Class of 69

Hale, Hale..The Gang's All Here!

2009-07-18T09:53:00.000-07:00

We're livin' the dream; else, we're dreamin' to live.

Winston Churchill Wasn't So Wise, Was He Now?

2009-07-10T13:13:00.000-07:00

After all, it was he who said the world was made to be wooed and won by youth. Uh-uh! Ain't no way!

10-9-8-7-6-5.....

2009-07-02T06:45:00.000-07:00

All of these folks have joined the countdown to our 40th:

Elaine Rainey Medve, Lee Wielansky, Vicki Gelber Groswald, Mark Zerman, Susan Klearman Meltz, Sheldon Cohen, Judy Reiss Cohen, Nancy Bender Feldman, Bette Moss Hess, Linda Multin Berger, Dan Whyman, Dale Brodsky, Libby Leggett, Dave Cornblath, Tom Pappas, Aleta Wellen Rosenthal, Phil Taxman, Dan Muchnick, Irv Gornstein, Mark Goodman, Mike Schneider, Sheldon Goldstein, Mike Roberts, Jay Levitch, Nancy Schmidt, Steve Bahn, Rob Williams, Lou Fernandez, Jeff Feldman, Alan Frager, Judy Lenobel Elder, Felix Kinsley, Rush McCallister, Joel Klein, Carol Radlo, Charlie Beard, Paul Chod, Paula Goldberg Snyder, Dale Sanders, Chris Hage Jackson, Joe Berger, Sally Odell Oldham, Andy Lewis, Donna Lite Jeffe, Ralph Moller, Susie Sokol Chasnoff, Laura Edlin Wendel, Laura Nelson Colburn, Steve Hamburg, Bob Rosenbaum, Linda Tolchin Schneider, Steve Faber, Leslie Tepper, Steve Fogel, Len Feigenbaum, Evan Salit Brinn, Benjy Schultz, Steve Averbuch, Howard Mirowitz, Charlie Beck, Robin Melman Geder, Steve Fox, Michele Merrell Bryan, Mary Raizman Krauss, Alan Kalina, Rick Lourie, Gary Shayne, Gary Kaplan, Sherry Itzkowitz Chappell, Mark Goldenhersh, Steve Hougen, Michella Narup Clark, Candice Spector, Barry Gubin, Gary Marsh, Margie Ghertner Silverblatt, Sally Ragin Katz, Debra Feldman Rein, Mindy Rosengarten Myshrall, Gary Rich, Cheryl Landis Nicoletti, Anne Meisenberg Rosenberg, Dave Rosenberg, Roger Hencke, Andy Tessler, James Singman, Pamela Joyce Richardson, Steve Cross, Sally Klearman Katzif, Stellie Siteman, Bob Brin, Ann Fries, Steve Turner, Erna Gelles, Jeff Mundt, Elizabeth Hasler, Jack Buck, Nancy Katz Rose, Susan Ehrlich, Art Guenzburger, Robyn Adelstein Lipsitz, Barb Sanborn, Dan Kweskin, Pam Sloofman Kanter, Bill Gilbert, Keith Blase, Wendy Shanker Kahn, Sal Kuenzler, Ed Mulligan, Michael Friedman...

...and yours truly.

It's July 15, the countdown continues, and it's not too late to climb aboard this rocketship.

Ladue High Class of '69 Fortieth Reunion

--Saturday, July 18th, 7 p.m. to Midnight, River Camp at the St. Louis Zoo (casual attire)
($80 per person. Mail check to: Mark Zerman-Reunion, 102 Meadowbrook Country Club, Ballwin, MO 63011)

--Friday Night Ice Breaker, Friday, July 17th, 7 p.m., Schneithorst's Upper Deck

LET'S GO!

Springtime

2009-04-20T15:42:00.000-07:00

There is no time like the old time, when you and I were young,
When the buds of April blossomed, and the birds of spring-time sung!
The garden's brightest glories by summer suns are nursed,
But oh, the sweet, sweet violets, the flowers that opened first!

There are no times like the old times,--they shall never be forgot!
There is no place like the old place,--keep green the dear old spot!
There are no friends like our old friends,--may Heaven prolong their lives!
There are no loves like our old loves,--God bless our loving wives!

(Excerpted from "No Time Like the Old Time," by Oliver Wendell Holmes)

Not bad for a lawyer and Supreme Court Justice!

Free Marti Kranzberg

2009-04-19T13:03:00.000-07:00

Marti commented on an earlier post, Rules for Aging, and is the first person and, so far, the only person to do so. Marti is right to wonder, "Where is everybody - Let's hear from you!"

To read what Marti has to say, click on Rules for Aging.

Be bold...and tell us what you're thinking by clicking on "Comments," which appears immediately below each post.

Good to hear from you, Marti.

Do You Believe in Dancing?

2009-04-18T15:04:00.000-07:00

The educational psychologists who thought about the things that we were supposed to be learning about must have had some notion that we, as 10 or 11-year -olds, should believe in dancing...albeit...square dancing! And so, all the girls were lined up on one side of the gymnasium, and all the boys were lined up on the other, and the two lines were nudged to the middle, and that's how one was assigned his or her partner. And as if that match-up might lead to something more enduring than a fleeting do-si-do, the true gamer would try to rig the mix by spotting the place in line where that one girl he wanted to dance with was standing and all the while hoping that she was going through the very same machinations.

If we have the educational psychologists to thank for our healthy introduction to dancing, we have only ourselves to give it continuing, full expression.

So,

Meet your honey and strut on down,
Right foot up and left foot down,
Make that big foot jar the ground,
And promenade your partner 'round.

Swing your partner 'round and 'round,
And turn your corner upside down.
And turn your corner like a swingin' gate,
And meet your partner for a grand chain eight,
And hurry up boys and don't be late.

OK, maybe square dancing will not be part of our Ladue Class of 69 Reunion experience...but dancing surely will be! Swing, waltz, country, salsa, tango anyone? Naw, just gimme that old-fashioned rock-and-roll (a la Bob Seger)!!

Rules for Aging

2009-02-16T16:12:00.000-08:00

Some of you might be familiar with the book, Rules for Aging: Resist Normal Impulses, Live Longer, Attain Perfection, by Roger Rosenblatt.

Rosenblatt's Rule #28 is: "Never go to a cocktail party, and, in any case, do not stay more than 20 minutes."

Rule #52 is: "Live in the past, but don't remember too much."

So how do those of us--anticipating the celebration of our 40th reunion--reconcile these two "rules?" We don't! Reasonably well-adjusted social creatures that we are, we reject the first as pure blather, and seize upon the message of the second, which is that living a little in the past is OK (and with the whole cocktail-party thing, we're apt to not remember too much, which makes it more OK).

The Ladue High Class of '69's Fortieth Cocktail Party...err...Reunion is Saturday, July 18, 2009, 6:30-12M, at the St. Louis Zoo, The McDonnell Center at River Camp. Festive attire!

Watch for your formal invitation...and for further developments on the planning of Friday night's activities.

Check in with us here, www.ladue69.blogspot.com, and register/update your profile on the Ladue Alumni website, http://www.laduealum.com/.

Live a little!

"Now if six turned out to be nine, I don't mind, I don't mind. If all the hippies cut off all their hair, I don't care, I don't care."

2008-12-10T16:08:00.000-08:00

(From "If six was nine," by Jimi Hendrix (lyrics by Lenny Kravitz)).

So here we are. 6 has become 9...er, 6 has become 0!! 69 > 09. Back to the future? I don't mind.

And the cutting of the hair (even as some are losing the hair) thing? Argh! But I don't care.

"In the midst of winter, I finally learn that there is in me an invincible summer."

2008-12-09T15:22:00.000-08:00

Today, it seems like winter. But tomorrow, it will be summer. And lest the celebration of summer...and the fortieth year of the post-60's era of our lives...should fail to summon in us the utterly illusive sense of invincibility Camus spoke about, let's be daring, nonetheless, and allow ourselves to be who and what we are and who and what we were and revel in our comfortably collective confusion about the two.

The Ladue High Class of 69's Fortieth Reunion will be Saturday, July 18, 2009, 6:30-12M, at the St. Louis Zoo, The McDonnell Center at River Camp. Festive attire! (Other weekend activities will be sprouting up .)

This is the official blog of the Ladue High Class of 69. It is and always will be a work in progress. Our hope is that the blog will provide classmates an easy, accessible means and source of communication...of information, ideas, inquiries, advice, comments, reflections...about how you're doing and what you've been up to...about how you've gone about changing the world...about the things you think you remember but have probably gotten majorly wrong for the sake of embellishing the life narrative...et cetera. The blog will also provide regular updates on the exploits of your reunion-committee members as they try to stay on task in making the reunion (and beyond) a memorable event.

A couple of suggestions on using the blog:

1. Go to it: http://ladue69.blogspot.com/.

2. Respond to it. Click on the comment(s) link located at the end of a current article to post a comment. (As we get along in this experiment, a list of contributors to post articles will be created and an expanding list of topics will evolve.)

3. Send a link to this blog to others.

4. Stay interested. Stay tuned.

ROCK ON!