June 5, 2011
Seen in Bloomington Pantagraph today, 50th wedding anniversary for Rose & Norm Robeson - June 16th, 1961. We made it!!

May 30, 2011
Seen in Bloomington Pantagraph yesterday. 50th wedding anniversary for Dave and Wilma Curry. Congrats to you two!
--Rose

May 12, 2011

Hi all!
I thought you'd be interested to know that on Friday, April 29, four former students of Miss Selk, all of whom are currently active singing members of the state champion and International qualifier Sound of Illinois barbershop chorus, formed a quartet to surprise her by singing a couple of songs at a birthday party being hosted by other former students at Station 220 (formerly Central Station). Tim Calhoun organized the ad hoc quartet and was joined by Bret Reinthaler, Dave Garrett, and me, Kurt Gummerman.
--Kurt
 
Impressive that Mary’s former students are still so active with their singing too!
 

April 7, 2011

You may enjoy going to this YouTube link. It has Miss Selk playing piano Christmas time, 2010:
--Rose

By the way, did you check out the YouTube video of Mary?   Here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FaD_xTN1bZU
This was at my house at Christmas - boy, the piano needs tuning:(
Thanks again -
-Pat Rosenbaum

April 7, 2011

A surprise 90th birthday party for Miss Selk has been planned for Sat. May 7th at Second Presbyterian Church in Bloomington from 3 – 5 pm.  (Singers are meeting at 2:15 to rehearse)

If you would like more information, please email Patty Rosenbaum at prosenba@iwu.edu.   Let her know if you can attend.
 
Mary Selk’s actual 90th birthday is April 29th. 
Pat Rosenbaum


January, 2011

Dear Family and Friends,

We have wanted to write each of you individually, but we will resort to the "blast" due to lack of computer access.  We truly do think of each of you at different times and for different reasons, and we hope you have had a good (though for many of you, very frigid) start to the New Year!  A brief summary of what we've been up to follows.

It goes without saying that it is wonderful to be here with the Bariaus!  We had an uneventful trip here on New Year's Eve, arriving at 8:00 a.m. on Jan. 1.  The good news is that our train trip from the airport into Paris was FREE --- a gift from the French government in honor of the New Year.  Our train trip from Austerlitz Station in central Paris to St. Amand Montrond arrived here at 3:00 p.m., where Olivier greeted us and drove us home in the "love mobile" --- left over from the wedding 8 1/2 years ago and still sporting the faded paint that says "Just Married"!  The children, Elisa, and Monique (Olivier's Mom) were looking out the upstairs windows as we arrived, waving enthusiastically and throwing welcome kisses ... a precious beginning!

We fell into a regular routine from the very beginning. The day after we arrived,  Elisa had to go to Clermont Ferrand to her University to proctor exams for two days.  Olivier was sick and even in bed for part of 2 days, so Jim and I hit the ground running.  Lucy goes to school 4 days/week, but the children come home for lunch.  So, someone (usually Jim) makes 4 trips a day to and from the school to shuttle Lucy on the bike with the burley behind it, carrying our little princess.  Sometimes, Emile goes along for the ride.  The school is less than a mile away, so the entire trip there and back takes about 15 minutes.  The majority of our days have been spent playing with the children, reading to them, games, going on adventures, and always to the Saturday market --- a big deal in French towns, and such a charming way to shop.  Oh yes, and we make an early morning bread run almost every day for a baguette ... very important!  Elisa does most of the cooking when she is in town, and Jim and I do all of the dishes - even brought our rubber gloves!  We've been invited to several friends homes for lunch or 4:00 p.m. "snack time", and it is always a treat to be among their French friends and hear the conversation.  We are fairly familiar with many of their friends, so we feel very comfortable, even though we aren't always in the conversation.

One of the biggest highlights was a 2 day visit by our French "daughter", Alice Rouze, who lived with us 17 years ago.  Alice has been living in the Far East for most of the past 5 years, so she has had a most interesting life.  She is an attractive 34 year old woman, very accomplished in her professional life, and only speaks 4 or 5 languages, one of which is Chinese.  We had a wonderful time together.

Love to all,

Marilyn and Jim