TLC #2: Feb. 26, 2001
Greetings!
As Del Scharnhorst explained to me, it's okay to put things off so long as
you don't procrastinate.
I promised not to write often, but the mail brings items of interest to
all. I do appreciate feedback and, in particular, items you'd like to see
included.
Liz Backs Guevel tells me the CLASSES OF '51 AND '52 are working on a
joint reunion over Labor Day. So put it on your calendar now. Liz Bertz Fenner
and Eileen Mischon Carpenter are in charge.
Several people reminded me I didn't mention the Chinese restaurant on
Franklin. I was concentrating on "downtown" restaurants, but the China
House (as it's now known) is excellent. The Lexington Inn serves a great
breakfast but not much in atmosphere. I've heard the Sunday buffet is good
too.
Barbara Lee '57 Fay reports that her 7th grandchild was born on February
17, my birthday. For some reason the parents are calling Little Susan by the
nickname Elizabeth Lee Hennessey.
I am going to attempt an attachment, but it may turn out to be a forwarded
email - bear with my novice technological skills - from Jack Gueguen. You should
follow his lead, and send news. Your reporter would be ever so grateful.
Your verbose scribe,
Susan
From Jack:
I don't have any news about Lexington (my last visit was Dec., 1997, when
we buried my mom) but in case anyone is interested in my news, I can provide you
with the briefest of sketches. It's 50 years this fall since I embarked
upon a higher education (at the quiet behest of Roy B.), and it is still a
lively quest. My days are still spent in the company of many university
students, but somehow they seem much more agile than I am. I can't always
follow the strange dialect they speak, but I always manage to find a few who are
eager for whatever "wisdom" I've managed to acquire in a 43-year
teaching career. I left the classroom at Illinois State in 1996, but I
still teach informally here in my "retirement home"--a large student
residents on the U. of Illinois campus (Lincoln Green Foundation), where I serve
as "senior mentor". I'm always giving talks and taking part in
conferences here and yon (almost always by public transit as I never did become
a skilled driver--in spite of the solicitude of Mr. Grechus). I even get
over to the Univ. Library now and then, but nearly everything I need is here at
home in my library-archive, which is fairly well organized. (If anyone
wants to get a summary of its holdings, try my page:
http://lilt.ilstu.edu/jguegu )
Only 2 years ago, one of the many young computer whizzes
here in the residence took it upon himself to drag me into the 20th century just
before it expired, and I learned the wonders of these new electronic
media. Now I get a dozen messages a day from colleagues and former
students, almost all of them asking for some help with a topic I am supposed to
be an expert on (which seems to be anything in philosophy and American
studies). When I get a rare moment to advance my scholarship, it is
usually in what I call "philosophy of culture." (At LHS we must
have had some kind of incipient culture, but I didn't discover philosophy until
the Notre Dame years. Although I suppose Ernestine Seiter was something of
a philosopher, or at least an intellectual.)
I also delight in keeping up with the several families I
belong to, beginning with the Gueguens of Lexington, who are now scattered all
over creation. Eighty-some of us managed to be all at the same place at
the same time last June near KCI. There is also my much larger academic
family, and my religious family within the Catholic Church (it's called Opus
Dei). Mary Pat, Loretta, and I made our pilgrimage to Rome last September,
and for a rare week, all 3 "families" came together in a truly
marvelous unity. To put it briefly: I HAVE BEEN SO
BLESSED! AND I AM SO GRATEFUL TO THOSE DEAR HEARTS AND GENTLE PEOPLE WHO
LIVED AND LOVED IN OUR HOMETOWN!
Yours, Jack
715 W. Michigan Ave., Urbana IL 61801
(217) 367-6650; fax: 344-2987.
I look forward to hearing from anyone who wants to write.
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