Autumn 2024 Class Notes by Judy Siskind

Greetings, Class of 1968,

       Summer brought news of some class mini-reunions. Janet Conn wrote, “In June I shared an AirBnB rental house in Truro on Cape Cod with Carole Goldstein, Diane Durgin, Karin Becker and husband Anders Gronmark, Ellen Dubois and husband Arnie Schwartz, and my husband Mike Debelak. Interestingly (or not), all of us kept our birth names and none had children. We had a week of reminiscing, relaxing, and completing a large jigsaw puzzle. There were excursions to the shores—ocean and bay—a lake with a beach, a walk to a lighthouse and a walk in the woods. I strolled through a cemetery with 250 year-old headstones—these people lived through the Revolutionary War! The weather was good and the house comfortable except for the indomitable carpenter ants.”
 

      Not far from Truro another group of classmates met up. Martha “Martie" Helmreich wrote, "Several Beebe ‘68ers gathered again in Martha’s Vineyard this June for Beebe on the Beach 2.0. Thanks
to the wonderful generosity and planning of our hostesses Kay Lehman Schlozman and Linda “Chickie” Cicalese Rickard, we reminisced, reconnected, ate very well, traveled all over the island, and realized how lucky we were that we could still stay connected.” Martie’s group photo is shown above and in the online magazine. It includes Barbara Ann Kemp McCahill, Susie Sears, Nancy Kellogg Lightbody, Martie, Marty McCahill Cowden, Kay, Chickie, and Lee Morgan.

       I was sad to learn of the recent deaths of two classmates, Martha Shipman Andrews of Las Cruces, NM, and Kimberly Perry Nukala.  I have little information about them, but saw on the internet that Martha is the author of several books, including Out of the Shadows:  The Women of Southern New
Mexico.  If anybody knew either of these classmates and has words to share, please send them to me and I'll be glad to include them in an upcoming column.  

       Nancy-Ann Card Feren and Joyce Howland both sent interesting descriptions of time spent abroad, Nancy-Ann in Central America and England, and Joyce in Germany. Both combined travel adventures with visits to their children or grandchildren living in those areas and Nancy-Ann met up with a pen pal of 66
years duration. The travelogues are posted on our webpage as News articles.

       Lynne Williams Bair wrote to enthusiastically recommend Doris Kearns Goodwin’s An Unfinished Love Story: A Personal History of the 1960’s, based on her late husband Richard Goodwin’s years as an aide and speechwriter in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations. “Nothing I have read since college took me back to those times—our times and our specific tumultuous year—like this book…it is wonderful history, and also a moving love story.” Lynne found the Audiobook format especially compelling.
 

       As I wrap up this column, the presidential election is still several months away, and our collective stress level is very high. May we (somehow) be living in less polarized and more peaceful times in the months ahead.

Judy Siskind

Magazine Correspondent, Class of 1968

Please send news to jsiskind@yahoo.com