Editor's Note: For me, forty or so years of mystery and intrigue ended on February 28, 2002 when I downloaded my mail. Something from Connie Newbauer - photos and a nice note about the web site. Over the years that I have been doing this, I'm not sure how many of our alumni (many from the Class of 59) had inquired about Connie Newbauer, but there were more than a handful, who had wondered where our Class of 1958 Valedictorian had vanished over the years. I got to work immediately to remedy the suspense and sent off an avalanche of questions to her - the who's, what's, where's, when's and why's of websitedom were visited upon Connie. Must have been forty or fifty - you know me. Then, in typical fashion of anyone my age, I retreated to my La-Z- Boy®, hiding the nagging impatience of hardly being able to wait for her answers. In the meantime, my memories drifted back to grammar school days. I remember Connie from Hopkins Street. She was a quiet kid who sold my mom eggs at her parents' home business on Lafayette Street, a dead-end jog off of Broadway in Southport - adjacent to where the Broadway School is now. Some who knew her back then might say 'she was kind of smart.' Many who didn't go to Hopkins might not know she even skipped 4th grade. Maybe that explains why so many from SHS59 were asking about her. But I remember 'smart and nice' - someone who would help you with your homework and then tell you the latest 'knock-knock' joke. Remember those? Her answers to my questions came in the form of a splendid autobiography that hardly needs editorial intervention, but I'm doing that anyway. Though "retired," it seems she is still quite active - with, among other things, horses, of course. I know all of you are anxiously waiting to hear from Connie about her Elmira memories and what she has been up to all these years since 1958... Hello from Nevada City, California. Hi, Bill: I didn't answer some of your questions because they just would not be interesting. And I have a story that I tell at parties about being born in Buffalo - stops them right in their tracks - but it is really too complicated to explain. I could also go into the whole prison guard thing - the occupation of choice in Mom's family - but I don't know enough about it to comment. I also could mention things about our neighbors who lived on Chamberlain Street, right behind us, but there was usually as much gossip about them as anybody's neighbor. So, mostly, I'm just going to sit here and write about my memories and see what develops. After leaving Elmira, I went to St. Lawrence University, then the University of Florida (the one in Gainesville, NOT the Seminoles). Next move was to Rochester, New York and then to California in 1971. Have been in California ever since, but I travel to the East Coast a lot as my daughter lives in Washington, DC, and my husband's daughters live in New Jersey and North Carolina. On weddings: My first wedding was at the new Pennsylvania Avenue Methodist Church in Elmira. It was a fairly typical gathering of families mixed with some college kids. The thing we still laugh about is the minister informing the ushers and bridesmaids that the "faintex was in the narthex." This became the password phrase for a lot of activities. I don't know why it struck us so funny, but we were pretty full of ourselves. My second marriage was indeed in Nevada - but Reno, not Las Vegas. In this part of the world, it is a very easy way to get married.
On visiting Elmira: I went back to Elmira quite a few times in the Sixties, Seventies and Eighties until my parents died and I sold the property. As a matter of fact, Sharon Dando and I came to the 20th Reunion. We stayed at my house, dragged out the yearbooks and refreshed our memories before the party. It was a big help, as we didn't have nametags at the party. For example, I remember talking with somebody who insisted that I was Claramae Tillinghast. He almost had me convinced of it - Claramae wasn't there to defend herself, but Sharon kept reminding me of my true identity. During my trips to Elmira I would find myself driving by Southside and Hopkins Street, but I never went in. I have much clearer memories of Hopkins Street than I do of Southside, probably because I was there K-8 as compared to four years at Southside.
Other memories of Hopkins Street: I remember an odd room in the basement with four pillars; I think it was the official gymnasium. I can remember playing dodge ball there. I was very fond of the softball fields as I was on teams in the summer in addition to whatever we did during the school year. It was a whole lot better than playing softball in the gym at Southside. I can remember walking to and from school, sometimes going down Broadway and sometimes cutting through the field behind Chamberlain's house (across from the Dairy). I also remember lots of penmanship exercises and to this day receive comments on how attractive my handwriting is - people can't read it, but think it looks pretty. I have a memory of an irate parent (Mrs. Van Patten, mother of Bob Van Patten of Bob and Dickie fame) marching into our eighth grade classroom to threaten Mrs. Kime (the principal and 8th grade teacher). People tell me that I must have imagined it but it seems very real to me. I've often wondered how that situation was resolved. On going to the Lake: Keuka Lake seems to be prominent in the memories and even current activities of many folks, but my memories are of Seneca. My parents had a cottage there, about fourteen miles north of Watkins Glen on the West side of the lake. We spent a lot of time there in the summer and it was one of my favorite places in the world.
On SHS: My memories of Southside are scattered. Homerooms are a blur. I never ate the cafeteria food because we were very, very thrifty people. Were there up stairs and down stairs at class changes? And monitors to stop us from going against the flow? Did our football team ever win a game? Did we walk through the streets to football games - or am I just imagining that? Cliques, sororities, and fraternities...the whole popularity thing was overwhelming. Regents exams terrified me - actually, any kind of test was a worry. 100 or nothing tests in algebra and geometry? Help? Please tell me there really was a teacher named Peter Paul Pazahanik (Mr. Hazapanick). I remember Miss Brookfield most of all. She was the last teacher at Southside with whom I really had an interaction - she helped Jean Fleming and me with our speeches. I can't even remember if we were co-valedictorians or maybe just a point apart after four years. Having to give a valedictory speech was a sort of punishment, or at least it seemed so at the time. I also remember writing for the high school newsletter but never, never having anything to do with its production. Ironically, I now produce several publications on a desktop publishing sideline of mine.
Dunn Field also is vivid in my mind because my Dad loved baseball and we spent many wonderful nights enjoying (or agonizing over) the Pioneers. As my Dad's companion at the Pioneer games, I entertained myself by learning to keep score. This skill became useful later in life when I was by default the scorekeeper for my husband's softball teams and then for those of my daughter. I haven't done it for years but I bet it is a skill that I could still resurrect. Oh yes, I was there when Don Zimmer was married - the kind of story you can dine out on. On what's happening now: I am
supposed to be retired, but had been involved in running
horse shows as a volunteer for many years. Now I find
myself being paid for it. It is the first time that I
have ever worked out of my house and I am finding that is
not such My life now is more hectic than ever. I live in Nevada City, California, and have done so for 12 years. Prior to that I lived in the San Francisco Bay area for 18 years, primarily in Portola Valley and Los Altos Hills. When my husband and I moved to Nevada City, it was with the thought that we were retired. He seems to have figured that out as he spends his time golfing and fiddling with investments (he was a stockbroker). I am not clear on the retirement concept. When we moved here, I left a job that had supported me as a single mom - and I left with no regrets. I spent about a year trail riding, walking dogs and devouring books but inevitably, it seems, I oozed back into the work world. Mostly this is managing horse shows and other events. I am very, very busy. And on Elmira, again: If I went back to Elmira tomorrow, I would want to have a Dixie Bar-B-Que, a pizza at just about any of the Italian restaurants, a Singapore Sling at Sam's (except I hear it burned?), any ride at Eldridge Park (I refuse to hear that is not possible), an evening at Dunn Field, a drive to Watkins Glen and Seneca Lake, a chocolate soda with chocolate ice cream at a drugstore that I can drive to but not name (was it White's?), a malted at the Ex-cel Dairy. I might even want to go bowling at the Dixie Bowling Alley - or maybe I have been watching "Ed" too much. Oddly, I cannot say that I miss Elmira as much as I would regret not having had the privilege of growing up in that town at that time. Editor's note: As she bid good-bye to me in a recent e-mail, her words helped me visualize how interesting her current line of work must be. Here's what she wrote: I am off this morning to, of all places, Tulelake, CA to manage a horse show that has been going on for 26 years. It is held in a fairgrounds where the water table is so high that the ground moves when the horses trot on it. Very eerie feeling. Also very pretty, with snow covered peaks in the background - we drive around Mt. Shasta to get to this place and through one of the premiere duck hunting preserves in the country. Or so I have been told. All I know is that the hotel has signs that say "Don't pluck your ducks in the tub" and "Please rack your guns." The area is also famous for horseradish, so I stock up at the local market. Just a little travelog for your amusement...not the sort of thing you're likely to read about anywhere else... Connie's E-Mail address is davenport@saber.net and she'd like to hear from you. © 2002 SHS Class of '58
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