Fancy Miss Nancy (Novak)

Mark your calendars for the 2024 Twist & Shout, taking place from February 28th to March 3rd at the Crown Plaza Chicago O'Hare Hotel and Conference Center. We have secured an incredible room rate of $115 per night. This event will feature top-notch instructors, thrilling competitions, mesmerizing Fashion, Costume and Stage Shows, a grand Awards Banquet, and fantastic Jam and Vendor Rooms. To register, visit https://www.balloonconvention.com/
Should be lots of fun!

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

   It's a  H O T  day in Milwaukee,

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

   and it's  h o t t e r  tonight.

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

       
           "He who laughs

       at himself never runs

     out of things to laugh at."     
 

             - Epictetus -

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

      "An arrogant person considers

     himself perfect. This is the chief

  harm of arrogance. It interferes with

        a person's main task in life -

        becoming a better person."        
 

                    - Leo Tolstoy

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

Just as Robert Frost was at a point of divergence ("two roads diverged in a wood"), we are there:      
Where will our steps take us?        
Which road is ours?        
Which road will make all the difference?

Donn Pearlman

Hello to my 1964 classmates! It's been many moons since I last posted in this forum. 

Unless you skipped a grade or two, most of us either already are or will be 77 years young this year. Many of you have (hopefully, happily) retired. I have not yet by choice. It took me nearly 30 years to do what I always intended to do, and I'm not ready to give that up. I had a wonderful career in broadcasting, including 25 years with WBBM-CBS/Chicago, and voluntarily left in January 1996 to finally fulfill my original goal of becoming a public relations/marketing executive. 

That interesting career has taken me across the country and overseas. (The photo was taken at the 2019 World's Fair of Money.)

Best wishes to all!

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

   Hold fast to dreams    
   For if dreams die 
   Life is a broken-winged bird
   that cannot fly.          
   Hold fast to dreams      
   For when dreams go      
   Life is a barren field   
   frozen with snow.        
 -- Langston Hughes

Thanks, Donn, for cheering on the dreamers. Dream well.

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

Daily concern about COVID-19 had faded from my life. Three grandchildren are now back at college; a classmate of my granddaughter has a sore throat and tested positive for COVID. Yes, it's just an anecdotal clue that the virus is making a comeback.        
For the general public, another anecdotal sign came on Monday evening, when FLOTUS Jill Biden tested positive for COVID.

Holly Semiloff (Ciotti)

Well, hello to anyone still hanging around.  Retire?  What's that???  So long as kids are still using passive voice and putting commas between two independent clauses, and telling me that the theme of a novel is "What goes around comes around," -- well, I'm still needed.  It's my 39th year teaching, and I'm not quite ready to hang up my red pen yet.  Teenagers is teenagers, and they are the energy and delight of the future -- if only we can corral them long enough to beat some sense into their nascent brains.  I've also developed the quirky habit of favoring the First Amendment, and so long as some injured parent is screaming that we should not teach To Kill a Mockingbird because a few instances of naughty language offends her dear teen's delicate sensibilities -- well, I'm there arguing that to oppose a piece of literature one should actually have READ it.

I could go on.  And I might, but it's Friday at 5:30 pm, and I'm out of candy, the coffee is bitter this late in the day, and it's time to go home and feed the cats (Shakespearean names of course: Cordelia -- King Lear, and Beatrice -- Much Ado about Nothing).

holly

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

Holly, you are a delight; it's wonderful to know you are touching the future.          
Look forward to hearing more about your students (and your cats).
Janis

Linda Goebelt (Thompson)

I rarely,if ever, open the site.   I did today to find some refreshing posts from others than the repetitive one person "blogging ".  Thanks for sharing new news about your lives (which I thought was the purpose of this).  I am so impressed with those still working and enjoying it   I've been retired but have been oil painting again to sell which has been great   After all the kids and friends only need so many  I live in Mesa,Arizona and lived through the hot hot summer   It would be wonderful to hear what is going on with others from our class  Does anyone live in the Phoenix area?   

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

Linda, no one is happier than I am to hear from our classmates.      
Thanks for posting; it's good to know you lived through the hot hot Mesa summer and that you're oil painting to sell. Why not, like Sharry, post some of your paintings on our website?
All best wishes from the repetitive "blogger."

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

"That's one of the problems with getting old: Your most deep-seated characteristics become more pronounced. Like aged wine, the things that make you distinctive become more developed and obvious. A lot of people age not just into their character but into their caricatures."        
-- Jonah Goldberg

Scott Mermel

My most interesting trip in the past 9 years was to downstate Illinois in 2017 to view the total eclispse of the sun which occured on my 70th birthday.  Nice present, huh?

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

Sumus Quot Sumus  (We are what we are)

News from the Emerys who live from sea to shining sea and (just south of Bonnie 🍎- ton) in a fly-over state:

Amongst us,

three generations of women (5) who are strong

and three generations of men (8) who are good looking;

[the granchildren (7) are all above average, age range: 12 to 25].

I do not hear the patter of little feet.

Scott Mermel

NOTICE TO ALL USERS OF THIS MESSAGE FORUM:

Effective immediately and to encourage more broad usage of this Message Forum to create community in advance of our upcoming 60^th Reunion, we will no longer allow any postings of a political nature on this Forum.  We encourage all to use this Forum to share with the Class what you’ve been up to for the past 9-10 years, personal/family pictures (anyone have great grandchildren yet?) and other items of personal interest.

Let’s make this a friendly place where we can establish community and camaraderie.

Any postings violating these restrictions will be immediately deleted. Posting on other topics may be made in the User Forums on this site.

Thanks for your cooperation.

Donn Pearlman

I just read Scott Mermel's email and this website's info about preliminary plans for a 60th reunion. Look closely at the screen and you will see me smiling.

Because of a conflict of schedule, I was not able to attend the 50th back in 2014. I look forward to being able to attend #60 next year.

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

I was rendered all but immobile by a Baker's cyst behind my right knee while on an extended road trip away from medical care. Back in Oshkosh and thanks to physical therapy and cortisone shots and the support of grandchildren who got me out walking, I live in awe of the human body's ability to regenerate with professional care and medication and loving support.

Trudi Ann Davis (Davis)

Wow, ten years have slipped by so what has happened?  I am divorced, I now live in a condo in Evanston that I love.  Both my daughters were married in that ten year span.  One moved to Park Ridge adding two sisters to the already existing brother who is now at UIC.  The other moved to Catalonia in Spain. She and her husband just bought a home in Vila Plana and I am going to spend the winter there with my almost 4 year old grandson and the last baby in our family who is 6 mnths and of course their parents.

i still enjoy learning and take adult learning classes at Oakton Community jr, college and at Northwestern.  I'm trying to merge the appropriate verbs in Spanish only to be told by my daughter that Catalan is spoken most places.  I don't care I'm not learning another language.  I read a great deal and listen to the comedy channels on Sirius XM while I am doing errands, so much better than the news.  I haven't done much traveling except to Spain to visit with stops inLuxembourg to visit my niece.  I'm planning a trip to Ft Worth to visit my brother.

Trudi Ann Davis (Davis)

here are my five grandchildren, amazing isn't it?  I'm a grandmother still wondering what I will do when I grow up. 

Scott Mermel

NOTICE TO ALL USERS OF THIS MESSAGE FORUM:

Effective immediately and to encourage more broad usage of this Message Forum to create community in advance of our upcoming 60^th Reunion, we will no longer allow any postings of a political nature on this Forum.  We encourage all to use this Forum to share with the Class what you’ve been up to for the past 9-10 years, personal/family pictures (anyone have great grandchildren yet?) and other items of personal interest.

Let’s make this a friendly place where we can establish community and camaraderie.

Any postings violating these restrictions will be immediately deleted. Posting on other topics may be made in the User Forums on this site.

Thanks for your cooperation.

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

      🙂  🙃 🙂

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

Get acquainted with Vermont traveling the state to view a farm through the seasons. Ballet Vermont performs original ballet at local farms in the summer season.
Summers 2022 and 2023 my granddaughter performed with The Farm to Ballet Project.       
Dancing vegetables, familiar farm animals, and the seasons themselves come to life through dance in a joyful and entertaining show staged on Vermont farms. The ballet explores the relationship between farmers and the land, natural food cycles, and the human role in ecosystems.      
Ticket sales support local artists and the host farms by providing funding for sustainable agricultural projects.

Alan A. Alop

Big Brother Lives!