GCCCD Grapevine

Volume 13, Number 2                                          Grapevine Home                                                           July, 2003

District Retirement Party

             
              GCCCD Chancellor, Vice Chancellor, three board members and gala MC  pose with new retirees.

Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community College District honored 24 retirees at Barona Resort on Friday, May 23, 2003 during a well attended dinner/dance. The setting was stunning, the menu was elegant, and the company was grand. A good time was had by all.

The gala event was attended by 160 retirees and well wishers, who congratulated their friends and colleagues as they transition to well earned opportunities to pursue their real life interests. New retirees attending included Nancy Blazovic, Linda Bunney, Sharon Chase, Sharon Clark, Mary Donnelly, Stan Flandi, Jerry Humpert, Lois Knowlton, John Maley, Annjennette McFarlin, Mary Paschke, Glyn Rowbotham, and Cora Shtino (see group photo above).

Governing Board Vice President Ron Kraft noted that although over 610 years of experience were lost to the District as a result of the retirements, it was the Governing Board’s pleasure to acknowledge the retirees’ achievements, and thank them for their dedicated and loyal service. Kraft was joined by  Board members Rebecca Clark and Rick Alexander in extending best wishes to the retirees.

Chancellor Omero Suarez observed that the value of the retirees’ contribution to the District was incalculable, and that it has "laid the foundation for all the great things the District will accomplish in the future." Chancellor Suarez also invited all the retirees to remain in touch with the District community, and to participate in future activities.

Vice Chancellor Charleen McMahan presented each retiree with a token of the District’s appreciation from a selection of premium cut crystal bowls, vases, and other objects d’art. Each retiree and dinner participant also received a keepsake "photo gallery" of the retirees, and will receive complimentary pictures of the event.

Master of Ceremonies Peter White shared light humor and anecdotes with retirees and guests during the presentation, and presided over a celebration that has grown in popularity and attendance over the years.

The retirement committee, consisting of Michelle Cuozzo, Bev Burkhart, Jean Wallace, Tom Foster, Alba Orr, Therese Long, Bob Eygenhuysen, Yvonne Board, Irene Zens and Cindy Tilton, was recognized for their success in organizing the event.

Next years’ eagerly anticipated retirement celebration is tentatively planned for Friday, May 14, 2004. It will be organized in East County around a country western, rather than Hawaiian, theme, by popular request. Grapevine readers will be notified of the location in plenty of time to save the date. (article by Bob Eygenhuysen, photos courtesy of David Zumaya, except when credited to Les Orr, retirees identified in composite poster thumbnailed at end of this article)

         
Board members Rebecca Clark, Rick Alexander, Ron Kraft    l to r: MC Peter White,  retiree Glyn Rowbotham

          
               Retirees dance away the night                            C’mon, hon, make up your mind (photo by Les Orr)

    
Diner Ed Magee followed by  wife Lynn, & Joanne Silva   l to r: Toni Mueller, Joanne Prescott & Shirley Jones                                                                                                                          ( photo by Les Orr) 

                            
 Bob & RosemaryEygenhuysen. Bob wrote           (click to enlarge)       Les & Alba Orr. Les took some   photos,       this article, chaired  gala planning committee.                                      Alba worked on gala planning committee.    

Chemistry Department Bids Farewell to John Maley

The Grossmont College Chemistry Department hosted a retirement party on May 9 for Dr. John Maley at Marechiaro’s Italian Restaurant in El Cajon. John is the last of the ‘old timers’ to retire (preceded by Bill Givens, Chuck Park and Bill Bornhorst). There was a leisurely cocktail hour with hors d’oeuvres before dinner, then the thirty-some guests were seated banquet style and served a delicious Italian dinner with a variety of entrees, topped with a choice of dessert pastries. Following the dinner, there were a few ‘roasts’ while John was presented with a variety of chemical apparatus clearly designed for making home brew. Following this, he was presented, appropriately, with a large engraved beer stein. John thanked his guests and reminisced about his teaching experiences at Grossmont College.

      
     For my beer making machine?            I'm going to love retirement!                        Let the good times roll!

Editor’s Comments
            
                  By Tom Scanlan

Our involvement in Iraq remains controversial and very political, so whatever I say might upset a goodly portion of our readership. OK, but let me say first that I found myself glued to the TV for hours during the early days of Operation Iraqi Freedom, awed (but not shocked) by the precision and speed of the air and ground attacks. I felt a certain pride, as an ex-Marine, watching their armored units move swiftly through Iraqi positions. I was, in fact, favorably impressed by the discipline and deportment of all the military coalition, American and foreign.

But aside from this, I continue to believe that we initiated that war for the wrong reasons and in the wrong way. Our own inspectors have found no WMD’s (Weapons of Mass Destruction) or major manufacturing facilities, even after months of careful searching. There might have been other compelling reasons to unseat Saddam Hussein, but President Bush relied heavily on the potential threat to our own country by WMD’s in order to get Congressional support for military action--with or without UN approval. He and his cabinet realized that regime change, in and of itself, would not have been persuasive, no matter how brutal or oppressive the regime, because there are at least a dozen other such places on this planet where citizens are brutalized, starved and slaughtered. Are we (and "the coalition") planning ‘regime change’ for those nations, too? I don’t think so. As for the implied terrorist connections, do we need reminding that there were neither Iraqis nor Iraqi-based terrorists involved in the infamous terrorist assault of September 11?

There is no argument that Hussein’s regime was brutal and inhumane to many of his citizens and has threatened and attacked adjacent nations. The argument, instead, is how to deal with inhumane or threatening regimes. The Iraq problem, the Afghanistan problem, the Chechnya problem, the Israeli-Palestinian problem, the Al-Qaeda problem—these are all international problems. As I recall, there are numerous organizations, agencies and treaties that were designed in large part by our own nation, to deal with human rights violations and international threats or attacks--not the least of which is the United Nations.

OK, OK, I hear your groans. The UN is a hotbed of international political squabbling that can never agree on anything. Right. Think US Congress. Representative democratic organizations like the UN are always going to be slow to respond, especially   to the wishes of a single or a few nations, unless there is an imminent threat, as was the case when North Korea invaded South Korea. If it had been demonstrated that Iraq posed a clear and present danger of catastrophe (and this was NOT done), I believe that a UN majority would have supported military action against Saddam Hussein (which then might never have been needed when Saddam saw a world united against him). The UN apparently did not believe that Iraq yet posed a threat either so colossal or so imminent that it warranted preemptive military intervention. Such preemptive action infringes heavily upon the sovereignty of a nation and would seem to be at odds with the UN’s own charter--as well as principles which I thought were dear to our own citizens.

Maybe the UN charter should be changed so that it can be more proactive rather than reactive in a world that has changed so much since the end of World War II-- more particularly, since September 11, 2001. If the UN needs fixing, then let’s work at fixing it. Let’s not, in our haste, abandon the very institution we once believed was essential to maintaining world peace (having just ended the bloodiest war in our planet’s history).

Now that hostilities are essentially over, why not invite the UN weapons inspection teams back to Iraq? Why not use their experience and expertise? How credible will it be to most other nations in the world if our own teams eventually come up with evidence, absent international corroboration?

Do we really care?

We ought to, if we expect continued international support of peacekeeping efforts such as the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which North Korea (and possibly Iran) appears ready to violate (or already has). We ought to, if we’d like support with our regime building efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan and the considerable time, expense and policing efforts this requires. There would certainly be less civilian hostility if it were an international team, including some Arab or Moslem states, trying to keep the peace while a new government is formed. We ought to, if we don’t want to further weaken the United Nations, the one organization that most of the world’s nations, including ours, have chosen as the arbiter, and--if necessary--the enforcer of peace between nations.

Just because we are presently the single most powerful nation on the planet and can rid nations of corrupt and threatening regimes without international support--does not justify that we should. A world in which just one or a few powerful nations get together and decide when and how much force to use, no matter how ‘surgically’, to bring about a desired regime change--is very unsettling to me. It is the essence of democracy that attaining and maintaining world peace should be the work of all nations, not just the prerogative of a powerful few. Isn’t that worth fighting for?

 We welcome guest editorials or letters on whatever issues you feel would be of interest to GCCCD retirees.

  Driftwood
Snippets of gossip that have been burnished by friends and washed up on the Grapevine desk

    by Bob Steinbach

I’ve noticed in the last couple of issues that my connection with the Math Department skews this column in that direction and that the editorial makeup of the Grapevine has a science division bias. We’re always looking for stories or tidbits from retiree get-togethers – please drop us a note and/or pictures so that we can broaden our coverage: rcsteinbach@cs.com or tom.scanlan@gcccd.net.

They shall remain nameless. As we retire, we often hear, "What will we do without you?" but for the most part, life goes on. However, one of our retirees has been enticed to be a consultant on the Grossmont Campus. §  It has been a harrowing seven months of surgery, infection, pneumonia, feeding tubes and various other medical procedures, but the final stitches in June are expected to sew up a miserable chapter for one of our retirees.
                            
(click photos to enlarge)
Stan Claussen tells us that Jan is starring in "Over the River and Through the Woods", a play that deals with four grandparents and their grandson, who spends sundays with them as they try to get him married to a nice young lady. She has gotten boffo reviews from the local weekly. He just attended the National Audio Theater Festival in West Plains, Missouri, where he recorded echoes and watersounds in a limestone cavern for a production called "Irish Wilderness".

Mary Ann Escamilla-Beverly’s book, Getting "It" On, is now available. She likes to call it a motivational book, illustrating how opportunities for work, adventure and play can be found everywhere. (see review in Biblio-files, this edition)

  Winston Dean and Carol took a 7200-mile road trip in May to Virginia for Winston’s son’s wedding. They took the central route going, making tourist stops in Denver and Abilene and returned by the southern route, where they were in the red zone of Oklahoma City’s second tornado. They piled into the motel bathtub and pulled the mattress over themselves, but the funnel veered off about a mile away. Winston calls it a unique experience.

  Wayne Harmon is now president of the San Diego Audubon Society; he learned the ropes as vice-president for the past two years.

  Pat Higgins will transit the Panama Canal for the first time in September on a cruise from Los Angeles to Florida.

  Warren Keller and his wife enjoy the cruising life. They have taken several Alaska cruises, but their favorite was the Scandinavian Capitals cruise.

  Millie McAuley participated in a splendid adventure in Peru with a group from La Sierra University. The 12-day trip included the highland gems of Lake Titicaca and Machu Picchu as well as the steamy Amazon Jungle. Coming up is a trip to Greece with Marie James.

  Toni Meuller led a lively discussion of the San Diego Opera season at her end of the table during the May "Second Tuesday" breakfast. Toni and her husband have been season ticket holders for years.

  Ray Resler is back in town. He decided it’s prudent to abandon his luxurious surroundings in Thailand until the SARS epidemic has played out.

  Bob Rump still helps coach the women’s tennis team at Grossmont College, and wouldn’t you know it—they won their ninth community college state championship. Shall we try for ten?

  Gay Russell received an award from the Sun City Vistoso Board of Directors at their Annual Meeting on May 15. They declared her a "Hero Among Us," an acknowledgment of an extraordinary contribution to the community. Gay’s work was highlighted in the March 2003 Grapevine.

  Don Scouller and Joan are repeat customers on small ship cruises – in June they boarded in Chicago and spent 15 days on the Great Lakes, the Erie Canal and Hudson River, debarking in Warren, RI.

  Don Shannon hosted friends and fellow retirees at a patio party at Beverly Manor, his convalescent home in La Mesa, on Sunday, June 8. Hamburgers, potato salad, wine and soft drinks plus desert were served to about twenty guests, including retirees Lee and Barbara Roper, Tom and Rosemarie Scanlan, and Harry Cousineau. Don gave the party to express, in part, his thanks for their friendship and efforts, which help him cope with his convalescence.

  John Stubbs and Dorothy sponsored a French student when John was teaching, and after retiring, they were invited to France by the student. They stayed in a 125 year-old farmhouse and were treated royally. John was able to revisit the shores of Normandy where he came ashore in June 1944. They sold their home in El Cajon and are living in a mobile home park near Lake Jennings where John can play a lot of golf.

Bill Bornhorst, Tom Scanlan, Shirl Collamer and guest, Rosie, Don Anderson, John Stubbs, Phebe Burnham, Marie James, Bob Steinbach, Virginia Steinbach, Millie McAuley, Joanne Prescott, Pat Higgins, Judy Barkley, Mary Ann Escamilla-Beverly, Ray Resler, Bob Peck, Wayne Harmon, Dave Lunsford and Erv Metzgar gossiped about past, present and future at the May "Second Tuesday" breakfast at Denny’s. No one tabulates data and memories are weak, but we think that’s a new record for attendance. Many conversed long after the food was gone.

  Rob Larson,   Dave Lunsford, and honorary retiree Bob Evans welcomed new retiree Larry Langley into our ranks at a Math Department "End-of-the-Year" party at Bob Chow’s home. For photos, go to http://www.evansmonterey.com/GCMath/index.html until early September ‘03.

And from our Grapevine Guest Book on the web – thanks for kind comments from Bill and Cathy Hansen, Curtis Stevens, Laurie Brown, Maggie Gonzales, Donna Hajj, Keith Bryden and Nancy. In addition:

William Tester: … I will send you a few pictures of my part of the world. Later that is.  (We're waiting)

Heidi Sterling (Former student): I hope you can pass this message on to Mr. Keith Bryden: Dear Keith, … I was a student of yours many years ago at Grossmont College (1989-1991). I just wanted to send you many thanks for being a wonderful teacher and friend. I had such a great time at Grossmont, and felt really looked after by my teachers, including you. Coming all the way from Australia was a little daunting, but you and your colleagues were so friendly and helpful, that I felt comfortable straight away. I remember fondly the classes taught by you, Gay Russell and Don Settle. Because of your wonderful teaching and guidance, I pursued my dreams and got into the film and television industry over here in Australia. My best friend, Justin, and I, now have two beautiful small children (Jett – 3, Sierra – 1.8) and we have a beautiful wooden home in the mountains. I am a full time mum and loving it and in a few years will go back to the movie industry that I love so much. If you keep in touch with the special teachers from those few great years, please pass on my sincere gratitude and love. I wish you all your favorite things in life and much joy and love, always. Heidi Sterling

Engelhorn Circle Completed     by Pat Higgins
     
    (click photo to enlarge)

For Lee Engelhorn, retired G.C. geography instructor, the Austrian village of Ehrwald is a place of bad memories and happy memories.

The bad memories are of being captured near Ehrwald in August,1944 after having bailed out of his doomed B-24 bomber, Sugar. They had been strafed by German Messerschmidt ME 109 fighter planes while returning to their Italian base following a mission against the Manzel aircraft plant in Germany. Though wounded, Lee was able to walk, so he set out for the Swiss border, some 20 to 30 kilometers away. Foraging as he went, and using emergency maps he managed 16 days. Then some children spotted him in an orchard, told authorities, and he was arrested.

He was then taken in the sidecar of a motorcycle to a prison camp, where his wound was cleaned and shrapnel removed. The following year the Germans had to shuffle their prisoners as the Russians advanced, and from February 5 to April 25, Lee and the other prisoners marched 500 miles into southern Germany as the end of the war approached.

When the war ended, Lee was freed by the U.S, 104th Infantry Division; and down 75 pounds from his normal weight he looked forward to resuming civilian life. He got his bachelor’s degree at the University of North Dakota in 1950 and his master’sdegree in 1956. He went to Minnesota for a time, then came to California where he had been living when drafted. He began teaching in Sun Valley in the Los Angeles area. Then he heard about Grossmont College, soon to be opened. He applied and was accepted as a member of the founding faculty.

The subsequent years were good. His time at Grossmont was pleasurable as he saw the college grow into a respected institution. At home he and his wife, Ruth---who died of Alzheimer’s disease a few months ago--raised a family of four sons and a daughter. Life was good, but one idea came and wouldn’t be banished. Lee thought his life wouldn’t be complete without another look at the Ehrwald area and the people who had captured him.

He wanted to show his family the area which was so much a part of his history. "I was driven for 50 years with the desire to go back," he says. His desire finally was fulfilled. Last year, with his four sons and his daughter he went to Ehrwald and spent two weeks enjoying the hospitality of friends who used to be his enemies.

"They treated us like royalty, "Lee remembers. They were lodged in an exclusive  resort owned by the brother of their principal host, Gerd Leitner. a man who had honored both American and German World War Two flyers in two-country reunions in recent years. Lee had learned about Leitner earlier, and the arrangements for the Ehrwald visit were largely made by Leitner.

Among the highlights for the Engelhorn sons was a hike into the Austrian Alps where the B-24 had crashed 58 years earlier. Lee bowed to age, and let the sons make the hike, somewhat rugged even for young men. Somebody who lived in the area had erected a simple memorial for those who perished with the plane. There were still some pieces of the aircraft on the ground, and some of those came home with Lee.

The pleasure of the visit was enhanced by the presence of two other members of the B-24 crew, Joseph Spontak, the navigator, who now lives in Baltimore, and George Britton, the bombardier, now living in Florida. They, with Lee, are the only ones left of the 10 -member crew who took the flight on that ill-starred summer  day. Two were killed in the crash; the others went to POW camps, were eventually freed and all but Lee, Spontak and Britton have since died.

For Lee, the Ehrwald visit was the completion of a circle of history; where he’d been he went again, satisfying the ever-present drive of 50 years. Happily the visit was all that he had hoped. The years had done their work---whatever animosity there might have been among enemies is gone now among friends.  (click photos below to enlarge)

      
Lee's B-24 crew. Lee on lower left;        Monument to fallen airmen at Ehrwald,       Lee standing next to a case full of         B-24 Sugar           Joe Spontal, far left standing;              Austria. l to r, George Britton, Joe Spontak        medals earned during WWII
George Britton, standng far right        and Lee Englehorn                                                         

Time to Update Parking Permits

If you are using a parking permit (or wish to obtain one), the current permits expire at the end of July. You can pick up your new permit as of July 1 at the Business Communications office room 103B. You must show staff or picture ID at that time. Patti Griffin 619-644-7622

New Benefits Technician

Jeff Scott was hired May 21 as the district’s new benefits technician, following a careful search to fill that vacant but vital position. Jeff is in the Navy Reserves and was part of a Seal team based in Turkey during the recent Iraq war. He has over ten years experience working with insurance matters for several school districts. He is the person to contact if you are still covered by any type of district insurance and need help in such matters. His phone number is 619-644-7643.

What About Health Benefits after 65?

Some of our more recent retirees have asked what kind of medical plans us ‘older folks’ use after our district benefits run out. There are lots of choices and that’s where maybe some of us who have had good experiences with a particular plan could offer suggestions. Many have stayed with Kaiser and enrolled in the Senior Advantage program and remain pleased with the coverage. Others have gone to Medicare and purchased supplementary insurance such as AARP to cover drugs and fill in the gaps. GCCCD Direct Health also has options for those turning 65. You may be able to stay in the same group plan under which you are currently covered by GCCCD, but to do so you must notify the district within 90 days of turning 65, and then you pick up the tab for your group benefits and pay it directly to GCCCD.

Bibliofiles:
    by Tom Scanlan
(click on bookcovers to enlarge; click on title for Amazon.com reviews or purchase)

  Getting ‘It’ On: A Little Book With Great Reminders on How to Grow With The Flow, Mary Ann Escamilla-Beverly (1stBooks, 2003)

Mary Ann wrote this little book at the prompting of friends who had admired her positive style of coping with life and told her that she should write down some of her philosophy, insights and experiences for the benefit of others. The book is consequently as much about Mary Ann as it is a guide for others. In fact, I derived my greatest pleasure when reading this book from learning lots of fascinating things that I hadn’t known about her.

Most of us knew Mary Ann only as an attractive and very upbeat teacher in the Dental Assistant program at Grossmont College. Some of us also knew that she was a very talented singer. Rosemarie and I had a charming experience many years ago in an Italian restaurant in Pacific Beach when Mary Ann stopped by our table to see if we had any songs to request (mostly operatic, of course). I recall that we asked her to sing some of her own favorites, even though most anything by Puccini would have delighted us. She had a lovely voice and she made that dinner experience an evening to remember.

One fascinating item that I discovered in her book was that she had won a singing competition when she was fifteen, which put her in Hollywood, studying alongside stars such as Jane Withers and Mickey Rooney. But there’s lots of other surprising details of her life which you’ll discover if you read this book. She uses her variety of experiences to illustrate a set of ten rules which she believes helped her cope with both the good and bad of life. The rules are pretty universal in nature, designed to establish habits such as creative living, a positive outlook, good health practices, and the like.

It’s generally accepted that what works for one person may not work for another, because life just isn’t that simple (one reason I normally avoid self-help books,) but her book is an enjoyable way of seeing how these rules for living helped Mary Ann, and they may just help some of her readers as well. You can read a free preview and purchase her book on the internet at http://www.1stBooks.com or just contact Mary Ann and she’ll sign your copy for you.

(editor’s note: I don’t assign * ratings to books written by our own retirees. I do encourage any retiree who has written a book to submit it to me for review and publicity.)

  Red Sky at Morning, Richard Bradford (Lippincott, 1968) *****

This has always been one of my personal favorites. I discovered it many years ago by way of the movie of the same title, starring Richard Thomas (his first major role), Richard Crenna and Claire Bloom. One of my closest friends, GCCCD retiree Don Shannon had told me about it. He said I’d like it because it paralleled that part of my own life in WWII when my dad left for the Pacific and our family went to stay with relatives in northern New Mexico. It turned out there were other parallels. I learned just recently that the author, Richard Bradford, who died last year, was almost the same age as I. Not only was his father away in the Navy during WWII (as mine was) but Richard was in the Marines from 1952-55 (as I was), grew up in the South as well as northern New Mexico and consequently fell in love with that country and it’s special enchantment (as I did).

That is essentially the setting of the novel. It is a coming of age story about a boy, Josh, in his final year of high school, who has been raised in the genteel ways of Mobile, Alabama, and is now attending classes with students in a small town in northern New Mexico whose customs and speech are as alien to him as if he were in a foreign country. He is, however, fascinated by the Hispanic and Native American culture and manages to blend in pretty well, even though he is the real ‘foreigner’ to his classmates and friends. His mother, however, has difficulty adapting, even though the family had vacationed there from time to time over the years because Josh’s father loved the area for its beauty and its people for their unpretentiousness.

The first part of the novel includes some laugh-out-loud sections describing Josh’s reactions to adult thinking and life in general. He experiences the usual problems of adolescence in the hilarious and sometimes adventurous company of two high school chums, the outspoken, cynical son of an obstetrician, and a rector’s tom-boy daughter whose uninhibited pronouncements are quite the opposite of the way girls spoke in Mobile. There are other characters who enrich the story; the family’s handyman, the town sheriff, a high school tough (and his sister who wants to be a nun), a bohemian artist friend of his father, and a house guest whose free-loading ways eventually lead to a show down. They are much like people we all have known in our years of growing up. They take you back to your own bittersweet years of adolescence when curiosity and compulsion coexisted so precariously. This book has become a modern classic in the coming-of-age genre, sometimes referred to as a western version of Catcher in the Rye. It’s a wonderful novel. Read it.

My oldest daughter, Karen, sent Rosemarie and me a delightful book this past Valentine’s Day. It was a non-fiction book that could be described as part autobiography, part wine review, written by a husband and wife. It is also two love stories, one about their own marriage and the other about their mutual love for wine. They currently write a weekly column on wine for the Wall Street Journal.

Both long-time journalists, they each began their journalism careers in Florida and first met in the newsroom of the Miami Herald. They realized immediately that they had found their soul-mate for life. Their romance was particularly interesting, initially, because he’s from a fairly traditional Jewish family and she’s black. In addition to their love for each other, they both shared a passion for wine, even though they were relative novices at the time they met because their families were not regular wine drinkers. Dorothy and John, however, began to make wine a part of their daily life and took careful notes on all of their tastings, starting sometime around 1974, one of the best vintage years on record.

As you read about the twists and turns in their careers and marriage, you are also introduced to a variety of wines and wineries. Because they lived in major cities on the east coast, Miami and later New York City, they were exposed to a variety of European wines, especially the French and German. They soon realized, however, that California wines were often as good or better and were invariably cheaper (in those days). They began to take wine vacations to parts of Europe and several trips by train (their favorite conveyance) to northern California. Their expertise in wine and contacts with journalists eventually led to their weekly wine column with the Wall Street Journal, especially popular because these two clearly know and very much enjoy wine, and yet they avoid the pretentious style so common to most such reviewers.

Coincidentally, 1974 is about the same time that Rosemarie and I completed a course on Wines of California at Grossmont College and began to keep a wine log of our own. We were amazed, as we read their description of California wines, at how many of these wines we had enjoyed ourselves. Karen knew this, of course, when she sent us their book, but we’d recommend it to anyone who enjoys wine with their meals and feels that ‘a day without wine is a day without sunshine’.

  Atonement, Ian McEwan (Nan A. Talese-Doubleday, 2001)****

This novel is about point-of-view and the power (sometimes destructive) of young girl, Briony’s imagination, unfettered by sexual worldliness. This thirteen-year-old observes her older sister, Cecilia, in what she believes is a compromising situation with a young man, Robbie, the housekeeper’s son, who has just graduated from Cambridge. Briony had a childhood crush on Robbie and feels betrayed. She also witnesses the apparent rape of her older cousin , who is staying with her family. This took place at night, outside, and the perpetrator fled when she came upon the scene, but she’s convinced that it was Robbie, and her cousin supports her in this belief. Robbie is convicted and sent to prison on the basis of Briony’s eye-witness testimony.

Shortly thereafter, England declares war on Nazi Germany and Robbie is released from prison to serve in the infantry. He is caught up in the ill-fated retreat from Dunkirk and the novel now focuses on this defeat and Robbie’s feelings about the war and for Cecilia. Back in England, both Cecilia and Byrony have become nurses, and are preparing for the thousands of wounded soldiers being ferried across the channel from Dunkirk by a fleet of mostly private fishing vessels. During this same time, Birony discovers that she has made a horrible mistake about Robbie’s involvement in the rape of her cousin. She realizes that Robbie and Cecilia are deeply in love and that her testimony has ruined their lives. How can she possibly atone for her mis-deed?

Clearly, this is primarily a coming of age story and a crime story, but it also a magnificent telling of the heroic, often tragic evacuation of the English troops from Dunkirk. The author’s informed and vivid description of how England’s nurses trained for and dealt with that disaster is reason enough to read this excellent novel. 

Digital cameras are becoming ubiquitous. Using a computer to crop, enlarge and print copies of digital photos is quick easy and economical. It looks to me like we are about the last of the folks who are going to be asking, "What are we going to do with all of our slides?" Slides and photos take up a lot of space and furthermore, the colors in photos, negatives and slides tend to deteriorate over time.

What to do with my thousands of slides has troubled me. A lot of family history gets broken into pieces as photo albums and slides are distributed among heirs or worse yet, thrown out. For example, I would like to have my kids refresh their memories of a trip to Death Valley with their grandparents, but who gets which slides?

I considered video taping a slide show, but during viewing there is no flexibility in the time a picture is shown; also, getting to a particular picture is difficult. Digitizing photographs and slides offers flexible and economical options for preservation and duplication. After some experimentation with scanning, I have found that the best way to get slides into my computer is to project the slide on a quality screen and photograph the screen, without flash, using a digital camera on a tripod. The process goes smoothly with one hand advancing the slides and the other pushing the camera button for those pictures I’m interested in.

I have also had good luck using my digital camera to capture photos that are difficult to scan because they are in albums or frames.

Once in the computer, the photos have been preserved and now the fun begins. The pictures can be cropped and tuned (brightness, contrast, etc.); pictures can be joined to create a panorama; people can be added or distracting clutter removed from photos. I use Micrographix Picture Publisher to manipulate the pictures; John Dixon likes Adobe Photoshop; Don Scouller uses Corel Photo-Paint, and there are many others.

                            
Here’s a picture that could have been taken                                     Sample screen from Diji Album
    if Virginia and I had met in college.

To create digital photo albums, I use Diji Album. A trial version can be downloaded from www.xequte.com and purchased for under $35. DijiAlbum allows one to create computer photo albums with one or more photos on each page; the size of each picture can be adjusted; titles, descriptive text and graphics such as speech and thought bubbles can easily be added as well as video clips and sounds. Background music may be played during album viewing. You may select from many covers (e.g., leather, bamboo, granite, ...) and many page styles (e.g., parchment, rice paper, linen, woven reeds, colors, …)              

Create a number of albums and burn them on a self-running CD for distribution to your friends and relatives. The recipient places the CD in a PC and a bookshelf pops up displaying the titled spines of the albums on the CD. Click on an album and start turning the pages. Click on an icon to return to the bookshelf and select another album.

                
                                                                          The Diji Album bookshelf

We retirees can take an active role in preserving our photographs and family history. Eight or ten albums and thousands of photos on a single CD; think of all the empty shelf space you will soon have in your closet or garage.

P.S. Computer tip: The Print Screen key (don't shift) puts a copy of the monitor screen on the clipboard. You can then go to any other program (Word, Paint Brush, Publisher, Email, ...) and paste a copy of the screen into a document or graphic image.

Editor’s Note: If you have any helpful technical advice or tips that you think would be of general interest to our retirees, write us a letter.

     Peggy Keatley
        Born 2/02/39
    
      Re-born 12/03/01 
      (click photo to enlarge)

Peggy Keatley worked at Cuyamaca College for 23 years. Peggy worked as a Student Services Specialist in the Articulation Department at the Counseling Center. She was wheel chair bound as a result of having polio at an early age. For Peggy just coming to work each day was a challenge. It was amazing to watch her go through her 15 minute process of getting both her wheel chair and herself into her car. Her life very much centered around her job and friends at work. She enjoyed teasing and being teased. She also enjoyed candy mints, fresh, home grown tomatoes and Orange Chicken. She wasn't bashful in letting you know when her supply of either was running low! Peggy was a special lady who is missed by all of us in the Counseling Center at Cuyamaca College who came to know and love her for the many wonderful personal qualities she had. Peggy was due to retire in January of 2002.

(editor’s note: Because Peggy had not actually retired, her death escaped our notice at the time, hence this belated memoriam, courtesy of Maggie Gonzales, Student Services Specialist, Cuyamaca College)

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