"Buffalo Bob"
Casale's Corner

Follow-up to the 1964 Fifty Year Reunion

A note sent to Diane Snyder Gould...Who is the lady in the photo with you???

Thanks

love yah bob

Hi Bob/ a/k/a....The keeper of the HHS news and photos.....
The lady with me is Valerie Clemenz Viverito. I can only imagine all the hours and days you are putting into this. Bless you...and I hope all is well with you...you were missed at the reunion too.
Take care
Diane (Snyder) Gould (Carole Snyder's sister...class of '61) 

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Hi Folks...

The reunion was so well planned!  I thought it was a class act! One our classmates told me that you were thinking of planning a reunion in Florida.  Have you given any thought to what area?

I live in Ponte Vedra which is south of Jacksonville and north of St. Augustine.   I attended a West Coast Swing dance conference at the Marriott at Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra.  The out-of-town visitors were very happy with the location and accommodations. It is just a suggestion. I hope you are well and rested from the reunion.

Best always,
 

Linda Sacco

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Hi everybody...

Arnie Gould here...

I woke up this morning, almost 1 month after our 50^th reunion, and decided that I should get my thoughts about it down now, before I have too many senior moments, and I forget it all.  This is meant to be my experience at the reunion and all the people I revisited with after all these years.  Anyone who is getting this email - please feel free to edit, modify, add or write your own experiences or just read it.  I didn't get a chance to talk with everyone at length - unfortunately, reunions are too short for a 50 year summation with everyone.   I purposely have left out things that may not be for general consumption, since who knows where this may end up - I think Buffalo Bob would like to put some of this up at hixnews.com along with something on our reunion.  If you have added or write something, please send it around  - it's at least a good excuse to stay in touch.

Next year's organizer for the class of 1965 Fifty Year Reunion, Elin Fischman Lawrence (big hi to Roy Eismann) asked about the reunion and specifically how Tommy Sullivan and the Plainview Holiday inn were.  I told her that Tommy was great - he hasn't lost his voice or talent, and he was really into it, because a lot of people knew him, and he was doing it from his heart.   Maybe a bit too loud for talking, but then our hearing is probably going, too

I also told her that the Plainview Holiday Inn was a good place to hold the reunion - nice place with good space and not too expensive.  Easy drive to HHS for a tour, and we were all blown away with the new principal, Ray Williams, a really excellent guy who came briefly to the reunion on Saturday night.  The HI had nice clean rooms, comfortable beds, and nice folks - one of the waiters even started dancing with all "the girls" in a circle that had formed towards the end of the night.  Food was pretty good,  Free wine and beer.

I have to say that I had a great time the whole weekend as mind-boggling as it was, and I was really happy to see everyone else having a good time too.  I may be a bit biased, because I had managed to get about a dozen old friends to come, and having in-depth chats on the phone beforehand enhanced the reunion for me.  Even my wife, Ronnie, had a great time, because as she said," I could never have understood how great a time you had, nor could I have felt all the great vibes that were present all weekend".   She even had a great time talking with a lot of my old friends, and I think they had a good time talking with her.  She also managed to shoot a few pictures during the weekend - I was too busy talking.   Overall I think that everyone I spoke with seems to be pretty happy with their lives, and that's wonderful.

As I mentioned,

Tom Sullivan was there - I used to play music with him in HHS.  We reminisced about that.  He has one son I think, and his current wife, Susan, and I talked for a bit.  He's happy doing his one-man gig ,  it keeps him playing music - and he loves it.

Meanwhile,

Fred Korman was there from Oregon - he just retired as first oboist from the Oregon Symphony Orchestra after 30+ years.  At the insistence of his partner he came back to HHS, and he played oboe with Tom - a blues jam - and he brought down the house.  We had a mini-HHS band drunken get-together with Fred on Friday night, and talked about how much things had changed in 50 years.  He couldn't believe that we actually remembered him - we were all astounded.  After warming up beforehand we gave him a big round of applause and he yelled " I've been waiting 50 years for this!" A great moment.

On a personal note, when I first got there from Boston, Bob Koren and Joe Hill two of my ex-Cornell friends went with my wife, Ronnie and me to my old house and the "field" where Joe and I, Cliff Giles, Charlie Urbach , and a bunch of other neighborhood kids spent many hours playing ball and just hanging out.  A wonderful place that hasn't changed, although there were some kids there who said that it wasn't used very much now.  Then, to top it off, the Chinese restaurant (established in 1955) that my family used to take out from all the time, the China View in the Plainview Shopping Center, is still there!  So we had Chinese food before the Friday "Meet and Greet".  Bob even got a menu to take home with him for free.  As far as my life has been, I just looked at my "Alumni Bio", and it's pretty complete, so if anyone wants to look me up, feel free - I won't clutter this email up with more stuff - but in short, I am having a great time with 2 grown fantastic kids and a wonderful wife.

Bob Koren is working as a Systems Manager for a major consulting firm for the city of NY.  He moves around a lot, depending on what project he's working on.  He even lived for a while a few miles away from me in Massachusetts, but we didn't know it!  He got married late, and his wife is in Montreal right now.  They are trying to figure out where they are going to settle down.  He has a daughter who is living in Israel right now, and Bob looks about the same as he did 50 years ago when we were freshman roommates in college.  He even has all his hair.

A recent update from Bob:
"I am moving to near Poughkeepsie in a couple of weeks (New Hamburg) more accessible to the Northland and Quebec.  AMTRAK, the POU-MON route is ridiculous;  Better off by auto (Karen and I have met half way in Glens Falls  where my cousin has a summer home).  Plans are for my firm to open a "Catskill" office near Albany-Cobleskill area next year, so.......  At the same time I am talking with a firm in Chicago about a contractor (i.e., consultant) mostly working from home (wherever?) on projects in Northeast (new Vermont Rail-line, MBTA projects, NE DOT work, Canadian projects etc.)"

Joe Hill lives near Atlanta with his wife CC and a bunch of kids - mostly now out of the house.  CC wasn't there unfortunately,  she's a nurse and I've met her over the years.

They raise Cotons - really cute white fluffy dogs, related to Bischons.  That's a whole story in itself - they originated in Madagascar and were only discovered in the 1960's.  Joe came to NY with one of his sons to see Derek Jeter's last week with the Yankees.  Joe looks pretty much the same as he did years ago when living across the street from me on Haverford Rd.

We made it back to the

Holiday Inn just in time for the Friday night Meet and Greet and proceeded to the bar.  We hung out there for quite a while before getting our official badges and T-shirts.  I either pretty much recognized people instantly or not.  Either I hadn't know them well enough from HHS or that they had really changed.  I recognized quite a few people.  As I had found at the 25^th reunion, everyone's voice virtually sounded the same.  So all you had to do was start talking and it came back. 

Barry Weaver came up to me at the bar, but I didn't recognize him until he smiled.  We had talked a lot on the phone before the reunion as I had with a lot of folks.  I really enjoyed all the phone conversations I had and learned a lot about people - things that I didn't know even as kids.  In Barry's case, I didn't know that he had just learned saxophone when he came to Hicksville in 8^th grade, and I confirmed that we had a barbershop quartet and that I actually once could sing.  He went on to become a good musician, developed an inner city band known throughout NYC, and taught music for most of his career.  Nor did I know that he was good friends and roommate of

Jeff Altman after he had to drop out of Cornell and played sax in NYC.  Barry did not know that Jeff and I had been good friends and was in my first band.  We both were sad together about Jeff's passing - we missed him as did all of his other friends.

Friday night at the bar continued for hours - long after the event was scheduled for.  I had chats with

Roy Eismann and his wife Sandy.  Roy has been a math and science teacher for most of his career in Northern NJ.  He still loves it obviously, and he's instituted a new curriculum at his latest all-girls school to bring it up to snuff.  Later, after learning that I have become a sailor ( 20 years now), he told me that after retirement, it is his dream to buy a boat and go sailing.  I offered any advice that I can give him for his nautical future.

Mike Kirschen, another HHS/Cornell grad was there, in fine spirits, and we spent most of the weekend cracking each other up.  He just retired from being a lawyer for an upstate NY judge, lives in Rochester, and he and his wife were on their way to a vacation in Europe the next week.   He had to travel a lot to for the reunion, but it was great to catch up with him again; I'm really glad he came.  Once again, he hasn't changed much.

On Saturday, about 1/3 of the attendees toured HHS.  It looked kind of the same, but most of us were disoriented.   Bob noted that some of the floors had not been changed since we were there!   But it has grown in size with a lot fewer students.  Just shows how crowded we were back then.  As I mentioned the new principal is a great guy - really well-spoken and smart - also commands attention just by standing 6'4" or more.  And he's black, whereas only a small fraction of the student body is, but there is a large percentage of Asian and Hispanic students.  Quite a change from 50 years ago.  I missed the sweet shop visit and the museum tour, but after a good diner lunch with a small group, used some of that time to recoup and get ready for Saturday night. 

About 2 hours ahead of time, Barry Weaver and I hung out;  he wanted to say hi to Tom Sullivan, so we helped set him up.  I met Tom's wife and Fred Korman's younger brother, Paul, who is in a big band - Dr. K's Motown Review.  Tom's first words were " so who knows if Pellerin is dead yet" - a not so subtle reference to our love/hate relationship with our old HHS band leader, myself included.   Good reminiscences.

The big Saturday night event was fully attended.  Quite a few people who had not been there on Friday night showed up, and it was hard, if not impossible, to talk with everybody.  I will list people who I talked to and some of the conversations I had - some I had before the reunion:

Cliff Giles - Still looks and seems like the solid guy he was 50 years ago.  Had a long career as a teacher in Brentwood and is happily married to Beverly, his second wife, after his first wife passed.  It was really good to see him.

Robert Karen - Psychologist in NYC - has written some acclaimed books, which fits his demeanor then and now.  Glad to be there.  He pretty much looks the same, maybe a little leaner.

Charlie Urbach - showed up on Saturday with his wife.  I wish I had spent more time talking with him - he was one of the neighborhood kids who played football, etc. at "the field".  I know that he still owns a machine shop in Farmingdale and lives out in eastern LI.  He was glad hear about the reunion.  I saw him talking to a few of our old friends, so I hope he had a good time.

Charlie Butt - lives in Hicksville.  After the Marines, became an engineer, and is now doing home inspections in his spare time.

Francia Bove Gentry - Lives in Texas - traveling a lot now.  She had a dance school for a number of years, and during Fred Korman's solo on Saturday, she proved it by dancing solo on the floor.  Still spunky after all these years.

Janet Bianco Vohrer - Her husband, Tom, was glad to finally put a face with my name.  Really nice to see her again.

John Ciarelli - Our class president is practicing law out on eastern LI.  I didn't get much of a chance to talk with him, but he looks about the same as he did in HHS, but more lawyerly.

Marlena Borst Hamann - Seems in a happier mood than HHS.  I told her that and she laughed - said that she worked hard and didn't enjoy HHS very much. Has had a good career with environmental health for NY.   Big hi to Bob Greenhouse.

Mike Wallach - Didn't get details, but he ended up in the army, but was OK.  Is in touch via Facebook with '65  crowd of my folk music friends - Nancy Portoghese,  Fran Greenbaum, Carol Rondeau.   I want to follow up with them.

Gregg Basso - except for gray hair, looks the same.  Became an engineer, lives in Oyster Bay, rides motorcycles and sails. 

Neil Barrocas - had a copy business in Yonkers.  Now retired, lives in Western Mass.  on a lake near nobody in a house that he used to vacation at when he was younger.  

Susan Trecartin - Pediatrician, thinking about retiring soon. 

Joe Platt - Psychologist, retired, was happy to get involved with getting the reunion organized.  Good-hearted still, self-deprecating humor.  We talked a lot on the phone preceding the reunion, trying to get people on board.  I'm glad he was pushing this whole thing.

Gail Brindley - Still sweet red-haired girl with freckles.  Everyone danced with her.  Gail is now doing part-time substitute teaching for little kids in Hicksville where she lives in the same house she grew up in.

Joan Lawlor and Bob Roehrig - High school sweethearts who got married.  They both look the same as in HHS.  Joan helped organize at least the badges as she was at the sign-in table.

Joe Carracio - At first I didn't recognize him because of the gray hair, but then after talking with him, he's the same.  He talked about Harvey's Hessian Hellcats (Advanced Bio class) ruling over Munch's Marauders (Advanced Physics class) because they had put butyric acid in our room (smells like vomit).  They of course did not rule, but I remembered the incident, which gave him great joy. 

Bob Greenhouse - Bob couldn't make it to the reunion, but he is sending a letter to hixnews.com.  I found him through LinkedIn, and I learned, after a few long conversations with him, he became a pHd Chemist with 2 post doc degrees, before working as a medicinal chemist for over 30 years first for Syntex then Hoffman LaRoche, who unfortunately closed their facility in Northern California a few years ago.  Bob really enjoyed the lab work, never shooting for higher positions, because that was his love and he has many patents and several drugs on the market.  He's also kept on singing and writing and playing music, a great vestige of his HHS days.  He has 2 daughters, and he sends his regards. 

There were more people that I interacted with, but this seems like a good first pass, pretty complete, and certainly getting too long.  Please excuse any mistakes that I may have made - and correct them.  Again if you write something yourselves or just add or edit this email, please pass it back to me or just around to everyone.  I hope that everyone had as good a time as I did at the reunion, and I hope we manage to keep in touch better in the future than we have in the past.   I think that I found that my old friends haven't changed inside too much.  I could and would want to be friends with them even today - we must form our basic personalities early in life.

Your old classmate,

Arnie Gould

I have received several emails and phone calls from everyone who I corralled into coming to the reunion; that they were really glad they came.  Joe Platt sent me an email, part of which reads:

"I totally agree with your comments regarding Ray Williams.  Please let me know if you have any interest  in forming an alumni association at Hicksville High School.  John Maniec and I have already met once with Ray Williams.

"The number of classmates who have careers in music or a strong interest in music is truly remarkable.  I remember the following from band (I played the clarinet):  Tommy Sullivan - saxophone; Roy Eismann - trumpet; Bob Greenhouse - trumpet;  Mel Bienenfeld - French horn;  Marlena Borst - French horn;  Francia Bove - flute.   I hope my memory is accurate regarding these individuals and the instruments they played in band.  My strongest memory is Fred Korman, whose skill level on the oboe was unsurpassed.  Regarding the Cornell gang of 6, my memory is less clear:  Jeff Altman - saxophone (thank you for confirming);  Bob Koren - trumpet?; Mike  Kirschen - saxophone?  (actually bass clarinet)  I have no memory of Joe Hill (drums for a while) or Super Zad (Denis Zadorecki) playing a musical instrument in high school.  As for you, I am thinking drums (correct), but I may have you confused with Ronnie Powell, who, I seem to remember did play drums.   Your musical connection with Charlie Butt ( 5-string banjo) brings a smile to my face.  I tried to feed the answer to Bob Koren at the Meet and Greet, but I think he was too honorable to give the answer during the trivia contest "