MEMORIES

last week I was invited to a 90th birthday party at the Bridgewater Commons for a childhood friend who I had not seen after the en d of THE WAR. I had all the best intentions of going but at the last minute had a car problem and decided not to go. To my surprise and delight after I had settled down the daughter of one of the guests came to take me there. Thank you Erica.

Once I got to the party I found out That the honoree, Philip Kaplan could shake a mean leg. I have always had two left feet so to see this 90 year old dance was a joy. There were two other PHS graduates from the 1936-37 class there. Louis Mandel and Joe (Tombro) Tamara.

Obviously we had a great time talking about the good old days. We used to walk or ride our bikes to school. There were the East Enders and the West Enders and we usually amalgamated into a large group from our part of the town by the time we reached PHS.

T here were many stories about our high school days, and about certain favorite teachers, and some not so well liked. Among them was Herr Hauck who was a "Prussian Marinate" with the heart of a puppy. He could frighted us but also earned our respect and admiration. There were also the Hendersons who taught Latin . Leslie Beers and Vic Liske also were subjects of fond memory.

One special story was about the time a very popular Physical Ed teacher and coach who did not get along well with Hub Stine the head of the department was transferred from the high school to the K-8 schools program. About twenty of us went down to Principle Galen Jone's office at the beginning of the school day and instituted a one day sit-in strike . We were not successful in changing the transfer nor did we receive any punishment. We felt great that we had challenged the establishment.

There were many other High School tales, most were of the Huckleberry Finn type. We recalled others of our peers who are no longer with us, some like Jack Glass were killed in WWII. Jack was a casualty of the Ploesti oil field raid.

Even more interesting to me was on the ride to Bridgewater, Erica was talking about the "bands" that existed during her High School Years. As she was mentioning names like the Mazurs, Bob Levinson, Rich Heyman and Jeff Fink. I informed her that my son Andy had been guitarists for "The End" with the Mazurs and Bob Levinson. This band practiced in our basement and the house vibrated. "The End" was popular i its day and managed to rent the Cook School for a concert. They made a pile of money which they all put back into new equipment. After Andy left them to play with another group that was doing Rutger's frat gigs, the others renamed themselves as "Spring Plowing'. I know very little about its activities. All these boys continued to be active musically for years even unto today.