Back when we lived on West Main Street in Richland, our across-the-street neighbors were the Weiant family: JoAnn and her children Julian, Ellen, and Kathleen as well as her mother whose house it actually was.

JoAnn and my mother Arlene had been long time friends from school themselves, so we often did neighborly things like going to the shore together and catching a movie in nearby Lebanon. Plus, my sister’s and my Great Aunt Marie was married to Leo Blecker who owned the Esso Station and was the Great Uncle to JoAnn’s brood. So there were lots of things tying us together. Ellen and Kathleen especially used to come over to our place a lot. Also, our cousin Kathy and Ellen had become the best of friends.

In those days in the Richland school there weren’t quite enough teachers to go around in the elementary grades, so there was some doubling up. In particular, I was always in the part of the split class that shared a teacher with the one grade higher class, which was Ellen’s class. So I was in the same classroom as she was for most of my elementary education.

But time passed, and eventually we moved to South Race Street and now we were all going to the new combined Elco (Eastern Lebanon County) High School, and I was no longer in the same classroom as Ellen and no longer across the street from her and her siblings, so we lost touch.

But I still recall her performance in her senior high school play. She had a small role as a maid, but she was absolutely hilarious in the the role and practically stole the show.

And that was the last I saw of her, though I did hear of updates from time to time as JoAnn and my mother remained friends.

Now comes word that Ellen Weiant Buchanio is very ill. She’s had at least one operation and is undergoing chemotherapy which is leaving her weak and sick. I can only hope that she pulls through.

 

Meanwhile, in the same class as Ellen there were a couple girls that we referred to as the Bugg Twins.

That’s because their last name was Bugg and they were a pair of identical twins.

I’ve known several sets of identical twins in my life and usually I can tell them apart, but not Sylvia and Elizabeth. They were as alike as two peas in a pod.

Red-headed, soft-spoken, and just generally pleasant young girls, they couldn’t have been more delightful. If I switched their names in those photos, would you be able to tell? Anybody?

But like Ellen, I pretty much lost touch with them after I no longer shared a classroom with them. Oh, they had an older brother Larry whom I remember used to play tennis a lot. Or at least that’s how I remember him. Well, they lived across the street from the tennis court.

Now comes word that Sylvia A. Heller has died. She was preceded in death by a grandson and by her brother Larry, but I haven’t been able to find any details.