With Thanksgiving behind us, the students and staff of Lincoln-Sudbury are moving at full speed toward Christmas (whoops,"Winter") vacation. We have had a long, beautiful fall, but we know that winter IS out there, somewhere.

The fall was not only beautiful but exciting perhaps too exciting. The sports teams had exemplary seasons. No state championships but close. Students from the Martin Luther King Action Project set off on the nineteenth-annual "Jimmy Mack March To Fight Aids," now one of schools longest traditions.
(The school's new AIDS Quilt has now been hung). Members of the Beyond Barriers club collected hundreds of bicycles to send to Africa. As a school, we have formed a sister-school relationship with Bay St. Louis High School in Louisiana. We are hoping great things will come of that.

Just before Veterans' Day, we dedicated the schools new WWII Memorial. It consists of a Tulip Poplar Tree from FDR's estate, originally given by the Class of 1995, and a bronze plaque. It was a special ceremony, because veterans of the towns were in attendance. On November 14, the school celebrated its 50th anniversary. We were all awash in sentiment for a great school, an expression of which was a new permanent display about the school's history. As part of the celebration, to which many old staff came, three former teachers were "inducted" onto the Wall of Recognition: Jim Dusenbury (Wellness); Andy Oleski (Wellness); and Tom Puchalsky (English).

Then, we re-dedicated certain facilities in memory of other great former faculty: the George Horton Gymnasium, the Virginia K. Kirshner Auditorium, the Paul Mitchell Russian History Collection; the Harriet Rogers Theatre, and the Robert Wentworth Music Center. Finally, the keynote address was delivered Dr. Robert Kirshner, Professor of Astronomy at Harvard. His topic was "Lincoln-Sudbury's Place in the Universe." He delivered a learned and humorous talk about the Cosmos, and it will come as no surprise to alumni that he confirmed L-S might well be the center of it all.

Here's what Dr. Ritchie had to say about the occasion:

"I must tell you that I think that last Tuesday evening's Anniversary Party/Wall of Recognition Induction/Kirshner speech was the most enjoyable and uplifting night of my time at L-S. To see so many people reconnecting, to see such happiness on so many faces, to witness people testifying to the spiritual value of having the place where they'd spent their whole careers not only remember them, but celebrate them, was just remarkable. As I sat in the auditorium listening to Bob Kirshner, I was struck by the fact that here is this world-renowned astronomer speaking in an auditorium named for his mother, citing his former L-S teachers, some of whom were in the audience, for inspiring him to pursue a study of the universe. Great food, great music by Ruth Hartt and her troupes, great speeches, many tears of joy and happiness. As Anita Pearson [former receptionist in the old building] wrote in an email the next day, 'It was like coming home, and everyone knows how good that feels.' What a night!"

Yes, this was truly the "Night the Old Nostalgia Burned Down," and sure enough a day later some of the smoldering embers apparently burst forth into a fire in "A Building." It was a small fire to be sure, and confined to one electrical closet, but it succeeded in knocking out power to all the media and music classrooms on the lower level for a week. The school is back to normal now, well, as normal as we get.The evacuation plans worked well, but we all agree that we don't need quite that much excitement again.

Oh, yes, here's a news bulletin: all the classrooms in your alma mater now are bedecked with American flags (did you ever see one in the old building?), the school having finally come into compliance with the state flag law. It took a few decades, but...

A few news briefs:

- Art teacher Paula Wolfe and AV Coordinator/Dyad Adviser Fred Walker will be retiring this January.

- The History/Culture pages on the school website are being updated soon. A link will soon be sent out to alumni and posted on the alumni website.

- We are aware that the alumni database is not working. We are working on the problem and hope to restore this very useful feature on the alum page.

- The recent deaths of three L-S alumni and one former staff member has convinced me that we should have an "In Memoriam" box on the alumni page.

 

Three chuckles to leave you with. These things actually did happen:

1) We have one absolute rule at the new school: no objects can be thrown down the lightwells. Dr. Ritchie happened to be walking by a lightwell when he saw a ball rising through three floors of lightwells. He sternly reprimanded a student below. Didn't he know this wasn't allowed? The student responded sheepishly:
"I knew we had a "down rule," but not that we had an "up rule"

2) A freshman came into the career center, and saw a sign: "Upper class students needed to tutor math." He turned to a career center staffer and asked plaintively, "Does this mean only people from Lincoln can volunteer?"

3) The school sign up on Concord Rd. recently carried the following message:

"Report Cards Nov. 21
Bonfire Nov. 22"

That's it for now!

Bill Schechter

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PLEASE FORWARD A COPY OF THIS L-S NEWSLETTER TO YOUR
L-S FRIENDS! HELP US TO EXPAND OUR ALUMNI DATABASE AND COMMUNITY!!

-Please note that we are now listing contact information or links to class reunion pages. Send these to us!

-See the link to the Forum for more news.

-Finally, please check out Superintendent/Principal John Ritchie's greeting to alumni.

Send us your feedback! What would you like to see on the alumni web site?.
E-mail Bill Schechter with your suggestions: bill_schechter@lsrhs.net

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