Quiche and Carrot Cake for South Florida

The second get-together for the South Florida NEHS 58 group today (April 21) was an undeniable success, if the happy smiles and vigorous appetites were any indicators.

Carolyn Gramling-McAleese made the Food Channel proud with her quiche, specially prepared asparagus, ambrosia (that's a delicious fruit salad for you uninitiated)...and Pat Teague Fulton contributed a carrot cake, topped with cream cheese icing and chopped walnuts.

Bobbie Todd discovered that she and Carolyn's husband George McAleese had something in common: Louisville, KY. Bobbie and her husband (a funeral director) had lived and worked in Louisville, which is George's home town. Bobbie will be unable to attend the reunion in May because her husband, who recently had a kidney transplant, is scheduled for his final checkup and clearance by his doctors while the rest of us are in St. Pete.

Bill Redman and his vivacious wife Eva told us about Bill's cooking specialty: South Maryland Stuffed Ham...which he has offered to prepare for all of us at one of our future gatherings.

There was a lot of looking at old Northeast yearbooks...Bill looked for a favorite math teacher of his to mention on his bio sheet. Pat brought some prints of old photos of St. Petersburg...including the Festival of States parade queen float, circa 1938; Central Avenue photos (1940s) showing green benches filled with people, a night-time shot of Webb's City when a big open-air show was going on, right in the middle of 9th St. S. There was also a print of an ooooold shot of the Coliseum and one of Mirror Lake Junior High, long before any of us went to class there.

The gathered group talked about a possible trip to Key West (with Barb Monrose, Sandy Creitz, and Bob Vannatta to be invited, too) to drop in on Doug Hotalen.

Bobbie Todd agreed to go with Carolyn to Carolyn's book review group in the next week or so. All in all, everybody enjoyed everybody else's company, and the future prospect for more get-togethers is bright and shiny.