WPSBC Alumni Association

Alumni board meeting April 11, 2010

Meeting held via conference call.

Everyone was in attendance

Treasurer’s Report: We started with a balance in the checking account of $161.65. The debits $588.65 deposits $3089.32 total net gain $2500.67. Ending balance in checking $2662.32. In the Lincoln account the balance of $36238.52 as of December 4, 2009. There was a withdraw from this account and deposited in the checking account. Our net loss was only $106.03 balance in the savings account is $36132.49.Total assets as of December 7, 2009 $36400.17 we gained $2394.64 that gives us a balance of $38794.81. There were expenses $250 for the web site for the coming years for last year and also memorial for last year. The treasurer’s report was approved. The 501 3C status was discussed. Nothing was resolved.

Ted and Al were going to check into the 501 3C status. The Braille service that RIS. Had at the school was briefly mentioned nothing had changed.

New business: Joanne mentioned that the school was charging the alumni an additional $5 per person she felt the members should pay this additional $5.  A motion was made by Bill Newland and seconded by Chuck Shaefer for the alumni to pay this additional cost the price for the weekend would be $50.

The bulletin was mentioned. Friday night activities $10, meals $5, and banquet $30. A motion was made by Janace Miller and seconded by Albert Petrolongo that no matter what events attended (including if a person was to stay for the entire weekend) a member has to pay their $6 dues in addition to the cost. The motion passed. Program committee Ellen and Bonnie thought that rather than a speaker that people from each decade would speak about their experiences at the school.  The group decided that would not be a good idea.  It was decided that the money should be in by July 16 2010. Motion was made by Bonnie Newland and seconded by Albert Petrolongo to give Chuck Shaffer $150 for bingo prizes.

The meeting was adjourned.

Respectfully submitted Bonnie Newland recording secretary.

School Days.  Housemothers.  Those mostly lovely ladies with the very very quiet shoes, which we called, housemother shoes.  These were usually single or widowed ladies, whose sole job in life was to keep the girls in line, acting as surrogate moms by monitoring us, correcting us, and loving us.  In our nursery school days, there were three main house mamas: Mrs. Dague, Miss Gladys Roxbury and Mrs. Springer.  Two out of the three were mild mannered, kind and humble ladies.  Those were Mrs. Dague and Mrs. Springer.  The stickler and the bane of my existence was Miss Gladys Roxbury.  She could be very stern and strict.  One of her favorite sayings was, Ellen, you are as slow as molasses in January.  This complaint was repeated so often that I truly began to wonder what molasses were.  They are fish, I ascertained, who have to swim in the frozen streams in January.  And anyway, how did she know about those molasses? 

She could be very, very funny.  Her name for Jell-o was, nervous pudding.  I still get a real kick out of that one.  And she could be both gentle and sweet.  Night time would find her giving us hard candies and letting us have a spritz of the myriad colognes she kept in a row above the sink in the bathroom.  My favorite was Evening In Paris. 

One really vivid memory I have of the three housemothers was of the three of them, sitting in chairs, watching over us while John Glenn and his Mercury space ship splash landed in the Atlantic off the Florida coast.  They had sonar vision, being able to watch us kindergarteners play while watching the making of history on television.

Tree.  My third grade year saw many of us leaving our kindergarten building and moving into the Main Building.  This is what it was called back then.  Today, it is known as the Mary Schenley building.  But back then, it was a very large, majestic,  mansion, where at one time, our benefactress, Mary Schenley, presided.  More about Mary in a future article.  The Monday afternoon of my arrival in September of 1964, I met my new, and quite tall housemother.  Hello, Ellen, child.  I’m Tree.  My name is really Mrs. Frohoff, but you girls must call me, Tree.  Well, readers, this was, indeed, a major perplexity.  It ranked right up there with my swimming molasses.  I was informed that this name was given to Tree because she was so tall.

Tree never actually treated us to anything, but her television was our major delight.  She, too, introduced us to Billy Graham and his Crusades, and, in an effort to identify with her young female charges, let us watch every Ed Sullivan show and our beloved Beatles.  Beatle mania ran rampant amongst the teens at that time, and Tree would provide us with a minute by minute description of the antics of the besotted Beatle fans. 

The really power television times were Thursday nights.  Lost in Space and the antics of the mad scientist, Dr. Zachary Smith, kept us glued to the tube each and every week.  Then, it was on to the adventures of Batman and his sidekick, Robin.  We would forego dinner Thursday nights and munch on five cent candy bars from the snack bar.  Two of my absolute favorites were M & Ms and little pretzels in the box.

Ellen Goldfon

Related Posts

• Memories of School Days Past
• The Milk Wagon
• School Days Articles

The 2010 Alumni Convention will be held during the weekend of August 6th, 7th, & 8th, 2010. More information about this biannual get-together will be provided in this year’s Alumni Bulletin; to be issued in the next couple months.

Tom Hesley

Friends:

The next board meeting will be held via teleconference on Sunday, April 11th, 2010 at 7:00 PM:  Those who need to know how to get in should already have the telephone number and pass-code.  If not, contact our president, Ted Crum.

See all you board members at the meeting. 

Tom Hesley

SCHOOL DAYS

I am beginning a series of articles which I will call, School Days.

When I attended school at WPSBC, during the fifties, sixties and seventies, school would formally begin the day after Labor Day. Of course, we would arrive on the afternoon of Labor Day, suitcases chock full of new clothes and new shoes. Eagerly greeting each other would be the first order of the afternoon, and catching up on what we did during our summer vacation.

The highlight of this first week of school was our eagerly awaited trip to the Rainbow Gardens amusement park, formerly located in the White Oak section in the greater Pittsburgh area. My first trip to this park was in first grade. The park would be open just for our school. Volunteers would walk around with us, ride with us, and eat lunch with us. Picture, my friends, the delight you would know as a child yourself, being able to literally eat all you wanted, anything you wanted. At the end of the glorious day, we would each be given a huge bag of treats. (The most vivid memory of my virgin trip was lunch. Along with the older high school kids, we sat in the shade of the gazebo and ordered our burgers and hot dogs. No sooner had I taken a bite of my hamburger, than I felt a burning sensation in my lower lip. The condiments must have been extra hot that day, I figured, only to realize when I went home later, that I had been stung by a bee on that lower lip.

I’m happy to report that these wonderful memories still happen for our current students. They, too, are treated to the delights of Kennywood amusement park, which is located in the Duquesne area.

Ellen Goldfon

Related Posts

• Ellen’s Favorite Housemothers
• Memories of School Days Past
• The Milk Wagon

SCHOOL DAYS

Mrs. Ivy Parker and Ellen’s adventures with the milk wagon.

Mrs. Parker was our very strict second grade teacher. Very tall and extremely thin, she wielded a mean ruler which she used when we misbehaved, and was a stickler for doing things in just the right way. She could have been your typical schoolmarm, were it not for her husband, mild mannered slow Joe Parker, a quiet and gentle soul who spoke softly and smoked cigars. Anyway, Mrs. Parker taught second grade, and every day, we would take turns going to the kitchen with the milk wagon, putting the milk on the wagon, returning and opening the milk, and giving each child a carton of milk with a straw in it. Don’t ask. The straws were of the paper variety, and there was the oft chance that you could open the waxy cartons the wrong way. In the very likely event that a child failed at any of these chores, it only took one to fail, another day was added to your milk run. I suffered through two straight weeks of going for milk, you can believe it, and to this very day, I am an expert at opening paper milk cartons.

Ellen Goldfon

Related Posts

• Ellen’s Favorite Housemothers
• Memories of School Days Past
• School Days Articles

SCHOOL DAYS. Simple Simon met a pie man going to the fair, said Simple Simon to the pie man, let me taste your ware.

The Parent Teachers Organization or the Pto had many very loving and active parents, as it does to this day. Every election day, the PTO would hold a bake sale. Some of the most enthusiastic buyers of the enormous array of baked goods, were the children themselves. It was at one particular bake sale that I bought it. The huge apple pie. For the princely sum of seventy five cents, mind you. Back to the dorms I sauntered, this huge pie in hand, eager to show my comrades. They were thrilled, but what were we to use to eat it with? Imagine. No forks, no paper plates? We had absolutely nothing to eat this lovely apple pie with. To this very day, I don’t know how we consumed it, but we happily did. The bake sale still happens every election day. And I still participate. My mother, Dorothy or Dottie, as she liked to be called, was one of the PTOs’ most ardent participants and supporters. At first, she was the chairman of the refreshment committee. Her homemade cream pufs were always one of the bake sale favorites. She rose in the ranks, and became the president, the office she proudly held for many years. The PTO today has so many active parents, and we are indeed both lucky and richly blessed to have them in our midst.

Ellen Goldfon

Related Posts

• Ellen’s Favorite Housemothers
• The Milk Wagon
• School Days Articles

Friends,

I talked with Geraldine “Deannie” Caputo this morning.  Most of you will remember her as the bubbly and energetic health and physical education teacher from the 1960s through 1990s.  She sounded as feisty and vital as ever, despite the fact that she’ll turn 80 years old this year.  In fact, with the exception of some mild shoulder joint troubles, which she attributes to the many years of swimming and lifting of students into and out of the water, she’s enjoying excellent health these days. 

While she frequents our conventions every other year, she nonetheless, pleasantly surprised me with the news that she married again after thirty years.  In fact, I spoke to her husband when I called; her old phone number in Stanton Heights has been disconnected and the recording on it provides her new number.  He was polite and pleasant, like her, and once he determined that I wasn’t a pesky salesman or telemarketer, he joyfully brought her right to the phone. She’s now living in Gibsonia; the two of them attended the same high school together.  They’ve been married now since 2008 and seem very happy.

Her daughters are doing well, and gave her (I think she said) six grandchildren. 

She asked about all us former students, adding how much she loved her job up to the day she retired.  I updated her on those of you I know about.  She’ll probably attend some of this year’s alumni convention.  So you’ll get to update her yourself, should you decide to attend.  Until then though, she sends her loving regards, and hopes everyone is enjoying their spring.

Take care.

Tom Hesley

St.  Mary Medical Center

A member of  CHW  

January  15, 2010  

Dear Alumni Association,

I am  writing personally to thank you for your recent donation of $15.00 in memory of Etta Lockhart Burge, class of 1951, made to the St. Mary Low Vision Center in support of our programs and services.

100% of this contribution will be used to fund our annual school screening program, lectures, Independent Living Skills classes, newsletters, annual luncheon and fair, and the acquisition of new and innovative products for the use of our patients.

God blesses you for your support and we look forward to serving you and your community in the future.

Yours truly,

Debbie Ftcevedo, Supervisor, O.A.C. St. Mary Low Vision Center

Hi everyone. 

Just wanted to let you know that the $3000 that the board voted to transfer from our investment accounts to our checking account is complete.

Tom Hesley