Making the Connections

In reading through emails from the past I find that many of you have shared with me the joy you've experienced by reconnecting with a long lost friend through our website.  These are great experiences that need to be shared with the entire group.  I'll try to find  all such messages and post them here.  If you have had such an experience and don't find it mentioned, please tell me again so we can all be encouraged by it. -WD
NOTE: The names are linked to their bio pages or year book pictures so you can see who they are.  There is no way back here after you click on the link other than your browser's back button.  Please don't get lost.  We need you.  If you do happen to get sidetracked, find your way back by way of CONNECTIONS.

Dear Warren,
I am very happy to hear that my best buddy, Vincent Bellafiore has asked for me.  I, too have been searching the web for him for about six years.  We were on the swimming team together (Vinny was breaststroke and I was freestyle) and we also played baseball together on a sandlot [league] team called the Bushwick Cubs.
     I could go on with all the great times and fun we had together and how I regret losing touch with him, all these years.  But it would take you hours to read it all.  However, please forward my email address to him and if possible send me his.  I have been very fortunate to have had many good friends, in my lifetime and he was/is, without question, one of the best.  
Sincerely,                                      
Art   

Kent and Tarnower - 03/31/01

Warren
Thank you, again for all your work.  Lew and I have been having a marvelous time reading about the folks...There is something in all this that makes one feel very good about human nature, life, love...
     Did I tell you that Marlene Tarnower and I are having an ongoing correspondence after not having seen each other since 1958, but previously being close friends since playpen days.  It feels great! 
Susan

CASILLO AND BUONGERVINO 04/14/01

Elmira Buongervino and I have become friends through the Church we attend. For the past four years we have been working the blood drive together and meet at church for different functions.  We are both Eucharist Ministers and help out where needed.  She read my bio on the web site and put two and two together because of my husbands name "Buddy Mando and realized that it was me.  She sent me an e-mail and I couldn't believe it. I saw her at Church today and the two of us hugged and laughed and realized that we were friendly at school,  I signed her book.  What a great thing you started.  
Have a great holiday.
Madeline Casillo, Mando

GABBETT AND FONTI - 04/18/01

Last week I saw Marie Fonti's name added to the list.  She and I went back to the same grammar school.  She's not on E-mail, but Maureen Lewis gave me her married name and address, and I sat down at the computer and put together a letter to her.  Before I could change my mind, I sealed it, mailed it and sent it on it's way.  Then I sat and wondered out loud to my daughter whether I'd done the right thing, and "probably she won't even remember me.  It's been so long and she'll open this letter and wonder who this person is."   Wrong!  This past Monday I came home from shopping and the message light was blinking (Marie called the telephone company to get my telephone number).   Routinely, I pressed the button and there was a voice out of my past.  I stood in my kitchen and, because there was no one else to talk to at the time, I explained excitedly to our Golden Retriever that that was Marie talking to me on the 'phone.  In Marie's message she said she'd call me on Monday night, and she did.  We talked for an hour and a half about our friendship, the people we had known, and how excited we both are about the upcoming reunion.  We've made tentative plans to meet on Long Island in June -- I'll be flying up from Virginia to take care of two grandsons -- and we'll both make some time that week to see one another.
      Warren, I can't tell you how much this whole adventure means to me.  My husband and kids are happy for me, and I'm looking forward to seeing people who meant a great deal to me at that time in my life.  Thanks so much!
Sincerely,
Dolores (Gabbett) Harvey

Dear Warren;
Lew and Sue Wexler got in touch with me and for that alone I thank you.  Lew was the best man at my wedding and we lost touch through the last 40 some odd years.  
Best regards – Harry

MARTIN AND SPRINGSTEEN  05/10/01

Today Johanna  G. was kind enough to come to Great Neck, a half hour ride and visit with me in an old time luncheonette where the prices are reasonable and the waitress throws you out after almost three hours of non- stop talking.  Her life is so interesting as are the lives of all of us. Johanna is a spiritual lady and I'm needing that now.  She is so nice.  What is amazing is that even though we didn't "hang out" together in HS, there is still so much commonality and things to talk about and circumstances that have occurred that only kids who knew each other in high school and shared the school community and time and socio-economic class could understand.  Unlike the subsequent people we have come across who had different circumstances, we could instantly relate to each other. Amazing is that Johanna worked in the Great Neck Public Schools Administration building and I visited it at least ten times in the years she was there and we never thought about that we knew each other in HS or even said "hello" if we did see each other.  -Marilyn Kwasnick

Myra and I couldn't stop talking when we met today. First we ate lunch at a nearby restaurant and then had dessert  at my house. Since we're both married to artists there was no end to the similarities in our long term husbands and comparing them was a lot of fun. We went through the yearbook and I gave her information on the kids I knew and she filled in with the kids she knew.  Amazing how responsible we were towards our parents. Both of us agreed we would never have knowingly done anything to hurt them. How we rushed to "maturity" with early marriages and parenting as compared to our own children. My husband marveled at how the post -HS  years of life could be so mutually understood because our childhoods were so similar, second generation Americans who strived to have a house like the ones we saw in the movies. It's great knowing I now have recovered friends who don't live too far and are such good people. We all agree this project of yours has brought us great joy and wonderment!  -Marilyn

My wife and I went to the picnic and had a great time. One thing I find, is that the June class for some reason or other, seems to be under represented. Both when we visited Lane a few months back and also at the picnic, the majority were from the Jan. class. So we're making a lot of new friends. Through the directory I found two other Laneites living in the same town as us, the O'Kanes and the Contaldis (Evelyn Panariello). The Contaldi's house I can walk to in about 2 min. We have been living around the corner from each other for 30 yrs.
     Small world. In fact we all belong to the same Church. Also met a girl at the picnic that I went to public school with, Rosalie DeLeo, (Caiazzo) that really made my day. We grew up around the corner from each other in the East New York section of Brooklyn. She remembered my mother and father from the bakery. My parents owned the neighborhood German bakery. It brought back a lot of good memories.  -John Ebert

In recent weeks I've had the pleasure of getting together with Debbie Reich and Claire Malkowitz.  Debbie is the daughter of Mrs. Reich, Lane's fabulous French teacher of our era. We reminisced about the soirees at her house, which Debbie barely remembered. She certainly enjoyed hearing about the wonderful influence Mrs. Reich had on her students. 
     Claire has kept in touch with many Laneites and was able to fill us in on their lives. Great people!
-Marilyn Kwasnick

I just came back from having lunch with Lillian Blaschke, in from California, and Roberta Goldman who lives close to the Manhattan hospitals I've visited lately. Roberta and Lillian attended P.S. 64 with me from Kindergarten to 8 SP. They both went to Queens College and have maintained their friendship all these years. They brought our graduating yearbook from junior high school, a book long lost to me. I was so impressed with the way we wrote as 13 year olds, each in our special styles. Our vocabulary and use of language would be considered extraordinary today. 
-Marilyn Kwasnick

Dear Warren,
      You were good enough to give me Carol Gillis's current address and telephone number.  We were good friends in school and I have often wondered how and where she was.  Well, I wrote to her and, along with other things, asked her how she's been the last 49 years.  A little over a week ago, the telephone rang and my husband answered.  He told me a friend of mine, Carol, was on the 'phone.  Can't tell you how great it was to hear her voice, and we filled each other in on what's happened in our lives.  She's living in the same town my mom lived in for many years.
      I notice that she and her husband will be attending the barbeque as will we.  I hope to see her later this month when I fly to New York to visit with my daughter.  We're looking for a house on Long Island and, hopefully, it won't be too long before we're back "home".  I've reconnected with some really, long-ago wonderful friends, and there are times when I still can't believe it.  I'm looking forward to the Reunion.
     Sincerely,
     Dolores Gabbett

Hi, Warren:
I've been visiting with my daughter upstate NY for a couple of weeks and stopped in Middletown to say hello to Ginny Martin Cassidy.  Her house is like the enchanted cottage!  She's in the middle of a large clearing, with a lot of flowers all around the house...in the back is a pair of lily ponds guarded by a large verdigris stork, a "bridge" in the center of the two ponds, little stone faces and frogs live in the plants surrounding the ponds...off in the distance is a dog run which was all but deserted because Jack had taken the dogs elsewhere, but in a small pen was a white standard poodle which looked kinda lonely.  She's been planting all kinds of flowering bushes, bulbs, annuals of all sorts and a few rose bushes as well as a few hydrangeas in full  purple bloom and lucky me!  most of the stuff was in bloom and lookin' good!  The inside is a collectors delight, with a charming floral theme throughout the house...it is a delight to walk around inside as well as out, I didn't want to miss anything...we sat down for coffee, cake and talk, talk, talk!!!  We've been Email buds for over a year now and only got a chance to say hello back in April (we were soooo busy running around in the school, seeing the old sites and rooms and friends that we really couldn't talk much) and then at the Barbeque in June, re-connected yet again...so our face to face visit on August 10th was a fun yak-fest.  Such a great time mixing old (school days and classmates) with the new (children, grandchildren, health, husbands, hobbies, reunions and current interests) that we are looking ahead to doing it again, soon.
Thanks!
Barb

Hey Warren,
    Vince Bellafiore was in DC area from Germany for a medical conference.  Maureen (Lewis) and Bob Alhouse drove up to meet him on 27 January.  It was a glorious laugh filled reunion once each identified the other.  The prior phone call was Vince saying, "I'll be wearing a Harris Tweed jacket and a red turtleneck."  Maureen saying, "I'll be wearing a green pantsuit."  Thank goodness we had that conversation because we have changed a bit since our last conversation in June 1953. It was GREAT looking over the yearbook and playing "remember when."  What was amazing was that during Bob and Vince's military careers we had been in the same place at the same time without knowing it, of course. This mini reunion made all three of us sure that we will really have a blast on 10 April. Reconnections are GREAT!
Maureen