Did you know
that our classmate unofficially acknowledged by the teachers as least
likely to succeed (Peter C) ended up being perhaps the most
successful of all of us? Peter became an incredible bicycle riding
phenomenon and pedaled from Los Angeles to Boston three times, doing
about 4,000 miles last year alone! [Note: With great sorrow I must
report that Peter passed away on October 4, 2009, when he suffered a
heart attack while on a bicycle ride in Nova Scotia. He was doing what
he loved most, and just two weeks prior he had spent a very happy day
at the wedding of his younger son Ben.]
Did you know that the smartest one (Allen H), who could seriously have
become a rocket scientist, instead opted for a secure position within
the U.S. Postal Service?
Did you know that the best-dancing boy (Bob P) did not end
up with the best-dancing girl (Susan F), but it all turned out
just fine and they each found terrific life partners?
Do you remember tiny Connie B always seemed to carry the biggest
stack of books, as well as the biggest lunch (suitable for a truck
driver, thanks to her over-worried mother)? She used to give away over
half her food so her lunch pail would be empty when she got home!
Do you remember how our parents hated having to drive us to parties at
Suzanne G's or Andy B's because their houses were so far out
in the sticks? Not anymore!
Have you seen the housing developments and brand new streets all over
those uninhabited rural areas where we used to go bushwhacking?
Do you remember how our entire French class with Mrs. MacQueen used to
break out in gales of laughter when we heard Butchie G giggle
through the walls in Miss Spinney's U.S. History class and get the
whole room in hysterics?
How about when John E (one of our tallest classmates, nicknamed
"Tiny") forgot to do his Latin homework and translated the Lord's
Prayer as "our Father who lives in a tent." Even stone-faced Mrs.
Murphy laughed! And how red in the face Sandy O always got when
she called on him as Albert.
What about poor Miss Stead, who slipped and fell on the ice outside the
Junior High School, and I think it was John VD who ran over her
leg on a bicycle and broke it! Do I have the story right? Maybe it was
Roland E.
Or Miss Marcy, our powdered and perfumed music teacher, who sat on the
round piano stool that someone had screwed to the very top and landed
on the floor in humiliation, anger, and pain?
Do you remember Mr. Cogswell, the English teacher who had the habit of
constantly licking his lower lip? He always used to say Lay instead of
Leigh when calling on her in class, despite the many times she
corrected him. I think it was his VW bug that a bunch of the boys
picked up and moved in the parking lot behind the Junior High School.
The Junior High always struck me as such a dark and dismal building.
The only great things that happened there were the sock hops in the old
gym, even years later, which were always awesome! And the football
rallies held in the bleachers, with Coach Fisher out on the gym floor
getting everyone in a screaming frenzy the night before a game!
How about Miss Roberts, our fifth-grade teacher who taught all of us
how to draw trees nicely with snow just on the upper sides of the
branches, but then would come along and scribble backgrounds right
through our pretty trees, ruining our carefully done artwork? I
remember Bob P saying, "Look what she did to my drawing!" She had
that crazy salt-and-pepper hair that somehow stuck out from her head in
a most peculiar manner, sort of like a Brillo pad.
Did you know that our great friend and school rogue (Jaime B),
always in trouble, suspended from school, and so misunderstood by all
the teachers, became a famous folk singer and was invited years later
to give a concert at the High School auditorium and did? Ahhh, eating
crow isn't so bad after the first mouthful! Jaime is probably the only
one of all of us whose name brings up search results on eBay!
OK, if any of this brings back memories you would like to share, please
join us in creating a website we can all participate in and enjoy! This
is only the beginning!
Last updated 9/9/11
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