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SEVENTH GRADE 1960-1961:
I know what you're thinking. How was the 7th Grade? Okay, I'll tell you. It was strange at first. most of the kids that I had been in class with from Kindergarten to 6th Grade were scattered in other classrooms. I had to start making a lot of new friends who I wasn't used to. But, make them I did. That's the nice thing about children. They can get along with anybody. That's why JESUS said to become like little children, because they don't know how to hate or make war and their thoughts are on good things and not evil ones.
We had what was known as Home Rooms where we would spend half the day. In our Home Rooms we were taught the UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION and the GETTYSBURG ADDRESS and how our Government runs. We were being taught how to take our place in AMERICAN society when we became of age. It's a shame nobody ever taught the politicans who run this country these things, because all they've ever done is ruin our way of life.
The people who built NORTHEAST JUNIOR had the foresight to include a swimming pool. I learned to swim in that pool. I was never that good, though. But, I could keep my head above water, which is really what counts, because at least you can breathe. One thing I never like about swimming, which was always on Friday, is that the boys had to swim in the nude. Also, that cold water took a little getting used to. The biggest thrill of swimming was that there were always nice warm towels fresh from the dryer when class was over. I'm not trying to sound like a cry baby, but the girls got to wear swimming suits and the water was heated for them. Chivalry can sometimes be painful. I hope you girls appreciate the fact that we boys had to take off our clothes and freeze so you could swim in comfort. The least you could do is award us a medal or something! One bad thing did happen. I liked to duck my head under water a lot. I don't know what happened, but one time when I ducked under the water, some water was forced up into my sinuses. Pool water is not what you'd call clean. From then on, I had problems with my sinuses. I would miss school up to 5 days at a time until I graduated. My sinuses still bother me to this day. And every once in a while, I can still taste that pool water. These man-made chemicals and drugs can stay in your body for a lifetime. From what I understand, the pool has been torn out and offices put in its stead at the JUNIOR building. This action is not only uncalled for, but insane. Thousands of kids learned to swim and learned how to save lives in that pool. Not only that, but the name was changed to NORTHEAST MIDDLE SCHOOL. That's what happens when CHRISTIANS allow the Devil's people to take control of the educational system.
Lunch time was a completely new experience for me. At the JUNIOR building, the cafeteria encompassed the whole 4th Floor. I rememember that even though we had something like 1600 kids, once you picked a seat at a table, it was yours. Nobody ever took it. It was the same way at the SENIOR building. Kids had a sense of honor that a lot of adults don't have.
My 7th Grade Home Room reacher was MRS. LEFMAN. She taught Common Learnings. Her husband, RAY, was also a teacher. He organized a bunch of kids into kind of a swing band. I think it was called THE JUNIOR VIKES.
My first experience in Band Class was quite something. I was no longer a part of a small elementary school band, this was big kid stuff. MR. BIANCO was my Band teacher. he would be so for the next 6 years of my school life. We had a beautiful big classroom with very high ceilings. Both the JUNIOR and SENIOR buildings had them. They lowered the ceilings in the late 60's which was a mistake. The reason for the high ceilings was because the schools were built to accomodate 2000 students, plus faculty and employees. With that many people, you need room to breathe. That's what the high ceilings provided, especially in Winter when the windows were closed. We kids always had plenty of fresh air. That's why school kids today are getting sick all the time. They have to live and study in an environment that has low ceilings and tight construction, which makes fresh air almost impossible to get. Getting back to Band, at this time in my life it was no more kiddie music. I was introduced to music written by the March King himself, JOHN PHILLIP SOUSA. To this day, I still love those SOUSA marches. As far as I'm concerned, it is absolutely unAMERICAN not to like parades and JOHN PHILLIP SOUSA marches.
My Physical Education coach was MR. HOVERDER. For the 1st Semester, my Science teacher was MISS GRAY. I remember she once told the class that when she was younger, she volunteered to try out one of those new fangled STANLEY STEAMERS. From what I remember, she really went flying down the road.
Instead of Science for 2nd Semester, I had Wood Shop and my teacher was MR. THIEL. He once bought a new car, a 1961 CHEVROLET. He said you could buy things like that if you didn't smoke or drink, because those vices took away your money. He and other teachers used to take kids on organized weekend train trips to places like Chicago and they could see the major sites and understand the country in which they lived.
My Mathematics teacher was MRS. VAUGHAN. The younger generation will probably think I'm making this up, but when I was going to school, we had to actually do math problems without the use of computers or calculators.
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EIGHTH GRADE 1961-1962
I passed my rookie season at NEJR in pretty good shape. My 8th Grade Home Room teacher was MR. MCKNIGHT. Where as we learned a lot of AMERICAN history in the 7th Grade, in the 8th we learned about the World. I remember he gave us a blank map of the World and we had to write in the names of all the countries and thier capitols from memory. The way countries change names these days, I doubt if anybody can keep up with the names anymore. He taught us the dangers of COMMUNISM. Up to then, it was usually about NAZIS, because our parents had gone through WWII. I remember one time he took us out on a picnic to SWOPE PARK. We had a student teacher, TOM BOARD. I rode with him. I remember he had a little FORD FALCON. Teachers were always doing things like that for us. These days, the teachers would proably take them out to a video game place. I honestly believe that in the 7th and 8th Grades, I learned more about AMERICAN history, the UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION and other countries in the World, than what the average politician knows about these things today.
I had MRS. MALEWSKI for Typing. I had MISS WIMMER for Science. I think she was from one of the CAROLINAS as she had a Southern accent. I had MR. HAWTHORNE for Math.
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NINTH GRADE 1962-1963:
I had MR. KIRKPATRICK as my English teacher. I sat next to a young lady by the name of CAROL STAFFORD. It seems that she and LINDA AMBRO, another JAMES classmate, came up with THE STEVE ALLEN FINK CLUB. CAROL was President and LINDA was Vice-President. I think they had some guys print up membership cards in the SENIOR Print Shop. I was one of the first members. Crazy as it might sound, I still have that card today. I even carried it around in my billfold for years. Just think for a minute. Before BATMAN & ROBIN made it on TV, we had the DYNAMIC GIRL DUO at the JUNIOR building!
MR. SANO was my Citizenship teacher. During my FRESHMAN year they decided to come up with Clubs like the school used to have. With all of the clubs and organizations to join, kids just didn't have time to get into trouble. They were too busy having fun and learning new things. Anyway, I put in for the BOWLING CLUB. Unfortunately, so did a bunch of other guys. I got put in the CITIZNSHIP CLUB. We once put on a play for the school. I would rather have gone bowling than learn to be a good citizen.