.....Today, I struck 87...that's a lot of birthdays. However, today was a weird day--happy but not happy. I was stunned this morning for having received birthday greetings by telephone from China. No kidding; straight from Hong Kong! For me, hard to believe the technology. Well, it was from Magda Machado-Garshol! Magda was an exchange student from Brazil who came to study at North Shore H.S. in the class of '68, same class as Robin. She stayed with another family for a while, but when that didn't work out, she wound up in our house. Now, she's with her third husband, Knut Garshol--yeah, he's Norwegian and a great guy, who just recently got a very good job in Hong Kong--and that's how Magda got there. Now for the "not happy" part. I had to go to a very good friend's funeral today--not something I had planned for the day. When I say a good friend, I mean a friend I've known for over 50 years. We both raised our kids in East Meadow, L.I. I didn't go to the service at the funeral home, but just to the cemetery for the burial. Afterward, we went back to Murray's house to see his wife, Sunny, and their "children" (now fully grown). There was a table loaded with food--bagels, lox, cream cheese, whitefish--etc. We stayed a couple of hours and then came home.
.....At home, I headed for the computer to check my e-mail--and I was amazed at all the e-cards I received from former students: Peter Kehrig, Wally Kaufman, Ellin Jaeger (nee Bliss), Bob Marsden, Hugh Gilson, Vern Graham, Saul Schacter, Deborah French,Bonny Butler (nee Ross)& Betsy Krumrine Hunter. Also got telephone calls from son, JR.& step-son, Jon T. The whalerider, R.Higgins (nee Ross) left a message.But the really big news is that Phil B. not only left a comment on my blog, but also mailed me about 8 boxes of Mallomars from Amazon. I thought they only sold books. I wonder if you could download a Mallomar to a Kindle?? OK that's enough for the birthday. There will be another one next year, but I don't know whether or not I'll still be blogging.
Another interesting dimension of technology is that more than ever the past is present. Some evidence: here we are, those you named and more, from around the world still present in your life and you in ours. (And all voluntary, which I hope you take as a compliment.) You and I will have gone when it happens, but the day is fast slipping toward us when the past in digital form will be available on chips that can be inserted into a connection with the brain, probably complete with face recognition software so that no one will ever come to an aged teacher and hear, "I'm sorry, I don't remember you."
ReplyDeleteYou probably won't have to eat a Mallomar. You would be able to conjure the experience from embedded chips.
Meanwhile, best wishes for the 88th year.
Happy Birthday Baron, I hope you are still blogging next year ! All the best, Steve
ReplyDeleteDespite Buster's advanced Brave New World predictions (he is not yet 30 but somehow starred on Sea Cliff's soccer teams before the days of North Shore), the thrill of eating a Mallomar should never be replaced by a chip. Is nothing sacred? Was anything ever sacred?
ReplyDeleteAlthough I have never eaten a Mallomar, Doc's rhapsodic descriptions in the distant past have been deeply embedded in what is left of my memory.
Tempus really does fugit. It seems only 47 years ago that Doc called me on his 40th birthday. Time, in its tyrannical tempo, marches on. Don't waste a minute of it.