Class of 61 Episode 11 - thankful for the chance to reconnect

A few more from Jack's collection since they seem to be uploading more quickly tonight.

Class of 61 Part 10

The gods in charge of up-loading pictures seem to like these auditorium shots from Jack's collection.  Let me know if you need to know who's who.... i remember...mostly

Alfred Days 3-6

Ok here's the deal...if you were here, you know how terrible the days of darkness were. If you weren't ...here are a few pictures taken  one week after the storm. It took workers from a professional tree removal service an entire day to clear the yard of the house in the 3rd picture. Guys with pick-ups glean any potential firewood and the rest of the branches are still waiting by the side of the road for the chipper to come.   Wasn't it a mighty storm!

Alfred Day 2 Sunday October 30th

 So here's what the uncandle's look like. We have them in 3 sizes and these appear to be the shortest.

Sunday began with Bob starting a fire so we could thaw before putting together breakfast. Once the sun is up the living room warms up a bit on its own and we were lucky that the overnight temperature didn't drop more than it did.  Later in the week when power had returned I had to ask Bob what we did on Sunday- we shoveled. We didn't get that much snow...maybe 6 inches, but it was wet and very heavy. Not the kind of snow easily handled by a snow blower. We shoveled. And oh yes, Bob practiced using his brand new snow rake. For those of you lucky enough to live where it's warm a snow rake is like a giant squeegee that is angled in such a way that you can use it to pull accumulated snow off the roof so that 1) it doesn't accumulate enough to cause the roof to cave in and 2) the melting and freezing snow doesn't overflow the gutters and back up into the house. There was lots of that going on last winter and you had to be in the right place at the right time to get one of the few rakes available.

 Later in the afternoon we took a ride to see if there were any restaurants or stores open.  Jim's around the corner had cars in the parking lot but when we went inside it was dark and we were told they were not taking any more orders as it would be dark soon. We continued on Rt 75 thinking that power might be restored there due to its proximity to the airport....nope.  We crossed over back to 159 and started south. We noticed that the traffic lights on the other side of the river appeared to be working....a very good sign.

Let me take a break here and write a bit about what  should happen when a traffic light is not working. THe intersection becomes a 4 way stop. Period. Well don't count on it.  I may have stopped at every one of the 23 traffic lights on my way to work.....LOTS of folks just blew right through.  There is a big intersection near the office park where 20 lanes come together ....Yikes.

Ok, back to Sunday's search for light. We crossed the river over to Warehouse Point and found the local Geisslers had just opened. We pulled in the lot while the rest of the traffic on Rt 140 backed up. We later found out the back-up was caused by the lines waiting to fill up at the one gas station in the area that had power and could pump. We bought a few supplies for our larder and returned home to prepare for another dark night.

Alfred Day 1

I took these pictures about 1:30 on Saturday the  29th about 1:30 pm. I was on-line posting some pictures to Facebook that I had taken at a BEHS reunion the night before. (Those pics will come in later posts)

Lisa had already posted a picture that showed quite a covering of snow by the time it started here.

At 4:10pm our power went out and we didn't get it back until Thursday November 3rd at 8:20pm.

It was still light out when the power went out so Bob was able to climb through a garage window to manually release the door so we could start moving some  firewood into the living room. He had been cutting logs to precise length and splitting and stacking a supply in the garage for just such an occasion. Thanks heavens for that ! As we were bringing the wood in, we could hear branches and trees splitting so loud and so frequently that it sounded like gunfire...lots of gunfire.

We had removed the last of the potentially hazardous trees from our property last winter and the state has had crews trimming branches along the avenue on a regular basis. Still we lost much of what remained of the the lilacs along the driveway and some branches from the honeysuckle. Our neighbor's front lawn, however, was covered with branches.  Before the storm started we had had some discussion about where to park the car. (WIth the mower, snow blower, wood, garden tools and cart there is no room in the garage) and we tried to guess where the dead tree would fall ....in the end I moved it nearer the street but not under the wires.

While Bob started the fire in the fireplace, I dug out the crank flashlights and radio and the "uncandles" that have served us well in so many other power outages.  I also dug out quits and afghans., (.something we have plenty of. ).  The uncandles are glass vase-like containers of various heights, you fill them mostly with water and then add a layer of whatever vegetable oil you have around the house. Then there is a plastic float into which you insert a wick. THey are convenient and safe to use. If they should get knocked over, you just have to clean up some oil and water. No danger of a fire spreading. 

We listened to Prairie Home Companion on the crank radio and with the fire in the fireplace, the temperature in the house only dropped to 66.

Class of 61 Chapter 8 - the day before our 2nd annual Pizza party

Today's pictures are from Jack Dickau's collection....much better than mine...

Make new friends

But keep the old

One is silver

And the other gold

Class of 61 Part 7 Library and Lockers

I would be most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who think decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves. ~Anna Quindlen, "Enough Bookshelves," New York Times, 7 August 1991
I like the top shot because it shows Mr Gerald Kerr standing in front of his portrait in the library now named for him. When we were in school that area was the principal's office and he was our 2nd principal.   Our 1st was Augustus W. Young .(Not sure if I have that initial right but what the heck) . By the time the "new" building was finished he was gone and Mr. Kerr had arrived. I only have a fuzzy memory of Mr Young....a stern man in a dark suit possibly with dark hair and a mustache. I do more clearly remember the day he came to give our 2nd grade class a pep talk about learning cursive writing with our new ball point pens. He told us that writing was like ballet dancing.  

Trouble with any song about a locker is finding the right key.......

Class of 61 Act 6 Class of 61 returns to kindergarten

"We are stardust, We are golden

We are billion year old carbon

And we've got to get ourselves back to the garden"..... Joni Mitchell

Here we are back in Miss Norton's kindergarten room. For some of us it is the 1st time in 60 years. It would have been fun to bring a tape recorder as well as a camera! Thanks to Jack Dickau for 3 of these shots.

Class of 61 Chapter 5

"What would you think if I sang out of tune,
Would you stand up and walk out on me ?
Lend me your ears and I'll sing you a song
And I'll try not to sing out of key...."   Sgt Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band

Class of 61 returns to the scene ...Episode IV

"....Take off your old coat and roll up your sleeves
  Life is a hard road to travel I believe..."

I am not sure what caused my fascination with the old "cloak rooms". To me they look pretty much the same as I remembered them. I confess to having planned to bring a screw driver along to snag a hook. Now I must write a nice note to the principal and ask for one before they demolish the building.....

Class of 61 returns to the scene Part III

And as we wind on down the road
Our shadows taller than our soul.
There walks a lady we all know
Who shines white light and wants to show
How everything still turns to gold.
And if you listen very hard
The tune will come to you at last.
When all are one and one is all
To be a rock and not to roll.

And she's buying the stairway to heaven.

Stairway outside Miss Steed's room looking onto site of new school

  

East stairway in the "old building" looking out to Pine St.

Class of 61 returns to the scene Part II

"When I was a little boy in Grammar school

Always went by the very best rule

But Evertime the bell would ring...."                         Chuck Berry

Earlier this week, while doing something entirely unrelated, I remembered a 5th grade play for Thanksgiving...."Too Many Turkeys"??? Do schools still do plays and have assemblies for holidays?
(Hey, I don't have kids so I have no idea what goes on in schools these days....)

Did anybody notice that long board on the left wall. ? A mini climbing wall?  or the petrified remains of cafeteria food....or a climbing wall made of the petrified remains?

Another question.....Where did we sit when we watched all those great intramural basketball games????

Class of 61

....."We all shine on, like the moon and the stars and the sun."  ....John Lennon

So Caren gave her camera to Sid, (Sandy's husband), who very nicely offered to take a picture for her files. (Thank you, Sid, that was very nice of you). Now look at the picture. Can't see Caren or Sandy.

Good thing I wasn't a Psych major.....oh wait I was. There must be a hidden meaning in this.....never mind....can't remember any of that &%$#....

 But Look below,  Jack's FB album does have pictures proving Sandy and Caren were really there. And I think we are a rather good looking group!

I don't think you can see the pictures here quite as large as you can on Facebook, but I am going to try and post a few pictures every day for those who do not follow FB.

Keep checking back here......we've got LOTS of pictures      

May 24

May 24

St. Sara, (gypsies)

Brothers Day, Hug Your Cat Day, National  Escargot Day

1833- Brooklyn Bridge opened

1844- Samuel Morse sent the 1^st public telegraph message

1929- 1^st Marx brothers film, The Coconuts, premiered in NYC

Birthdays:

Bob Dylan – 1941

Gary Burghoff – 1943

Jim Broadbent - 1949

“What hath God wrought!” __Samuel Morse -1^st public telegraph message

May 22

May 22

St. Julia, (Corsica, Portugal), St. Rita, (desperate cases; invoked against bleeding, infertility, loneliness, tumors, unhappy marriage)

National Maritime Day, UN International Day for Biological Diversity, Neighbor Day, (Rhode Island), Buy a Musical Instrument Day, (but maybe not in Rhode Island?)

1570 – First atlas published. It had 50 maps.

1803- First public library opened- in Connecticut

1931- Canned rattlesnake meat first went on sale in Florida. (sometimes you have to wonder….who keeps track of this stuff!!)

     

Birthdays:

Mary Cassatt – 1844

Arthur Conan Doyle – 1859

Johnny Olson - 1910

May21

May 21

St Andrew Bobola

Armed Forces Day, “I Need a Patch For That” Day, National Waitstaff Day,

1804 – Pere Lachaise cemetery opened in Paris

1927 –Charles Lindbergh landed in Paris

1979- Elton John became the 1^st rock star to perform in the USSR

Birthdays:

William Einthoven -1860

Fats Waller 1904

Raymond Burr 1917

“Well, I made it.”     ---- Charles Lindbergh