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.
Rainy gloomy day in St Paul today but not at the
lunch with 17 of your Cretin classmates. The guys there today
were Joe Brooks, Dave Britz, Rick O’Connor,
Charlie Evans, Dave Tyree, Roger Neils, Pat McDonnell, Dick Butler, Frank
Villaume, Joe Schufman, John Lentsch, Joe M McGrath, George Bonfe, Tom Schleck,
Mike Swenson, Gene Bovy and Tom Troskey.
We started off the meeting with some thoughtful silence
in memory of two of our classmates who passed away this past month; Pat Curran in August and Rodger
Slater this week. Please keep those guys and their families in your
prayers.
Dave Britz who took over
as the organizer of the annual class golf outing after the death of our
classmate Charlie Schuldt in 2016 has procured a
traveling trophy for the group each year that wins the annual CHARLIE golf
outing.
This year the winners were Joe
Schufman, Ed Sund and Bob O’Malley and you’ll see in one of the photos
Dave presenting the trophy to Joe—–something for the rest of us to shoot for
next August.
Don’t forget the Cretin High School Alumni banquet next
Thursday the 19th—A separate email was just sent out with details
for the event. Hope many of you will be able to attend.
Next monthly class of 63 lunch will be Thursday October
10th—mark your calendar.
Our classmate Peter Zierden has provided valuable information for any of our Vietnam veterans. In his dealing with the VA he found that their are compensatory programs for any vet that has health issues related to Agent Orange. We have added a tab under veterans with the specific information Peter would like to share. You can find it on our website by clicking here.
Everything takes soooo long!!! I’ve been told
this is “normal”. I wouldn’t know as this is my first (and my last) book.
I’ve been working with Covenant Books since last
December. The final step before actual publishing was approval of the
cover designs. I just signed off on them (well, I should have signed
off, after all, Idesigned them). It just took them a month to
copy them! Sheesh. I’ve also attached the books first right hand
page which I wrote to describe the premise (okay, and to sell it a bit).
The next steps will be printing for stores, digitizing for
on-line purchase, creation of a “RAMBLINGS” web site,
distribution, and finally, promotion, advertising and marketing. Based on
the pace of things thus far, I suspect that it will be two more months before
it is in stores and on-line. I sure hope that it is sooner… I ain’t
getting any younger.
Loved the pictures of our classmates who played golf and had a nice time at George’s place. I lived on Forest Lake for 16 years and still miss it. I used to bump into George at a place called Willow Point Resort. Back then it was a bar/restaurant/convenience store. Long gone! Great memories.
RAMBLINGS – first right hand page in book
There are 135 interconnected short stories in this book. Some are hilarious, some quite serious, many are great fun and upbeat while others are really sad. Your emotions will go up and down like a roller coaster, but in the process, that ride will be well worth it as you will be thoroughly entertained.
There are tales of childhood mischief, adventure, hot rods, romance, suspense, parenting, business advice, the newspaper industry, history, heartbreak, a puppy and even slot machines!
Most of the stories occur in and around Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota, Birmingham, Alabama and Omaha, Nebraska. If you are familiar with any of these cities, you’ll instantly recognize the locales mentioned.
Interestingly, each and every name in this book is real with one exception, and that one was changed due to a most unsavory deed perpetrated by that individual. That story will make your blood boil.
Buckle up for a crazy Baby Boomer ride. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, but most of all, you’ll fall in love with RAMBLINGS.
Could not have been a nicer day weather wise than today
at classmate George Bonfe’s house on Forest Lake
for the class of 63 lunch at the lake.
Had about 15 guys including two men from—–STMA class
of 63—Larry Poppler and Tom Healy. Tom and
Larry brought the beer—GOOD ASS BEER. Zoom in on the photo of Joe M McGrath
and you’ll see that is really the name. The guys said it was very good. Thanks Larry
and Joe. Larry also brought homemade baked beans—best I have ever tasted.
Classmate Tom Racine help
get the food prepared and it was all terrific. Burgers, brats, a whole deep
fried turkey, salads, cheeses and desserts.
George’s granddaughter and daughter helped put things
together.
George —-thank you for sharing your home and putting this on, it is very much appreciated by all.
Next class luncheon is on September 12. Check the Upcoming Events calendar for details.
