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You're all welcome to my place any time - but, as Garry pointed out, the California homes are not so spacious as those Wisconsin spreads. Sally's husband and Jon would just have to excuse themselves to one corner of the living area to talk about Madison West days :-) Or maybe a corner of the garage. We could enjoy our nice wide-open outdoor spaces, except the rainy season is now upon us. We are on the second day of a 6-day series of rain storms right now. "We're dreaming of a DRY Christmas."

11/30/12 12:23 AM

#701

Jeanne Zinser (Gottschalk)

Terri,

Don't admit it rains out here, you'll spoil our image.

Honestly folks, down here in SoCal they put out weather advisories when we might get 0.1 to 0.25 inches of rain.

12/01/12 02:41 PM

#702

Carol Albers (Pederson)

FYI The DVD arrived in the mail TODAY! Check your mailbox! I haven't had a chance to view it, but I hope to do that over the weekend. Happy birthday a day late, Larry S. and Sally!

12/01/12 03:06 PM

#703

Mine came, too--85 cents postage due! Will probably watch it tomorrow--after the Packers/Vikings game.

12/01/12 03:42 PM

#704

Barbara Blair (Brenzel)

My DVD arrived today also, Of course, today my DVD player decided to give me grief & I'll have to view it later! No postage due on mine,

Barb

12/03/12 01:33 PM

#705

We received our video today; shouldn't have, but sat down to watch.......had to tear ourselves away so as not to see the whole day go by. Oh my! What a handsome and interesting crowd! If only our teachers could see us now, and know how much they influenced us. For all of you out there who were educators, bless you, and never forget how important your work was.

Can't wait to find another chunk of time and get back to see the rest of the class, including several that we somehow missed that memorable night. I'm vowing now to make sure to catch up with them at the next reunion (that is, if our dedicated and talented committee has recovered strength enough to do this again).

12/05/12 12:16 AM

#706

William Bailen

Anyone want to get together during the ROSEBOWL FESTIVITIES? Ken and Bonnie, remember when we met at the Santa Monica pier?

The weather is usually nice on New Year's in SOUTH CA. We're not going to the game...tickets start at $300. Let me know if anyone is interested and we could arrange a meeting time and place...maybe go to the parade.

12/06/12 07:54 PM

#707

So, how many of you remembered to hang out your stockings for St. Nicholas night?

12/06/12 08:36 PM

#708

Karsten Boerger

Is that a particularly German/Wisconsin thing? We always did it as children, and our girls still love to receive goodies for their stockings. But now the goodies have to come in the mail, and what they like best is something baked by St. Nick. Question: how do you get a whole marzipan stollen into a stocking?

12/06/12 11:09 PM

#709

Karsten,

I think you're right. I haven't seen or known anyone outside of WI that ever celebrated St. Nick's day like that. Or did it die with our generation?

12/07/12 07:08 AM

#710

No, Jim, it hasn't died. Our girls still hung up their stockings in college, and still love to receive some treats - I just sent off their packages this week. I 'll bet the farm that our grand daughter (only 20 months now, so doesn't understand yet) will hang a stocking in Colorado next year. We have Norwegian friends who still do it, but they use a shoe.

12/07/12 09:36 AM

#711

I'd heard about the shoe thing, but always had this picture of St. Nick trying to stuff an orange or apple into the shoe.

12/07/12 09:49 AM

#712

You should see Karsten's shoes! St. Nick could fit in a (very un-seasonal) watermelon!

12/07/12 04:17 PM

#713

Hi Sally, Just today I looked at the video you posted on 12/06 and am really speechless! We have traveled in so many countries and have friends and extended family representing many cultures and colors. But I have never felt so "out of it" as I did watching this video of a "Christmas program". Oh my! This is not just a generation "gap", but rather an abyss. Now I know that I am truly an "old fart".

12/08/12 11:44 AM

#714

Marian Schopp (Bringe)

Nancy - You are NOT an old fart. Something has happened to about 50% of our population. A stage with a fake Christmas tree and a fake fireplace with kids dancing to rap - is not acceptable - especially for Christmas. I am so lucky our grand kids either go to a Christian school or are home schooled. If I had any of that noise in our family I would be at the school board meetings complaining. Don't apologize because you don't relate. They are the ones gone wrong..... Just a little venting :) Merry Christmas!!! XOXO

12/08/12 12:40 PM

#715

Marion, while I hear you regarding fake Christmas trees (we still do the old German tradition of cutting a real tree a few days before Christmas and putting real candles on it), I do understand there might be logistical and financial problems with putting up a real tree on stage. My quarrel is with the music. With a professional musician as a daughter, I'm a little picky about music. It doesn't all have to be Christmas music, as there are many religions and traditions which celebrate a mid-winter holiday, and I'm happy to be sensitive to and include them. But lets at least have some quality control! Perhaps this video showed just one segment of the program and there were other parts which included something more to my taste. Had I been there, and were this the case, I would have gritted my teeth and suffered in silence through the rap. Who knows, they may have preceded this with a melodious rendition of "Stille Nacht" and followed it with some of my favorite minor-key Sephardic songs?! But, for my taste, a little rap goes a looooooong, looooooooooooong way.

12/09/12 01:41 AM

#716

About the Christmas Program video of 2011 - The rap number in the Chirstmas Program doesn't fit for me either, but at least it's being called a Christmas program with a Christmas tree wih ornaments and a mantel with stockings. There are some schools nowadays that won't call it anything but a "holiday program" and a "holiday tree". Someone put some effort into making the set look Christmasey. The comments below (when I finally deciphered them!) reveal it is a number put on by the gymnastics/drill team - and they were just performing - and pretty well, too - in the area of their talent. From my recent experience attending high school "holiday" performances I would guess there probably were other numbers by vocalists, instrumentalists - not that much different from the Chirstmas programs in our day. So don't be so hard on the kids!!!

12/09/12 08:39 AM

#717

Terri, I’m encouraged to hear that your recent experience suggests that rap was probably just one specialized aspect of the program in question. Point taken; I’ll try not to be “so hard on the kids”. Regarding program content, I’m actually very okay with “holiday programs” in schools where Christians represent just a portion of the population. While everyone may not resonate with the belief in Jesus as our “Savior”, who can object to the hope for peace on earth, goodwill toward men (and among various views on holiday programs)?

12/09/12 11:34 AM

#718

It looks as if most of us contributing to this Forum appear to come from a European Christian background. Today's schools which represent the many cultures of our society have good reasons - educational ones at that - for wanting to present and include the different traditions of the December season in their "holiday " programs. That describes many of the public schools of today - and the one my son, and our exchange student from Germany attended last year - where whites and Christians were not a distinct majority. Their December programs, however, never failed to have antler-clad singers rendering their version of some well-known carols and the madrigal chorus singing "Ding-dong Merrily on High". Programs were often handed out by ushers wearing Santa hats. Apparently Custer is still Christian enough to be able to call theirs a Christmas program. But a big shift is happening as our society becomes infused with different cultures, and is no longer a white Christian majority. A change happened in America in the 1850s-1900 when most of our European ancestors came. They had to learn to say "Okay, not just French or Italian or German, but European/American" and many wanted to draw the line there. Now we have to consider "Not just European or African or Asian, but the whole human race." It's a big shift for us today, as it was for them. I just have a problem with not calling a Christmas tree a Christmas tree and not calling a Christmas song a Christmas song - when that's what it is - out of some misguded effort not to offend someone. I had several Jewish friends at Custer and we had a handful of black kids too. Wouldn't you love to hear from them on the forum about their experience at Custer in 1962?

12/09/12 04:27 PM

#719

Here is something to just enjoy - and watch some others - enjoy the Christmas spirit!

12/09/12 04:39 PM

#720

Terri, I totally agree that a Christmas tree should be called such, as should a Christmas carol. And how much richer our lives can be when we also include a lovely menorah, some of the very poignant songs from the medieval Sephardic traditions, and other beautiful languages and melodies such as the Xhosa. Although the western liturgy has given us a great body of gorgeous music (not an accident, as the royalty and the church were, for centuries, the only institutions which had the finances to support musicians), they hold no monopoly on beauty. We ignore at our loss the myriad cultures which can enrich our lives.

Regarding your last question: yes, I would like very much to hear from some of our classmates about their experience. Two women in particular whom I remember, Judy Habush and Myrna Cohen, have apparently not been found. I didn’t know Judy well, but Myrna was a dear, kind, thoughtful, and classy lady. I hope she’ll turn up on someone’s radar before our next reunion.

Mazel tov.

12/09/12 04:51 PM

#721

And Happy Hanukkah! (Began last night!) Myrna Cohan used to invite her Congress School girl scout troopmates over for her mom's Hanukkah bakery treats. What a great and memorable introduction that was to us of the holiday. Mmmmm - Hamentaschen!!! If you drove down 51st Blvd. south of Capital Drive, you could see menorahs in many windows using real candles! There ARE beautiful Hanukkah songs, Nancy. I would be playing them all week in my classroom this week. But I left the tape (yes, TAPE!) - that's how long I was doing it :-) in the good hands of a teacher I know will carry on the tradition. Myrna, where are you?

12/09/12 05:15 PM

#722

Oh Terri , I wish you had been MY teacher! (Chronologically, that doesn't fit, does it?)

12/09/12 09:49 PM

#723