Subject: Re: Response to Dave Weisert's letter
Date: Thu, 11 Jul 2002 10:54:24 -0500
From: "sharon danielle zimmerman" [sdz1000@hotmail.com]
To: Davidweisert@aol.com, Neilapple@aol.com, cabin@starband.net, WAStuber@aol.com, brulydim@msn.com, cmt1@attbi.com, C.L.THIERSCH@KUB.NL, RENE812@aol.com, dvpeterson98@yahoo.com, Pasodfuego@aol.com, david.byrkit@itt.com, DJACK61604@aol.com, GaryDuffy@earthlink.net, rubloff@isr.umd.edu, davidson@bcpl.net,

This "lovely lady" has a few memories to contribute to the PHS class of '62.

1. I remember girls wearing huge class rings on long chains around their necks---the cow bell effect... A girl was less a babe until she'd snagged a guy and could display "the trophy" which proved that she was a "lovely lady", too.

2. I remember girls wearing angora sweaters and then wrapping their beau's ring with yards and yards of the angora yarn. It was always effective if the angora yarn matched the day's outfit. Ring wrapping could take a long time if it were done fresh every night..

3. If no angora yarn were available, girls would wrap the guy's class ring with surgurical tape and then paint it with pink/white frosted fingernail polish. Some girls left the yarn/tape on for weeks at a time. Ever wonder what diseases were being incubated in those things?

4. Self-esteem for a girl was having a steady and wearing matching Bobbi Brooks sweaters/skirts/ and matching Capezio flats. If a poor girl couldn't afford the whole, monochromatic look decorated with the beau's classring, then she was utterly and piteously doomed. Many a young lady hung her head in shame due to both a mismatched, non-Bobbi Brooks ensemble and no boyfriend. You knew them by their outfits.

5. Girls wore skirts, not jeans to school.

6. I remember what a terrible teacher Charlie Bockowitz was and how little respect he had for students who were mathematically challenged--like me. In my mind, he'll be eternally frustrated and red-faced. I think that's Hell, isn't it???

7. I remember loving Art, PE, and lunch.

8. I remember thinking that Helen Kellog really was a pretty good English teacher if only she could control the class.

9. Camilla Wood was one of my favorite teachers, but I can't remember the terms of any of the European treaties, or any of the treaties. But, I do remember, "People, take out a half a sheet of paper and a pencil....".

10. Garma Kinoffer (sp??) really freaked me out with her intense, driving ambition to teach biology and botany. Does anyone remember the nature walk down Randolph Street when her eyes glazed over at the sight of the prehistoric ginkgo tree? Remember picking up the fan-shaped leaves and marvelling at the fact that the species had been around since the dawn of time???? I still think of Garma when I see a ginkgo tree. Maybe they were created simultaneously???

11. In girls' PE, Mrs. Cole was absolutely rabid about enforcing girls' shower rules. Being a teacher myself these days, I wish more PE teachers were one tenth as rabid about PE showers as Mrs. Cole--- for obvious reasons.

12. I remember entering 9th grade and looking at the upper class guys and thinking that they were full-grown men.

13. I remember thinking, as a 9th grader, that I'd never get through high school, let alone college. God forbid ANYTHING beyond college!

14. Did anyone ever see the Spanish teacher's mysterious boyfriend? Was he a fiery Spainard with a rose between his teeth and love in his heart? Was that big ametheyst ring really from him?

15. Does anyone remember getting totally turned on to analyzing Thanatopsis? I sure did.

16. Did Mr. Lyle Suffield really step out for a "nip" as was rumored? Remember him painting his own paintings during class. Wish the school systems I've worked for would allow me to paint in class for fun and profit.

17. Remember the card catalogs in the library and how long it took to find a book when you couldn't remember how the Dewey worked.

18. Remember the fish sticks on Friday?

19. It always seemed like all the teachers were ancient and the ladies were old maids.

20. Does anyone remember Ada Mae Albright waxing eloquent and presenting her racial seminar which consisted of preaching that the white race was no longer the ruling class and that all the races were going to blend? She looked like Jonathan Edwards as she delivered the sermon. I don't remember her saying if this was a good thing, or a bad thing-just that it was going to happen. Ada Mae the Prophetess.

21. I remember most of my teachers as very good teachers and good human beings.