The Ridgewood Maroon Vol. 3… No. 98
Wednesday, December 13, 2023
“Bringing us all to a place we don't want to lose."
Observer: Maroons Online Podcast
Macky’s New York: Ornamental Chicago
William Peay: Tales From The Wood…
RHS Athletic Hall Of Fame: Made For & Inspired By RHS Alumni
Project Arrow: Creating An Online Home For RHS Arrow Yearbooks
Mark Porro: A Cup Of Tea On The Commode
M + A NYC: Mighty Are We As One
Our Classmates: 45th Reunion RHS 1979
James Stroker: Hope Coach
Jim Schoneman: Rock Hound
Siobhan Crann Winograd: Around The Village
Kathy & Ross Petras: You’re Saying It Wrong
Ridgewood Library Bolger Heritage Center: RHS Graduation Photo
Observer
Maroons Online Podcast
2024 will begin the 4th year for The Ridgewood Maroon. As part of the Substack platform we employ to create and distribute this newsletter, there is Podcast capability. This allows us to use the Substack platform to promote the Podcast and help people find it.
If you or someone you know would like to be the host and/or producer contact me by replying to this newsletter. You can be age 18 to 100 and living anywhere. As long as you are part of the alumni and not trying to pass yourself off as being younger than 100 years old your inquiry will be welcome.
The Maroons Online Podcast would be like most Podcasts and attempt to create human connections, something that’s rare. It will fit nicely into the growing constellation of websites & archives which Maroons Online is currently presenting and is seeking to expand.
Macky’s New York
Matthew Cortellesi Photography
December 11. 2023 - Times Square
Ornamental Chicago
I've been told that I put the "mental" in ornamental but when I saw this through the raindrops...I just knew I wasn't in Kansas anymore.
Looking west through double pained plexiglass at the musical Chicago marquee with raindrops.
Time 9am
William Peay
Tales From The Wood…
RHS Athletic Hall Of Fame
Made For & Inspired By RHS Alumni
Visit the RHS Hall of Fame
Digital Printing for the RHS Hall of Fame provided by Tim Boucher, RHS 1988
Project Arrow
Creating An Online Home For RHS Arrow Yearbooks
A collaborative effort by Ridgewood High School and the Ridgewood Public Library. The Arrow Yearbooks from 1898 through the 1940s are now online.
Digital archiving by Michael Culver, RHS 2002, and his firm 1Row.com
Mark Porro
A Cup Of Tea On The Commode
Arrived in bookstores everywhere on Mother’s Day, May 14, 2023.
M + A NYC
Mighty Are We As One
M + A is a Lifestyle brand known for handcrafted, ethically made, modern home decor and wearable accessories. Artisanal | Small Batch | Designed in NY
Shop home décor and wearable accessories at www.mplusanyc.com
Our Classmates
RHS Class Of 1974 Reunion
Class of 1974. We are planning our 50th Reunion for September 21, 2024 at the Woman's Club of Ridgewood. If you might conceivably want to attend, please email us at RHS1974Reunion50@gmail.com so we can send you an invitation. We also are planning other events for the weekend that will be detailed in the invitation.
James Stroker
Hope Coach
Growing up in the 60s and 70s, we idolized many heroes, but one towered above the rest: the legendary Muhammad Ali. He famously declared, with paradoxical humility, "I am the greatest!" This was echoed by his boxing trainer, Angelo Dundee, who described Ali as the hardest working, best conditioned, and most disciplined boxer he ever trained.
Consider Ali's iconic "rope-a-dope" strategy, exemplified in the image above. For those who may not recall, it shows Muhammad Ali, back against the ropes, arms at his sides, daring his opponent to unleash their fiercest assault. It's a lesson in resilience: throw your all, but it may still fall short.
Our version of "rope-a-dope" is about steadfast adherence to our core values. It's about being true to ourselves when pressure mounts and the stakes become daunting and hostile. It's about standing firm, like Ali, in our beliefs. In grappling, this resolve is known as "tapping out."
What, then, is our edge? It's the patience we maintain, the consistency in our actions. As we grow older, we realize the battle isn't just against external adversaries but also against that insidious inner voice urging us to give up.
When faced with challenges, channel a bit of Ali's playful defiance. Nod your head in a characteristic Ali-esque manner and firmly tell yourself, "No, I refuse to lose my serenity, my focus, or this internal narrative of confidence that insists I am capable of overcoming tough challenges."
Jim Schoneman
Rock Hound
A couple of cedar trees tangled together. These two trees are usually the first place a visitor walks to when they park at Cave Point. They get stepped on, or around, by thousands of people every year. During storms with a strong southeast wind they get hammered by spray from the waves crashing into thirty foot high cliffs that the trees sit on top of. In winter, the spray from those waves turns to ice, and the trunk and roots of the trees get covered with ice inches thick. On top of all of that, they are growing out of rock; dolomite. This rock forms part of the Niagara Escarpment, which starts along the east shore of Lake Winnebago in Wisconsin, traverses up Door County and across the tops of Lakes Michigan and Huron, then crosses southern Ontario, shuffles off to Buffalo, and ends along the southern shore of Lake Ontario. This is the rock formation that Niagara Falls spills over. To say that these trees are survivors would be an understatement. Wonder how old they are?
This photo was taken with a phone camera (Google Pixel 6 Pro). I’m considering ditching my heavy Nikon DSLR with tripod and just taking my phone along on my little walkabaouts. It’s a tough decision, considering I’ve been using a single lens reflex camera for 50 years. A good phone camera does a nice job of editing and filtering images, providing excellent exposure compensation and color saturation. It does all the work for you, it’s very lightweight, and considering how much my Nikon cost me, good phone cameras are very inexpensive. A phone camera won’t provide the photo resolution you get from a full frame DSLR, but the resolution is fine for any computer screen or photo prints up to 8x10 or even a little bigger.
Siobhan Crann Winograd
Around The Village
Last Shade Tree Commission meeting of 2023 in the books!! Thank you to everyone big time for everything, but most especially to Mahmoud Hamza for his service and generosity.
Kathy & Ross Petras
You’re Saying It Wrong
Ross & Kathy’s podcast: You're Saying It Wrong is a podcast that looks at what we get wrong—and what we sometimes get right—when it comes to this English language.
Ridgewood Library Bolger Heritage Center
100th Year Anniversary
Ridgewood's overpass on Franklin Avenue back in 1915