Reunion
News
News of the 40th reunion.
Decisions, decisions:
Many of you wanted to travel at sometime other than Thanksgiving
weekend, so we went with November 12th. We investigated several
places and decided on the Chateau Provost in Willimansett.
It is arguably the best place in the area for this sort of
thing. They put out a terrific smorg, (We chose Chicken Frances,
Carved Sirloin of Beef and Stuffed Filet of Sole Nantucket
as the three main items.) They have great parking and are
centrally located and easy to find. There is a “directions
to Chateau Provost” function on their web page, www.chateauprovost.com
Since there won’t be a 45th, this is a last chance
to get together for a while. We’ll have name tags with
your yearbook photo on them (We’re all a bit incognito
after 40 years, except for Bobby Bordeau and Kenny Collins.
They both still look like teenagers, and get carded at any
bar in the state.) You won’t be able to tell who’s
who without your yearbook, so bring it along — we still
need a few autographs in ours. One committee member (SJM)
has promised to hand deliver invitations to those 30 or so
classmates still living in greater Chicopee who have never
come to a reunion. He has vowed to bribe, cajole or embarrass
them into coming to the 40th. If so, expect a spectacular
turnout.
Care to Dance?
We looked at several DJs, but ended up going with a 50s style
rock ‘n roll band that came highly recommended by classmate
Dickie Lolos. The “young rockers” in the band
are bald and gray, and will fit right in with the rest of
us! The band was only a few bucks more than any of the DJs
would have charged ($600 vs. $500+ for the DJ.) We extracted
a guarantee from the band that we won’t have to ask
them to turn down their amps. They go by the counterintuitive
name of “Mark and Skidmarks.” They’ve got
a web site if you’d like a preview: www.markandtheskidmarks.com
Yearbook Revision:
At the reunion we’ll be honoring our true “class
couples;” that is, those of our classmates who married
one another. At one point we were up to nine such pairs, but
at last count we had six:
- Leroy LaFlesh and Emily Gnacek
- Eddie Nowak and Sandy Sims
- Norman Larivier and Diane St Jean
- Tom Merigan and Christine Winiarz
- Teddy Daigneault and Linda Garstka
- Walter Ruszala and Carol Quirk
If we’ve forgotten anyone, please let us know.
Money?
It was agreed by the committee to charge only for the dinner
at Chateau Provost. They get $29.95 per head, thus the $30
per person charge for the reunion. Everything else –
the band, the mailing expenses, the bottles of wine we’ll
give away — will come out of the class treasury. Since
we’ve got a few bucks, we won’t be selling raffle
tickets or any of that sort of thing. They’ll be enough
left for the 50th ten years from now, and after that the survivors
are on their own!
Tour of CHS:
In conjunction with the reunion, we’ve also set up a
tour of the brand new Chicopee High School. The old school
is still standing (nobody seems quite sure what to do with
it) and the new CHS is just up Front Street on the site of
the old municipal home. They’ve got athletic fields
behind the new school, and lots of student parking. More importantly,
the school is wired for all the latest technology. Classmate
Tom Dachowski, who is head of the science department at CHS,
will be our tour guide. The tour will start at 4:00 (or so)
and should take about an hour. There is no charge (We’ll
have to pay the janitor for being there, but the treasury
will take care of that.) but the school would like to know
how many of us there will be, so if you plan on coming please
let us know. We’ll have some signs in the parking lot
that will direct you to the correct entrance.
Other class news:
Missing classmates are a problem. At last count,
there were 44 people we don’t even have an address for,
and each time we mail out invitations, there is a bunch that
come back “no longer at this address.” (Admittedly,
some of those missing classmates don’t want anything
to do with us.) Occasionally, we see a familiar name on Classmates.com
or Reunion.com, so we know some of the missing are trying
to get in touch with us. If you hear from someone not listed
on the website, (or, for that matter, if you’d like
to contact someone that we might have an address for,) please
let us know. All information, e-mail and otherwise, will be
treated as private and used only for reunion purposes.
We heard from a lot of you via e-mail, but these were some
of the surprises:
- The list of deceased classmates recently got shorter!
Terry St Marie let us know that the rumors of his demise
were premature. He’s alive and well and living in
Florida.
- We heard from David Zabecki. He’s a major general
in the Army, and now lives in Germany.
- Theresa (Bartkiewicz) Malloy & Nancy (Keller) Mickiewicz,
buddies in high school, are still pals, although they’re
so far from Chicopee that they’re Cincinnati Reds
Fans.
- Also heard from Larry Gwozdz. He works at the Pentagon,
and survived the September 11th attack.
- Barbara Matuszczak (and her husband) are both sergeants
on the Miami police force.
- Heard from Charlie Girard. He was on the “lost classmates”
list for years, and it turns out he lives around the corner
here in Chicopee.
- Exchanged e-mails with Norman Larivier and Diane St Jean.
They’ve lived out of the country for 13 years. (No
wonder we haven’t seen them at some of the reunions.)
- Also got an e-mail from Steve Ernheart. He is CEO of a
business in Texas, and promises to come to the reunion.
- The list of classmates also got longer with the addition
of Joe Boudreau, who started CHS with us but finished with
the Army.
Hope to see all of you at the 40th on November 12th. Stay
in touch!
The 40th reunion committee:
Leroy LaFlesh
Emily (Gnacek) LaFlesh
Margaret (Donnelly) Zarlengo
Chet Bobala
Susan (Modzelewski) Theroux
Steven Mulak
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