October 2010

I am slowly learning to use Facebook. My kids seem to have been born with the ability to squeeze every drop of functionality out of this Web site, not only posting information about themselves, but uploading video, "tagging" themselves and others in pictures, chatting in real time with others, and probably many other things I'm not even aware of. Other folks I know are on constantly, keeping me informed about how brushing their teeth went and how cute their cat is.
I'm not so immersed in Facebook, although I am starting to keep it running in the background while I'm at work, on the off chance that my daughter wants to chat. It is amazing how you can use Facebook to keep in closer touch with people. Although I don't reach out and grab people and throttle them into becoming "friends", it is nice when an old high school or college or work buddy pops up as a friend of a friend. I’m also slowly realizing that I can post things on Facebook instead of sending annoying isn't-this-cool emails to people. Bottom line, if you're curious about what people are up to these days, it's a great way to keep in touch.

There was no change in our numbers last month. Or the month before that. And all the way back to May. We're hovering around 509 classmates that we think we have good contact information for.

Which leads to my first request. People are planning the Reunion for next year. Therefore, we're going to need to contact everyone in the class we can. Therefore, we're going to need to verify all our contact information. Therefore, we need your help. If you'd be willing to try calling, say, 10 classmates, please let me know. I prefer people with time on their hands and lots of Anytime minutes to spare. But if you think you can help reach out to the missing, please drop me an email and let's get this party started.

As I mentioned, people are working behind the scenes to plan next year's 40th Reunion. Right now, they're looking for a good venue. If you're interested in helping out with this or other tasks, please contact me and I'll put you in touch with everyone.
Thank you to everyone who is helping so far, including Pat Giarrusso, Susan W. Bond Burns, Cosima Fallon, Beverly DeFelice, Juliana Pastine Reilly, Ernie Rheaume, Don and Tina McKendall, Dan Barry, Pat Dewey Giarrusso, Donna Lepizzera Caldamone, Gail Cavanaugh Santosuosso, Domenic D'Antuono, Diane Fusco McWeeney, Lynne Turkus, and Franne Donovan. BTW, it's no excuse living out of state: phone lines now cross state lines!

Great news from Doreen Dias Holmes about her son TJ in the Marines! After being stationed in Japan, and then deployed to Korea, TJ is on his way home at this very moment! He'll be home for a few weeks, then hopefully be stationed someplace stateside. Congratulations to Doreen, TJ, and their family.

Donna Lamoureux-Hames reports that she has only one more class to take for her BSN (Bachelor of Science in Nursing) degree to graduate in May. Then comes a decision: to go on to finish her AAS of Criminal Justice training or to just work. Donna attends Winston-Salem State University in North Carolina.

Once again this Thanksgiving, Paula deCaro is planning to make the trek to the Cranston East football game, meeting with Richard DiGennaro and other classmates. If anyone else would like to meet up and do a little tailgating, contact Paula:
508-339-1081 (work)
tdecaro@decaroconsulting.com

Condolences to Kevin Dailey, whose mother died this past summer. Kevin lives north of Boston and works for US Customs Border Protection as a canine officer at Logan Airport. He, too, is facing decisions: whether to retire from his job now, or continue for a few more years to build his pension annuity.

Bill Dube's exploits with electric motorcycles continue to spread the good word about the practicality and power of electric vehicles. He and his wife Eva are going to appear on PBS NOVA in November sometime. The series is called "Making Stuff" and the KillaCycle is used to demonstrate the advances being made in battery technology. Speaking of Facebook, Eva has just put up a Facebook page that is much better than the KillaCycle web site. Check it out at:
http://www.facebook.com/killacycle

Jon Foster reports that his team in the Pan-Mass Challenge has raised $392,000 and may hit their goal of $400,000. A number of classmates supported the ride, and Jon says, "Thank you for allowing me to hit my personal fundraising goal!"
Here is a link for pictures from the ride:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2050079&id=1224514119&l=f2057531fc

George Alford reports, "This is the trailer for the movie that Linda is in, and I am an extra in. It is wild and funny. Gotta see: 'Gotta Find Barry'." Looks fun!
Here's the trailer:
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=568351073259

Brenda Pandozzi D'Aguanno happened to visit the actual Cranston High School East building recently. Here's what she saw.
"I had to drop off my daughter and some of her friends at East to watch a volleyball game against East at the new gym. I, of course, had to go in and check things out. Well, the gym is very nice, better than ours was, natch. I was also able to wander the halls a bit. A dance was going on in the cafeteria. Anyway, what I did notice is that when the gym addition went up, on the cafeteria side of the building, a connecting corridor went in as well and when one walks from the gym to the cafeteria, what was once the outside wall of the building was kept intact and became an inside wall of the corridor. I was very impressed that the architecture was kept as part of the newer area. It looks very nice. So I got to walk through the corridor, up the "outside" stairs, and onto the landing that enters the cafeteria. That whole area looks exactly the same! I hope you can envision all of this! The other visit I had was to the stadium, for my daughter's lacrosse game against East. Again, I had to go, and wandered around, took some pictures, and reminisced. There is a concession stand, and lots of astroturf!"
Thanks for the virtual tour! It's been years since I visited the school.
Brenda also reports that her daughter is still at home, but her older two children are married and are "enjoying being homeowners for the first time!"

Once again, Don Tassone, Art Toegemann, and others appear at the Mediator coffee house frequently. Here's where you can keep up to date:
http://www.myspace.com/mediatorstage

We have lots of ways to keep in touch online, now. For example, we have a web site:
www.chse1971.com
(thanks to Ernie Sutcliffe for starting and maintaining)
and wiki:
https://chse1971.wikispaces.com/
(also thanks to Ernie)
and Facebook group:
http://www.facebook.com/reqs.php#/group.php?gid=51722469479
Check out one or more of these easy ways to see what people are up to.

Rough year for the Red Sox. But the Patriots are off to a pretty good start.

See you next month!

Have a \s/uper day!

Ed DeJesus
exdejesus@gmail.com