Dear Group, A couple of days ago I responded to Elsa's query about her Rushton family from around Niagara Falls and felt obligated to tell the whole group about the crush I had on Jerry Rushton back in the 1940s. Since then Elsa and I' ve been corresponding and today I made some phone calls to high school classmates of mine who also remembered him. I wanted to fill Elsa in on how Jerry's family tied into her Rushton family and to give her an update on Jerry after his marriage. Well, the phone calls paid off. Elsa now knows about his parents and his cousins that tie in with her family. But WOW what an experience it was for me! OK, I called Hugh who used to live across the street from me during the time that we both knew Jerry. Hugh and I had a great conversation. After Hugh told me as much as he could remember, his only suggestion as to how I could get any more information about Jerry was to try to get in contact with his widow Mary Ann (McVittie) who graduated from the Class of 1950 of Niagara Falls High School, the same class that Jerry graduated from. But how do you go about finding out that information? Well, I thought about it for awhile and came to the conclusion that I needed to get in contact with someone around here who served on their 50th class reunion committee last year who would have the current addresses of the graduates. But who? I've NEVER been in contact with anyone from the Class of 1950! After all, we were the Class of 1949! Those kids were a year younger than we were! But I checked out my 1949 yearbook and read through the names of the junior class and came across a boy that I vaguely remembered and I screwed up the nerve to actually call him on the phone. His name is LeVan Brown. When he answered the phone I told him who I was, what year I graduated and that I seemed to recall that he played in the high school band-he played trombone and I played clarinet. Well, he eventually actually REMEMBERED me and then we started to talk about Jerry and Mary Ann. He filled me in on a lot of the details of the two of them and when I asked if he knew who might have her current address, he let me know that he had it right there-he had been the chairman for their 50th class reunion! Well, after that we had a GREAT conversation. In further checking out my yearbook I realized that I had never known him as "LeVan" at all-I had always known him as "Tweezer!"-we DID know each other back then and we started comparing notes about kids we used to know and who showed up at his 50th class reunion and who showed up at mine. And with the subject of being on the committee for a 50th class reunion, he told me that the class of 1951 is now in progress for putting their own reunion together. I readily volunteered to give the class of 51 the benefit of our own experience regarding reunion planning. Tweezer then mentioned that Tony Gugino was on that committee. I questioned him, "ANTHONY Gugino??" He said yes, Tony! Well, that puzzled me as to why I remembered Anthony but not Tony. And rather than to drag this story out any further, I felt compelled to call Tony on the phone and come right out and ask him why or how I remembered him! Now if you think that Tweezer had a tough time remembering who I was, just think how Tony felt? He's TWO years younger than I! But don't worry, we found out that the three of us had something in common-Tony played the trumpet, Tweezer played the trombone and I played the clarinet in the band. However, now we're not talking about the band in senior high school, we're talking about the JUNIOR high school band that was led by Mr. Hatch. Hey, we're talking about 7th, 8th and 9th graders here! During the conversation that I had with both of them, we talked about grade schools that we went to in the '30s, kids we both/all knew, the kindergarten picture that Tony still has from Sugar Street School, the kindergarten picture I have from Maple Avenue School and most of all, the fact that now all three of us have been/are active in planning a 50th high school class reunion. Before Tony and I hung up, we made plans for me to accompany him to his next class reunion meeting soon so that I can share my experience with them and show them what our class did two years ago. I know that OUR reunion committee would have killed for someone of the earlier class committees to share their experiences! Now I hope you know that I don't write such long-winded messages without some sort of message or moral attached to them. In this particular case it has to do with (1) genealogy research as follows: If you're looking for recent families in a specific area, post a query to the mailing list of that county. With luck someone who still lives in that area will remember the family and will accept the challenge to do the local research. And (2) if you're planning a high school class reunion, check around with the older kids who have recently gone through it all. There's no telling what childhood memories that will surface in just getting in touch with each other. If nothing else, you'll get the benefit from their experience. With me, talking with Tweezer and Tony this evening opened up the door to my past beyond JUST the Class of '49! There were kids who came after us but I found that we really KNEW each other and had memories to share! Wow! vee