David Cannon

Joe,

Thank you for your recollections of Ralph. They really filled out a bigger picture of what a great classmate he was and his musical talent. Weren’t you also in a band with Eric Blackstead who later produced the live performances for the Woodstock album? He also pasted away in 2015.

 https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/triumph-tragedy-woodstock-album-producer-eric-blackstead-849575/amp/

I hope you are well and still making music,

Dave Cannon

When I first met him, I was struck by the prose and poetry of his name, Lance Donatello, and his chiseled handsome face that made him look older than the rest of us, ready to be cast in Spartacus or Ben Hur or with Dion & The Belmonts. Yet he made anyone around him feel immediately comfortable. Lance was so down to earth that I was not surprised — perhaps 16 years after he signed my yearbook — to see him at an outdoor concert in South Orange (Squeeze might have been the headliner) selling watchbands he handcrafted out of leather. I did not buy one because I had only worn one watch in my life (a Tricky Dick Nixon watch my coworkers gave me because of my Watergate obsession, which hasn’t let up: I just downloaded Bernard Barker, Frank Sturgis and E. Howard Hunt files that were part of the recent JFK assassination declassified documents release. That watch ceased working almost immediately and my wife asserted that I had an unsually strong magnetic field that was screwing up many items, so I never replaced the watch - yet I wound up writing an award winning ad campaign and marketing materials for 3 different watch brands). When I read this week that Lance had become an acupuncturist it seemed to me to be a natural evolution of the skills he honed punching holes in leather. While I was saddened by the news, it was good to see that his dark hair grayed so artfully. Lou Calasibetta told me Lance once asked him if he should buy a car made in Spain; but we don’t know if he ever bought it. Our condolences to his family and friends.

John, I was working on my tan this week at Mountainside Park tennis courts and Spring Lake, so just getting around to sharing photos from the reunion. Here are some of you.

Jim, Here are some photos of you from the reunion.

Aaron, here's my photos of you at the reunion.

Great seeing you, Peter! Here are some photos from the reunion!

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Kip, Thank you and Cia for hosting a great brunch!

Howie, my photo of you and Bob DeFalco at the Class Reunion reminded me so much of Edward Hopper's paintings that I decided to render some others as paintings. Great seeing you and the others.

Jane, Ashley does know Rebecca Brown:
Yes, I do! She is great! Yuval introduced me to her after he interviewed for a position there. I see her every few months at the state advocacy working group she organizes.

Jane, Thank you so much for sending me the letters you found from my mother to yours regarding our unique painful bond. Seeing my mother's words was an unexpected surprise and one I will treasure. Thank you too for complimenting her cursive handwriting (which may soon become a lost art) but even she was in awe of my sister Judy's cursive which always looks like calligraphy. Congratulations on your move, but I'm so glad Joanne and I were able to join you, Harvey and our other classmates at your class reunion brunch before you moved from your beautiful Montclair home. I will be signing up for the next reunion and look forward to talking with you there.

Brunch at Jane's.

Brunch on a gorgeous day

Thank you Jane for hosting the brunch at your fabulous home on such a gorgeous home. Here are some photos from the day.

Cathy and I were in several classes together but I never discovered how funny and animated she was until we met at St. James Episcopal Church in Upper Montclair and spent a few Sunday evenings together. Today I did some research and found that she attended Carnegie-Mellon University (from which my own mother graduated with a degree in drama; mom in the 1970s taught drama and English at Cedar Grove High School) and the Pittsburgh Playhouse. When Cathy's engagement was announced in The Pittsburgh Press on May 29, 1974 she was an executive to the Treasurer of Rockwell International. She married Frank Morocco (who worked at RH Donnelly) on September 21, 1974. They had a son, Anthony Morocco III, an executive in Pittsburgh, and a daughter, Dina, who works as director of on-demand promotions at Comcast Cable in Philadelphia. Cahy died at age 46 on October 27, 1992.

I had seen Charles once in the early 1980s while I hastened from an ad agency on Fifth Avenue across 40th Street to the Port Authority Bus Terminal. In July of 1989, I cut out his obituary and stuck it in my yearbook where he had written: "Dave, Best wishes in the future. You're a good guy. Chuck"

Tommy McQuillan was one of the great characters at Montclair High School. At lunch time he would go through the cafeteria line, pay for his sandwich and milk, then come over to the table where a few of us were sitting and start pulling tuna sandwiches out his pants and shirt and distribute them to us. The "five finger discount" lunch. My mother never would allow me to play high school football, fearing my nose would get broken, so every afternoon in the Fall I would play football in Anderson Park without equipment along with Tommy, Lou Calasibetta, Bob "Wade" Amadeo (who could throw the ball further than most QBs) and anyone else who was available. Tommy and Bob were old neighbor friends so they were usually on the opposing team from Lou and Me. Tommy would usually tackle us low and then Bob, who weighed considerably more than us, would land on top like he was doing a Haystacks Calhoun wrestling dive. One afternoon, Tommy put an arm around my shoulder and said, "I understand you asked out Denise DeMartin" and started hitting me with left hooks. As an aspiring Golden Glove boxer he had quite a sting to his punches so I tangled him up in a bear hug and we went rolling to the ground. Kenny Wakeman eventually pulled him off. That did not end our friendship (although everytime I heard Randy and The Rainbows' "Denise" I recalled the first punch).

Tommy in the Spring of our senior year saw me working as a messenger in the principal's office (during study hall period) and came in, sat down next to me and told the principal's assistant, "I'm a volunteer just like David." Within a few days, Tommy took Mr. Nast's rubber stamp and a pad of hall passes. He then proceeded to roam the halls looking for friends he could free from classes. Unfortunately, one day I was in the middle of a test when he spotted me and despite shaking my head "no" vigorously, he soon entered the classroom and handed Persis Cope an "official" note that stated I had to go to the office immediately. I then had to wander the halls till class was over. 

If I recall correctly Tommy was around 50 when he died suddenly. RIP, my friend.

Linda, thanks for paying tribute to the 5 paragraph essay; it served me quite well in college and life. Taking a senior literature class as a freshman I was able to get A's on book reports and the professor began referring to me as the "freshman genius of the class." Later when I graduated from college with a degree in American Civilization and discovered that no employers were looking for that background, I fell back on my 5 paragraph writing ability and applied for an advertising agency position which turned into a 40 year career as a copywriter.