Reunions in the air.

Received this email from Lou Bace Hogan in December:

"Just thought I would drop you a note and say "hi" and tell you about our "Trinity Jersey Girls " pre-union at a restaurant last week. Becky Maher and I had a crazy idea back in August. We thought it would be fun to have a pre-reunion gathering with all the girls who still live in NJ. So we sent out 17 invites.Our plan was to meet at a restaurant in Spring Lake on Monday, November 29."

Twelve Jersey girls attended. Here is the alphabetical list as we knew them, not in their actual order:

Lou Bace, Mary Baker, Diane Colavito, Kathy Helmstetter, Marilyn Herbst, Cathy Keegan, Becky Maher, Cathy Monninger, Nancy Roberts, Ella Mae Weikel, Nancy Whalen, and Sue Will.
                                                                                                                                                                               
Can you identify who is who?  [ I got 10 out of 12.]  Answers will be at the end of the next post down.

As always, click on photo to embiggen, but you now have to click the X at the top right of the expanded photo pop-up to return to the blog page.

Jersey Girls - Lou Bace Hogan photo

IMPORTANT UPDATE: 3/19/ 2012. I have been informed by Lou to tell all of you that the Class of 1962's 50th Reunion is definitively going to be held at the home of Nancy & Willis King, in Spring Lake,on September 15, 2012. 

IMPORTANT UPDATE #2:  3/29/2012. Keep checking in on the blog for further developments on our 50th REUNION. For example:  Bed and Breakfast accommodations will be put up on 4/2/2012 at the top of all the other posts.

Reunions in the air, part deux

Carolyn Fuentes Kranchalk and husband, Mike, sent along the following recap of Mike's HTHS Class of '59 reunion:

HTHS CLASS OF 1959 50^Th REUNION

"The HTHS Class of 1959 held their 50^th reunion the weekend of September 25-27, 2009. The Class of 1959 had 112 graduates and at the time was the largest graduating class from Holy Trinity High School. After many phone calls, emails and letters, we were able to account for or make contact with all but five graduates. Twelve of our classmates had passed away.

The Bridgewater Marriott was selected to be the central meeting point for all activities. A dinner was planned for Saturday night at Maggiano’s across the street from the hotel. There was much discussion as to the number of attendees for dinner. We only fell one short of the century mark as 99 classmates, spouses and friends showed up for dinner. Of the 95 classmates we made contact with, 67 were in attendance. Last minute emergencies forced 5 cancellations including 3 classmates.

Activities began Friday morning with the committee meeting to finalize last minute details and put together information folders including a class reunion booklet. People began arriving in the early afternoon and the hotel lobby began to fill up with a lot of people reminiscing and discussing how we had all changed over the years.

Saturday’s activities included a trip to Westfield and a visit to the old High School. The school hadn’t changed a great deal and it prompted a lot of stories of the past. Old haunts in town were visited including the Sweet Shop, Gary’s, Westfield Diner, Tamaques Park, Mindowaskin Park and many more memorable places. A few guys decided to chase a little white ball around Neshanic Valley Country Club for a few hours. A good time was had by all.

The class met for cocktails and dinner at Maggiano’s. This really brought everyone together. The evening featured great food, good drinks, some 50’s music, a little dancing and a lot of storytelling.

On Sunday morning a Mass was concelebrated by fellow classmates Fr. Charles Granstrand and Fr. James Sikora. Classmates participated as lectors, Eucharistic Ministers and Cantor. The deceased members of the class were remembered with a special display including photos and obituaries. The Mass represented the perfect ending for a perfect weekend. A buffet breakfast followed Mass.

Classmates in attendance came from all parts of the country to be together. We are represented in 31 states and the District of Columbia. We used up a number of batteries in calculators trying to count the number of children, grandchildren and great- grandchildren. There was a lot of discussion regarding another class get together as long as we don’t have to wait so long. Many people suggested a great big 70th Birthday Party."

Mike and Carolyn

I must say, Carolyn looks exactly as she did in high school. Same face. Same hair style. Same warm and happy smile. She also sent along this a propos email closing, which will no doubt become an ear worm* for many of us over the next six months:





   
                                                                                                                                                   

* Ear worm: A song you just can't get out of your head, usually brought on by some external suggestion.
                      I know you are humming this one right now.

 Answers to Trinity Jersey Girls pre-reunion photo:  Back row from left to right: Marilyn Herbst, Sue Will, Ella Mae Weikel, Nancy Roberts, Cathy Monninger, Diane Colavito, Lou Bace.  Second row: Cathy Keegan, Kathy Helmstetter, Becky Maher. Front: Nancy Whalen and Mary Baker.

Photo credit: Carolyn and Mike Kranchalk                

From the corner of Memory Lane & Epicurean Blvd.

 In late January I received an email from Paul Younghans informing me that he had just been informed by Kathy Helmstetter Christian that our everyday go-to place, Gary's, had burned down. I, in turn, did the only thing I could think of in my elevated state of anxiety: I emailed our own conveniently located investigative reporter, Lou Bace Hogan, for more in-depth news on the situation. Lou, after a quick recovery from the embarrassment of being scooped by "folks not living in Westfield",  confirmed that, yes, the building on South & Westfield Avenues, which housed Clyne & Murphy's, (a catering establishment), as well as several other smaller businesses, had indeed, burned down. She and her family knew and did business with some of the older proprietors who lost their stores and livelihoods in the fire. A sad occurrence in a town of 30,000 that still prides itself as a small community. Fortunately, no one was injured.  According to an article in the Westfield Leader, efforts were already underway to find alternate locations for those businesses lost in the fire.  Lou's son-in-law, and, Nancy Whalen Goldsmith's nephew, Kevin McCormack, serves in the Westfield F.D., but was not on duty that evening.

Site of Gary's in 2007- Google Maps photo

1/22/2012 fire - firehouse.com photo

Looking at the Google Map photo above and in checking out the details it became clear that that building wasn't the same one that Gary's used to be in. Apparently, the building we knew had been torn down, or drastically remodeled, a few years after Gary died not too long after we graduated. The building that was destroyed in the fire was its replacement. As the Westfield Leader stated, it had been "a landmark building  [in Westfield]  for almost half a century."  Ouch! That sure puts us in our historic place, doesn't it? We're now officially consigned to the ruble heap of the Pre-landmark Era.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      This event got Lou and me rolling into a nostalgic email discussion about some of the old haunts that all of us should still remember from high school days. Carolyn and Mike mentioned some of them in the post above. Tops among them was the Westfield Diner on North Ave., just across from the Jersey Central station. Although there presently is a Westfield Diner, Lou correctly pointed out that the diner we knew was actually called the  Excellent Diner  and that, according to the  Westfield Leader,  it was moved to Aalen, Germany in 1996.

The Excellent Diner in Aalen, Germany - Westfield Leader photo

 Excellent Diner interior  Aalen, Germany - Westfield Leader photo

                                                                                                                                                                                       

Lou added that it was later moved to Euro Disneyland in Paris in 2002. The article in the above link confirms that. And, so, our old Westfield  Excellent Diner  still stands and serves!  [ Click on any of the photos in the link for a better view of what it looks like in Gay Paree.]  If any of you are planning on going over thattaway, do stop in and check it out. I'm curious to know if they serve Frites Libertè  or the less political frites français. [ Or would that be the other way around?]

If you can recall waiting in line outside for your turn to sink your teeth into a juicy, medium-rare porterhouse, sirloin, T bone or filet mignon, served on a spitting, sizzling platter at Snuffy's Steak House in the now almost extinct Pre-landmark past, well,  you don't even want to know what's become of  that!   Italian food?  Snuffy's?

Gone too, but not quite forgotten, is this familiar haute cuisine sight of our youth: The Adventure Car Hop. It's one of the two car hops we all cruised between many a time out on Route 22. The other was called the Big Top.  Here  is an interesting website all about those wonderfully decadent car hop days.

Adventure Car Hop, Union, N.J.  -  cranford58.com photo

 And, finally, since we're in the neighborhood, there's this long-vanished pleasure palace from our more adventuresome years:

Union drive-in, Route 22 - www.drive-ins.com photo

A few tamer memories of the place that produced more fogged-up car windows than an Alaskan Highway blizzard can be found  here .


That wraps up this edition of ML & EB, aka: Stuff We Used To Be Able To Eat With Impunity. Do any of you recall other places in or around the Westfield of our youth that you used to hang-out in? Let us know in the comment box below.