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NEWSLETTER NOVEMBER 2024 🦃🦃🦃🦃🦃🦃🦃🦃🦃 🦃🦃🦃The  Reunion Wrap Up! It Was Great! With Thanksgiving upon us, I want to say how thankful and grateful I am to everyone who attended our reunion to our hardworking reunion committee for making it happen. Everyone, and I mean everyone, had a fantastic time and the proof is in the smiles in all the pictures.  The weather was perfect!  Three days of sun and 80 degree weather. The hotel was just the right size for our Destination Reunion.  The rooms were great and the food was fantastic at the event, at the hotel's Patio Bar & Grill and in the surrounding area restaurants.   Tuesday evening Meet & Greet at the hotel private event room, Cafe Med For everyone that was curious, our final headcount was seventy four in attendance from both classes.  Last minute decisions were made to attend by Susan Marchetti Pais & her husband Ruben who planned to drive but ended up flying in from Long Island, Todd ...
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 NEWSLETTER SEPTEMBER 2024 🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁 REUNION CHECKLIST 15 DAYS AND COUNTING! It's here!  It's time!  Over two years of planning our Destination Reunion are behind us and we are down to a checklist! This morning we are learning the worst of what Hurricane Helene gave the west coast and panhandle of Florida and our thoughts and prayers are for everyone in her path.  The wind bands extended 100 miles from her center and registered 144 MPH as as category 4 major hurricane so it was hard not to feel her affects anywhere on the west coast.  Those of us on the east coast of Florida experienced two days of intermittent squalls and no flooding as Helene churned up the Gulf Wednesday and Thursday and that includes our Destination Reunion Hotel in Deerfield Beach which is safe and sound awaiting our arrival! We have a few classmates arriving on Monday, as well as the whole committee. Most classmates arrive on Tuesday so they can enjoy our Meet & Gr...
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NEWSLETTER AUGUST 2024  🏫 🏫 🏫 🏫 🏫 🏫 🏫  🏫 🏫  🏫  🏫 🏫 SCHOOL DAZE BACK TO SCHOOL! There's lots of Back To School shopping happening now in Florida because it's tax free until August 11th!  We'll be running into lots of buses on the road next week all trying to learn their routes.  At the same time, parents will be jockeying for position and spilling out into the road trying to drop kids off at school. I never got dropped off at school and I never missed a bus.  Smith's Lane was just over half a mile from my house and I walked there for first, second, fifth and sixth grades. I took a bus in third grade to Winnecomac and in fourth grade to Wood Park, the newest schools at the time.  If you recognize yourself or can name some kids below, let me know!  First Grade!  Aren't we adorable!  Plaids and suspenders were all the rage apparently!    Second Grade!  I know it says Grade 1 but the sign is wrong! ...
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NEWSLETTER JULY 2024

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 NEWSLETTER JULY 2024 🌞  🌞  🌞  🌞  🌞  🌞   🌞   SUMMER SHENANIGANS! Summer is definitely here!  Across the country, all schools are out on summer break.  Some kids will travel, some will work or go to camp and yes, some will get into trouble.  It was summer in Commack and look what I found in an old photo album from back in the day ( and I did not get into trouble but I did have an accomplice! )  Jamie Blackwood at Jack-in-the-Box on Jericho Turnpike, Commack , N.Y.      Photo Credit: Barbara Ficalora A few observations...  First, check out the sneakers!  They are still cool and I know because I ran into a teen recently wearing a pair and I made sure to compliment her on her footwear. Second, how about the price of a burger!  And how about the diverse menu?  I can tell you for certain I never ordered a taco until I moved to Florida and I can't believe they served shrimp, which I also ...
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 Newsletter MAY 2024   👫 🎶 👫🎶👫 🎶 👫 🎶 👫 🎶 👫 🎶     IT'S PROM TIME!  Commack South Senior Prom - Huntington Townhouse  It's definitely Senior Prom time and the rules haven't changed.  The girls get dressed in long gowns and the guys get suited up and present flowers.  There's the obligatory 'family gets to take photos of the lovely couple time' that these days include a special trip to a scenic location for Instagram worthy pix.  There are still after-parties, parents house parties and group trips to who knows where! In case you don't recognize anyone in the picture, I'll disclose that I'm the one with the exaggerated smile.  I guess I was just so happy because I didn't do it on purpose.  I did catch a lot of flak about ruining our tables group picture but that didn't ruin our weekend together because the picture wasn't available until a week later!  I remember a group of us driving up to spend the day at Palisade...
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Newsletter March 2024  🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷 HAPPY EASTER - PASSOVER - SPRING!    I LOVE THE BIG DUCK!   I have been visiting this duck on and off since I was a kid.  I think my last visit was about ten years ago with my Dad.  The Big Duck is quintessentially Long Island - like the Montauk Lighthouse! Did you know that Long Island's duck farming started in the 1870's when just four surviving Peking ducks arrived in Connecticut, for breeding, out of about 30 that started the trip from China?  After some time, duck farming relocated to Long Island.  By the 1960's, Long Island duck farms were producing 1.5 million ducks a year!  Stricter land use regulations pushed most farmers out of business or into relocating in the midwest in the 70's.  The last remaining duck farm is Crescent Duck Farm in Aquebogue.  To this day, you can find finer menus proudly proclaiming "Long Island Duck". TICKETS ARE ON SALE FOR THE REUNION Tickets are just $1...
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