Author: Ken

Looking Back at 1953

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A look at 1953. Some things gone, some changed, some still around…

Not that we remember any of this, but our parents certainly were aware of most of this history and some of it probably affected us.

January 19 – 68% of all television sets in the United States are tuned into I Love Lucy to watch Lucille Ball give birth to Desi Arnaz, Jr.  Well, not literally. They weren’t even allowed to say the word “pregnant” on the show – she was “expecting.”  The actual Desi Jr. is also in the Class of 71 but attended University High School in West Los Angeles. At 17, he was dating Patty Duke who was 24.

Sir Edmund Hillary first to climb Mt Everest

RAM (random access memory) used for the first time – not that our parents had any ideas about computers.

FCC approves color TV

Ramada Inns opened and so did Burger King, Sonic Drive-in and Denny’s

Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation 

End of the Korean War

President Eisenhower inauguration

Jonas Salk announces Polio vaccine trials. There weren’t any protesters or anti-vaxxers. We were the recipients of the Sabin Oral vaccine in 1960.

Transsexual Christine Jorgensen returns to New York after successful sexual reassignment surgery in Denmark.

Chuck Yeager sets a speed record in X1 rocket plane

A gallon of gas was  $0.22 cents

Top selling car is the Hudson Hornet (what happened?) but also the original C1 Corvette was introduced

Top songs:  “That’s Amore” by Dean Martin & “How Much is that Doggie in the Window” by Patti Page were big hits. No Elvis, Motown or Beatles yet

In book bestsellers: “Fahrenheit 451” by Ray Bradbury and “Casino Royale” by Ian Fleming had long runs.

TV Guide and Playboy first hit the newsstands.

Top Movies: Disney’s animation of “Peter Pan”, “War of The Worlds” and “From Here to Eternity” were the big films.

World Series Champs:  NY Yankees defeat the Brooklyn Dodgers, 4 games to 2, to win their 16th World Series title and their fifth straight title.

NCAA Basketball: Indiana

NCAA Football: Maryland

NBA: Lakers – Minneapolis

NHL: Montreal Canadiens (French spelling)

NFL: Cleveland Browns (Eastern) lost to the Detroit Lions (Western) 17-16

 

UPDATE: New Date for the Class Reunion

“Anticipation of pleasure is, in itself, a very considerable pleasure.” – David Hume

We hope all of our ’71 classmates are well and staying safe. Our Reunion team met earlier this month to discuss the Reunion. We told you that we would send out invites and request payment for tickets in January 2021 since we had until June to cancel our contracts if we did not have enough participation. We had hoped that by this time we would have had a much clearer picture of the pandemic and the safety of having a large group get-together.

Unfortunately, with the slower than anticipated rollout of vaccines as well as the introductions of new COVID variants that our scientists are still learning about, it is doubtful that we would be in a position to receive enough ticket commitments and funds by June to solidify our contract with the hotel. Additional considerations were classmates’ comfort levels with travel and hotel stays.

We discussed all these factors in our virtual meeting and the Reunion Team unanimously agreed it would be safest to move our 50th Reunion to 2022. We discussed when we should try to reschedule. We decided against the Spring and Summer due to vacations, holidays, weddings, graduations, etc., and decided we should stick with October, if possible.

Thanks to the efforts of John Manning, we were able to change our reservation for our now Reunion 50+ to Saturday, October 1, 2022, at the same location. The hotel was very cooperative and understanding and has had to deal with other class reunions and cancellations as well. Amazingly, our price will remain the same.

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We know many of you will be as disappointed by this news as are we. We think, however, it is the right call and hope you agree. We are hopeful that by 10/1/2022, we will be able to hug, kiss, shake hands, have fun and reminisce without having to worry about protocols.

If things get better quicker and it is again safe to gather with each other, there is no reason that there couldn’t be more informal gatherings like breakfasts or lunches this coming year. If we can help facilitate or communicate such gatherings to others, let us know. Though much of the Reunion information will remain the same, as of now, we foresee sending out invites and more details in January 2022.

As always, we will post this information and any other updates on our Reunion website and on the IHS Class of 1971 Facebook Group which are linked below.

“The idea of waiting for something makes it more exciting.” ― Andy Warhol

IHS Class of ’71 50th Reunion Team (Michael Emanuele, Manny Fernandes, Rhonda Goldberger, John Manning, Terry Masucci, Laura Krampetz Mueller, Karen Long Rohe, Ken Ronkowitz, Vita Venturi Stohler, Karen Mericle Suter, Tom Trokan)
Join the ongoing discussions in our Class of 71 Facebook group facebook.com/groups/ihs1971/

Your Feedback

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Before we started our search for a venue back in spring 2019, we set up a few surveys to get a better sense of the interest from our classmates.

We could tell from those that responded that there seemed to be interest in attending – though that far out and without a location, date and price, people were understandably reluctant to commit.

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Of course, all that was pre-COVID-19 which is clearly a concern right now. But the surveys, emails and this website has helped committee members track down more classmates and we hope that October 9, 2021 will be a better time and a pandemic won’t be an issue.

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Respondents were pretty evenly slit on bringing a guest with a slight advantage to attending alone.

We also asked about things like music (DJ was preferred over a band), photographer, and even a sense of what kind of food arrangements we should price at venues.

Please follow the blog (there a place to put in your email to automatically get updates on the website sidebar) and click Polls and Surveys to see all our posts about them.