Karen Smedley:  

Hello There, Fellow "Mercy Girls" from OLMA Class of '68! It's Karen Benson (Smedley), the former editor of the Olmanac who never lost her "nose for news." I have to say just looking at all your names brings back so many fond memories of our halycon high school days (somehow they didn't seem quite so "halycon" then!) I'm definitely having a deja vu, including in no particular order... Riding the bus together in our OLMA uniforms (weren't they lovely?) from Plainview High School singing "We gotta get outta this place!" Where are all you fellow bus riders from Plainview, Old Bethpage and St. Pius X grammar school? Let's see...there was Joanne Pope, Gail Coviello, Mary DiMaso, Elly Breen, Sue Leonard and Phyllis Collins. God, my longterm memory is amazing! Forgive me if I've forgotten some people! And how 'bout those wild Mercy mixers with the Chaminade boys and Sr. Mary Fabian telling us to "make room for the Holy Spirit" while slow dancing and her never-ending search for Jeanetta Bushey who was always off doing something she should'nt have been doing. And speaking of Bushey,I remember the two of us spent many a long weary night at the printers laying out the high school paper. But what fun to pile into her car early the next morning with The Olmanac "hot off the presses" for delivery to our fellow students. And I can't think of dances without the image of Phyllis Collins shimmying wildly to "Devil with the Blue Dress On" ! Man, that girl could shake her booty; no wonder she was named Best Dancer of our class. Are you still dancing, Phyllis? I still am....dancing that is. Still love that old rock and roll music of the 60s and go dancing whenever I can. My husband Kent is much more of a golfer than a dancer but he goes along with me which isvery nice. He is Canadian and I have learned that folks from Canada are generally very nice, polite and amenable to just about anything which is probably why we get along so well. Just as long as I root for the Canadian hockey team in the Olympics, all is well. Kent and I will celebrate our 10th anniversary this December 30. We were fortunate enough to meet in 1999 at the wedding of the daughter of two of our dearest mutual friends (my college roommate and her husband) After a long-distance romance, we decided to get married in downtown Baltimore, MD and Kent decided to emigrate to the States. We collectively have 4 children: my son Steven, 28, and daughter, Carrie,23 and Kent's two girls, Krista, 26 and Kelly almost 19. We have a "revolving door" of children, though none currently live with us full-time. In crafting my "story", I still can't believe I'm 58 when I still feel 18! (Do any of you feel the same way? How did four decades fly by so quickly??) But remember I still am and will always be a year younger than all of you; I knew someday that fact would pay off for me. And, again, thanks to Phyllis Collins for lending me her "fake proof" before I became of legal drinking age in New York State! So now for the Cliff Notes version of my "story": Attended St. Lawrence University in upstate New York (this was in large part due to Vicki Lawrence's very high recommendation of this particular college. I think one of her siblings might have gone there.) It was a fun four years but when I went back to my 15-year reunion, I suddently realized the place was in the middle of...Expand for more