Yahoo Group for EPS Class of 84

As discussed at the get together (which was fantastic btw), I setup a Yahoo group for all of us:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/eastprairie84





Click to join eastprairie84


The blog is best for posts where we want the message to be searchable via google and other search engines.

The group will be better for general communication since the group can send us email notifications when posts are made and if need be, can also be private to group members only.

Cheers!
--Robert

Hello - East Prairie

Hi All:
It would be fun to catch up with everyone, but I will not be able to make it to Chicago this weekend. Have a wonderful reunion. I enjoyed reading the blog and hearing about your lives and East Prairie memories. Walter - thanks for organizing -- what a nice idea.

As Michelle said, I am living in Manhattan with my husband of two months - Adam. We live a couple blocks from Times Square. I moved here a year and a half ago. Debbie - it was not long after we had lunch.

I've been doing PR/Marketing for the past 12 years. I travel a lot. My brother lives in San Francisco. Adam's brother lives in Vermont. I do make it back to Chicago as well. My parents still live in the same house in Skokie.

My email address is GayleGlickman@sbcglobal.net. Shoot me an email to say hello or if you ever make it to New York...let me know and let's meet up.
Happy Holidays,
Gayle

EPS Get Together - December 23

Ok gang. Since we've found some people and I want to gauge interest in a "formal" reunion, we're meeting up at Flatlanders in Lincolnshire (http://www.flatlanders.com/) on December 23 at 5pm. I'd love to see you there and reconnect...

Thoughts..

Hello everyone!
Wow, I was just in Chicagoland for a family visit and I drove by the old 'hood....man oh man what memories! I drove right by East Prairie -- it looks so small compared to the pictures I have stashed away in my head. So funny...
I attended Gayle's wedding in October. She is happily married and living in New York with her husband. They are an amazingly perfect couple! He is so sweet and she is so happy. Who can ask for more?!?
I won't be able to join all of you during December and I hope you have a great time. Send me pictures!!
Happy Holidays to all of you and your families.
Best,
Michelle

Sorry for the long delay of posting-I forgot my password and then I could not figure out how to add a blog so hope this works. So glad to hear from everyone and see all the great pictures. Would love to get together in December-let me know if there is anything that I can do. I think I was at Russell's restaurant not too long ago-is it in Vernon Hills on Old Half Day road?
Jeremy-congrats on the new addition to your family. My mom kept telling me she saw your wife and kids by your mom's . I am surprised that I never ran into you by my mom's in Skokie.
Walter-when are you going to be in Phoenix-Troy and I are going the weekend of Oct 19th and hoping to catch up with Danica-Danica I will give you a call in the next week or so.
I did find Gayle's e-mail address-hopefully this is still her e-mail
gayleglickman@yahoo.com. I ran into Gayle last year when I worked downtown and we ended up going to lunch one day. The last I heard was she wanted to move to NYC.
Debbie

The Plan, Stan

Hey everyone...

I agree with Eddie on Dec. 26th or 27th for this little shindig of ours. How about the 27th and make it for lunch or dinner, based on Russ' availability. Whaddaya say, Russell? Why don't you check your schedule and see if that works?
Looking forward to it...
D

Hello everybody!

Rob Massat tracked me down and told me about the blog.

I've been living in Seattle for the last 13 years. Worked for Microsoft for about eight of them and had some startups and now I've been at Adobe for the last 3 1/2 years. So, I'm still a geek. Been married to Nicole (who I met up here) for the last 8 of those years. She's an animator. I'm still doing a lot of music stuff, playing with a bunch of different groups and we've been on the boards of a bunch of local art organizations over the years.

I'll try and scare up a photo.

Tom Rowe Found!

Good job Eddie. We have found Tom Rowe...now let's get him on the blog...

Reunion in December?

I'm game for December...now let's keep finding folks...Kevin Goldsmith has been found!...he should be posting to the blog soon...can anyone find Tom Rowe?

Get together

I think its a great idea to start throwing dates out. I would think Wed 12/26 or Thur 12/27 would be best. Everyone please let us know what you think. I am sure we will have a great time!

Our Get Together

Hey guys-

I will be flying in for the annual Gianni Family Christmas from about Dec. 22-28th, so if people are around and they want to get together at that time, I am in for that at Russell's restaurant. Just trying to throw a date out there...get the ball rolling.
D

Found! Jason Zamet!

I guess 'googling' helped Robert and Jason find the blog. Robert - thanks for posting. Keep em coming.

Jason - welcome back and definitely post when you have a chance.

If anyone has email addresses of the 'Lost' (e.g. Steve, Missy, etc.) , please pass them my way so I can invite them to the blog.

Nostalgia

Some things I remember:

* Dungeon and Dragons club at lunch time in 8th grade I think (but for the life of me, I cannot recall the name of the gifted program teacher) [Not the only scheme we had to stay inside during lunch period on those cold winter days...]

* Summer Band and walking with Russell to and from school every hot summer day. Russell, remeber the band concert where you had that great part in "Hey Jude"?

* I had a huge crush on Min Park at the end of 6th grade. She moved away that summer. I remained daft and dumb (regarding girls) well into high school.

* Charlie and a few others at my house playing space invaders on my brother's Apple ][ computer and then me going spaz because Charlie slammed the space bar and I freaked out worrying that he might have broken the computer.

* Sneaking my other brother's x-rated movie to Steve's house one afternoon.

* School dances where snowball really meant push-away. :-)

Some post EP moments with fellow Panthers:

* Huge party at my house the summer after our sophomore year. Two kegs of beer (one would have been plenty), Kevin as the DJ, and a bunch of us having a blast. Anyone else remember this? Patia? Eva?

* Jeremy saving my bacon during a final exam senior year (a literature class taught by Mr. LaForge) where, for the only time ever, I had writers block and this was a one or two question, written final exam. I was just sitting for the first 90 minutes starring blankly at the paper. Then out of the blue, a rolled up piece of paper lands on my desk; thrown by Jeremy who was sitting behind me. Whatever words of wisdom were written I do not recall, but it did the trick and after 30 minutes of frantic writing I made the grade. I swear to this day, if it weren't for Jeremy's help, I would hawe turned in a blank final exam. Thanks again Jeremy!

* Talking Steve into going to the senior prom. It's his story to tell if he dares and it was all my fault...

* Running into Jeremy at Hard Rock cafe during our junior or senior year, after hours, alcoholic drinks flowing, and definitely under age!

* Baseball during gym class where I was at bat and Scott was pitching. Scott threw me a good one and was I surprised when I made contact for the first time ever and made it to first before they got the ball in. (Even funnier, I was playing a dads vs. boys game a few weeks ago, and I realized back in the day, hitting was the hard part and running was easy. Now twenty some years later, it's the other way around...)

Hello Everyone!!!

I am happily married to Alla for 17 years this August. Ben is now 13 and starting 8th grade this fall. Tony is 11. We just had Ben's bar mitzvah in June. It only seems like yesterday that I was going to all of your bar and bat mitzvahs. We have been living in Buffalo Grove for the past 12 years. (Apparently 2 miles from Russell without ever knowing it...)

I am still into computers (surprise, surprise!!!) For the past 3 years I have been a senior engineer at the Chicago Board of Options Exchange. We also have our own candy store Chocolate Marvels: www.chocolatemarvels.com.

I was Steve's best man at his wedding. (I think it was 2 years ago now.) He's living near Lincoln Square and I'll let him know about the blog.

Russell, what's the name of your restaraunt?

My email: robert [at] massat [dot] net

EP Panther Found!

Another Panther has been found...Robert Massat...a picture of his family below, Ben (13), Tony (11), Alla...look for his posts shortly!

More Posts from the Girls?!?

Ok...Eva, Lisa, Patia, Big Debbie, Little Debbie? Are ya out there? :)

Let's try to find some more folks...I mean there were only about 40 of us throughout the years, right? Can't be that hard to find half of us...

Reunion

I am so in for a reunion. I visited Russ at his place. It will be a great place to meet! We need everyone to jump on board and also find the rest of the missing so we can make it a big event.

So, When Are We Meeting??????

Whaddya say, everyone? What's the plan? A get together at Russ' restaurant? Give me some advance notice; I need to book a flight!
Danica

Can you name who is in these photos?

Thanks for the pic Patia !

Here is the family and I this past Christmas. My wife Jeneffer, Kris is 10, and Kayleen is 13.

• Lisa and Patia: Yup my first day of school they immediately scarred me for life. I was whistling while Mrs. Cooper stepped out of the classroom. Lisa and Patia were on "Patrol" when they reported me for the whistle which apparently was against the rules. How about giving the new kid some slack.

• Jeremy: Our one and only sleep over. The morning we woke up we decided to take oil and toilet paper and pour it in a PLASTIC cup to see if we can blow it up. Oh yea we lit it on the grass so instead of blowing up, the cup caught on fire, the grass caught on fire, my foot caught on fire as I was try to stomp out the cup which stuck to the bottom of my foot cause its PLASTIC, as Jeremy is taking a bucket and knocking out the grass that caught on fire. That was fun :-) oh all that, while my mom pulled up to pick me up for the day and saw the whole thing.

• Michelle: I remember your secret garage door button under the flower pot towards the front part of the garage. That was a good one.

Here's a picture of our family in San Diego last year...Gabriella is almost 9 and Antonio is almost 2.

Class Photos

Ok - I started at East Prairie after the Christmas break in 3rd grade - no snickering Michelle, Debbie, and Debbie ;-) - so no class picture from 3rd grade but I do have 4th thru 8th grade. Some random thoughts while remembering these pictures:
- I have no idea who our 5th grade teacher was...
- Who was that girl named Laura?
- Didn't Karen Cedeno flunk out of 4th grade?
- Who the heck is the girl next to me and Nick in the 5th grade photo?
- Notice that Tom Rowe is wearing the same shirt as I am in 6th grade...he forgot it was picture day and Miss Piazza made him wear another shirt...actually he looked better in it than I did!
- Do you think Alexis still has her name printed on the front of her shirts? ;-)

Here's the link to the pictures or click the "EPS Pics Grade 4 -8" box in the upper right:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/8788383@N06/

Always EPS!

Michelle - thanks for joining the blog. Of course you're still considered part of the EPS class. It was you Debbie D. and Debbie G. who snickered my first day at Miss Cheney's room in 3rd grade while peeking thru the window. Always good memories. I'll never forget visiting your house for a party and seeing a telephone in the bathroom! I was like, "Wow, she's big time! She uses a telephone when she's doing her business" :-)

I might be flying out to California soon so I'll email so we can get together. Would love to catch up. Can you tell I travel a bit - seeing Danica in AZ and Michelle in CA. Who else should I visit?

Memories!

Hello everyone

It's me...Michelle Zaslavsky...Denton now. I LOVE this idea, Walter. How very fun! It will be neat to see how many people join and reconnect. Count me in for a reunion - I'll fly back to see everyone for sure. I hope I still "count" even though I didn't graduate as the EP Class of '84. Nope, I had to move to California....

Well, I did catch up with "the girls" at Debbie's wedding and it was a blast!

I am in Southern California, a licensed stock broker working in the financial services field specifically with 401(k) plans. (Walter, we use Ariba.) Denton is my married name even though I have been divorced for 8+ years. I think you'll all agree it's a lot easier than ZASLAVSKY!

So, everyone, hello again and really glad to hear all of the fantastic updates. If you're ever in Los Angeles area, be sure to let me know so we can catch up live.

Hapy 4th of July!

Smiles,
Michelle
madenton@yahoo.com

Help with Images or Pics

For folks having trouble uploading pictures, click the "picture" to the right of the Spellcheck icon.

Then click on the Browse button (if your picture is on your computer), find your picture, then click the Upload Image button.

Jilly Lai?

Ok...I found our graduation picture...so I forgot about Jilly Lai...that should be it.



Anyone have any leads on the "lost" folks below?

Lost
- Tom Rowe - Lost!
- Nick Gatzionis - Lost?
- Robert Massat - Lost?
- Steve Lin - Lost?
- Jeff Liebling - Lost?
- David Marzouk - Lost?
- Robert Spiro - Lost?
- Igor "Tony" Leavitt - Lost?
- Charlie Lui - Lost?
- Jason Zamet - Lost?
- Eva Gyorgy - Lost?
- Sue Klemme - Lost?
- Lisa Klein - Lost?
- Man Wah Lee - Lost?
- Arlene Valera - Lost?
- Jenny Ro - Lost?
- Sandy Lee - Lost?
- Michelle Zaslavsky - Lost?
- Adria Reichstein - Lost?
- Missy Weiner - Lost?
- Stephanie Weiner - Lost?
- Alexis Adanamis - Lost?
- Carmen Paniero - Lost?
- Kevin Goldsmith - Lost?
- Jilly Lai - Lost?
- Jocelyn Maningding - Lost?
- Sanjeev Mohip - Lost?
- Gayle Glickman - Lost?

The Greek Connection

-Alexis is living in California…
-I went to Nick’s wedding last summer. ..I think he might live in Barrington???
Patia

Other EPS classmates I forgot!

Ok...thanks to Jeremy and Russell, they reminded me that I forgot on the list:

- Ramona Hwang (Didn't she move into someone's house on Kostner)
- Andy Mendelsohn ("Mentholatum Deep heat rubs so fine...put a little stuff on your behind..."
- Kevin Goldsmith ("His Writ was Wrought with Wrath")
- Gayle Glickman (I think she was a reporter or something like that)
- Jocelyn Maningding (I think I have an old Christmas card from her)

Anyone else?

Playing catch for hours

Jeremy - hey bud! It has been a long, long time. I appreciate you joining the blog. Remember the days of playing catch for hours? Does your Mom still live in the same house on Lowell? Is the trainset still setup downstairs? How's your Mom? I hope well. Sounds like you are keeping very busy with your little ones...you have pics to share? Send me an email with your email address as I'd love to catch up when I'm in Skokie - have lunch or something...

We had a fight song?

Ahhh the good old days. Sitting in suspension all day eating M&Ms...Mrs Koch's library hour catching up on homework while everyone else tutored the younger kids. Sitting outside Mr. Miller's office in detention everyday after school. (Did you guys know 3 afterschools led to an all day in school and two in school suspensions gave you one day out of school) Do you guys all remember that?)

I've been living back in Skokie for the last 9 months with my pregnant wife and 5 year old daughter and 18 month old twins, with my mom, stepfather and two dogs. Times have been tough. Can anyone spare a quarter? Didn't see you Debbi D. Thought I might run into your parents Walter, as I ran by your house often. Great to catch up! Last I heard Igor had a tow truck company but someone lit the trucks on fire for the insurance.

Spiro and Pics

I think you're right Danica about Spiro. I ran into him a few years back and he gave me his business card. If I can find it, I'll email him our blog. I think Paula Cohn (Brazen) runs into him regularly. I'll ask her to mention the blog when she sees him.

Russ - I totally forgot Kevin Goldsmith and Sanjeev. We'll have to find them too.

If anyone has old pics from our East Prairie days that would be neat to see on the blog. I'll try to find mine and then post them.

Shutup!.. darn, another 25 cents to the jar!

Who remembers that one? Ms. P's famous quarter-filled jar of shutups.. or was it nickels. The same quarter or nickel I could have used for Bazooka gum at Leon's Deli. Man, that was a long time ago.

Great job on the blog Walter. You work fast my friend!

Looking forward to seeing the basketball team that went something like 18 and 2, one loss being Parkview; we all cried on the busride home. Every guy made the team that tried out, even if some of us didn't really understand the game... yes, I was guilty of that. Lot's of great memories though.. even 23 years later.

Little update about me, married (soon-to-be) 5yrs with a 19month old son named Jackson, live in Buffalo Grove and own a restaurant in Lincolnshire. That being said, would be happy to host our reunion, have plenty room for everyone and their families. Hotels are near by as well.

I'll work on locating a few of the lost names.. not sure if Robert Massat, Kevin Goldsmith, David Marzouk, Sanjeev Mohip were already listed...

Danica!!!

Oh my god! I think that's the first time I heard our fight song since we left in 84. That is so hilarious. Brings back great memories!

Danica - I'll be out in Phoenix in late October - early November...we have to hook up so I can meet you and your family.

You got pics? :)

Alive and Well In Cave Creek, Arizona!

"On East Prairie, Ever Upward, hold your standards high! Lifting up the lamp of learning; light up future skies with progress. First in honor. First in courage. Loyalty and trust..." Hey you guys! I still can't get our school song out of my head. I never even knew the fight song for Niles North, but this one has remained with me throughout the years.
Great to see this up and running! I have kept in touch with Debbie D throughout the years and went to her wedding last May and cried my eyes out. I think I was even hyperventilating at one point. :)
As she said, I am living in Arizona. Before that, I taught English and coached softball at Loyola Academy for five years, moved on the teaching at Niles North (HA! The stories I could tell you!), and then we moved to sunny Arizona to coach and teach. I married a former baseball player and now we are a bunch of coaching "dorks." I have also left teaching because I wanted to spend more time with the kids: Gabriella is 8 and Antonio is almost 2. So, I now work for Century 21 as a full time REALTOR. Not as rewarding a job as teaching, but it works for the family. I also coach my own year-round team and you can find us on www.falconfastpitchsoftball.com and my real estate site is www.danicagianni.com.
Looking forward to flying in if we have a shindig. By the way, I think Robbie Spiro owns the dry cleaning place near the Walker Brothers (? it's been so long) north of Glenview Rd on the east side of the street. My mom saw him there about 5 years ago, so I don't know if he's still there. It's a lead, at least.
Take care everyone and stay in touch!
D

HI!

Hello class of 1984! I can’t believe over 20 years have past… I’ve been teaching 1st grade at Beaubien Elementary (CPS) for the last 13 years. I am single with no kids. I am moving to Northbrook in the next couple of weeks. I’ll forward this link to Lisa. I am looking forward to catching up with everyone. Walter, fantastic site :) Thanks for putting this together!!!-great family photo
Patia

Little Debbie and Big Debbie?

Ok...now that it's been 23 years, do we still call the Debbies - little Debbie and big Debbie? ;-) Just kidding!

Thanks for posting Debbie and Debbie. Sounds like things are going very well for the both of you - well deserved!

So I saw Patia as a contributor but no post, what gives?

Here's a picture from last year of the fam...Alex is taller now

So this is my first official ever post to a blog, what a great idea Walter-it would be great to catch up with everyone and get together for a reunion some day it has been way too long. So I finally got married last year, been married to Troy for over a year now. I live in the city in Lakeview been at the same place for almost 9 years but thinking about moving to the burbs in the next year. I work in Bannockburn at Terlato Wine Group- I am the controller for this family-run wine company- so I do the lovely commute from the city to the burbs. My mom still lives in Skokie and go there often. I will forward this link to Danica, Michelle, Patia & Eva. Danica lives in Arizona and Michelle still lives in California. Eva just got married-was just at her wedding in May. Look forward to catching up. Debbie (D).

Eddie's Update

Hello everyone. Hope we all can get together soon!

I live in Gurnee, IL where its only famous for Great America and Gurnee Mills. I have been married to my wife Jeneffer for 13 years. We have 2 kids, Kayleen who is 13 and Kristefer who is 10. I work for Verizon Wireless for the last 10 years up in Greenfield, WI. My wife and I also own a tanning salon in Gurnee, IL which has been open for 7 years now. How about a little plug www.hottanz.com :-)

Anyways hope to hear and see from all of you.

Waddupp Panthers of 84!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This is awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Nice work Walter!!!!!!!!!!

Walter's Update

Thanks Debbie! I know you keep up with the "girls" so if you have their emails, pass them along to me so I can send invites to this blog. My email address is alvendiaw@yahoo.com.

As for me, I'm married to Stephanie with 3 kids - Alex 15, Madeline, 10, and Scott 8. I live in the now famous town of Oswego. I'm a Senior Manager for a software company called Ariba which deals with procurement and supply chain. My parents still live in Skokie in the same house on Tripp. We're now in the process of looking for a college for Alex as he's a Junior in high school.

I'm looking forward to catching up with everyone!

Hello EPS - Class of 1984

Wow, looking at the list brings back a ton of memories. Walter, thanks for starting the blog. A reunion would be fun. I want to hear what everyone is doing and how many kids everyone has now that we are all grown up. I'm single with no kids. I am a controller at Strange Engineering, a manufacturing company in Morton Grove. I live in the city and unbelievably run marathons.

People to Find

Ok...here's the list of the class of 84 and folks that I could come up with and we need to find:

1. Walter Alvendia - Found! ;-)
2. Eddie Rubinstein - Found!
3. Russell Sher - Found!
4. Tom Rowe - Lost!
5. Nick Gatzionis - Lost?
6. Paul Payawal - Found!
7. Jeremy Brown - Lost? Found!
8. Robert Massat - Lost?
9. Steve Lin - Lost?
10. Jeff Liebling - Lost?
11. David Marzouk - Lost?
12. Scott Scher
13. Tony Puleo
14. Robert Spiro - Lost? Found!
15. Igor "Tony" Leavitt - Lost?
16. Charlie Lui - Lost?
17. Jason Zamet - Lost?
18. Debbie Desalvo - Found!
19. Debbie Gradman - Found!
20. Danica Petrovic - Lost? Found!
21. Eva Gyorgy - Lost?
22. Sue Klemme - Lost?
23. Patia Colovos - Lost? Found!
24. Lisa Klein - Lost?
25. Man Wah Lee - Lost?
26. Arlene Valera - Lost?
27. Jenny Ro - Lost?
28. Sandy Lee - Lost?
29. Michelle Zaslavsky - Lost? Found!
30. Adria Reichstein - Lost?
31. Missy Weiner - Lost?
32. Stephanie Weiner - Lost?
33. Alexis Adinamis - Lost?
34. Carmen Paniero - Lost?

What up Panthers!

Ok so when we went to East Prairie we had computers that weighed about a ton and you had to play a cassette tape for 20 minutes to run a damn program. Now we are blogging. What the hell is that? We need to do this reunion.

Welcome!

Welcome to the East Prairie Class of 84 blog!



After years of wanting to get our small graduating class of 1984 together, I've got this idea of first getting together virtually then together live. Since I don't have everyone's email address, I figured this was a great way to start. Thanks to the Oakview reunion for inspiring me to get our EPS class together again.



Please share and forward to all past East Prairie classmates!



Walter Alvendia