Artists

  

  
     Our friend and classmate Joanne Hunter was an artist. Please choose your own definition of what an artist is. Today I'll go with one from Bob Lefsetz, "An artist captures lightning and distills truth for the rest of us."

     The long story made short is she was diagnosed with cancer around the time of our 35th reunion. The RHS Alumni All-Star Band had been formed in 2012 and Joanne had flute solos on two Marshall Tucker Band hits that were popular while we were in high school, "Can't You See" and "This Old Cowboy." Between the time of the shows in 2012 and 2017 Joanne went through some serious chemotherapy. Though she also kept up the talk about having another show in 2017. Some of us even quietly speculated that the show helped her through her ordeal. There's an old chestnut about how one great rock show can change the world, attributed to the character played by Jack Black in the movie, "School of Rock." Well, I'll paraphrase and say the thought of playing in a rock show in front of long time friends can overpower even the worst of cancers. True or not, Joanne made the show and practices and played just fine. One of her solos appears below:

RHS Alumni All-Star Band 2017

    

Chris Deflocq

     I'm a little late to the party but I did want to congratulate Chris Duflocq for being elected to the RHS Athletic Hall of Fame. He was part of the class of 2008 and joins fellow class of 1977 members Becky Deetz and Paul Ferraro. Unfortunately, if you follow the link you won't see Chris's photo or career highlights as the webmaster is even later to the party than I am. RHS is trying to provide a sense of the history of Ridgewood High School to their current students by efforts such as the Hall of Fame, and one other you won't find on their web site but will see if you ever visit RHS, that is, the Wall of Distinguished Alumni near the main entrance. This long overdue recognition really points out what everybody knows but doesn't always realize until they have graduated: brains and citizenship count just as much as athletics in the grand scheme of things, probably more so. It just doesn't seem that way with all the adulation we bestow upon our jocks, sometimes at the expense of people working quietly in the background to make things better for us all. 

 

Ridgewood Basement Parties 1977

Bill Nolan, Chris DuFlocq, and Paul Ferraro. I can't imagine what they might have been drinking but they certainly were having a fine time.






Jim Velordi, Dan Conti, Bill Nolan, and Tim Daly.

These guys were studs. ;-)







FYI, these are all on FaceBook. Just another reason to join as there are many more where these came from, and many more are on the way.