Letters From Old Friends - Page 1

Keep those cards and letters coming! After reading this page, follow the blue links below to read more letters from old friends. Enjoy, and then write us a letter for the "Saudade" page! The letters are not divided into any particular order (yet). Find more letters here.

E-mail from William Bailey:

I am trying to locate Paulo Weiss, Class of 86, if he graduated HI HI HI. If anyone has any info, please let me know. Last I heard he was going to Europe, back in '91. By the way, this is an amazing site, keep up the good work. I have a suggestion, what about sticking some class pictures in.

Thanks, Bill Bailey Class Of 85 <bailew@smtpgate.adm.intelsat.int>

E-mail from Walt Perkins:

I found the pictures I was looking for. Along with some articles in the Brasil Herald about EA stuff by David Hodgson. It was called "EA Teen Beat" and was little more than a gossip column. Mostly gloating about softball and basketball victories or providing excuses for losses (David was on the team). There was a lot of copy devoted to talking about who threw parties and how great they were. The pictures are in three categories: pictures of the class of '63 in the ninth grade; three photos from "Slave Day" showing Mike Martin in a hula skirt, Artie Byrnes getting his hair "done", and Rabbit Knobler having make-up applied (there's got to be a story there somewhere); and two of a gathering of "eagles" at a Paqueta Island: Artie and Gela Grote, Bill Pollard and Martha Kuhl, Suzanne Kaptain with ???, and Joy Terrell- all sunning on a jetty. Yet another story possibility! I don't have a clue how to scan them for transmission to you but I will take them to work and see what the experts can do.

I dug out my '61 year book and found an 8th grade promotion program inside. Using those sources I can send you a list people from the class of 63' who didn't graduate from EA. You already have the '62 and '63 year book data. Any interest in those names? We could also add my sister's name under that condition- class of '69. Didn't hear anything from Vangie on the Mueller case but the plot thickens. She has an unlisted telephone number now. Hopefully she will call and we can make the connection. Keep your fingers crossed. I will visit my parents this Fall and will dig through their photo albums for some additional treasures. Finally, I've attached another "story" for you. Regards, Walt WALT_PERKINS@CCMAIL.orl.lmco.com

E-mail from Archie Dick:

Hello, my name is Archie Dick and I am graduate from the Class of '83. First of all I was very pleased with your web site! It was great to "matar saudades!" I would also like to inform that our class does have a web site (currently "em obras") which closes the gap between the 70's and 90's. As soon as we're back on line I'll let you know. [ Check out the 1983 page! Click here: http://homepages.iol.ie/~ahdick/welcome.htm]

Once again great web site!

All the best, Archie ('83) <ahdick@iol.ie>

E-mail from Carolyn Hannibal:

Thanks for replying... I was just getting ready to turn the computer off and thought I would check one more time for a message from anyone from EA. Hannibal is my maiden name, my address is 307 E. Texas, Ruston, LA 71270... my phone is (318) 254-5170... I would love to hear from anyone from EA and don't know about the reunion next month. I would like to probably wait until I can get together with people that were there 71-81. I entered my name in so many places yesterday with the EA pages.. don't really know who I will be hearing from. I can't believe how much there is on EA and Rio. They only two people whose location I know right now is John Hawkins and Shawn Brauch, both from Class of '81. My husband just retired from the Marine Corps. While we were in California a military family was on their way to Rio and EA sent them a videotape on the school. I got a chance to see it and saw my German teacher, Frau Castro and one of the gym teachers from how many years ago....16... oh my how old we are getting. As you can tell I love to type so be prepared for long messages. Hope to hear from you again soon. Thanks.... Carolyn

E-mail from Carolyn Hannibal:

Hi there! this is Carolyn (Hannibal) Grossman. I was at EA 9th-12th grade and graduated in 1981. I just today got on the internet and one of the first things I looked for was EARJ. I was glad to see how much there is on our great school. I entered my name somewhere and thought I would also drop you a note. I would like to see if you have any information on classmates from my class and also have been looking for a long time for Margarida Armstrong, class of '82 and Monica Hoffman, class of '80. I hope to hear from you and get in touch with more EA friends. Tengo mucho saudade e sempre practico portugues cuando tengo oportunidade.... um abraco grande, Carolyn!!

E-mail from Jen Ezell:

Hi, again. You can list me in the alumni directory: Jennifer Griffiths Ezell, '78 jgezell@aol.com. Home address: 100 N. Whisman Road, #158, Mountain View, CA 94043; tel. 415/964-4834.

The Website continues to improve. It's kind of fun now to see people's e-mails to you.

Abracos, Jen Ezell

E-mail from Mark Saunders:

I think the web site is great. In fact, my job involves designing and creating web sites. I couldn't believe it when I actually found four or five names of former classmates within the space of a few minutes. It has certainly made my day ! Hear from you soon.

Mark Saunders.

P.S. Onde e que voce mora ? Sera possivel incluir o meu endereco 'e-mail' e tambem meu endereco postal na 'Home Page' da EARJ ? Ja mandei tres e-mails hoje para uns amigos da EARJ e espero receber noticias deles logo. I hope you understood all this. [Webmaster's Note: Claro que a gente entendeu!]

E-mail from Mark Turner:

Hi. Have really enjoyed the EA website and offer you my commendations. Glad to see your sister (April) will make the festivities. Look forward to meeting you.

Best regards,

Mark Turner

E-mail from Walt Perkins:

Please add me to your listing as a member of the class of '63 even though I didn't graduate from EA. Address is : 4416 Southeast 4 place Ocala, Florida 34471. Telephone: home 352-694-7918 work 352-687-5362. You have my e-mail address. Need anything else, just ask.

By the way, can you help me locate a couple of old class mates: Art Byrnes- lives in NYC, I think. Chris Hansen, Larry Zonner, Corinne Coffin- originally from Arizona, Ellen Bond- class of '62, Mike Martin. Thanks for any help you can provide.

Walt (Wally in the old days) Perkins

E-mail from Renato Giffoni:

Thank you for including my e-mail on the alumni list. If you want, take a look at my web page (http://geocities.com/colosseum/loge/1803/index.html) and see the graduation page. It's brand new, and has a picture of me during the Champagne Bowl. I'll try to scan more photos in the near future, and if you are interested in getting some of the pictures from the '97 graduation I'll be glad to send it to you. Just send me an e-mail and I'll see which pictures I can send to you at the time. The second issue is about my sister: you sent us an e-mail saying that you had included our names as alumni students of EA, but I am the only one who has graduated here. Rita is only being promoted to High School, and is a member of the class of 2001. By the way, her promotion took place yesterday. Anyway, it's just to keep you from having wrong information in your files. Well, hope to receive an answer soon!

Sincerely,

Renato Giffoni

[Wemaster's Note: we'll gladly accept current EA students on these pages, too!]

E-mail from Walt Perkins:

I am delighted to find the EARJ webpage and to see so much interest from the alums. Like so many others I treasure my four years in Rio and especially the Escola Americana experience. I would like to take advantage of your request for "saudades" but before I launch off with ten thousand words I thought I'd drop a fairly brief opening letter to see if we can communicate electronically- I've had spotty luck with this method recently and I'm not sure why. But let's try a test transmission...if it works I will give you lots of early '60's trivia and information.

I attended EA from '58 to '62 in the class of '63. My parents weren't swayed by my yelling, crying, bribery, threats of suicide, requests for the chance to let young love bloom (or even flower), or any other arguments for me to finish my high school years in Rio. When Dad's tour of duty was up we returned to the USA and I to the oblivion of a totally featureless Senior year, lost in a class of 450 students. Somehow I survived, and based on a superior EA education got into, and out of, the University of Virginia with the class of '67 as an Aerospace Engineer. That will be no surprise to those who remember my obsession with model planes! Anyway, while at UVa I ran into EA graduates Richard Sutherland and Rick Fallon and managed to contact, and visit briefly, Anne Bolin (attending the Medical College of Virginia in Richmond), and Anne Marcelious and Cathy Hodgeton (living in the Washington, D.C. area).

In 1972 I vacationed in Rio, saw the new school, and got a cook's tour from Ruth Stanton, everyone's beloved "class mom". She filled me in on the where abouts of many of my classmates: Chris Hansen was managing a banana plantation somewhere, Artie Byrnes was in Singapore with American Express, etc. Spent some time with Pedro Heagler and got caught up on other people. It was interesting that amid all the change from 1962 to 1972 the essence of Rio had not changed and that's probably still true today. I did notice a surge in traffic and a lot of development in a southern direction. In '62 Tijuca Beach was DESERTED! But the heat and humidity I remembered was still there!

And so was the original EA building, although it was For Sale at the time. I remember the original building before the 4-story addition. I remember the noise and dust of the construction as I attended summer school to catch up with my class mates in Portugues and Math (I think) about Jan. '59. Mr. Belding was Principal then but he moved on and was replaced by an English Headmaster, Desmond Cole, who endured my constant English accent imitations (poorly done as I recall). I guess I did my share of being the class clown although I shared that honor with several others: Nick Boke and Bill Pollard come to mind rather quickly! We were always doing something out of the ordinary looking for attention.

Enough already...what if this experiment doesn't work. All this nostagia for naught! Well, here goes. Please reply if this gets to you in readable form! Then we can really get going with the memories, and names, and embarassing stories.

Walt Perkins 4416 S.E. 4 Place Ocala, Fla. 34471 WALT_PERKINS@CCMAIL.orl.lmco.com