As we have become re-connected as a senior class, we have found that some of us are happily retired. Some are partly retired, but maintaining a sideline revenue-producing career. And some are still working more-or-less fulltime.
Lately, I have been gearing up to do some "ghost writing"---not just somebody's life story but short articles commissioned by somebody on an Internet web site. My background as a writer enables me to work fast, research effectively, and produce copy in short order.
So...the thought occurred to me...maybe some of you out there would like to get the word out about whatever kind of work you do, with contact information for potential customers. If that's something that appeals to you, drop me a note at patful01@msn.com with the details. I'll put the information you authorize in a blog posting. And who knows? We could get a network going that helps a lot of us.
Let me know what you think.
Friday, June 20, 2008
Memory Joggers
I was just looking through a 1958 copy of "Soundings", the NEHS literary magazine, when I turned to the advertisers' pages at the back of the book. See if any of these business names bring back any memories:
Fremac's Men's and Boys Wear. Dog 'N Suds Drive In (at US 19 and 53rd Ave. N.) The Huddle (on 9th St. N.) Swanson's Super Market (on 4th St. N. Owned by Lynn Swanson's dad.) P.K. Smith and Co. (office supplies. That store was our version of Office Depot).
Counts Home and Auto Supply (Haines Road and 24th St. Was that owned by Rena's family or Connie's family?) Hood's Dairy. 5 Point Hardware (9th St. N. at 33rd Ave.) Ed's Chateau (a pizza place at Haines Road and US 19 intersection, long before we ever saw a Pizza Hut or a Hungry Howie's or Domino's).
Willson-Chase Co. (a department store on Central Ave. owned by Jim Willson's family). Slap Happy 5 & 10 (9th St. N. and 33rd Ave. Remember that long-ago phrase "The five-and-dime", our version of the discount store back then?) Glass Inn (2600 4th St. N. featuring "the best dressed chicken in St. Pete" and "Pennsylvania Dutch treats".)
Some names of note in this issue of "The Soundings": Sharon Thompson editor-in-chief; Linda Crain, managing editor; June Sharpe, advertising editor. Linda contributed a book review to the issue of the magazine. Judi Stacey wrote several poems in the edition, too.
Fremac's Men's and Boys Wear. Dog 'N Suds Drive In (at US 19 and 53rd Ave. N.) The Huddle (on 9th St. N.) Swanson's Super Market (on 4th St. N. Owned by Lynn Swanson's dad.) P.K. Smith and Co. (office supplies. That store was our version of Office Depot).
Counts Home and Auto Supply (Haines Road and 24th St. Was that owned by Rena's family or Connie's family?) Hood's Dairy. 5 Point Hardware (9th St. N. at 33rd Ave.) Ed's Chateau (a pizza place at Haines Road and US 19 intersection, long before we ever saw a Pizza Hut or a Hungry Howie's or Domino's).
Willson-Chase Co. (a department store on Central Ave. owned by Jim Willson's family). Slap Happy 5 & 10 (9th St. N. and 33rd Ave. Remember that long-ago phrase "The five-and-dime", our version of the discount store back then?) Glass Inn (2600 4th St. N. featuring "the best dressed chicken in St. Pete" and "Pennsylvania Dutch treats".)
Some names of note in this issue of "The Soundings": Sharon Thompson editor-in-chief; Linda Crain, managing editor; June Sharpe, advertising editor. Linda contributed a book review to the issue of the magazine. Judi Stacey wrote several poems in the edition, too.
Thursday, June 19, 2008
What If.......?
The class reunion we just experienced was possible in large part because of the Internet and cell phones. People became "detectives", scouting across the nation for names not yet located, so that we could send those people invitations.
I got to thinking....what if we had had cell phones (like every teenager seems to have now) when we were in Northeast High classes? And what if we had had computers at home with access to the Internet?
1. Those "notes" on paper that we passed to each other ("Meet me in the cafeteria", "At 1:30 everybody drop their books on the floor"), would have been unnecessary. We would have text-messaged each other, and the teacher could never have caught us with the guilty evidence of paper "notes".
2. The cell phones would have put our social lives on full-throttle speed because we could reach our friends (platonic, romantic, whatever) all during the day rather than using the family phone when we got home or a pay phone (if we had the coins).
3. Access to the Internet would have saved me a lot of trips to Haslam's Bookstore on Central Ave. to find back issues of magazines. I wouldn't have had to deal with Lucy Lanphear in the school library (actually, she never gave me any problems) and I wouldn't have had to deal with the "card catalogue" , where books had complicated classification numbers.
4. Access to the Internet would have meant I could have researched a term paper in a few hours on one evening instead of making multiple trips to the library, looking for books that somebody faster than I had already checked out.
5. Researching a college to attend would have been an Internet project, not a matter of looking over a bunch of college catalogs in the school library or the guidance office.
6. And wouldn't it have been fun to "Google" our friends by looking for their names on the Internet? Back in those high school days, our private lives were known only by close friends, family members, and for the girls, the pages of a personal "diary". Nowadays, our lives are open books, subject to research by anyone from St. Petersburg to Tokyo.
I got to thinking....what if we had had cell phones (like every teenager seems to have now) when we were in Northeast High classes? And what if we had had computers at home with access to the Internet?
1. Those "notes" on paper that we passed to each other ("Meet me in the cafeteria", "At 1:30 everybody drop their books on the floor"), would have been unnecessary. We would have text-messaged each other, and the teacher could never have caught us with the guilty evidence of paper "notes".
2. The cell phones would have put our social lives on full-throttle speed because we could reach our friends (platonic, romantic, whatever) all during the day rather than using the family phone when we got home or a pay phone (if we had the coins).
3. Access to the Internet would have saved me a lot of trips to Haslam's Bookstore on Central Ave. to find back issues of magazines. I wouldn't have had to deal with Lucy Lanphear in the school library (actually, she never gave me any problems) and I wouldn't have had to deal with the "card catalogue" , where books had complicated classification numbers.
4. Access to the Internet would have meant I could have researched a term paper in a few hours on one evening instead of making multiple trips to the library, looking for books that somebody faster than I had already checked out.
5. Researching a college to attend would have been an Internet project, not a matter of looking over a bunch of college catalogs in the school library or the guidance office.
6. And wouldn't it have been fun to "Google" our friends by looking for their names on the Internet? Back in those high school days, our private lives were known only by close friends, family members, and for the girls, the pages of a personal "diary". Nowadays, our lives are open books, subject to research by anyone from St. Petersburg to Tokyo.
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
The Gifts That Go On Giving
One of the upshots of our 2008 Reunion was the creation of a scholarship fund with the St. Petersburg College Foundation. The funds go to help students from Northeast High pay for their education at SPC (formerly St. Petersburg Junior College).
Karolyn Bagg Foreman sent along this donors list:
In the Viking group ($1000 to $2499) are: Aloyse (Flood) and Dave Larson; Bruce and Jeannie Little, and Karolyn (Bagg) and Steve Foreman.
In the Thors group ($500-$999) are: Buck Merritt, Pat (Smith) and Frank Kapocsi, David Britner, and Judy (Baker) and Jim Philson.
In the Warriors group ($200-$499) are: Marion (Kline) and Errol Zeiger; Bruce and Roberta Hugill, Carol (Rupert) and Robert Buss, Ann (Leedy) and Ben Bartlett, and Carley (Freck) and Laird Bryson.
In the Shields group ($100-$199) are: Jean (Robertson) Champ, Gary and Phoebe Billing, Larry and Judy Fannin, Skip and Betty Cleveland, Kathleen (Hutchins) Hintz, Margie (Meyer) and Ed Smith, Larry Britner, Judy (Huber) and Tim Grissette, Robert and Rebecca Forman, Martha (Heath) and Rudy Baker, Terry (Reichelderfer) and Ed Stinson, Trudy (Andringa) and John Krege, Duane Tobey and Bill and Eva Redman.
In the Explorers group ($50-$99) are: Jean (Sheridan) Clark, Helen (Leigh) Wagner, Clarice (Slover) and Mike Coughlin, Larry Thompson, Ralph and Brenda Ames, Joan (Moody) and Ted Vetter.
In the Dragons group ($49 and under) are: Jean (Davis) Brown, Ben and Joy Wall, Dale Davis, and John Hardman.
Karolyn Bagg Foreman sent along this donors list:
In the Viking group ($1000 to $2499) are: Aloyse (Flood) and Dave Larson; Bruce and Jeannie Little, and Karolyn (Bagg) and Steve Foreman.
In the Thors group ($500-$999) are: Buck Merritt, Pat (Smith) and Frank Kapocsi, David Britner, and Judy (Baker) and Jim Philson.
In the Warriors group ($200-$499) are: Marion (Kline) and Errol Zeiger; Bruce and Roberta Hugill, Carol (Rupert) and Robert Buss, Ann (Leedy) and Ben Bartlett, and Carley (Freck) and Laird Bryson.
In the Shields group ($100-$199) are: Jean (Robertson) Champ, Gary and Phoebe Billing, Larry and Judy Fannin, Skip and Betty Cleveland, Kathleen (Hutchins) Hintz, Margie (Meyer) and Ed Smith, Larry Britner, Judy (Huber) and Tim Grissette, Robert and Rebecca Forman, Martha (Heath) and Rudy Baker, Terry (Reichelderfer) and Ed Stinson, Trudy (Andringa) and John Krege, Duane Tobey and Bill and Eva Redman.
In the Explorers group ($50-$99) are: Jean (Sheridan) Clark, Helen (Leigh) Wagner, Clarice (Slover) and Mike Coughlin, Larry Thompson, Ralph and Brenda Ames, Joan (Moody) and Ted Vetter.
In the Dragons group ($49 and under) are: Jean (Davis) Brown, Ben and Joy Wall, Dale Davis, and John Hardman.
Vikings in South Florida
Barbara Monrose Parrish wrote to say she and her husband will be entertaining a daughter and grandkids (from Deland) for the month of July. Then they'll set off on an odyssey (that's an English major word for "long trip") to California with plans to take a leisurely return trip back by going wherever they feel like going.
Carolyn Gramling McAleese just got back from a packed week of family activities. Her daughter Cindy and granddaughter flew down from the Carolinas, and then they all headed over to Sarasota to see son Steve and his family. Carolyn will soon be getting back in the hospital routine of training mothers-to-be about that landmark we call "Labor and Delivery".
Doug and Jan Hotalen in Key West lost their son Kent to cancer recently. Your prayers and expressions of friendship would be meaningful to them, I'm sure.
Carolyn Gramling McAleese just got back from a packed week of family activities. Her daughter Cindy and granddaughter flew down from the Carolinas, and then they all headed over to Sarasota to see son Steve and his family. Carolyn will soon be getting back in the hospital routine of training mothers-to-be about that landmark we call "Labor and Delivery".
Doug and Jan Hotalen in Key West lost their son Kent to cancer recently. Your prayers and expressions of friendship would be meaningful to them, I'm sure.
Updated Memory Books
Some of you purchased the Memory Books at the class reunion--red looseleaf notebooks with names, addresses and bios of classmates.
Already that book needs to be updated, with additional people who have been located and with some additional bio material that has come through the email round-robin.
When I complete the update, you'll see a notice on this blogsite. To get the whole book, including looseleaf notebook and shipping, the cost will be about $20. However, for those of you with email addresses, and who perhaps already have the original book, I will set a lesser charge. Then I can email you the document for you to print out.
Personally, I keep my Memory Book right beside my computer because the names, addresses and phone numbers come in handy.
Already that book needs to be updated, with additional people who have been located and with some additional bio material that has come through the email round-robin.
When I complete the update, you'll see a notice on this blogsite. To get the whole book, including looseleaf notebook and shipping, the cost will be about $20. However, for those of you with email addresses, and who perhaps already have the original book, I will set a lesser charge. Then I can email you the document for you to print out.
Personally, I keep my Memory Book right beside my computer because the names, addresses and phone numbers come in handy.
The Blog is Back!
After returning from that sensationally successful class reunion in St. Petersburg, I took a sabbatical (intentional or unintentional--I'm not sure which) from blogging. But comments from some of you let me know that you enjoyed the stream of information you got from this NEHS blog...so here we go again.
Watch for updates of people who have been "found" since the reunion---including one who is very much alive, after appearing on our "In Memoriam" list.
Karolyn Bagg Foreman and I will be working on a periodic newsletter as a follow-up to our reunion. Classmates with email addresses will get the info via the Internet. Those without email addresses will get the newsletter by snail mail.
One of the nicest things about the reunion we just experienced is that it is still going on. People have re-connected--and not for just one week--but in some cases, for years to come. The relentless search for those on our "Where Are They?" list continues, a collective effort with a lot of credit going to people like Larry Britner, Barb Wells Preston, and others whose names will come back to me (and I'll credit you in later posts).
Thanks for being such a neat group of people to graduate from high school with (yes, that's a dangling preposition and I'm an English major--Sue me.)
Watch for updates of people who have been "found" since the reunion---including one who is very much alive, after appearing on our "In Memoriam" list.
Karolyn Bagg Foreman and I will be working on a periodic newsletter as a follow-up to our reunion. Classmates with email addresses will get the info via the Internet. Those without email addresses will get the newsletter by snail mail.
One of the nicest things about the reunion we just experienced is that it is still going on. People have re-connected--and not for just one week--but in some cases, for years to come. The relentless search for those on our "Where Are They?" list continues, a collective effort with a lot of credit going to people like Larry Britner, Barb Wells Preston, and others whose names will come back to me (and I'll credit you in later posts).
Thanks for being such a neat group of people to graduate from high school with (yes, that's a dangling preposition and I'm an English major--Sue me.)
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