Cloudy, rainy day in St Paul but many of the hardy class of
63 members got together for lunch today at the Pool and Yacht Club.
Last week classmate Don Danneker had
an idea that we did some follow up on today. Many of you recall and have read
the book our classmates Tom Golden wrote this
past year RAMBLINGS of a BABY BOOMER wannabe.
Don gave me his copy of the book and asked if those that
have read Tom’s book would put a note in the blank back pages of the book and
when all who have done that Don would send the book to the author Tom Golden.
So some of that was done at lunch and any of you who want to
read Tom’s book let us know because we have several copies we can lend out. I
have read it and truly enjoyed it. Thanks Don for a great idea.
Dave Britz confirmed the date
for the 7th annual class of 63 golf outing THE CHARLIE——-Wednesday
August 12th
George Bonfe confirmed the
date for the 5th annual class of 63 August lunch at his house on
Forest Lake——Thursday August 13th.
The next class of 63 lunch is on Thursday April 9th——-Mark your calendars——
Yesterday we gathered on this beautiful clear, blue sky day
where the temperature had climbed to -5 degrees as we sat down for lunch. 17 of
our Cretin Classmates at the Pool and Yacht Club on the wintery Mississippi
River
were there; Joe Clarkin, Joe Mc
Grath, Joe Brooks Joe Schufman, Charlie Evans, Pat Mc Donnell, Tom Schleck, Tom
Troskey, Dave Britz, Dick Butler, Ed Sund, Dave Tyree, Rick O’Connor, Frank
Villaume, John Lentsch, Roger Neils and Mike Swenson. Lots of good
conversation and socializing took place.
As many of you know CDH has added on to the school with a
beautiful new entrance and welcoming center known as the Tom and Deb Lentsch
Forum. Go to the CDH web site and you can see photos of this beautiful
addition. A few weeks ago a couple of our class were at the open house and
heard from the President of CDH and from the man who made this addition
possible. Tom Lentsch a 1968 grad and his wife Deb financially made this
addition happen. Tom mentioned in his remarks that the Lentsch family has been
part of Cretin since 1911 and he is very proud of that. Our class of 1963 has Frank and John who are 1st cousins to Tom
and two of dozens of Lentsch descendants who attended CDH and the predecessors
schools. Great tradition and generosity! Thank you Tom and Deb.
Pat McDonnell was at the
memorial service for a 1963 Derham Hall grad who many of us knew, Mary Ann
McFadden. Mary passed away this past Nov 28th. Pat passed around the
document from her memorial.
You may recall that last week I asked that those wandering
the beaches and golf courses in the south send us a photo or two. These photos
are attached.
George Bonfe’s photo is a
view from his condo in the Fort Meyers area, I just talked to George this AM
and he said it has been just too hot lately so he is spending most of his time
inside doing projects on his condo. Toooooo Hot!!!
Roger Neils sends the photo
of he and his wife’s feet in the water of the gulf by South Padre
Island——looks pretty good!
Jim Dimond sent his photo
walking the beach at Seista Key just to break the monotony of being at pool
side so much. Such monotony Jim!
Finally, a terrific photo from Frank
Villaume. Three Franks in the ocean by Naples Fla. Our classmate Frank,
his son Frank and his grandson Frank. Priceless!
Thank you guys for the photos, they are appreciated by all
especially those of us at the 45th parallel.
Next Class of 63 lunch is Thursday March 12th—-mark your calendar and don’t forget to checkout the Class web site at https://cretinclassof1963.0rg
Another great turn out of class of 63 guys to enjoy a few
hours reminiscing and socializing.
Beautiful day in Minnesota 30 degrees and dry.
Yesterday classmates Len Mitsch and
John Schmitt alerted me to some sad news about
our classmate Tom Mahlum. Tom is in failing
health and has been moved to hospice. Please keep Tom and his family in your
prayers.
You will recall our classmate Tom
Golden has written a book and several more of the class has read it and
reported back how much they enjoyed it and recommended it to the rest of the
guys. Book title is Ramblings of a Baby Boomer wannabe
Classmate Don Danneker has
offered his copy to any classmate that would like to read it. Don thought
it was terrific!
Now get this; our classmate Dan
Gergen and a advisory mate of Tom Golden is going to transcribe Tom’s
book into Braille. Dan has been doing this since he retired about 20 years ago
and told me he was looking for Minnesota authors. Tom and Dan connected to get
this process started.
Today we had a first time attendee. This fellow went to St
Lukes through 5th grade then to Holy Spirit for 6-7-8th
grades. He joined us at Cretin in the fall of 1959 and was with us for Freshman
and Sophomore years before his family moved to the other side of the river
where he became a Benilde Red Knight. Mike Roach has
stayed in touch with some of us and he is one of the guys on the class of 63
mailing list that started with us but did not stay at Cretin all four years.
You guys might recall that we had 53 guys start with us in the fall of 59 that
did not finish with us. We’re glad Mike has stayed in touch and joined us
today.
Also don’t forget the open house at Cretin to show the new
addition—-Tuesday January 21st 5-7PM. You are invited this
beautiful addition. Go in on Albert street.
Finally next class of 63 lunch is Thursday February 13th—mark
your calendars.
Thought I would send you a note about yesterday’s class of
63 lunch. We had a dozen hardy souls enjoy a couple of hours of socializing and
good food. The snowy morning made getting to the lunch a bit hairy. Of
course the weather was a topic and many of us said we have already had enough
winter and noted how many snow birds in our class had already headed to warmer
climes.
The Pool and Yacht Club was beautifully decorated for the
coming Holidays and with the snow falling looked great.
Take a look at the class of 63 web site and one thing we
want to bring up to date is the list of the 50 year marriages, so if you are
married 50 years or more and not on the list let me know and we will put you on
the list.
Our next class lunch is January 9th—so mark
your calendar and plan to be there.
Many of you recall
that our friend and classmate Bob Connor died this past Sept 30th while
on vacation with his wife Nanette in California.
Only after several of
us attended Bob’s funeral service did we find out about Bob’s many connections
to military service and veteran’s organizations.
After visiting with several
people at Bob’s wake we realized letting the guys in the class of 63 know about
Bob’s significant contributions would be most appropriate. Joe Schufman was
anxious to get this info out to all the guys in the class of 63 not just in one
memo but on a spotlighted feature on the Class of 63 web site.
I then called Bob’s wife Nanette and asked her what she thought of the idea. Nanette was pleased to contribute some of Bob’s involvement with military service and veterans’ organizations and was anxious to share it with his Cretin Classmates.
Nanette’s write-up is now included on our “Volunteerism” page. You can go directly to the page on Bob by clicking HERE.
Beautiful fall day, 30 degrees and sunny with 19 of your
Cretin classmates sitting around watching the Mississippi river
barge traffic and the ever increasing slabs of ice floating by.(see
attached photo)
Before we sat down for lunch we had a moment of silence
as we recalled several very sad events happening in three of our classmates
families the past few weeks. Ray Altier lost his
youngest son Steve on Oct 25th. Pat Vitek lost
his 13 year old grandson in a traffic accident on Nov.1st and as Joe Brooks reported today that he had spoken with
classmate Larry Neuman who had lost an infant
grandchild. So please keep the Altier, Vitek and Neuman families in your
thoughts and Prayers.
I heard from Tom Rubbelke who
is doing well and plans to get to one of our lunches VERY soon. Can’t wait to
see you back in your old spot Tom!
We passed around a couple
of copies of our classmate Tom Golden’s new
book, RABMLINGS of a BABY BOOMER wannabe. Fun read, Joe Schufman and I have both read it and know the
rest of you guys will really enjoy Tom’s musings about growing up in St Paul
and moving on through the challenges of adult life. Let Tom Golden know what
you think of it at golden436@comcast.net
A few photos are attached of guys looking at Tom”s book.
Veterans Day this past Monday and take a look at the
photos class of 63 Vets that were with us today. Thank you Men!
Mark your calendars for the next Class of 63 lunch on Thursday
December 12th.
Earlier this evening I received an email from our classmate Tom Golden letting me (and now you) know his book is finally available! Ted Krammer gave it a positive review (see “Recent Comments” on our website). I think it will be a good read.
Below is some pertinent info, including an option for you to preview sections of the book without laying out any money. Worth a look in my opinion.
Joe Schufman
—————————————–
Ramblings of a Baby Boomer Wannabe is now
available through your favorite bookstore. Here’s the pertinent
information for ordering:
Title: Ramblings of a Baby Boomer Wannabe
Author: Tom Golden
Publisher: Covenant Books
Book #: ISBN 978-1-64559-319-5
It’s also available in print and digital form
on Amazon (Kindle) and Barnes and Noble (Nook).
Amazon gives you the opportunity to preview several stories in chapter one. You can find a direct link to the book on Amazon by going to my books Facebook page: Ramblings of a Baby Boomer Wannabe. Or you can click here.
My publisher keeps promising that they will have a promotional website for my book, but as the old saying goes: “Talk is cheap – it takes money to buy whiskey”.
Tom Golden
The Author with a copy of his book – he looks happy to me!! So the book must be good.
Making progress… but glacial. I finally got the 10 comp books as promised to me by Covenant Books. I’m reading it again to be certain that everything is in order. It looks good, but unfortunately, many of the color photos that I used inside the book, which were converted to black & white, did not reproduce particularly well. But overall, I’m satisfied.
Once I give Covenant the final okay, they will print books
for stores and digitize it for on-line. A “Ramblings” web site will be
created so that people can order directly from it. The book price is
$16.95, and from what I’ve seen on other book web sites, the digital version
(Barnes & Noble, Apple iTunes and Amazon) will probably sell for
$9.99. I get to purchase my printed books at half the cover price plus
shipping and handling costs. I’ll also order specially designed Ramblings
bookmarks and sell sheets from Covenant to include in my media and bookstore
mailings. I’ve got to tell you, this is really time consuming … not to
mention EXPENSIVE.
It’s been nearly 4 years since I embarked on this
adventure. I’m so glad to see it finally coming to fruition. I’m hopeful
that some books will sell and that this journey hasn’t just been a very long
ego trip.
