Frederick Jones, Jr.

I am really bummed about Mark's passing. He was trulyone of the great persons in our class and a great team mate. He was a leader of the OL with Gene and they were always frustrated that I couldn't run up the gigantic holes that they created. Noone knew that I was blind in one eye and couldn't see out of the other. Finally, I was taken off the offensive side. 

Anyway, he was the greatest and will be missed. I did run across his entry to Ault Park Concours a few years back and realized he was still in Cincinnati.

Fred

Gene Stern

Nelson, i agree completely in your assessment of how important it is to keep connected with those who were so important in those 6 critical years of our youth.  We have all had varied and successful adult lives but when we started our Performing Arts Fund and subsequently the Forum on this great website, i felt a huge sense of reconnection and gratitude for my classmates and what they mean to me. I reconnected with Dave Brockfield ('63) and Jeff Keller on my last trip to Cincy, but using the Forum is much easier. I just spoke to Dan Hites and Mike Boyers for the first time since we graduated and all because of the sad passing of Bloch'.

And Fred, why didn't you ever mention your being blind in one eye!?  It was good hearing from you on the forum. Mark is probably laughing and saying he now understands why things happened on the football field with you!

Judy Holtzer (Knopf)

Bonnie Altman Templeton and Judy Holtzer Knopf had a Belated-50th-Reunion-for-two-in-realtime on February 16, 2015 in Beer Sheva Israel. Seems that Bonnie and her husband come to Israel every year on a teaching grant but never knew that Judy lived in Beer Sheva, and Judy in Beer Sheva never knew that Bonnie came there every year. This was all remedied through the WHHS Class of 1964 virtual reunion website, G-d bless. Bonnie and Judy had a wonderful and tasty lunch reunion, tentatively made plans for the engagement of their grandchildren, and parted with enthusiastic promises for same time, next year in Beer Sheva. And all are welcome! I am waiiiiiiting.

Philip Spiess

Laura:  great story!

On a bizarre different note:  At the end of this summer, I inherited a DOG!  My son had returned home from college, where he and his (now former) girlfriend had gotten a dog.  The dog came home with him.  I am not a dog person -- certainly not, since at the age of five my beloved young Cocker Spaniel puppy was run over by a car and at the age of six the next-door neighbor's dog, normally friendly, got accidentally spooked by me and nearly took out my left eye! So I have been a cat person for many years:  my sister's cat really turned out to be mine -- we communed:  she and I were loners, intellectual, and did not suffer fools kindly (that's why I got along with all of you -- none of you were fools).  But luckily my wife is a dog person, and because my son's dog is a charming -- and very smart dog -- I have, unexpectedly, become a dog person in my old age.  I walk him around our neighborhood mile-long circle every afternoon, and he really looks forward to it!  (He's resting at my feet right now, as I write.)  I pick up his poop on these walks -- required by law, of course (brings to mind memories of changing my son's diapers, which everyone said, "Oh, dads can't handle it!" -- but it really was no big deal -- just something that had to be done, like taking out the garbage.)

So, why do I bring this up?  I suddenly noticed on our walks that one yard has a sign:  "Invisible Dog Fence" -- and I thought, what the hell is this, the dog's owner is a MIME?

Ann Shepard (Rueve)

Phil, I'm so glad that you got the opportunity to experience the joy of dog "parenting" at this stage in life. I was just thinking about the poop thing yesterday, comparing it to changing diapers. It's simpler, plus you don't need baby wipes for their butts, that is of course if you don't have a dog with extremely long hair who happens to ingest something that changes the consistency of the poop to something like gravy or thinner.  It is on mornings like this, when it is a balmy -6° with three inches of snow pack that makes me wish that my dog was a cat, but cold makes the poop easier to pick up.  On that same note, my niece's husband owns a dog poop business called Pet Butler.  He has contracts with apartment complexes and municipalities.  He's literally cleaning up.

I have never been without a dog my entire life, except for the four month period in 1984 between the time that my two year old dog ran away, a schnnoodle, Morgan (named after Baseball Hall of Famer Joe Morgan because he was short and very fast, so fast we weren't able to catch him) and  when a coworker gave me a cocker-Apso puppy, Ms. T. (whose mother was a Lhasa Apso named Tibbet who tangled with a random, but quite good looking, cocker spaniel).

I do enjoy cats, but I think it's the SHEPARD in my DNA that makes me the dog person that I am today.

Philip Spiess

Ann:  Loved the pun about "literally cleaning up!"  Let's hope Pet Butler keeps making sure that all of that poop is "Gone with the Wind" (frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn, as long as it's not left in my yard! -- and my apologies here to Ernest Dowson -- if you don't know the reference, look it up ["Non Sum Qualis Eram Bonae Sub Regno Cynarae" (1896)]).  And "Shepard" -- quite so!

"Philip," of course, is Greek for "lover of horses," but I can't quite lay claim to that -- when I was a mere youth (read "90-pound weakling" here), and set out to ride the horses the summer camps I attended gave me, the ones chosen for me were named things like "Black Imp" and "Son of Satan," and so on -- you get the idea.  These enormous behemoths of equine flesh would take me in at a glance and proceed to try to wipe me off of their backs at the first low-hanging limb.  They usually succeeded.  If I was lucky, I would be given an old sway-back mare who should have been fodder for the glue factory; these would stop at the first chance they had to graze at an idle blade of grass growing along the pathway, taking serious minutes to do so, all the while that the rest of the camper horse-riding pack was disappearing down the trail in the middle distance to god knows where (I didn't).  Which is probably why I so enjoyed visiting the abandoned glue factory in Madison, Indiana, my freshman year at Hanover College during Rush Week.  (Go ahead -- ask me about it; it was a really surrealistic experience -- I mean the glue factory, not Rush Week!)

As to the name "Spiess," it means "spear" in German (get the point?), and I fulfilled my nomenative destiny somewhere back in the mid-'60s when I appeared as a spear-carrying supernumerary (Nelson, take note!) in a Cincinnati Zoo Opera production of Saint-Saens' Samson et Dalila.  The star, internationally-known mezzo-soprano Jean Madeira, asked me where I had gotten my "nice" (as she put it) Madras sports coat (this was during rehearsals, and I was shocked that the star of the show was talking to me, a teenager), and I answered, truthfully enough, "Shillito's" -- I'm sure she'd never heard of it.

But getting back to dogs, brings us to the old joke:  "Nice dog you've got there -- Spitz?"  "No, but he coughs a lot!"

David Buchholz

After Mark's death I didn't really know how to jump back into the Forum.  I'm glad that Judy and Bonnie broke the ice.  Phil and Ann's canine stories were welcomed, too.  I suppose that I'll just do what I know best, which is to visually express feelings that emerge better for me in imagery than in words.  This was along the Annapurna cicrcuit in Nepal. 

Ira Goldberg

Judy and Bonnie, a great story about a belated, but obviously joyful reunion. It seems that your future meetings will be a repeated blessing across time and distance. Thank you for sharing a great photo. Our website has surely formed, refreshed and rejuvenated relationships among so many classmates. Special gifts, indeed!

Bonnie Altman (Templeton)

OK Judy, how did you post the picture--in very simple directions.  I had a great time visiting you and look forward to next year B"H

Ed Seykota

Ann & Phil,

I suppose you know about the dyslexic athiest who doesn't believe in dog.

David Buchholz

Bonnie...as far as posting photos go...there is a little icon with a moon over two mountains to the right of the word "source" in the "Add Response" page.  Click on that and it will allow you to visit your photos on the computer, choose one, choose upload, and "submit."  

Ed, your dyslexic atheist made my day...

Steven Levinson

I t'nod eveileb ni dog.

Ann Shepard (Rueve)

Actually I heard it as the dyslexic, agnostic, insomniac, who stayed awake all night pondering whether or not there is a Dog. 

Speaking of Dog, here's Chief. I'm letting him take care of business on the deck while the temperature is hovering in single digits and below.  He has a perfect fur coat.

Philip Spiess

Ed:  And then there was the dyslexic who walked into a bra.

Janet Wood (Mitchell)

Unitended consequences of our 50th un-reunion:  I have been reminiscing about Cincinnati so much that my husband bought me the complete DVD set of four seasons of "WKRP in Cincinnati." We have sat here laughing over the great characters:  Venus Flytrap, Herb Tarleck  (the salesman), Dr. Johnny Fever, Les Nessman (the newsman), and the unforgettable Jennifer (Loni Anderson).  Even though the opening skyline pictures date from 1980, it still makes me a little homesick for Cincinnati. I enjoy seeing the news director wearing U.C. and Xavier teeshirts. Of course, the writing is still funny, which makes the program a classic to me. I have not been to Cincy since the summer of 1966 (!), and was looking forward to seeing it at our reunion, and we know how that went!  So...those of you who still live there, how about an update on what is different now?  I read that Mt. Adams and Over-the-Rhine are now trendy.  How about the area around WHHS?  I remember it as being a bit run-down, but not too bad. I lived in the Hyde Park/Mt.Lookout area.  Has that changed much, or is it still nice?  I was excited when Graeter's ice cream came into my local supermarket! Phil, you got me thinking of this when you mentioned Shillito's!!             P.S. I added a picture to my profile, but somehow it isn't coming up here.

David Buchholz

A sobering reminder...after Mark's death I simply want to express and give thanks for the new friendships I've created and/or renewed through this website.  I'm enrolled in a yearlong class called "A Year to Live." We are asked to examine and clarify our own lives as if we did only have a year to live.  

Oliver Sacks, a professor of neurology at the New York School of Medicine, the author of "Awakenings" and "The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat" has discovered that he has terminal cancer, and he is confrornted with his "year to live."  In this NY Times op-ed piece he talks about how he is approaching the rest of his life. It's a beautiful, eloquently written statement that concludes, 

“I cannot pretend I am without fear. But my predominant feeling is one of gratitude. I have loved and been loved; I have been given much and I have given something in return; I have read and traveled and thought and written. I have had an intercourse with the world, the special intercourse of writers and readers,” he wrote. “Above all, I have been a sentient being, a thinking animal, on this beautiful planet, and that in itself has been an enormous privilege and adventure.”

NY Times, op-ed piece.  Feb 19, 2015

Nelson Abanto

Dyslexics don't believe in Dog???

Philip Spiess

Okay, a philosophical question to all of you dog-lovers and owners out there, a question which my wife (a dog-lover) posed just this evening:  are dogs "man's best friend" because they truly love us, or are they just sucking up to us because we feed them and shelter them, and sometimes play with them?  in other words, are they con artists?  (We all know cats -- and I am a cat lover -- barely tolerate us, and they make this known to us -- after all, we're the poor patsies who willingly clean out their cat boxes.)

Which brings us to the follow-up question, a theological one:  does God love us, or does he just tolerate us because we suck up to him because he feeds us and shelters us (see "the lilies of the field" line, etc.) -- or is he just playing with us?  Or -- Heaven forfend! -- is He a cat?

Ann Shepard (Rueve)

Actually Phil, here's a link that will answer your question. Researchers put dogs (poor things) in an MRI machine to look at their brain responses. I can't imagine Chief staying still to have his brain scanned much less being able to withstand the noise. http://www.iflscience.com/brain/brain-scans-reveal-truth-puppy-love

David Buchholz

For Phil and all those who suspect that God may be felinious...a collection of action photographs of my cat Emerson.  

Here he is defying gravity:

Here is Emerson exercising in the great outdoors:

Emerson, taking a well-deserved break from gardening:

A morning stretch before work:

David Buchholz

After a long day chasing mice:

Well-deserved time off

And one more in case you missed it:  Venus, Mars, the Moon, and our next door neighbors' trees:

Larry Klein

Dave - did you just "moon" our entire class?  Brings to mind the old locker room days at WH.

And speaking of moons, when I'm at the casino, the dealers always ask why I never play the progressive bet at the Mississippi table.  My response - "Only on the Blue Moon".  So I looked it up - the next "blue moon" is July 31st, 2015 (defined as the second of two full moons in any one calendar month).  Yep, this year.  Maybe you can get a photoshot of the event while I'm at the casino playing the progressive?

Barbara Kahn (Tepper)

Dave, Loved the pictures of Emerson but especially the night time sky is what I thank you for the most.  I missed it because it was just too cold to go out and try to find it.  I doubt I'd have such a clear view as you got   anyway.  Thank you so much - beautiful!

Philip Spiess

I remember now:  God is not a dog -- he's Dale Gieringer in a bad mood (vide The Walnuts, 1964).

On a more serious note, seeing Dave's Van Gogh night sky without the swirls, I would like to pass on (for what it's worth) an epiphany I had several years ago reading "Genesis" in the Old Testament:  The "Big Bang" is not a theory; it's covered in "Genesis."  "God said, 'Let there be light,' and there was light."  Ask anyone what the light was, and they'll invariably say, "Well, the sun and the moon, and the stars."  But wait -- those weren't created till the 4th Day.  So . . . the "light" on Day One must have been the "Big Bang"!

Judy Holtzer (Knopf)