Entry:

Welcome, mates, friends, & other visitors to this humble attempt at a (completely unofficial) RE-CONNECTION BULLETIN BOARD & DIGITAL GRAPEVINE.  Originally an after-thought in the absence of any other 2020 celebration of MH ’60’s 60th, I’ve kept it up with minimal attention on the possibility of it having, developing, &/or encouraging anything of value, whether as classmate exchange or file cabinet, a place for information & reflections. 2020 seemed like the perfect time to explore ways for classmates to exchange from afar, without being able to meet on campus, or even, for many, in person.    

Alas, my web skills are at least as limited as my attention span, & early drafts of web-content even more so, so have mostly not paid the site any more attention than anyone else. On February 12, 2023, Bob Anderson’s birthday, however, I added an attempt at his obituary (on the Obits page, mainly in his own words), along with a couple of his own works he hoped to share with classmates (on the Contacts/Links page).

At the time, I also tried to update the COMMENT/ SUBMISSION / POST PROCEDURE. First off, the site’s framework for posting comments &/or submitting info sucks. Clicking to the Posts page, one has to click the “comment” link to get to a page that has any more recent offerings at the bottom. I don’t now enough (yet) how to at least put the most recent on top, but that’s mostly a moot issue. In fact, I think I’ll disable the “comment” feature. The problem is that the site gets thousands of spam & trash attempts (an extremely high number in other alphabets), hundreds of which get by the auto-filters to accumulate in a “pending” bin, which I “trash” in mass, without must individual scanning (if any).

Even if & when a genuine classmate submission made it through, who will go through all the steps to find & read it? In most cases, any content probably more appropriately belongs elsewhere on the site–e.g., Contacts/ links; News; Now; etc. To keep things simple, please send any & all submissions of whatever kind (from comment on content to content itself) to bodlibrary2020@gmail.com with NMH1960.net in the subject line, from which it will get to me, Yours Crudely (who formerly wore the label Dick), as long as still kicking. In the absence of direction, I’ll try to upload it where it seems to belong.    

Meanwhile, a week or two ago, while mass-erasing unapprovable spam from the “pending” bin, I just happened to catch one actual & genuine classmate comment–now the last to be posted in such an out-of-the-way place as the bottom of the approved-comment in. To save you that the search, Paul Sheldon’s info, reflection, & contact info will also go right here for the moment, before choosing where else it belongs. You’ll note he raises the question of how many classmates are even aware the site exists, though suggests info is included somewhere (which I haven’t yet tried to find). I have no way to email a classmate list about it.

The school has its own site meanwhile, with email links sent from time to time connecting us to a rich variety of campus-based goodies–tours, discussions, performances, store, etc.  I haven’t checked the Class News section often, or seen much of special interest to MH ’60, however.      Yours Crudely (3/18/2003)

Paul’s offering:

I just discovered this site now, after going to the NMH-sponsored site and learning of this one for 1960. Good, although it does seem that few people are using either site and mostly do so for obits (which is not a lot of fun or a good exchange of ideas). Good to see George Banzinger here — Hello. I’ll comment on the Bakers re their obits. I remember him for playing the accordion (Lady of Spain, anyone?). She was not the only [female] academic MH teacher. Ms. Forslund was my geometry teacher.

This semester at Villanova I’m taking Engineering Humanity (a faculty benefit, auditing). It’s basically a philosophy course re AI, of which I’m now sold. Been doing a lot of beta-testing with ChatGPT the last three months — it is a game changer. Continuing to have fond memories of the 1960 reunion this past June. Still a peace-affirming nonviolent activist and grateful that my health enables this. Also grateful for my wife Fran and family. paul.sheldon@villanova.edu

p.s. The Baker’s vehicle (classified as a motorcycle) was a post-war Messerschmitt KR200, made by the aircraft manufacturer of the same name. The canopy and cockpit had a marked resemblance to the Bf109 WWII aircraft. Very cool, and now very collectable. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messerschmitt_KR200#.

 

PLEASE HOP OVER TO THE “ABOUT” Page (clicking on Top Menu)
for info on what’s here now, how to use, & issues of going forward.
[Not yet re-read or updated.]

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NOTE RE NMH1960 ‘MEMBERSHIP’:

Some ambiguity about the two classes (N-&-MH) goes with our joint legacy, back to the foundings. Though our diplomas read MOUNT HERMON or NORTHFIELD, and most academics & daily doings were separated by a safe social distance (i.e., a big river), the two entities were part of each other also, whether expressed socially, romantically, in shared activities like sacred concert & theater, or in respect for their philosophical foundations.  

In response to an invitation made by the MH ’60 class secretary, Northfielders contacted indicated they had other irons in the fire (e.g., a FB page), so wouldn’t join in on our website “at this time.” All members of NMH ’60, their friends, former teachers & staff, family, etc. are invited as individuals, however, so that still includes participants of any gender or diploma. The site has no official status & represents no institutional entity, whether school or class.

Whatever the old documents say, we are all NMH/ NORTHFIELD MOUNT HERMON now, in any case. Although we may have known only a few from each other’s campus personally, we hardly knew that many from our own campus personally either, with many classmates we’d have liked to know better. One needn’t have been old bosom buddies to find exchanges now worthwhile, in other words.

The most memorable parts of class reunions often involve people not well known before, if at all. Reunions in general seem to  have three major aspects of value to participants: reconnection with old friends;  making new friends, reconnection with the place. (Some might add re-assessment of old self & relations as a 4th.) As for place, there’s no substitute for the location itself, with its energies intact. What distance has done for those too far away to get back, the pandemic has done even for neighbors.   

 Our invitation stands, in any case. We could add pages to be moderated by Northfielders, or help set up a separate (but linked) site (as the schools were then, separate-but-linked).  Since we claim no official status to begin with, our invitation extends not to designated representatives, but to any unofficial individuals interested.

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