What a fabulous weekend! My best friend from high school came down to the Jersey Shore (Ext #98) for a visit from Long Island, NY 2 hours away! WOO HOO
We have not seen each other since 1981 (our junior year of hs)
The summer before my senior year of high school (1981) my mom & I unexpectedly moved to Nelson Co. Virginia (God's country - absolutely beautiful). I left behind wonderful high school friends.
I attended Nelson County HS for my senior year, which was a huge adjustment. It was totally different from Brooklyn, but met great people I still visit! Nelson High had (still does) a football team, home coming - which as LOTS of fun - but different then my hs in NYC :)
Then Reaganomics hit, which created more adjustments for me. (and Terry, I came to find out this weekend)
I attended high school in the morning and college full time in the afternoon and evening. With all the changes and over 700 miles away, you can easily see how easy it was to lose contact with friends. And then with college, everyone went their separate ways...
Back then, cringe - I"m not that OLD' - but there was no internet or cell phones. We kept in touch the 'old fashion' way by hand written letters and spoke on the house phone. There wasn't unlimited long distance calling plans then, so a long distance call was expensive...
Okay, I feel I"m digging a BIG hole, I may not be able to climb out of since I'm soooooooo 'old'... HA! So I'll stop that kind of sharing.... :)
Now... back to the 21st Century...I signed up for a Social Networking Bootcamp (Hi John S) and joined Facebook and twitter.
I was kicking and screaming... 'to myself' because I felt I had blog, yahoo groups, email, cell phone and constant contact... So why would I need to add to my already numerous ways of contacting friends and customers....
But... within 24 hours of joining Facebook, my best friend from high school Terry - FOUND ME!!! She had been looking for me for years! She even joined classmates.com to find me, but I wasn't on there. I thought about Terry often, but I did not know how to find her. See she last name is rather l-o-n-g and I couldn't remember how to spell it... so thank GOD she was looking for me :)
Another very good friend Melissa (we worked at Morgan Stanley Investment Firm in NYC) actually invited me join Facebook about 3 days before my Social Networking Bootcamp started. I joined to chat with her and also - now had an acct before my course started :) YEA Melissa!!!
I love how things fall right into place. I like to think - You are living and listening right when that happens :)
Below is Terry & I... just a few years after 1981 :) I think Terry looks the same, as for me, my hair wasn't quite as short I don't think... HA!!!!!
What Happens when two good ol' friends get together!?!??!
Of course Steve my darling husband decided to go 'out' shortly after Terry came over.... Hummm, can you say 'chicken'... !?!?!? (Big Grin) He left the state and went to AC (enjoys playing poker)... I but he could still hear us laughing from there!
Since I missed my senior year with Terry and my others classmates - she brought our year book over! Oh my, we were laughing as you can image and admiring the photos... tee hee
I was looking for a few friends that I could still 'remember' that touched my heart through their friendship in school.
First things first - Jack Cohen, was my softball coach and Terry & my bowling coach! My dad had past away suddenly after I turned 16, and Jack became like a 'dad' to me.... well a dad, you could play jokes on and tease ALL of the time, after all, he was my coach for the whole year - for two years! But honestly, Jack not knowing really meant the world to me.
So Terry and I looked Jack up on Facebook - and emailed him. I'm anxiously waiting to hear back:) We couldn't find him at first, but Terry told me Barbara one of the Phy Ed teachers was now the principle of the school, so we emailed her... we were so excited she emailed me right back - it was so great to hear from her! We are so Very Proud of her! Go Barbara!!!!
Okay I hope you are sitting down reading this one....
Terry & I were so excited about finding out Jack was on facebook (and not 6 feet you know where) (BIG GRIN) that when my phone rang, all I 'saw' the first name said 'JACK' and not realizing the last name was NOT Cohen, I picked it up and started to babble!!!
First of all, can you image me babbling!?!?! Heck no right!?!?
See Steve's friend Jack Brady was going to AC with him - and called the house, Tee hee Well Poor Jack Brady, my husband's friends.... just listened to my excitement.... Of course what I was saying 'could have pertained to him' I had not spoken to him in a while.. etc.... Yes, I had my shovel out and I was digging again!!!!
I had the call on intercom so Terry could hear too, she's looking at me a little odd, 'because this does not sound like OUR Jack'... A few minutes go by, until yes, I realize it's not my Jack it's my husband's Jack... We had the BIGGEST Laugh at ME... yet again!! Old habits die hard!?!?!
We also found my buddies... Bobby and William (Billy) in the year book and on facebook.
Bobby & I had homeroom together in our Jr year of high school. We were so close, we told everyone we were bother and sister. At first we got strange looks, he was PR and I was white, but we just smiled and said we had different dad's... and they soooooooo believed us... tee hee
William was in a group of fun friends I had breakfast with every morning. What a fun way to start each and every school day off with! We got there very early - to avoid a busy subway (train) ride to school and a nice quite walk through City Hall Park in NYC every day.
Murry Bergtraum is located between the New York City Police Plaza and the Brooklyn Bridge. The school is a triangle shape building and is in alot of movies and shows it is in :) Click here to view it.
One morning people from The Public Advertising System came into the cafeteria and asked my friends and I if they could take a picture of us for a Public Service Ad. So we said sure... We signed a release and the next day, they came with cameras and we did a quick shoot in the cafeteria.
We did not know they meant these Ads would be on Billboards all over!!! This photo became subway advertisements, Bus banners inside and outside of the bus - and all over New York (SI, Bklyn, Queens, Bronx & Manhattan) It read... 'Breakfast is served everyday in every NYC Public School'. Ha ha ha :)
We didn't realize we would become famous... (not really) tee hee
Below is one of the posters that was hanging on a billboard in the subway train, above people's heads. I was coming home from school one day, and happen to look up to read the advertisements and OMG - there I was!! I guess my expression made the people around me look up. I was in shock but SMILING.... The guy next to me said, wow that is YOU! I just grinned. He said would you like it to keep. I said, you can't do that, he said, sure I can, and he gently removed it... He said they are all over, they won't miss one... HA HA HA
Just about a year ago, I had this poster framed, thinking about the past, knowing I would not be able to find any of my high school friends from Bertraum but this was a great memory for me.
Billy 'accepted me as a friend' yesterday on facebook. But I wonder if he remembers me? I'll have to send him a link to my blog so he can read this post and see if that helps his memory :) Or as Terry puts it, he may pack up and MOVE immediately now that I found him... oh no that remark was about Jack our coach... HA HA HA
In the poster below: I'm sitting in the middle of the table, my softball hat is on the table and Billy is reaching over me to 'eat' some of my bagel. :) We were all posing while they flashed away :)
The size of this poster is 12 x 28. But they made them as big as the ones you see on the side of a public bus!
I was on 86th Street in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn with friends when one of them pointed to the HUGE Ad on the bus - it was this poster! I said, Oh my, I don't look that 'big' do I!?!?!? And we laughed!
I hope I hear back from Bobby too:) We'll see...
Have a wonderful week!
Lois Folla
