A 2002 Mike Murtaugh Update . . .
Memories for many of us of the years at Southside include Mike's "hosting" audiences with special friends at his mom and dad's soda fountain on Broadway. There, you'd take a seat on a stool to experience the first of your many caffeine highs as Mike would keep your Coke glass filled while he waited on customers. You'd hear the latest about all sorts of important goings on with the Murtaugh family, the Jack Paar Show, Mabel Haupt's English Class and the latest movers and shakers at the dances at Big Pond. Most importantly for me, Mike's close friendship along with 3 others (Bruce Silvers, Larry Naylor, and Jim Orsillo) taught me how important early relationships in life are in that it's difficult, if not impossible, to make really close friendships after "growing up" and going on to college and a business career or raising a family. I miss those formative friendships very much. Mike and I exchanged some e-mails recently and he sent some pictures that were taken last year. I hope you enjoy catching up on what's been going on with Mike as much as I did. It was almost like being back at the Murtaugh Family's Soda Fountain again. Loud Regards from Long Beach, California... First of all, I have a new E-mail address: (michael.dmitri@verizon.net). Alas, a former employee is joining the multitudes in abandoning AT&T [for DSL] - widows and orphans take notice! The Dmitri part of the address refers to my twelve year-old wire fox terrier...great companion, older too.
My mother sez hello to all from her place, with my brother, Jim Murtaugh, in Salisbury, NC. She will be 89 in March 2002. Her eyesight went away this past year. So, she won't be playing "Mother Goose" reader to local Salisbury second graders this year. It's a disappointment to her that she cannot see to continue this special relationship with our youngest generation but she has "pen pals," all of her special kids over the last eight years, who write to her or who now come to see her. Neat, huh?
I am pictured here with my "god granddaughter" -- Elizabeth Atterbury Jiapeng Chen - one year old. Arriving at Union Station/LA from NYC on December 12, 2001. "Atterbury" is the daughter of one of two brothers that I sponsored in the U.S. [from the People's Republic of China] for graduate school degrees. One in 1986 and the other in 1989. Tianlu Chen [1989] is now a U.S. citizen and a senior project designer for Mattel Toys Corp. T. Gregorie Chen [1986] has his own textile import business located in offices on the 79th Flr. of the Empire State Building in NYC. Greg is Atterbury's father...my extended family. Back in the early 1990s when Greg & Tianlu visited my brother, Jim's family and my mother in North Carolina for a first "Thanksgiving" with their American family, Greg showed my mother how to "stir-fry" turkey....tasted great...though he nearly destroyed my sister-in-law's kitchen. Thankfully, I stayed on the West coast that time. Summer 2001 - Had a couple of small bi-coastal celebrations for my 60th this year. One here in Long Beach in May, closer to the actual May B-date; and, one in New York city on June 3rd as a Sunday brunch gathering at a Chinese restaurant next to Rockefeller Center. After brunch about twenty or so in the group marched down Fifth Avenue -- focused on the seduction and promise of a huge birthday chocolate cheese-cake desert [plus adult beverages, of course] -- to the 79th floor offices in the Empire State Building of one of the two brothers that I sponsored from mainland China [15 & 12 years ago]. The "climax" of the late afternoon & evening included a private elevator car to take the group [some relatives, a couple of college classmates, some old Navy friends, some AT&T colleagues, and the families of the two PRC brothers] to the observation deck for a spectacular sunset; and to view the lighting of New York City after dark. What a memory review! Last time I was up there was in the Summer 1954.
This photograph above is from last summer at that 60th celebration in NYC. The gal with me is Maureen McMahon - former editor of National Geographic's educational division. We first met in a sand box back in 1944, in Seattle, at Fort Lewis. Our parents stayed in-touch over the subsequent years after WW II. The McMahons lived in NYC and visited us in Elmira every summer through my first year in college in 1958-59. We always thought we were related. Still do. That picture was the first I had seen Maureen in 30 years. Honestly, it was as comfortable as being together...back in the sandbox! Enjoyed having this "soda-fountain" chat with you, Bill. Editor's Note: Mike's E-Mail address is: and he invites you to correspond with him at that address. If you'd like to write using the US Mail, please contact us and we'll let you know his mailing address. © 2002 SHS Class of '58
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Editor's Note:
I
met Mike somewhere in my Sophomore year at Southside and
we became good friends. They say you learn something from
everyone you meet and that certainly applied to anyone
who ever knew Mike. The phrase "never a dull
moment" comes to mind whenever I think of him.
December 2001 - Arriving today in a
Christmas card from my mother is a hilarious photo of her
dressed-up in Jim's North Carolina Air National Guard
desert fatigues with black-out make-up...I'm calling it: "Fran
Murtaugh, hunting for bin Laden."
She's leaning on what looks to be a walking cane but I
think it is a thinly disguised bazooka...a comp. no doubt
from the CIA. 
