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Mike Floyd

Hi Everyone and thanks for your comments.  In Urbanna, we are preparing for the worst and hoping for the best.  The boat has had the hatches battened, the sails and bimini lashed and the dock lines doubled up.  The generator has gas and it started when I tested it yesterday.  I went to Harris-Teeter in Williamsburg today and got all the necessary supplies to last for a week.  I think we are good to go. 

We are in Flood Zone B and will leave if told to, but it looks like Florence may send only some wind and rain our way.  We have had storm surges for 3 days now.  I have to wait for low tide to work on the boat because the dock is underwater around high tide.

If you Google 9/11 and Rosh Hashanah there are several pieces about the bittersweet celebration for the Jewish families that lost loved one on 9/11

Marilyn Wolfe (Ruben)

Mary (Draney) Murray told me about the approaching Hurricane.   I, too, hope everyone is safe & hope you can get out of "wherever you are," when you are warned to do so !   It's hard to believe that there have been so many  hurricanes these past few years, when the last one I remember living through was when I was 10 years old!  

I hope your refrigerators are full, but if the electricity clicks off, I hope you all have an ice chest to keep your food fresh, and if necessary, a car to take you to higher ground!

If you can leave town and visit another state to stay dry, please do so!  Take your most precious possesions in a big trunk and find a friend's house or a hotel where you can stay.  If anybody wants to "Hide out" in Florida, let me know!

Jo-Ann Olkowski

Thank you, Barbara, for your nice comments.  You are right - we should never forget the horrors of 9/11 and the still lingering pain of the survivors and their families.  I contacted family in VA Beach and close to Raleigh yesterday and have a couple more people I need to contact.  I heard shortly ago on the news mention the potential impact on the Appalachians and TN Valley - water does tend to run downhill. I'm not down in the Valley but closer to the Cumberland Plateau, but wind is wind and rain is rain.  I'll be going out very soon to get extra water and maybe a little extra food and then probably get with my neighbors as to what to do about our little neighbor who lives under me.  Her apartment has flooded many times since I've lived here, despite all efforts to defect the water away from her patio.  Our building is at the lowest point of the entire complex! 

Until we know more about the maps and pinpoint landfall it appears right now that a good part of GA and the Atlanta area could be impacted up through the Carolinas, VA and further up and that's a lot of land mass to take into consideration.

I hope all will take notice and be prepared whether badly impacted or not.  Be safe, be well, my friends.

Jo-Ann

Marilyn Wolfe (Ruben)

Ditto from here, Jo-Ann!  Our area has Earthquakes and occasional big Monsoon Rainstorms (April, August, November), but we are too far from the Coast for Hurricanes!  Hope all will be safe this week!

Thanks for the nice Rosh Hashanah greeting, Mike!  I like the little Shofar design on the Home Page!   

We spent the Holiday with Arizona State University's Hillel Student Group.  They provided a delicious hot meal at the Hillel House for about 50 students & services for about 60-70. We were one Senior couple out of 3 who were present.  ASU now has 3 different Jewish organizations that sponsor Dinner & Religious Services on the High Holidays!  There are about 2,000-3,000 Jewish students at ASU now, with the usual "split -offs." As the expression goes:  "Two Jews, Two synagogues!"

Happy New Year to all my Jewish classmates!  I hope this year brings you Good Health & Happiness!

Melvin Katz

As some of our classmates have commented on the storm and the rememberance of the horrific events of 9/11, my wife and I are also keeping a keen eye on the strom. We have a home in th Outer Banks in Nags Head, North Carolina. That town and the county of Dare is under a manditory evacuation. I am sure the damage to many homes will be severe and one can only pray for everyone to be safe and to take heed of this impendsing storm. Let us pray for all those in harms way.

Marilyn Wolfe (Ruben)

I was thinking about you, Melvin, and wondering where you and Elsie will stay!  Will you be going to Boca Raton 

to be with your son?  Also, I think Sue Ellen Arenstein and Barry Steinberg are in Georgia, and I think the Hurricane is due to strike there also!

Classmates, wherever you are, please evacuate to a safer place!  And let me know if you want to visit Florida!

Carol Battige (Levine)

For all my classmates in the "danger zone" I pray for your safety.  It was exactly a year ago that Irma slammed into tiny Port Charlotte, FL, but it was nothing but a bad storm compared to Florence.  Hope for the best, but please be prepared for the worst. 
 

Jo-Ann Olkowski

I have hesitated to "jump the gun," but as some of you may not have heard, Richmond and surrounding counties had multiple tornadoes yesterday.  Don't know how good communications are generally - lines down, power outages, etc. even if they were not where the tornadoes hit.  It's full cloud coverage here in East TN, but I think we've dodged the bullet in terms of any heavy rain.

Let's hope and pray that all those friends and family we have in Richmond are safe and sound and will be able to contact the class website.  My daughter texted this morning saying it was a long night last night but they were safe.

Marilyn Wolfe (Ruben)

thanks for the "heads up,"  Joanne!  We were out all afternoon & evening & came home late!  I will check to see if everybody is ok!

Mary Draney (Murray)

It was an interesting evening with multiple tornadoes. Some were close, University of Richmond, Parham and Patterson. One, across the river in Chesterfield, resulted in a fatality in a destroyed building. A number of friends were in hall closets or basements. We never actually needed to go into our downstairs hallway, but were in the midst of fierce storms. We were fine...all of our patio and porch umbrellas and furniture were still stowed away from last week...no major limbs down. Our thoughts and prayers go out to all affected.

Mike Floyd

Mary, Glad you are safe and without any damage.  Fortunately, Urbanna dodged the Hurricane and the Tornadoes.  Hope everyone else is safe.  Waiting to hear from Anne Ferrell and Jim Lanier.  They live in Wilmington and evacuated her daughter's in Charlotte.  I pray that their home is safe and without damage.

Linda Fiske (Wehrle)

Was really weird watching the weather channel as the storm tracker was driving around Richmond and actually recognizing streets and landscapes. Hope all are safe . Sometimes our blizzards up here in Michigan are not so bad.Take care all and know You are all in my prayera

Marilyn Wolfe (Ruben)

I am so glad everyone there is safe!  I was having a  MAJOR Panic Attack about the storm in Richmond!

Anne Ferrell Smith (Lanier)

Thanks to all who have reached out to us during Florence.  We did evacuate from Wilmington to Charlotte, NC, but after 8 days away we made it home .  It took 2 days of travel to get back - heavy traffic, inching along, flat tire . . . but we made it and are so glad to be here.

 Thankfully, Our house is intact.  Our lot is a war zone, with many trees and limbs down.  One very large, tall oak is leaning towards the house, roots exposed.   Jim has enlisted a team from Missouri, working nearby, to help with that, and they are working from a bucket to take it down without having it fall and crush the house.  Expensive, but we are grateful for their help.  Hopefully they will return today - they are a nice bunch of timber men. 

We are feeling very thankful - it could have been so much worse - but also tired, as you can imagine.  The internet goes off and on here  but this morning it is working and I wanted to reach out  . . . Thanks so much for your concern.   Anne Ferrell  

Peggy Smith (Robins)

Dearest Anne Ferrell, I've been thinking so much about you and your family and the flooding from the hurricane.  So glad to read your post that you and Jim are safe and your home was not flooded!  Know that love and prayers are wiht you and yours. Love, Peggy and Alex Robins 

Marilyn Wolfe (Ruben)

oh! Anne Ferrell, what an ordeal you both went through!  You two have clearly "beat the odds" on Patience!

Please know that all of us have been thinking of you & worrying about you, & we are so happy you are both safe  & sound, and your house, too!

Hope the tree removal goes smoothly & you two stay in good health!

Love & thanks for your message!

Mar-

Sally Kincannon (von Rumohr)

SUCH good news Anne Ferrell!  Thank you for letting us know that you’re both safely back at home.  Last fall it was our son in Florida and a dear friend in Sonoma we worried about:-(.  It seems that this season has become fraught with the wrath of Mother Nature!  xo

Jo-Ann Olkowski

So very glad to see that classmates are slowly but surely being able to get in contact to let us know they are o.k.  I'm glad I have this "pocket" thing on my computer even though I don't quite understand it!  My computer remains compromised by unwanted "forces."  I went into this pocket thing directly to my TJ thing to find one post from Mariilyn Wolfe Ruben posted on 9/20 ... and I have yet to see an email saying there was a post from her!  It's not Mike's fault - I get fake emails from the class that are obviously fake by the way they are sent/worded.

I get lots of fake emails!  I can apparently get all the cannibus I want; but I can even top Bill Clinton on that one! Not only have I never inhaled ... I've never held any of it in my fingers! LOL!  I know that some messages get blocked on my Ancestry account when I go in and have a notice that some family member has contacted me. A few hours or a day or two later I finally get the email saying I have I message from that member.  It is what it is!

In any event, I'm very glad to hear from classmates who can get through.

Love to all.

Jo-Ann

Mary Nelson Payne (Reynolds)

Anne Ferrell,

So glad you all made it through Florence pretty well.  It is so good to hear from everyone down there who endured Florence.  My older brother lives in New Bern, so you can imagine how I worried about them, particularly because they elected to ride it out.  Their entire first floor is being gutted out and they are staying at night in a room a friend is letting them use.  They are required to be at the house every day during repairs, so plaster and dust is part of life.  But they are all right and looking to the future with hope.  Their dog is enjoying the doggy spa all the while.  Some day all of you will hopefully look back on this horror as a story to tell.  Thanks again for letting all of us know you are all right.

Mary Nelson

P.S., Jo-Ann, I must say your computer woes were a fun relief from our worries about our Carolina friends.

Mike Floyd

I too am very glad everyone has survived the storms, Hurricanes & Tornadoes.  Just a quick note to anyone that has trees down.  If the tree is resting on any type of structure, house, tool shed, fence, etc. most homeowner’s policies will pay to have the tree removed.  I would think that this would apply if trees severely leaning toward a structure, but I’m not as sure of that. 

If you have the tree removed before your insurance company sees it be sure to take photographs of the tree and the structure and save your receipts.

Marilyn Wolfe (Ruben)

Jo-Ann, I never knew you were so funny!  You sound like me!  Everybody keeos saying "Change your Password," but the hackers will hack anyway, no matter what I do!  I also get my "Notifications" a day or so AFTER I have already read the message on this Website, Facebook, etc.  At my old email address, I received requests for money from Fundraising Programs &  also from Politicians running their campaigns 5 hours before the deadline or a day after the deadline, so that was a  good way to save my money!  Ha!  Ha!  

Anyway, I enjoy your little stories!  Keep them coming!

Jo-Ann Olkowski

Thanks, Marilyn!  Of course I'm funny ... I was just always too busy trying to hide myself in the shadows out of self shame/embarrassment of students I feared were so far superior to me both socially and intellectually.  Enough said.  So, yes, I'm funny - perhaps sometimes in a weird sort of way - perhaps sometimes in a Polish sort of way; but make no mistake:  I'm not THAT Polish!!  I have to be able to laugh at myself. How does the old saying go? "Laugh and the world laughs with you; cry and you cry alone."  Polish jokes don't bother me.  For instance, take the old joke about how many Poles it takes to screw in a lightbulb.  In my case it's one: me and a phone call to the maintenance people to screw in the bulb for me.  I HATE changing lightbulbs!  I can unplug all my lamps but the ceiling lights require a step-stool and I prefer to keep my feet firmly planted on the floor!

Take good care.

Jo-Ann

Marilyn Wolfe (Ruben)

Thanks, Mike, for the Sukot Greeting!   You are more aware of the Jewish Holidays than most people I know!

My professors at Arizona State University keep scheduling Tests on Rosh Hashanah & Yom Kippur, and this year, they did that in my Granddaughter's class, too! There are 2,000-3,000 Jewish students at ASU, but I guess the Professors don't read the emails from the Anti-Defamation League every Fall !

PS - My granddaughter just composed her first online feature story called "A week in healthy college living."  (She is "into" Fitness "Big Time!")You can find it under "The Chic Daily!" on Instagram, or on Twitter. (She sent me an email, 'cause I don't do those websites). Her name is Sammy Byrd!

Jo-Ann, I always knew we had something in common!  My ancestors were also Polish!  My Mom's Grand- parents came from a little town on the border of Poland, Russia, and Austria, called "Kamanetz-Podolski." It is no longer there, because it was absorbed into the Ukraine, where my Father's ancestors lived.  She could not read a word of English until she went to Kindergarten.  She was born in America, but the family read & spoke Yiddish (Hebrew & Polish mixed together).  She could read an entire Yiddish newspaper, sitting on her Grandfather's lap & write letters in Yiddish, but she never taught us about it!  It was "a secret language" between her & her Sisters & Brother & Cousins. Her Great-Grandfather was a Rabbi in Poland who wrote commentary on the Talmud (Jewish Law). That is probably why my Mom, my Sisters, and I are all so interested in "The Law" today, although none of us are Attorneys!  

 When I married Joel, my Mom used to write letters to his Grandmother ("Bubbie") in Yiddish!  "Bubbie" came from a tiny town in Russia  where the first Prime Minister of the State of Israel, Chaim Weizmann, lived. He looked exactly like Joel's Uncle in Chicago! - they were Cousins!  Another famous person there was the writer of Jewish stories, Sholom Aleichem (real name- Solomon Rabinowitz).  He was a funny man;  the play & movie, "Fiddler on the Roof" was derived from his stories!  Plus, there was an illiterate Jewish man in my Mom's Grandparents' town in Poland, who used to walk the kids to Hebrew School. He couldn't read or write, but he could SING & DANCE!  So that filtered down through our family, too, and ALL of us love Music & Dancing!  His nickname was "The Baal Shem Tov" ("Master of the Good Name"), and an entire group called the Lubavitchers exists today in many countries. (They wear tall hats, long black coats, and long beards.)

 My Dad's Grandfather came to the U.S.A. through England & when he reached Ellis Island, they changed his first name to his last name, because they couldn't read or spell his given last name. (That's how we ended up with the last name of Wolfe! My Dad added the "e" because he said "it looked like a Wolf without a tail!"

Anyway, this all goes to say that there are many types of intelligence: Musical, Artistic, & Literary Skills, in addition to Math, Science, etc. Read Howard Gardner's "Theory of Multiple Intelligences."  It is an Eye-Opener!

(PS- I also HATE changing lightbulbs on the ceiling!  I give that job to my daughter or my husband, because I am scared of heights & afraid to lose my balance!  So we have something else in common!)  I LOVE your stories!  Keep writing them!

Jo-Ann Olkowski

Ahh, Marilyn ... so you are Jewish with your ancestral roots Polish/Russian.  So is mine!  My Dad's familyn settled in Buffalo, NY.  His grandparents on both side entered the US in the 1880s at the Port of NY at Castle Garden (now a park/historical museum in lower Manhattan).  Ellis Island became the Port of Entry later.  Dad's paternal grandparents lived in territory controlled by the German Kaiser, his maternal grandparents lived in Russian held territory under the Czar.  Either way, all Poles were in deep trouble.  It's a country that's very, very rich in it's history and contributions to the betterment of mankind over the centuries. Unless you've already read it, I have a book recommendation for you:  Poland - A History by Adam Zamoyski. It's an excellent read with maps of the ever changing borders of Poland on all sides and some beautiful color pictures of Polish artifacts. It was only at the end of WWII that Poland had absolute borders as a nation, but you may already know that.

Also, if you have not already seen the movie "Imitation Game." It's an historical account of a brilliant Englishman whose efforts in WWII to solve the secret German communications system Code named "Enigma"  which ultimately saved England from total destruction from bombing by the German planes. There was little to nothing said, but at the same time there were 3 Polish Jewish scientists/ mathmatitions also trying to break the code. In short, this Englishman designed and built the first mainframe which over time would envolve into today's internet. 

I don't care what Al Gore said ... he did NOT invent the internet!  He is also not Jewish/Polish/Russian!  LOL!

We'll have to discuss further, Marilyn in another "venue."

Love to you and yours,

Jo-Ann

Marilyn Wolfe (Ruben)

Thanks, Jo-Ann, for those references!  I was going to Research "The History of Poland" a few years ago for a course I was taking on "Cultural Diversity in Education," so I could give an assigned Oral Report on the ancestors of "My Role Model," who was my Mother, or "The Ukraine," where my Dad's ancestors were born, but the Professor limited our choices to someone alive who could be interviewed, and they had both passed on, along with their Parents & Siblings. So I never completed that Research, and it is STILL something I need to do!  The "Russian Ancestry" is all my husband Joel's, on his Mother's side.  She & her Mother (his Grandmother) looked & acted exactly like Russian characters  you might see in a movie, and his Grandfather had already passed on.  The only possible relationship I could have to Russia would have been that Russia invaded BOTH Poland & The Ukraine, and the Cossacks invaded the Jewish community in a series of Pogroms, and THAT is why my Grandparents in BOTH countries decided to move to the U.S. A.!  I often wish I had asked my Mother questions about her Grandparents, who lived in her house when she was a child & never spoke a word of English! (Neither did she, until Kindergarten!)  But kids are not very foresighted, & most of that information was not discussed as part of our daily routine. It only "came to light," as they say, when my Mother began to write her memoirs for a book club she joined in Annapolis, Maryland, where she spent the last  5 years of her life with my Sister. She never saw the book published during her lifetime. My Sister & her Gardener (who was also a Photographer) gathered up the little stories & had them printed into a tiny book, along with some rare photos of her & her Mom & Siblings, plus some famous locations in Baltimore, where she & her Siblings & my Father were all  born. She met him in Richmond, when she came to visit her cousins!). So all I know about my "Family History" is in that little book, plus the fact that my Great-Great Grandfather in Poland was a Rabbi  & a Scholar of the Talmud.  I once had a great desire to visit Poland & see where my Great-Grandparents lived, but the village where they lived is no longer there, and the land  is covered by a large factory, according to my Sister, who actually saw the place. So all I can do is to look at the old photos in a book my Sister found at a book fair, about the old Jewish Community of Poland.  They all look like my ancestors may have looked. (My Mom told me that whenever her Grandmother saw a camera pointed in her direction, she would leave the room!  I guess that superstition left us with no memories of that generation other than "stories!"