class notes

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1959

Carolyn Brown Straker
Momstraker@aol.com

Nancy Rae Scully offers this advice on how best to enjoy the years ahead: “Try to enjoy each day fully as it comes and focus on the moment. Try not to be busy all the time. Enjoy fewer things more completely. Connect with friends and family. Read, walk, enjoy museum exhibits.”

Nancy and I are planning a fall mini-reunion of classmates in and around NYC. Please contact me if you want to help pull this off. We have a great network and can be a wonderful support system to one another.

Anne Hovell Dew dreams of “playing cardio tennis with girls my youngest daughter’s age and foxing them,” she says, adding, “You have to get your fun where you can find it!” She has been doing more seminars relating to her book, Emotional Transformation.

Eleanor Dye Morgan and husband Bob are still working full-time and, according to Onnie, “have little time for extra stuff.” But she still rides her horses once a week and makes time for their seven grandchildren. Onnie will be getting a pacemaker with a defibrillator and looks forward to gaining more “oomph,” she says.

Marilyn Ramshaw Adair’s fantasy is to “get back to the weight I was when I entered Skidmore,” and she thinks her dream of bicycling in New Zealand might contribute to that goal. Husband George is retiring this year, but she’ll continue to sell and market real estate. She also volunteers for the town emergency services (20 years) and the Adirondack Mountain Club (38 years).

Sheila DeNadal Salvo and husband Jim sold their home of more than 40 years and are moving into a condo in the same community. While the condo is being built, they are living full-time in their home in Palm Beach Gardens, FL. Including children and grandchildren, their family now numbers 16. They all got together for a surprise 70th birthday party for Jim.

Retired from Where magazine, Barbara Effron still keeps abreast of varied lectures and cultural activities in NYC (we have attended a few lectures together).

New hobbies for Barbara Huge Homeier include golf and volunteering as a reading tutor to first-graders. She continues to enjoy walking, reading, doing crossword puzzles and needlepoint, knitting, and being involved in politics.

Emily Cross Farnsworth’s new interests include studying Edwardian history and planning dinners related to that time period. She is also playing the piano and violin again. She’s in favor of bringing US troops home to their families and suggests we learn Arabic.

In Connecticut retiree Mary Heep van Riper is enjoying being part of her town’s conservation commission. She is working on a hiking and walking trail that will encircle the town and get people “out of their cars and on their feet,” she says. Oldest daughter Laura was accepted into
a master’s program at the Columbia School of Social Work.

Jean Lockwood Davidge says life has proved to her that it’s “never too late to do something.” She has been meeting the challenges of acting, singing, and mastering language set by musical and production directors. Now, says Jean, “I am on to conquering French for my next appearance in La Bohème.”

Cynthia Green Kohl lives in Naples, FL, with husband Jack. They made several repairs on their house this past winter following Hurricane Wilma. In the spring she and Jack were on a trip with Cynthia’s high-school friends and their spouses, one of whom is Sally Werntz Davies.
Life is good, according to Pat Nicklaus Sabin. She is still working on a contract basis, volunteering at church and in the community, participating in raising her granddaughters, and carrying her partisan banner. For Pat the key to enjoying life is “to be blessed with good health and to preserve it by swimming four to six miles a week and other healthy stuff.”

Bobbi Young Shafer and husband Clark moved to the country, up the road from the Skidmore crew boat house near Saratoga Lake. Bobbi’s new hobby is gardening. She says she has a lot of empty gardens and a “big purple thumb”—and welcomes advice at Bobbi59@earthlink.net. Her advice for enjoying life: “be happy, walk a lot, read a lot, enjoy your family, spoil your grandchildren, stay in touch with friends, and don’t worry about the small stuff.” And, she adds, “Start planning to be at our 50th reunion!”

Jane Haddad Evans and Joan Cangelosi Kicska, roommates at Skidmore but now living on opposite coasts, reunited for a week at a spa.

Anne Sawyer Manners moved to England and spent Christmas with her two daughters and their families. She lives near Hampton Court Palace and close to the Thames. She walks a lot, travels, and enjoys her family.

Syl Smalley Chapman again hosted Sue Gosch Martineau in a member/guest golf tournament. Syl and her husband travel a lot, trying to fit in as many places as possible while “we can still do it,” she says. Places this year include Punta Cana, Venice, and Rome. She visited with Jean Gracie Lifland and hubby, and the four of them went on a sunset cruise in Naples, FL.

In Bay Head, NJ, Evy Zoda Shippee still works full-time, but is “evolving into a watercolor artist of sorts” while on her sojourns south each winter. She’s also taken up beading and occasionally makes necklaces for her store. Evy keeps busy with 13 grandchildren and the historical society she founded in 1990.

Meanwhile, I’m enjoying doing standup comedy (three gigs so far). I love to talk, and I love to laugh; but what I did not know until I tried it is that I love holding a microphone and having a captive audience. Since the audiences are always younger than I am, my humor revolves around the subject of aging. We know that’s really not funny, but they don’t! I also talk about ADD and what it’s like to be married to a psychiatrist who is always too tired to listen to me. My own advice for the future is, don’t waste your energy on the negatives; focus instead on what is good in your life.