Hello.
This is the day we were supposed to be gathering for the reunion. I think it’s good we are not. It’s sweltering, severe thunderstorms are on their way, and the town is a mess.
I can’t say THE 2020 REUNION is only twelve, or 18 or even 24 months away because no one knows just how long it will be until we can meet safely to celebrate. But I can report that this mess of a hometown is beginning to shape up nicely. The Maple Road reconstruction, is halfway through completion. New road pavement is being poured, wide sidewalks with planting beds, new trees and light posts, and pedestrian crosswalks will be coming in the next months. I’m eager to see what the plans are to improve the intersection at Southfield Road. Just a few days ago they began creating large planting beds for shrubs and flowers in the Woodward Avenue medians
One building project’s construction barriers came down and new landscaping was installed the next day, and it looks like the same will be happening soon at the new library addition. The new apartment building at the site of Carrie Lee’s restaurant looks very near completion. The Daxton Hotel is nearly completely clad in grey and black stone and work on the interiors has begun. All in all, it’s shaping up to be a great looking downtown.
Now, let us hope the businesses can survive the economic downturn created by the pandemic.
As a class we’ve done a great job of reuniting and had a great time virtually celebrating our 50 year anniversary! I would hate to see all this energy go into stasis as we wait for the end of the pandemic. In this monthly update I’m introducing a few new ideas to keep the sharing going.
Everybody deserves a second chance
CHEERS! A Virtual 50 Year Anniversary Celebration was very well received, and I immediately received messages from classmates who wished they had gotten their act together in time to participate. So I’m announcing CHEERS! 2.0, expanding the existing movie with more classmates and, of course, replacing photos with new ones if you so desire. It will be presented on June 11, 2021 - on our 51 year anniversary.
Who’s Zooming who?
There have been several groups of classmates who have held mini-reunions on ZOOM, the video conferencing app, and they reported having a really fun time. To make this opportunity available to all of us, including the technically challenged, Karen Roth Slepchuk has generously offered to facilitate ZOOM reunions. Simply contact Karen and she will set it all up. It’s best to keep your guest list under 18 people, and please refer to the MISSING page of the website to see the classmates we still cannot invite. Contact Karen via email at: slepchuk@comcast.net
SEAHOLM CLASS OF 1970 Website and THE 2020 PIPER
Our website is online, though it has had little action since our June 11 Anniversary Celebration. We’d like you to continue to post your BIOS at THE 2020 PIPER, and ask to be listed in the EMAIL DIRECTORY if you wish to be more easily contacted by classmates.
About Facebook...
I know from your responses that there are more than a few of you who will not join facebook and for very good reasons that I totally agree with. So I set off on a little project to find a socially and morally acceptable substitute so that more of us could be included. Never mind my dread about trying to migrate our content over to another site.
I did find some alternative social network sites but I would always check out the reviews and none were good. Finally, I contacted Randy Bryant*, who knows this stuff, and he told me there is no alternative for facebook, that can do what it does and do it as well as it does. So I’m afraid we’re stuck with this until a better network comes along.
That being said, here are some changes to our private facebook group page, Seaholm Class of 1970:
THE 2020 HIGHLANDER
Our facebook page offers us a place to share more easily than possible on the website, so I’ve changed the banner to the image above, to link it visually to our website and to rekindle the spirit of our high school newspaper, The Highlander. The address has not changed.
POSTCARDS
Tom and Barb Gaskill Prew travel quite a bit and frequently post beautiful scenery on the facebook like this one from Torch Lake, Michigan. Very often they aren’t even in the pictures. I like that. It tells me they are well, still traveling, and I get to see where they are and what they are seeing. I’d love to encourage more of you to share with us what you are looking at, so I’m introducing a new category under POPULAR TOPICS IN POSTS, called POSTCARDS. Simply scroll down the right side column to POPULAR TOPICS IN POSTS, select POSTCARDS, and post there. Your photo will then be assigned to that category. No message is necessary other than where the picture was taken, your name and date are automatic. Think of it as sending the class a postcard, to get a sense of where we are, what we are seeing and doing.
PASTCARDS
Several years ago, Diana Davis posted this picture on her facebook page of a beautiful wedding she attended at a remarkable French estate. It made me think of some beautiful sites I saw in Italy several years ago that you might find interesting. So I’ve created a second new category under POPULAR TOPICS for postcards from where we have been. Again, no message is necessary but please include the location and year of the photo. With PASTCARDS we can get a sense of the many places our classmates have travelled.
1952
Bear with me on this one... We have an unknown length of time before we can gather but an idea occurred to me that might make the wait amusing for 18 months, maybe longer.
Each month I will post a YouTube link, beginning with ‘Billboard’s Top Ten - 1952’. We can listen to the same songs our mothers listened to as they kept house, changed our diapers and prepared our bottles. We’ll work our way, year by year, one each month, through high school. And as we do, we can post photos we have from that year in a new category in POPULAR TOPICS, this month is: 1952.
I’ll start us off. That’s me in the bundle being brought home from the hospital in November 1952. Coincidentally, this was also the day we adopted Bow, the cocker spaniel also in the picture. Little did anyone realize the psychological problems this would create for me that wouldn’t be sorted out until 1980.
Now… dance like your mother would: https://youtu.be/Q9DlB2Sdg5k
Everybody please stay well,
Wood
Website: seaholmclassof1970.com
Case-sensitive password: SHS70@50
Facebook: Seaholm Class of 1970
Ask to join.
ZOOM: slepchuk@comcast.net
*As we have been finding classmates I sometimes learn that some are retired, and some are still working, but for the first time I learned of someone actively retiring.
As of July 1, Randy Bryant is retired from Carnegie Mellon University where he’s worked since 1984! You can read his BIO in THE 2020 PIPER at our website, and you can congratulate him on our facebook page.