Prez Makes Pit Stop

Marlene Taub Reinschmidt can’t believe the joint where we hung out more than 50 years ago is still going strong. How many generations of teenagers visited the Charcoal Pit? she wonders.

So here’s the answer: That’s my Dad’s table! For the last 10-15 years or more, my wife would take napkins and pat the burgers to soak up the grease. Dad would simply bite in, marvel at how the tomatoes were perfectly bun-fitting, and conjecture that the Charcoal Pit must own a hothouse somewhere in lower Del. Me? I rarely eat beef anymore, and definitely pass up on the burgers, strangely, in favor of their chicken fingers and salads. But what do I know — Dad just turned 101. When I told Dad the story today, he just chuckled: Obama made at least one wise choice and Biden finally gave the President some good advice.

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Goldy is a BB Legend in His Own Time

GOLDY, A DELAWARE BB LEGEND HALL OF FAMER, RECEIVING AWARD

Donald “Goldy” Goldstein makes Delaware Legends Basketball Hall of Fame. On Saturday, January 11, 2014 Goldy was inducted into the “Delaware Legends Basketball Hall of Fame” at the Ed “Porky” Oliver Banquet Hall. He was honored to join some past inductees of his era, such as Coach Buddy Clark, Nate and Pete Cloud, Tom Lewandowski, and Frank Shahan to name a few. Don states, “It was a very humbling experience.” The mission of the Delaware Legends Basketball Hall of Fame is to induct deserving members of the Basketball community based on their significant contributions to the game of basketball in the state of Delaware and beyond.

Goldy and Eddie Brown were both inducted on the same night into the Delaware Legends Basketball Hall of Fame. Ed went to Mt. Pleasant and graduated in 1960. Goldy and he knew each other growing up and played ball against each other. Ed also lives in The Villages (FL). Hometown newspaper did an article on both of them. (l. to r. Goldy and Ed).

55TH REUNION HERE WE COME!

All together now…Let’s have a Boboski for our 55th Reunion!

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2014

7:00 COCKTAIL PARTY DOUBLE TREE INN, 4727 CONCORD PIKE (Cash Bar)

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 11

P. S. duPONT HIGH SCHOOL
10:00 OPTIONAL BUS TOUR – “Wilmington Then & Now”* — CANCELLED, sorry for any inconvenience.
11:30 CLASS PHOTO ON STEPS*
11:45 TOUR OF SCHOOL
12:30 SUB & SODA LUNCH IN CAFETERIA*
6:00 CASH BAR – WILMINGTON COUNTRY CLUB (Coat & Tie required)
7:00 BUFFET DINNER – WILMINGTON COUNTRY CLUB (Coat & Tie required)
*Separate costs for optional bus tour and lunch. We estimate $5 for each.
Class Photo will be a separate cost and ordered through Dick Dubroff.

***TIME TO SEND IN YOUR MONEY***

The reunion committee would appreciate receiving your check to cover the cost of dinner as soon as possible. Checks should be made payable to P. S. duPont Class of ’59 and mailed to:
Bob Rickards
11 Benton Court
Wilmington, DE 19810
Phone Bob if you have any questions 302-475-5803 or email to rbrdtr@aol.com

Rooms at the Doubletree Hotel have been reserved ($109.00 plus tax) for our out of town classmates. For reservations, go to http://www.doubletree.hilton/wilmington.com, or phone 1-800-222-8733 or 302-478-6000.

Be well, be safe, be giving!

Jürgen Thewes Annual Thanksgiving Wishes

Dear Former Classmates,

Happy Thanksgiving!

Edeltraud and I do hope that you all are in the best of health and that you will be able to celebrate Thanksgiving with your families and friends. It is your most important holiday, we understand, and on this occasion most of you will be able to return home. Have a wonderful family reunion and happy hours.

55 years ago, when I was hosted by the Harry C. Watson family during my AFS exchange year, we had been invited by the Watsons’ relatives on a farm in Maryland where we enjoyed a fantastic Thanksgiving meal. I hadn’t experienced anything like that, and I hadn’t tasted meat of a turkey at all. The turkey was a real big one, its meat and stuffing just delicious. Even today I’m very grateful for that Thanksgiving holiday. In 1993 when we visited the United States for the second time I succeeded in finding that farm again. 34 years had gone by. However, Doug Watson’s uncle recognised me at once. He looked at me and instinctively said ‘Oh, you were the boy staying with the Watsons!’ An unforgettable moment in my life. By those relatives we learned where to find my former host brother Doug Watson and his sisters, Nancy and Gail. Already in 1992 we had searched for them, but without success. In 1993, just a day before we had to leave the United States again, Edeltraud and I met Gail and her husband Don for the first time after that long period of time. What a wonderful reunion! And that’s the reason we returned every year. Of course, we had met Trudy and my second host mother, Mrs. Anne Said, in 1992 already.

This year was an extremely busy one: A lot of friends celebrated their 70th birthday, our nephew Thomas married and had an unforgettable wedding celebration. Our niece Sabine acquired a new home pretty close to us. Our travel highlights were not only trips to Austria to live at our second home for a while, but we also experienced new forms of traveling. A combined flight and cruise led us to the Canary Islands and to Madeira. Aboard a gigantic cruise liner with 1800 passengers we started at Tenerife, were taken to Funchal on Madeira, then back to the Canary Islands. It turned out to be excursions into the world of volcanoes. After docking, buses took us into the interior of the island to watch gigantic craters or calderas. Lovely vegetation was everywhere, banana trees, all sorts of flowers and fruit. We enjoyed the cruise ship AIDAsol — nice, our cabin, and very nice hours aboard. 8 days of highly interesting sightseeing and decent weather.

Meanwhile, I’m in charge of our former teacher’s wife. That takes a lot of time and requires continuous administrative work. Fortunately, a former schoolmate and I try to manage the heritage.

At his end of May, we started for another trip to southern Italy. This time it was a combined flight and bus trip to Bari on the Adriatic Sea from where we were taken to Alberobello in Puglia (name of the province situated in the ‘heel’ of Italy). That small town is world heritage because of special kind of houses. They are built in a circle by stone plates without any mortar. Their roofs are cones (false vaults). In former times you might have considered them pretty primitive, but today they are tourist attractions. We then started for exploration of the province which is famous for its millions of olive trees. You may find walnut, cherry and almond trees as well. As to the highlights of that country, we visited wonderful cathedrals and castles. One of the outstanding monuments was Castel del Monte, an octagon which had been erected by Emperor Frederick II of Suebia in the 13th century. Having been placed on a hill, it is overlooking the landscape for about 20 miles. Not less impressive were the Romanesque cathedrals with outstanding sculptural works. I should have had much more time for photographing, but today you ask yourself ‘What for are you doing this?’

Well, during July and October we went down south to Austria again. There we enjoyed ‘Indian summer’. But the trip is quite a distance (725 miles) not to be covered in one day any longer; i. e., you have to stay some place for the night. We are always happy after our return not having been involved in long traffic jams or even accidents.

At home it’s time for clearing up our garden. That takes a lot of time, and the weather is not favourable right now. To summarize, I’ve got little time to do some writing. I do regret that I’m not able to constantly keep up contact with you.

Finally, Edeltraud and I want to send you ‘Season’s Greetings’ and all good wishes for the year to come. Perhaps we’ll make it for the 55th class reunion next year. We do hope to see you then.

With our warmest regards,

E. + J.Thewes

——

News from Juergen and Edeltraud Thewes

Dear former Classmates,

It’s so great to have you keeping contact with all of us! Thanks a lot for enclosing Edeltraud and myself in your round robin letter and the invitation for 2014. To summarise our thoughts about it: In case we’ll be still alive and in acceptable shape, i.e. in good health, we would like to participate in that great event again. For us the time of the year you’ll plan our meeting will not be very favourable because of short days and mostly undecent weather, since we plan to continue our sightseeing in the U.S.. Another aspect will be whether I’ll be able to rent a car or not. In some European countries you won’t be able to do that when you are older than 70 years by now.

To give you a quickly on our past months: In March Prague again with a wonderful cultural program (operas, a symphony concert, sightseeing). A three weeks’ stay at our vacation home in Carinthia, Austria, followed in April. At the end of May a week’s flight trip from Hamburg to Dublin and a sightseeing tour across the center of Ireland with great landscapes and early Christian settlements like Clonmacnoise or Enalough. In June we had 10 days on the Baltic Sea in Northwest Mecklenburg (one of the new federal states in East Germany) exploring former no-go area of the German Democratic Republic very close to the German – German border. Besides we went sightseeing at old villages with their very old brick-built churches.

In July we had booked a ten days’ bus trip to Scotland via Europoort (Rotterdam, Netherlands). The car ferry took us across the North Sea to Hull on the mouth of the Humber in the middle of England. We then started a sightseeing tour via Glasgow, the Caledonian lochs like Loch Ness, went north to the northern tip of Scotland (Thurso). From there our bus took us to the Orkney Islands via ferry to see Stone Age settlements (Skara Brae, Ring of Brodnar) and their capital Kirkwall.
Via Inverness, Edinburgh, and York we returned to Hull to get the car ferry to the Netherlands again. It was the greatest trip we ever made. Such lovely country with cosy little villages! We were lucky to have had an almost rainless period.

We had to stay home for some time to look after our site in August. Our garden needed care.  However, at the end of that month we again went down south to Austria. On our way we stopped at Nuremberg to visit the exhibition of ‘The younger Albrecht Duerer’, one of the most famous European artists who had lived during the transition between Middle Ages and Renaissance. His works are 500 years old and of inestimable value. Approximately 265,000 visitors admired Duerer’s art to draw, to paint, to cut copper- and woodplates.

Finally, we are home again. Don, please excuse me for being so late in answering your survey. Marlene and Fred, I wanted you to participate in this answer to Don, because you always kept us informed. We very well estimate your work for us! Edeltraud and I do hope that you and your beloved spouses are in good health. As you know we are exchanging news with Trudy regularly. At the moment the Delaware Saengerbund celebrated its annual October festival with potato salad, fried sausages, and a lot of German beer.

Thanks for your efforts to keep the Class of ’59 together. Have a great time and please say hello to all classmates you will reach in the future.

With many regards and good wishes

Juergen and Edeltraud Thewes

“A lot of people remember that as being the best time of their lives.”

Bob Clayton reflects on American Bandstand and the passing of Dick Clark 4/18/2012

Bob Clayton Reflects on Bandstand and Passing of Dick Clark

Libbie Sommers Soffer Art Exhibition

Dear friends,

Mixed Media Installation

My art installations have been chosen to be part of FIBERPHILADELPHIA 2012, a biennial showing of new fiber art forms throughout the city and suburbs.

Please join me for the following shows:

“ SEEING RED” group show

Penn State Univ, The Gallery/Great Valley/30 E. Swedesford Rd

Opening Reception, Thurs, Jan 26, 6 – 8pm ( I won’t be there)

Jan 17 – Feb 24, M – F, 9am- 6pm

“Clean Shirts and Dirty Business” solo show

The Painted Bride Art Center/ 230 Vine St, Phila, Pa, 215-925-9914

Opening Reception Friday, Feb 3, 5 -7 pm, Gallery talk 6pm

Opening Reception Friday, March 2, 5 – 7 pm, Gallery talk 6pm

Show runs through March 25

“ MENDING = ART” group show

Borowsky Gallery at the Gershman “Y” / Broad and Pine Sts, Phila, Pa

Opening Reception Sunday, March 4, 2 – 4 pm

Show runs through May 6

“ IN STITCHES ” group show

Long Beach Island Foundation of the Arts and Sciences

Loveladies, New Jersey, 609.494.1241

Show opens May 10, 2012

Opening Reception Sunday, May 27, 5 – 7pm

Show runs through June 18

I hope you can be there for some new art forms, smiling faces, and good refreshments….I look forward to seeing you there,

Warmest regards, Libbie Soffer

Happy Thanksgiving 2010

Dear Friends and Classmates,

Happy Thanksgiving for all of you and your families. Enjoy the great festivity! Edeltraud and I send you cordial greetings. We do hope that you are in good health, and particular good wishes for those who are not well at the moment. We imagine that you’ll have great family reunions. May it be a great day with fairly decent weather.

As to us: We had a year of changing health. Edeltraud is complaining about her ankle joint fracture; even after one and a half year she still is having therapy. Walking for a long time is not possible, but she is trying to improve this.

We had to stays at Carinthia, Austria, this summer; however, both times weather changed at half-time. We had rain and cold. On August 30th snow had fallen down to 5,400 ft. The temperature sank down to 40° F.

This year’s highlight was my 70th birthday. Edeltraud gave me a surprise party with 40 of my friends. I hadn’t had any idea that that would happen, because I had mentioned before not to celebrate this date at all. My friends gave me money for a special trip of our choice. So we learned of a readers’ trip organized by our local newspaper: 4 days former Breslau ( Polish: Wroclaw ) in Silesia (which had been a German province until the end of WW II; it had been the wheat producer of the German Reich). Edeltraud was born there, so was her mother. In 1974 – in times of the Cold War – we had had a chance to visit the former capital of Lower Silesia with my parents-in-law to find out whether there were any remains of their Breslau flat. They had to realize that their former house had been destroyed during the siege of Breslau by the Red Army in the beginning of 1945. A week ago we didn’t even find the rest of German houses across the street we had noticed in 1974. The only remaining building we found was Edeltraud’s mother’s school building. The positive experience: Wroclaw has been re-erected with remarkable churches and buildings. There are 120,000 students among a population of appr. 640,000.

Our two days’ stay was topped by a wonderful performance of Verdi’s opera ‘La Traviata’. We had a Polish guide who had studied German. He gave us a lot of useful information about the developement of Silesia after WW II and led us to the most important sights. An excusion to former Schweidnitz (Swidnica) gave us an impression of the beauty of the country with its mountain chains.
Edeltraud was reminded of many fairy-tales and stories her grandmother had told her after the war. Finally, it was a trip into our past, and we are encouraged to learn more about the history of Silesia. By the way, several of my former colleagues have their origine in Silesia,too.
To summarize our experience: It was a great trip with nice people on the bus, and we might go to Silesia on our own one day. The distance was 440 miles. We made them in about 10 hours ( breaks included).

We wish you a wonderful Season anmd the very best for 2011. We’ll be thinking of all of you on Thanksgiving Day.

Cordial greetings

Edeltraud and Juergen Thewes

Conversations with Sandi Hurlong

Dr. Sandra Hurlong has been appointed President of  Intercultural Open University Foundation in the Netherlands: http://www.ioufoundation.org. She regrets not being able to attend the reunion, but has provided us a Skyped conversation, appropriately in line with her “vision of adult-based distance education.”]

Her wishes for our Reunion:

Her current role as President of the University:

Her reflections on previous reunions, Judy Morris Armstrong, Ellen Levy Koenig, Gretchen Gravell Broadwater, and drama and Mr. Laird: