It seems as though as soon as I send out a
newsletter, I receive responses from more people. This is great! Keep sending me your news
and I will pass it along via this newsletter. I would like to hear what brought the rest
of you to the American School of Madrid in the first place. At some point we may have
known this about each other, but if the rest of you are like me, very little of that
information seemed important enough for the teenager to remember.
Since I am asking for all this information from you, I better start
the ball rolling with my own story. I arrived in Spain on July 4th, 1965. My
father was one of the Station Directors at the NASA/INTA Tracking Stations outside of
Madrid. After a year in a Spanish school (what would have been 9th grade) my parents
realized that I needed to be in an American high school program. We lived in San Lorenzo
del Escorial and they opted to send me to Marymount International School in Barcelona as a
boarder.
Marymount was great but it closed in the summer of 1968. So, I was
back in El Escorial. In the meantime, my parents had heard good things about ASM, so they
enrolled me for my senior year (1969). The also enrolled my sister for 9th grade. The
following year, my younger two siblings attended until the family returned to California
in January 1970.
I stayed in Spain until 1972. I worked as an interpreter/translator
at la Compañia Telefónica Nacional de España. When I returned to California, I worked
at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in the Deep Space program and eventually became a
computer programmer, while going to school to be a teacher. Strange! I enjoyed programming
and the "fast track" (which included very slow commutes on LA freeways) until my
husband, Jerry, and I started our family. I became a stay-at-home mom to a son (now in
10th grade) and a daughter (now in 8th). I started volunteering in their schools and
before I knew it, I became the teacher I started out wanting to be. Now I teach computer,
Spanish and science to pre-school through 8th graders at two different schools. I love it.
I also work with a local optometrist as a Vision Therapist.
My latest hobby has become writing e-mails and newsletters about
the American School of Madrid. As Class Agent for 1969, I found 11 people from our class
since the end of June. I am also the temporary Class Agent for the Sixties Decade. The
Internet, Kim Cullen (Alumni Coordinator) and the two web sites have been great! I never
would have imagined getting in touch with so many of my classmates and so many others that
I never met (but hope I will)! I most recently connected with Peg (Danos) Castelli
’67. Not only did she agree to be class agent for 1967, but she is making copies of
ALL the class pictures from 1961/62 through 1967 for me. I just received the copies from
the 1961/62 yearbook (the inaugural year for ASM). Gosh! You can’t imagine the thrill
to see a face I recognized: Luís Diaz-Galeano in 5th grade! I am attempting to
compile fairly complete class lists for the decade, which will include everyone who has
had their name in the yearbook since 1961.
To keep everyone from the 60s up to date on the whereabouts of
other 60s alumni, I have started another newsletter. Voice of the Sixties will appear in
your e-mail box around October 1st!
The Class of 1969 is doing a great job at providing input for this
newsletter. As you can see it is getting much longer! So, without further ado, here is
what the others have been up to:
Carmen (Pickett) Catala writes from Miami:
"I don’t know how much Xamara has told you about me. In a
nutshell I’ve been married for 24 years to a great (!) guy I met while I was still
going to ASM. Rick and I have 3 children: 2 girls, ages 19 and 16, and a boy, age 10.
We’ve been in Miami almost 19 years now. Rick works as a systems operator and I work
in the Treasury area of a British bank. I majored in English and am one class away from my
MBA. I can’t begin to tell you how much I’m looking forward to getting it out of
the way, so I can return to subjects of interest. I was able to find out where Rich
Daugherty works and called him. Would you believe that his office is in the building
across the street from mine?"
Ricardo (Ritchie) Daugherty writes:
"I am married to an Argentine (Celina) and we have two
children, a girl (16) and a boy (13). After my four years in the Air Force (from ’69
to ’74), I enrolled in Georgetown University, graduating in May of ’78. I came
to Miami for a short vacation and by the end of the year I was working for Southeast Banks
in their private banking area. Today I work for a Swiss Bank as Senior Vice-President and
Country Manager for the Southern Cone."
From New York, Inge Moller writes:
"It was a wonderful surprise to hear from you! As you know
from Xamara, I am an interpreter at the United Nations, doing simultaneous interpretation
from English and French into Spanish. I also speak a lot of German (my father was German,
my mother is Colombian), but my command of the language is not up to interpretation level,
plus German is not one of the official languages at the United Nations.
My freshman year of High School I was in Spain and studied in
Mallorca at Baleares International School. I spent my sophomore and junior years in my
country, Colombia, at Colegio Nueva Granada in Bogotá. I attended ASM for my senior year.
After I graduated from ASM, I remained in Madrid for 4 years,
studying at Centre Universitaire Cluny, an annex of the Faculté des Lettres of the
Catholic University of Paris. I did ‘Lettres’ and Translation and
Interpretation. In 1973, I married an Irishman, Peter O’Brien, and joined him in
Geneva where he worked as an economist for the United Nations. After some 3 years, we
moved and spent time in Madrid, Malta and Canada. Then we lived 6 years in Vienna,
Austria, where I worked a lot as a freelance interpreter, mainly for UN institutions. I
kept going very often to Spain, as my parents still lived there. In mid September 1984
(exactly 14 years ago!) the UN brought me to New York as a staff member. I have been
divorced since 1987.
I still love to dance! If you look at the comments next to my
picture in "El Clarín", you'll see why I say that. I'm also lucky enough to
laugh very often (that too has to do with what was written about me in our yearbook). [See
quote of the month at the end of this newsletter.]
I have kept in touch with Xamara (and her sister Zaida). We
continued seeing each other in Madrid, and now that we are both in the U.S., I have been
to Miami and Xamara has been here in New York. I would love to communicate via e-mail with
all our classmates, so please publish my E-mail address in your mailings (te lo agradezco
de antemano)."
From Miami, Henry Sanz tells me:
"Originally I did not have much choice when moving to Madrid.
At the time I was 15 and my dad was transferred there. There I enjoyed some of the best
years in my life. I loved every bit of it.
After I graduated from ASM, I went to college at the American
College of Switzerland. I was there for 2 years and then decided to go back to the States
(Miami). I graduated from Florida International University, with a B.B.A. In 1975 I moved
to Caracas, Venezuela where I worked in the merchandising department of the largest
supermarket chain, then assistant to the Purchasing Vice-President and later Import
Manager. In 1978 I moved to Casa Hellmund, the largest photographic and audiovisual
distributor in Venezuela (Fuji Film, Leica, Bell & Howell), as Purchasing Manager.
During that time I also set up a corporation in Miami to serve as Purchasing agent for
several Venezuelan companies that were importing into Venezuela. In 1980 it got to the
point where I could no longer handle it from Caracas (things in Venezuela were getting
pretty bad). I decided to move to Miami. Everything went peachy keen until 1982 when the
bottom fell out of the economy. It cost me quite a lot of money and I had to close down.
From there I started with Merrill Lynch in their Latin American office out of Miami. After
about 9 years, I got fed up with the big "corporate Life" and I got out of the
business. Since 1992 I have been Director of Sales of a small-medium size construction
company in the Miami-Ft. Lauderdale office.
I got married in 1982. I have a daughter 12 years old going on 21,
and an 8 year old son going on 18."
While on vacation in Southhampton, NY, Connie (Guzman) Coleman
wrote:
"The four of us are fighting for the use of the computer all
the time. Today is a beach day for us, we must take advantage while we can. Oh, yes I
managed to get in touch with Jamie! What a day it was for me yesterday getting in touch
with the two of you! One lives so much for the now and the present but it is nice to look
backwards in gratitude."
I could tell the Coleman family had managed to get totally
hooked on the Internet and particularly e-mail while visiting in Southhampton, NY. I
figured it would not be long before they got e-mail at home. It did not take long at all.
On September 13th, I received this message from Munich:
"Well I am in business now. I sent you a nice long letter
[snail mail] with a pic hope you get it very soon. So I am sitting pretty at the moment
with my e-mail address. But I am not sure this is going to work, will you write me back
asap?"
I wrote back and not only did it work, but AOL Germany (which she
is on) and AOL here in the States make it seem like we are next door neighbors. We put
each other on our buddy lists and are able to communicate almost daily via instant
messages. The problem is, neither one of us has a telephone line dedicated to the
computer, so we tie up our home phones while we chat on-line. Well, I suppose if it
wasn’t us it would be our teenagers who would be tying up the phone!
Last, but not least, Joanne (Hattrick) McGrath surfaced
again with the following input which is sure to stir up memories and generate more
responses for the next newsletter:
"I remember one Halloween dance where Marcie Meierkord and I
went as Siamese twins. We had on two long sleeve shirts that we had painted with sixties
slogans of love and peace. We sewed the shirts together so we had to be stuck to one
another all night. It was a real scream. The music was deafening!!!!!!! I still have the
shirt as a recuerdo. Somewhere I have a foto if the termites haven't gotten into them.
Did anyone go on the field trip to Talavera de la Reina to the
pottery factory? That was a lot of fun. Can anyone remember when the Up with People group
came to Madrid and we went to Escorial with them? They sang inside the church by the main
altar. To this day I can remember that it was the most angelic thing I have ever heard.
Who all went to see the Beatles at the bull ring? Now that was an event to remember! I
remember how I use to listen at night to the pirate radio station off of England. It was
so cool to listen to the latest hits in English and so fast. Who went with me to the James
Bond movie, Goldfinger? It was Marcie. Remember we had to be 18 to get in so we dressed up
and put so much makeup on that my mother still laughs at me for that foolishness. It was
fun sneaking into the discos underage. Remember the one there by the Alcala metro station.
It was underground. Those were the days when you could ride the metro all around for a
couple of pesetas.
Anyone remember that party we went to way way out somewhere and we
listened to the Doors all night? We kept singing "Come on baby light my
fire....." Remember out at the Torrejon cafeteria eating and listening to the latest
Beatles’ hit: ‘Strawberry Fields’?"
Wow, what memories! Thanks to all of you for the great
contributions to the Utopian Senior Society News. This is totally cool, beyond groovy!
Again, let me remind you to submit the questionnaires to both ASM
sites:
http://www.learningoasis.com/pages/asm/index.htm
official site
http://www.gutech.com/asm
unofficial site
Kim Cullen (Alumni Coordinator) is currently updating the official
site. I will let you know as soon as the page is up and running. Gus Gonzalez posted all
of our names and e-mail addresses in the 1969 e-mail directory on the
"unofficial" site.
Please continue to pass the word about the two sites, and if you
know the whereabouts of any ASMers who attended during the 60s, please let me know!
Quote for the month: "The most useless day of all is that in
which we have not laughed."
Keep smiling, keep laughing, keep in touch! Hasta la próxima!
Michelle (Fearey LaGue) Mock – ASM ’69 |
