Hello.
Happy New Year!
I hope you all had a happy Holiday season. Perhaps you even had a good picture taken of you toasting the new year? As a reminder, you have until June 10, 2021 to send a photo, or update your previous photo for inclusion in CHEERS! 2.0, a virtual reunion toasting the class on the occasion of our 51 year reunion.
Class of 70 ZOOMs
We had a fun party at our Winter Solstice ZOOM Open House, held on December 20th.
Stan Wallace was the winner of the Cookie Contest.
Grandparenting 2.0
Tuesday, January 12 2021, 7pm EST
We’re back again covering issues we didn’t get to complete the first time:
529 Educational Funds, how to set up and is the best way to invest in your grandchild’s future?
Sharing grandparenting moments: most embarrassing, biggest worries, greatest joys.
How grandparenting has changed your life.
Please join us, no need to RSVP. Here’s the link:
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85092651702
Here’s Betsy Westcott Coats with just a few of her grandchildren:
Class of 70 photoZOOM: Powder Puff Football
Their mini-reunion will take place later this month.
If you have a photo of friends you’d like to reunite with, send us the photo.
February ZOOM
We’d like to hold a topical ZOOM event in February regarding social media:
The negative effects of social media
How can we protect ourselves and our children
Best methods for protecting our privacy
In order to make this happen need knowledgeable people who could host or participate on a panel.
Please let us know if you want to volunteer or know someone who could.
March ZOOM
Spring Equinox ZOOM Open House
Saturday, March 20 2021, 7pm EST
Class Notes
On December 28, 2020 Laurie Cone posted on facebook the sad news that our classmate, Dave Benedict, had passed away. He lived in the Spokane, Washington area and was undergoing treatment for thyroid cancer. He is survived by his son and sister.
Brian Cox passed on November 11, 2020. From his son-in-law, Max: "Brian was in top physical shape and in great health, which makes this all so confusing. He was fat tire biking on some expert level trails in Grayling (Hanson Hills to be exact) with his girlfriend and some of her friends. He was at the back of the group and they lost track of him. When they went back and found him, he was gone. They tried everything they could to save him (his girlfriend is an RN). The EMT’s worked on him too but they couldn’t bring him back. From what they tell us he had a massive heart attack. Please tell his classmates he died doing what he loved, in a place he loved (the woods), with people he loved. He always said when it was his time to go he wanted to die in the woods. He was truly a great man and we will miss him dearly."
Bonnie Reithel Hornfisher is the latest classmate found.
Bill Swayze has posted his BIO at THE 2020 PIPER on our website.
Julie Snodgrass Gautier and Kris Meyer Hughes posted a recent picture of themselves our facebook page, celebrating their long friendship since elementary school.
Similarly, Pam Peirce Conrad and Jan Smith McGrail posted their recent reunion.
I have some BFFs of my own, so I started a new facebook Post Topic; Best Friends Forever. Please post photos of you with your BFFs from high school and before.
Another year every month. This month: 1958
School desegregation, NASA Explorer 1, Barbie Doll, Gigi, The Purple People Eater, Stereo records, First Grade 1958-1959.
https://www.babyboomers.com/article/1958-events-facts/58332696e4b0c9d1fe97cf18
Post your pictures from 1958 on our facebook group page.
Listen to Top Pop Songs of 1958 here:
https://youtu.be/rmegmTw2yXo
A bit of oversharing… and venting…and hope.
I knew celebrating the holidays was going to take a lot of work this year but I had no idea that current events would make it so difficult and confusing.
We got through a pleasant Christmas Eve and Day, accompanied to reports of increased infections and death counts. We celebrated New Year’s Eve with friends on ZOOM fairly well, and the call for protests in Washington kept rising.
Last night we celebrated the end of the holidays with our annual Epiphany Dinner and White Elephant Exchange.
Traditionally, all the bows are displayed on the antlers of the deer, but as the event was virtual, there were only two.
We always celebrate on a Saturday night, but had we celebrated on the actual day of Epiphany, January 6, the celebration would have looked very different:
I don’t know about you, but this ‘disturbance' unnerves me to my core; my core beliefs which I have come to realize were formed by My Weekly Reader: USA good, Russia bad. USA free, Russia enslaved. USA tells us the truth, Russia lies to their people. It was painful growing up to recognize, bit by bit, that those bad things were happening here and that My Weekly Reader was… well... propaganda.
I was so wound up on Wednesday that I turned to television to unwind. I was emotionally numb already and nothing really stood out to watch until I came across the movie Independence Day. For those of you who do not know the plot, it’s about a world-wide alien invasion in which huge spaceships take up locations over our planet's largest cities. At the end of their countdown, a weapon opens on the bottom of their saucers, plasma flows into a huge beam of light which then shoots downward and delivers total devastation.
As the weapon’s beam took aim and blew up the White House, I realized that my subconscious had sent me an important message; that indeed, things could be worse!
Our age group has weathered a lot: The Cold War, Cuba, Civil Rights, Assassinations, Vietnam, war in the Middle East, 911, Iraq, Afghanistan - just to name a few. Political corruption and lying are out in the open. We are facing a world-wide pandemic.
But we’re still here! And 2021 is bringing us opportunities to survive the pandemic, and a new administration that with our support may be able to set some things right. We can never give up, or lose hope.
Here’s to making progress in 2021!
Wood
Please join THE 2020 PIPER biographies and email directory:
Website: seaholmclassof1970.com
Case-sensitive password: SHS70@50
Please post your 1958 photos, BFFs, Postcards, Pastcards and chat:
Facebook: Seaholm Class of 1970
Ask to join.
Please reunite with your best friends from Birmingham:
Class of 70 ZOOMS: slepchuk@comcast.net