Archived Articles Vol. 2

Friday, October 23, 2015

So, what the hell do we do now?

With our vision of The Best Reunion Ever now relegated to being an object seemingly closer than it appears, we ask ourselves, "So, what do we do now?"

Fact is, we still have a little ways to go while we continue to post things here on almost a daily basis.  Some of our traveling classmates will be getting back home shortly, and will be sending us more pictures to post. We still have some that we received that we haven't gotten around to posting that we should be sharing with you as well.

In approximately two weeks, we’ll certainly start running out of material, at which point, we’ll update things here on a weekly basis, more or less.  At least that's the plan, but we'll see how it goes. We urge you to share any information you may have with us so that we can post it on this site and keep it fresh.  We know it’s difficult for hardcore FBers to believe, but not everyone is on Facebook!  So if something interesting is going on in your life, please, share it with the class by sending it to admin@pvhs75.com, and we'll find room for it here.

One of the things that we will post here shortly is a piece for which the working title is, “Hillsdale/River Vale, Then and Now,” authored by our own Bob “Studs” Hubbard.  That piece will be a photographic narrative of what has changed around our towns over the past 50 years.  For those who haven’t been up here recently, it should be interesting.

We will also be posting a classmate directory for anyone who wants to participate.  It has always been a policy here not to publish personal information, such as email or street addresses, but a classmate has recently made a suggestion of posting something for those who don’t mind.  Great idea!  Give us some time, and we’ll run with it.

Due to popular demand, we plan on having annual get togethers to hold us over until Reunion XLV in 2020.  These will, of course, be less involved than this past Reunion Weekend extravaganza, but will be a great opportunity to see each other and enjoy a nice dinner together. We are also open to any suggestion anyone might have for helping us all keep in touch!

In the next few weeks, our reunion committee will have a debriefing meeting to discuss the reunion and . . . well, give us one more opportunity to hang out together over wine and cheese.  We’ll be sure to report back if we have anything exciting to share.

Let's keep it going!

Wednesday, October 21, 2015

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT  . . .

Here are some videos of the PVHS Tour on Saturday afternoon,

HERE, 

HERE

and HERE

Sandy "Sunny" Kaczala Irwin, not enjoying herself at all at the Iron Horse

on October 17, with Carolyn Bowler Joy and Diana Grassi Grossman

October 20, 2015

Sunny, one so true . . . 

Her friends call her Sunny, but if you're a classmate, you can call her "Sandy."  So how did Sandy "Sunny" Kaczala Irwin get her nickname?  This is how she tells it: 

What’s in a name….?

It was so fun to be able to attend the “mini reunion”  to help promote the reunion with a photo op at PVHS followed by a get-together at the Iron Horse.  As I caught up with classmates, the questions kept coming up about “who is Sunny?”  My name appeared on the list of attendees as “Sunny”, email responses are sent by “Sunny”, my husband will refer to me as “Sunny” and I no doubt will slip up sometime after the second glass of wine Saturday night and introduce myself as, yup – “Sunny”.

At one point early in my career I enrolled in an airline school located in Vancouver, WA. Although we studied hard we enjoyed our time off.  One day we were all giving each other a nickname that referred to where we lived.  At the time I was living in Wheat Ridge, CO, so I became “Wheat Ridge”.  My roommate was from Topeka, KS so she was “Topeka” and so on.  One day my friends felt “Wheat Ridge” was too hard to say, so they declared that I was much more of a “Sunny” than a “Sandy”.  It stuck.

So, right after school most of us got hired by Air Florida and flocked to Miami.  Surrounded with my friends, I continued to be “Sunny” for nearly two more years.  When I moved on to my dream job as PR Director for an int’l tour company in Paramus, I figured I was back on home territory and could resume my true identity. On my first day my new boss was introducing me to the rest of the staff when he reached a woman named “Sandy”.  He paused, turned to me, and (literally) asked, “Do you happen to go by another name?”  Seriously!?  Who does that?  Who asks a new employee if they happen to have another name up their sleeve that they’re just dying to try out?  Well, me.

And there you have it, from that point on only my family, relatives and… classmates, call me “Sandy”.

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OUR REUNION COMMITTEE

In early February, a group of 12 or so dedicated classmates met for the first of our monthly meetings of the reunion committee. Demonstrating that we're on the cutting edge of technology, we arranged to have three of our classmates appear via video conferencing through an app called ooVoo.  Though Frank Piscopo, Lesley Goddin and Mary Riley Viehoefer live in Pennsylania, New Mexico and Texas, respectively, the rest of the folks on the committee were able to hear them and see their larger than life images on a big screen television.

It was truly a great bunch of guys and gals.  You probably would never have seen us all at the same lunch table at PV, but somehow, the chemistry was right at this point in our lives, proving that half the fun can be in the journey.  The work was hard, the time was consumed, but it was a hell of a great ride!

The committee hopes you enjoyed the events of Reunion Weekend.  As far as we're concerned, "things just don't get any funner!" 

The expressions of love and laughter we saw and heard this past weekend would lead us to believe you all agree!

Saturday, October 17, 2015

If you are looking for something here today, forget it.  Too worn out.  We can talk about it tonight.

Friday, October 16, 2015

Procrastinators Rejoice!  IT'S NOT TOO LATE!

We still have room at both Domani tonight and The Main Event tomorrow.  That, of course, may change.  If you are not signed up to either, and have suddenly decided you would like to go, the preferred method of payment is online by credit card, until one hour before the event. After that, it's probably best to bring cash or a check with you.  We'll try to post something here if we do sell out, though we can't guaranty admission if you are not signed up and show up at the door. 

Thursday, October 15, 2015

A blast from the past!

We just received congratulatory accolades from Sra. Crikelair, our beloved Spanish teacher who went on maternity leave in our junior year and never looked back.  To give you some perpective, the subject of that maternity leave, her son, is now 41 years old!

After leaving PV, Sra. Crikelair taught religious school for eight years, cub scouts for nine, ESL on and off, adult Spanish for two terms. She now proudly works full time as grandmother/teacher to nine grandchildren!  She and her husband are in the midst of a real estate project in the Adirondacks known as Ski Bowl Village at Gore Mountain.

She says, “Please give my love and fondest regards to anyone who might remember Spanish class. I am ever so much older but continue to ski, skate, dance, write, golf, paddle board, etc. and in my grandmotherly way, even teach! . . .  Life is very good.”
 
Sra. Crikelair says that she has always considered many of us as her friends, as we were not much younger than she, and adds, “Tell my group of dancers (I also taught modern dance at PVHS) that I still treasure the Lladro figurine they gave to me when I left in '74.  I was not paid for that extra curricular, but loved it so much.  I look forward to hearing all about a wonderful reunion and great memories.”

Gracias, señora Crikelair, por haber sido una gran maestra y una influencia positiva.  Después de cuarenta anos, todavía la recordamos y la queremos.

Charlie Lange is the latest, and perhaps one of the last of our classmates to sign up for Saturday night. We'd like to thank Charlie, as well Ruth Mesrobian for their donations to the cause.  Also, we neglected to thank Ellen Schmidt Odenath for an additional donation she recently made.  Your donations are helping to make a special night even more special, including some classmates who purchased $10.00 tickets who might not otherwise be able to to attend.

We now have 89 classmates attending, with 112 attendees over all.  So how are we doing?  Class Act, a company in the business of putting together reunions and getting people to attend, makes the following claim: 

"Generally, at most 20 percent of the class will attend."

It's good thing we didn't pay these guys to organize our reunion, but decided to do it on our own.  Othewise, we would have had no more that 56 classmates attending (20% of our surving class of approximately 280)!

Wednesday, October 14, 2015

• We hadn't heard from Ruth Mesrobian until she purchased her ticket last night.  Better late than never! 
• It looks like we will be taking over the Super 8 hotel in Mahwah this weekend.  According to the manager, 40 of us will be staying there.  Both the DoubleTree and the Super 8 are sold out.  If you are looking to stay in Mahwah this weekend, here is a list of hotels having availability at least for Saturday night.

Tuesday, October 13, 2015

The good news is that Kevin Kerr will be joining us Saturday night.

The bad news is that Robert Denehy will not be making the long journey from Dubai after all.  Unfortunately, due to personal matters, he will be unable to attend. 

For those classmates coming from the west coast, that means the award for farthest distance traveled is now up for grabs!

Click for Archived Artcles Vol. 1

Monday, October 12, 2015

A message from Diana Grassi Grossman:

Hi all! I just spoke to Cindy, owner of Lou's. Regarding Friday, Oct. 16 she said that she had a band scheduled for that night, but they had to reschedule. She said anyone in our class who would like to bring their instruments and would like to jam with each other,should feel free to do so. I messaged Frank Piscopo telephone number, so in case any of you are interested, you can get in touch with Frank! Looking forward to seeing each and every one of you!

_____________________

For those of you who haven't been keeping up with these things, don't forget about Friday night at Lou's!  Folks who are going to Domani will head out to Lou's afterwards.  Others will just be going to Lou's.  Whatever the case, if you are in town for the reunion, or just in town, meet us there, Friday, October 16!

________________________

October 6, 2015

• Sometimes in searching for classmates, you never quite know where you're going to find them.  We had what we thought was a phone number for Rita Endres Torreggiani, but what turned out to be her husband's cell phone.  We wound up calling Rita's husband when they were shopping at Walmart.  Didn't matter, as he shouted over to Rita who was in the next aisle and got her on the phone.  In any case, we are very happy to report that Rita just bought her ticket, and we will be seeing her October 17!
• We have extended the deadline for purchasing tickets to Wednesday, October 14, 2015.  However, we are advised by the banquet manager at the DoubleTree that we must give them a solid number of attendees by that date.
• We are quite pleased to report that Jeff Jasper will be conducting the school tour for our reunion on Saturday, October 17 at 2:00 pm!  While he will be unable to make the beginning of the main event later that evening due to a family commitment, he will try his best to join us before closing time.