Class royalty
The 72nd reunion of the class of 1936 at Deering High School was held Saturday at Verrillo’s Restaurant, with 20 present.
On the reunion committee are Eleanor Berry Beal, Betty Hallman Kennedy, Harold O. Griffith, Jane Drew Sampson, Alicia Wilbur Watson and yours truly. We are sorry that Alicia has been ill recently. She is now at Ledgeview Assisted Living in Cumberland Foreside. All present at the reunion signed a get-well card for her.
John Jetzzi read the names of our members who passed away since the last reunion, and we had a moment of silent prayer for them: Marjorie Corson Hansen, Esther Dyer Day, Vera Valente Giroux, Norma Clement Fuller and William Merrill.
Several members brought items of interest. Florence Morris, a guest, brought a clipping picturing the 1935 DHS girls basketball team. Among them were Ruth Corthell, Vera Valente and Lydia Black of the class of 1936, and Agnes Spink, the sister of Arthur Spink, a classmate of ours in the lower grades, and Augusta Timberlake (Gussie), who was a neighbor of our family on Highland Street.
Winnie Marsters brought a small notebook she had assembled of clippings of the obituaries of our classmates, alphabetically arranged, each enclosed in a plastic wrapping. It was a big job, beautifully set up. I had to slip out from the plastic the article about William Moseley to read it, as he was a neighbor of ours, too, and, sure enough, in Kim Murphy’s article about him was a picture of Ray Blanchard Jr., his sisters, Anne and Jane, and Billy, on our porch. I had sent the picture to Kim at the Portland newspaper. Billy used to say, “My name is Billy William Frank Moseley.” He often visited at our house.
I took a picture of our 1936 graduating class, in color, taken in front of Portland City Hall. We had our graduation ceremonies in the auditorium there.
Present at Verrillo’s this year were the committee members, already mentioned, and Beatrice Sargent Straw, Frances Zemla Swazey, John and Betty Jetzzi, Gilbert Marks and his daughter, Barbara Marks Chandler, Betty Wark (wife of Don Wark), Madeline MacDonald Griffith, Winnie Clement Marsters, Phyllis Gordon Verelli with relatives Al and Lia Verelli and Gertrude MacLeod Harvey, and Florence Morris.
We hope to meet there at Verrillo’s next year, too, on the last Saturday of July, at the same time. All present enjoyed the chance to gather and visit with each other. Of course, we don’t feel 90 years old, but we all have reached that age, or will soon!
A monarch
I was upset this July, as I had not seen monarch butterflies, which enjoy the flowering milkweed plants. But I was lucky on the weekend. As I walked by the tall milkweed clump in front of our house, I noticed that the blossoms had mostly dried up, but not entirely. At least two or three of them were still pink and in full bloom, and as I examined them, there was a monarch butterfly enjoying itself, sipping the nectar and flapping its wings at the same time. I was so pleased to be there at the right moment.
I had written in the Nov. 8, 2007, issue of the American Journal, in my column, that the monarchs migrate to Mexico each winter. Mexicans are deforesting their lands for economic reasons, but in doing so, they can hurt the over-wintering spots upon which the butterflies depend. Chip Taylor, director of Monarch Watch, says that homeowners can plant butterfly gardens. He suggests that planting milkweed and other flowers that offer nectar to the butterflies isn’t complicated.
So I guess we’re helping. Our milkweed plants on our front banking and in the tall grass beside the sidewalk are doing beautifully, I’m glad to say. The monarch is handsome, with orange wings, with black borders, dotted with white spots.
One of 99
In a 1917 booklet put out by the Ninety and Nine Club, Portland, Maine, I found today’s recipes, sent by club members. It included 99 recipes.
LIGHTENING CAKE
1 cup sugar, 1 heaping cup flour, 1 heaping teaspoonful baking powder, pinch of salt, 1/4 cup melted butter, into which, drop two unbeaten eggs, then fill up the cup with milk.
Sift together the dry ingredients, then add the cupful of butter, eggs and milk. Beat thoroughly and flavor to suit your taste. This may be used for either loaf or layer cake.
FROSTING
1 cup sugar, 1/4 cup water, white of 1 egg, unbeaten. Put all in the top of a double boiler and beat for 8 minutes. Flavor with vanilla. Very nice to add 2 teaspoons of cocoa.
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