TODAY IS THE REUNION!

Way back in August, around the 17th, the idea of the reunion was born! With the idea came the responsibility of organizing it, and getting people to help me get it better organized. What I found was a revelation! People are really terrific, they will do what it takes to get things done, that they believe in!

My committee was all women, and they were as reliable as any man could be. I’m not a feminist or even a bleeding heart. I do believe that women should get equal pay, be respected for their brains, not their looks, and be entitled to all the things men are entitled to. A case in point to support those beliefs is the success of the reunion. Without them, and their spirit and commitment to the cause, no reunion is possible.

If you look at the results of World War II, and the immediate mobilization we went through as a country, those guys needed tools and weapons to fight a two-front war, and women of this country supplied them. They seem to always step up big time. Yet we seem to forget that sometimes.

I would not be here right now typing, if it weren’t for a woman, my grandmother, then my mother. One had the courage to come to this country, as a child, on her own, not speaking the language, and built a large family and business! When things weren’t gong well for my family, Mom stood up and raised us all (5 children) and none of us went to jail! And then there is TLW (The Little Woman), who raised her children, (all of us) under trying circumstances, and unfair burdens.

Women! In most family backgrounds, the mother builds the superstructure of family being, and the father takes the role of leader! The mother builds the character, and the father supports it. The mother creates the moral code, and the father adds the muscle. But in every case, the mother or woman supplied what is necessary, and in her own way, builds this great country of ours!

Not all women are successful at what they attempt. Some are indeed failures as mothers. It may not be their fault, but it happens. Men, on the other hand can claim an even less successful rate of accomplishment. Look at all the men in jail compared to women.

I have sisters who have children, and now nieces, all my sisters did a wonderful job, my nieces are following in their mother’s footsteps. Not all the ladies on the committee are mothers, and to that I say: “What a shame!” They are all good people that have the ingredients for great motherhood.

So ladies of the Bellport High School Class of ’64 Reunion Committee, thanks for a million reasons, for the 75 happy people that will share in the joy of the reunion, and for myself I say: I love each and every one of you!