Diane Storm Allen

Let's see...we are celebrating Christmas this weekend. I'm living in Arizona (moved from Sierra Vista to Tucson). It has been freezing but by mid-afternoon the sky is as blue as blue can be and the temp. goes up. My kids are scattered fr...om here to NY and NH. Kim and her husband built a beautiful log home and spend their time working (of course) and playing with my grandkids Eveline and Beau. Carrie and her husband (Captain Joshua Rykow...)are at West Point where he is an instructor and Carrie is sooo busy with triplets and 11 yo daughter. Cindy and Jim are in Sierra Vista with 4 kids. Cindy is an avid half-marathon runner and is finishing her degree in nursing. Last but not least is my son Kevin and his partner. I am LIVING with them. 'nough said there. Would love to work on places to celebrate our 50th anniversary. Hope this helps.
  Peace Always! Diane

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2012

Happy New Year

Christmas Greetings

Christmas Greetings to Jim and Cynthia Carroll in Rochester, NY.

I know you've already checked the blog today -- so surprise.

Best wishes to you and your family and to the memories of

Powder Mill Road in Fayetteville.

Debby

Aren't these wonderful!

From a forwarded email.

Happy Holidays

This is a great photo

Terry Euston, Bill Hall, Kevin Fitch, Jamie Steele

Platt Wheeler Turns 90

Hello to my F-M alumni friends. I recently talked with one of our great teachers, Mr. Platt Wheeler. His birthday is this weekend December 11 and he will be 90 years old. I also have spoken with Daryll Fitch Wheeler, his daughter-in-law and wife of David Wheeler and they stated it would be great to send Mr. Wheeler a birthday card.

Even though it will be a little late in arriving Daryll stated he would be elated and very happy to receive a birthday wish in the form of a card and he will more than likely remember most of you. Please sign your name and your year of graduation. Kerry Rose class of 1962

Mr. Platt Wheeler

C/O Maple Downs Room 101

7220 E. Genesee St

Fayetteville, N.Y. 13066-1171

Neverland on SyFY Channel

Did anyone watch Neverland on the SyFy channel? It was on the past 2 nights. It lay the foundation for the backstory of how the Lost Boys, TinkerBell and Captain Hook came to reside in the land of Neverland. It had some good special effects and a bit overdone characters, but a clever storyline.

More Computer Problems

For a long, long time I never had any computer problems and now it's just one right after another. The latest is that I've lost my wireless printer capability. This time I spent 45 minutes with a guy in Chesapeake, VA reinstalling the printer drivers. When we finished I was told that I would have to go back to Cisco to undo what they had done with the router, since the printer would still not work. I can copy and print manually, but I can't print from the PC or Internet which I do often. It is a real inconvenience. I'd rather rip out my eyelashes that go back to Cisco and someone in the Philippines.

So the other day I packed up the printer, the desktop tower and my router and headed over to Best Buy. I was told by the Geek department that they didn't think too much of manufacturer's tech phone support until you reached a certain tier. The first tier which I was on garners only the lowest tech support available to a caller. And they couldn't do anything for me regarding network support. I would have to be at home to access my own network. So, today I have a Geek squad tech coming to the house to hopefully remedy the situation.

It's all so simple actually, it just costs money every time you can't do something. The one time I tried on my own, I did something major which cost me something else. Everything.

EONS.com

We're the online community for BOOMers!

http://www.eons.com/

Founded by Jeff Taylor, creator of Monster.com, Eons is an online community where boomers can set up profiles, join groups, share photos and videos, play brain games, and so much more. An interesting feature is the Longevity Calculator, a 10-minute health-based survey to discover how healthy you really are. The BOOMs section of the site displays links to articles, group posts, blogs, photos, and videos rated by Eons members.
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Western Union Tries to Resuscitate the Singing Telegram

In a throwback to the days of yore — before email, Twitter, and Facebook put us in a state of perennial communication overload — Western Union is bringing back the singing telegram. But this time around, it's being given a modern twist with the introduction of electronic delivery.

On Thursday the company will launch the microsite wu-singingtelegram.com, which will facilitate sending the audio messages via email. In the past, a singing telegram would be delivered by a Western Union operator, but now the sender can utilize their own voice, or choose one from a lineup of artists who have signed on with the company, including Snoop Dogg, Timbaland, and K'Naan. Thus, the 2011 version will provide a more user-generated experience. The singing telegrams will be free through the rest of 2011, though the company will begin charging a fee at the start of the new year.

Located in 200 countries, Western Union was founded in 1851 as a telegraphy company, and twenty years later began to offer money transfers, which is where the bulk of its business comes from today. Though it had been transmitting messages since the 19th century, Western Union's first singing telegram was sent in 1933. The company continued to offer a telegram service until 2006, when it acknowledged the fading of the medium and sent its last telegram. Several smaller companies still send messages via telegraphy, though none has the clout or power of Western Union.

Various niche media have attempted to fill the void left by the demise of the singing telegram, with ideas like candygrams, gorillagrams, and even strip-o-grams. None has had the same impact as the original. By and large, society gave a collective shrug and moved on to newer technologies.

So the question remains: does anyone today even know — or more importantly, care — what a singing telegram is? Obviously no one is clamoring for telegrams to replace email. But when you can, with relative ease, independently create and send a webcam video of yourself singing a message, will consumers be interested in paying for this service? Western Union is about to find out.

by Alison Berry
TimeUS
11/30/2011

Thoughts on Paul Hale by Ralph Braun

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I'm saddened to hear of Paul's passing. We were friends from the first school years on.We were in the 4-H together and sometimes rode the same buses. I remember him as a gentle bear of a guy with a very powerful grip.
 As some might recall, there was an area behind the "new" high school where people could light up, I don't think that lasted very long but was there when we were freshmen. Paul would come out just to socialize but didn't smoke if I remember correctly. There was a person there every day who insisted on making fun of Paul and his slight speech impediment and the fact that he had to work in the cow barn every morning, bringing those smells with him to school. The verbal harassment was ongoing and constant but Paul, being a benevolent, kind hearted soul, chose to ignore it until one day he had had enough. He warned "Wayne" that he was fed up, "Wayne" didn't listen and kept on with his brand of "humor", We all know how cruel people could sometimes be in high school. Now, "Wayne" always wore pointy toed shiny black shoes, that were known in those non politically correct days, as Puerto Rican fence climbers,for the way you could climb a chain link fence by sticking the pointed toes in the links.Paul usually wore big heavy engineer boots with a minor coating of cow manure and I remember it was a cold day (you can see what's coming right ?) In one quick stride up close to his adversary, Paul brought the heel of his steel toed boot down ,hard, squarely onto the exact middle of "Wayne s" instep. That action, I'm sure was a defining moment in "Wayne s" life and the ensuing howling was something that stays with me today. I recall seeing "Wayne" limping along the hallways for weeks after that. Paul, never again, was the source of harassment by "Wayne" or anybody else for that matter. I was proud that Paul stood up for himself without the use of fists, that might have Killed "Wayne.
I remember this all with a shade of humor now, but I don't believe "Wayne" does, wherever he is.
I hope you don't find this offensive, it's meant to be a warmhearted remembrance of Paul.
Be Well
Ralph