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High School Days

Mount Vernon, in the 1960's, had two high schools, one "academic", and the other, vocational...A.B. Davis and Edison High Schools respectively.   It was expected that, if you wanted to go on to college, you'd go to Davis.  As such was my lot, I started Davis in September of 1959, a 3-year school encompassing grades 10 to 12.

Ol' A.B. Davis

 It had a glorious past as I've previously pointed out, producing E.B. White, Art Carney, Dick Clark, Ralph Branca, the hapless Brooklyn Dodger pitcher who, in a 1951 playoff, allowed a walk-off home run to Bobby Thomson in the "Shot Heard Round the World", among many other luminaries.  It was an imposing building sitting atop a hill on Gramatan Avenue spinning off our nick name, the Hilltoppers and our newspaper, the Davis Hi-News.  Sitting in front of the building was a large statue, not of A.B. Davis, a former principal but of someone else known for another hill...San Juan to be exact: President Theodore Roosevelt.

The Hilltop 

For me, personally, it was a bit of a shock, going from a small, nurturing, congenial and cosy school and a class of 76 to this large behemoth where my class numbered around 550.  Instead of walking down the street to my previous school, I took an early morning city bus, filled with other kids, half-awakened with sleep in their eyes, carrying books, pens and papers.  It was a quiet ride and when we arrived at Hartley Circle, we all filed off silently and marched up the hill.

Despite this dark picture, it was an excellent school with a national reputation, very proficient teaching, and super athletic teams.  Its newspaper was among the best in the country with many awards.  There were so many choices of activities, courses, and social circles.  Being a tenth grader, you had to learn the system and how to navigate among those circles, learn the school fight song played at all football games (I still remember it!!!), and, essentially, keep your head above water.  Even where to eat your lunch and with whom were big decisions...the noisy cafeteria?  Knopf's Deli on the circle?  or bring your own lunch and eat in the football stands behind the school?

I got my bearings fairly soon and found a nice group of friends, tried out and was accepted into the a cappella singing group, the Choral Society, and became the manager of the Cross Country Team, preparing to actually join the track team in the Spring and run.

It still fits!

Lunch time was usually in the cafeteria where we would get into mischief.  One of their signature dishes was mashed potatoes and gravy.  The mischief involved taking a plastic straw, wrapped in paper, tearing off one end of the wrapping, dipping the other end in the potatoes and gravy, and then blowing through the unwrapped part of the straw upwards into the air so that the wrapper would stick to the ceiling of the cafeteria!!!
By the end of the school year, the cafeteria looked like a cave with stalactites and stalagmites hanging down from the ceiling.

The Choral Society...we actually had more guys but they didn't show up for the photo.

The Choral Society was my "gang".  I think we rehearsed almost every day!  We were the "elite" singers of the school, tackling some very sophisticated music not often heard in larger choirs.  But I think my favorites were Puccini's "Messa di Gloria", which sounded like "La Boheme" for choir, the Vivaldi "Gloria" and the Faure' "Requiem" when we joined the larger Davis Choir.  But perhaps what was most enjoyable was the nice diverse group of kids that sang together.  We were led by this young, energetic and very attractive woman, fresh out of conservatory, Joy Anthony.  She was truly a fireball, getting us to sing far above our abilities.  We (the boys) were heartbroken when she married her fiancé, a young dental student but she remained with us for the whole three years.  I owe her a great deal as she was very instrumental in directing me towards St. Lawrence University, her own alma mater, which had an excellent singing group.  In 2016, I tracked her down...she and her dentist husband, now both retired, were running a bed and breakfast in Stockbridge, Mass.  I got her to come to our 50th high school reunion and most of the singing group was there to greet her.  She was still vibrant and energetic 50 years later!

Joy Anthony in the 1960's

Miss Anthony, now Joy Phillips 50 years later sitting with George Fennell and Ronnie White

One of the most memorable things we did was, each Christmas, we all hopped on the New Haven Railroad and headed to "the city" where we performed Christmas music from the balcony of Grand Central Station, serenading all the commuters rushing home to their homes in Westchester and Connecticut.  People would stop and look up at us with big smiles.  We also got to sing with many other kids for 3 years in the Westchester All-County Choir with some of the greatest choral conductors in the world, like the inimitable Margaret Hillis who conducted the Chicago Symphony Chorus.

The Balcony at Grand Central during rush hour

Margaret Hillis, the founder and director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for many years

Life was much busier, writing papers, Regents exams, hanging out with friends and starting to date.  By my Junior year, I was given responsibility and assigned to room #214...the Boy Marshals homeroom with Mr Leone.  We were the peacekeepers of the school, asked to set an example of high ethics and scholastic success.  I don't know if I ever achieved this status but I was quite proud of my teachers showing they had faith in me.

The Badge of Honor!

Then there were always the annual school musicals...

As a policeman, marching behind the Sergeant at Arms, Arnie Belzer , in "Pirates of Penzance"

Attraction to girls slowly came upon me and, besides the usual schoolboy crushes, affairs of the heart were more serious during those later days in high school.  There were parties in friend's wood-paneled basements with the occasional spin-the-bottle game and dancing slowly to Johnny Mathis songs and doing the Lindy at dances in the gymnasium to rock and roll.  I think I learned some of these dances from my sister and her friends.  I always seemed to be in love with some one, whether from Davis or some other local high school, some romances lasting longer than others.  There were Junior Proms, Senior Proms, Cotillions, Youth Group and just hanging out.

Senior Prom with Bobbi Zeitler at the Glen Island Casino, after which we went into NYC to Basin Street East to see George Shearing

At my sister Lois's wedding in 1961...back row: Cousins Lenny Simon ,Beverly Simon, Adrienne Harvey and Caren Sperber (both of whom left us way too early); front row: cousin Bob Mayer, my date Lynne Silverstein, me and cousin Darryl Sperber

These were good years, building up to the inevitable high school graduation and college applications. Back in those days, unlike today, I remember applying to only five colleges without ever seeing them or being interviewed.  There was one college trip I took and that was by myself, at age 16, flying out to see the University of Cincinnati.   It was an exciting trip as it was my first time in a jet airliner, an American Airlines Boeing 707, which was new on the scene.   The trip back was in an old turboprop Lockheed Electra which had a poor safety record and, flying through a storm did not give me much confidence.  The seafood salad served on board had worse repercussions than the turbulence!

Lockheed Electra

Boeing 707

High school years also saw the acquisition of new skills...personal typing taken in summer school gave me keyboard skills still persisting today.  I actually got up to 120 words a minute back then, considerably slowed down now!  Driving lessons and passing my road test the first time around that same summer gave me lots more freedom.  Driving around in a used stick shift Anglia by Rootes was pretty utilitarian but it worked.

1950's vintage Rootes Anglia...nice fins!

My French horn lessons with Doc Randall also paid off as did piano lessons.
I remember my parents hiring this young, itinerant piano teacher who would take the train up from NYC one evening a week to give me lessons...lots of technical stuff with attacking keys just the right way and the proper wrist motion, playing rudimentary Bartok and Bach.  I was impatient and undisciplined and, after months of this, told my folks that I had had it with this teacher.  It was only many years later, during a conversation over dinner with Joseph Werner, the pianist with the Rochester Philharmonic that he informed me that that young teacher had become one of the three greatest piano teachers in the world and was the Chair of the piano division of Julliard, Martin Canin!  Oh well, missed opportunities and a road not taken.  At least I still play, still studying with the same teacher for 37 years at the Eastman Community Music School.

Martin Canin

As the summer of 1962 approached, so did graduation, and many good-byes as a new and very different chapter of my life was about to start.  I remember when I was looking at colleges, my parents drew an imaginary 300-mile radius around our home on the map and informed me I was to go to any college as long as it was OUTSIDE the circle!  They did not want me coming home for weekends and wanted me to gain the personal independence that my dad who lived at home during college never achieved during those years.  For that, I am perpetually thankful to them.  Good-bye to Davis!

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