DIVIDE
Southfield or West Bloomfield.
Ms. Blair, who is hosting the
reunion meeting, is un-
abashedly nostalgic for those
Oak Park days when "you knew
everyone on just about every
block."
She served on the 10-year re-
union committee and is joined
by three classmates of the 14-
member, 20-year reunion corn-
mittee: Karen (Winnick)
Gilbert, Howard Goldman and
John Tocco.
Ms. Blair confesses to twist-
ing a few arms to get help or-
ganizing the 20th reunion.
"Basically," said Mr. Tocco, a
Huntington Woods resident,
"someone gave my name to
Karon and she wouldn't leave
me alone. So, here I am."
Mr. Tocco, who spent time in
high school counting down the
days to graduation, refers to the
group as "three Jews and a gen-
tile."
The group has been meeting
for nearly a year. The invitation
to the September reunion is the
fourth mailing to their class-
mates. "It's been a major en-
terprise," Ms. Blair said.
Mr. Goldman, of West
Bloomfield, didn't attend the 10-
year reunion. He said he feels
like he missed something, and
was eager to find where his
classmates have migrated.
"People have careers, families.
It's hard to believe it's been 20
years."
During the past two decades,
many classmates have gone
their separate ways, to China,
Europe and throughout the
United States.
Some have made a name for
themselves: the late Gary
Davidoff, whose work in phys-
ical medicine and rehabilitation
was widely recognized; Beth
Figer, a television writer in Hol-
lywood; restaurateur Lorraine
Platman of "Sweet Lorraine's";
Alane Simons, a cantor who
now lives in Illinois, and Ronald
Hoover, who served as a fight-
er pilot in the U.S. Air Force.
In a season of graduations,
there's the typical philosophi-
cal observations about career
choices and the meaning of life.
For Ms. Blair, Ms. Gilbert
and Mr. Goldman, that has
meant re-examining the role of
Judaism in their lives.
Mr. Tocco, who is Catholic,
offers this appraisal of his class-
mates' awakening.
"Every one of my Jewish
friends always talked about
how much they hated Hebrew
school, and how they wouldn't
make their kids do what they
had to do," he said. "So, of
course, now they're sending
their kids to religious school."
Lighting Shabbat candles
with her two daughters gives
Ms. Blair a moment to realize
that she's carrying on a tradi-
tion, not only as a parent but as
a Jew.
"We can't give our children
the community we grew up in,
but through the Jewish religion
we can give them something
that they'll have the rest of their
lives. This is our way of provid-
ing a tradition, giving our chil-
dren something to hold on to,"
she said.
When Ms. Gilbert was grow-
ing up, she said, "It was un-
heard of for a girl to have a bat
mitzvah." Raising children in a
multicultural society requires
balancing an understanding of
other cultures with a commit-
ment to her own
Karon Blair
Jewish heritage, she and
family:
said.
A long way
As a new mother, Ms. Bloom
And, in these days from growing up in
"Very few people are
of class reunions and Oak Park.
where they want to be," is facing many of the similar
graduation cere-
she said. "It's just start- questions that Ms. Blair and
Ms. Gilbert, both 10 years old-
monies, there are inevitable ing not to depress me."
comparisons to other genera-
Ms. Bloom serves on the er, already have confronted.
"My son's going to Hebrew
planning committee for the
tions.
Ten years ago, the Class of 1984 Oak Park High School school and will have a bar mitz-
`74 was probably confronting Class Reunion, which will be vah," she said. "It's a tradition:
unmet expectations, also known held in late August. The world He's going to be tortured just
as 'What do you do when you're that she and her classmates en- like mom and dad."
For Ms. Gilbert, whose life
not where you thought you'd tered might not have been as
frightening as George Orwell has gone basically according to
be?"
A 1984 graduate of Oak Park predicted, but the changing job her plan — college, career and
High School and teacher at market and "the materialism motherhood — looking back is
Eaton Academy in Birming- and lack of respect" of the gen- a way to get a better sense of
ham, Aileen Bloom, is address- erations that followed is dis- what's ahead for her children.
"I loved my high-school days
ing that question.
tressing, she said.
and wanted that time to con-
tinue, and now I want to help
my children enjoy themselves,"
she said.
"But there just isn't that
sense of security that we had
growing up. Just look around,
there's no place to walk to."
The flight from crime and the
consequences of urban sprawl
has turned those old neighbor-
hood days into a casualty.
"I think we all feel that we've
lost what was essential: the
sense of community," Ms. Blair
said.
Community, Mr. Goldman