Why A Blog Now???!!!

"LIFE REVIEW"


SCHOOL DAYS...

The other evening, I attended a lecture by a geriatric psychiatrist who did a wonderful presentation on Bob Dylan.  In mentioning Dylan's autobiography, he talked about aging and doing a "life review".  Dylan, he says, is acknowledging but not denying aging in his memoir.  At the risk of sounding morbid and turning my readers off, if you were to google "life review", you would see it is a concept that occurs in near-death experiences when one's life flashes before them, but, excluding that untoward event, it is also a pathway to successful aging.  It is about "framing one's life in the past, present and future.  It is about expressing what matters to the individual, hopes for the days to come, and personal legacy". (T.M Meuser, University of Missouri, St. Louis).  This will probably be the most serious thing I'll say in my blog...so you can all sit back and relax now.

I figure that, since 1949, I spent about 25 years going to school, not counting my professional post-graduate training.  That's a "chunk of change" when it comes to one's lifespan.  What is there about school that sticks with us.  I'm certain I have forgotten calculus, much of my organic chemistry, and, yes, even trigonometry (no surprise there!).  But, obviously, there are some things that are imprinted early in life like grammar (I can still conjugate a sentence), cursive (a dying art), French which I studied and used for years, and, of course, the state capitals (remember Pierre???).

Remember this?

 Even more than these archaic and often useless tidbits, are the teachers we've had who imparted knowledge and civility to us.  Their legacy lives in all of us.  Some were disinterested and mediocre, but others really stood out in my memory for either good or bad reasons.  Way back then, teachers were respected as much as doctors and clergy.  If you went into the teaching profession, it was about dedication and responding to a higher goal in life.

GRAHAM SCHOOL;
I have previously posted a photo of my first school so I won't belabor its appearance.  The things that stand out were:
-The first day of kindergarten when my sister, Lois, took me by the hand and walked me to school, all the way to Mrs. Demaciewicz's kindergarten class.  The room was filled with other children, all wondering what had happened to their life!  The classroom smelled from saw dust (that the janitors used each night when they swept the floors), clay and wood blocks, and Mrs. D's perfume.  OUR MAIN TASK FOR THAT YEAR WAS TO BE PLAY AND SOCIALIZATION.
-First grade, however, required more effort and, already, as Mrs. Camp noticed, I probably had a touch of ADHD!

- The diversity of our school...we came from all different backgrounds, ethnic groups and races.  Our parents all had one thing in common: desiring a good education and a successful future for their children.
_ This was in the 1950's ...so we were often having both fire drills and air raid drills, where we would stop, drop, and hide under our desks or go out into the corridors and put our faces against the walls.  We lived under fear of nuclear attack.  When I was in first grade, I'll never forget, during one of these air raid drills, hearing the shrill cries of an older boy, perhaps in 6th or 7th grade, screaming when the alarm was sounded.  I later found out that he and his family had emigrated from Great Britain and he was reliving the fear of the German Blitz over the skies of London.

My Fifth Grade Class...That's me in the third row, third from left with the striped shirt looking like a prisoner!

_ The instrumental music program with Mr. Bob Evans, starting me on the Baritone Horn (Euphonium), working my way up to the cornet and, eventually, the French Horn which I played for many years after.  I even got to play in a chamber music group at Sarah Lawrence College.
_ Mrs. Mandel, the music teacher who would actually, once a month, get the whole class on a train and take us to the old Metropolitan Opera House at 1411 Broadway (eventually demolished in 1967). There, sitting in the nose-bleed Family Circle, a feat for one with a fear of heights, we had our first opportunity to see grand opera, my first one being "Carmen"!  Because these were student matinees, they would leave the great curtain up between the 2nd and 3rd acts and show you how they changed the scenery.  This instilled in me a lifelong love of opera.  Mrs. Mandel made sure we knew all the opera singers as though they were rock stars.

The original Metropolitan Opera House

They stuck us way up in the highest tier...Nosebleed territory!

_Other memorable teachers were Mr. Gamson in 7th grade who made sure we had a thorough knowledge of N.Y. State Government as well as caring how we were doing emotionally and Miss Vera Tomkins in 8th grade who insisted we read the New York Times every weekday and how to fold it!  She also insisted there was a Communist threat and required us to read "Masters of Deceit" by one J. Edgar Hoover which scared us into thinking there was a "commie" hiding behind every tree!

_MATH!!! Math was my Achilles heel from as early as I can remember.  This was to be a recurring theme for me throughout my education.  Let's just say I blossomed later in life!  Looking back, I probably suffered from Dyscalculia!  Probably fifth grade was the nadir of my ambiguous relationship with numbers.  Gertrude Hanauer had it in for me as seen in her comments on my report card from that year:

 

Enough said!!!

 _ The opportunity to act and sing in front of a live audience.  We put on plays, musicals, and choral recitals.  In 9th grade, I actually got to star in "The Silent Caroler", our Christmas play.  As corny as it was, it was my grand debut as a star!...and playing opposite the girl of my dreams.

"The Silent Caroler"...I'm the nerdy kid seated on the right.  The big guy in the back row is now a Judge and the little guy to his right was the grandson of the famous French conductor, Pierre Monteux

_My first effort at Journalism, working on the Graham Gazette as a features writer and Business Manager.  The newspaper was founded in 1949.

Future Pulitzer Prize winners from the Graham Gazette...nice fashions!

_Speaking of that, there was always a young woman that I had a crush on...Carol Merrow , Janie Rubenstein, Barbara Goldberg, Katy Zale, and the aforementioned Sandra Fazzini, the poor victim of my grandmother's chicken salad debacle (see my blog post from Aug.30, 2017 in the archive).

Thirteen...what a painful age!

_Sports: never a great athlete, I did try my best and enjoyed the active play and competition.  I played baseball for the Yankees...that is, the Yankees of the Mt. Vernon Minor League, a step below the Little League.  A fair catcher...until one day,  our Manager, Mr. Wasserman decided to take me from behind the plate and play me in center field.  Yes, great moments in sport!  One of those tied-score, bases-loaded situations and a ball flying out to me in center field.  "I got it...I got it"...I had it as I tripped over a rough patch of Hutchinson Field and missed the catch.  I don't think I had ever felt that bad in my life, a disappointment to my team and to myself.

The Mount Vernon Yankees!

 Then, in ninth grade, I went out for football and pretty well warmed the bench the entire season until the Traphagen game, our across-the-tracks rival at our home field, Memorial Field.  This time my dad was in the stands, the first game he made it to.  For some reason, Coach Smith, a former Marine officer,  tapped me on the shoulder and said, "Mayer, you're in"!  Playing defensive end, I recognized a lot of the Traphagen players as, by then, my family had moved to that side of town (I wanted to finish up at Graham).  Even my cousin's cousin, Kenny Weisberger was on their line!  I was covering their pass option and tried to stop the receiver with the ball in his hands...BOOM!  I saw stars and looking back, probably had a concussion from one of their players who came out of nowhere.  That was the end of my football career!  All was not lost, however.  As my dad had to return to the office, I snuck a ride home on the Traphagen bus, hidden in the back of the bus in my Graham uniform with the their cheerleaders whom I had gotten to know... Carol Schultz, Muriel Fogel, and Vicki Krisel!

I graduated in June, 1959 from Graham Junior High School and got to sing a duet with Gloria Burton, "Peace" by Thomas Koschat at the ceremony.  As I look at the program and see the names of my fellow 76 graduates from those wonderful days at Graham, I can still see their faces and even know what became of many of them...a Professor of Economics at Williams College, an Israeli General and Ambassador to Ireland, a Justice of the California Superior Court, a composer, an Internal Medicine Physician in Maryland, a Nurse Director of a College Health Service, a builder, a pediatrician (besides myself), a Rabbi in Savannah, Georgia, and many other successful stories, all of us from the south side of the tracks!  Some have passed on but I keep them in my memory.

The graduating class of Graham School, June, 1959 (I'm in the 3rd row, 3rd from the right)

NEXT: ON TO HIGH SCHOOL