After due consideration, I’ve chosen to put blogging on hold for awhile to spend time on other projects.  Oh, I’ll be back and I’ll let you know when that will be.  If you want to stay in touch and we’re not doing that in some other way, you can contact me at BballNever2Old@aol.com. 

 

If you want to learn more about my books, visit www.aaspector.com.

 

If you want to learn more about how to bring your high school class closer together and even, perhaps, to write your class history, visit www.classmatesforever.com. 

 

Thank you for checking in from time to time.  Have a healthy, safe, and meaningful 2010.

 

Alan Spector

Over the past 26 weeks, I have had the pleasure of featuring my University City (Missouri) High School classmates from the Class of 1964.  See the “Features” page of www.aaspector.com and come back to visit every week to learn about a new classmate.  Whether or not you are from my class, you should enjoy seeing what people have accomplished in their lives over the 45 years since their high school graduation.  I’m sure your class and classmates have similar experiences.

 

Among featured classmates have been a Federal Judge, a Mensa award-winner, a company Vice-President who has performed at Carnegie Hall, the President of Criminal Justice Journalists, a nationally known neonatologist, a contributor to the early development of GPS, a violinist for the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, a retired adman who once had the Budweiser account, and founding partner of a renowned Chicago law firm.  There are educators, authors, and secretaries.  There is a psychotherapist, a non-profit advocate, a travel agent, an OB/GYN, and a geriatric care manager.

 

But those are only the professions.  These featured classmates have given back to their communities and have continued to do so.  They have built families and have children and grandchildren spread throughout the country and the world. 

 

All in all, it is impressive how a relatively small group of people can have a positive effect on society.  As the featured classmate list increases, this will become even more obvious.  It will take awhile, but it is my objective to feature every classmate who wants to participate. 

 

Every class from every high school should do the same. 

Alan Spector

Tim Arnold just sent this photo of a University City (Missouri) High School class of '64 mini-reunion in New York City. 

Tim had dinner with Mary (Jo) Gottlieb, who most of us have not seen since high school; Leslie Zuke, who Tim had not seen since another East Coast mini-reunion 25 years earlier; and Judy Elbom Cameron, who had traveled from the West Coast.  As Tim describes the get together in reference to the ongoing connectedness of our high school class, “What another wonderful example of the special thing that’s going on.”

Thanks, Tim.
Alan Spector

On November 10, I posted a Blog entry saying that I would be connecting in Fort Myers, Florida with classmate and fellow senior baseball player, Rick Golubock.  Each of us continues to play the game we love, even though we are in our 60s.  Happily, there are age-group tournaments, like the ones we played in Florida that allow us to play with “kids our own age.”  My team had a mediocre week, but Rick’s team from Kansas City won his division.

 

A highlight of the week was not only seeing Rick, but recognizing that his cousin, Bruce, brother of our classmate Marc Golubock, lived only about a half hour away in Naples.  Rick made the arrangements, and we met at one of Rick’s games.  It was the first time I had seen Bruce since the late 1960s, and it had been a long time since the cousins had been together as well.



Alan Spector

The value of being connected to others came across in two ways in the last few days.  Friends of my mother and father-in-law have a granddaughter who is going to college in Halifax, Nova Scotia.  They read Hail Hail to U City High and were excited to read about the mini-reunion that took place in Halifax, when many of us went on a class cruise that stopped there.  The cruisers visited with classmate Suzanne Birenbaum Funnell, who teaches at Nova Scotia College of Art and Design University and is the Chair of the Board of Live Art Dance Productions.  My in-laws' friends asked if I would mind if their granddaughter contacted Suzanne.  Less than 24 hours later and a couple of e-mails and Suzanne was more than willing to connect with and provide some Halifax guidance to the granddaughter.  Connections of old make connections new. 

 

This morning, I received an e-mail from classmate Tim Arnold and was excited to see that he has plans to have dinner next week with classmates Les Zuke and Mary Jo Gottleib, both who live in New York City (Tim lives nearby), and classmate Judy Elbom Cameron, who lives in Oceanside, California.  Les and Mary Jo have not been as close to our class as many, while Tim and Judy have.  Nevertheless, they all are looking forward to the connection—and the rest of us are excited for them.

 

Research shows that being connected, sustaining and building relationships, makes a significant difference in longevity and quality of life.  Most of us, however, do not need the research to tell us that—it is intuitive.

 

Alan Spector

Every November, for the past ten, I've had the opportunity to play baseball in Fort Myers, Florida for a couple of weeks at the Roy Hobbs World Series with the Cincinnati Colts.  The weeks of tournaments are filled with good baseball, good friends, good food, and just good times.   This year was no exception.  One of the annual events is my team's visit to the local Fort Myers Beach watering hole where Jan Miller is the DJ.  The venue has changed, but Jan has not.  He helps us celebrate "rookie night," an indescribable evening when those guys who are playing with us for the first time are "initiated" into the Colt family.  Suffice to say that cross-dressing, crowing, dancing, and drinking are involved.

Jan led us through rookie night this year as he always has.  Then we got back to our respective home towns, Cincinnati, Dayton, St. Louis, Atlanta, and others.  Just before Thanksgiving we got the call.  Jan, who, at age 60, was so full of life, had died of a heart attack.  Thank you, Jan, for rookie night and for you.  I can see in my mind's eye when you would be playing the music and Yoke would be leading the dancing.  "Who's Your Daddy?"  Our last memory of Jan is of his good humor and good graces. 

I will also remember Jan's help.  He was an excellent and professional photographer as his day job.  He did the photo-shoot for the cover photo of my first book, Baseball: Never Too Old to Play "The" Game.  Thank you, Jan, for your help and for you.    

Al Spector
Cincinnati Colt

Forty-six years ago, today, President John Fitzgerald Kennedy was assassinated.  This is what I wrote about that day in Hail Hail to U City High----

"On November 22, 1963, we became deeply aware that historical events could and would affect us individually and become an integral part of our shared experience.  It was the first semester of our senior year.  I was sitting in Mr. Fendelman's English class, which had begun only moments before.  We had settled into his comfortable teaching style.

"An electronic click drew our attention to the public address speaker high on the wall in front of the room.  Although the click was familiar, it was unusual for the PA system to interrupt class at any time during the day other than for early morning and late afternoon announcements.

"Yet, here we were, just after one o'clock, drawn to the voice emanating from the box on the wall.  Dr. Boyer, our principal, cleared his throat and hesitantly announced that he was sorry to have to inform us that President John Fitzgerald Kennedy had been shot only a half hour earlier in Dallas, Texas.  The president was dead.

"The class, the school, the nation, the world fell silent--then wept.  Mr. Fendelman wept first.  Class dismissed.  School dismissed.  We would reconvene after the funeral, which everyone watched--in our own homes; yet together.

"Lying in state--the procession--the coffin on the caisson--the riderless horse--the constant drum beat--'Hail to the Chief' played at dirge speed--Arlington Cemetery--the eternal flame below the Custis-Lee mansion--Mrs. Kennedy in shrouded black--John Junior's salute--President Johnson being sworn in on Air Force One--Lee Harvey Oswald--Jack Ruby. 

"Perhaps Elaine Levin said it best and simplest in her diary entry.  'Friday, Nov. 22, 1963 KENNEDY ASSASSINATED by Lee Harvey Oswald.  At about 1:00pm ...Dallas, Texas ...broadcasting during school.  Kids sobbed in classes ...walked around the halls in a daze.  I never heard U City's halls so quiet.  Unbelievable!'

"Our yearbook, the Dial, would be dedicated to President Kennedy, as I suppose were most 1964 class yearbooks around the country.  The dedication page carried his presidential photograph.  The inscription below the picture read:

JOHN FITZGERALD KENNEDY (1917-1963)

 

“Grant to us Life that though the man be gone,

The promise of his spirit be fulfilled.”

                                                      John Masefield"

This is a blog-break from high school nostalgia and such.  Why?  Well, yesterday, I had a wonderful baseball experience, even though I was on the losing end of the score.  I am playing in a tournament in Fort Myers, Florida, made up of teams whose players are all over 55 years of age; many in our 60s. 

Our game yesterday was played at the Lee County Sports Complex, the spring training grounds of the Minnesota Twins.  The field was immaculately groomed--temperature was 80 degrees—slight breeze—not a cloud in the sky.  Despite all of that being perfect, that was not the best part. 

The team we were playing, the New England Red Sox, was exceptional and included four ex-major leaguers.  Among them were pitchers, Bill “Spaceman” Lee and Mike “Iron Mike” Caldwell.  I had the pleasure of facing both of them during the game.  As you might imagine, they can each still bring it, have sharp-breaking curveballs, effective changeups, and can spot the ball.  I hit the ball hard against Lee, but right at the shortstop.  Against Caldwell, I fouled off a couple of pitches I thought I saw pretty well.  He then threw a fastball on the inside corner at my knees that locked me up.  I respectfully walked back to the dugout having struck out.  Facing them was fun, but that was not the best part.

The best part was seeing that these guys still love the game, play it with skill and respect, and enjoy being with the rest of us mere mortals who, like them, are playing for fun.  That was the best part.

Alan Spector

This past Friday the 13^th, my senior (age 48 and over) baseball team lost in the second round of a single-elimination baseball tournament in Fort Myers, Florida.  The loss reminded me of the single-elimination Missouri state high school baseball tournament in 1963.  Early in that tournament, we could have easily lost a game that in which we squeaked out a 1-0 win, before going on to win the tournament and, therefore, the state championship. 

 

During the years we spent at University City (Missouri) High School, along with baseball, we won high school state championships in both indoor and outdoor track and swimming, as well as having two state champion wrestlers.  We were proud to wear our “U” on our letter jackets. 

 

Despite our athletic success, the school was known for much more than that.  Our arts programs were well attended and a highlight of both the school and community calendars.  Most importantly, U City’s academic achievements were widely recognized.  It was not uncommon for administrators from other schools around the country to visit to learn what our administration and faculty were doing academically. 

 

U City---a great place in the early 1960s.  Can you believe this musing came from a loss at a baseball tournament 45 years later?  Well, today, a new tournament starts; this one for ages 55 and over.  New memories await. 

 

Alan Spector   

Every November for the past ten, Ann and I have loaded up the car and headed from our Midwestern home (previously from Cincinnati; this year from St. Louis) to Fort Myers, Florida.  Over four weeks, 3500 baseball players, aged 30 and over, convene to play week-long tournaments with "children their own age."  This week, at age 63, I'm playing in the 48 and older tournament--next week it's for 55 and over.  Age brackets go up from there--there are divisions for 60 and over, 65 and over, and, this year for the first time, 70 and over.  It is based upon tournaments like these, similar ones around the country all year long, and local senior leagues that I wrote my first book, Baseball: Never Too Old to Play "The" Game. 

So if this is a high school based blog, what's the connection?  This coming Sunday, I will see high school classmate, Rick Golubock, who lives in Kansas City.  It turns out that for several years, we had both been in Fort Myers for the tournament, but neither knew we were each still playing baseball nor that we were at the event.  We discoverd it during some random e-mails, reconnected at our recent 45-year high school reunion, and are scheduled to play at the same park on Sunday. 

Classmate connections (we call them mini-reunions) are everywhere--all the time.  I recently heard from a classmate who visits Israel frequently.  She makes it a point, when she can, to visit another classmate, who now lives in Israel--this trip she did.  Seeking ways to see each other is just one of many ways my University City (Missouri) class of '64 stays closely connected.  If you are interested in learning more about how your class can do the same, visit www.foreverclassmates.com.

Alan Spector