Our Sixth Year of “Lies! Lies! All of It, Lies!” Newslettery Goodness!

Spring-Summer 2008 JHS Classes of ‘71, ‘72, ‘73 Issue No. 19 Thirderly On-Line Newsletter

Welcome to this, the 19th news- letter of the JHS classes of ‘71, Official Propaganda Tool of ‘71, ‘72, ‘73 Jericho High Alumni ‘72, and ‘73, and friends.

JHSIn Hall this of Fame Inductionissue: 1 Ceremony: Adrienne Shelly (‘84), Ronnie Steinberg (‘65), 1 Neil Schechter, MD (‘65), Joann Ferrara (‘74), Bonni 2

Retzkin (‘78)

2 JHS Hall of Fame Nooz About Yooz: Ellen Vanderslice 3 In Tribute: Jeffrey Aaron 5

In Tribute: Keith McNally 6 4 Greetings from … 7 Actress-Director Adrienne Levine Shelly Carol Sadowski Hawkins 6 Inducted into JHS Hall of Fame First Person Singular: 8 Michael Osit — His story in his words ctress and director Hartley’s independent 11 Adrienne Levine movies The Unbelievable

On the Side: New books by 11 Shelly (class of ‘84) Truth (1989) and Trust Jericho authors Ellen 12 A was one of five alumni in- (1990). Her first role, Meister, Philip Bashe, and Felice Mehlman Hodges ducted into the Jericho High though, was in a summer

School Hall of Fame, at the stock production of Annie

13 eighteenth induction cere- while she attended JHS. Cartoons by Dan Clurman

mony, held at the Jericho A mother of one Takin’ Care of Bidness — 1514 Public Library on April 10. daughter, Adrienne was Jerichonians at Work: Adrienne, who, tragically, gradually moving into di- Janice Turtletaub Fagen was murdered in her Man- recting, most notably with

hattan apartment in 2006, Waitress, which she also Everything You Ever Wanted 19 appeared in more than twenty wrote. The movie, starring to Know about: Debra Schwartz 17 films, two Keri Russell, 19 dozen off- Jeremy Sisto, Everything You Ever Wanted 2523 Broadway Andy Griffith, to Know about: plays, and nu- Nathan Fillion, Peter Green merous TV Cheryl Hines, 28 shows. She and Adrienne 27 Faculty Lounge: first came to herself, re- Mr. Robert Perma national atten- ceived glowing Your Back Pages: 3436 tion with her reviews upon

Test your Yankees-Mets starring role its baseball IQ in Long Island Adrienne, Cheryl Hines, and Keri Russell in a Continued on

filmmaker Hal scene from 2007’s Waitress. page 3

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changing experience!’ And he said, ‘Oh, no! I like your life the way it was.’ But, in fact, he has enjoyed the whole musical adventure very much.” Ellen performs and records with a veritable who’s who from Portland’s vibrant jazz community. One of her songs, “Moonshadow Dance,” won first prize

in the 2002 USA Jazz Songwriting Competition; she’s also placed first Do the clean-cut young folks above look ern touch. While at a work-related four times in the Blues/Jazz/R&B familiar? They should. Their images graced the Jericho School News newsletter that conference in Seattle, she and a category of the Portland Songwriters was mailed to your parents to let them bunch of colleagues dropped in at a Association National Song Contest.

know just what it was you were supposedly place called Sorry Charlie’s. “I’d Five years ago she picked up the doing on weekdays. never been to a piano bar before,” trombone to play with an eighteen- recalls Ellen. piece community swing orchestra. “I Ellen Vanderslice and All “The piano player would invite love the big-band sound, and I purely That Jazz people to sing a few songs with him. love the trombone,” she says, “but I He could play anything and accom- love it best when I get to stand up and When people take up hobbies at our pany anyone. He invited me up four tell a love story with a song.” age, it’s usually something pretty times. It was such a kick. By the end Right now Ellen is contemplating sedate. Maybe bocce. Cake decorat- of the night, I was pretty inebriated, making another CD. “Being in the stu- ing. Or button collecting. Now, that’s so who knows how I was doing. Of dio is a whole other world,” she notes. a fun time! Ellen Vanderslice (‘71) of course, I thought I was fabulous. I “You close the door, and it feels like Portland, Oregon, started writing, adored the feeling of connecting time just stops! Only it doesn’t, really recording, and performing her own with an audience. — the meter keeps ticking for the stu- jazz compositions, as well as jazz “When Scott picked me up at the dio, the engineer, and the musicians.” standards. Since 1997 she’s re- train station back in Portland, I could Like to hear Ellen’s music? Stop in at leased five CDs: This Time the hardly wait to tell him, ‘I’ve had a life- www.cherrypiemusic.com. ■ Dream's On Me, Nothin’ but Time, Once in a Blue Moon, The Standard Vanderslice, and Don’t Look before Belated News Flash from March 1968! You Sing. Funny, Ellen, don’t remember you being a musician back in the day. "I don’t think it was very evident at that point in my life, other than sitting in my basement with a guitar and a harmonica around my neck," she says. “I wanted to be Bob Dylan, but I was too late.” For the next twenty-five years, Ellen pretty much forgot about play- ing music, going to work for the City of Portland and raising a son and daughter, now both grown. (For more about Ellen and husband Scott Parker, see last issue’s “JHS True Confessions” cover story.) Around 1996, though, she started writing songs in the style of Billie Holliday and Woody Herman, but with a mod-

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JHS Hall of Fame mia, was that these kids weren’t addicted to pain Continued from page 1 medication, as had been believed, but were badly un- release in January 2007, dermedicated. They kept shortly after her death. It is requesting additional pain one of the sweetest films relief because they were that you will ever see. hurting. Adrienne’s husband, An- Dr. Schechter was also drew Ostroy, was in atten- central to the establishment dance at the Hall of Fame of numerous systems that ceremony, as were her enable young children to mother, Elaine Langbaum communicate their pain

(who still lives in West Birch- level, as well as the develop- Adrienne Levine Shelly’s brother Jeff (class of ‘83) wood), one of her older ment of the fentanyl lollipop and mother, Elaine Langbaum, at the preceremony brothers, and other family — a berry-flavored analgesic dinner at Jericho’s Maine Maid Inn. members and friends. In his that can be absorbed under wife’s honor, Andrew estab- the tongue. lished a nonprofit organiza- In addition to possess- tion called the Adrienne ing more hair than any sixty- Shelly Foundation, which one-year has the right to awards grants and scholar- have, Neil has received ships to women film stu- many awards over the years. dents. The professor of pediatrics Mrs. Karen Schwartz at the University of Connecti- remembers Adrienne well. cut School of Medicine and “If I close my eyes, I can still head of the division of devel- see her standing at my of- opmental and behavioral fice door in her gym suit, pediatrics at the University chatting with me. She was of Connecticut was awarded about as big as a minute, the Jeffrey Lawson Award for and the sweetest little Advocacy in Children’s Pain Pediatric pain specialist Dr. Neil Schechter (’65). thing.” ■ Relief by the American Pain Society and a Health Care Neil Schechter (‘65) Heroes Award. He served on the World Health Organiza- tion Committee on pediatric Dr. Neil Schechter, medical and palliative care and is director of the Pain Relief the senior editor of the ma- Program at Connecticut Chil- jor medical textbook in the dren’s Medical Center, in field of pediatric pain medi- Hartford, is regarded as a cine. national and international Mrs. Dolores Hoffman, expert in the field of pediat- one of the teachers that Neil ric pain relief. thanked during his accep- In fact, when Neil began tance speech, remembers his work in this area in the him as “a bright, responsi- early 1980s, there really ble, modest young man who wasn’t any such field. What always completed his as- he discovered, by studying signments on time and was Olympic ice-skating coach Bonni Retzkin (‘78) with children with sickle-cell ane- Continued on page 4 one of her favorite teachers, Mrs. Karen Schwartz.

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JHS Hall of Fame Joann Ferrara (‘74) Continued from page 3 Joann Ferrara (‘74), a a pleasure to have in class. physical therapist, has He was always respectful been the owner and direc- and well liked by the other tor of Associated Therapies students.” of Bayside since 1979. But We know: doesn’t that’s not the only reason sound all that exceptional. why she’s in the Jericho But as her husband, Mr. High School Alumni Hall of Robert Hoffman points Fame. out, “You must remember In 2003 she began a that it’s easier to recall program called “Dancing the ‘characters’ we had in Dreams” for young physi- class than the good kids.” cally challenged children, Joann Ferrara hands a rose to one of her students, Neil was clearly one of many of them her patients. Shekinah Tiabo, at the Dancing Dreams annual ballet the latter. ■ Once a week, girls ages recital. (Photo by James Estrin) four to eight assemble in a Bonni Retzkin (‘78) dance studio to learn ballet. induction ceremony as January saw the publi- Most of them cannot walk Joann’s guest, isn’t sur- cation of a children’s book, or stand without the aid of prised that she would un- Ballerina Dreams, by Lau- Although Bonni Retzkin crutches and walkers. dertake such a wonderful ren Thompson. It follows describes herself as just Joann, who has a back- effort. “Joann was one of five of Joann’s students as an “average to good ground in ballet, told the the sweetest, most hard- they prepare for their re- skater,” she became the New York Times: “I just working people you ever cital. The photos were longtime coach of Great want them to feel the sheer met. I can’t praise her taken by James Estrin, a Neck’s Emily Hughes, the joy of moving and to be enough. Just a fabulous staff photographer for the 2007 U.S. National silver proud of themselves.” At person. When I saw what Times, which ran a major medalist and younger the end of the year, the she has done with these feature on Joann in 2006. sister of Sarah Hughes, girls star in a full-scale re- children, giving them a For more information who won a gold medal at cital. chance to be like other little about Joann and her pro- the 2002 Winter Olympics. Mrs. Schwartz, who at- girls, in their tutus, I was so gram, visit www.dancing Bonni began coaching tended the Hall of Fame proud.” dreams.org. ■ Emily when she was just four years old. and Limits of Public Poli- Mrs. Schwartz remem- Ronnie Steinberg cies and A Want of Har- bers Bonni as “a delightful (‘65) mony: Perspectives on girl. I had seen her coach- Wage Discrimination and ing Emily Hughes many Ronnie Steinberg (‘65), a Comparable Worth. times but didn’t realize it professor of sociology at Professor Steinberg was her.” In a funny coinci- Vanderbilt University’s Col- currently teaches four dence, “I grew up with the lege of Arts and Science, is courses at Vanderbilt: Hughes girls’ aunt.” a prolific author of books Women and the Law; Gen- The Hughes family at- and studies that delve into der, Work, and Culture; tended the Hall of Fame the areas of race, class, Gender, Sexuality, and ceremony, although not and gender; public policy Body; and Sociology of Gen- “She and the girls that she the two famous young skat- and politics, and work and der. “She was so bright,” hung out with were all such ers. Both are off at college occupations. Her publica- says Mrs. Schwartz, who fun to be around and full of — Emily, now nineteen, at tions include Job Training began teaching at Jericho life. You never knew what Harvard University. ■ for Women: The Promise during Ronnie’s senior year. to expect from them.” ■

JHS Classes of 1971-1972-1973 Thirderly On-Line Newsletter • Spring-Summer 2008 Page 5 In Tribute: Jeffrey Aaron (1973) The best tribute we can pay Jeff Aaron, from the class of 1973, is to reprint the obituary that appeared in the Chicago Tribune. Jeff, who lived in Northbrook, Illinois, was clearly a gifted and much-beloved teacher who touched many lives. Jeff profiled himself for our website’s Online Yearbook, and his love of teaching and kids, and his sense of humor, are evident.

Jeffrey Aaron 1955 ~ 2008 University. He was hired full time in 1979. “He was able to connect with kids in a powerful way," Bob Aaron said. "I'm not sure what it was, but it was something natural, Teacher, Coach Devoted Career to almost inbred." Glenbrook South Colleagues at the school said Mr. Aaron was a suc- cessful teacher in large part because he treated each

Mathematician Had Knack for Relating to student as an individual and had a quick wit that teen- Students, Family Says agers loved. "You'd be hard-pressed if you got into a war of words Emily S. Achenbaum, Chicago Tribune reporter with him," said Jack Adams, a retired Glenbrook South March 23, 2008 math teacher. "The kids knew that he cared for them." Mr. Aaron had the type of logical brain that thrived The walls of Jeffrey Aaron's Northbrook home were on challenge, his colleagues said, and they often found packed with photos of Glenbrook South High School him tearing through a crossword or Sudoku puzzle. On baseball and football teams, students he'd coached and summer breaks, he'd head to the bookstore and the li- believed in. brary, a list of mystery novels in hand, and would read Mr. Aaron, who spent his entire career — thirty-one twisting tales in marathonlike, uninterrupted sittings. years — at Glenbrook South, teaching math and coach- He brought that same puzzle-cracking mind to ing, died in his home Monday, March 17, apparently of a sports, his second love only to teaching, his brother said. heart attack. He was fifty-three. More than one thousand "He had a more intellectual approach. He was the kid people filled the school auditorium Wednesday for a who brought out the box score at a game, and kept me- memorial. ticulous count," Bob Aaron said. Mr. Aaron showed Mr. Aaron served as great aptitude for math assistant baseball coach, and a love of sports grow- assistant football coach, ing up in Jericho, New and head baseball coach. York, said his older He also spent years as the brother, Bob. He was al- announcer at boys basket- ways good for a pickup ball games, where he was game of football or base- known for his wordplay as ball games with kids he recounted scores. around the neighborhood, The school has estab- before he headed off to lished the Jeffrey L. Aaron the State University of Memorial Scholarship New York at Buffalo. Fund. Donations may be Bob Aaron said it was sent to Glenbrook South, clear his brother was High School, 4000 West meant to be a teacher Lake Avenue, Glenview, IL from his first year at Glen- 60062. brook South, a school he Mr. Aaron's survivors discovered in Chicago's include his parents, Frank north suburbs while work- Jeff (right), with Matt Albanese and Cathy Morway and Shirley, and another ing on a master's degree in at their high school graduation, June 1973. brother, Mark. ■ education at Northwestern “There was not a sweeter boy,” she says.

JHS Classes of 1971-1972-1973 Thirderly On-Line Newsletter • Spring-Summer 2008 Page 6 In Tribute: Keith McNally

A Message from Janet McNally (‘72):

The family of Keith Thomas McNally would like to thank all of the people who have sent cards and emails. Many kind words were said about Keith, and we appreciate them all. Keith had just retired from work- ing thirty years as a revenue officer for the IRS in Sarasota, Florida. He was looking forward to his retirement and thought about maybe using his degree in education to do some teaching after a little R and R. Just last October, Keith finally decided to go to the Reunion in 3-D gained consciousness, and we were Above: Keith surrounded by at the Milleridge Cottage. It was the all at his bedside when he passed. sisters Janet, Christine, Jill, and best thing he ever did. He reunited Our family is broken-hearted and Ellen. This photo was taken during with Kevin Falco, Steve LaRusso, still trying to cope. One thing we do Christmas 2006 at the family home and Mike Rudy after twenty years. hold dear to our hearts is that we in Westbury. “When my parents They have kept in touch since then were all together, and we were at the moved to Florida in 1992,” says and have actually been down here in ocean, which has always been a Janet, “Christine and her husband, Florida for a weekend not too long place of comfort to us all. He was the Christopher, bought the house. They ago. The guys were at the funeral guy who had to grow up with five sis- live there with their five children.” and were a great comfort to Keith’s ters, and we will miss him terribly. wife, Becky, daughter, Jenni, and Keith is now with our sister Below: Kevin Falco spoke at Keith’s son, Tommy. Lianne (class of ‘75) who passed funeral. This is the eulogy he wrote, My family had decided to have a away September 16, 1978. My Mom with contributions from friends Mike little reunion of our own for the and Dad and sisters Ellen, Jill, and Rudy and Steven LaRusso: Easter weekend. The half of our fam- Christine appreciate the outpouring ily that lives in New York drove south, of love and kindness from all. ■ and the half that lives in Florida Friendship Interrupted drove north. We met in in Oak Island, North Carolina, which was pretty Our childhood friend left us just as much in the middle. We had rented our dormant friendship was awak- two beach houses and were looking ening. The friendship started over forward to five days of fun and laugh- forty years ago and is continuing ter, food and drink, and just having because it was forged by admira- the whole family together. tion, trust, and honor. Four young We all arrived by late afternoon boys discovered the happiness of and had a wonderful evening to- camaraderie through sports and gether of singing and dancing and school activities, which led to bond- just plain being silly. When the eve- ing even more solidly — with per- ning was over and everyone was mission from Mr. and Mrs. McNally heading off to bed, Keith collapsed — in the McNally basement and all from a brain aneurysm. He was the trains that were there. taken to a trauma center, never re- Continued on page 7

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In Tribute: Keith McNally Continued from page 6

Keith’s brilliance as a student is well noted. It was his compassion that was one of his hallmarks, which we came to understand. He would help you when you needed help to move forward toward your goal. His pa- tience level, though, did not suffer fools for long. Once he confided about wanting to do something beyond the everyday life experience. He came to terms with his own personal limits and let others step forward to shine — never stealing their moment in the spotlight.

We were our own version of a Band of Brothers. Pro- tecting each other against moments of youthful bad Mike,Four Keith, amigos: Kevin, Mike, and Keith, Steven Kevin, at October’s and Steven reunion. at the judgment and celebrating wildly at each other’s accom- Reunion in 3-D last October. plishments. This wonderful friendship is now inter- empty chair will be witnessed, but a plate and full glass rupted. The new times we anxiously looked forward to will always be present. sharing as older men will not happen. The emptiness This is the man we knew and came to love. Our revi- that is in our hearts now will be filled by the memories talized friendship will not diminish because Keith has of the happy encounters with Mac. When we gather, an left; it will go on because he will never be forgotten. ■

That’s the class of 1972’s Carol Sadowski Hawkins, who lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She writes:

Greetings From It’s been a hectic year. I have a senior in high school, my daughter Olivia. Yikes! Need to rob a Starbucks — I'm sure they have more $$$ than the banks do at this point. Rumor had it that Thornburg (here in Santa Fe) had armed guards at its door a week ago!

I was in New York with Olivia in April doing the college trip: Moore College in Philly, Parsons in NYC (we stayed with Jackie Stanger Dinhofer [‘73] for two nights), Savannah School of Art and Design, and Stephens in Missouri. All this in eight days!!!!

I'm still with Coldwell Banker selling real estate here in gorgeous Santa Fe. Licensed broker for eighteen years plus CRS, ABR, and Previews. Santa Fe is on sale as with the rest of the country, but I think we have a lot of high rollers coming too (eighteen movies being filmed in NM this year). A few recent sales: unimproved land: 3 acres, $1.4 mil; .5 acre, $900k, and so on. Not bad, huh? However I'll sell that townhouse for $250k too.

I still play the violin, although I quit the Santa Fe Opera a few years back. I play with Santa Fe Pro Musica (was nominated for a Grammy this year!), NM Symphony, Santa Fe Symphony, and my little wedding music busi- ness called Primavera. Still married too! My husband is a builder and con- tractor who is very environmentally aware (green). However we are still the shoemakers’ kids, so don't plan on staying with us if you come to visit. I have plastic on the shower walls instead of tile!

Oh yes: I wished I had listened better when Mrs. Schwartz taught us tennis. I would play it all day if I could. I play on a few womens and mixed teams — we have a few great facilities here. Best to everyone, Carol

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First Person Singular Michael Osit (‘72)

The Clinical Psychologist and Dad of Three Talks about What’s The Matter with (and What’s Great About) Kids Today in His Debut Book, Generation Text

started college as a business verse population in terms of their backgrounds and the kinds of problems major, but, during my first year, I that I treat. I decided that I wanted to be a I find kids to be really fascinating and interesting. Always have. And I psychologist. I went to SUNY Oswego. find them very easy to work with. They haven’t been walking around with Very cold up there. There was one their problems so heavily defended for so long. I just find them much more bridge that had a full view of Lake workable. I relate to them very easily and have a very comfortable relation- Ontario. The wind came off the lake ship with them. The other piece of it is, when I work with adults, having a so fiercely, we had one bridge with great appreciation and understanding of what it’s like to be a kid, because I ropes to grab onto. Rumor had it that work with all ages, it’s very easy for me to work with adults, because I know if the wind was seventy-five miles an their history already. It’s interesting. hour or over, and you weighed under The problems that kids face today have changed dramatically from one hundred pounds, you were ex- when we were growing up. There are lots of reasons for it. One is that the cused from class. I don’t know any- culture has changed. What has become “normal” has become distorted, in one who ever took advantage of that, terms of values, morals, and attitudes. The respect for authority has eroded but ... tremendously, I would say over the last ten to fifteen years. I get calls from I got a masters degree in psy- superintendents of schools, teachers, and principals about unbelievable chology at Northeastern University in things. Just last week: a seven-year-old girl, a first-grader, defying a princi- Boston. And then, two years after pal. My kids that drive — I call them “my kids” — when they get pulled over that, I received what’s called a certifi- by police, they’re talking back to the officers. cate of advanced graduate study in Two years ago, the mother of a ten-year-old boy that I was seeing school psychology — another ad- comes into my office on a Friday morning, and she’s annoyed. She says to vanced graduate degree. And then I me, “Do you know what John did last night?” My husband and I were out to got my doctorate at Rutgers Univer- dinner with very important clients, and at ten-fifteen, he calls me on my cell sity, in clinical psych. I started prac- phone and says, “Mom, give me your Amex card; I wanna order a new la- ticing privately in 1985, in Warren, crosse stick online.” New Jersey, which is where my main “Well,” I asked her, “what did you do?” practice is now. I also have an office “Well, I was so annoyed with him, because I just bought him a new la- in Morristown. crosse stick three weeks ago.” I started out working exclusively It was then that I started listening and looking at that, and I thought, with children, adolescents, and fami- Wait a second. It’s a school night, it’s ten-fifteen, and he’s left with his lies, and it evolved into working with twelve-year-old brother to watch him, because his parents are pursuing couples and individuals. I would say their careers. He’s shopping online on a school night, at ten-fifteen, he’s that about 40 percent of my practice not asleep, and he’s demanding the credit card from his mother. is kids now. Because of the areas That’s what spurred me to want to write a book that could help parents. where I practice, my patients are I was hearing so many stories like that one. So I started jotting down stories mainly from middle-class and upper- and put together a book proposal and found an agent. The book is called middle-class homes. But I see a di- Generation Text: Raising Well-Adjusted Kids in an Age of Instant Everything. Continued on page 9

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Michael Osit Dr. Osit’s Strategies For Continued from page 8 Parents of Teens & Preteens *

*Besides chloroforming ‘em A Book Offering Solutions

There are lots of books out there that • Parents have to equip children with good deal with the problems and the symp- decision-making skills, because once they are toms. In Generation Text, I get into out of your sight, it’s up to them to make the root psychological causes and healthy decisions and sound judgments in how these effect our kids’ develop- life. One way to do this is to model good deci- ment. It’s a how-to book, filled with sion making yourself. Another way is to have strategies for parents, but it’s also about our culture and its im- lots of discussions with your kids. For exam- pact on children. In general, I think there’s a lot of what I call ple, when your son or daughter comes to you “passive parenting” going on. Mom and Dad are in tune with their and talks about a friend who’s having a prob- kids’ physical and psychological health, but they’re sort of just lem or getting into trouble, that’s a teachable reacting — waiting to do damage control instead of being proac- moment for your child to learn certain skills. tive. For instance, they’re passive in that they allow their kids to When you watch something on television, and watch certain television shows and fail to discuss the moral mes- the message is a negative one, or the kid ac- sages with them. They just assume that the kids are getting it, or tor makes a poor decision, discuss it with don’t even pay attention to it. Parents are much more indulgent your child afterward. and permissive than they had been in the past. Then you have the whole media bombardment. The cover of • Teach your children a criteria for good deci- the book shows three boys standing next to one another, texting sion making. First, they’ve got to pause and away, with blank expressions on their faces and no interaction take time to really evaluate the decision be- between them. Media is having a tremendous impact on our fore them, as well as the consequences. “Is kids’ development; for example, in terms of their social skills. The this going to be helpful to me or harmful to abbreviations used in texting have bastardized the language and me?” Also, “If my mom or dad were watching their ability to communicate. me, would it be okay with them if I did this?” Even TV commercials, which market to kids, send a message that it’s cool to be bad. It’s cool to be sexy, it’s cool to be sexual. • Avoid the temptation to “microparent.” One What can parents do to counteract the influence of the media? of the keys to good parenting is balance. You The first thing is, they have to actively monitor what’s going on on have to be there enough to guide and support the internet, what’s going on in their kids’ computers, what kind and direct your child, to help him learn and of TV shows they’re watching, and what kinds of games and soft- be safe. But you also have to make judg- ware they’re using. ments about when to step back and allow They have to educate themselves about the technology that him to become independent, which some- changes every six months, because the kids adapt readily, and times means making his own mistakes, then the parents don’t. Consequently, the kids end up having this learning from them. whole private world, with layers of privacy from their parents. So moms and dads have to stay abreast of the cutting-edge technol- • Startring early, parents need to establish a ogy, because it’s such a big part of the kid culture. solid, open, communicative relationship with Part of what I advocate in the book lends toward going back their children. Well-established limits and toward more traditional parenting: holding kids responsible, not boundaries will help with the teenage years. accepting the norm, balancing wants and needs. You know, kids “need” everything, according to them. You have to really know • Stay in the loop. Continue to educate your- how to say no and be firm, so that we stop the excessiveness. self about new technology and what is “in” My wife, Terri, and I have three children, ranging in age from with your children. By staying abreast of what eighteen to twenty-six. Our kids always say that we’re the strict- is happening in the youth subculture, parents est parents in the world. For instance, we won’t allow their can help kids navigate through the media and Continued on page 10 peer influences.

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Michael Osit play the same sport but are on two, But also, as young adults, they’re three different teams. The parents going to be looking for more thrills. If Continued from page 9 will call my office and say, “I can’t they’re having coed sleepovers at schedule an appointment this week fourteen and fifteen, what are they eighteen-year-old friends to come for his therapy because he’s got going to want at twenty-five, sexu- over and drink alcohol. Now, that’s a three games this week.” But then, in ally? As well as adventure. If they’re norm these days, it seems; other par- the population that I treat, the par- getting so much now, they’re always ents do that. When something be- ents are doing the same thing, run- looking for more, and the world may comes normalized, then parents as- ning through life. Not stopping to not be able to provide it for them. We sume, “Well, then it must be okay. smell the roses, just dashing from may wind up with a depressed gen- So I’m going let them go eration, not having their to that R-rated movie,” dreams fulfilled or ex- and so on. As a parent, pectations met. you have to not succumb Wedding day, 2006 to peer pressure yourself Meet Michael and and stand up for the val- Terri’s Kids ues that you believe in and want to instill in your Daniel, our oldest, lives family. in Manhattan and has what looks to be a very Too Much, Too Fast, successful startup com- Too Soon pany called Ignighter. It’s a cross between a We live in an age of so- social networking site cial acceleration and in- and match.com. He tense competition. graduated from Chi- Eighth-graders are get- cago’s Northwestern ting SAT tutoring now. The Osits of Springfield, New Jersey: Left to right, that’s University in 2004 and You can google the Matthew, Michael, Daniel, Terri, and Nicole. Michael and took a job as a pro- words Spa and Kids, Terri, who’s from Plainview and teaches preschool, met in prietary equity trader. and you’ll find across high school while both were working at Great Eastern And within one year, the country spas that (formerly Floyd Bennett, remember?) on Broadway in Jericho. they made him a full are geared toward seven- “We didn’t date then,” says Michael, “but that’s when we principal partner, be- year-olds, offering not met.” The couple married at twenty-three. cause he’s really just manicures but yoga good at it. He worked classes and stress-release classes. appointment to appointment. It’s got there for another year and a half, It’s ridiculous! to slow down a little bit. made some money, then quit to do I have a slew of kids who are very I worry about how this is all going this Ignighter venture with college athletic — some of them are even to play out in the future, when these friend. It’s turning out very well, but, superstars in high school sports. kids are in their twenties and thirties. to be honest, I was a little nervous They expect to get full scholarships For one thing, the work ethic has about him leaving this amazing ca- to top schools, and then they’re been compromised. Kids expect to reer at just age twenty-three. But he crushed when nobody is even inter- get everything without working for it. wasn’t nervous at all, he found this ested in them. Their expectations are There’s a sense of entitlement, and more exciting, and he’s making it skewed. And the pressure! They’re in that’s going to become magnified work. two, three sports a season, or they unless we do something as a culture. Continued on page 11 Everybody’s Got a Story to Tell — Even You!

So how about sharing it in a future issue? You can either write it yourself or be “interviewed” over the phone. It’s your story entirely in your words. Pretty painless, really — even therapeutic. If you’re interested, get in touch.

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Michael Osit On the Side Continued from page 10 Other JHS Authors with New Books Out Nicole, who is twenty- three, graduated from Le- high University in 2006. She just completed her masters degree in clinical psychology and is now working on an advanced graduate degree and PhD in clinical psych at Seton Hall. She’s a supervisor in Wedding day, 2006 a psychiatric facility. Even- tually she is going to join my practice. She’s a natu- ral! Our youngest, Mat- thew, is a senior in high school and off to the Uni- Ellen Meister Philip Bashe Felice Mehlman versity of Rhode Island in (‘75) (‘72) Hodges (‘72) the fall. It’s funny: Daniel and Nicole knew exactly The last Philip “I was where they wanted to go time we Bashe has very lucky and got in right away, first checked authored or to get a choice. Matthew is all over in with coauthored job as a the place. He’s interested Ellen seventeen writer- in marketing and business, Meister, books to journalist but also psychology. Stephen date, cover- for a lead- My three kids are ex- Meister’s younger sister ing an array of topics and ing art and antiques tremely close. I can hon- (class of ‘75), in the sum- issues: parenting (Caring magazine in London estly say that they never mer 2006 issue (No. 13) for Your Teenager, Ban- soon after graduating fight, which is really lucky. of the JHS Thirderly tam; How to Keep the from Cornell University As time goes on, I think Newsletter, she was Children You Love Off in 1976,” says Felice parents naturally tend to about to publish her first Drugs, Atlantic Monthly Mehlman Hodges, be more permissive with novel, the hilarious Se- Press), health (The Com- whose family moved their kids, ourselves in- cret Confessions of the plete Cancer Survival from Jericho to England cluded. There’s an eight- Applewood PTA (Morrow/ Guide, Doubleday; The after seventh grade. “My year difference between Avon). Ellen, a mom of Complete Bedside Com- parents were still living Daniel and Matthew. The three, lives in West Birch- panion: No-Nonsense Ad- in England at the time, story I like to tell is that our wood, the same neigh- vice on Caring for the Se- and I was very keen to oldest didn’t taste soda borhood where she, riously Ill, Simon & Schus- get back home. probably until he was six or Stephen, and their sister ter), sports (Dog Days: “The magazine, seven years old. Nicole Andrea (class of ‘83) The New York Yankees’ called The Antique Col- probably had it at four or grew up. Fall from Grace and Re- lector, was published five years old. And my Even before the book turn to Glory, 1964─ monthly by the American youngest had it in his bot- came out, Jericho was 1976, Random House); Hearst Corporation, tle. abuzz about whether the and popular culture along with Cosmopoli- I think most parents upper-class Long Island (Teenage Idol, Travelin’ tan, Harpers and Queen, agree that we’ve created a town of Applewood was Man: The Complete Good Housekeeping and Continued on page 12 Continued on page 12 Continued on page 12 Continued on page 12

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Michael Osit Ellen Meister “Okay, I know who Ruth is based on, Continued from page 11 Continued from page 11 but I can’t figure out who Maddy and Lisa are based on.’ I’d explain that based on a certain community in the Ruth wasn’t based on anybody! ‘It’s society that is too fast and too 11753 zip code, and whether the main fiction!’ And they’d say, ‘Yeah, yeah, competitive. A lot of them characters — a group of PTA moms — yeah. But who is Maddy supposed to complain to me about it, but were thinly disguised Jerichonians. And be?’ After a while,” says Ellen, “I real- they don’t know how to stop when the book was published, to much ized that nothing I could say was going it. I don’t really see this trend acclaim, well, forget it. Ellen couldn’t go to change people’s minds. I decided ending. History tends to go in anywhere without being stopped by cu- that it was probably making them buy cycles, and everything sort of rious readers from the neighborhood. the book, so why keep denying it? goes back at times, but I don’t “They simply would not believe that They’re going to think what they’re go- know if there’s any going back the book was fictional,” she says, ing to think anyway. from this. Something dra- Wedding day, 2006 laughing. “People would say to me, Continued on page 34 matic would have to happen because it’s embedded in our culture, and that’s not so eas- man of Amgen, the world’s largest bio- ily changed. Philip Bashe tech company, and maker of such im- The last chapter of my portant drugs as Epogen and Neupo- book is titled “Regaining Con- Continued from page 11 gen, Science Lessons reveals Amgen’s trol,” and that’s something management secrets. Much of its ad- that parents can do. I think Biography of Rick Nelson, Hyperion; vice is uniquely counterintuitive and we have to take a step back a That’s Not All Folks! My Life in the rooted in the scientific methodology. little bit. I’m not saying that Golden Age of Cartoons and Radio, Don’t know the answer to a problem? the so-called “good old days” with Mel Blanc, Warner Books). His Conduct an experiment! What else were so great. But we have to books have also been published in would you expect from a company take things down a notch, many other countries, including Eng- whose first fifty employees were all mi- learn to appreciate how peo- land, Australia, Germany, Japan, China, crobiologists? ple are treated, people’s feel- and Russia. Binder reveals what made Amgen ings, emphasizing people’s Phil’s newest, Science Lessons: so successful (and why it was consis- efforts rather than outcomes. What the Business of Biotech Taught tently named one of the best compa- Be more ... humane in terms Me about Management (Harvard Busi- nies to work for, year after year) against of how people feel about one ness School Press), is his first busi- the backdrop of the pioneering days (all another and how they treat ness-related book. Cowritten with Continued on page 35 one another. Gordon Binder, longtime CEO and chair- I know it sounds very hokey, but it sort of is that Felice Mehlman as if we were monopolizing the entire way; we have to stop empha- magazine! I wrote under my own name, sizing material things so Continued from page 11 as well as ‘Virginia Pepys’ and ‘Justine much, as well as achieve- Samuels,’ both of whom became better ment, and learn to appreciate The Connoisseur. Our offices were just known than myself! It was great fun, people in terms of who they off Carnaby Street in the heart of Soho, and I felt privileged to be a published are instead of what they are between Chinatown and the red-light writer. and what they have. ■ district — which turned out to be a “During my eight-year stint with the good location for getting around magazine, I was approached by other About Generation Text quickly to the next interview or photo publishers to write books as well as shoot. In a busy month, each of us give lectures to art historical societies. Michael’s book, published by could be writing as much as eight I wrote the Phaidon Guide to Glass Amacom, was named one of thousand words spread among three or (published under my maiden name), the best books of 2008 by four different feature articles, under since I had written many articles on Instructor Magazine. different pseudonyms so it didn’t look Continued on page 14

JHS Classes of 1971-1972-1973 Thirderly On-Line Newsletter • Spring-Summer 2008 Page 13 T O O N S C A R T O O N S C A R T O O T O O N S C A R T O O N S C A R T By Dan Clurman

About Dan: “I have been a coach and educator for the last twenty years, deliver- ing training and classes in nonprofits, universities, and corpora- tions. “I assist professionals, business people, couples, and students to more skill- fully navigate life transi- tions, as well as improve their communication and presentations. I also have a small practice as a Fel- denkrais® practitioner, a movement-based form of education. “I've cowritten a few books, Money Disagree- ments: How to Talk About Them and Conversations With Critical Thinkers, as well as a book of poems and drawings, Floating Upstream.” These toons are part of Dan’s just-published book You've Got to Draw the Line Somewhere, available for $15 at http://www.dantoons.com. Daniel Goleman, best- selling author of Emotional Intelligence, has this to say about You’ve Got to

Draw the Line Some- where: “impish but pointed, edgy and astute, wise, and just plain funny.”

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Felice Mehlman our looks, without resorting to plastic Takin’ Care of Bidness! surgery — in a youth-obsessed society. Continued from page 12 We know so many attractive women who loathe clothes shopping because Glassmaking, and, later, coauthored it is an utterly depressing experience. The Design SourceBook, an illustrated What we try to do in the book is to in- history of nineteenth- and twentieth- spire fifty-plus women to find their century styles in the applied arts. I true selves, in their own style, without edited and ghostwrote other books on looking like either an elderly matron the history of costume, pottery, and or a victim of a Versace makeover! porcelain, and wrote Period Pastimes, “The book is my first venture into which was published by Weidenfeld self-publishing, which Kaaren and I and Nicolson.” (All these titles are now embarked on in collaboration with a Jerichonians out of print but are still available from well-known book editor. Although we Amazon.com and other booksellers on received several offers from publish- At Work the web.) ers, sadly, all of them fell through at “My latest book,” says Felice, “is the last minute, either due to lack of Janice Fashion after Fifty: The Mature finance or the fact that we were not Turtletaub Fagen Woman’s Guide to Style. It’s my first celebrities. Initially, we have limited book on fashion, with my friend the run to five hundred copies, and we Division President, Great-West Kaaren Hale (another American, ex- are hoping to get the books distrib- Cornellian, longtime resident in Lon- uted to other publishers and fashion Healthcare (now part of don, and style guru). We had enor- journalists, with the aim of getting it Cigna), Dallas, TX mous fun writing it, and although it serialized in a newspaper or maga- addresses the serious issues of “Why zine.” I lived in the can’t I find anything attractive to wear Fashion after Fifty just came out very last house at my age?” it tries at the same time in hardcover. According to Felice, all on Saratoga to be a bit witty and tongue-in-cheek. money from sales will be donated to Drive in West Chapters range from buying bras The Great Ormond Street Childrens’ Birchwood, next and swimwear, to accessories, to Hospital and The Samaritans, “a char- to the water- clothes for working women, and what ity that offers emotional support to pump station. to wear with jeans. There are addi- people who are in distress or suici- My bedroom tional sections devoted to our skin, dal.” Interested in purchasing a copy? overlooked the Westbury Drive- hair and bodies, and advice on how to Just email Felice at felicehodges@ In. preserve ourselves — and maintain hotmail.co.uk. ■ I used to spend my summers working at a camp in the Cats- Advertisements — Special Offers to Jericho High Grads, Whose Unique Talents Are Always In Demand!!! kills, called Camp Limelight, which was a camp for mentally retarded children. I did it while I was in college too. That was a real strong passion for me, work- ing with that population. I went to SUNY Buffalo for a degree in psy- chology. After two years in Buffalo, though, I decided that there had to be a better — namely, warmer — way to live, so I transferred to UCLA. It broke my parents’ hearts; they weren’t happy about Continued on page 15

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Janice Turtletaub Continued from page 14 me being all the way in California. But to me it was this big adventure; it was very exciting. I got my degree in psychology at UCLA, then entered a masters-PhD program at the California School of Pro- fessional Psychology. No sooner did I complete my mas- ters than I met and became engaged to Larry Fagen, the man who would become my husband. Larry, who worked for the Internal Revenue Service, was from L.A., had never lived anywhere else, and was at a point where he was ready to try something different. Kind of like me moving to California. The IRS gave him the option of go- ing anywhere in Texas, and ultimately he chose Houston. Larry went to Texas first; I made trips there to make sure this was what I really wanted to do. It was a pretty scary thing to me. I mean, L.A. I could relate to; it was In January, Janice and husband Larry celebrated their similar to New York. But Texas? That was the Wild West! twenty-fifth anniversary with a trip to Argentina. Here To make sure I really knew what I was getting into, Larry they are in Glacier National Park. would mail me these letters (this was back in the day — no email) with drawings he’d made of Texas-related peutic. But when I got to graduate school, I realized that I things. Like Texas cockroaches. He wanted me to know was more interested in organizations; I found myself that the roaches in Texas were enormous. Gigantic drawn to the corporate environment as opposed to the toads. Drenching humidity. I still have all his letters. They institutional environment, like an office or a hospital. didn’t scare me off, though, because in 1982 I moved to My first job, while I was still in Los Angeles, was run- Houston. We got married the year after that, and cele- ning programs for people who had come out of mental brated our twenty-fifth anniversary this year with a two- institutions. You see, California had started closing down week trip to Argentina. state psychiatric hospitals. And so there were a lot of community-based programs. I had a masters in psychol- Another Major Adjustment: Instant Motherhood ogy, but instead of doing therapy, I was overseeing pro- grams to assist these people who’d been institutional- Larry had been married before and had three children. ized for years to be able to make it outside in the world. I So I instantly became a mom to three stepsons, ages really enjoyed that, but then came my little detour to thirteen, ten, and seven. It was quite an adjustment. I Texas to be with my future husband. used to call my friends and say, “I’m living in a world that When I got to Houston, I worked for twelve years as is completely brown, and I want to bring some pinks, an administrator at two psychiatric hospitals. They were reds, and purples into it.” It was a very masculine envi- both private, and very nice, with patients of all ages, ronment. Somehow I made sure that when Larry I had from children up to adults. I specialized mostly in teenag- children together, we had a girl. Two, actually: Melanie, ers with drug and alcohol problems, eating disorders, our oldest, is twenty-four; and Jenny is twenty. We also depression, schizophrenia, and so on. have a son, Stephen, who’s twenty-three. All together, I call that my first career, and it was wonderful. A lot we have six wonderful kids. of it was due to luck and timing. In the early 1980s, the I worked full-time the entire time. I’ve been working psychiatric industry was booming. But the reason for the since I was thirteen, and I happen to love to work. I’ve boom was that employers were fairly generous with the been called a workaholic. I think I have it better under benefits they were paying, and by the mid-1990s, that control now, but there were periods of time where I was starting to erode. probably worked too much. As I said, I’d worked with My job started changing. All of a sudden I started mentally retarded children and their families during my having to interact with managed-care mental-health summers, and originally I wanted to do something thera- Continued on page 16

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Janice Turtletaub Houston. Also, Dallas is a little more a Cigna employee again! For how cosmopolitan, a bit more like Chi- long, I don’t know. That's because on Continued from page 15 cago or New York. Houston is more June 3, I was notified that my job relaxed and laid back. One thing that was being eliminated, and starting companies. Through that experience, I’m really enjoying, besides just the July 15 I will be out of work unless I of having to enter into contracts so change, is that I have almost no find something somewhere else in that my hospital could get paid, I commute here, because Dallas isn’t the company or with another com- learned a whole other industry: nearly as sprawling a city as Hous- pany. Here I go again! health insurance. That became my ton. second career, which I’ve been in for At Great-West, I’m in charge of a A Common Story for Many of Us: the last fifteen years, with positions group of nurses and doctors who A Parent’s Illness of increasing responsibility for health help to coordinate the care on behalf plans (HMOs, PPOs). of the patients. I’m responsible for a In June 2006, just two weeks after The whole time, we lived in a team of professionals that negoti- we moved, my mother became very, charming little suburb of Houston ates the reimbursement rates that very ill with cancer back in Jericho. called Sugarland. Why Sugarland? we pay to hospitals and physicians, And so for the first six months that The town was literally built around a and all ancillary health-care provid- we were in Dallas, I was flying to New sugar mill belonging to the Imperial ers; I’m also in charge of the service York twice a month. It was a horrible, Sugar Company in the 1880s. It had that we provide to them, in terms of horrible illness, and my being in a train and a river. Now it’s your typi- their claims payment and the accu- health care didn’t help to make cal bedroom community, and a won- racy of the claims payment, and the things better. Far from it. derful place for raising children. speed of the claims payments. The I guess I had this naive idea that Two years ago I was offered a job was a stretch for me, and it’s when someone is dying of cancer, really great job opportunity in Dallas: been a great experience. they get the pain medication they to become the president a health- But on April 1 Great-West was need and the end will come peace- care division in a company called bought by the company I’d left two fully. It wasn’t like that at all. My Great-West. Jenny, our youngest, had years ago: Cigna. No April Fool’s. I’m Continued on page 17 just gone off to the University of Texas in Austin, so it was a good time to move. Or, maybe I should say that it seemed like a good time to move. Looking back, I’m not sure. Larry was up for a change; by then, he’d retired from a thirty-three- year career with the IRS as the chief of appeals and was now working for the “other side,” as a CPA in private practice, working at home. He’s very successful fighting the IRS because he knows all the tricks of the trade. It’s really the perfect situation for him, because he’s got a pension and doesn’t have to work every day; he controls his own schedule. We went from living in the Hous- ton suburbs to a more urban lifestyle in Dallas. We’re still learning the city. It’s very different from Houston. Dif- ferent climate, different vibe, differ- Presumably the Fagen family isn’t always quite this color coordinated. ent everything. Like, we have snow Then again, maybe they are. Left to right: Eric, Janice, Brian, Stephen, here. You would never see snow in Andy, Melanie, Larry, and Jenny.

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Janice Turtletaub cause my mother had always taken a bit to figure things out, because my care of him, for the most part. They parents would not share what was Continued from page 16 had a very traditional marriage: fa- going on. For instance, they wouldn’t ther worked, mother stayed home. talk about a will; they wouldn’t talk mom was in pain all the time and Also, when an elderly parent is about burial plots. And when I would was frantic, even though she was sick, the normal parent-child roles try to broach these matters in a calm being treated at what’s supposed to get reversed, and you have to negoti- and upfront way, they would get very be a great hospital. ate what they’re willing to let you do upset. Not in my opinion, especially liv- for them. Like, I had to sneak around Continued on page 18 ing in Texas, where, in general, there’s a lot of very good and com- passionate nursing care. In New That Little Ol’ Matchmaker, Janice York, I just felt like nobody really cared about her. The staff always Denise Straus Loverro is one of my closest friends from Jericho. We both seemed rushed and made you feel went to SUNY Buffalo together, then she moved out to L.A. two years af- like you were bothering them. ter I did. As a matter of fact, I introduced Denise to her husband, I pleaded with my mother to Stephen, in 1978. come to Texas. But she didn’t want I was seeing a guy named Greg Podolski. He was a photographer and to leave Long Island. The five months worked at a photo lab, and he introduced me to one of his coworkers, between the time she was diagnosed Steve Loverro, who, coincidentally, was from Syosset. I had a strong feel- and the time she died were a very ing that Steve and Denise would hit it off. We made arrangements to sad time. meet Steve and Greg for brunch at the beach in Santa Monica. I recall I felt like no matter what I tried to that the brunch included do for my mother, it just wasn’t good champagne and/or other enough. I had a terrible sense of fail- drinks — and that we just ure, which goes back to having had a drank a whole lot. completely unrealistic idea of how The next thing I know, these situations go. I’m used to be- Denise is passed out, and ing able to control things — not that I am thinking, So much everything goes perfectly; of course it for Steve liking her; she's doesn’t — but when you’re trying to a zombie. But I guess he manage a loved one’s medical care saw the woman of his from a thousand miles away, you feel dreams through her totally powerless. My husband kept drunken slumber, because saying to me, “Look, this isn’t like they have been married running a business. You’re not going twenty-seven years and to be able to control this.” are one of the happiest, Janice (center) with Denise (right) and a He was right. I couldn’t get the sweetest couples you'll mutual college friend, Michele, at the treatment team coordinated. So I felt ever meet. class of ‘73’s thirtieth reunion, in 2003. a tremendous amount of frustration, maybe more than the average per- Denise’s version: son might feel in the same situation. I can’t tell you how many letters of “When I graduated from the University of Buffalo, I stayed with Janice, complaint I wrote about the hospital! and she introduced me to her boyfriend's good friend Steve. I told her At the time, I was emotional, and I not to set me up with anyone, but she said I would really like him. We wanted somebody to understand went on a double date to a champagne brunch near Venice Beach. (Did I how painful this was, and I just didn’t mention that I can't drink?) Steve was cute, funny, warm, and generous. feel that the health care system We dated and were told by both our parents that Italians and Jews cared. shouldn't marry — we grew up on Long Island, for G-d's sake. Now, thirty Meanwhile, my father, who’s years since we met, whenever people intermarry, we like to laugh and eighty-seven, was suffering too, be- say, ‘It'll never work!!’”

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Janice Turtletaub that so long as he can get up and As for the future, everything is up take a walk around the block or exer- in the air. Ideally, I want to live near Continued from page 17 cise, that’s his purpose. my children and grandchildren, be- cause my kids didn’t have that: Their Mom died in November 2006, the A Spiritual Path Grandma and Grandpa were far day after Thanksgiving. Luckily, my away in Jericho. But our six kids are son and oldest daughter were both I was raised in a nonobservant Jew- all spread out. in graduate school in New York; they ish home. Larry, when I met him, was Of our three children together, would check in on their grandfather on a journey of becoming more ob- Jenny is a nursing student in Austin; frequently at the house in West servant. About seven years ago, we Stephen is a graduate student major- Birchwood. My brother, Ron, who’s started keeping kosher and attend- ing in urban planning at New York two years younger than me, was liv- ing an Orthodox shul. I haven’t University and works as a paralegal; ing there too. My father was suffering adopted all the rituals — for instance, and Melanie, who got her master’s himself from a dislocated hip, so he I don’t cover my head at work, but I degree in public health administra- had to be in a wheelchair. do when I go to synagogue. tion (and is also a registered dieti- It was really hard for him. As any- tian), is currently a lobbyist in Wash- body who knows my dad will tell you, ington, DC, for the American Medical he’s bigger than life. He was a body “When an elderly parent Group Association. Two of my step- builder and weightlifter back when sons are in are in San Antonio, nobody did that kind of thing; very is sick, the normal Texas, and one is in Temecula, Cali- physically active. parent-child roles get fornia. I’ve talked to a lot of my Two months after Mom died, I reversed, and you have friends about this: When you have so convinced him to come live in Dallas. to negotiate what they’re many kids all over the place, where The point wasn’t only to have him do you move? near us, but he needed surgery, and willing to let you do for My husband is not sold on stay- after the awful experience I’d had them. I had to sneak ing in Dallas. He would prefer to be with my mother, I knew I couldn’t around a bit to figure in the southern part of the state. If supervise his medical care long dis- things out, because my one of our daughters were to get tance. At first he lived with us parents would not share married in the next couple of years, (between him and my husband, I felt and I think there’s a strong possibil- like I had two alpha dogs in my what was going on.” ity that will happen, and they were house), but once he recovered from residing in Texas with their families, the operation, he went to live in an then we would stay close by. But independent-living retirement com- Maybe some other people from we’re just going to have to wait and munity. Jericho can relate to this, but it’s cre- see. We don’t have any biological Overall his health is pretty good ated a kind of schism in our family. grandkids yet (our son Eric has a for an eighty-seven-year-old. We have Because by the time we made some stepson from his wife’s previous some amazingly deep philosophical of these changes, my kids were marriage), though it’s not for a lack conversations. One day he said to pretty well formed. My youngest is of nagging. We nag a lot. We never me, “I don’t know what my purpose extremely observant, but our other let an opportunity pass to let our kids is anymore. I don’t what I’m sup- children looked at us like we’d either know that we’re anxious to be grand- posed to be living for.” I don’t have been abducted by a religious cult or parents! the answers either, but it’s given me had dropped down from another a lot of insight into what the elderly planet. It was disconcerting to them. Staying in Touch face, particularly after they lose a Slowly, they’re adapting, but to a cer- spouse. The thing that keeps him tain extent, it’s still an issue. I really wanted to attend the classes going — and it’s very inspiring to me Yet I find it to be a very rich ex- of ‘71-‘72-‘73 reunion last year, — is to keep his body strong, so he perience, and I’m really enjoying it. but I’d been to New York so many can be with his grandchildren. Just One thing I know is that I’ll never go times in the previous year because this morning I was over at his place, back. I see us continuing down this of my mom’s cancer, that the and he was doing push-ups! He feels path. Continued on page 30

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Rich Zlattner were an extended Italian family. In revolve around the right outfit and my first lesson in multiculturalism, cheering for the football team. I vol- Continued fromNational page Bestsller 15 when I was about eight years old, I unteered in New York City for the watched gorgeous Dolores first Earth Day; I marched to stop DiLorenzo, all dolled up one day in a hunger in Biafra; I started to protest white “wedding” dress, having her the war. But I was miserable. “You Everything you picture taken on the front lawn. were such a happy little girl,” my “That’s what Catholic girls wear mother once reflected. “I never un- always wanted to to their first communion,” my mother derstood what happened.” told me, when I told her young Lucky for me, two solid friend- know about Dolores was getting married. I was ships with Elaine Zetlin and Amy Kli- ready to convert. At Christmas we now kept me going. Elaine and I sang Debra Schwartz (’71)* used to head next door to see Ste- and danced and found plenty to ven (’71) and Jerry LaRusso’s (’72) laugh about. I still tell the story of * But Were Too Self- tree. I remember once asking my how we confidently headed off to the mother, “How come Steven and Jerry Felt Forum one Saturday night to see Absorbed to Ask! never come over to see our meno- Sam and Dave. As it turned out, they rah?” Without missing a beat, she were merely the opening act for a said, “You can invite them if you group that was barely on our radar: grew up in want.” I knew that a visit with our Ike and Tina Turner. We were the East Birch- electric menorah would not cut it only ones in the overwhelmingly I wood, on with Steven and Jerry, but I’ve always black crowd who had come to see Mellow Lane, a considered my mother’s response to Sam and Dave! Instead, we found street that be the logical answer to the annual ourselves in the midst of a super- could hardly be Christmas non-dilemma. Ours equals heated scene, unlike anything we distinguished theirs — except when it comes to Continued on page 20 from any other cooking. We’re still us- in Jericho. It ing Carmela LaRusso’s Debra with son Michael. was noisy, with spaghetti recipe, but boys playing ball, girls methodically my kids know it as popping tar bubbles, bikes galore, “Grandma’s Spaghetti dads gone by day, moms clustered in and Meatballs.” driveways when they weren’t clean- Like most teenag- ing house or cooking supper. We ers, I spent my high walked or biked around the corner to school years trying to George A. Jackson, rain or shine, and find my voice. This may came home for lunch when the cafe- come as a big surprise teria was serving something we to those who heard my couldn’t abide. (I remember being bitter, acerbic com- quite fond of Friday tuna and pizza plaints loud and clear. and barbequed beef on a bun.) But, really, most of the Our lives could be summed up time I felt like I was on TV shows that are derided these choking at Jericho. I days — Leave It to Beaver, Donna didn’t know what I was Read, Father Knows Best — except looking for — Do I know that we were largely Jewish. Jericho even today? — but I was shut down on Rosh Hashanah. None- absolutely sure that I theless, I like to tell people that I was not going to find it grew up knowing something about in Jericho. Even at the diversity because our neighbors, the height of the Vietnam LaRussos, Fiores, and DiLorenzos, War, life seemed to

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Debra Schwartz other anyway! (I still recall Mark Elowsky, Marty Lee, and Mark Goldfarb showing up together at my door that first Continued from page 19 semester. What an unlikely combo!) That’s not to say that I didn’t make friends from other places, but I do re- had ever experienced and which we barely understood. member, very distinctly, walking around the dorm and (It was called sex!) looking for people who were carrying the New York Times Amy, on the other hand, prided herself on being be- under their arm. And I found them. yond rock & roll, though I have a clear memory of fussing Including my future husband. over the Sgt. Pepper’s album cover together when it was Hootenanny or Sing-along? released. Together we shared You Decide our existential crises and found our meeting ground in My very first week at UM, I art and poetry and our general was sitting in the dorm misery. I can still remember an lounge with my roommate. excited call to her from Michi- She was writing a lonely let- gan after I discovered Sylvia ter home to her boyfriend. Plath and her famous line from I’m pretty sure I was writing a “Lady Lazarus”: “And I eat letter to Amy. There was a men like air.” I was ferociously meeting going on at the angry. other side of the room, and Needless to say, when it afterward, these guys came came time for college, I was up to us and invited us to a looking for something as differ- hootenanny. I looked up at ent from Jericho as I could one of them, Howard Brick, find. The University of Michi- smiled politely, and thought, gan was the only place I Yeah, right, I came to the wanted to be. It was far away, University of Michigan to go and it was a big school where I to a hootenanny. Ever since, thought I might escape the it’s been a big joke narrow confines of Long Island between us. He insists he and figure out what I was The whole family on vacation in Oregon. From left to said a sing-along, as if that going to do with my life. It right: Jessye, Michael, Debra, and Howard. makes a difference. I was helped that Ann Arbor was the not the kind of girl who sang birthplace of SDS (Students for a Democratic Society). anything except the Top 40 in the privacy of my bed- I wanted to study anthropology, which I had been room. introduced to at a summer program at Cornell University. Ironically, Howie was a freshman from Stony Brook. (Who can forget those Cornell T-shirts I lived in senior I’d come all the way to Ann Arbor, Michigan, to meet a year!) Looking back on it now, I think that Margaret guy from Long Island. He’d been the editor-in-chief of his Mead fascinated me, more than the discipline. It’s hard high school newspaper, and he went to UM specifically to remember how few professional role models there to work as a reporter for the Michigan Daily, the school really were for teenage girls, and she definitely had an newspaper. He was involved in left-wing politics, and to adventurous spirit that intrigued me. my mind he had a confident voice. I think he fell in love As it turned out, I studied art history; primarily Asian with me because I wore beat-up work boots with pink art history. Suddenly my life was all about Buddhas, Bo- laces, a visual cue to my own confusion. He apparently dhisattvas, and stupas. I was reading Alan Watts and found me delightful. At the beginning of our junior year, hooked on Zen koans and meditative chants. It was just we got together for keeps. When we graduated, he gave a different way of seeing the world — finding oneness up journalism, thinking he could not drink enough or instead of duality — which was exactly what I’d wanted. smoke enough to keep up with the real reporters he had While I looked forward to escaping the East Coast, at known, and he stayed on in Ann Arbor to begin a PhD in Michigan all of the kids from New York found one an- Continued on page 21

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Debra Schwartz The Sharks: A Volleyball Team, Continued from page 20 Not a Teenage Street Gang

American Culture Studies. I had not a Who says I don’t have happy memories of Jericho? clue what I would do or where I I came up with plenty of hysterical ways to survive my adolescence. would do it, but unlike kids today, I Mrs. Karen Schwartz always showed me great forbearance. In a tumbling was absolutely confident that a lib- unit, I refused to attempt a headstand. When it came my turn to perform, I eral-arts degree could get me some- stood up and said, “Mrs. Schwartz, I cannot do this!” and headed for the thing. locker room. I knew I was no Carol Forziat. On a short visit back to New “Debbie Schwartz!” she cried. “If you don’t come back, I’m failing you!” York, I did what all the books tell you I didn’t look back, and she didn’t fail me. to do and blindly called a few pro- Thus empowered, I thought nothing of becoming a founding member of spective employers, starting with the Sharks, a short-lived team that came together long enough to survive Praeger Publishers, which published Mrs. Schwartz’s volleyball unit. The team included Amy Klinow and Wendy a fine line of art books. I was just Foxman. (Who else? Remind me, please.) Whenever we scored a point, we hoping that I could get somebody to held our hands over our heads and wiggled them like shark fins breaking speak to me about a career in pub- through the water. When we weren’t working the shark theme, we enthusi- lishing. Instead, the receptionist who astically imitated the cheerleaders’ repertoire to push us on to victory. We answered the phone said, “I believe were over-the-top thrilled with ourselves. Our exuberant mockeries pre- there’s an opening in Special Stud- dated anything seen on Saturday Night Live, but we could have grown up to ies.” She put me through to a wing of be founding cast members! the company that had nothing to do Mrs. Schwartz, happy to see her most untalented students having fun, with art history; they invited me in for must have encouraged us by ignoring us. For someone who took athletics an interview, and I got the job for seriously, who really tried to teach kids like me how to spike, she had a $125 a week. I don’t think you can healthy sense of proportion. get a job this way nowadays. Special Studies was Praeger’s policy division, which published aca- like it?” Because that was about as sample of her writing, I don’t demic studies with recommenda- much as I could muster. I either liked have anything that I did for her, tions for pressing but often arcane it or I didn’t. In my yearbook, he though I’m sure it must be down in matters that government agencies wrote, “Debbie: What else can I say my mother’s basement. I certainly were considering. It started me on a but ‘I like her.’” Through his humani- never wrote poetry, but short stories path as a writer and editor that I ties class, he was also the first to and personal lamentations would have pursued one way or the other introduce me to the study of art. I’m have been right up my alley. I must ever since, working with scholars sure this played into my becoming an have felt safe enough in that class to and enabling them to communicate art history major, although I’m quite write dreamy tales of future romance to a broader audience. certain we never looked at anything and reams on futile obsessions. I Two teachers were especially from Asia. recall that when Janis Joplin died in important to me in developing the Ms. Estelle Stern (now Estelle 1970, I committed my thoughts to communication skills I needed for Stern Rankin), who taught creative paper, and Miss Stern was quite this field. One was Mr. Charles Vigi- writing, also validated my existence. okay with it. lante, whom I was lucky enough to (And believe me, I thought my exis- Looking back, what was most have three times: in ninth, eleventh, tence was at stake in those days!) important about Miss Stern was that and twelfth grades. He taught me She had this to say in my yearbook: I took hope knowing that nice, fun how to read with a critical eye. Or at “Dear Debbie: If you ever sell out girls could grow up to be nice, fun least he tried to teach me, because your perception, I’ll find you in the women and not lose something at the time I was pretty hopeless. darkest corner of the world and along the way. She was as lively as I We had a running joke between break your writing hand.” (Isn’t it wanted to be always. My closest us: We’d be discussing some literary amazing how I always happen to women friends today have some- work in class, and he would say to have that damn yearbook close at thing in common with her. As for me, me, “And Miss Schwartz ... did you hand?) I regret that while I’ve got a Continued on page 22

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Debra Schwartz of flung the paper at me and announced, “You got the highest grade in the class.” Just like that I conquered Mr. Continued from page 21 Voigt. I also got to see his gentle side. Ninth grade was the my personality keeps getting bigger and bigger. I think I year that my father had his first heart attack. When Mr. must be entering that purple-wearing phase. Voigt heard the news, he came up to me and quietly During the time that I worked at Praeger as an assis- asked how my father was. To have a teacher show an tant editor, I lived at home and with interest in my life out of school really the money I saved I flew back to Ann took me by surprise. There was Arbor regularly to see Howie. He fin- some major project coming up, and ished his master’s degree in 1977, I he excused me from it, an act of left my job at the same time, and the kindness that I wasn’t expecting at two of us flew off to Europe for three all. months. Then we lived together. Then In 1980 Howie and I moved to we got married. We got the marriage- Brooklyn, he to write his dissertation, honeymoon thing kind of reversed. me to get started on my career. The But so did everyone who insisted on first week back in New York, I got a a backyard wedding as we did. job in the education department of My mother led me to Bonwit the Asia Society, working with teach- Teller to buy the dress. I probably ers at the K–12 level. We led various hadn’t bothered to shave my legs. curriculum projects and published a The saleswoman took one look at magazine called Focus on Asian me, sized me up, and said, “I have Studies. During my five years there, I just the dress for you.” She went off made a lot of wonderful friends and to the backroom and returned with a got to travel to conferences through- beautiful Mexican lace dress, and out the United States as well as in that was it. Japan and India — where I finally got to see the Sanchi stupa, the Taj Ma- An Interest in Asia — Courtesy of hal, the temples at Kujaraho, and Mr. Voigt Daughter Jessye and son Michael. more. It was a great time in my life. In 1985, Howie, degree in hand, Howie and I went back to Ann Arbor, he finally landed his first academic job: to work on his PhD, and me to study Chinese and pursue a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Chicago. So a master’s in Asian Studies. I have to give credit to Mr. we returned to the Midwest, now with our one-year-old Voigt for spurring my interest in Asia, though the project I son, Michael, in tow. I loved the city, except for the hard remember best from his global studies class was a fifty- winters and summers, and I had a nice job at the univer- page paper on “Transportation in Mozambique.” I hap- sity’s art museum. But academia is tough, and to get pened to be at one of the world’s great universities, ahead professionally you’re always looking for the next where I could study whatever I chose, but his ninth-grade best thing. class really opened up my eyes to a part of the world that Chicago, in any case, was a two-year deal, and it was I had no idea existed. time to find the “real” job. Two offers came simultane- Of course I was scared to death of Mr. Voigt. He ously: a tenure-track position at the University of Oregon really worked hard at that maniacal air that was in- and another postdoctorate at Harvard University. It’s tended to unnerve good girls like me. I remember him hard to turn down Harvard, even if it’s just a one-year handing back our first test. He was prowling the circle of deal. Fortunately, we didn’t have to: UO kindly delayed desks, ducking under the vegetation and all the other the start of Howard’s appointment for one year, so he clutter in his performance space, and said ominously, could do research at Harvard and teach. Off to Boston “And who is Debra Schwartz?” My heart started to we went, in June 1987, now with a second baby, our pound, and I briefly tried to come up with some evasive daughter Jessye. Then a year later, it was on to Oregon. action, but I knew the guy was bound to figure out who I Eugene was the perfect city for me, although I will was eventually. I meekly raised my hand. Mr. Voigt sort Continued on page 31

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and, I guess, smoking marijuana. I liard. Only thirty-two students were Rich Zlattner was the kind of person who was al- accepted into the program, which Continued fromNational page Bestsller 15 ways on stage. To be honest, I was consisted of forty hours a week of probably really hard to take! I was theater-oriented classes. It wasn’t a very high energy. regular college education; it truly was My experiences with Mr. Stephen a conservatory. Everything you Piorkowski were really important to In the course of a week, we me. We did two plays together: Good would take everything from move- always wanted to News and How to Succeed in Busi- ment, to voice training, to tai chi, to ness. In my sophomore year, a few of mime. I took three years of makeup know about us decided to start a sort of alterna- classes. The program was intensive. tive theater. We put on The Impor- In Rockefeller’s original plan, the Peter Green (’73) * tance of Being Ernest in the Little school would spawn a touring reper- Theater. Ellen Vanderslice directed; I tory company of graduates. But in my acted in it, along with Jeff Friedman, freshman year, Malcolm Wilson suc- * But Were Too Self- Tim Manek, Randye Ringler, and ceeded him as governor, the state Absorbed to Ask! Marc Sachs. economy fell apart, and Rocky’s For me, the most memorable dream fell by the wayside. Still, it was shows were the one-act-play con- wonderful and difficult training. Of think I tests. The one that I remember best the thirty-one students who entered decided to is sophomore year: I directed a with me, only fifteen or so graduated, I be an Eugene Ionesco play called The Fu- and only seven stayed for the full actor at the ture Is in Eggs. It was just as weird four years. Although new and un- age of three. By as could be. For me, the point was to known at the time, the acting depart- fourth or fifth confound the audience. We had bi- ment at SUNY Purchase now has a grade, I was zarre makeup, and I had made the national reputation. taking classes cast do marching drills outside dur- Through college, my interest in after school ing rehearsals. I think at first the cast avant-garde and experimental thea- with drama was like, “Who the hell is this guy?” ter grew, even though I’d performed teachers Arnold Hrushka and Burt because until then I had been some- Continued on page 24 Wolfe. Cindy Rosenthal (‘72) was in thing of a loner. Suddenly I was this that class too. long-haired tenth-grader telling them Then, through Carrie Kass (‘74), I what to do. met an acting teacher named Jack We got censored a day before Romano. I studied with him through- the show, which was a big deal. But out high school, as did Cindy. Jack we became the first sophomore ran a performing-arts camp in New class ever to win the one-act-play Hampshire called Beginner’s Show- contest. We didn’t get any acting case. I went there for years; even awards, but we won best direction, wound up working for him later at lighting, second-place ticket sales, Stagedoor Manor in the Catskills. and best publicity (I think), because That’s where I met my wife, but more of Corey Strongin’s amazing bed- about that in a moment. Stage Door sheet-size posters. Somehow we Manor has become something of an racked up enough points to win it. institution, with many famous alums, like Jennifer Jason Leigh, Mandy On to SUNY Purchase Moore, Natalie Portman, and Jon Cryer, to name just a few. I directed I was in the second entering class at Robert Downey Jr. when he was nine SUNY Purchase, Nelson Rockefeller’s years old. brand-new state university conserva- During high school, theater was tory. It was his dream that New York my whole connection to life. That, should have a school similar to Juil-

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a stage manager, and she was directing. Carin Zakes Peter Green was a theater double major at SUNY Oswego. We had a Continued from page 23 summer romance, and she was going to move to New York in the fall. But instead, she received an assistance- in many musicals during high school and at camp. I ship with free tuition to go for her masters degree in edu- wanted to do experimental work. One of the reasons I cation at SUNY Buffalo. She’s originally from Tonawanda, went to Purchase in the first place was that some of the a Buffalo suburb, so she took it. Long-distance relation- instructors had come out of La Mama and the Open ships are hard, and ours just didn’t work out. Theater, two important avant-garde companies from the Yet we would still see each other at Stage Door sixties. Manor every summer, and we got to be friends again. In During my senior year, Purchase brought in a guest 1978 she finally did director named James move to New York. Barbosa to do a pro- A bunch of us from duction of Dylan Tho- Stage Door got to- mas’s Under Milk- gether to put on a wood. Jim had been a musical written by a member of the Open sixteen-year-old Theater. He and his prodigy. It was very partner, Barbara much like “Hey, Vann, now had their kids, let’s put on a own small company show!” Carin di- called the Medicine (Above) Peter’s Bobby Randall rected, and I acted. Show Theater Ensemble. shares mascara tips with Beth The City Suite (Jim passed away a few Flanders’s Patricia Bingham in opened at the Park years ago, but the com- Good News (1971). Royal Theater, on pany is still together to Seventy-third Street this day.) (Right) Peter (with Charles and ran for three After the production Kopelman) stars as J. Pierre- months until we ran of Milkwood, Jim said pont Finch in How to Succeed out of money. Even to me, “If you’re plan- in Business without Really got a nice review in ning on moving to New Trying (1973). the New York York in the fall” — this Times. Doing the was 1977 — “come look us up.” play reignited our Following graduation, I would have liked nothing bet- relationship, and ter than to go home to Jericho, sit on the couch, and we started going out again. In September 1980, Carin have a breakdown, but there was no home to go home and I got married. to! My folks had recently divorced and sold it. So I moved A famous screenwriter said to me once when I was to Hell’s Kitchen. I was hauling boxes into my new apart- twenty-two, “Whatever you do, just don’t get married. ment, and Jim and Barbara came walking down the Because if you get married, you’re going to want to have street. “There you are! We knew what block you were a life, and that will be the end of you as an actor.” And moving to; we figured we’d find you. We need somebody he was right. to understudy a performance that we’re doing in a week. I chose to have a life. But acting was all I’d wanted to Are you available?” I spent the next two years with Medi- do. It was all I thought I was and all I ever thought I cine Show Theater, stage-managing and acting, either in would be. It became my identity, which I suppose can be their performance space or on tour. Since I was making true with other professions as well. Now, if your identity little or no money from acting, I worked for my dad’s is based on the idea that you’re an actor, and you stop business-forms printing company. being an actor, then who are you? It was very hard to quit. Heartbreaking. Took me Time to Make a Choice about two or three years to get to the point where I could say I wasn’t an actor anymore. And when I gave it up, I My wife and I met in 1975 at the new version of the walked away from it completely. I said to myself, That’s same theater camp, Stage Door Manor. I was working as Continued on page 25

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Peter Green nity like Jericho. I wanted my children at me, and I blurted to my wife, “I to live in the world, and Jericho was hate this life; I’ve got to do some- Continued from page 24 like a bubble to me. I mean, I didn’t thing else.” know any black people until I got to “Well, what do you want to do?” it, I’m not an actor. I’m not doing college. Our town was all white, and Teaching looked good to me, but I theater, I don’t even want to see by my estimation, 85 percent Jewish. didn’t think we could afford for me to theater anymore. It’s over. Even the Italian girls walked down go back to school and make a I’d stopped working for my dad. My the halls exclaiming “Oy veh!” teacher’s salary. Advertising looked first post-acting job was in the data- We settled in Port Chester, New really fun to me. By that time, most communications department of Co- York. Our daughter Emma was born of our social circle was made up of lumbia University. Next I went to in April 1987. By this time, I had left art directors, creative directors, copy- work as manager of telecommunica- British Airways when they relocated writers — folks like that. It took me a tions network operations for North to Queens, and was working as a year, but I found a job as a director’s America for British Airways. I was senior network analyst in telecom- rep, which is to say an agent for peo- twenty-eight years old, with only a munications network design at Me- ple who direct commercials. First I bachelor of fine arts. morial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Cen- worked at a production company, Meanwhile, Carin had realized ter. then I went out on my own. I spent early on that trying to find steady fifteen years in advertising, making it work as a director wasn’t realistic. the longest career I’ve had. She took a job in an advertising agency, Wyse Advertising, as the sec- “A very successful screen- Career No. 4 Coming Up! retary to the owner, Lois Wyse. She’s writer said to me when I was the advertising legend who coined twenty-two, ‘Whatever you A couple of things led to my pursuing the slogan “With a name like a fourth career, as a social worker. Smucker’s, it has to be good”; she do, don’t get married. First, advertising stopped being lu- also wrote something like fifty books. Because if you do, you’re crative around 2001, following the After about six weeks, Lois said to going to want to have a life, dot-com implosion, the Screen Actors Carin, “Honey, you’re really sweet, and that will be the end of Guild strike, and 9/11. and I think you’re great, but you But also, Carin and I had joined can’t type. So what do you want to you as an actor.’ And he was the Unitarian Church of All Souls in do with your life?” right. I chose to have a life.” Manhattan. We’d gotten married Carin said, “I like the idea of pro- there. She was a lapsed Catholic, ducing commercials.” She pro- and I was an apostate Jew who’d gressed from being an assistant to been raised by atheists. Our second the producer to producer, and it’s When I left acting, I think I de- daughter, Olivia, was born in 1991. what she’s done ever since. Cur- cided that I didn’t need to care about By then, I’d come to believe that peo- rently she’s head of production at an what I did for a living ever again. It ple need some measure of faith in agency called Cliff Freeman & Asso- seemed inconceivable to me that I their lives, whatever it may be, and ciates, in Manhattan. could ever feel passionate about that parents have to at least present In late 1986, with our first child work, and I held to that point of view with children with spiritual options. If on the way, we decided to leave for a while. But I just hated the job at you don’t, then you leave a vacuum Manhattan. Neither of us knew the MSKCC. One day in 1988, Carin, that the Moonies can fill. first thing about raising a kid in the Emma, and I were driving back from Having been married by a Unitar- city — except that it probably took visiting my brother, Roger (‘70), in ian Universalist minister, we started more money than we were making Pennsylvania, where he lives with his looking at UU congregations we and a lot more ingenuity than we family and owns Roger Green & As- could bring Emily and Olivia to. None had. We were both suburban kids. sociates, which is a large independ- of the churches near where we live So we started looking for a place ent pharmaceutical marketing re- felt like home. One Sunday morning with a reasonable commute. search company. we packed the girls, who were eight One thing I knew: I wasn’t going The thought of going back to and four, in the car, drove to the city, to live on Long Island or in a commu- work the next day was just gnawing Continued on page 26

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Peter Green I received my MSW (master’s of awakened my love of theater. Ever social work) in 2005, the same year since, I’ve done a play or two per Continued from page 25 that Emma graduated from high year as an actor. I also direct teenag- school and Olivia graduated from ers. For the past two summers, I’ve and enrolled them in the religious middle school. We all celebrated to- directed youth productions of Shake- education program there while Mom gether with a big party. I’m now a speare in the park in Port Chester, and Dad attended services. It just social worker at Rye Middle School, something nobody has ever done felt right. and I’m loving it. here before. I’m also codirecting Rye Going forward to 1998, I was Middle School’s spring musicals. asked if I wanted to be an adult advi- The Acting Bug Bites Again Carin followed me back to the sor to the high-school youth group – theater a few years later. Somehow I probably because I had a ponytail. I I’ve also gotten back into acting. I’d hooked her into directing a produc- agreed to do it. I’d taught acting to always thought that community thea- tion of You Can’t Take It with You for teenagers, and it seemed like some- ter had great power. About ten years the local arts council. Now she di- thing I would like. I started doing ago, I saw an ad from a local theater rects one to three shows a year in youth counseling, and organizing company auditioning actors for David Port Chester and neighboring com- events; over time it became the thing Mamet’s Glengarry Ross. I showed it munities in New York and Connecti- that I cared about most in my life, to Carin and said, “Mom, can I go out cut. We just finished Six Degrees of while my day job became increas- and play?” She said, “Yeah, go play.” Separation in Darien; she directed, I ingly less interesting to me. I wound up getting the role of Ricky acted. Out of a cast of seventeen, During the summer of 2002, at a Roma, the Al Pacino part, and it re- three of us are social workers. That’s UU conference center, I was listening not surprising to me; after all, acting to a talk being given by a minister is mostly about analyzing why people and Dartmouth professor named behave the way they do. Nancy Crumbine. She said, “If you Usually, though, my wife and try knew that you were completely ac- not to work together; somebody has ceptable in the eyes of whatever you to be home to do the parenting. think the cosmos is, and without sin Unless I’m directing a play, I’m the or shame, what would you do? Who one who’s home in the afternoon; would you be?” By September I was Carin still commutes to the city. enrolled at the Graduate School of Emma, who’s going to be twenty- Social Services at Fordham Univer- one, is a junior at Occidental College sity. in Los Angeles. She’s a diplomacy It was a two-year program, in- and world-affairs major, with a minor cluding two years of field work, but I in art. My older daughter is one of did it in three, because I was still run- these people who light up a room ning my repping business the first when they enter. I don’t know what year. At one point, I was working in she’ll do with her life, but it really Port Chester High School, where both Continued on page 31 of my daughters have attended. I wanted to work with teenagers, probably because my own adoles- cence was still very much alive for What wife wouldn’t love this me; I would have really appreciated it job? Just shout “Action!” and if someone had been present for me. your husband does whatever When I think about my teenage you tell him to do! At right, years, I know that I’m lucky to be Carin Zakes Green (on the alive. I think that’s true for many left) directs Peter (above), members of our generation, who the star of the Fort Hill Play- took certain risks that perhaps our ers production of Bram parents had not. Stoker’s Dracula.

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Wanna learn what some of your former teachers are up to? those days, the 1950s, you could also get your certification on a K- Then drop in, pull up a chair, set a spell, but most of all — through-12 basis. After I finished my NO TALKING ! — at the ... student teaching, I had to put in six weeks in an elementary grade in or- der to get the elementary certifica- Faculty tion. So I took a student-teaching job in Pavillion, New York, a little town Lounge south of Rochester. It was the most rural area you could imagine; far re- moved from Queens or Long Island. School was held in this little one- room brick building — for all grades, K through 12. Some of the kids actu- ally rode their horses to and from school. They’d pat the horse, and the horse would trot back home, then show up again at three o’clock. Well, within one week of student teaching sixth grade, I really fell in love with six-graders. I had two job Mr. Robert Perna: offers come to me on the very same day. One was from Hicksville High A Special Educator School, which naturally knew me, because I’d finished student teach- rowing up in Cambria cause of my uncle, I always had ing there. And the second was a Heights, Queens, I had a some desire to work with people who sixth-grade position in Jericho. G sixth-grade teacher who was had some form of disability. After Believe it or not, I didn’t know fresh out of the army: Mr. Murphy. I’ll college in Geneseo, I did my student where Jericho was! And many people never forget him. He was just the teaching in Hicksville High School. didn’t know where Jericho was. This greatest guy. We used to go to his I had very serious plans to be- was 1958. Jericho was very much a house after school and throw balls come a high school teacher. But in rural farm community. The biggest around in the street with him. And building in the whole town was the many a Saturday, we would stop by Milleridge Inn, and there was very and visit him and his family. From little else but the Milleridge Inn, a then on, I always wanted to emulate firehouse, the old school building Mr. Murphy. So while other kids (which is now the old wing of the sen- might have wanted to be a fireman ior high), and the George Jackson or a policeman, or whatever, I and Robert Seaman schools. That wanted to be a teacher. was it. I went to Geneseo College origi- In front of the Milleridge Inn, nally as a speech-therapy major with where North Broadway now runs, a minor in English. One of the rea- was this great big pond with swans in sons for that was, I had an uncle who it. There were no stores, no Wald- was a deaf mute. So was his wife. I baums. But houses were being built loved my uncle, and they tell me that everywhere. At the time, you had he taught me sign language when I East Birchwood, the little develop- was a little kid; basically, I learned ment around the Robert Seaman sign language at the same time as I School, and the rest was very much learned spoken language. So be- Continued on page 28

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Mr. Robert Perna looking forward to it. Instead I found myself, in two Continued from page 27 weeks’ time, out of the classroom and into the district office. I did miss teaching. But, fortunately, Mr. Nydick’s farmland. When I took the job, I knew that Jericho would orders were for me to be as creative as possible in my be building more schools. new position. I’d always gotten that sense from the dis- I started teaching sixth grade at Robert Seaman. trict, though, going back to the very first day I walked in Then the following year, they moved the sixth-graders to as a teacher in 1958. Jericho always put a high premium the high school. That’s where I met secondary-school on education. Then and now. Parents always expected teachers like George Batjiaka and Andy Chagalasian. The the very best for their kids, and the teachers were urged Robert Williams to go a step beyond School was next to the norm and do the open, but I got trans- best that we could ferred to George for kids. Jackson instead. I What Mr. Nydick was there for two really charged me to years until Can- do was to empha- tiaque Elementary size pupil-personnel opened in West services. Do what I Birchwood during thought was really the 1962–63 school necessary for the year. kids. I quickly fell in love with the job of The Jump to administration and Administration did it for the next twenty-five years. For the 1967–68 We had a philosophy school year, I was then, and I’m sure it asked to handle the continues, that edu- Title I program. If cation should be you remember, Presi- Mr. Perna at our Reunion in 3-D with the class of 1971’s Leslie special for all kids dent Lyndon Johnson Glassman and Mrs. Marlena (Perna) Perna. That’s no typo: Her rather than special had passed the Ele- maiden name is also Perna. education for some. mentary-Secondary We always felt that Education Act for the purpose of funding programs to you make the most impact when you draw upon a kid’s help the economically and educationally disadvantaged. interests and strengths. Though I continued to teach sixth grade, I was charged In the late sixties, BOCES was an up-and-coming in- with identifying the youngsters that were most deserving dustry in and of itself. But we wanted to have as many of of these funds, obtaining the necessary materials, run- our kids within the district as we possibly could. This ning workshops for teachers, and so on. meant in some cases asking parents to take a leap of I guess I must have done a pretty decent job at it, faith, because there were always some parents that felt because in 1968 Superintendent David Nydick ap- that their child should be in a special school. Our phi- pointed me his assistant in the district office. It came as losophy was, Let’s work as hard as we can to help these a big surprise because, frankly, I’d never had any great children overcome whatever limitations they may have, desire to enter administration, although I’d gone to Hof- so they can be part of the regular social structure. stra and earned the necessary degrees. I really enjoyed Long before the law decreed that you have to place being in the classroom. children in the least-restrictive educational environment, The school year was just about to start. I was all set we believed in mainstreaming, while recognizing that to send out letters welcoming my new students. And that there will always be some children that may not be able year, I was going to have lots of younger brothers and to be educated in Jericho. There are children that for sisters of many of my former students. So I was really Continued on page 29

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Mr. Robert Perna bus. There was nothing that he committees have to operate. We put couldn’t do except for physical them in place on our own, improvis- Continued from page 28 things. ing. I’ll never forget the first meeting: To show you how much he We had Dr. Bernard Schmierer, our one reason or another may have to wanted to be like all other sixth- wonderful school physician; the be in residential placements, for in- graders, the one thing that he most school psychologist; the school stance. But we made every effort to wanted to achieve was to get to first nurse; the classroom teacher of the keep them in district. When children base during recess. Now, in those youngster was that was being dis- were hospitalized for long periods of days, teachers had lunch and recess cussed; either the principal or assis- time, we used to send tutors to with the students. And I have to tell tant principal; and, of course, the them. Or sometimes their teacher you that some of the best times I had parents. Together we would study would go visit them after school. were spent during lunch and recess. the child’s needs. Again, this was Even in the fifties and sixties, we ar- This boy had very good upper-body something like fifteen years before ranged for telephone hookups to the strength. He could hit a ball. But he the law required it. classroom for children who were couldn’t hit it very far. And of course, Some of you might remember homebound. that from 1970 to 1972, we had the My first year, I devoted most of motel population. Welfare agencies my attention to working closely with placed these people in a horrible parents and the PTAs and communi- “Jericho’s special education situation, where you might have a cating to them just what the public program became a model single parent, usually the mother, schools had to offer their children, so around the country. Dis- with three or four children in a single they could remain in their home com- tricts from all over used to room. The youngsters attended the munity. We worked out a program Robert Seaman school. In some where we were able to analyze the come visit our schools.” cases, these families had been relo- youngsters’ needs and prepare indi- cated from other towns — even from vidualized programs for them. What other states. Fortunately, we had made the difference was that not wonderful cooperation from not only only were our teachers willing to do if he couldn’t hit the ball very far, he the teachers and parents but from this, but they demonstrated such couldn’t make it safely to first base. our student councils. Over the years, ingenuity. So during recess, I would take him Jericho student councils have been Let’s say that a youngster has aside and pitch to him. absolutely phenomenal in the work some difficulties with visual learning. And I would show him how to hit that they would do with younger chil- Well, but he might be very good at a high fly ball that at least might give dren. We ran a breakfast program; auditory learning. We’d bring on all him a chance to first base. And I will we had an after-school recreation the different modes of learning and never forget the day that he got to program for those kids; we had the tailor a curriculum for him. Also very first base. You would think that he kids in our summer camp. I can’t tell important: We avoided labeling. That had won an Oscar, and the whole you how many high-school kids was essential, to see the child and class cheered him on. To me, it was would volunteer to be Big Brothers not the condition. such an indication of how other kids and Big Sisters. We had children with all kinds of respond to people with differences. Because of the terrific work that disabilities: blindness, deafness, the was done for these youngsters in the whole spectrum. One of the first Ahead of the Curve motel, Jericho won the National Con- youngsters that I taught at Seaman ference of Christians and Jews Broth- back in ‘58 was a dwarf. A magnifi- As far back as 1968, Jericho insti- erhood Award two years in row; I be- cent child who was probably one of tuted a screening committee for stu- lieve it was in 1971 and 1972, or the smartest kids we ever had. In dents with special needs. Many 1972 and 1973. It was a wonderful fact, I know that as an adult, he be- years later, this became mandatory. honor that really brought terrific rec- came a member of Mensa. But he First it was called the Committee on ognition to the district. I was very needed accommodations, the easi- the Handicapped and then the Com- glad that Jericho was able to get this est of which was to put a stool by the mittee on Special Education. Nowa- for two consecutive years. bus so he could get on and off the days the law prescribes how these Continued on page 30

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Mr. Robert Perna and-So doing?” That was a great Perna too.” “Really?” I said. “It must treat. be my long-lost sister.” So I went Continued from page 29 When I retired in 1993, sixteen over and met Miss Perna, and we got of my former students were at my to chit-chatting. We sort of liked each Our special education program retirement party. I was so moved. other, then we started hanging became a model around the country. Rachel Glickman (‘72) — she’s such around in a group, and before you Districts from all over the place used a sweetheart — was one of them. know it, we started to date. to come visit our schools, and we When you personalize education the (Fortunately, we discovered that used to fly to other cities, like Seattle way we have in Jericho, it stays with there was no family tree connecting and Denver, to conduct workshops you, and it stays with each and every us.) This was in 1955, and we’re still on how to run these programs effec- one of those students that you had. I together. tively. One time we even had a group still receive holiday cards and birth- For the first few years of our mar- from England spend three days ob- day cards from people I taught fifty riage, we lived in Seaford, where I’d serving Jericho’s tutoring program. years ago, and it’s tremendously moved with my family when I was You know what the real beauty of gratifying. fifteen. Then in 1960 we moved to my job was? Even though I left the Syosset, and we’ve been there ever classroom in 1968, the superinten- In Retirement, No So Retiring since. We have a grown son and dent’s office was and still is right in daughter. No grandkids, but dogs. the front of what used to be the jun- My wife, Marlene, and I celebrated Marlene, who’d been the program ior high school. So I still saw all of my our fiftieth anniversary last October. coordinator at the Nassau Center for former students. In fact, several of We met in college at Geneseo when I the Developmentally Disabled for them would come to my office, and was a sophomore, and she was a twelve years, is also retired. We’ve we’d have lunch together. Plus, I freshman. Tradition dictated that the traveled a good deal, including sev- knew all the guidance counselors for sophomores always threw a dance in eral trips to Europe. But we’ve fallen so long and so well, it was a simple honor of the incoming freshmen. At in love with the United States taking thing for me to pick up the phone the dance, someone came up to me cross-country train trips. I love Am- and call Mr. Latham or Ms. Smith, and said, “Bob, you have to meet trak! It’s the best way to see the U.S. and say, “Hey, by the way, how’s So- this girl from Rochester. Her name is We took one trip a couple of years back, 7,500 miles cross- and others. I personally loved grow- country by train. The beauty of it is, Janice Turtletaub ing up there and have very positive you set your own itinerary, and off Continued from page 18 feelings toward everyone. I’ve really you go. If you want to spend three gotten into reading the JHS newslet- days in Chicago, you do that. Three thought of traveling there again was ter and visiting the website. I print or four days in Portland, Oregon. just too unappealing. Eventually I’ll out the newsletters and save them Then we went down to L.A., where we get over it, but right now I associate for when I have to fly somewhere, so had some friends, and spent some Long Island with pain and hospitals. that I can really read them. time there. Went to San Diego, and My friends Roberta Eagle, Denise So besides remaining connected then went over to the Grand Canyon. Straus, Laura Sheftman, Meryl Edel- with my small core of close friends, I I think we took five different Amtrak man, and Charlie Kopelman all feel like I’ve reconnected with people trains in all over the course of the called me twice that day so that I who don’t even know I’ve connected five weeks. would feel like I was there. with them, just by reading about I really enjoyed attending your Since that time, one of the dear- them. It’s interesting when you read Reunion in 3-D last year. It was won- est women in my life other than my an article about someone, and you derful to see everybody. Four years own mother, Edna Eagle, passed think back to what they were like as ago I went to my own fiftieth high- away, and my heart goes out to a kid. And either you can totally see school reunion, and in June Marlene Roberta, her father, Sy, and Suzy, her how they turned out this way, or it’s and I are going to a fiftieth reunion at sister. Edna was my first mentor. the opposite of what you might have Geneseo State College, which I’m I’ve always stayed in touch with thought. really looking forward to. You do it all my Jericho friends like Charles, Wonder what people reading my with a lot of fun and a lot of laughter, Meryl, Denise, Laura, Loren Krause, story will think? ■ and life goes on pretty well. ■

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Debra Schwartz author of many articles and several Another Move: This Time to St. Louis scholarly books, including Daniel Bell Continued from page 22 and the Decline of Intellectual Radi- We moved to St. Louis in 1996. calism: Social Theory and Political Howie is happy to be affiliated with a admit it took some getting used to. Reconciliation in the 1940s, Age of great school like Washington Univer- When we landed at the airport, I Contradiction: American Thought sity. I keep waiting for my old friends’ thought we’d consigned ourselves to and Culture in the 1960s, and Tran- children to start showing up in my life in some Third World country. It scending Capitalism: Visions of a husband’s classes. It hasn’t hap- was one of those deals where you New Society in Modern American pened yet, although Rita Corwin’s deplaned on the tarmac ,and your Thought. son is now here. baggage was brought to you by hand. As any spouse of an academic Leaving Oregon was the hardest When you drove out of the airport, will tell you, editing your husband is decision we ever made, and we’ve the first thing you passed was a absolutely the quickest way to end a spent many years second-guessing sheep farm. It’s still there, in fact. marriage! They get very defensive. I the move. We go back periodically, Then, and now, everyone in learned early on to read Howie’s and now Michael will be starting Eugene still thinks it’s 1968. The city work, offer a few comments, and graduate school at the University of is a haven for alternative lifestyles. leave it at that! Continued on page 32 Aside from the university, it’s not a place that you go to build a career. (Eugene is called the minimum-wage capital of the U.S.) But if you stay Peter Green Frankly, I don’t know if this is my last career, but I like everything I do there long enough, it’s impossible Continued from page 26 not to succumb to what we call the now. And it’s all my choice. I work “Pine Cone Effect.” Oregon is just a five days a week in the middle magnificently beautiful state, and doesn’t matter. I have a feeling that school, direct young people in thea- from Eugene you have access to the she’s going to get a bunch of de- ter, act, teach Sunday School, and ocean and the mountains. Life there grees. I’m on the board of trustees of All is all about living healthy and enjoy- Olivia, now sixteen, is deter- Souls Church. I also run a UU twenty- ing the beauty of nature. Once we mined to be a photographer, and four-hour retreat for middle-school- got the hang of Eugene, I never she’s got the same singleminded- ers from around the metropolitan wanted to leave. ness that I had about acting. She’s area twice a year. Carin, in addition As I said, it’s hard to find work in smart and funny, and a lot quieter to her job and her directorial pro- Eugene, but ultimately I wound up for than the rest of the family. Whereas jects, also teaches Sunday school a short time as the speech writer to Emma was never a teenager, Olivia and is the Community leader for Girl the president of UO: Myles Brand. is absolutely a teenager. We had Scouts in Port Chester/Rye Brook, He’s now the president of the Na- some challenging years, but we’re at with a troop of her own. tional Collegiate Athletic Association. a point where I can step back and Sometimes we move so fast, and And how’s this for a coincidence: He see her as the great person she is: our to-do lists are so full, that we grew up on Hedgerow Lane in East wonderfully kind, yet with a healthy ask, “Are we out of our minds?” And Birchwood. He graduated in either dose of skepticism. we are. But that’s a good thing. ■ the first or second class from Jericho High School. After my stint with Six Degrees of Separation, Jericho Division Brand, I became editor of the univer- sity’s research magazine and then a Carin (Zakes) Green → Peter Green (’73) → Benita Zahn (‘72) GPS trade publication — in the days when no one knew what GPS was. Once again, I was taking the ideas of When I met my wife, I learned that she and Benita Zahn (JHS class of academics and translating them for ‘72) had been college roommates at SUNY Oswego. A few years ago, we a wider audience. attended an Oswego State reunion. Benita couldn’t be there, but on the One academic I will not mess drive home, we stopped off in Albany, where she lives and works as a TV with, however, is my husband, the anchorwoman, and we had a great time hanging out with her.

JHS Classes of 1971-1972-1973 Thirderly On-Line Newsletter • Spring-Summer 2008 Page 32

Debra Schwartz Continued from page 31 “I spent many years emulating Stephen Molina's mother as I lugged Michael’s Oregon in the fall. He was a philosophy major at Colum- bass all around Eugene and St. Louis, bia University and also delved into acting, producing, and and finally to his dorm room at directing, but now he’s thinking of following in his fa- Columbia. I didn't even have a minivan. ther’s academic footsteps by studying the history of early modern Europe. He used to know everything about dino- I'm here to attest that you can squeeze a saurs, and now he seems to know everything about ob- bass into a Honda Accord. scure wars and events like the “investiture controversy,” which I happen to know took place in the eleventh cen- tury because I just Googled it. close to the Delmar Loop, a happening strip with lots of Michael lives in his head. In high school he feigned good music. As a kinda-sorta St. Louisan, I’m happy to interest in radical politics. Jessye, on the other hand, claim Ike and Tina Turner, Chuck Berry, and Miles Davis used to roll her eyes whenever her father and brother as my own. You can go out to a bar any Friday and Satur- got into lengthy discussions about Marx and Lenin at the day night and hear some fabulous music. dinner table. But once she went off to Smith College, she When I came to St. Louis, I got a job in communica- became the political one. She’s majoring in women and tions at Webster University, a regional school that also gender studies and psychology. This summer she has an has an international presence with several campuses internship at the National Coalition Against Domestic around the world. In many respects, my seven years Violence, in Washington, DC, and while it’s not clear yet there represented the high point of my professional life. what she’ll wind up doing, she’s intent on working on It was at Webster that I saw my words in print on a regu- behalf of women’s rights. lar basis. I was writing for the president; I was writing for Jessye reminds me a lot of myself in high school in the development office; I wrote the weekly faculty/staff that she’s always been an excellent student, but when newsletter; I wrote for the alumni magazine. I worked school is out, she wants to have fun. I see that her Face- hard to promote the accomplishments of the institution book page now says that she is interested in “dancing in and its faculty. fountains.” She must have done this in Sicily, where she The story that ultimately had the greatest impact on went in May on a Smith College Orchestra tour. I insisted me was one about an English professor who taught dra- that both my kids play music, as one of my favorite ex- matic literature to inmates in the state prisons. I fol- periences at Jericho was being in Mr. Arnold’s orchestra, lowed her to prison and participated in the best class I but I never expected that one of them would actually have ever attended. The men enrolled in Prison Perform- turn out to be a seriously good violinist. ing Arts at the state prison in Pacific, Missouri, defied all Michael plays the bass, thanks partly to Stephen my expectations. They were reading Oedipus with pas- Molina. When he was five, Michael decided that the sion and intelligence. I didn't know what most of these drums would be the right instrument for him. I didn’t men had done to end up in prison — at least one had think it was such a good idea, so I asked him if perhaps murdered a man — but I instantly became aware that there was another instrument he might like to start on. highly articulate people could commit crimes that I'd pre- When he said the bass, I immediately thought of fer not to know about. If the people I met in prison had Stephen and had only positive associations with the in- enjoyed the advantages that I had known, many might strument. So I spent many years emulating Stephen not be incarcerated. Molina's mother as I lugged Michael’s bass all around I ended up joining the PPA board, developing its logo, Eugene and St. Louis — and finally to his dorm room at helping with publicity, and writing its newsletter. Getting Columbia. I didn't even have a minivan. I'm here to attest to know men, women, and young people behind bars has that you can squeeze a bass into a Honda Accord. enhanced my quality of life, and I’ve finally had the Once the kids left for college, Howie and I moved chance to help improve my community and serve the from the suburbs to a smaller home on a city block with disenfranchised as I always hoped I would. a lawn that can be mowed in about ten minutes. It’s right In an odd way, my life came full circle when I wrote a near Washington University, and we walk and jog in For- story about a PPA mom whose imprisoned son had est Park, St. Louis’s answer to Central Park. We live very Continued on page 33

JHS Classes of 1971-1972-1973 Thirderly On-Line Newsletter • Spring-Summer 2008 Page 33

Debra Schwartz Continued from page 32 Postscript found something productive to do through PPA. June 6, 2008 In an earlier life, this mom had been an Ikette, Nottingham, England one of Ike and Tina's backup singers. And, yes, I Day One asked her, and indeed she was on stage perform- ing at New York’s Felt Forum the night that Elaine My husband’s been here since January, on a special uni- and I went to see Sam and Dave but got caught versity fellowship, but I arrived only yesterday afternoon. up with Ike and Tina instead. This morning he’s biked off to a meeting on campus. I’m For the past two years, in addition to my work alone in his flat—-our flat now, at least for the next for PPA, I’ve been writing a biography of a St. month or so until we head back to St. Louis. Actually, this Louis businessman whose family fled Nazi Ger- complex would fit right in back home. It’s all red brick, many in 1939. This project, which is finally near- destined to last forever if they let it. It’s not unlike the ing completion, has been all absorbing. It’s been landmark Anheuser Busch brewery, the new (but anach- an accomplishment to enter the historian’s world ronistic) Cardinals stadium, or even my own little row on my own. house, built around 1900. Like much of St. Louis, our English apartment com- Another Move in the Future? Could Happen plex, once a lace-making factory, still looks industrial, but it’s newly renovated: two bedrooms, two baths, a For a long time, the idea of moving from place to high-tech kitchen, and everything Ikea. Only problem is place was second nature to me. It comes with we have no toaster, no microwave, and no TV. I’m look- the academic life. When we moved to St. Louis, I ing forward to us huddling around the computer and had new stationery made and decorated it with watching season two of The Wire. I’ve tried to watch the tiny graphics of New York, Michigan, Illinois, Mas- show a few times, but I swear I can never understand a sachusetts, Oregon, and Missouri, to show every word they say. Now Howie can speak British as well as place I’d lived. But each move gets harder and Baltimore. He assures me that I’m going to love the harder, and at this point, I am much more reluc- show and that it will meet my nightly need for murder tant to leave my friends and start all over again and mayhem. somewhere else. Still, I suspect that we’re not What I’m really doing here, is avoiding finishing my done yet. story for the JHS newsletter. As much as I wanted to escape Jericho, I still I’ve been interviewing people for stories just like this return every year or so to see my mother, who’s since the early eighties. The first that I can remember still in our house on Mellow Lane. My sister, was Mira Nair, the film director. Back then she was a Cindy (class of ’75), lives nearby in Woodbury. recent Harvard grad with her first film about to be shown On my very first visit back to Jericho in the in the New York Film Festival. We met at a coffee shop winter of 1971, I stopped in at the high school next door to Brentano’s on Fifth Avenue. I had the crazy and spent a few minutes with Mr. Robert Hoff- idea that Asian studies teachers might be interested in man. I’d enjoyed his economics class very much, her Indian childhood. Philip Bashe had the crazy idea partly because he was another one of those that my itinerant, academic life would be interesting to teachers who was interested enough to try to fig- Jericho alumni. I’m going to accept his gloss on my life. I ure out what made me tick. On one exam, I used am going to refrain from rewriting the whole thing. I am. I all the economic principles we had learned to am. This newsletter’s his baby. deconstruct the workings of the senior class. And besides, I’ve got to move on to other business. I Names were named! He didn’t punish me for it. flew in from Ann Arbor, where my husband will soon be- In fact, I got an A. Anyway, on that visit, which come the Louis Evans Professor of American History. The turned out to be my last to the school, he said, spousal hiring woman assures me that there will be a job “In all the time you were in Jericho, I never saw for me. you smile as much as you’re smiling today.” ■ We’re moving again!

JHS Classes of 1971-1972-1973 Thirderly On-Line Newsletter • Spring-Summer 2008 Page 34

Ellen Meister Jericho’s True-Life Macabre Murder Mystery Continued from page 12 On September 2, 1999, the new thirty years old, had been killed by “Besides, it’s actually flattering owner of a home at 67 Forest Drive a blow to the skull sometime be- for a fiction writer, because that in East Birchwood asked the seller tween1963 and 1972. means that you’ve created a world to remove a rusty — and heavy — One week after the corpse was that people believe, and therefore fifty-five gallon steel barrel that had discoved, Nassau County homicide they assume these things had to been stashed behind a three-foot detectives interviewed 71-year-old have happened to you. In fact, with crawlspace. Howard B. Elkins, the original Applewood, many people were posi- When the seller and another owner of the house from 1957 to tive that the character Lisa had to be man pried off the black drum’s 1972, when he moved to Florida. autobiographical. Ironically, she was sealed lid, they discovered the mum- Since then, the house had the character least like me: very shy, mified remains of a pregnant woman changed hands three more times. and the daughter of an alcoholic “remarkably well preserved,” accord- Elkins was one of several peo- mother. But when adult children of ing to the New York Times, “appar- ple “of interest” to detectives. The alcoholics said she felt so real for ently because the drum had been day after investihators visited his them that they knew I couldn't have airtight.” Boca Raton condominium, he made her up, I felt I must have done An autopsy revealed that the killed himself with a gun in the something right.” victim, between twenty-five and garage of a friend’s house. Ellen might find herself fending off similar questions with the August 2008 publication of her second this one, I just left it open and am the three siblings in The Smart One book, The Smart One. The plot re- letting people believe it could be any are actually the Meisters? volves around three sisters: Claire, town: their town, your town, my She mulls over the question. Joey, and Bev. But the backdrop of town.” (But Ellen, your town is Jeri- “Well,” says Ellen, “the youngest the story is based on the macabre cho ...) sister is the wild one, a one-hit- real-life murder on Forest Drive, un- Since Applewood’s publication in wonder rock star. I don’t think any- covered in 1999. (If you don’t recall 2006, and the publication of the pa- body will draw a parallel between her the facts, see the sidebar.) perback edition in 2007, its author and Andrea [who, incidentally, also “I wanted to write a sister story has made numerous appearances lives in Jericho, but in White Birch], about three women grappling with for readings and book signings at because her many talents do not childhood labels,” explains Ellen. local bookstores and book groups, include singing. Clare, the oldest of “I’ve always been very interested in including Risa Sugarman’s (class of the three, is the pretty one. books that probe family relation- ‘72) group in Woodbury. “Hmm, maybe people will believe ships. At the same time, I couldn’t “They were a terrific group,” says that’s Stephen!” ■ get that infamous crime out of my Ellen, adding, “I just love speaking at head. And at one point, the two ideas book groups. I find that they’re al- All Jericho Alumni Are just sort of crashed together like ways intelligent, engaged women, Invited to the storm clouds. That’s when I decided and they ask great questions, about to wrap the sisters’ story around the the book itself as well as about the Book-Launch Party for murder. I incorporated a lot of facts writing and publishing process. Peo- Ellen Meister’s from the actual case, but only those ple are very curious about how I got The Smart One that served my plot.” started, how long was I writing, how This time around, the town is not hard it was to get a literary agent, called Jericho or Applewood. Or any- and so on. Friday, August 8, 7:00 p.m. thing, for that matter. “I deliberately “'I also get a lot of questions didn’t give the town a name,” she about how much of it was based on Borders Bookstore says. “With the first book, the town real life, what was my inspiration, 425 Jericho Turnpike was practically a character in the and how the story came about.” So story, so it had to have a name. In what happens if folks assume that Syosset, LI

JHS Classes of 1971-1972-1973 Thirderly On-Line Newsletter • Spring-Summer 2008 Page 35 daughter on the spectrum, with most of Answers to N.Y. Philip Bashe the care (and major decisions that must Continued from page 12 be made, about everything from educa- Baseball Challenge tion to medication) falling to the mom. Continued from page 24 of twenty-five years ago) of the biotech “A father’s full involvement is essen- industry. It’s a fascinating world, one in tial,” he says, “not only for the progress which you enter business knowing that and happiness of his child, but for the you’ll probably go ten years or more be- good of the marriage and the entire fam- fore introducing your first product, for ily. I would further make the case that such is the painstaking FDA drug- being the dad of a kid on the spectrum is To read, print out and turn approval process. In the meantime, you the ultimate test of what it means to be a upside down

have to generate hundreds of millions of man. And if you do it right, nothing in life

dollars for research and development, all is more fulfilling. Hamilton Steve 12.

the while praying that your scientists “I believe that most fathers want to Clarke Horace 11.

strike gold. For every five thousand com- be integrally involved but don’t know how. Howser

pounds that seem promising in the labo- This book will help them come to terms Dick and Cox Bobby 10.

ratory, only five will go on to be tested in with their child’s disability and reevaluate for traded was he man the

people, and only one of those will eventu- their perceptions of fatherhood — and Nettles, Graig than more one —

ally be licensed for commercial use. manhood. It will also give them specific 1974 and 1973 in Cleveland for

BusinessWeek magazine calls Sci- ways for working in partnership with their 22 and 23 Spikes: Charley 9.

ence Lessons “a fascinating insider’s ac- spouse to improve the situation for every- field right

count of the birth of giant Amgen,” while body.” base, third (b) shortstop, (a) 8.

Henri Termeer, CEO of Genzyme Corpora- Meanwhile, Phil’s wife, Patty Ro- (‘70) Munson man

tion, another major biotech firm, calls it manowski Bashe, herself the author of Thur- (’68), Bahnsen Stan 7.

“a joy to read, rich in insights.” two dozen books, including four best- McCormick Mike 6.

Phil’s going solo again for his next sellers, is about to start work on the fol- Sanchez Celerino 5.

book, Get On Board! How Fathers Can — low-up to her The OASIS Guide to Asper- McKinney Rich 4.

and Why They Must — Be Involved with ger Syndrome, first published in 2001, thousands of cast a and Amaro

Their Child on the Autistic Spectrum, a the year that she left publishing full-time Ruben (e) Whitaker, Steve

guide for dads of kids with autistic spec- to earn a master’s degree in autism edu- (d) Gibbs, Jake (c) Smith, ley

trum disorder. As the father of a sixteen- cation. Since 2004, she has been an Ap- Char- (b) Clarke, Horace (a) 3.

year-old son with Asperger syndrome, plied Behavioral Analysis (ABA) therapist, Michael “Stick” Gene 2.

Justin, he’s always wondered why so few working one-on-one with autistic children Peterson Fritz 1.

fathers are truly involved with their son or ages two to four. ■

Some of Phil’s other books Yankees York New

12. Rusty Staub Staub Rusty 12.

11. Cleon Jones, Al Weis Weis Al Jones, Cleon 11.

10. Gary Gentry Gentry Gary 10.

9. John Milner Milner John 9.

8. Tommy Davis Davis Tommy 8.

7. Karl Ehrdardt Ehrdardt Karl 7.

6. Ron Swoboda Swoboda Ron 6.

5. Donn Clendenon Clendenon Donn 5.

4. Jim Fregosi Fregosi Jim 4.

lack (‘72) (‘72) lack

3. Tom Seaver (‘67), Jon Mat- Jon (‘67), Seaver Tom 3.

2. Rob Gardner, Ron Swoboda Swoboda Ron Gardner, Rob 2.

1. Wes Westrum Westrum Wes 1.

New York Mets Mets York New

JHS Classes of 1971-1972-1973 Thirderly On-Line Newsletter • Spring-Summer 2008 Page 36 Your Back Pages “I was so much older then, I’m younger than that now.” — Bob Dylan You wish!

With the Yankees and Mets about to move into new stadiums, it seems appropriate to reflect on the teams’ pasts — specifically, 1965 through 1973, the years the classes of ’71, ’72, and ’73 were in junior high and high school. The baseball world went topsy-turvy, with the Mets owning New York, and the once mighty Yankees tumbling into disgrace. Test your knowledge!

1. Little remembered, this manager served as the bridge 1. Ace Mel Stottlemyre won 20 games three times, 1965, between Casey Stengel and Gil Hodges during the 1966 and 1968, and 1969. Only one other pitcher won 20 games for 1967 seasons. the Yanks, in 1970. Who was he? 2. These players wore both Yankees and Mets uniforms. 2. This light-hitting shortstop, a future Yankees GM, pitched Which two played for the Mets first? (a) P Rob Gardner, (b) three shutout innings during a 1968 series against Detroit. OF Ron Swoboda, (c ) P Bob Friend, (d) P Hal Reniff 3. Between 1965 and 1967, the Yankees underwent whole- 3. Which two Mets of this era won the N.L. Rookie of the sale changes, their stars replaced by nobodies. Who took Year Award, and in which year? Hint: both were pitchers. over for these players? (a) 2B Bobby Richardson, (b) 3B 4. Name the man the Mets received in the infamous 1971 Clete Boyer, (c) C Elston Howard, (d) RF Roger Maris, (e) Nolan Ryan trade. SS Tony Kubek. 5. This midseason acquisition, a first baseman, hit only .252 4. In one of the worst trades ever, the Yankees dealt Stan in 1969 but was named Most Valuable Player in the World Bahnsen to the White Sox for this no-glove, poor-hitting Series against Baltimore. third baseman, a washout in 1972. 6. This rookie outfielder led the Mets in home runs in 1965, 5. This Mexican third baseman became a fan fave in 1972. with nineteen roundtrippers. 6. In 1970, ex-Yankee Jim Bouton published his controver- 7. A fixture at Mets games, this former ad man, recently de- sial memoir Ball Four, which outraged many of his fellow ceased, held up memorable signs for years. players. Midseason, the Yanks acquired a veteran pitcher from San Francisco who refused to wear the uniform as- 8. A former two-time N.L. batting titlist, he joined the Mets in signed him, No. 56, because it had been Bouton’s number. 1967 and hit .302. 7. Two young Bombers won Rookie of the Year Awards. 9. This first baseman, a rookie in 1972, led the light-hitting Who were they ? (Hint: in 1968 and 1970). Mets in homers in 1972 and 1973, with 17 and 23, respec- tively. Nickname: The Hammer. 8. CF Bobby Murcer blossomed into a star in 1971, hitting .331. Name the positions he played (a) as a 19-year-old 10. The Mets shut out Baltimore 5-0 in game 3 of the World rookie in 1965-66, and (b) after his return from the army, in Series to take a 2-1 edge. Nolan Ryan picked up the save; 1969. who was the starter and winner? 9. Many ballyhooed Yankees phenoms fizzled during this 11. Game 5 had its share of oddities: Which Met was time. Of these hopefuls, who is the only one to hit 20 hom- awarded first base after manager Gil Hodges pointed out the ers in his career at least once? (a) Roger Repoz, (b) Charley shoe polish on the ball, indicating that he’d been hit by the Spikes, © Arturio Lopez, (d) Ross Mosschitto, (e) Tony So- pitch? And which light-hitting infielder snapped a 3-3 tie in laita the 7th with a leadoff home run — only the seventh of his eight-year major-league career? 10. Two future managers of the year both played 3B in 1968, one as a starter, the other as his backup. 12. Which Met accounted for all three of the team’s home runs in its victorious 1973 NL Championship series? 11. This second baseman famously couldn’t turn the dou- bleplay, but in 1970 be broke up three no-hitters. Answers on previous page 12. Which Yankees reliever threw a high-arcing pitch called Answers on previous page the “Folly Floater”?