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50-Year
Grand Reunion Gala and Weekend |
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Our
Grand Reunion Weekend
officially started, as our reunions have in the past, on Friday night
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with a cocktail mixer, and ended on Sunday with a brunch. The highlight
of the weekend, of course, was our Saturday night Grand Reunion
Gala, when we celebrated the exact 50th anniversary of our
graduation day and the brief time we spent together during the fabulous
fifties, and together again that evening, we had a ballroom bursting with love
and joy, we were energized,
and we had a blast!
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This comprehensive report and photo
album are intended primarily to chronicle our fantastic weekend together
exactly 50 years after leaving high school and going our separate ways, and to help those who were there
that magical weekend to hold on to their
precious memories of this momentous milestone event in our collective lives, and to
share them with those
of us who were not.
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 The
feedback has been phenomenal! Here are
some of the words used by our classmates to describe our
grand celebration: |
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v
wonderful
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amazing
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absolutely great
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truly memorable
v
sparkling
v
marvelous
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awesome
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smashing
v
fantastic
v
an exquisite gift
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astonishing
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very cool
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fabulous
v
magnificent
v
spectacular
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brilliant
v
superlative
v
heartfelt
v
blockbuster
v
first class
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v
better than high school
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Although some small groups
convened earlier
on their own, we started to gather together in large numbers from all
over the nation on Friday night under
our very classy, satin class banner at
a local, Smithtown Irish
pub called Napper Tandy's.
It was noisy and crowded (as such places tend to
be), but we had a terrific time
greeting each other,
bending elbows, chowing down
and sharing laughs,
hugs and memories together, in some cases, after as much as 50 years! |
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Saturday was a free day to
enjoy together the facilities of our beautiful
resort location, the Hyatt Regency Long Island, for
example, by playing golf or tennis, or by relaxing
by the pool or in the lobby lounge. |
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Some enjoyed a wonderful NY-style Chinese lunch at a local restaurant,
while others took a ride to revisit our alma mater.
(And some of us spent part of the afternoon frantically
preparing
for the big event ─ our Saturday night
Grand Reunion Gala.) |
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(Sad,
what they've done to our
classy Sailor logo, isn't it?) |
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And finally, at 7 pm. on Saturday, June 26th,
2010 ─ exactly 50 years after our
graduation day in 1960 ─ the
Grand Ballroom (of course, what else?) was ready, tables decked
in blue and white with balloons and pennants in our special
"45-rpm" centerpieces, and the doors were opened ─ thus, our long-awaited 50-Year Grand Reunion Gala began. |
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We had our special banners hung
on all the walls, we had flowers and a jukebox and a classic Chevy in the
Grand Ballroom, and we had Elvis and James Dean standing by. |
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And we had our own "Memory Lane"
with five 36" by 24" poster
boards with historic, 1950s photos of familiar scenes in
our little town
displayed on easels in one part of the Hyatt's Grand Ballroom. (These posters were later donated by our
class association to the
Oceanside
Education Foundation, our little town's de facto
historical society.) |
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The Grand Reunion Gala
programs were on the tables: |
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After an hour of friends greeting
friends with hugs, dancing and laughter, with James Dean
standing behind her watching, our beautiful one and only Doreen
began our presentation program once again by introducing Howie.
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Dressed for our really senior senior prom, Howie began on a serious note by
pointing out that "everything is not rosy and joy about reunions."
He went on to say
that everybody "is probably feeling some disappointment or maybe
even anger at those who did not make it as high a priority as
they did to come to this party, but there are several from our
group who had no choice and couldn't be here because
they did not make it to this day." With that, before
resuming our grand celebration, Howie began a
memorial tribute slideshow to
those of us who have passed on. |
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 With our serious business now out
of the way, our DJ played a 1960 recording of our own high
school band playing "The Night They Invented Champagne," as they
did at our graduation ceremonies exactly 50 years ago, and our Class President for
all three of our high school years, Bob Renselaer, kicked off the rest of
the evening as he led us in a champagne toast "to good health,
to long life and especially to lasting friendships," the real
underlying theme of this (and every) reunion.
Then, Howie introduced our Association Board and 2010 Reunion
Committee members (listed on the program illustrated above) who
worked so hard to make our Grand Reunion a reality
and a success. After that, he turned the microphone over to Jay
Katz so Jay could introduce our five faculty guests who
honored us with their presence and who are listed below and
pictured as then and now: |
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_________________________
* Sadly, in early December 2010,
Arlene Nolan O'Leary passed away. |
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 As
the Hyatt Regency staff began to serve us a first class,
sit-down dinner, Howie took the microphone again. After an
unsuccessful attempt (due to a technology problem) to show us a
special music documentary video presentation entitled The
Dawn of Rock
’n’
Roll ─ 1954-’59
that he prepared for our big
party (which video may now be viewed on this website ─
click here),
for the fifth consecutive reunion, Howie presented his welcoming address to the class
gathering.
Howie
started by pointing out that at prior reunions he spoke mainly
of "our very own rock ’n’ roll music, of dancing, partying
and of coming of age together." He said, "I spoke of hot
dogs and cool cars, of tailfins, teen idols and TV quiz shows,
of hula hoops and poodle skirts, of saddle shoes and sack
dresses, sock hops, malt shops, flattops and
Chuck Berry songs.” And he said, "I spoke of heroes
and baseball, of simple values and simple times, and of our
little town, with its two ─ yes, two ─ world-renowned religious
shrines, each of which attracted huge pilgrimages to it for
decades ... of course,
St. Anthony’s underground chapel ─ and the Roadside Rest that,
in 1959, became
Nathan’s Famous." But mostly, he said, "I spoke of
our sharing incredible amounts of fun in a very short time
together."
"But this time," Howie said, "I will get a bit
deeper, a bit more serious and
─
if you can imagine it ─
a bit more sentimental than before. This time, I won’t speak any
more about Oceanside or high school, rock ’n’ roll or the 1950s.
This time, I will speak mainly about a subject I only mentioned
in passing in past reunion speeches. This time, it's all about
friendship, specifically about the value of old friends ─
a subject about which I believe I can speak as an 'expert,'
thanks especially to several members of this great class."
(Click
here for the full text of
Howie's
welcoming address about the value of friendship
─
or here to watch for the video of our ceremonial presentations.)
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 After
dinner, the dancing continued, but later on, Howie took to the mike
again to read us passages from two letters he received on behalf of the
class, congratulating all of us on the momentous occasion of our 50-year
reunion and our collective achievements over the last half century.
Those letters came from Dr. Herb R. Brown, currently Superintendent of
Schools of the Oceanside School District, and Betsy Transom, President
of the Oceanside Education Foundation, our little town's historical
society.
(Click
here to read those letters: Brown;
Transom.) |
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Penny White then took
the opportunity to address this class gathering and
present a special tribute to Jack Beaulieu. Penny
reminded us that almost 10 years ago, shortly after our 40-year reunion, Jack lost both of his
legs in a terrible construction accident. But with
remarkable strength and courage, as he recovered,
Jack trained rigorously to set an example for other
amputees and won the men's hand-crank wheelchair
division in the Long Island Marathon in 2004 against
much younger competition. Since that victory and the
others that followed, Jack has virtually devoted his
life to inspiring and assisting combat-injured
veterans and other disabled people to maintain
positive outlooks, to overcome their injuries and to
achieve their full potential. |
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Later, Penny added a
well-deserved acknowledgment
of the "equally great courage and loving
devotion" exhibited by Jack's wife of 46 years (and our
classmate ), Nancy Koller, "standing by her man all these years
─ OHS '60 sweethearts, still in love."
Way to go, Jack;
way to go, Nancy ─ and
way to go, Penny! |
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As the evening proceeded with more
dancing, more laughter, more hugging, and more sharing of precious memories of
good times gone by, we gathered for several group photos of those among
us who shared common childhoods ─ even before high school and jr. high ─ in one
of our five elementary schools. |
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School 2 |
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School 3 |
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School 4 |
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At our Grand Reunion Gala,
we wore the coolest picture
nametags (since most of us have changed at least a little in 50
years) and had the coolest table decorations, and of course our drinks
were served with cool cocktail napkins.
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For exchanging current contact information, and for submitting requests and dedications to our DJ, we even had special commemorative pens
(blue and white, of course) imprinted with our original
Oceanside High School sailor logo
(the classy one, that is, from the 1950s), and identifying our class and the
date of our Grand Reunion Gala. (We
are, indeed, a first class class.) |
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That Saturday night was the most
magical highlight of a most magical weekend, indeed. And our
most magical reunion party ever!! When we stood
together in the sunshine on the OHS athletic field that
afternoon in June 1960, and we hurled our mortarboards skyward
in a strange mixture of tears and glee
as we prepared to set off in different directions on our life’s
journeys, who knew
that so many of us would be together again having so much fun exactly 50 years later ─ to the day? |
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After our main event, many of us went out to a local diner or
lingered together in the Hyatt's lobby lounge until about 2 am,
and mid-morning on Sunday, before departing for parts near
and far, many of us regrouped for a couple of additional hours
together at our now traditional post-reunion brunch, this time
at the Paradise Diner near the Hyatt. |
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* * * * *
The pleasure and delight that can be seen in the
faces in all the photos on this page, and in the following
testimonials from our guests, clearly portray a very special weekend,
one of old friends once again enjoying the relatively rare but
refreshing and rejuvenating occasion of rejoining together to rock, roll and reminisce about the joyful time of our shared but uncommon youthful experience
─ as Howie said Saturday night, to "reunionate."
We have observed before that the success of any school reunion depends
primarily upon those classmates and others who attend. So the Board and
its Reunion Committee
thank all of you who attended for making this event so pleasurable,
memorable and successful in every way, and once again, we extend our heartfelt
thanks in particular to those who took the time to express their
sentiments to us in writing as follows: |
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Thank you
for planning such an enjoyable event! ... it was a night
that we won't soon forget. Seeing old friends and
classmates has sparked so many fond memories of OHS. But
it's still hard to believe that 50 years have passed all too
quickly. I look forward to hearing from some long-lost
friends and, of course, seeing the updates on the Sailors'
website that is so terrific. Again, thanks for all your hard
work.
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Eileen Carlock
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It
was a wonderful reunion! Thank you for all of the work
that you and the committee did to make it possible. ─
Eileen Brown
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Fabulous
reunion ... and I do mean fabulous. As a class, we
seem to bond seamlessly each time we meet The
warmth felt and friendships renewed that night are
to be envied by anyone who ever graduated in any
school, any city. Everyone was enthusiastically
talking, laughing and reminiscing with old friends
and acquaintances. Some even discovered new friends
after so many years. As wonderful as OHS was, I
think the love and joy found at our 50th
brought us ever closer. It really was a magnificent
three days.
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Sue Schlesinger
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Yes, we might be older,
look older and move a little slower, but our minds are sharp,
and we know how to appreciate our history together. We are
indeed oldies but goodies. Thank you and everyone else who played
a
part in making this reunion so special. The reunion reminds
us of our roots and the times, places and people
who helped to shape who we are today. The reunion gave us a
chance to let people know how much we appreciated those
experiences, how meaningful they are and that we made a
difference in each other's lives. What is life without
leaving a trail of important and influential memories?
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Bob Rubin
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But a few
thoughts ... with the memory of our sparkling evening still
fresh and clear: Our 50th
reunion is like an
original Renoir hanging in our hall of memories
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invaluable ─
and very difficult to
recreate. Those willing and able to attend this marvelous
gathering to celebrate the anniversary, to the very day of
our graduation, savored an evening filled with nostalgia,
with the sheer joy of reuniting, rekindling lost friendships
and renewing the sense of innocence of our generation in
1960. Our all too short evening together captured the beauty
of our graduation day, the music, and many gestures of
kindness and affection for one another. It seemed like time
had stopped, returning to those feelings just as we parted
on June 26th 1960, ending our high school years
of closeness, and happily looking forward to our futures in
our great country. This Saturday evening, it was an
extraordinary experience of being together 50 years later.
Memories of our exuberance on our graduation day came
flooding back. ... Saturday night felt like our
senior-senior prom in all of its happiness. Thank you,
Howie, and every member of the committee. You presented us
with an exquisite gift far beyond material value. With our
true affection and caring.
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Lynda D'Acunto
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A good time WAS
had by all. It was obvious that you put a great deal of
time into this specific affair, and of course, over the
years, to other reunions and the FANTASTIC
website. Thanks for all you've done!
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Bill Schmidt
th. It will
be a treasured memory, and I can't thank you enough for
all the time and effort you put in to making it so.
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Fran Caporaso
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"Have I told you lately that
I love you??" A brilliant, well-planned and very
successful event. Now, if only you could stop time for
a few hours. Just never seems to be enough of it
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to chat,
schmooze and catch up with everyone
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especially
given the number of attendees. I hope you grasp how
much all your efforts are appreciated. I'm not sure we
extend enough accolades or we do it often enough. Again,
can't thank you
enough for all you have done and continue to do.
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Marta Watts
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I want to thank you,
Susan and the committee for putting together such a
memorable weekend. I'm sorry I
didn't make some of the past reunions...but at least I
made it this time. It was fun meeting the classmates
that I never really got to know and to reconnect with
others. Hopefully some of us will stay in touch from time to time. Just
finished perusing the pics from our reunion ─
what fun! It brought back great memories, and the music
added just the right touch! Thanks for putting together
such a wonderful trip down memory lane for all of us ─
Maryellen
Goldsmith
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FANTASTIC PARTY!!!!!!!!! And it
will be remembered fondly by all who
attended. The committee did a fantastic job, and
the party was first class. ... Once again, kudos
to the committee for a super event, and many
thanks from all of us who were able to be
there. It was fantastic. It was even worth the
two hours it took me to get through the tunnel
on Friday. Congratulations on another
blockbuster reunion!
─
Rick von Brook
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The reunion was such an exciting night, and it
was wonderful to see so many of us Sailors
again. You are to be applauded for all your
hard work. Thanks again for everything.
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Leona Kerpel
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This reunion
touched me deeply with the kind of intimacy and
emotion that should be expected after 50 years
of regularly renewing our bonds of friendship.
Thank you and your committee for making it so.
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Penny White
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WOW,
what beautiful sentiments and not much more can
be said to describe the whole weekend. It's
something we'll all remember with smiles. I
loved seeing and chatting with everyone of you,
and I pray that we'll all be able to do it again
in the future. Not everyone has what we all
have, and that's having been a part of each
other's childhoods and now in our later years to
reconnect like no time has passed at all. How
lucky are we???
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Nancy Keegan
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It was so nice to just look at the photos and
remember the good time we all had that weekend.
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Carole
Cohen
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Thanks
for all of your hard work on the reunion! I
think everyone had a great time. The
pictures tell it all.
─
Marilyn
Cohen
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I had such a wonderful time at the 50th
reunion! I didn't know what to expect since I
hadn't gone to any previous reunions nor had I
seen anyone in 50 years! I didn't know if anyone
would even remember me.
I could never have imagined the warmth that
flowed that night from person to person. I was
so glad that I made the decision to attend. You
and your committee did a wonderful job covering
it all. To me, it was better than high school! ─
Phoebe Lustig
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Great job on
the reunion. This was my first reunion
attended. It was great seeing everyone from our
graduating class. It seems 50 years has gone by
in a flash.
─
Bob
Hirsch
And representing the five faculty
members who attended our grand celebration:
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So do we know how to do a party or what?? |
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With 235 selections from about 600 photos received from classmate
celebrants! |
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Photo Album, p. 1/The Friday Night Mixer,
Warming Up for the Grand Gala Event
Photo Album, p. 2/Saturday Afternoon
Photo Album, p. 3/The Grand Gala Event,
Friends Greeting Friends
Photo Album, p. 4/The Grand Gala Event, Do Ya,
Do Ya, Do Ya, Do Ya Wanna Dance?
PhotoAlbum, p. 5/The Grand Gala Event, Talk to
Me
Photo Album, p. 6/The Grand Gala Event, Let's
Stroll Once More
Photo Album, p. 7/The Grand Gala Event,
Updating Those Faded Pictures
Photo Album. p. 8/The Sunday Brunch, Still Groovin'
Other
50-Year Grand Reunion pages:
 /Ceremonial Presentations
Full Text of Welcoming Address
Congratulatory Letter from the Superintendent of Schools,
Oceanside School District
Congratulatory
Letter from the President of the Oceanside Education Foundation
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PLEASE: If you have
digital photos from our
Grand Reunion
Weekend
that
you haven't sent to Howie
yet,
do it NOW,
so all the best ones may be shared with the class. |
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Copyright ©
2010 by Howard B. Levy and
1960 Sailors Association Inc.
All rights reserved. |
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