David Drake

For those who receive the Needham Hometown Weekly newspaper, the October 1st edition has a brief article on our Reunion on page 21 with two pictures.

For those who don't receive the paper and/or if you want to see more pictures, go to their website at www.hometownweekly.net, click on Needham Photo Galleries, then Needham Events, and Reunion pictures to see the seven pictures.

Gunnard Johnston

It was nothing short of fantastic for my wife and me to attend the reunion.   I've got to confess I had some apprehension as the day drew close and even on the drive down from NH.   Although I have been back to visit Needham countless times -- even living there for a short time in 1971 -- and have brought my wife and son to my old homes, schools, and other haunts, I still had some butterflies over the last 24 hours before the event.  

But that was totally unnecessary as all we could feel upon our arrival was an overwhelming warmth and love from everybody we met.  The atmosphere was so alive, electric, filled with heart.  My wife and I met so many of my old friends, classmates, and even a few upperclassmen, like Jim Cruickshank.  My only regret was it went by so quickly and I did not have enough time to meet everyone or to spend the amount of time I wanted to spend with each person we did meet.

Major kudos are due to all who worked on this event.   I have to say that it was Jeff Feeley who first contacted me from the class about ten years ago.  Kevin Tracey and Scott Stover were soon to follow, and then John Halbrooks got in touch.   Almost roped me into "the great car transport caper".   Thanks, guys, you don't know what this has meant to me, and by extension to my family. 

Just a side note example:   my son starting writing a "short story" when he was 14 years old, nine years ago.  It eventually turned into a 161 page "novel".   Nobody told him to do it, he just felt called.   His story was based upon a similar theme as the Harry Potter and other adolescent stories, but here's the interesting part:  he wrote it as taking place in Needham.  Mind you, we were living overseas at the time, in Lithuania, and had been there since he was four and a half years old.   Before that we had lived in Manchester, NH, from the time he was born.   He had only visited Needham as a young child once or twice.   Yet somehow he had picked up a lot of particulars about Needham, including Pollard, Webster Street, and the Hill.   Guess it was from me.

Thanks again to all for making this such a great reunion. It was a very special time.  I hope we have a chance to get together again and spend more time getting re-acquainted.  Love to all.

Class Administrator

Hi all-

Jeff Feeley asked me to post this for him.. He said "

Martha, PK and I went to Mario’s before and after the [reunion] dinner. A lot of us hung out and drank there (even in HS; heaven forbid) back in the day. The current proprietor, Paul Virgilio, is Mario’s nephew. He is NHS ’92. Anyhow, we were talking about the good, old days at Mario’s and he said he thought he could dig out the menu from ’65. He shortly came back with the attached; the original menu from 1965! Amazing.

Notice the telephone number. They didn’t have area codes back them!

Carolyn Campbell (Kay)

Thanks for the trip down memory lane. Love the prices. 

Gunnard Johnston

And that restaurant is a half mile from my family's first home in Needham.   25 Carter Street, off Reservoir Street, and eventually -- a few years after we arrived there -- immediately abutting Route 128/I-95.   Our family was the first family to live in this house.   Then the powers that be decided to put Route 128 across our front yard, taking out the the entire neighborhood:  many of my neighbors homes, the "haunted" house across the street as well as the great sledding hill that was behind it, and even the street used by the Boston Marathon one year ...   saw Johnny Kelly and tons of others run by and grab some water on their way.  I first learned to ice skate on New Pond and the Charles River near Echo Bridge.

With the imminent construction of 128 literally at our door step, we moved out in 1956, up to 743 Webster Street, near the town center, a few blocks from Stephen Palmer, Pollard, and the high school.   But Carter Street was our first home in Needham.    

Small world.

James Maloney

Hi,

It was a great reunion!! 

So many great memories & old friends!

Thank all of you that contacted my Dad... he so touched & cannot stop talking about the many messages he received from our class of 1965...he has told me many times that this class was special in so many ways..from the "headliners" to the "grinders."

Through Mrs. Duval's (our English Teacher) husband Harry who played on the State Hockey championship team of 1955 that my Dad coached...he & Harry spent hours on the phone replaying that championship season...Dad has reconnected with NHS dispite living so far away for long.

Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays to all of you...& remember you are never more than two degrees of seperation of all things Needham!

Be safe..Be well!

Jim & Ann Marie Maloney

David Downs

Kevin,

I enjoyed reading your  “Magical” memories of Christmas in Needham.  Thanks

Class Administrator

Sad to hear of the passing of Mort Shea in December, 2017.  Here's a link to an obituary:

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/heraldtribune/obituary.aspx?page=lifestory&pid=187631331

Bill Cullinane (History Teacher)

Kevin, 

A wonderful piece filled with warm memories.

Bill

Ou

Patricia Rossi (Campion)

Thank you, Kevin. I love your stories, as do so many people. Patty

Jeanne Mahoney (Leffers)

Thank you Kevin for sharing this.  It brings me back to those  Needham summer days as a child.  Back then I could not imagine a better place and now looking back I know how blessed we were to have that life in our youth.  Though many of us have moved away I know that many or most of us carry memories such as yours in our hearts.  I had not realized your brother Dan had passed away.  Our deepest sympathy to you.  Jeanne and Jim

Linda Gudas (Sayler)

Kevin - Lee Allen would be proud....   Linda

Virginia Day (Barbera)

Kevin, I enjoyed your article very much. All of your postings bring back so many memories of the carefree days of our youth. Thank you.

Peter DeFazio

Kevin:  Thanks‼️  I haven’t thought of RedWing Bay in a very long time. Your message took me way back to times that were mostly carefree on yet another 😬🌕 in DC. Peter DeFazio

Virginia Day (Barbera)

Kevin, I just love all of your stories. I think they take us all back to our childhoods. You spark the memories for all of us of our youth. Clearly you have a much better memory than me or you had a lot more adventures. Lol        

Ted Williams, wow.

Keep the stories coming

Gin Day Barbera    

Judith Mullen (Nicoll)

Keep em coming Kev

Carolyn Campbell (Kay)

Kevin, You remind me how important childhood friendships and community are. Maryann Sedegran was my next door neighbor. When we were the age for childhood diseases, we got ‘em. Probably from each other. We rigged a string between our bedrooms and passed notes in a soup can. It entertained us for days. Fast forward 60 years to last week.  We spent more than an hour on the phone talking kids, grandkids and old age gripes and ... just everything. She’s still in the Duxbury Plymouth area and I’m in Sacramento California yet the lifelong bond is still there. Growing up, my home was less than ideal,  but my Needham friends and community were stellar. I’m grateful I got to grow up there

Patricia Rossi (Campion)

It’s a different world today. As you know, I was at Pebble Beach yesterday with my favorite golfer, my son Kevin. I have lots of Kevins in my life:  you, my son, and a brother in law that I thankfully very rarely talk to or talk about. It does get confusing. Anyway, we were there. Getting there was not remotely like being dropped off at the front gate. Pebble Beach is about 90 minutes from Kevin’s house and driving on Monterey peninsula is reminiscent of driving on rte 6 on the Cape; a highway bordered by sand and scrub pines. We arrived at 8:30 am, along with hoards of other early arrivals, at a local college campus 13 miles north of the course and boarded a line of busses for the trip to Pebble Beach. 

When we were discharged from the busses, we walked a long way down hill to the course and the first hole. It didn’t seem like a long way or down hill on the way to the course, but the return walk after all day and 18,000 steps seemed like climbing Everest. I was loathe to admit that I was struggling and said only once that I’d have to rest a moment before the next set of steps. Stubborn to the end! 

The course is gorgeous, manicured and lush. The setting, though, is the star of the show. It’s breathtaking. I’ll attach a shot of a golfer climbing down a cliff to consider whether to hit out of the hazard.  And it truly was a hazard. I wondered whether we’d hear a splash and he’d have to be rescued. 

So we walked the course and got up close to the golfers by staking out a spot right next to ropes on the 11th tee and waiting for the leaders to play through. They are truly amazing. Not only do they appear to be playing a different game, they appear to belong to a different species! And they’re bigger than they look on TV. In addition to the rumored 10 lbs that TV adds, I think it subtracts 3 or 4 inches. And no one was smoking. 

Your comment about the butts on the fairway reminded me that my husband, Jim, who was a good golfer, would throw his cigarette on the ground while he hit and then pick it up and continue smoking it. He also used his tongue in lieu of a ball washer when one wasn’t available.  I wonder whether his dementia may have been the result not only of alcohol, but also pesticides. Unknowable. 

Anyway, the day was wonderful, not only the golf but spending all day with my son, just the two of us. When we were ready to leave, though, there was no one waiting to give us a ride home. Eddie’s dad’s Cadillac, BTW, was used to give me a driving lesson back in the day when I was always the youngest and didn’t yet have my license. I was terrified that I’d damage it!  After we got off the bus back at the parking lot, the traffic backup was epic, but we eventually got home and I remembered again that it was Father’s Day. I wish you had known my Dad.  The two of you would have gotten along famously. 

Kevin Tracey

For all of you that moved away from winter

The Low Winter Sky
I'm a winter person, there's something about the going out and the coming in from the cold that has a hold on me, takes me back.
We were made of wool back then, well, except for the long underwear. Everything else was wool-socks, pants, sweaters, scarves, coats, hats, mittens. The snow and the cold still seeped in. Cheeks raw, lips chapped, nose running, fingers numb. We'd stay out until dark, that low winter sky signaling it was time to go in. Trapped just inside the door until hat, coat, mittens and galoshes were taken off. The heat of the house hurting our faces and hands. In from the cold, wiping our noses on our sleeves, lining up for hot spiced cider or hot chocolate.
I miss it.


 

Russell Provost

Not all of us moved south. I moved north, live in a log home heated with just wood

I  still go hiking and snow shoeing  2-3 hours every single day.  I guess I never grew up.   

Linda Gudas (Sayler)

Kevin,

Remember waking up on snowy school mornings, hoping Don Kent would announce "No school in Needham?"  And listening for the fire alarm to blare rhythmically- beginning sometime before dawn- to confirm we could stay in bed?  Later, the neighborhood kids and I would bundle up and make a snowman (now, politically correct, a snowperson.) The day after a storm, I recall walking home from Stephen Palmer with my girlfriends, petrified that "the boys" would suddenly appear from behind a tree or snow fort, with snowballs hurling. (In retrospect, that was a bit of prepubertal flirting.)  My parents warned me to never look up at a hanging icicle. Oh, and DO NOT eat yellow snow....

Yes, New England winters are compelling.  We have lived full time on the Cape for 6 years now.  There is something exquisitely beautiful and peaceful about the ocean this time of year - frost-tipped beaches, icy white capped waves, birds huddled together in same-species conventions on the bay.

However, we have succumbed to a few weeks in warm weather come mid-winter.  We will never be snowbirds, but a break is nice.  Sunny golf courses and heated swimming pools have a strong graitational pull when the wind chill factor here is 10 degrees.

I will think of you from the south in February, as I walk the beach barefoot, looking for seaglass.  Wishing you a bunch of no -school snow days....

Linda

Charles Charlton

Your postings really bring back memories. Snow days were the best. Building snow forts with seemingly daily snow ball fights. I have often thought that we had more snow in the mid to late 50's In NE than they have today. No proof - just a feeling. I remember on no school days getting up early to help my father shovel out the car so he could go to work. However walking to school on the road because the side walks were snow covered are not great memories. I will always fondly remember no school snow days because they were fun. Nancy and I have lived in FL for the past 21 years so snow and winter weather are and will remain distant memories for us.

Jeffrey Feeley

I don't believe any of Kevin's musings are contemporary. No one has that good a memory!

I beleive he kept a very unmanly diary and periodically riffs through it, selects a passage and sends it out to his legion of followers to make us all feel like we have early, or maybe mid, stage dementia! 

There, Kev. You've been exxposed! Fess up!

Jeff

I've been blessed/cursed to receive Kevin's "musings' for 10 or more years. He really does have a superior writing talent.

Richard d'Entremont

Kevin is our Charles Kuralt. On the memory road with Kevin

Gunnard Johnston

Winter.   Snow days. A great money-making opportunity!    Back when I was around nine and ten years old,  I loved the chance to go and shovel snow to make a few bucks in the neighborhood.    
Then, there was the ice!   Always looked forward to winter for the freezing of Rosemary Lake, the Reservoir and any places where skating could be done.   Having learned to skate on the Charles River down by the border with Newton Upper Falls, I was hooked on hockey and eagerly awaited for the frozen waterways around town.
Now, as to Tracey's memory trove, I think Feeley may have nailed it:   Kevin has been keeping secret journal so he can pull out pages when the mood strikes.