Denise Eileen Ptak

Happy Holidays from Denise Ptak

John G Corlett

Many Wonderful messages have been coming through just fine.  And a big hello to  Jack S. Webster  !

    Don't skin  any  cats without our new razor edge-skinning blade.

Get to the  Hokey Pokey Clininc if it's time to turn yourself around  !

Jack S Webster

Yes big john. I've done the hokie pokie, and turned my self around.

William K Dickey

Messages coming here too.

Hey Jack and John, you know what happened when they tried to bury the guy who invented the hokey pokey?

They tried to put the right hand in the casket, then all the trouble began....

Class Administrator

from Patty Richards Armstrong

JUST SPOKEN TO RACHEL, MY DAUGHTER, WHO'S COME UP WITH A SOLUTION TO MY PROBLEM: MUMMIE, WHY DON'T WE BOTH GO TO CLEVELAND TOGETHER? WELL THAT GIVES ME AN ENTIRELY NEW PERSPECTIVE. WILL KEEP YOU POSTED. CAN FIND ACCOMMODATION FOR US BOTH IF WE CAN DO THIS THING...NO WORRIES! I DO SO WANT TO SEE SO MANY OF YOU, AND JUST MAYBE THAT WILL BE POSSIBLE. RACHEL LOVES CLEVELAND...AS SHE WAS GROWING UP SHE AND I HAD MANY HAPPY VISITS THERE. SHE MET GOOD FRIENDS AND GOT SOME IDEA OF WHAT INFLUENCED ME ALL THOSE YEARS AGO. MY FINGERS, JUST ONE SET OF 'EM, ARE CROSSED...MAYBE I'LL GET TO SEE ALL OF YOU WHILE WE'RE STILL COMPOS MENTUS AFTERALL...AIN'T KIDS GREAT!? WE SHOULD LISTEN TO THEM MORE OFTEN...OR MAYBE NOT? IN THIS CASE, RACHEL HAS COME UP WITH A "SPIFFING" IDEA, AND IT'S NOT HER FIRST...BUT THIS TIME I AM LISTENING! LOVE TO ALL...PATTY

 

Joseph G Blake

Lesley Dormen

Anyone flying into Cleveland on United (I am, I think), should know that the airline is in the process of cutting flights to Cleveland significantly starting June 1. (NYTimes business section has a story today.)  I've already had my flight time changed twice.  

Lawrence M Fields

Lesley, are you going to Cleveland from New York? I haven't made my flight arrangements yet. Is Akron an alternative? Larry Fields

Lesley Dormen

Alas, NY would have been easier. I'm coming from Martha's Vineyard, which means Boston-Cleveland. Too many moving parts...

Jeffrey D Woolf

We are flying Boston-Cleveland on United (JetBlue doesn't fly to Cleveland) & don't see a problem so far with our reservations.

Hana Umlauf (Lane)

My husband and I will be driving out to Cleveland from Stamford CT.  The current plan is to drive out on Friday and probably drive back on Monday.  We will also be visiting friends on the West Side and staying in Berea.   Should anyone need a ride either way, please let me know.  We would be leaving pretty early on Friday morning.

Hana Umlauf Lane

Jack S Webster

Ok,got my airline tickets, reserved my room and car, I will be sending check for the  festivities, soon. There done

William H Gerak

Jack - if you get diverted to Cincy IKathy and Iwill drive you up. Are you planning on showing up on Friday night?

John G Corlett

I'm  all set also.  Will probably stay with my son in Solon.  I'm looking forward to seeing everyone  !

Jack S Webster

Thanks Bill,I'll remember . Looking forward to seeing you and Kathy. We actually arrive around 11:00pm Thursday. Needed to fly in earily to attend the Friday activities.

William L Kahrl

If you're having difficulty booking a plane, we've found that Southwest offers numerous flights into Cleveland from different locations at mostly convenient times for arrival and departure. My wife is coming from Baltimore, and I will be flying in from Sacramento but we've been able to arrange things so that we'll land within an hour of one another. We also found plenty of similar opportunities from Hartford and New York City. United is cutting back but they are not the first carrier to withdraw. I read recently that Cleveland, Columbus and even Cincinnati have some of the least used airports in the country. I don't know about Akron but I'd guess they lost some of their business too when LeBron moved to Miami.

George Divoky

While I had hoped that somehow I might be able to take a short break from my research this summer and get from Barrow, Alaska to Shaker in early August, it is now clear that won’t happen.   It has been interesting and entertaining to visit the reunion website and I was looking forward to reconnecting with people who grew up in Shaker with me.   One of my favorite quotes about Shaker Heights is from Paul Newman’s wife, Joanne Woodward, who was asked in the early 1970s what it was like to live with Paul Newman.  She replied that “you can take the boy out of Shaker Heights but you can’t take the Shaker Heights out of the boy” – which might have been a bit esoteric for inclusion in a nationally distributed magazine but has been enjoyed and utilized by people I have lived with.

I have read two books in recent years that have provided insights into what it meant to be raised as a baby boomer in Shaker Heights and might be of interest to others from the Class of ‘64.  One is “Crooked River Burning”, a novel by Mark Winegardner set in the period between the Indians winning the pennant in 1948 to the Cuyahoga catching fire in 1969.  One of the main characters is a child of privilege from Shaker Heights and the book does an excellent job of describing the personalities, locales and social landscape of the period.

The other book is “The Pursuit of Loneliness,” by Philip Slater, a sociologist who in 1970 pointed out that the cooperation and society building that had always been part of human existence was being replaced by a cult of individualism and hypercompetitive careerism.   My only regret about the book is that it didn’t come out in the early 1960s so that I could have asked Mr. Grigsby in Group Counseling if he thought his primary job was to recruit Shaker students into the cult of hypercompetitive careerism. 

Patricia Ann Richards (Armstrong)

Dear George, you most definitely will find Susie Weisberger's son's second novel (he is Austin Ratner) of interest.  Well, I certainly connected with it.  Because I'm having a "senior moment" of which there are too many lately - just cannot access my hard drive as quickly as I used to, I cannot, for the life of me remember its title.  But look him up on Google, buy the book and enjoy.  His first critically acclaimed novel was/is "The Jump Artist"...another amazing book.  I truly don't think the fact that Susie was one of my best friends at Shaker has influenced my judgment in the slightest.

All the best,

Patty Richards ~Armstrong

Joseph G Blake

George

I have thought about you often. That you will be in Alaska is sad for us but true to your love affair with nature.

My youngest daughter is a Kenyon alumna. It's hard not to be aware of Paul Newman there. Or Cleveland. I recall saying after a visit there that you knew you were old when the people in the paintings on the wall were people you once knew but they are now dead waiting for you on the other side.LOL.

In 're Shaker, I did my senior thesis in urban history about the development of Shaker Heights. My family lived there for nearly 60 years. Brown Forward buried five of us over the years. But yes what was,said  by Joanne Woodward has been said about me and my siblings many times. My thesis established a long love affair with Shaker and it's past, present and future. In many ways I still recall the gracious, orderly world afforded me and my family. Despite serving in the mud of Vietnam with the Marines, I still prefer a well set table with all the finery which was routine in my family for a long time. 

But then my brother says I am Marquand's character HM Pulham Esq without the Esquire. I miss Shaker Square and Stouffeur's where I ate many times as a child. Where else would you prove at 8 you could order from a menu and could use a knife and fork properly. And so much more. But then my nostalgia may be like wanting a deck chair on the Titanic and recalling that Cleveland still has a better orchestra!

All the best to you George.

John G Corlett

George ( I can say George, but my brain keeps saying  "Corky");

I am sad you can't be in Cleveland in August.  I do understand your dilemma.  Thank you for the book suggestions.  I want to get the  crooked river burning.

Am I getting a fuzzy memory, but didn't you live on or right off of Winslow ?  Our house was 18726 Winslow on one side and 3550 Lynnfield on my grandparents side.

I hope this site continues on as a resource for old friends to stay  connected and to keep up with fellow Shakerites.

I just began subscribing to a magazine called  "Early American Life" and it is mailed from Shaker Heights, Ohio.

I hope we two can meet up someday soon

Marianne Coplan (Schapiro)

Greetings to all my fellow Shaker singers!  I'm told everyone will see a message at this Forum, so I thought I'd throw out this proposal:  A mini-reunion for all of the choir members who sang in any of Mr. Ellis's groups.  I am willing to make copies of the "Hallelujah Chorus" from Handel's "Messiah." We sang every it year at the holiday (alumni) concert, so I assume most people will have at least a passing knowledge of the music. I don't know if there will be a piano, but I could find out.  At the last reunion, at least one of our accompanists was present--maybe he would be willing to accompany.  I'm certainly open to other song ideas, but maybe the fact that we've made it to the 50th reunion is reason enough for a "Hallelujah"!  

Let me know what you think--Marianne Coplan Schapiro (soprano)

Joseph G Blake

1964 was a memeorable time in America. Racial barriers started to come down. Around 1960 the first black couple John and Dorothy Pegg bought a home in Ludlow. Their arrival was marked by some unpleasantness but they stayed and later bought a home on North Park. My wife and I knew them well because we rented the apartment over the garage for three years prior to moving to the UK. Dorotjy Pegg lived many years and died at 104, still an active member of the board of the Clelveland Institute of Music.

But 1964 also saw a small act which I was later told was memorable to the then few blacks in the high school. Bob Williams was chairman of the Civics Committee. I was a memner of the committee. With the expert guidance of Mr. Meshenberg we persuaded the school and the city government to select students to run Shaker Heights for a day. We solicited applications from stduennt and based on their interest we selected a student for each job from mayor to police chief. The student would accompany the official holder of the job in his duties.

Some may recall a very charismatic black student name Bill King, class of 65. He had so much presence that we selected him to be Judge of Shaker for the day.He just seemed the obvious candidate. The judge of the Shaker Court then was Judge John Corlett, the father of our classmate of the same name. Judge Corlett let Bill preside over the court with his direction telling Bill what to do. But if you knew Bill he knew how to make the most of the moment.

He later told me that his selection was a real boost to the morale of what was then a small minority in the school system. Coming from a long time Shaker family (my parent moved there in 1928), like many of us, I did not know any blacks except our long time maid Carrie Cartwright. I am glad to say that on that day the civics committee made a small act that marked the peaceful transition from what had been a "restricted community" for many years.

Many may not know that Shaker deed restrictions did not have specific prohibitions against sale of property to any specific group.That was commonplace elsewhere. Because the Van Sweringen Company sold all the land originally and reserved approval of what was built, their control was comprehensive. What made their control complete was that they reserved the right to approve any subsequent resale of the proeprty to a new buyer. In effect, they reserved the right to approve both the original buyer and any subsequent buyer.

When the Vans went broke in the depression. the company was reorganized with the mayors of Shaker Heights, Beechwood and Pepper Pike as trustees. To this day the Van Sweringen consent is automatically given when any properties are sold. You might logically ask why. While it was possible to use the consent to deny sale to a minority group, the deeed restrictions covered many subjects of greater importance usually included in zoning law. The deed restrcictions still serve that purpose. But since 1948 or so the courts stopped letting deed restrctions to be used as a reason to refuse to sell or prohibit the sale to minority groups.

I have no idea where Bill King is now but I am sure he made his mark on a bigger stage than the Shaker Municipal Court. And as I understand it Shaker still has a day when students take over the city government for a day. We started that in 1964.

Patricia Ann Richards (Armstrong)

Dear Joe,

Most interesting comment (not really a comment, was it?) on the racial interactions in Shaker in our day.

My parents caused a bit of a stir by renting our lower maisonette to a black couple in Winchell Road.  They were a cosmopolitan, very intellectual, incredibly cultured couple who had experience of the world.  I think her brother was an opera singer in Sweden.  Her husband was an architect.  On the few times I visited them I marvelled at the decor...very minimalist (architects seem to go in for that kind of thing) and so totally different from my home a floor above them.  

Living in England for all these years has had a profound effect on my perceptions of people of all colours.  You must know, because of the UK's past and vast empire, that there are so many different races living here...especially in London...Nigerians, Hindus expelled from Uganda, Pakistanis (I live next door to Pakistanis...often my house gets the occasional whiff of delicious smelling curries which make my mouth water), East Europeans...you name it...London's got it.  It has changed me forever:  I think I can honestly say I've become a bit like Will Rogers whose famous saying was:  "I never met a man I didn't like":  i.e. I no longer am immediately affected by colour or accent upon meeting people for the first time...just about colour blind.

Not that I was racist in high school!  but apart from Bob Taliaferro, such a memorable kid, I had no really close friends who weren't as white as I was.  I certainly wasn't even aware of Islam!   I don't think any of us was.

Just a response to your considered and historically accurate recounting of stuff that happened all those years ago.

I used to think that the answer to the world's problems was an eventual mixing of the races:  we'd all be coffee coloured...but NO!  That's not the answer!  The answer is acceptance of different views of life's purpose and the acceptance of somebody's view which is different from ours.  

LIVE AND LET LIVE!   In the end we're all on this planet for such a short time...such insanity to insist that we are the one's with the TRUE TRUTH...leaving behind carnage and heartache...such destruction...such pain everywhere.

Well, goodness me, I hadn't intended to answer your message on our website in this way.  But these are things I think about...how can one not?  FGM, Boko Haram, Malala, what an incredibly short sighted lot we are!  

But there is still the beauty of this world, the changing of the seasons, the smell of the "Spring" air, the flowers, the earth waking up from its slumber.  And for those in parts of the world where the seasons are not part of the joy of being alive...well, perhaps there is the constant climate which gives pleasure.

My crazy cat Tom has just jumped onto my back...he's sick and tired of my not paying him more attention.  He's now sitting beside my IPad, overseeing my tapping fingers.  I used to have 5 cats, but attrition (kidney failure, largely) has left me with two.  At one point, after my husband had decamped, and we were (and still are) on good terms, he said...when I mooted, having 5 cats, that I really desperately wanted a grey tabby, he categorically stated he would make moves to have me "sectioned".

What does it say about Michael and me that we have been separated, not divorced! for 19 years.  There is still great residual affection between us.

I could go on, but I won't.

This comes with great affection...what a shame we didn't get together while you were here in the UK!

Fondly,

Patty Richards Armstrong

John G Corlett

Joe and Patty;

I must say I enjoyed your musings !  I hope these forums and messages go on for a long time.

William H Gerak

To my friends and classmates that served our country - Thanks for your service on this and every Memorial Day. Thanks to you, and those before you, we still have a country that enjoys a reasonable amount of freedom – including the right to reject and/or ignore American exceptionalism. God Bless and thanks