Bergen Tech Class of 76 News

I am well aware of what shortly means. To bring you up to speed, here is what went down. The firehouse is being renovated, there is little chance it will be done in time for a reunion. This screwed over personal plans for Doreen as well as our plan. Why has it taken so long for something to happen, good question? The updated plans call for renting a room at an eatery for a night.

What we offer is a night out at Maggiano’s Italian restaurant. The date is 9/24/11. The time is 7PM till whenever. Cost will be $60 per person. Meal will be 4 course with dessert. Alcohol will be served via cash bar.

We need you to commit to this as soon as possible, meaning right now. You have to buy tickets in order for the room to be reserved. No ticket sales, No reservation. If there is no reservation, Al wants to continue the plan and meet up there anyway. He offered no details about refunds if the original goal is not met. So if you want to go and want to see a friend it might not hurt to call and see if they are going and urge them to get a ticket. I know a killer photographer too!

That said, don't know if we will be e-mailing out tickets or not? Certainly you should receive notification once your purchase has been received.

The monies will be deposited in a dedicated Bergen tech class of 76 account that Doreen and Al have access to.

Checks are preferred over paypal because they jack $2.10 out of every ticket purchased. However, it really doesn't matter that much, use what ever is most convenient to you. Paypal will allow you to send money via credit card as well The point is the more the merrier.

We are expecting 60 or so that were interested in attending. If more sign on, they can open up dividers and make more room for us.

We are presently in the process of blocking some rooms at discounted prices at local hotels. We will forward the information when finalized. Please let us know if you will need a room.

We are also considering having maybe a meet and greet Friday Night or possibly a Sunday morning breakfast. We will provide updates as we go along. If you have contact with other alumni please pass on this information. We are looking forward to seeing everyone.

If you have any questions, ideas, concerns, address them to Al at his Gmail account. (alarocnc at gmail dot com) Take notes, because his memory isn't so hot and follow up.

As for me, I'm done. I don't want to hear anything about this till at least 2012. I'm officially retired and I'm going to take 2011 just for me. I never intended to go to this reunion at any time in the discussions. I'll post news here if it's sent to me, I'll keep up the class database, but I will not be going out of my way to keep up with what is going on.

Al wanted me to remove some sections of this, but I refuse. I made a pledge to keep this open and honest and to report facts. I feel if I omit certain facts, it's the same as lying. I loathe liars with every fiber of my being. And frankly I'm just sick of all of this shit. I am not at all happy with the way things have turned out. I can't complain as there are only so many people that are willing to do any of this for free. People if you go, you will have a good time. Good luck and have a pleasant tomorrow.

Now that the New Year has arrived, the reunion machine has awakened. There will be news shortly. Till then, please do all you can to get the word to people whom we don't have on our lists. This list is up to date as of 1/6/11

Hi,
It's been said that no one cares more about the class or works more tirelessly to keep things in order and archived. Truth be told, I don't really care, and don't work that hard. I just felt it needed to be done and jumped in and did something. I really don't have time for much these days, this update has been a long time coming. I knew that and I'm taking time out on this beautiful sunny 85° fall day to bang this out.

I don't even remember all that has transpired since last message, but there is actually news this time. First off, Al was up in Nj and had a few meetings, doing some leg work on reunion stuff. Doreen, met him and guided him around the old homestead.

The Marriott, it's still a very popular destination for reunions and events, however, the director of event planning said most reunions are doing poorly these days. The only groups doing well are retired folks. Working people are still plugging along and don't attend affairs such as these. Hard fact is, the deposit is non-refundable and the expected guest list must show up. It was pretty clear, that option was out, no reunion would happen at a formal hall.

The second option, we always had in mind, was using a free hall and having it catered. There still are costs, but it works out about half what a corporate hall would cost. At this time, it looks like $40 a head would cover all costs. There are a few details to work out, but it's pretty much pick a date and go for it at this point.

There is still the matter of all the missing classmates, to be honest, we have hardly added any people to the list of contacts. This is a very important detail that needs attention! One of the things that got Al involved in this was “no one tried to contact me for the 2003 reunion”. I remind him of that fact often. We really need more of the class to be successful at this. I called a few people and had pretty good results, it's not hard, but someone needs to do it! If we don't contact the whole class, it's more a party than reunion.

One thing that is pretty clear, as more and more meetings happen, a puzzle unfolds. Much like that great BBC show, Connections, we see how everyone is connected and how those connections played out over the years. It may not be of interest to anyone else, but I find this stuff fascinating.

I was thinking of making a poll to collect more data such as phone numbers and physical addresses to keep in the data base. It would be a whole lot easier to import that way, but the judge is still out on that. (meaning, I don't have time to do it, or keep it up) I have decided to ditch the excel file and just use gmail's contacts. It's very easy to export and manipulate the data, I was doing double work. The List We really could use your help, please look at the list and if you have any leads, Please Please Please send them in!

While in Nj, Al met with Doreen and a few people at Ed's Tavern in Saddle Brook. You should know by now that this is owned by Cathy Wilczynski's family. There is talk of having more meetings there, we will let you know when this will take place. The class of '90 meets there once a month, and many other “techies” also drop in time to time. Andy and Brenda were there along with Cathy. New comer Bruce Buffalino also stopped in at my request. They also met up with Ben at the school in Paramus and had a nice visit. I talked with Wally, he is running his own shop, and he does work for Mr Bell and Mr Decker. Here are the pics, and one from down here: (click for bigger)

A few more things discussed, Pictures???? Where the hell are they all??? Al contacted the publisher of the yearbook, they directed him back to the school, a black hole of bureaucratic hell. So those of you on the yearbook committee, where be the pictures??? People in Art, where are all the pics??? Prom pics???? It's like 1976 never existed! Sure we can do this without, but it's be more fun with some artifacts from the old days!

I was going to save this, but no one ever clicks the links anyway. I mentioned to Al, a while ago about doing interviews and posting them. Here is an example of what I mean, and he was reluctant to do this, I forced him. Al's Interview

We confirmed that Chris Trass is no longer with us, but still can not confirm anything about Jim Schaffer. It also seems that Rich Capalbo has moved to Arizona! I don't have anymore news, because I'm too busy to keep up with it, and no one tells me anything!

So there you have it, progress, and a reunion should happen in 2011 as planned! Stay Tuned!
Peace!

(The Supremes)

I thought I’d go ahead and bring you all up to speed about what has been going on since the last post. In short, 2 events derailed the work being done. First, Al started a new job that limited his time to screw off on things like this, it does eat up a lot of time. Second, Hillary has gotten involved with Roland and has not been able to contribute. We were supposed to meet a few times late October, November, something always interfered and meeting never happened. I do talk to Al about things all the time, and we have discussed what needs to happen in person, it just never happens. Al remains optimistic.

This mini reunion, taught us a few things. First everyone has useful information that has not been shared with me. However insignificant, or petty, it’s still useful to the data keeper. This was the first time I spoke with anyone, other than Fox and Laura, that was at the 2003 reunion. Second, even though we have never met, we all have things in common and share experiences. Third, never count on the class to be there.

Let me tell you a bit about Dorinda and the class of ’75. She is organizing a 35th reunion as well and including upper classes. She said, “Our last reunion we had 144 people attend!” You can view the announcement on classmates. I have been trying to talk to Dorinda since 2003 to no avail. She sent al a note on FB, (she did mailed me on CM but I can’t read it without paying) She said she had a team of 12 working on the 2005 reunion and found the whole class. I have no clue what she is using to find people, but I wholeheartedly agree with her method. That is, find the whole class, then plan. Both Al and John said at our meeting, they had no clue about the 2003 event. So if any of you can get Dorinda to speak to Al or myself, that would be a great help. I also asked her if our class could be included as we know many of the upper class that used to beat us daily! I have not heard back. I did mail her and ask if she would invite our class to this reunion she is doing, I told her I did not discuss this with anyone before asking. My take, is some people that are close, may enjoy this event?

And that is another thing, I can’t tell you how many people I have tried to contact and gotten no response at all. Getting in touch with Fusco was like pulling teeth. Same goes for Pat Fagain, she is on facebook now, but for Christ’s sake, we were just trying to invite her to the mini reunion in her backyard. 2 months of notes and we have received not a peep. (she did eventually tell Al she was out of town) Al asks me the same question all the time, How do we get them to respond? I have no clue, it shouldn’t be this hard. I do know I’m a word person and don’t care for phones, especially cell phones. I believe the rest of the world are phone persons, thus, I stay out of the loop.

I would like to thank John and Kevin for coming to Fuddruckers, the time seemed to fly by. We had a nice productive chat, even though it was quite loud in the restaurant, had more showed up we would have been shouting across the table. They expected to see Hillary and Debbie there and were disappointed. We still never got a reason why The Casatelli’s couldn’t be there. Communication breakdown? And that speaks volumes about what we are up against trying to plan something. Kevin made a comment about the class of 75, “on the bus, they were always paling around, being a group, our class wasn’t like that”. I spoke to Fox about this and things in general, he said, you know, there really aren’t that many people from the class I have an urge to see that I’m not in contact with already. He continued, you are right, the very least you could do is meet up if someone comes to your hood.

So, where does that leave us? As I said, Al remains optimistic. Myself, I don’t think it is worth the trouble, but I will keep up the data and archive for now. I’m not able to travel to NJ although I’m sure Al is going to try to drag me up there. It cost me $100 a year, since 2003, to keep all the BT76 stuff online. If I sound angry, it’s just the way I am, I don’t have the energy to be angry. I am however, very disappointed, but I don’t think about that either, I don’t have time for worry or games. I just present a brutally honest picture of the situation.

All of the previous info holds true:
We need people to find the rest of the class
We need a location
Al will be contacting people and telling what you can do to help.
Doreen will take charge of the NJ operations and will have some news shortly. She expressed interest in keeping up and hanging out after the 2003 boat trip, and I’m very glad she agreed to take this on. Someone said this Is Mary ann's kid Djing. I don't know, there has been no discussion of entertainment as of yet.

News,
Al, through Hillary, said Roland wants nothing to do with the class. Kevin reported the same sentiment when he talked to Ion Sarkislan. Leah told me the same thing back in 2003 but she has joined facebook, so maybe her mind changed over the years. BTW, Roland has e-mail now, Hillary can put you in touch if you would like to speak to him. So, it should come as no surprise if people do not want to join in. That’s fine, but it’s still good to know, and keep track of. I have updated the class e-mail list to make it easier for me to change when needed. I have added people from the junior class in an attempt to get a better picture of what Tech was. I know there are errors, got to be, I just OCR’ed yearbook stuff. If you catch anything please tell me.

On the poll, we asked if you would be in favor of a class directory? Response was pretty much yes. I haven’t been keeping track of phone numbers, or addresses, or any other data, just primary contact info to get the news out. I could set up another poll to collect data, it makes it really easy to input the data to an excel file. I think this would be a good thing, however, I’m not really sure I want to do it. I have the time and organization, but I really can’t be sure I’ll be here tomorrow. Any thoughts on this?

Andy Klein mailed me notice that Henry Vierling died in a auto accident a few years back.

Also, many of us seem to remember something about Jim Shaffer passing away, can anyone confirm that?

Facebook, I told Al about the Hide feature on there, he was amazed! So on your home page, that is the one with the news feed in the center, you links on the left and ad’s on the right, If you want to clean it up and get rid of all that visual diarrhea: Click the hide button, you will get a dialog, click “Hide Farmville” and you will never see updates to that crap again. It works for all the stupid apps they have. Reclaim your news feed to just news!

Also of note, I had to shut down the comment section on here due to spammers. As of now, there is no way to block the shithole countries these attacks come from. So, if you have a comment just send it to the tech gmail address. (I have them trying to spam all of my boards, it sucks, they even pay people to hand spam so you can’t block it, no way no how! Spammers SUCK! My server has been really funky for the past 2 weeks, they did some work on it and messed it up pretty bad. It seems back to normal now. I took the store offline for a bit, don't worry.

Closing thoughts, I’m not excited, but the ship is afloat again and we are under sail. I have confidence that Al and Doreen will get things in order for 2011. I hope the information keeps pouring in and we generate some interest and pride. Stay tuned!

February, leap month, famous for presidents, black history, can be found during the second month, and, Valentines Day, if you chose to believe, is celebrated by merchants across the land. Ohnoes, 6 more weeks of winter! (damn the weather rodent ) The shortest month, and, I too will be brief.

Simply we need help. We need legs, eyes, and tongues in NJ! I know you all have been to weddings, bar mitzvahs, engagements, graduations, in short, parties hosted at a place of business. Since the people planning this live in Florida, we need suggestions to scope out. Al is planning a trip up in the late spring and hopes to do some research. Pic of me and al at Daytona, just hanging on the back stretch, I’ll post the whole album on my FB. You can mail Al direct at alarocnc (at) gmail.com, if you prefer talk to write, email him your phone# and when to call.

The following information is some guide to go by:
The time will be summer ‘11
A group of 25 to 100
Buffet dinner
We need the hall from mid day till closing.
Price per person in the $50 to $100 range

Al will contact and research the venue, but it would be great if we can get a glowing recommendation of the place. Caterers are also welcome, but again, we don’t know from Adam what is what up there. Help us please!

So far the main quote has been from the Manor where the Prom was held. It’s convenient, there is lodging available there as well. But to be fair, we would like a large pool to pick from. Anyone know where the commercial food people went?

Also, you should have gotten a mail from classmates, the one looking like they are opening it up to be somewhat useful. Well, it’s just a privacy notice that they plan to sell your info and data. Go and uncheck all the privacy options next time you are by the site. That’s all, stay warm!