John Gentleman 1960 writes:
I have lived in Las Vegas for 40 years and have seen some big changes since 1964. Some changes were for the better I guess and you cannot knock progress, but I miss the old Las Vegas hotels like the Dunes, the Sands, the Thunderbird, Silver Slipper and Hacienda. All are gone.
The big name headliners Sinatra, Dean Martin Sammy Davis Jr., Liza Minelli, and of course Elvis are gone. In the lounge you could see Don Rickles at the Sahara, Shecky Green at the Riviera for two drinks minimum. Back then if you had reservations for a show did not mean you were going to get a good table unless you took care of the captain and the waiter. Now every thing is Tickettron. It takes away all the excitement of the way Las Vegas use to be like. Still there is nothing like Vegas anywhere in the world. Remember what happens in Las Vegas stays in Las Vegas. This would be a great place to have the DAHS 50th class reunion.
From Susan Weldon, 1960
i'm alive and still kicking. i've been married and divorced twice and am not going there again! i've got two children, one stepchild, two children in law, a step child in law (who is a year older than I am) and three grandchildren (so far). after an adventurous 8 years following high school (which is something of a blur), I moved to Storrs, CT where I still reside (second husband was a psychology professor at the university of CT).
i work for a regional mental health agency as a case manager attempting to help people who have severe chronic mental illness and who are also struggling w/substance abuse. I love them and I love the work, but i'd rather be retired so I could laze around and read books, take long naps, make twice weekly visits to neighboring casinos (where I actually often win at craps and blackjack), go to afternoon movies, spend more time w/kids and grandkids in ny and boston and not be tired after night basketball games and all night poker games. i'm politically active, have a lot of terrific friends and other than more than a few signs of aging, i'm not bad for an old broad.
Les Diskin 1962 writes:
After HS kind of hung around -- worked at Meadowbrook Hospital for a while. Went to Diesel school in Philly came home for a while. I enlisted in the Air Force in 68 and got married for the first time. Spent time in SE Asia. After discharge moved to Cal to go to college. I think like most of us New Yorkers fell in love with the weather. I wound up working for TWA as a mechanic at LAX and then I worked for the Orange County Transit for 22 years.
I retired in 95 and now work for a company called Valley Power Systems. I am a full time instructor for diesel engines and Allison heavy-duty automatic transmissions. I also teach 2 nights a week at San Bernardino Community College. I have 4 daughters 12 grand kids 1 great grandson and one more coming in Jan., whew. All in all I have had a pretty good life and I must admit that some of the teachers I had in HS had more of an influence on me than I though.
Dewain Lanfear 1960 writes:
After college, a tour in Vietnam, and 31 years of teaching back in Levittown, my wife Marti and I are enjoying retirement in northeast Georgia. We love the lake and the golf and the weather year 'round. If you're in the area, give us a call and bring your clubs.
Karen Biro Hewson 1960 writes:
After graduating from DAHS, I moved into New York City and worked for Mobil Oil. After a particularly bad winter in New York I moved to Miami Springs, Florida. Moved back to New York in 1968 and stayed for 11 years, working at LILCO in Hicksville for 11 years. Moved again to Boca Raton, FL where I worked for IBM for 10 years, until they decided it was better for their bottom line to manufacture and distribute their PC's from the Raleigh, NC area and closed the Boca site.
At that point, I decided to work temp for a while -- as IBM was very generous when they distributed their pink slips.
That's when I decided to go to England on vacation - a dream I always had was to go by ship. I did just that -- booked passage on the QEII and sailed to England for a month. Did all my sightseeing, went up to Scotland -- and met my future husband, Brian. We were married in Delray Beach, FL in 1991. After that I sold my house and moved to London, England where I lived and worked for 3 years. In England we had a conversion camper and traveled all over England and Scotland, also did quite a bit of traveling through Europe.
In 1994 we came back to Florida and now live in Stuart with our 2 dogs and 2 cats and no children. I'm sure there will be another move in our future as neither one of us is that crazy about Florida after the recent spate of hurricanes. Hurricane Frances left us without electric or water for 8 days. We were lucky though, no real damage to the house, only vegetation.
Still working as an Executive Secretary at an Executive Suites building in Juno Beach, but considering retirement sooner or later.
Cliff Fromm 1960 writes:
After high school I joined the Navy and served on a destroyer in the Gulf of Tonkin. Afterwards I took advantage of the G.I. Bill and went to C.W. Post and then to New York Institute of Technology for my MBA. I worked for G.E. for 16 years and then started my own leasing company. The economy has had its effects on us so I decided to close down and retire this coming April. My wife, Marilyn, is an R.N. for a NYS hospital and has three more years to work.
Next September we're taking a cruise to Alaska to celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary. My sister, Michelle, class of '63, lives in Albuquerque, NM with her husband, children and grandchildren. Marilyn and I live in Rockland County, NY just east of the Tappan Zee Bridge.
Steve Mohr 1960
Steve reports that he is still fixing cars until the end of the year. Then he plans to sell his business of 40 years and try to get his hands clean. “Don't think I'll miss the work, know I won't miss the drive! Live in San Pedro (California), shop is in Sherman Oaks, the worse part of L.A. traffic sits right in between.”
From Frank Barning 1960, newsletter editor. . .
One of the best things about being in contact with old schoolmates is learning about what they have done over the decades since we escaped from Division Avenue High School. Jon Buller, class of 1961, was not someone I knew, but that has changed since I carefully went through his marvelous website. Among other things, it is a visual this is your life. Here is one very creative, multi-talented man, who is fortunate to have the perfect partner, Susan Schade.
One of Jon's talents is that of being a cartoonist. One of the biographical cartoon panels on the website mentions long-time Levittown buddy and classmate, John Fitzsimmons.
Jon Buller writes:
“Although we have had no kids of our own, for the past 20 years or so Susan and I have been making our living by writing and/or illustrating children's books. Our latest project is a graphic novel for 8 to 12-year olds that will be published by Simon and Schuster in 2006. If anyone is interested, there is more information on our website.” www.bullersooz.com
Warren Zaretsky 1960 writes:
Last year, at age 60, I decided it was time for a new life-adventure. I left Las Vegas and took a teaching job at a business college in Dalian, China (a beautiful, clean, and relatively prosperous coastal city of about 6 million in the northeast). I enjoyed it well enough to have returned this year to do some teaching of Business Communications, some "Strategic Communications" consulting, and to develop/"reap" several other business ventures I had "seeded" last year.
I've started a silk, women's clothing manufacturing business for high-end designers needing small and mid-range quantities. I'm putting together joint ventures for a unique-to-China Miniature Golf facility, and also another for an American Old-West themed Beer-Bar (both of which would then be franchised). I also have a web site introducing Chinese oil painting (www.BaiShiWan.com) and plans to introduce a series of men's accessories -- such as money clips and belt buckles -- featuring traditional Chinese designs. In other words, Dylan's words (not Bob's, Dylan Thomas's), I have chosen to rage against the darkness and not to go gently into that good night.
And should all these business ventures fall short, I plan to sell my body... piecemeal, in Chinese medicine shops, alongside jars of monkey adenoid and rhinoceros penis. Speaking of which...
I am divorced for the past 3 years, after a 25+ year marriage to my second wife, and now enjoy meandering the quaint cobblestone streets, shopping for adorable concubines who appreciate my wisdom, charm, and devilishly enchanting creativity. Thus far I've collected a modest gaggle of pliant house maidens who bathe, feed, and entertain me with the special wonders of the Orient. Each morning I select 2 from column "A" and 1 from column "B" for my evening's pleasure. Typically, the entire ensemble will begin with an undulating "Blue Dragon" dance through the living room, before my pre-selected trio breaks off for the obligatory game of strip-Mahjong.
More than that I can't reveal here, or they would no longer be classified as "wonders of the Orient" (furthermore, I could be subject to transfer to some remote, Mongolian gulag for "re-education").
From Frank Barning 1960, newsletter editor. . .
I have been in touch with many Division alums from the early 1960s because of this newsletter and ones that I wrote prior to the 40th reunion in 2000. From the stories that I have read and heard, a book could be written. Many of our fathers were in WW II and that colored the lives of many families, the way the Vietnam war did 25 years or so later.
What interests me more than nostalgia of the old days, is the sociology of growing up in post-war Levittown. Most of us were naïve kids during our high school days, more interested in sock hops and football games than the dynamics that were going on, unbeknownst to us, in our community.
One classmate told me of getting together with a small group of friends around the time of the reunion. She said that everyone in that gathering had at least one alcoholic parent. Another classmates believes that many of our fathers died before they should have because of the chemicals in the pesticides they used, much of which is now banned. My dad, an avid gardener, was often up to his elbows in pesticides such as DDT fighting off the Japanese beetles and other varmints in our yard. Those Levittown potato fields had good soil. He died at age 73. Mom and dad loved their Camel cigarettes and cocktail time. Few of their generation experienced any therapy. It would have been useful for many of the WWII veterans. The men and women coming back from our current war will certainly have it available.
I wonder if any of us have both parents who are still living. From what I have learned, almost all of the dads are gone. My mother, age 88 and failing, has lived in a retirement facilities (old-folks home) for four years. There are very few male residents, so it is not surprising that some of have mothers still living, but few have fathers.
I find it interesting how many of us have moved to the Sunbelt, primarily to Florida. A small colony of us live in Southern California, mostly in the Los Angeles area. Don Davidson, Jeff Lincer and I reside in or near San Diego. A large number are still in Levittown, which says something very positive about our old hometown.
I have identified only three members of the class of 1960 who have doctorates, Lincer, Toby Rutner and Ellen Rees. Since we attended a new high school, don't you wonder if we got a good education? Where did these teachers come from? Some of the best, including James Chenevey from the math department, left before we graduated. Recently, I called to thank him for being the best high school teacher I ever had. He told me that he left because he couldn't stand the department chairman. Forty-five years later, some of the guys in our classes still lament the coaches who left, especially Mr. Kenyon and Mr. Tarney.
Two members of the class of 1960 were giants in rock and roll. Do a search on Google to find out about Artie Kornfeld and the late Sterling Morrison. Rich Humbert told me a few years ago, that Sterling was the smartest person in our class. I remember that while most of us carried around huge stacks of schoolbooks (this was before back packs), Sterling never seemed to have any. He didn't need them, or maybe didn't care. He was quite a character and more talented that we knew.
Speaking of people no longer with us, a few months ago I received an email from someone asking if I could put her in touch with Christine Wilkens. Painfully, it was my task to report that Chris had died about five years ago. The following is a list of members of the class of 1960 who have passed away. I do not have a list for the class of 1961.
Deceased members of the class of 1960
As-of October 2004
Carole Arnesen, Richard Bachman, Diane Brown, Michele “Mimi” Brunette, Pete Cybriwski, Edward Fink, Carolynn Flohl, Bruce Garabrant, Janet Goldberg, Daniel Huntley, James Kinane, Ann LaMar, Stephen Lilienthal, Louis Lopez, Eileen Maxwell
Sterling Morrison, John Sweeney, Jeanne Tlockzowski, Ray Wenz, Christine Wilkens
# # #
Newsletter Editor: Frank Barning 1960, fbarning@yahoo.com
posted 2005.01.07 - last edited 2005.07.13
Copyright 2004, blue-dragons.com and Frank Barning
