Saturday, September 29, 2012

Names from Long Ago

This week I saw the name Patricia Q. Breitenbach in the Cleveland Plain Dealer obits. As I read through the obituary I realized that Patricia was the mother of Kathy Breitenbach, who was in a class with me at Notre Dame/St. Mary's College. Kathy, whose last name now is Sarnacki, was in a French class with me. I remember talking with her after class one day around 1968 or '69 and we discovered we were both from Greater Cleveland: me from Euclid and Kathy from Pepper Pike. Mrs. Breitenbach died at age 88; she had a large family and is survived by many children, grandchildren, and even a great grandchild. This was a successful life; may she rest in the peace of the Lord.

The other day I was thinking about my Euclid neighbors when I was a kid, back in the 1950's and 1960's, especially the kids around my age: Brian D. Cox, Alan Lane, Howard and David Packer, Walter (Buster) Zylowski, Chucky Lintern (I bet the last time he was called "Chucky" Dave Garroway was the host of the Today show!), and a few others. I have totally lost contact with all these guys. I wonder where they are, how their lives have gone.

The fall weather also caused me to think of Ron Valenti (Valente?), another person I haven't heard from in forever. He would come over to my house (from his home on Elinore Avenue, near Forest Park Junior High), and we would play football on Farringdon Avenue. Ron was an "immigrant" to Euclid from Warrensville. Wonder whatever happened to him?

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