2. SCHOOL:
I started school at Van Hornesville Central School when I was 4 years old. I can remember having graham crackers and orange juice. Mrs. Mildred Hubiak was my Kindergarten teacher. Interestingly, she turned out to be the sister of Bob Winchell who I worked with later in life in his position as Fulton County Fire Coordinator. I also remember an incident where I accused a girl, Frances Yaworski, of sticking out her tongue at my cousin, Dick Douglas. Turned out she was just licking her lips. I had to apologize and was made to play with her.
We rode a school bus to and from school which could be a social event in itself. There was a natural progression from the front of the bus to the back. Each year as you moved up another grade, you got closer to the back of the bus. We would have drills on the bus from time to time before we left school. A buzzer would go off and everyone would have to jump out the emergency exit at the back of the bus. It was scary for a little kid. The older kids went out first and then helped the smaller kids out.
And speaking of scary; we used to have air raid drills in school. That was rather barbaric. Each class had a designated area to go to in the event of a nuclear attack. In one grade, we would go into the hall by the cafeteria and stand facing the wall with our heads in our arms, like that would prevent us from being vaporized. We also had to be completely quiet, like maybe the bomb wouldn't find us if we didn't make noise. That was a lot of pressure for a little kid.
In first grade I had Mrs. Agnes Price. We took naps and the boys slept on rugs on the floor and the girls slept on the desktops. Sometimes "accidents" happened and you could only hope that it didn't happen on your desk. We were the first class in which they tried teaching a foreign language to elementary students. Mr. Balch taught us French. The only word I remember now is "biscuit" which in French is still "biscuit" but it is pronounced "bee-squee".
One time when we were out on the playground, I found a robin's egg. I thought it was really cool and put it in the pocket of my spiffy new beige jacket. Then I decided to go down the slide. Needless to say, I ended up with a scrambled egg in my pocket.
Mrs. Shirley Elwood was my teacher in the second grade. The class was divided into groups using bird names. I know there were Robins and Blue jays, and I think the third was Cardinals.
Third grade brought a move to a different building at the school and Mrs. Marion Wood was my teacher.
Fourth
grade was in the next room over, with Mrs. Lyla Carey as the teacher.
She had an annoying habit of ringing a bell to get us quiet, or
clapping her hands and saying, "Now people!"
Mr. Walter Keach was my first male teacher in the fifth grade. He also directed the school plays and would later oversee our production of "Charley's Aunt" when I was a senior. I had the male lead and Pat Bednarski was my love interest. We had a kissing scene. I had a beard and moustache at the time of the play and they had blackened it with makeup. When Pat and I kissed, she ended up with a moustache too and I cracked up laughing. One of my favorite memories of the play was one night after practice Dale Katovitch was playing "Obladi Oblada" by The Beatles on the piano in the auditorium and we all sat around singing.
Sixth grade was with Mrs. Altana Doig and the last year for a single teacher and classroom. On November 22, 1963 President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas. They played the news broadcast over the PA system in the school and they sent us home early. Paula Angle joined our class that year. Her father was in the military so they had lived all over and she taught us to count to 10 in Japanese. I can still do it!
Jr. High was seventh and eighth grades and we started changing rooms for different classes. Our main teachers were Mr. George Endres and Mrs. Marion Allen. We also had Mr. Romeling for Art and Mr. or Mrs. Schnell for Music.
High School brought even more classrooms and more teachers. Our homeroom was in the History room. We were expecting to get Mr. Vertucci but he was replaced by Mr. Joe Vail who was later replaced by Mr. Al Maher. He came in acting very tough but quickly mellowed and we had a good time with him.
Mrs. Susan Culbert taught Math, Mr. Paul Benson taught English, Mr. Ray Hebert taught Science and was later replaced by Mr. George Abraham. Mr. Frank Gilbault taught Business and Typing and Coach Charles Schalk taught Phys. Ed. Language was taught by Mr. Lloyd Balch, then by Mrs. Roberts, then Mrs. Warning. Most of our teachers were relatively young and, looking back, were pretty cool. Mr. Benson was probably the coolest. I started my senior year with a beard and long hair. The Principal, Robert Woodruff, was having a fit. He didn't want me appearing in the yearbook like that. Everyone wanted me to shave, but Mr. Benson pulled me aside and told me to do whatever I wanted. He encouraged me to read good books and to this day I am a voracious reader and have to always have a book on hand to read. One book he had told us about in class was "Johnny Got His Gun" by Dalton Trumbo. I bought a copy and read it. It was a very powerful anti-war novel.
By the way, my mother settled the beard issue; she decreed that I had to shave before my senior picture was taken which turned out to be before the yearbook pictures so everyone was happy but me.
This
is my senior picture
I played Junior Varsity football in Jr. High and played Varsity football in my freshman year. I played Tackle. We played 8-man football instead of the usual 11. Sometimes I played both offense and defense. The quarterback would yell, "Ready…Set…GO!" with the ball hiked on "GO". Sometimes, in an attempt to draw the defense offside, he would yell "GO…GO!" with the ball snapped on the second "GO". We all got a kick out of it when he tried it against the Rome School for the Deaf.
I was on the yearbook staff and belonged to Herkimer County Seminar. That was a program where the top students from each class went to Herkimer to a hotel for dinner and a lecture. We also took trips to plays, ballet, operas, and musical performances. It was a good introduction to the arts . I also played the trombone starting in elementary school into Jr. High and played in the Jr. Band. I didn't like practicing and eventually gave it up.
I enjoyed high school and was more interested in the social aspects than the academic. My home room teacher told me I could be Valedictorian of my class if I wanted to be. I told him I didn't want to be. I rarely took books home; I was usually able to get my homework done in study halls.
One day I skipped out of school with Virgil Hazzard and, I think, Candy Ellard's brother. At the time Virgil had a red '60 Chevy. We went to Herkimer to the TP Drive-In which sold 21 cent hamburgers. This was in the days before there was McDonald's or Burger King on every corner. We pooled our money and came up with around $7.00. We ordered three milkshakes and all the burgers we could get. I think we ended up with 6 or 7 each.
We formed a band in High School. Dave Brodowski and I would spend noon hours walking around the school grounds harmonizing on Beatles songs. Dave played guitar and had a Silvertone guitar which had an amp built into the case. Paul Puskarenko also played guitar and bass. He had an expensive Hagstrom bass that got stolen out of the school. David Buckhout played the drums and also had a large Heathkit amplifier. We usually practiced at his parents' house. David Delaney played with us for a short time because we wanted to use his Fender amp. We played a lot of Beatles, Stones, Lovin' Spoonful, and Turtles type stuff. We often practiced in the school auditorium noon hours and would get quite a few kids watching. We played some school dances after the basketball games and did a gig for the church at the Hallsville Grange.
Speaking of basketball games, they were the leading social event during the winter in high school. I always went to both the home and away games. The school would run spectator buses to the game and the bus rides were usually a lot of fun since I was likely to have a cheerleader on my lap. After home games everyone would go to the Van Hornesville bowling alley. It was really the only place in town. When you walked in there was a large snack counter area with a juke box where we hung out. The usual fare was French fries and a cherry coke.
Another place we would go was Brown's Bowling Alley in Canajoharie because minors could get served there. There was a dance area with black lights that made anything white really glow in the dark. You could walk up to a window at the bar and get a pitcher of beer and bring it back to the table and everyone could drink. I was only 16 when I started my senior year and only 17 when I graduated so I couldn't drink legally in High School.
The Viet Nam war was going on while I was in High School and one day we all walked out of school and marched to the local cemetery as a protest. The faculty was all freaked out; I think it was the biggest unrest they'd ever seen at Van Hornesville. I was only 17 when I graduated but in November of 1970 I turned 18 and had to register with the draft. The war was still going strong and every young man's nightmare was being sent to Viet Nam. I got the dreaded draft card with the even more dreaded 1-A classification (eligible for military service). That year they instituted a lottery system where they chose dates randomly to determine who would be called for service. Each date was given a number 1 through 365 with the lowest numbers most likely to be called. My date of birth came up something like 267 or 269 and I was re-classified as 1-H (eligible for service but not likely to be called). That's the only lottery I've ever won.
The school was built by Owen D. Young and sold to the school district for $1. He was the founder of RCA and NBC and was Time magazine's "Man of the Year" in 1929. The science lab was designed by Madame Curie, the library is an exact replica of George Washington's library, and the school was the first anywhere in the area to have a swimming pool. The first commencement speaker was Franklin D. Roosevelt. Eventually the name of the school was changed from Van Hornesville Central School to Owen D. Young Central..
I graduated in 1970. I think there were 24 students in my graduating class. Graduation was fun; we had a really good time on the platform. Graduations were held outside on a platform at the far end of the football field. I started making the rounds of all the graduation parties and I guess I had a bit much to drink. I was at Rick Bronner's when my brother showed up. He took my car keys and drove me around the rest of the night.
I won a Clark Foundation scholarship and in the fall of 1970 I began attending Herkimer County Community College taking Liberal Arts. David Misencik who I'd gone to high school with also was attending HCCC. He had a VW converted into a dune buggy and we would ride up to Utica to visit Rick Bronner and Steve Staruck, two other high school classmates who were attending Mohawk Valley Community College. I was living at home and driving to classes every day in my 1962 Chevy Impala. In retrospect, I was not mature enough or responsible enough to keep myself in line. I started skipping classes and by the end of the first semester I withdrew from college.
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