Get Together With Some Class of '55 Classmates and Friends

 

 

 

On Saturday, July 25th, Mary Lou Hoffer Beggan from Wilmette, IL, was in town to visit her family, and some of us from the Class of  '55 got together with Mary Lou, her daughter Ann, and Jane her niece, as well as other friends. We met at The Golden Spoon for a delightful brunch and stimulating conversation.  Fortunately, the weather turned out to be beautiful for our day. 

Karen Peters Pugh,

an old friend

Dolly David Wetzel and Mary Lou Hoffer Beggan

holding up their Golden Spoons

Dorothy Minning Cuccia: 

we thank you for setting up the event.

                From front to back:  Mary Lou's daughter Ann, her 

niece Jane, Susie Justmann David, Mary Lou Hoffer Beggan,

Dolly David Wetzel, and Dawn Klemme Ross 

 

                                                                   Dawn & Dolly

The Whole Group

                                            Patti Wackett, Marialyce Hartmann       

                           Wackett, Karen Peters Pugh, Richie Block, 

  and Dorothy Minning Cuccia

And Our Lone Man, the Charming

Richie

Block

Watertown Women Once Again Meet for Lunch

Celebrating our Long Friendships, Friday, November 7, 2025

Donna Howard Lehman, Audrey Rieck Williams, Dorothy Minning Cuccia! Sitting is Dolly David Wetzel and Marialyce Hartmann Wackett!

Dawn Klemme Ross was unable to attend due to a family celebration for her late sister Marlene, whom we all remember affectionately.

 

Hello From Our Class of '55 Blog

 

Thought You'd Like to Know!

 Thanks to Jack Bast for sending this to our blog

Subject: Very Cool!

 

The One percent group born

between 1930 & 1946

 

For those born between 1930-1946

Some interesting statistics......

The 1% Age Group

This special group was born between 1930 & 1946 = 16 years.

In 2022, the age range is between 76 & 92

Are you, or do you know, someone "still here?”

Interesting Facts For You . . . .

You are the smallest group of children born since the early 1900s.

You are the last generation, climbing out of the depression, who can remember the winds of war and the impact of a world at war that rattled the structure of our daily lives for years.

You are the last to remember ration books for everything from gas to sugar to shoes to stoves.

You saved tin foil and poured fried meat fat into tin cans.

You saw cars up on blocks because tires weren't available

You can remember milk being delivered to your house early in the morning and placed in the "milk box" on the porch. The Good Humor ice cream truck coming through the neighborhood. 

You are the last to see the gold stars in the front windows of grieving neighbors whose sons died in the War.

You saw the 'boys' home from the war, build their little houses that they were so happy with. 

You are the last generation who spent childhood without television; instead, you “imagined” what you heard on the radio and you read library books.

With no TV until the 1950s, you spent your childhood "playing outside" There was no Little League. Many kids walked to school.  

There was no city playground for kids. You organized neighborhood baseball and football games on vacant lots. You rode your bike everywhere.

The lack of television in your early years meant that you had little real understanding of what the world was like.

On Saturday mornings and afternoons, the movies gave you newsreels sandwiched in between westerns and cartoons.

Telephones were one to a house, often shared (party lines), and hung on the wall in the kitchen (no cares about privacy).

Computers were called calculators; they were hand-cranked.

Typewriters were driven by pounding fingers, throwing the carriage, and changing the ribbon.

'INTERNET' and 'GOOGLE' were words that did not exist.

Newspapers and magazines were written for adults and the news was broadcast on your radio in the evening. Kids read comic books.

The Government gave returning Veterans the means to get an education and spurred colleges to grow.

Loans fanned a housing boom

Pent-up demand, coupled with new installment payment plans opened many factories for work.

New highways would bring jobs and mobility

The veterans joined civic clubs and became active in politics.

The radio network expanded from 3 stations to thousands.

Your parents were suddenly free from the confines of the depression and the war, and they threw themselves into exploring opportunities they had never imagined.

You weren't neglected, but you weren't today's all-consuming family focus.

They were glad you played by yourselves until the street lights came on.

They were busy discovering the postwar world.

You entered a world of overflowing plenty and opportunity; a world where you were welcomed, enjoyed ourselves and felt secure in your future although the depression poverty was deeply remembered.

Polio was still a crippler.

You came of age in the '50s and '60s.

You are the last generation to experience an interlude when there were no threats to our homeland.

The second world war was over and the cold war, terrorism, global warming, and perpetual economic insecurity had yet to haunt life with unease.

Only your generation can remember both a time of great war and a time when our world was secure and full of bright promise and plenty.

You grew up at the best possible time, a time when the world was getting better...

You are "The Last Ones."

More than 99 % of you are either retired or deceased, and you feel privileged to have "lived in the best of times!"

Amen! It’s great being part of the 1% ….Special Group!!

 

To All Our Class of '55 Classmates!

 

Dawn Klemme Ross

Editor, Class of '55 Blog

Our Classmate Augie Tietz never to be Forgotten!

Leaders sing praises of Tietz as Jefferson County preps tribute

 

How To Survive a Heart Attack When Alone

 

Read this for info:  Dear ALL,   1 Let's say it's 7.25 pm and you're going home (alone of course) after an unusually hard day on the job.   2 You're really tired, upset and frustrated.   3 Suddenly you start experiencing severe pain in your chest that starts to drag out into your arm and up in to your jaw. You are only about five km from the hospital nearest your home.   4 Unfortunately you don't know if you'll be able to make it that far.   5 You have been trained in CPR, but the guy that taught the course did not tell you how to perform it on yourself.   6 HOW TO SURVIVE A HEART ATTACK WHEN ALONE? Since many people are alone when they suffer a heart attack without help, the person whose heart is beating improperly and who begins to feel faint, has only about 10 seconds left before losing consciousness.   7 However, these victims can help themselves by coughing repeatedly and very vigorously. A deep breath should be taken before each cough, and the cough must be deep and prolonged, as when producing sputum from deep inside the chest.   A breath and a cough must be repeated about every two seconds without let-up until help arrives, or until the heart is felt to be beating normally again.   8 Deep breaths get oxygen into the lungs and coughing movements squeeze the heart and keep the blood circulating. The squeezing pressure on the heart also helps it regain normal rhythm. In this way, heart attack victims can get to a hospital.   9 Tell as many other people as possible about this. It could save their lives!   10  A cardiologist says If everyone who gets this mail, kindly sends it to 10 people, you can bet that we'll save at least one life.   11 Rather than sending jokes, please.contribute by forwarding this mail which can save a person's life....   12 If this message comes around you ......more than once.....please don't get irritated......You need to be happy that you have many friends who care about you & who remind you of how to tackle....Heart attacks....