JUNE MANNING

508-645-2574

(lthslnks@gis.net)

The ladies of Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School class of 1964 certainly know how to deal with the chilliness of winter after facing snow, snow and more snow. On Saturday morning we met at the Vineyard Tennis and Spa Center at the airport. Our first order of business for the day included a Qi Qong Class with instructor Kris Martin as we mastered new breathing techniques as well as inner and outer balance. We then dined on homemade muffins, guacamole, fresh fruit and healthy water, topped off with homemade brownies. We then enjoyed a choice of neck and back massage with Amanda Cohen, or a foot scrub and massage with Kris Martin, or we could have an astrology reading with Arlan Wise.

From the fitness center we then met at the Mansion House for lunch at Zephrus, where we were catered to every minute by our wait staff and especially Tyler Vunk. For six hours on Saturday we laughed, giggled, snickered, sighed, rejoiced, delighted and giggled more. We shared photographs and tales of our children and grandchildren, reminisced about our high school years and the fellow students and teachers we were able to remember, shared our aches and pains, our bordering on occasional forgetfulness, and other age-related maladies. Fleetingly, we discussed plans for our 45th reunion. Those attending included Patricia (Scott) Albee, Wendy Andrews, Shirley (Medeiros) Donaroma, Kathy (Luce) Duys, Eleanor (Francis) Hebert, Judith (Swartz) Jardin, Sheila (Arno) Jason, Bertha (Viera) Madeiras, Carol Magee, Pamela (Brown) Martisauskas, Barbara (Thomas) Murphy, Eleanor (Fischer) Neubert, Constance (Athearn) Taylor, Judith (Frank) Vunk, Angela Waldron and yours truly. Our grand day of spa treatment and luncheon was very special and thoughtfully planned by Barbara Murphy and Judy Vunk and a great success for all in attendance. Thank you immensely — good work girls. We will gather again in a few weeks to include more classmates for a luncheon and to honor Corrine (Averill) Marshall Hatt Stone who could not join us on Saturday as she had already planned on a trip to Nantucket.

The weather has been mysterious and unpredictable lately. Chilmark Pond was frozen over for a few days with people able to walk across the pond.

Chilmark Chocolates has reopened just in time for Valentine’s Day. We have missed them for the past six weeks.

On Saturday evening, the Aquinnah Public Library presented its first potluck and movie night. It was very successful with 40 people in attendance (more than a town meeting quorum). From all accounts it was a very pleasant evening for one and all. The library is certainly doing a terrific job keeping the spirit alive through the cold winter with all the great programs. Thank you to Jenny, Michelle, and Natalie.

Family and friends of Terry Hydeman will have an afternoon of remembrance at the Chilmark Community Center on Sunday, Feb. 8 with a potluck at 1 p.m.

A fund-rasier for the Coddings will be held at the new Agricultural Hall in West Tisbury on Sunday, Feb. 8 at 6 p.m. It will be a potluck dinner, with a $20 donation suggested. Music will be provided by many Vineyard bands following dinner.

Everyone asks about my answering machine. Well, after getting rid of the four I had hanging around, I am now connected to an automated service except for the fact that I have not learned how to retrieve the messages, therefore the message center is full and overflowing. Meanwhile I am busy anyway on Facebook. It is a great service that is free for friends to sign up, catch up with each other and perhaps find old friends.

In the past week I became reacquainted with a former classmate from when I attended school in Pleasantville, N.Y. Steve was one of the 16 on the site from the PHS Class of 1964. We had classes together for four years and had not seen each other since I returned to the Vineyard in 1961. It was encouraging that he remembered me after 48 years. I have been on instant message with Jared Meader, son of Danny and Robin (Rebello) who is serving our country for his second tour of duty in Iraq. On Wednesday morning I was on instant message with Jirka from his home in Czech Republic. He will be visiting his friends at the end of the month before returning to the Chilmark Store for another summer season. The most significant are those I have known for nearly six decades, but I appreciate those I have met along the way and those that I have known since their infancy. What great fun and a delight, but it keeps me up quite late.

Bonnie Chalifoux, Woody Vanderhoop, Heidi Vanderhoop and Christy Moreis returned over the weekend after attending a mentor training conference in Albuquerque, N.M. which was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Justice.

Thank you to Susan Catling and her new consumer price watch in the Gazette this past week.

Get well wishes to Jim Boales who has recently had surgery at Falmouth Hospital and is now resting comfortably at his Aquinnah home.

Get well wishes to Leona (Smith) White who was recently a patient at Martha’s Vineyard Hospital and is now resting comfortably at home.

Happy ninth anniversary wishes to Jim and Eloise Boales as they celebrate their special day on Feb. 12.

Happy Birthday wishes this week to Julien Ortiz of Old South Road who will be four years old on Feb. 7. Aquinnah selectman Jim Newman will observe his special day on Feb. 8.

Cheryl Andrews-Maltais, Aquinnah Wampanoag tribal chairman, will observe a major milestone and will celebrate while she attends the USET Conference in Arlington, Va. on Feb. 8. Plans are being formalized for a celebration while she is there.

Ezra Newick will party on Feb. 11. Leona White will observe her special day on Feb. 12. Michael Washington and Albert O. Fischer 3rd will party on Feb. 13.