Division Avenue High School Class of 1979 20th Reunion
Many more people can be located now, thanks to a new alumni directory distributed at the party. People who were there, such as me, may be willing to look people up or forward messages.
see http://www.divisionsocialstudies.com/blue-dragons/1979.html
Event notes:
Reunion Dinner-Dance (all past):
Friday 1999.08.20 / August 20, 1999, 8pm-midnight.
Plainview Holiday Inn,
215 Sunnyside Blvd, Plainview
516-349-7400 "mention the reunion if reserving"
$85 per person "includes buffet dinner, open bar, alumni directory, DJ and dancing".
"Deadline for replies is July 30."
If you find out after the deadline, call anyway. This event is handled by an ongoing enterprise who should not object to extra income.
If you find out on August 20th at 8pm, you'll have to choose from pleading your case or trying to "crash" (Make a nametag, show up after dinner...). [As-predicted, they accepted walk-ins. They pretend to hate it to encourage pre-reservations.] Don't stay away and regret it. Be open, have excuse ready. "I was in Korea for work." Or arrive 11:30pm to latch onto the after-party, or join the picnic next-day - no one's charging admission there.
If you can't make it or are not sure:
Reply by July 20, 1999 to be included in the "directory". (Presumably costs $0 to be listed in the directory? But you'll probably buy one if you're going to the trouble of being listed in it.)
$10 to get only a directory (distributed at party, not before!).
Too late to get in the directory? Find someone who's going, give them a card or ten.
Not going, want a directory? Bug RoA or someone who went, after the event.
Reunion is handled by:
Reunions of America Inc
PO Box 618
Melville NY 11747
516 266-1836
[ http://www.reunionsinc.com ]
(Not much useful information posted there. They do have a customer-service e-mail form. They took 14 days to send me a terse reply. Call them.)
Reunion Picnic (over)
Saturday 1999.08.21, 10am-____
Bethpage State Park picnic area
(first announced on Aug. 6th)
Turn-out was low due to fear of rain. The day was comfortably cool and overcast. It never actually rained. There was mist or the lightest drizzle but the trees absorbed most of that.
Attendance, 7: Cabibi, Rosenking, Dunne, Babino, Veselitza, Wohlgemuth, (Northsider) Russel Hiem, & guests.
free!; ALL 1979 alumni and their families are invited
Bring Your Own Everything!
Good luck finding it. (Signs will be posted.)
reunion thoughts:
After 20 years it's polite to wear a name tag the WHOLE TIME. Some of us "haven't changed", but many of us might not recognize our own faces if we had last seen them 10 or 20 years ago.
Since the party ends at midnight, many will probably head for a decent pub nearest the hotel afterward, as most reunions seem to. [Bar in hotel adjacent the party room.]
Many will likely also "spontaneously plan" a second night out on Saturday, possibly at The Stadium (formerly S.J. Muldoon's) on Hempstead Turnpike, Lev. (That's what 1978's 20th reunion did.) [Did not occur.]
In 1989 we had pre-published plans to gather in Eisenhower Park the next day. People brought their kids. It was fun. We're doing that again in 1999 too, but at Bethpage. [Late notice + grey skies = small turnout.]
I've included my guesses for the locations of the after-parties partially as a clue for: those who can't get to the main event or aren't into the formal thing; those who were Class of 1979 but not until the bitter end, such as those who moved away, transferred, graduated next year, dropped out, etc; and any others who may have crossed paths with us, from the classes of 1974 through 1984 (it was a 6-year high school then (how bizarre)) or from the other high schools in our district (MacArthur H.S. and Memorial H.S. (R.I.P.)) and other school districts.
$85 per person (plus travel, etc.) is a good chunk of change to fork over for the privilege of four hours with the people who helped make 13 years of our lives hell, but I've signed up anyway. It's not so huge; being a guest at a wedding party costs as much or more.
We received a "Missing Persons List" from the reunion people in January, listing 69 names (23% of the class). If you are or know where to find anyone else on that list (reproduced here), it would be nice to tell them about the reunion and tell the reunion about them.
The Missing Persons List they distributed (less anyone I remember seeing at the party, since they've obviously been found)
Mary Ackley, Paula Adorno, Ruby Arnold, David Becker, Patti Best, Tom Brannigan, Charles Brown, Margaret Brown, Maria Buchetta, Denise Caponera, Kathleen Coffey, Caryn Cohen, James Contessa, Nancy Cortes, Lori Curtis, Jon Cushing, Norma DeConick / Norma DeConinck, Robert DeLange, Valerie DeRose, Glenn DeVoe, Edward Doran, Lori Doughty, Theresa Doughty, Marianne Finkenor, James Finnan, Gerald Fowler, Michael Gallucio, Mary Giordano, Patricia Grau, Bev Graves, Jimmy Gray, James Guerin, Annmarie Hall, Jeff Haywood, Dave Herman, Maryann Hohl, Mike Juhran, Robert Kenley, Rachel Keuning, Melinda Konopelko, Karen Korony, John Kresvic, Sonia Magana, Glen Manney, Liz Mentock, John Neary, Chris Passarella, Eileen Robinson, Tom Schindler, Ginger Schreiner, Giselle Scudero, Anne Sorcher, Patricia Sullivan, Cheryl Toscano, Matt Tweed, Sandy Veara / Sandra Veara, Joe Walsh / Joseph Walsh / Joseph P. Walsh / Joseph Patrick Walsh, Brian Wendell, Gerry Williams / Geraldine Williams.
(As included in the 1999.01.22 mailing. The 1999.06.04 update mailing gave no update of this list. Reunions Inc should be posting this information for us. Their reply to my e-mail suggesting this: "We do not currently send invites by email. In future upgrades of our website we will include individual pages for each reunion." Lot of good that does us.)
People I know were part of our class (for a while anyway): Nancy Kroncke, Jay Skolnick, Renaldo Castillo. (I doubt they have been notified.)
I have tried to index this page with the missing persons list, at least on AltaVista [ http://www.altavista.com ], so they might find reunion information if they ever search online on their own names.) Pick someone you might want to hear from and take a shot at tracking them down...
Updated mailing June 4, 1999: included no update of missing persons list, no attendance count.
Division Avenue High School, Levittown, NY
Division Avenue High School Virtual Reunion Page [ http://www.divisionsocialstudies.com/blue-dragons ]
Loaded with nostalgia. E-mail lists for all years and a guestbook with nostalgia from visitors. (One of them mentions hanging out at Burger 'n' Shake; I know where it was (Country Ford) but it was just slightly before my time.) Some photos, lots of links; most of the DAHS and Levittown links I would ever post.
also known as: Division Avenue HS / Division Avenue H.S. / Division Avenue H S / Division Ave. High School / Division Ave HS / DAHS / Division Avenue Senior High School / Division Avenue Sr. H.S. / Division Ave. Sr. H.S. / DASHS / Levittown-Division / Levittown Division Avenue High School / LDAHS / Levittown Division High School / LDHS
Colors: Blue and Gray. Wondering why, I suspected a connection to the U.S. Civil War (U.S. Divided; Blue vs. Grey). According to one corrrespondent, the symbol and colors were voted on by students circa 1960. "There seemed wide agreement that blue and grey were dull -- and yet they won." He adds "...it had nothing to do with the Civil War or anything else that was 'deep' ...". Maybe people connected it on an unconscious level, maybe not.
Motto: "Sans Egal" ("without equal").
Why Division Avenue? Not many high schools are named after streets...
Original name: Division Avenue School. (barely visible in a picture at www.divisionsocialstudies.com/blue-dragons/preserve/dahs1997/levittown.htm#das ) (They changed the name on the front of the school, but not on the plaque inside.) It started out as an elementary school with grades K-through-[6?] in one building (the old part, the 2-story wing from the Auditorium to Technical Electronics room (the original 2 kindergartens). The street must have predated Levittown (Few Levittown-built streets were straight and none were Avenues.) The school was built in 1948, around the time Levittown was built. The first students graduated the High School in 1960.
Frederick Wiedersum, Architect (now Wiedersum Associates .) Many schools on Long Island were designed and built by the same companies and have a family resemblance.
If you have answers or useful comments, you may write to me, Dan Veselitza < dv567@bigfoot.com >
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posted 1999.06.02 revised 2007.07.17