy through this scourge and wash their hands!


03/20/20 11:10 AM #1209    

 

Kristine Masko (Fuller)

Thank you Robert Lindner for your poem.  It makes us all see the big picture, but I see a slim bit of humor mixed in.  I am about ready to go running and screaming into the streets touching everything.  That would surely label me as another case of Alzheimers on the loose.  Your poem has told me to be calm and to keep cleaning the house! And of course keep washing my hands!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 


03/20/20 06:57 PM #1210    

 

Fred Brostoff

DINNER IN THE DESERT - 2020

After applying copius amounts of hand sanitizer and trying to practice social distancing wherever possible, a group of your Class of '64 classmates gathered at Mark & Dale Goldman's home on March 18, 2020, in Cave Creek, Arizona.  Many thanks to the Goldman's for allowing us to contaminate their beautiful home.

Willie the Wildkit was in attendance:

...and we enjoyed a large variety of deli foods:

Left to right:  Fred Brostoff, Shelly Brostoff, Phil Kaplan, Jan Kaplan, Karen Kennedy Lawrence, Mark Goldman, Tristam (Karen's friend), and Hank Gideon (in mask, protecting us from his cold).

...and, after dinner, we relaxed and exchanged stories:

Left to right:  Jan Kaplan, Phil Kaplan, Mark Goldman, Dale Goldman (2 weeks after knee replacement), Hank Gideon, Jackie Gideon, Fred Brostoff, Shelly Brostoff, Karen Kennedy Lawrence (in front).

Tasty food, good stories and great friends!

 


03/21/20 11:05 AM #1211    

 

Ruth Gross

Fred, as someone who is self-isolating, because we returned from Vienna on Mar. 12, I really enjoyed seeing your picture of the gathering of friends.  Here at NC State, we are all frantically preparing to begin teaching "virtually" for the rest of the semester.  All my business meetings have turned to ZOOM. No one knows if ZOOM will hold out, but we are all more or less ready to try to deliver the courses and credits to our students, who are equally stressed out about the situation.  Robert, thanks for your poem.  Reaching out to friends and acquaintances as we are all more or less confined is a balm. Classmates, I wish you health as we weather this stage of the world.

 

 

 


03/22/20 09:34 AM #1212    

 

Vernon Neece (Neece)

I worked in the Clinical Mircrobiology Lab at Duke Medical Center for 5 years followed by 12 years at Becton-Dickinson Research Center working on teams developing novel diagnostic tests for a variety of infectious diseases.  I joked that you could tell who were the microbiolobists/virologists, because they were the ones who washed their hands both before & after going to the bathroom.


03/22/20 11:48 AM #1213    

 

Judith Sheahan (Lindgren)

OK, Boomers! It's time to practice self-imposed isolation in your own homes. I thought long and hard about posting this as it is preachy and judgmental, but too much is at stake...your health and the health of others! Please know that no disrespect is intended, but to those of you who still get together in groups despite the warnings, please stop.
 

Listen to what the scientists are telling us, specifically that you cannot tell who is infected and symptom-free, yet still be carriers of this virus. If you do not care about yourself, care about your kids and grandkids, your neighbors and friends. The peak, scientists have explained, may still be three to four weeks away just for NYC before it begins to wane. That means another two months, at minimum, that we all must self-impose isolation to minimize further overwhelming the medical systems.
 
One friend told me that she quit watching the news because it was depressing. But hiding from the information takes away your power as you need to know what is going on so you can motivate yourself to stay in and continue to prepare by ordering essentials online. Take a walk, go for a hike, enjoy your garden, organize those photos that have been boxed in your closet for decades, and more.  And if you are desperate to enjoy some social contact, try what some friends did--agree to go outside at a specified time, bring your lawn chairs, your beverage of choice and some snacks and park your lawn chairs 8 to 10 feet away from your friends. Just don't  go in the house, unless it belongs to you and your significant other. 

Stay well and quit giving the millennials something else to criticize, fellow boomers! Distance yourself from others and just stay home! 😊

 

 

 

 


03/22/20 01:05 PM #1214    

 

Susan Spiegel (Pastin)

A lot of good comments here! Another thing we can do is call our friends on the phone just to check in.


03/22/20 01:17 PM #1215    

 

Karen Kaz

Much appreciated Judith!!! Thank you!


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