Now that was a party! More than 200 classmates and their guests enjoyed our 40th Reunion, held at Bonnet Shores Beach Club in Narragansett on June 10. For many, this was their first reunion ever or their first one in a long time, and they picked a good one to attend. The setting was – no other word will do – perfect, under a kind of pavilion, open at the sides but protected by the surrounding buildings of the club, and only 50 feet from the beach! Mad props to Dan Barry for scoring this location. The food was great. The DJ lured people to dance, not that we require a lot of luring. Name tags were definitely necessary: I recognized a lot of people who hadn’t changed much from high school, but there was a lot of “Ohmygosh, is that you?” As often happens with a class of 720, you can’t know everybody, and I got to meet and talk to many classmates for the first time, as well as reconnect with long-time friends. I walked around in a kind of happy daze, just enjoying seeing all these people reconnecting. Our class is a fun bunch of nice people, and definitely the kind to party with. More than once, I heard people say, “We should do this every year!” Sounds good to me! It was great seeing everyone!
Photos from the bash are all over Facebook, especially on our class’s page:
http://www.facebook.com/reqs.php#/group.php?gid=51722469479
and the Event page:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=192240297471327
As I talked to people at the Reunion, I noticed, as I have so many times in the past, how many of our classmates make helping others a part of their life, whether it’s through their work, their family, or their pastimes. As a class, we have funded the Ruth P. Roseman Award since 1976 to provide small scholarships to CHSE students. The “profit” from the Reunion goes to fund this Award. We didn’t make as much profit this time around as we had hoped. If you would like to contribute a little something towards this Award, please send your tax-deductible donation to:
Pat Giarrusso
11 Bow and Arrow Trail South
Wakefield, RI 02879
Thank you!
BTW, if you’re looking for a DJ, the one from the reunion was very good (after we asked him to turn the volume down a little – sheesh, I felt like my grandfather!). You can reach Caswell Cooke at caswellcookejr@yahoo.com.
I haven’t had a chance to go through all the returned slips that people mailed in with their checks, so I haven’t updated the class database yet. What a slug, right? So, no change in the numbers from last month. We still believe we know the whereabouts of about 649 classmates, quite a feat after 40 years.
Condolences to Christine Carlevale McAllister, whose father died only a few days ago.
Once again this year, Jon Foster will be riding in the PanMass Challenge to raise money to help the Dana Farber Cancer Institute conquer cancer. This is personal for Jon: his brother, Harris, just found out his cancer has returned. If you’d like to make a donation, or read more about this event, Jon’s page for this ride is at:
http://www.pmc.org/profile/JF0179
or you can mail donations directly to him at:
Jon Foster
149 Dexter Lane
North Scituate, RI 02857
Best of luck, Jon!
Teddy deCaro brags that her nephew, Jonathan Feiler, is the new Director of Wine Education and Head Sommelier at the Ocean House in Westerly/Watch Hill, RI. “If classmates are in the area, they should stop in and ask for him and say they graduated from Cranston East! They can enjoy wine with a delicious meal! He will explain the different wines and how it will pair with their meal. They also have Friday night clambakes.”
Twist my arm!
A great article about classmate Bill Dubé and his wife Eva Håkansson (whom we met at the Reunion) and their fascination with electric motorcycles:
http://www.westword.com/2011-06-09/news/killacycle-cordless-drill-on-wheels/
A number of classmates stayed at Nancy and Tom Iacono's Bed and Breakfast in Narragansett for the Reunion. You can too! Contact them at (401) 792-8264 or tomiac1@verizon.net.
As foreshadowed in earlier messages, my company did in fact sell the division I worked for and I did in fact lose my job as a technical writer early in June. With some other high school classes, this would keep a person from attending a reunion out of embarrassment that they weren’t a golden financial success. Luckily, ours has never been that kind of “my yacht is bigger than your yacht” class. When I mentioned to folks at the Reunion that I’d been laid off, everyone offered their sympathy and encouragement, and some handed me their card and said, “Call me.” That’s the kind of class we have. By the way, I’m working as a contractor while I continue with my job search. We’ve all been there, right? It will work out.
We have lots of ways to keep in touch online now. For example, we have a web site:
www.chse1971.com
user name: chse
password: kutnetski (yes, I know it’s misspelled)
(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
and a Facebook event for the Reunion:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=192240297471327
Our Facebook group is large, growing, and active. Dip a toe into the 21st century and check it out!
That’s it for me. How are things with you?
Yay, Bruins! Go Sox!
Ed DeJesus
exdejesus@gmail.com
