Diane Baird Duhaime's Comments

Hi Diane, I probably should remember you but I don't, so remind me. I do remember Michelle Ginden and it's sad to hear she died. What happened to her? I always associate her with Jacob Rochman, who was sort of her boyfriend back then ,and I remember he died one summer driving a car into a lightpost, and it shocked us all.
Mitch

Greetings Diane.
Received your check and look forward to meeting you Saturday.
~H

Hi Diane!
I forgot to sign out of the PS 164 page and returned to see your comment.
Karen Lazaar was in my class but, unfortunately, we have not been in touch. I have my 3rd grade class list on my page too...have you checked it out? I wonder if her family will still be at the same address? If I remember correctly (and it has been over 40 years) , I think Karen and Arlene Isritz were good friends.
Look forward to seeing you at the Reunion!

Yumiko

Hi Diane,

When I was in 4th grade we had to switch schools because of zoning. I ended up going to 219 (right next to 218).
Thank you so much for sending the pictures.

I have been working in the TV industry almost all my life. My undergrad was in music and my grad in Communication (TV). I have been producing a TV show on miracles for many years and love it. I love hearing impossible stories with a great outcome. The name of the show is "It's Supernatural"

I wouldn't be in the 4th grade photo. For 4th and 5th grades, I went to PS 219, near Campbell Junior High. We might have been classmates in 2nd grade (Mrs. Posner).

Greetings Diane.
When did you mail your check?
~Howard

Just wrote to Patricia Weppler requesting an updated reunion attendee list. I am so sorry to hear about your father's passing. Do you remember the Roher's (Marilyn and Bernie)? I believe they were your neighbors. I know you knew the Cohens...(Mark and Neil). Neil Cohen and Patty Gindon used to be very friendly. Also, did you know Joey Alis and his sister Orly around the corner?
Who else do you remember from 72nd Ave.?

My sister Beth is in the following class photo on the site: Class 3-3, 1971, Mrs. Simon. She is in the 2nd row, I believe 4th in from the left. She has longish hair, and wearing yellow. I didn't see Meryl on the official attendee list of the reunion. Like I said, I'd like to go, but only if there are several from our class that are going. I will try and ask around one more time. Your father was very nice to give me the starter tank and fish. Tell him I said thanks after all these years...lol.

GES1953@AOL.com

D,
So, I was published x. age c. 12...
I owned a restaurant on E. 9th St. between 1st./2nd Aves. during the very early 70's: The East-West Cookery, early organic, (veggies, fish) and Macrobiotic faire with my son's sire...we split after about 2yrs. c. the eatery, before either of us knew that I was pregnant...
This is the irony of your story for me: of course, (I lived @ 80 E.3rd Street all that while), but, in getting back to Peter Cooper, as you know, Cooper Hall/Union is right there, at The Astor Pl. Train, with The Theatre Row right across the Square. The theaters, at that time, were all pre-restoration: the whole Lower East Side during my life there was quite the place, with The Fillmore and all...Whenever I walked around the Astor Place area, I felt as if I had been there before, ?, there was something special about it that I couldn't ever really figure out, but there'ty that the info from that article of mention had something to do with it.
Here's something else: my apartment on E. 3rd was one on the 1st floor for a few years; the huge front window faced East Third Street proper. Through a vacancy, I had more than the fabulous opportunity to move upstairs (walk-uo, of course), to the 6th floor, facing due South. I watched The Twin Towers as the buildings' height began to take their position on the Southern horizin for all those years, and my Son, Casey Ray Kittel, was born in Beth Israel Hospital, on May 15th, 1974. That 6th floor walk-up apartment was where I brought him home to, all the way high up in the sky there.
As the many windows all faced South, it was just a grand situation. Below this apartment, on the 2nd Street side, on/in the ground, is, and still is, a most famous, but obscure cemetery, with just magnificent 12' high wrought iron fence and gates: if you can get the idea- I could look out of this upstairs residence, and see all of Southern Manhattan fight outside, with the sun streaming in all day, because there wasn't another building )on 2nd Street), blocking air circulation, nor sun, nor view. It was Paradise @ $100/mo.
In the Summer, the leaves on ancient trees in the cemetery protected the apartment from blasting sun- opening up softly in the Spring, blossoming...and in the Winter, the leafless trees, taller than even my 6th floor place, allowed a gentler sun in all day.
Ironically, I still have a key with me, huge: c. 4" long, old hand-wrought, that, I don't remember anything at all about how/where I aquired the key: never the less, it opened the lock on the cemetery gate, and I could get in there whenever I wanted, c. my teenie beevee, and sit in there, watch/listen tho the birds, watch the squirrels, watch the street, as I was hidden within the ancient landscaping of the neglected grounds. There are many, many very early NYC VIPs buried there, some shockingly famous: is Peter Cooper buried there, or more near The Square? I don't remember s. bothering to look it up...
The cemetery became increasingly vandalized over the time that I lived there, and eventually, because there was a small area in the back, only a few foot-wide gap, that was chain-linked closed, so it became very easy for the neighborhood kids, gypsies, tramps and thieves, to gain access thru this "weakest link", and, then The City, or whomeber owned the property eventually just threaded a very heavy chain c. simple padlock on the front gates where my key fit the lock. So I lost my private access and retreat: but the cememtery still kept getting vandalized, and eventually, the chain-linked part of the gate all the way in the back corner was properly secured.
I could still look down on it though, or walk by, and by the way, living on the top floor of this ancient tenement building allowed me quick access to the roof, where I had strung a laundry line to hand the clothes to dry (in the beautiful NYC "fresh air"? Yes, The sheets and blankees did smell great from having been air-dried... but, the scenerio is this: I had to schlepp the kid's clothes, plus my own laundry to the laundromat, (dirty, but dry), and then, schlepp the clean, but wet,[read:"wet and very, very heavy], and then up seven flights, all c. beevee in arm, to hang them out.HA!)
My $100/mo apartment, now, p. all these years of gentrification, could have been bought for, during the ^$ days, >0.5mil, and, I have been told, especially after the '01 NYC RE boom, (the tennies have all been re-built and gilt), have either maintained or ^ in $.
Get a new scanner, and send ASAP the photos.
I also have most of the original class photos here..."somewhere", but I do remember all my teachers' names for 1-6th grade, and many of The Kids, and, how The Vickster and I became friends.
Please, either make sure that this note is saved, for my sake, (at least until my son or daughter get up here, Forestburgh, SW Sullivan Co., NYS, and either of them may transfer this note into a save as file for my own, or whatever the proper terminology, or function: computer-savvy is very close to the bottom of my list.
Also, send this note, please, if you will be so kind, or know how to do so, to The Vickster to read: she did come to visit me, in one of her Caddies, c. 1975?, on E. 3rd, St.: that was an adventure unto its own...Wow!
AnyHoo, as this note is actually going out on "The World-Wide Web", and I'm taking a small chance, I still, on more rarer occasion, call my now 35 y/o son "Bunny Rabbit", and my soon-to-be 33 y/o daughter, April Dawn: "Bootsie", as in West Hartford Country Club Lingo "Bootsie,or Muffie, or Fluffie, etc.,): a part of which both The Kidz have maintained in their characters, and don't blink when I use those names, but, alas, so many of the other imaginative and creative names that I had come up with for them have been strictly forbidden to be pronounced, especially in any public/social situation, because of how embarrassing the names were for them ,but so sweet and pleasant (and "Normal"!) for me to address them by.
No proofreading done. Please accomodate for that.
I'm still 50/50 for the reunion....and don't have even the extra nano-second right now to scan thru any of your other comments, or any of my own, of which I believe are very, very, very few: but, the love and recognition of/from the two responders are immeasurable to me forever.
Thanks For The Mammaries,
G

Diane,
Thank you. I would love it. Believe it or not, I remember that story and giving Geri a hard time because I thought she embarrassed me. My email is g.savits@att.net

Hi, Diane. I do remember you. And I lived directly across the street from your family. If I'm not mistaken, your father was the one who started me with raising tropical fish. I believe he gave me a small tank and a few guppies. Could that be right? I recall that you and Michelle Gindon were best buds. So sorry to hear about her. What happened?
I really wanted to go to the reunion, but nobody from my class is going. Many of them live in CA, and it's too far. My younger sister Beth is going. Not sure if you knew her. Nice hearing from you.

Hi Diane, I absolutely remember you. The pictures helped, you look great! I'm glad things are going well for you. Unfortunately, I don't think I'll be able to make the reunion. I felt awful hearing about Michelle, so young???
I haven't been to this site for a while, Allison Berger told me about it, remember her? I'll have to upload some photos of my family. Thanks for the "comment"