THIS IS SURRATTS FOUNDATION E-NOTICE 2009-9 OF SEPTEMBER 1, 2009

Hello Hornets:

Here are some items that might be of interest:

1.  WASHINGTON REDSKINS FOUNDATION MAKES MAJOR GIFT TO SCHOOL.  This very exciting press release was issued by Roderick Moore, the current Surratts Athletic Director:  "It is my extreme pleasure to let you all know that the Washington Redskins Charitable Foundation has selected our high school to be a beneficiary of the Fields for Tomorrow Field Maintenance Program.  Fields for Tomorrow is an initiative of the Washington Redskins Charitable Foundation that provides regular maintenance to football fields at locations throughout  Washington, DC, and Maryland.  Fields for Tomorrow renovates, upgrades, and maintains football fields at high schools in need throughout Washington, DC and Prince George's County, MD.  How bout them Skins!  Sincerely, Roderick Moore"

2. AND SPEAKING OF HORNET FOOTBALL...  Coach Robert Harris just informed us that the Hornet football team soon will host the highly-ranked Sentinels of Ft. Hill High School in Cumberland.  The entire Surratts community is invited to attend the game on September 5 at 2:00 p.m. at the School.  (Ft. Hill will be bringing five or six busloads of fans, so the Hornets will really appreciate the local support!)

3.  REPORT FROM OUR CLINTON CORRESPONDENTS.  We received this great report from our Clinton community correspondents, Surratts parents Marge and Bill Allen: "Hello Henry:  Once again, "good news coverage" in the Surratts e-Notices.  Bob Ross of the PTSA continues his great communication about Surrattsville.  We have met the new SHS Principal, and  hope to be on hand for her welcoming gathering.  Clinton grows and grows; we need better roads etc.   Here are the some signs of the "once rural" Clinton;  expansion of Miller's Farm, a top notch vegetable stand, Rita's for treats,  support for local restaurants,  preservation of the barns, a more friendly attitude.  Our police chief wants support for community walks, intermingling;  there is a blessing before the walk begins, and after the walks there are refreshments.  About five more walks are scheduled!  We expect a terrific turnout for National Night Out on August 4.  Marge and Bill"

4.  HORNET TAKES FACEBOOK-INSPIRED TRIP.   We received this interesting note from Rick Torrecarion (74):  "Henry:  I recently did a cross country trip for my summer vacation just visiting my old high school friends who I recently reconnected with on Facebook.  I went through 30 states and drove 7600 miles, so I am glad you are encouraging everyone to join the Surrattsville Alumni Group and their Class Groups on Facebook.  Rick"

[Ed. note: We'd love to hear other Facebook-related stories of Hornet reconnections.]

5.  HORNET RV'ERS FEATURED IN MSNBC PIECE.  Bill (71) and Esthermay Brooks were recently appointed "SAMBASSADORS" in the Good Sam RV Club, and featured in a great MSNBC piece about the RV lifestyle.  The MSNBC article, by business editor Roland Jones, can be found at http://www.facebook.com/l/;www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31766546.  Jones notes in his piece that Bill and Esthermay "have crossed the continental US five times over the last 15 years, chalking up visits to all the lower 48 states in their national roving.  They plan to steer their 35-foot-long Georgie Boy Pursuit motor home north to visit the 49th state, Alaska, in 2011."

Good luck to Bill and Esthermay on that upcoming long journey!

6.  YEARBOOK SOUGHT.  Pat McArthur (70) is looking for a copy of the 1970 Boomerang.  If you have any ideas that might help, please contact Pat at patmcarthur@hotmail.com.

7.  SURRATTSTOCK III VOLUNTEERS NEEDED.  The Chair of the Surrattstock III event to be held on the evening of June 25, 2010, Stacey Fowler (87), is seeking volunteers to staff the ticket table and refreshment line, etc.  If you'd be willing to help out with this good cause, please contact Stacey at sfowler2@susangage.com.

8.  PTSA CO-SPONSORS LEADERSHIP WORKSHOP.  The Surrattsville PTSA is co-sponsoring a leadership workshop for parent teacher organization officers, fundraising chairs, treasurers, and incoming and returning leaders.  The workshop will cover how to make a budget, set goals, run a meeting, work with a board, keep records and minutes, understand bylaws, build membership, recruit volunteers, raise funds, advocate for students and more.  There will also be vendors on hand for fundraising ideas.  The workshop will be held Saturday, September 12, 2009, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Kingsford Elementary School, 1401 Enterprise Road, Mitchellville, MD 20721.  The workshop is free, but advance registration is required.  Contact the Maryland PTA at 800-707-7972 or 410-760-6221, or at officeadministrator@mdpta.org with your name, address, email address and phone number.  The deadline for registration is September 9.  Breakfast and lunch will be are provided.

9.  YEARBOOKS AVAILABLE.  The Foundation has a limited supply of yearbooks from 2003 through 2006.  If you'd like one of these yearbooks (which are available for $15 including shipping and handling), please send me an email to hsmith@smithdowney.com

10.  WELCOME EVENT FOR NEW PRINCIPAL.  As we previously reported, Surrattsville has a new Principal, Kristi Holden.  The PTSA cordially invites all members of the Surrattsville community to attend a Meet & Greet Reception for Principal Holden, on Wednesday, September 2, from 6:30- 8:30 p.m., in the Multipurpose Room.

11.  DONATIONS TO FOUNDATION MADE EASIER.  The Foundation now has a "button" on the home page of the Foundation's web site (www.surrattsville.org) that makes it easier for our very generous donors to contribute to the Foundation using a credit card or paypal.  (Of course, the Foundation is still happy to accept donations in the form of mailed paper checks!)

A special request to our on-line donors: please include your graduation year/faculty years/etc. in your on-line donation form.

12.  2010 ALL CLASSES/FACULTY/STAFF EVENTS.  Please don't forget to mark you calendars for the Foundation's third "All Classes/Faculty/Staff" events to be held over the long weekend of Friday June 25 - Sunday June 27, 2010. The schedule of events, which is similar to the schedule of the events for the great 2000 and 2005 events, is as follows:

-Friday June 25, 2010 - Golf Outing. 
-Friday June 25, 2010, 7 P.M. - 11 P.M. - Surrattstock III.
-Saturday June 26, 2010, 10 A.M - 4 P.M. - All Classes/Faculty/Staff Picnic and School Open House.
-Saturday June 26, Evening - Saturday evening will be set aside for Class-specific events. 
-Sunday June 27 - Sunday will be set aside for Class-specific picnics and other informal gatherings.

13.  JUNE 26 AND 27, 2010 CLASS-SPECIFIC EVENTS.  Please note that many Classes are planning Class-specific events for the evening of Saturday June 26, 2010, and some for Sunday June 27, 2010.  Please check in with your Class's "Official Reunion Contact" to make sure he or she has your current contact information and to get an update on any plans your Class has for the big reunion weekend.  (ORC contact information can be found on the "Classes" page on the web site at www.surrattsville.org.)

14.  UPDATE ON FOUNDATION PRESENCE ON FACEBOOK.  There are now approximately 800 members of the "Surrattsville Alumni" Group on Facebook.

Please consider joining this Group on Facebook -- it's free -- because we will be posting information about upcoming Foundation events there.

In addition, please consider joining your Class's Class-specific Group on Facebook, many of them titled simply "Surrattsville [Year]" (for example, "Surrattsville 1970," "Surrattsville 1971," etc.), as a way to keep connected with classmates and news on upcoming Class-specific events like those to be held on Saturday June 26, 2010 and Sunday June 27, 2010.

15.  POSSIBLE 80/81 REUNION.  The Classes of 80 and 81 are planning a possible reunion for June 2010.  They need a contact person for the Class of 80.  Please contact Teresa Blandford Pepper at teresa@dlpinc.net to provide contact info.

16.  CLASS OF 89 PLANS REUNION.  The Class of 89 is planning a reunion.  Please contact Debbie Owen Pell at dpell@comcast.net for information or if you have any contact information for 89 grads or members of their families.

17.  SURRATTS COOKBOOK.  As previously reported, Leslie St. Clair (70) and Diane "Cookie" Boyd (71) are putting together a Cookbook of Hornets' Favorite Recipes.  They're hoping that a number of you will submit recipes, and they'll break them down by category and have them bound and offer them for sale at the 2010 All Classes/Faculty/Staff events.  All proceeds will go to the Foundation.  If you have a recipe you'd like to share, please send it to Leslie and Cookie at surrattscookbook@yahoo.com.

18.  FOR OUR MORE MATURE READERS.  We received this item that might ring some bells with our readers who spent some time in the "Old School" building:

"Someone asked the other day, What was your favorite fast food when you were growing up?
We didn't have fast food when I was growing up, I informed him.  All the food was slow.
C'mon, seriously. Where did you eat?
It was a place called "at home,'' I explained!
Mom cooked every day and when Dad got home from work, we sat down together at the dining room table, and if I didn't like what she put on my plate I was allowed to sit there until I did like it.
By this time, the kid was laughing so hard I was afraid he was going to suffer serious internal damage, so I didn't tell him the part about how I had to have permission to leave the table.
But here are some other things I would have told him about my childhood if I figured his system could have handled it:
Some parents never owned their own house, wore Levis, set foot on a golf course, traveled out of the country or had a credit card.
In their later years they had something called a revolving charge card.  The card was good only at Sears Roebuck. Or maybe it was Sears & Roebuck.  Either way, there is no Roebuck anymore. Maybe he died.
My parents never drove me to soccer practice. This was mostly because we never had heard of soccer. I had a bicycle that weighed probably 50 pounds, and only had one speed (slow).
We didn't have a television in our house until I was 5.  It was, of course, black and white, and the station went off the air at midnight, after playing the national anthem; it came back on the air at about 6 a.m. and there was usually a locally produced news and farm show on, featuring local people.
I was 13 before I tasted my first pizza, it was called "pizza pie."  When I bit into it, I burned the roof of my mouth and the cheese slid off, swung down, plastered itself against my chin and burned that, too. It's still the best pizza I ever had.
We didn't have a car until I was 4. It was an old black Dodge.
I never had a telephone in my room.  The only phone in the house was in the living room and it was on a party line. Before you could dial, you had to listen and make sure some people you didn't know weren't already using the line.
Pizzas were not delivered to our home. But milk was.
All newspapers were delivered by boys and all boys delivered newspapers. They delivered a newspaper, six days a week. It cost 7 cents a paper, of which they got to keep 2 cents. They had to get up at 6 a.m. every morning.  On Saturday, they had to collect the 42 cents from their cus tomes. Their favorite customers were the ones who gave them 50 cents and told them to keep the change. Their least favorite customers were the ones who seemed to never be home on collection day.
Movie stars kissed with their mouths shut. At least, they did in the movies. There were no movie ratings because all movies were responsibly produced for everyone to enjoy viewing, without profanity or violence or most anything offensive.
If you grew up in a generation before there was fast food, you may want to share some of these memories with your children or grandchildren. Just don't blame me if they bust a gut laughing.
Growing up isn't what it used to be, is it?
 
My Dad is cleaning out my grandmother's house (she died in December) and he brought me an old Royal Crown Cola bottle. In the bottle top was a stopper with a bunch of holes in it. I knew immediately what it was, but my daughter had no idea. She thought they had tried to make it a salt shaker or something. I knew it as the bottle that sat on the end of the ironing board to sprinkle clothes with because we didn't have steam irons. Man, I am old.
 
How many of these do you remember?

Head lights dimmer switches on the floor.
Ignition switches on the dashboard.
Heaters mounted on the inside of the fire wall.
Real ice boxes.
Pant leg clips for bicycles without chain guards.
Soldering irons you heat on a gas burner.
Using hand signals for cars without turn signals.
Blackjack chewing gum
Wax Coke-shaped bottles with colored sugar water
Candy cigarettes
Soda pop machines that dispensed glass bottles 
Coffee shops or diners with tableside juke boxes
Home milk delivery in glass bottles with cardboard stoppers
Party lines on the telephone
Newsreels before the movie
P.F. Flyers
Butch wax
TV test patterns that came on at night after the last show and were there until TV shows started again in the morning. (there were only 3 channels, if you were fortunate)
Peashooters
Howdy Doody
45 RPM records 
S& H green stamps
Hi-fi's
Metal ice trays with lever
Mimeograph paper
Blue flashbulbs
Packards
Roller skate keys
Cork popguns
Drive-ins
Studebakers
Wash tub wringers

I hope this e-Notice finds you well and having enjoyed a relaxing summer!

All the best,  Henry Smith (71)



MANY THANKS TO THESE (EARLY) DONORS TO THE 2009 CAMPAIGN!

Steve Profilet (71)
Bob Marr (71)
Debbie Cox Marr (72)
Teri Pepper Dimsey (77), In veneration of my classmates turning 50 this year
T. Summers Gwynn III (64), In memory of BillGwynn (64)
Ann Weaver Pelle (71)
Donna Rae Sturtevant Smith (70)
Henry Smith (71)
Jeanine Carroll Maclary (73), In Memory of Her Brother, James R. Carroll, Jr.
Vicky Simontacchi Young (57)
Linda Dorsey Blum (66)
Arvid Andresen (65)
Judy Gordon Mentlik (65), In Memory of Greg White (65), David Shriver (65) and Laura     Chovan (former faculty)
Ellen Talbert-Miller (61, former Faculty and Administration), In memory of Lillian Holland
Dan Bayne (71)
Tom Travis (72)
Sally Travis (72)
Rick Tazelaar (73)
David Kraus (65)
Paul Monaghan (59)
Coach Lew Jenkins (former Faculty, 1967 - 1993)
Helen Bovbjerg Niedung (54)