Sunday, September 21, 2014

Ridgewood High School Alumni Association!

"We are excited to announce the formation of the Ridgewood High School Alumni Association!

The Alumni Association will officially begin operating effective September 30, 2014. At the 7:30 pm meeting on the third floor of the Education Center, the Alumni Board of Trustees and officers will be elected and a vision for the Alumni Association will be laid out for the upcoming year. All alumni are welcome to attend.

To celebrate this new endeavor, alumni and friends have been invited to attend a dinner on October 2, 2014 at 8:30 pm at Novo Restaurant in Ridgewood. I will be attending and addressing the group, and hope to see many of you there. Seating is limited, so please contact Siobhan Crann Winograd (’91)(swinograd@hotmail.com) or me if you are interested in attending.

The Alumni Association will run very similarly to those seen on the collegiate level – it will promote alumni relations and activities, foster connections with alumni and RHS, and fundraise. Its official mission will be “[t]o celebrate and promote the collective experiences unique to the Ridgewood High School community and strengthen A Tradition of Excellence.” Its official Strategic Priorities will be to:

• Foster A Tradition of Excellence at Ridgewood High School
• Enhance the overall experience of existing students
• Strengthen communication and promote connections between alumni and the Ridgewood High School community
• Facilitate an active and dynamic alumni network
• Encourage participation in alumni relations programs

Alumni associations are quite rare among public high schools. The formation of ours is a testament to the enthusiasm and loyalty of RHS alumni. I hope you share my excitement for what I know will be a terrific venture."

Sincerely,
Thomas A. Gorman, Ed.D.
Principal
Ridgewood High School
627 Ridgewood Avenue
Ridgewood, NJ 07450
201-670–2800 x20501
http://ridgewood.rhs.schoolfusion.us/

A Tradition of Excellence



RHS Athletic Hall of Fame Inductees are Announced



The group consists of 10 athletes, one coach, one team and another team’s championship era.

The inductees include student athletes John Cerf, Boys Gymnastics (1976); Rachel Grygiel, Girls Soccer (1993); Nancy Hogan, Multi-Sport Athlete (1974); Jean Hughes, Girls Cross Country and Track and Field (1989); Michele Marangi, Girls Tennis (1984); John Marshall, multi-sports athlete (1971); Mark Romeo, Wrestling (2002); Don Taylor, Boys Basketball (1961); Paul Tornatore, Football (1987); and Chris VanNote, Boys Soccer (1981). Jim Bruni, Head Boys Basketball Coach, 1964-1971, will also be inducted, along with the 1913 “Ridgewood Invincibles” Football Team and the “Streak of 44” consecutive wins by the Ridgewood Boys Lacrosse Team.

Friday, September 12, 2014

RHS Class of 1979 35th Reunion

http://www.rhsclassof1979.org/

Dear Fellow Classmates,As many of you already know, our 35th High School Class Reunion has been set and is on Saturday October 11th, 2014 at the Sheraton Crossroads Hotel in Mahwah, NJ in the IllusionsLounge from 7:00pm-11:00pm.(www.sheratonmahwah.com) As was the case with our 30th reunion, we have organized this without the assistance of a 3rd party company and are relying on our classmates to spread the word to our others in our class about the event. The event includes a full buffet along with an open bar and is $99.00 per person.

RHS Class of 1984 30th Reunion


RHS Class of 1984 - 30th Reunion - September 26 & 27
FRIDAY:
Rich and Lindsey Barclay would like to invite you to their house for a few drinks and to catch up on Friday 9/26 beginning at 7:30.
The RHS Football game starts at 7:00 if you’d like... start there, then walk to their house, just down the road from RHS at 143 Brookside Ave.
There will be Beer, Wine, other beverages and Appetizers. To cover the costs, we are asking for everyone to chip in $25.
If people can give us a heads up on attendance for Friday, that will help us in the planning. Email Lindsey at: RLBarc@aol.com
Feel free to forward this to other 84’ers.

All welcome.

SATURDAY:
We also have the Elks club booked for Saturday night 9/27 at 7:30. Beer, Wine, Dinner catered by the Best Of Everything and Music. If you pay by 9/14, its $50. its $55after that and its $60 at the door
Mail to: Kelly Kennedy Rick
340 Fairway Road
Ridgewood, NJ 07450
Make check payable to: Kelly Rick
Please let Rob Davis know if you will be attending The Elks club. rfdavisii@gmail.com

Tuesday, September 02, 2014

Conceptions of Friendship

In college, I had a sociology professor have us write an essay about why conceptions of friendship vary. I don't remember a word of what I wrote but have pondered his question many times since. There are thousands of quotes on the subject of friendship, a personal favorite is from the movie Stand By Me:

"Friends come in and out of your life, like busboys at a restaurant."














If I were asked today to tell about my friendships and what they mean, I would begin with what another professor of mine from college once told me on the subject: the basis of friendship is trust. Looking back on his pithy explanation almost 40 years later, it still rings true. I have lost and gained friends depending upon my belief in their reliability, goodness, and honesty. Though this doesn't answer the original question of why ideas of friendship will vary from person to person.

I know now that this question has no single answer and that my professor wanted us to use the books we had been reading as a basis for our essays. Still it would be helpful, and many hurt feelings would be prevented, if we all agreed on what friendship means and the amount of liberty we can take in the friendships that we make. This is, of course, impossible and everyone will always give themselves the benefit of the doubt, usually before they grant this gift even to a friend.

The friendships we have as children appear to us at the time as though they will last a lifetime. Though we all know this not to be the case. A small number will survive and can be renewed from time to time at reunions and by chance or scheduled meetings, letters, or email. It is these few that we cherish and long to keep and to not pass any more judgements upon.

When we get to the end of our lives we hopefully have learned to make amends, say our apologies, and enjoy the time we have left to explore our memories of times and places long gone. I can't say that this prospect is easy, but it's certainly worth the effort for everyone involved when slights are forgotten and the true meaning of what our friends mean to us is considered anew.


Home

Found this quote while reading a memoir by Judy Johnson, Watching The Game. I think it fits the tone of this blog and intimates at what I have been trying to write about for a long time.



"Meditate upon the name. Home is an English word virtually impossible to translate into other tongues. No translation catches the associations, the mixture of memory and longing, the sense of security and autonomy and accessibility, the aroma of inclusiveness, of freedom from wariness, that cling to the word home and are absent from house or even my house. Home is a concept, not a place; it is a state of mind where self-definition starts; it is origins--the mix of time and place and smell and weather wherein one first realizes one is an original, perhaps like others, especially those one loves, but discrete, distinct, not to be copied."

--A Bartlett Giamatti, Commissioner of Major League Baseball for 154 days