Home Sweet Home

Stories of Our Relocated Residences


Susan Carey West Hartford, Connecticut	Pat Chornyak & Phil Grise Tallahassee, Florida	Rosemary Fleming Brunswick, Georgia	Susan Hutchinson Sacramento, California	Trisha Newton Richmond, New Hampshire

Betty True Bennett

Transplant Hometown: Salem, Indiana

Bob and I are doing well. Salem is a tiny community of about 6,000 people, located 35 miles north of Louisville, Kentucky. Bob has been the local Circuit Court Judge now for many years. I am in my fourth year of “principalling” at a nearby elementary school and loving it. Life hasn’t slowed down but sped up as we’ve gotten older. Bob enjoys working on and restoring old cars. For any of you folks that remember my brother, Steve, you may recall his “75” Porsche. Well, that vehicle came to Indiana over 5 years ago and just finished its restoration this year. We take our time out here in the Midwest! I’ll include some pictures of the extended family and the car at some point in my emails. They are all in Massachusetts ,around the Greenfield area and doing well also.

Catalooche Ranch in Maggie Valley, N.C.

It’s a place in the Smokies we love to go to to get away.

Music is still a hobby of mine and some of the old GHS choral songsters might like to know that I’ve been having some fun crooning tunes with the Louisville chorus. You can find us on the web at www.fastzone.com/chorus . It’s a great group of people and we actually recorded some music that our son wrote for movie trailers.
Anyway, here’s some info to add from the Midwest . Things are about to get really busy out here as our daughter, Rebecca is getting married this December 2004. She is 29 and our son turns 31 this January. They are great kids and a lot of fun. I’ve included photos of them when Becki visited Rob in California. Becki graduated from law school in May and is getting ready to take the bar in February. She lives nearby in New Albany, Indiana. I have a “grandpuppy” but no grandkids yet. Maybe soon???

Rob is a composer and film scorer and lives in Burbank. He writes mostly for advertisements and movie trailers. You can see him and some of his music at his website www.robertbennettmusic.com/.

Happy Belated Thanksgiving to everyone. I’m certainly thankful for wonderful memories from GHS and for all of you who help to recall them through this website.

Have a great holiday season and write when you can.

Betty

TOP

Susan Carey Duckworth

Transplant Hometown: West Hartford, Connecticut

Wayne Duckworth and I met while attending UMass. He entered the Ph.D. program in math, but not for long. He found a job in the actuary insurance field in Hartford and off we went. Upon graduation, I spent two years teaching German, but I quickly realized what a poor choice of a major that was and moved on. A career change brought me to the UConn Health Center’s Department of Biomedical Communications. I produced instructional material for the medical and dental school. After four years in that department I moved on to Continuing Dental Education for some time and then left to raise two kids. I started my own medical transcription business 12 years ago and am still doing that.

After a short stay in a New Britain apartment, neighborhood rats in our flower garden waved goodbye to us. We found a big old house in West Hartford, a couple of streets off of Farmington Ave. just down the street from Mark Twain’s home.

Samuel Clemmons Home on Farmington Ave.

We've done two roofs, one furnace, added a family room, installed central air, had all the stucco ripped off and siding put on, and have renovated the kitchen twice. One time the kitchen was spruced up after a visit by our very responsive police and fire departments (I got a hook and ladder, three police cruisers, and a rescue truck) for a burned blueberry pie.

When the Town surveyed everyone to learn five best things about West Hartford, it was tough to trim down the list. I like the local family-owned hardware store with creaky wooden floors. I like our amazingly active town center where people are out walking and window shopping every day and evening with no concern for safety. I like the fantastic public services and school system, including its strong jazz history program. I like that we can walk to the dentist, pediatrician, barber, hairdresser, liquor store, grocery store, innumerable restaurants, Triple-A, the auto repair shop, and the bus stop from our house. My husband’s been a faithful rider on the E Bus for nearly 30 years and could probably write a book about his co-riders.

The new West Hartford Center has a great website http://www.west-hartford.com/ . Since we're celebrating our 150th birthday, some nice things are being planned, including: two parking garages, two six-story condos, a theater which will feature foreign films - not first run stuff, and an outdoor amphitheater.

We had the cow parade from September to December of 2003. The town also boasts a gorgeous library with two branches, several swimming pools (one indoor), an indoor skating rink, a public 9-hole golf course, and a nationally recognized arts program in the schools. The roads are plowed and paved well. The first weekend in December brings the Holiday stroll where merchants stay open evenings and serve goodies. Very festive.

We have two grown sons, Jon and Mike. Jon, a physics major at Middlebury College, in Vt. He was an avid cross country and track runner in high school. Early in his high school career, he became a poster child for the weapons non-tolerance policy in schools that emerged around the time of Columbine. We often had television trucks parked outside of our house during his freshman year, as he’d been expelled for having a Swiss Army knife in his gym bag. (He used the scissors to cut Dr. Scholl's moleskin before track meets and God forbid he should ever clean out the gym bag.) Jon spent time with the National Outdoor Leadership School hiking across part of Alaska. (I had to send only one frantic Email to Dr. Bob Martin to get the skinny on NOLS, and, of course, Bob had to tell me they lost a kid the prior year when he disappeared through an ice crevice!) Jon’s intention is to get a job with the US Forest Service doing firefighting in one of the national forests. Let's hope his job has medical and dental benefits!

Mike's a freshman at Bowdoin College and loving it. He tells me he's gearing up to join a jazz combo this semester as his real love is jazz. His high school band has won the Lincoln Center Essentially Ellington competition on six occasions. A CD of his group’s final performance is due out next month

Our eight years old black lab named Georgia’s claim to fame is denting the side of a BMW with her head - did $400 worth of damage to the door but her head was fine. She also knocked me unconscious one occasion, flattened Jon who stands 6 feet and 2 inches, and destroyed my engagement ring by smashing my hand against a metal post in an effort to get into the kitchen! And lastly, there’s Norman, a red-bellied newt. We bought him 12 years ago when the clerk assured us (promised, in fact) that he would live about six months to a year. He's still going strong so we've made a provision for him in our will.

So, we’re still here. And - we're too lazy to move.

TOP

Susan Hutchinson Webster

Transplant Hometown: Sacramento, California

In 1980, when Jeff (TFHS Class of 65) told someone we were moving to California, the other person replied, “It’s been done; it’s a cliché. Beside, you’ll miss the snow.” Cliché or not, we left on a rainy October morning, driving through the Berkshires which resembled a moving watercolor through the wiper-streaked windshield.

jeff sue and dogs

We had decided to head west after a 1978 visit to classmate David Maleski and his wife Linda Tuttle (TFHS Class of 65). They had moved to Sacramento where David was a law professor. We saw much of Northern California and then drove down the spectacular central coast to Laguna Beach, south of L.A.

What clinched my decision to move was Linda’s answer to the question, “Does it snow here?” Her answer was, “Hardly ever.” I told Jeff, “I’m moving to California; you can come if you want.” Thankfully, he wanted. When we announced to our families our intention to move, Jeff’s sister and brother-in-law (Joan & Ken Clark), who lived on Birch Street, asked, “Does it snow there?”

(For the record, Sacramento is the ninth sunniest city in the nation, and we get about 10 minutes of actual snow about once every 20 years. However, just two hours away at Lake Tahoe, the average annual snowfall is 125” with the peaks averaging between 300” to 500.” Tire chains are required for mountain travel when the white stuff flies. The Sierra Nevada snow pack is the principal source of water for us flatlanders in the Central Valley.)

     Anyway, the four of us headed for Sacramento in 1980 and shared a rented house on the edge of a shady park. Since then, two of Joan & Ken’s children have moved here also. It was nice to have family support while we all searched for jobs (or goofed off while pretending to look for jobs).

     We eventually bought a home in a quiet East Sacramento neighborhood. It was going to be our starter house, but we love the area and haven’t left. We now share our tiny but cozy home with Ginger and Mama Bear, two geriatric Lhasa Apsos.

     I initially worked at the University of California Davis Medical Center. In 1998, the year most of us turned 50, I received a B.S. in Gerontology from California State University Sacramento. For the past nine years I have been affiliated with Sutter Hospice and am now a volunteer representative, matching patients with volunteers. Jeff is a marketing copywriter at a graphic design firm.

Sacramento has experienced phenomenal growth since we arrived. It suffers from big city problems, but retains a small town charm in many ways. We frequently meet friends at the supermarket, even though we share the city with about 410,000 other folks. The population of the metropolitan area is pushing 2 million.

Sacra-menities include two major rivers (the American and the Sacramento), about 6 million trees (true), a 30-mile bike/walking trail, the oldest art museum in the West, a world-class railroad museum (just ask Jim and Paula Winn), and an abundance of Gold Rush history. Oh yeah, and a big white, domed building filled with our wacky state legislators. They’re a laugh a minute. We are just two hours from San Francisco, Lake Tahoe and Reno. Fellow members of the GHS Class of 65 who live nearby include: Richard Shortell, Susan Broughan, Shirley Brightman (Nelson) and Virginia Pulaski (LaPorte).

Do we miss New England? Of course, we miss families and friends. We also miss October when the hills blaze with color. And, who knows? We may yet move again some day. But, not before asking, “Does it snow there?”

TOP

Trisha Newton

Transplant Hometown: Richmond, New Hampshire

I met my husband, Bob Packard, in the fall of 1992, at a singles’ dance in Keene, NH. That’s right, no lie!! And on a night when I went by myself because my girlfriends canceled. This was a first – I had never gone alone. On the way up, I got pulled over by Winchester’s finest for not making it through the intersection before the light turned red. Even though I didn’t get a ticket, I seriously thought about just going home. But I didn’t. It must have been fate. It was the night I met Bob.

At the time, I was living in Northfield, MA, and working for the Headmaster at Northfield Mount Hermon School. My mom came to live with me and my three daughters in March of 1993. She was in the final stages of cancer. I thank God that I was able to care for her, with help from my daughters and Bob. She died two months later, while I sat at her bedside, telling her I loved her and holding her hand. It was the most profound experience of my life.

Four years later, Bob and I were married and moved, with my youngest daughter Michelle (who was in nursing school) to his hometown, Richmond, NH. We designed a modular home and had it placed in the middle of a 27-acre tract that Bob owned and had always dreamed of building on.

Today, our family consists of three adult daughters (mine), two adult sons (his), one dog and six cats (ours). All of our kids have left the nest, but we are happy to announce that we have four grandchildren (ages 4, 3 ½, 2 ½, and 6 months), plus one more addition expected in January. Grandparenting is the absolute best!!!

Life is wonderful here in the hills of NH. With Keene just 25 minutes away, we have every shopping need fulfilled, (especially now that Home Depot is here!), with, of course, no sales tax. In addition, there are many fine restaurants offering all types of cuisine. I love the change of seasons that New England offers – the crisp cool weather of the fall with the breathtaking foliage, the glistening beauty of a fresh snowfall, the first signs of spring when the crocuses peek out and the trees begin to bud, and the lazy days of summer and barbeques and family gatherings.

Can you tell I love my life? I do. I am rich in ways I thought I’d never be – a loving husband and family, good friends, an interesting part-time job, and just enjoying each day. As I get older, time becomes that much more precious, yet it seems to go by faster. What’s up with that? There is too much left to see and do! I’m still a kid at heart, yet happy to say that life experiences have made me that much wiser and stronger.

Hope to see all of you at our 40th reunion!!

TOP

Rosemary Fleming Kaszans

Transplant Hometown: Brunswick, Georgia

I escaped from New England in 1976--quitting my waitress job, stuffing my son Jesse (then 6, now 33 in 2003) and my dog Speed into a Ryder truck for the long drive south to Atlanta, Georgia.

I arrived at the time of the Democratic convention, which was being held at the Omni Center downtown, and beheld the grand sight of Democratic Presidential nominee, Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter, his very lady-like Southern belle wife, Roslyn, his children Chip and Amy, and the widow and children of Martin Luther King Jr.--all holding hands and singing "We Shall Overcome"!!

Since the ten years following Greenfield High School graduation were chaotic, painful times for me, "We Shall Overcome" seemed like a great start to my new life!!

I met my husband Ed Kaszans, a New Yorker, during my final quarter at Atlanta's Life Chiropractic College, in 1979. We shared a common vision of goals: family, career, responsibility, community. (Sounds a little like a campaign promise!) We decided to move to the beach: St. Simons Island, Georgia, rather than return to the hectic, freezing cold winter, traffic-filled life of the Northeast.

We have lived the life of the Southern nobility for 24 years now, in our 1900's Victorian home in a section of coastal Brunswick, Georgia called Old Town. Our Mom 'n Pop chiropractic office has expanded from 600 square feet to 2400 square feet-- becoming a major alternative care clinic that includes 4 doctors, 2 massage therapists, and staff.

Jesse has grown up here, and is now a special education teacher, family counselor, and volleyball coach. He is Dad to Julia, already 10 years old! (makes me--you guessed it!) Ed and I have two children of our own, Ian--now 21--who is a senior at Savannah College of Art and Design in Savannah; and Chloe,15, a high school sophomore who plays volleyball for her big brother's high school team.

We will never be true Southerners--could never fully make that accent work for me--but we love the softness and gentility, not to mention the riot of year-round greenery and flowers, that is the essence of Southern living. Y'all come visit!

TOP

Pat Chornyak Grise and Phil Grise

Transplant Hometown: Tallahassee, Florida
Thirty plus in one city!! How’s that ever happen? Actually time has flown by. We left Greenfield a few days after we were married in September 1969 and drove with all our belongings to Tallahassee, Florida with the mission of earning a couple graduate degrees and getting the hell out of the (then) godforsaken South. Little did we know…

When we cruised into town, after some five days on the road (there were almost no Interstate highways in 1969), Tallahassee was a sleepy town about twice the size of Greenfield (40,000). True, the city was (and is) the state capital and boasted both Florida State University and Florida A&M University, as well as Tallahassee Community College, but it had no malls, and almost no chain stores (yes, MacDonalds was here). Lots of Live Oak trees with flowing Spanish moss immediately and forever captured our attention, not to mention the canopy roads that are a bit like covered bridges except they beckon for unending miles. Compared to the rest of Florida, Tallahassee was hilly, yet the Gulf of Mexico sits only 19 miles away.

Not So Friendly Neighbors

Did we bring the boom? I don’t know. We certainly didn’t feel that way living on two student stipends. But no sooner had we arrived than the first “mall” opened three months later. It consisted of several local stores that relocated from downtown to a pasture on the north side of the city, smooshed together into one large building with a theater inside – just the way them Yankees were doing it! You had to time things just right to make a movie because Bordon’s Daily had a processing plant right out in front of the mall and would stop traffic at the oddest hours as a milk truck backed up to the facility to unload, blocking the entire road for up to a half hour. Quaint and pastoral, to say the least. As the transition came about, Florida moved from 19th place to 4th place nationally, population-wise.

Florida's Capitol

You may have seen or heard bits of Tallahassee over the years since. For many years, Red Barber, famed baseball radio announcer would broadcast live on National Public Radio every Friday morning, talking just as often about squirrels and camillias as he did sports. Red was friends with our next door neighbor and we were lucky enough to meet him and talk about the old days in Massachusetts, before he passed.

Although you may not have known it, Tallahassee is the dominant city in the 1986 Melanie Griffith movie Something Wild. They don’t mention that, as it’s supposed to be Virginia – but it is here! A brief scene shows a pickem-up truck (a Tallahassee staple) driving down the road carrying a large satellite dish that displays the Seminole logo for FSU. Speaking of the Seminoles, the world of sports and FSU were miles apart until the mid-1970’s. That’s when Bobby Bowden arrived in town to turn around a three year in a row total football wipeout. Two national championships later, Bobby now holds the title of winningest college football coach ever. Baseball is pretty bigtime too.

Holding 82,500 Rabid Football Fans, 5 Academic Departments, Plus the Film School and Countless Administrative Offices
This is FSU's Doak Campbell Stadium
stadium filled

And of course there was the 2000 election debacle. The whole world got to watch Tallahassee daily, day after day, night after night as we tried to determine who had the dimpled chads and who didn’t. It was an exciting time, with enough satellite media trucks clustered together to create their own little town.

Some of 40+ Media Vehicles in Tallahassee, December 2000

So, some thirty-four years later, we haven’t left our town yet. It’s now approaching 300,000 people with an additional 75,000 students. Probably that many legislators, lobbyists and attorneys live or visit here annually too. Some things we could do without.
We have four real seasons, get snow (an inch or two) every seven years – once even yielding a white Christmas!. Autumn leaves turn yellow, gold and red beginning mid-November and continuing right up until Christmas. Camellias bloom prolifically from early November until March, when the azaleas kick in to provide an absolutely stunning array of color.

Our Home in November
spring flowers

Grise Yard in Springtime with Native Azaleas

Summer heat and humidity are very oppressive for those not used to it (that takes about two years) but help to maintain a laid-back Southern style of grace and hospitality. Everything but everything is air-conditioned, partly because air-conditioning was invented by Dr. John Gorrie not too far from Tallahassee in the stunningly quaint coastal community of Apalachicola.

Gulf of Mexico beaches are now known to the world, having been consistently named among the finest year after year. Panama City Beach (Spring Break Heaven) is only two hours away, as is the plastic but gorgeous community of Seaside. Even closer sit St. George Island and Cape San Blas, places that must be seen to be believed as stunning, desolate beaches. But the boom here has begun, so hurry before it's spoiled.

St. Geroge's Island, 77 miles from Tallahassee

November on St. George's Island

Our careers here have done well, and we haven’t had the urge to move on. Pat has been affiliated with Senator Bob Graham since his early days as Governor of Florida. And Phil has been involved in an array of teaching and research at FSU for what seems like forever.

We've raised two children, our daughter Amee is a Certified Veternary Technician and about to also become a Licensed Massage Therapist, living and working in town. Adam is about to be the world's most famous jazz steel drum player -- as soon as he graduates from Northern Illinois University in 2004. Phil’s sister Cindy, GHS ‘71 (now Dixie Neilson- see http://www.geocities.com/dixneilson/ArtCare.html) relocated to Florida only a few years after we settled in. Phil’s Mom also moved to Tallahassee in the early 80’s. Pat’s three brothers are all still New England based, with one remaining in Greenfield. Her youngest brother is a graduate of FSU too.

Tallahassee’s been visited by many GHS classmates, John Taylor, Bob Clift, Harvey Stone, Beth Anderson, Jerry McCabe, Sharon Brown, and Rose Fleming to name a few. Next year, Jerry will take up winter residence in Tallahassee on a regular basis too.

And here it is, the oft-mentioned, hardly ever seen -- THE REAL Suwannee River, with Pat and son Adam on the banks. What better way to close out the Old Folks at Home section of our website? As we say in the South, y’all come on down now, y’hear?

TOP