Mark your calendars for the class of 1968 reunion planned for next June. Laurie Kammler Kaye is coordinating plans for the Saturday night dinner and would welcome suggestions for venue and menu. Contact the office of alumni relations and special events if you have not received a packet with information. If you did not receive an email from me in November seeking news, it means the College does not have one on record for you or the one they gave me is no longer active––I had a lot of “failure to deliver” messages this time. The College also has a page on the website for locating “lost” classmates and we are missing quite a few. Weather and water seem to be continuing themes for our class. I am doing repairs from a water leak in November and many alums along the East Coast were affected by Hurricane Sandy, including Sue Marano and Cheryl Bonynge Harker in New Jersey. Cheryl lives in Island Heights just across the bay from devastated Seaside Heights. Her family’s home and boat survived, but she reported there were “200 boats or so piled up at the bottom of our hill” and so many homes and businesses are destroyed. Condolences to Cheryl whose mother passed away in November just weeks after the hurricane. Sue reported no structural damage, but was without power and is thankful for friends who let us shower and eat at their home—and sleep over when it snows. Sue’s mother moved to Raleigh, N.C., in September and maybe we will plan another North Carolina reunion. My sophomore year roommate Amy Rosenberg Cornblatt and husband Marc have been recent water damage victims at their homes in Pennsylvania and Vermont, but Hurricane Sandy missed them. Amy’s mother has passed away, but her dad is still in the Boston area. Amy is retired and she and Marc have enjoyed many fabulous trips to far flung corners of the world.

Ellen Dietz Rosenberger is in Fairfax County, Va., and was spared storm damage. She and husband Russ and family actually had a fun water adventure when three generations spent a week in Oregon last summer celebrating a family wedding at a resort in the high desert and did a rafting float down the Deschutes River. Ellen is retired from teaching but busy with activities for seven grandchildren, book club, garden club and tennis. Her mother (Class of 1935 and 98 years young) spent Thanksgiving with the family. Ellen asked, “Where are all of my Coblentz friends?” Suzann Harden Carson reported from Maryland that she has only seen a few Hood classmates over the years and is ready to see so many well-remembered friends at the reunion. After graduation, she and Nancy Parker Winyard roomed together, had children at the same time and saw each other often when Suz lived in California. Her roommate Linda Winter-Blacksher visited when she lived in Hawaii, and more recently she met up with little sister Chips Parker-Wood ’70 and others in Philadelphia for some gourmet food shopping and a “reminds-me-of-old-times” lunch. She has been in email touch with her Hood big sister Ruth Mary Ross-Jones ’66. Margie Arnold Creek is one of our far flung classmates (Queensland, Australia) and reported a new grandson Matthew who joined big brother David, age 2½, last July. Margie’s daughter and son-in-law live in Brisbane––by Australian standards a “short” one-and-a-half-hour drive from Queensland. Margie was a tour guide for her “after Hood” roommate Nancy Frederickson Sherlin ’66 and husband Grover when they stopped in Brisbane during a Holland American cruise around Australia. Margie showed them the sights in Brisbane and of course a cuddle with a koala. Margie continues to create and exhibit textile art, which she said creates a messy studio but is a lot of fun.

Carrie Wissler-Thomas continues to love what she does as president and executive director of the Art Association of Harrisburg, Pa., and has no plans to retire anytime soon. Carrie and husband Scott travel in Scotland and England each October, and she said her paintings are inspired by the beautiful scenery there. Son Dylan and family “live just across the river” from Carrie and Scott’s 1928-vintage house in Uptown Harrisburg, Pa. Sharon Burns Walsh and 46 family members and friends celebrated her daughter Katy’s wedding last October in Cancun. She reported that they made it home just ahead of Hurricane Sandy and fortunately, had no storm damage at their home on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Sharon reminded me of the mini-reunion last May in Old Town Alexandria attended by Sharon, Sue Marano, Susan McGehee Nelson, Diana Webber Mosley, Gwen Ebersole Lehman and me. Needless to say shopping and eating great food were involved. My own water event this year means my cute little 25-year-old house will have a great unplanned facelift, assuming I survive the mess. Grandsons Ryan, age 6, and Eli, 2 going on 10, live close by and they continue to amuse and amaze their Nana. Their father, my son Chris, starts graduate school in January so tuition payments are back in our budgets. Son Scott and daughter-in-law Josefin planned to spend Christmas in Sweden with her family and plan to visit the famous “Ice Hotel” 200 miles north of the Artic Circle (I did not know there was that much land north of the Artic Circle). My work in child protective services for Wake County is stressful but outcomes for families can be so rewarding and I still appreciate the opportunity to have made this later in life career change.

I will close with Betsy Kern Perlstein’s account of how she and her husband Jules celebrated birthdays this year—so much more than just cake and candles. I will have her full account in her own words at the reunion but here is a summary. Her husband was turning 60 and their daughters asked what he wanted for his birthday and he said, “60 days.” So after their youngest daughter’s wedding, they took off on their 2011 Harley-Davidson Ultra Classic motorcycle named “Magic” to look for America. They rode west from Maryland to the western most point of the United States––Cape Flattery, down the California coast from Route 1 to the Sierra Nevadas and back. Jules spent his actual birthday with Betsy, noisy seals and thousands of seabirds at Morro Bay, Calif. Then they rode east across 500 miles of Route 50 through Nevada (“The Loneliest Road in America”). They climbed Colorado’s highest peaks and crossed and re-crossed the Continental Divide and on through Kansas, Mo., and then Illinois where Betsy celebrated her 66th birthday on Old Route 66 in Springfield. They rode more than 13,000 miles and she blogged the whole trip––the link is 60daysonmagic.blogspot.com. I am hoping Betsy and Jules ride Magic to the Reunion! Hope to see you in June.

Class Reporter:

Linda Search Atack
(336) 549-7258
Linda.atack@gmail.com