Stephen (Steve) Dixon

Let me join the ranks of the people thanking you, Ann, for your comments and the article you posted.

I was feeling exceedingly squirmy as I read through a number of posts. The change in terminology doesn't;t make the horrible aspects of our history any easier to confront, but some respect for the feelings of many of our friends seems a small price to pay.

It seems to me to be a spurious beef to say, "Spare my feelings about the language I use, even if it hurts your feelings about your entire racial heritage."

Sorry, all. I felt like I had to say that.

Ann Shepard (Rueve)

St. Patty's Day tradition at Skyline... GREEN SPAGHETTI! 

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Paul Simons

The green spaghetti looks good, looks fine. Now this - I'm not sure if this is accurate:

Dale Gieringer

  Sad to see another great WHHS alumnus just passed on, former Metropolitan Opera Conductor James Levine (class of 61, I think).  Some of us might remember hearing Jimmy conduct the WHHS orchestra, though that was a few grades below his level of expertise.  Though Jimmy faced troublesome allegations of personal misconduct in recent years, we can be thankful that he left a lasting treasury of terrific recordings, such as his wonderful performance of "Tales of Hoffmann," which I was listening to on the Met's nightly downstream earlier this week.     - Dale G.

https://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory/james-levine-ruled-met-opera-dead-age-77-76511151

Ann Shepard (Rueve)

Jon Marks wrote a touching tribute to "Jimmy" on Facebook. Perhaps he will share it here. 
James gave the world such marvelous music, but I knew him as Nell Custer Murphy's student who accompanied the à cappell choir, keeping us on tune.  I later learned that  he was also studying at The Julliard School  while attending WHHS. A prodigy for sure. 
 

Chuck Cole

I credit Jimmy with introducing me to opera.  I remember him saying one evening that it would be fun if a group of us got together one evening to listen to Wagner's complete Ring Cycle,  all 4 operas in a row, finishing sometime the next day.   He saw the Ring as the pinnacle of opera and imagined one day conducting it.  Little did any of us (probably including him) know that this would indeed come to pass.  I don't think he ever did all 4 in a 24 hour period but he did bring the complete Ring to the Metropolitan Opera and oversaw (at least) two complete versions with different staging, costumes, etc. 

The Cleveland Orchestra under Szell used to come to Oberlin three times each year and on one of those occasions he came along and I got to see him briefly. My wife and I with two friends went to see his return to the Met a few years back (I think for Verdi's Otello) after his long absence from the podium due to back problems and other issues.  

Becky Payne (Shockley)

Thanks, Chuck. Your story about Jimmy Levine is fascinating. By the way, I was never an opera fan until I was asked to accompany rehearsals for a full production of The Marriage of Figaro at Earlham College the year John taught there (1971-72). I worked with the singers and played continue during the 3 productions and we both got to know it really well and fell in love with Mozart Operas and the others followed. I love the Ring, too, though Tristan is about my alltime favorite opera! And the faculty member who conducted that production at Earlham (Charles Combopiano) went on to start the Whitewater Opera Co. in Richmond IN, which successfully mounted quite a few operas in the years that followed (often drawing on singers from IU).  Sadly it no longer exists.

Gail Weintraub (Stern)

Check out the Home Page for new reunion dates for our 75+1 Birthday Reunion in 2022.

Nancy Messer

Today I had my second cataract surgery at CEI (Cincinnati Eye Institute).  Obviously I don't know how successful everything was but I wanted to mention something that's involved in the process.  There are 3 different eyedrop medications that are required and can be a real pain to keep track of.  CEI deals with a compounding pharmacy in Montana that combines all 3 medicines in one so you're dealing with 1 drop however many times a day it's needed.  That's a lot easier than the old way of doing it.  If you will be having cataract surgery,  ask the provider how the practice deals with the eyedrop prescriptions. 

Florence (Now Jean) Ager

CATARACT SURGERY:  A CAVEAT 

       Congrats on completing your eye surgery, Nancy. I am confident you will be pleased with the outcome.and wish you well. Thanks for your suggestion about combined drops afterward. It is not surprising that CIncinnati Eye Institute has introduced this convenience, 

       CEI  has long been at the forefront of cataract surgery. Dr. Osher, now Director Emeritus, has developed many of the IOLs and surgical instruments used in cataract surgery. He has written 5 textbooks, founded a professional journal and has won numerous prizes for his films.  My mother was an early bebefactor of his IOl insertion. I was encouraged to watch her procedure on a camera in a separate room.  Hours later, Mother and I went out for dinner. What a change from my father's after-surgery week-long stay at Holmes Hospital, his head held between sandbags. 

           My personal journey with cataract diagnosis began over a decade ago at one of Philadelphia's premier eye hospitals,. An opthalmologist, frustrated by her inability to refract my eyes, blamed "rapidly developing cataracts. " I saw, in sequence, 3 "best doctors" in the field. In each case, I was first told that I had early cataracts and to come back in 6 months, again in 6 months, then suddenly advised that my eyes were worse and that I should have immediate surgery. I agreed to the 3rd physicians's recommendation, This surgeon then referred me fo get an external contact lens for the accompanying eye, 

           The contact lens specialist, an optometrist, told me that my small cataract was not yet affecting my vision! I cancelled the surgery as the hybrid monovision contacts he prescribed restored my vision to 20/20. That was 10 years ago! 
   
        In the interim, I traveled to Cincinnati to consult Dr, Osher at CEI.  After an amazingly thorough exam which took hours, he put the surgical recommendation in context and sent a 3-page evaluation to my internist. This explained that an eye condition (amblyopia in one eye) could limit the effectiveness of surgery, It is worthwhile for me to wait as innovation may provide a more certain prognosis. 
 
           Although cataract operations are among the safest, experience has taught me to proceed cautiously. The focus of surgeons is on doing surgery. They may have the patient return a couple of times before urging It and even suggest that it is preventative. As I see it, the purpose should remain that of restoring vision-- not necessarily enhancing it. In my experience, people who choose such surgery prematurely are often disappointed. Sometimes the vision you have is as good as it gets.

Ann Shepard (Rueve)

Nancy, that one drop medication would have come in handy after my cataract surgery in 2014. I was given a chart to follow after my first eye was done for the three different drops I had to take at different times of day over the course of six weeks. That was complicated enough, but two weeks later, I had to incorporate a different chart for my other eye. That was a challenge, but came through it well. 
Jean, I'm sorry you have had so much difficulty, but found your history of CEI very interesting. One of the doctors at CEI, Dr. Khatana, who specializes in glaucoma,  performed my cataract surgery upon referral from my ophthalmologist. She, and the physician whose practice she took over had been monitoring my high intra ocular pressure for over twenty years. The former doctor took a watch and wait approach, but when the new physician took over the practice, in 2004, she determined the pressure was related to the beginnings of cataracts, but too early to remove. She performed a laser procedure (after I got a second opinion from one of the doctors at Midwest that David Schneider arranged for me) called an iridotomy. That procedure helped for nearly ten years, but the pressure began creeping up again as the cataracts grew. I would not have needed the cataract surgery at that time had it not been for the elevated pressure. I will never forget that Dr. Khatana, after examining both eyes post surgery, told me that my optic nerves were the best he would probably examine that day. With the implant lenses, I don't need to wear glasses except readers. 

Gail Weintraub (Stern)

Check out the Announcement at the bottom of the Home Page which provides details of the latest WHHS Theatre Department play produced and filmed in the Walnut Hills High School Rick Steiner Black Box Theater. Our Class of 1964 Performing Arts Fund is funding the streaming services of this original play. 

Let's support our WHHS theatre students and our class PAF! 

Ann Shepard (Rueve)

Once again, US Nesws and World Report has ranked out alma mater tops in the state. Sursum ad summum!  Go Eagles!!!

https://amp.cincinnati.com/amp/4853030001

Judy Holtzer (Knopf)

Thanks, Ann, for reminding me.....

Here is the full US News and World Report on WHHS : #112 in the US!

Sursum ad summum!

https://www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/search?name=Walnut%20Hills%20High%20School&ranked=true&public=true

Stephanie Riger

Dear Classmates,

I am cleaning out old memorabilia and have Remembrancers from 1960, 1961, 1963 (and possibly 1962 if my sister doesn't want it) to give away.  Anybody want them? If you do, please email me: stephanie.riger@gmail.com

I also have U of Michigan yearbooks from 1965 and 1966 that I'm happy to part with.

Warm regards to all,

Stephanie

Margery Erhardt (Schrader)

Unfortunately, I have lost my Remembrancers. I had been hoping to refer to them for a name of a teacher I had in 9th grade who taught Ancient and Medieval history. She was in the annex and had reddish hair I believe. Judy, I believe you might have been in the class. Anyone know who she was…she was an awesome teacher and brought history alive for me! 

Dale Gieringer

 Marjorie -

   You are thinking of Mrs Bechle (or was it Baechle), pronounced "Beckly."
 

   - Dale   

Richard Murdock

Margery:

Being a colossal packrat, I happen to have Remembrancers for every year at WHHS.   There were 3 female history teachers at WHHS in 1961: 

Elda Baechle

Diane Cherry

Frances Sandlin

Dick

Margery Erhardt (Schrader)

Thank you, thank you! She was an excellent teacher - better even than many history professors. Much of what she taught we see today in our current world. She was amazing and the reason I pursued history and taught history for several years! Thank you Dick and Dale!!!! 

Judy Holtzer (Knopf)

Hi Margery,

I had Mr. Knab for Ancient and Medieval History.

Paul Simons

Thanks for for mentioning history Margery and for mentioning Mr. Knab, Judy. Looking back, in my opinion he was one outstanding teacher. These days we’re aware of how much outside interests with their own agendas regulate what is taught, and what is forbidden to be taught. For example one family in Texas and other individuals in other places even control what publishers can include in and what they must exclude from the school books, in particular history books, that they sell. Mr. Knab seems to have been one who would just teach what actually happened, as damning as it might be to the traditionally protected social strata.

But I might be looking back through rose colored glasses. We might have learned in passing that slavery was universal in the ancient world and we know it was here until only a few generations ago but nobody ever went into the depths of depravity that exist in the minds and souls of those who practiced it, profited from it, wrote it into law, and to this day don’t regret it.

Becky Payne (Shockley)

I also had Mr. Knab and thought it was a really good class. I remember him discussing the origin of names: He said that the name Eugene (I think it was to Eugene Katona) came from the Greek, meaning "well born" and that the Anglo-Saxon equivalent of that name was "Wilbur." I find that stuff fascinating!

Paul Simons

I find that topic interesting as well Becky. Every word, every name - why? Where did it come from? Of course we can look up the etymology of words.

"Walnut" - from Etymology Online - "Old English walhnutu "nut of the walnut tree," literally "foreign nut," from wealh "foreign" (see Welsh) + hnutu (see nut). Compare Old Norse valhnot, Middle Low German walnut, Middle Dutch walnote, Dutch walnoot, German Walnuss. So called because it was introduced from Gaul and Italy, distinguishing it from the native hazel nut. Compare the Late Latin name for it, nux Gallica, literally "Gaulish nut." Applied to the tree itself from 1600 (earlier walnut tree, c. 1400)."

But who got to call this thing that fell off a tree a "hnutu"?

And "Hills" - also from Etymology Online - "Old English hyll "hill," from Proto-Germanic *hulni- (source also of Middle Dutch hille, Low German hull "hill," Old Norse hallr "stone," Gothic hallus "rock," Old Norse holmr "islet in a bay," Old English holm "rising land, island"), from PIE root *kel- (2) "to be prominent; hill." Formerly including mountains"

Okay, great, but again who first made the sound "holm" that became accepted as meaning a rise in the landscape?

Meanwhile people have serious problems like co-workers who refuse to get vaccinated, true, but that doesn't invalidate other avenues of thought.

Becky Payne (Shockley)

Wow, Paul. Thanks for the free linguistics lecture. Great Stuff! And I love the colorful names of so many British towns and villages - all with interesting histories. 

Dale Gieringer

  I was sad to see an obit today for WHHS graduate Betty Segal.

https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/sfgate/obituary.aspx?n=betty-segal&pid=198528484

   Betty was in the class ahead of us, but we took French together under Mme Troeger and Mr Eyck.  She was a good humored spirit in class.  After graduating, she went to UCLA film school, became a photographer, and settled in the Berkeley-Oakland area.   She later became a trained Swedish massage therapist, specializing in lymphedema massage.   She's survived by her cousin Karin, another member of the WHHS Class of 63 with whom whom some of us had the pleasure of socializing.  - Dale G.