Rick Ginsberg's Comments

Rick, Hi its Brad Rudman, how are you? long time. I hear your a college professor in Kansas, I remebember when you went to Chicago. I'm hoping to track down Lanny, haven't spoken to him in maybe 30 years and was thinking about him recently. regards Brad

Hi there Rick---I believe that I was in class with your brother, Lanny. I, too am still in New York---and still loving it. Anyway, see if your brother remembers me, I think we were in the same class with Stuart Bittman, Alan Barnett, and Mitchell Mestel. See if you can jog his memory....Thanks, and speak soon---CINDY

hi rick. first, thanks so much for the thoughtful notes. i appreciate it.

we visited iowa state and we felt pretty good about it. only about a 3 and a half hours from our home which is a priority for my daughter. also offers greek life, div I sports, etc and a number of local (mn) kids. we would welcome the connection with the associate dean so please feel free to pass on the info or let me know how to contact you directly if you prefer that we connect that way. i have heard of the book but was not aware of the connection, thanks.

glad to hear arnie was doing well when you last saw him. i remember him working (at now defunt) bankers trust in ny as a trader. please send my regards to mike - i still remember his big smile.

i travel to ny and d.c from time to time. it would be great to connect with you and others from the neighborhood. please say hello to lanny. let him know that i am still friends with brad and see him fm time to time in ny. he is well, married with three kids. enjoy the time with your brothers. am i right in remembering your dad being pretty active in qvaa baseball. you may also remember that they started a qvaa basketball league as well. mitch coached a "red" team that i think lanny was on and they won the championship the first year of the league.

re minnesota, couldn't agree more. we expected to be here for 3 years but in our 4th year and have no plans or desire to move. we wound up here when i joined american express - which since spun off that minneapolis business (now known as ameriprise). ironically, i now have a much better job than the one i moved here for. go figure - after living on both coats our whole lives (and being a bit of a snob about it in my case), we really enjoy the minneapolis area. well educated population, ton of big corporations, good academic situation, safe and family oriented. probably similar to kansas area in many ways.

thanks again.

hi rick. glad to hear all is well. thanks for the response. my daughter hopes to attend iowa state this fall - a long way from vleigh place, right? Glad to hear all is well. what a journey for all of us. It seems like you have had an interesting, rewarding life life. sounds like academic life was a perfect fit for you. I vaguely remember you being at the university of chicago as we got older (if you call 20-25 older). please say hello to folks. i sent a note to don reichman. any word on arnie sternheim?

hi rick. either that is an old picture or you have not aged much at all. my daughter was considering kansas but it doesn't appear that she will be going to school there. must have been fun this year with the ncaa's. i just sent a note to don reichman - could not get over that reunion picture. i am still friends with brad. how is lanny?

Larry,

How nice to hear from you and thanks! Harold Schiff mentioned this to me when I first signed on and I contacted Myles - we're getting together this weekend, for the first time in about 40+ years. Amazing. It turns out that Myles is very well known in our community, and many of my friends know him quite well. Two kids living on Vleigh Place meet up again in Lawrence, KS - sounds like a potential movie script....

Thanks again for taking the time to contact me.

Rick

Myles Schater was in Lawrence for many many years.
I think he is still in the area

Hope all is well

Larry

Rick,

Rick,

You really haven't aged, you look just like you did when i used to play stratomatic with Lanny up in your apartment.

Really fun to see all the faces that were just fixtures in the park growing up.

And you've seen Mitch Schorr recently? That's really good to hear. I've worried about him. Is he still living in the neighborhood?

Rick!! Wow - it's been what, 45 years? But I recognized your face right away. It's great to hear from you. I've been reading through your posts here, and there's so much to say that I won't be able to squeeze it into one posting.

But I do want to say how sorry I was to hear about your mom's passing. Your dad's too, of course (you're looking more like him as you get older); but she was still young - like our age? Your mom loomed large in my young life. I realize now what a pain in the tuchis I must have been back then - not just knocking on your door day and night, making your place my home away from home, but being such a little wise guy - always cajoling Howie into trouble (biking way beyond her boundaries, getting him home late, hanging in the basements, and courting danger in so many ways it disturbs me now). I'd argue Howie into things by questioning her authority and her reasoning. She called me an "instigator" and I was.

Funny - as I've spent time on this website, I've felt at times like my name is Earl, because I keep remembering things I should have apologized for long ago. In your mom's case, I wish I could have said thanks, too.

Speaking of sorry incidents that have stayed with me, remember that rock I hit you in the head with? You may not - it was a good sized stone. Till that moment, we all seemed to think it fine to just stand there in two rows, maybe 10 feet apart, throwing rocks at each other. But that day the blood gushed down your face. Your grandma came running out, terribly upset - and began yelling at Dougie Robinson, while I stood there trying to disappear, feeling a bully and a coward both. I felt guilty enough that I never forgot it. And I do apologize.

I regret even more the fact that I didn't get to know you better then. But those few years difference between us loomed larger back when we weren't so many years old. What I remember is that you were easy to get along with and fun to be around. I don't remember you getting into arguments - you had a way of disarming them, saying something clever and redirecting the conversation. You were the only "little kid" we never minded including in whatever we did. But I didn't know what you were into. Had I known back then you'd also decided to become a professor, we'd have talked. Knowing that now, it doesn't surprise me you've become a Dean!

Interesting that our block - our little gang - produced 3 academics. (maybe more)? I wonder if Howie's influence was the common denominator. He was an amazing kid - a born scientist. I don't think I ever really thought about anything until I met him, age 4, and then I couldn't stop. I'm looking forward to catching up with him, though I'll feel like Earl again when I do.

What's Lannie been doing with himself?
Rick

Rick,

Nice to read your reply. I do hope we can meet someday. And yes, we were like royalty that year. I have such fond memories of that time. We were a good team.

NT

Neal,

Yes, as I recall, I had the blue badge, you the red -- we were real royalty, weren't we??

I actually travel a great deal and just left NYC last Friday...too bad. A bunch of us from 164 and Parsons got together, many for the the first time in over 30 years. Don Reichman and Jeff Schwartz from our year were there, as was Elliott Levine and Jeff Marcus (year behind us). Stu Frankel and Stu Alperin who we all met at Parsons and stayed close to through high school were there as well, along with Mitch Schorr, the king of the 164 playground.

Thanks for the kind words about my mom. She was a para at 164 -- died far too young.

What are you up to these days? I moved to Lawrence, KS nearly three years ago to work at the University of Kansas. Lived in Colorado for ten years before that, Columbia, SC for about nine years, New Orleans for a few after finishing grad school in Chicago. From a young age I had always known that I wanted to be a college professor and I've actually lived out that dream (though being an administrator now isn't near as much fun!!). I also always felt I would leave NYC, and although I do enjoy coming back for visits, I have little desire to ever live in a big city again. Now I just look for Toto and the Wizard of Oz.

Thanks for writing. It would be nice to reconnect someday.

Rick

Hey Rick,

Remember being AAA monitors at 164? You were the Captain, I was Lieutenant. That was a great year. You look well and if you are ever in NY I would love to see you. I am in Port Washington on LI.
Sorry to read about your parents. I remember your mom used to work in the school, yes?

Cheers,
Neal

Rick,
You need to get out of Kansas more often.

One of the fat guys in the photo,
DR

Hi Rick,

1964 was a great year! That is the year I was born!!!

Glad you are enjoying the alumni site. If you haven't found it already, take a look at the tribute site that started it all:

http://www.patriciaweppler.com/ps164.htm

My friend Howard Goldman, Class of 1975, is working with the PS 164 administration and we should have some exciting reunion news to report very soon.

How wonderful that you were able to have your own mini-reunion! Reconnecting with friends from the old neighborhood has certainly been a great experience. This site has only been up a couple of months and we are already at 238 members, spanning from the first graduating class to the most recent. Amazing!

:-) Patricia

Harold,

Two quick thoughts - first, our having young kids certainly speaks to our incredible virility (I'm sure you agree!!). If you speak to Stanley, wish him well with a one year old (I had heard he really wanted to start a familty, so that is great). My little ones are from my second marriage as my wife is ten years my junior. But I have to admit that in many ways I'm enjoying these kids a whole lot more than the first time around - certainly less anxious about things. Having young kids at our age is really something - I like to tell so many of my friends as they near retirement and are having grand kids that that I'm just more efficient than they are and had my own grand babies! Of course, I'll be working till I drop, but I think that is one of the advantages of being in academe.


Second, I certainy remember Myles, we even share a birthday. There is a Myles Shachter in the phone book here, I'll try calling him someday.

My mom passed away in 1980, my dad in 1996 - he got remarried a few years after my mom died and moved to Florida.
I travel a good deal and will try to contact you if I get to the Detroit area. I was there just last year at this time, though it isn't one of my frequent stops. It would be fun to reconnect.

Rick