Michael Weiner

Nancy-What a great picture of our 6th grade class !- Mr. Bagnoli's class. I recognize instantly almost everyone.What a great time that was. I'm laughing all day just thinking about Mr. B's shenannigans . a truly unforgettable character. Thanks.  Mike

Nancy Messer

Mike - glad you like the picture.  I had to call Ann Shepard Rueve to find out how to add a photo here - she's the expert.  She walked me through it and was looking at it.  She recognized you immediately - said you hadn't changed (except for getting older like all of us).  She got a chuckle out of Chuck Cole and Johnny Osher.

Judy Holtzer (Knopf)

More Junk for the ladies.... Barbara Kahn, how brave of you to remember and relate your skirt debacle. With humbly bowed head, I admit to getting a D as the grade on my skirt. And I seriously relied on my Mom's help fo most of it. I am still all thumbs. When preg with my first, I was determined to overcome my shaming and shameful disability. I knitted a baby vest all by myself. You cannot imagine how proud I was of this puny piece.

Judy Holtzer (Knopf)

If there is any interest, I guess I could post several pictures from Bond Hill School, since we seem to have strayed from high school to elementary pride. 

My computer had a psychotic break, so my brother and I decided time for Judy to break open the piggie bank and buy a new computer. My brother David, class of '67, is still helping me set up stuff, but I imagine I can scan and send pictures.

Just let me know, former Bond Hillites.......

Philip Spiess

Ira and Ann:  Dan Ransohoff was indeed the photographer who specialized in images of social issues and social work.  He was the uncle of our two Ransohoffs -- but I'm sure they can tell you more about him.

The Washington Monument Bomber was about a day or two after I started working at the Smithsonian, so it must have been the fall of 1982.  My office was in the Arts & Industries Building (Old National Museum) and my wife's was at the other end of the Mall in the National Museum of American History.  Her office overlooked the Washington Monument, and I was convinced that if the Bomber set something off, the Monument would fall right on her office!  However, we were all evacuated to the National Gallery of Art till the crisis was over.

Steven Levinson

Phil and Ira:  Through a program called Careers in Social Work (presided over by an old Catholic Carities biddy whose name I have long forgotten and who was an eminently mediocre and forgettable person), an instrumentality of the old Community Chest, I did a summer intership at Child and Family Service after our Sophomore year in college.  My direct supervisor was a gem named Merilee Atkins (who much later moved onto my street, Rawson Woods Lane, with her long-time companion).  Dan Ransohoff, who also lived on Rawson Woods Lane, was a very big honcho at C&FS, maybe the Director, I'm not sure.  He was indeed a magnificent photographer and a damned good social worker as well.  I'd known Dan since I was a very small kid, but I probably got to know him the best that summer.  I toyed for a time with the idea of a combined career in law and social work -- lawyer for the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare was the working model -- but it wasn't to be. 

Philip Spiess

Thanks, Steve, for filling us in on the missing details.  We've got to somehow preserve and index this site (which I've offered to do, though I haven't figured out how yet) because it is a goldmine of oral and other history of our time -- on a wide variety of subjects, both local and national.

Philip Spiess

Ira:  The Smithsonian "Castle" (the original Smithsonian Building) was usually reserved for Smithsonian-related meetings, so I'm a little confused by your story.  However, the Smithsonian Associates' Dining Room was in the Castle and might have been used for meeting that were not at meal times.  I can't think of where else they might have met, since the major meeting rooms under the Castle (the Ripley Center) were not built at the time of the Washington Monument Bomber.

As to classic Smithsonian stories, I was asked in 1996 -- the year of the Smithsonian's sesquicentennial -- by the American Association of Museums to write an article on the Smithsonian's museum history for Museum News (the Association's national professional journal).  The ensuing article created a scandal in certain quarters, but I live by its authenticity (except for one tiny joke, something I always slip into my professional articles to see if anyone notices).  I will be happy to send you -- or any other of our classmates -- a copy of the article if you give me your mailing address.  What the article doesn't mention is that James Smithson (founder of the Smithsonian, though he never visited the United States) in 1904 was moved (his body, coffin, and monument) from Genoa, Italy, where he died, into the Smithsonian Castle's entryway -- and where his body was suddenly burned up, by accident, in 1977!

Philip Spiess

Ladies:  Your comments beg the question:  did any of you get above a "D" on the skirts you made for Home Ec?  And if you didn't, did you protest about the quality of teaching (i.e., did La Junk actually show any of you how to do this task well?  That is teaching!)? 

Larry Klein

Phil wants to know if those skirts got above a "D".  I'd be more curious if any were above the "knee".  But then, from the general regard displayed here for Miss Junk, that surely would have precipitated a "D".

Philip Spiess

Okay, guys, time to rate "bad teachers" and "good teachers."  So far for "bad teachers," I've seen advocates for Miss Kamm, Miss Junk, Whitey Davis (maybe), Robert Lunsford, and . . . ?

As for "good teachers," certainly Mr. Knab, Mr. Wilson, Miss Hutchison, Mr. Inskeep, Mrs. Murphy, Miss Riffe (?), Mr. Eick, Miss Kitzmann, (I would say Mr. Meredith, who hasn't really been mentioned so far), Mr. Arcelisi, Mr. Stites, Miss Keegan, Mrs. McKammon (Miss Gerwig), Mr. Gregory, Mr. Leeds (despite having to duck on occasion), Mrs. Durbin (maybe), Mrs. Levy, and . . . ?

Am I missing key teachers?  Am I accurately assessing the inclinations of the comments herein?  Let us know your thoughts!

Judy Holtzer (Knopf)

Phil! Favorite teachers! You left out Miss Hope!!

Chuck Cole

Tom Lounds should be added to the "best teachers" list.  and I'd put the guy we had for mechanical drawing (what was his name?) on the other side of the ledger.  

Nancy Messer

Add Mr. Gallenstein and Mr. Glesen to good teachers.

Gail Weintraub (Stern)

Good teachers: The art teachers: Mrs. Dobbins, Glenn Voltz, Mr. Soul/Sole/?. Also Veronica Smukel

Bad teacher: Mr. Melman, Ms. Vauner

Gail Weintraub (Stern)

Phil, with regard to our Home Ec grades from Ms. Junk: I believe that we all received grades above D. She could not have given all D's as it would have reflected poorly on her teaching.

Judy Holtzer (Knopf)

Gail, I don't know about Barbara Kahn, who started me remembering about Mary Jane Junk (with no regard to cannabis, I do think I remember her name being Mary Jane.... please correct if wrong), I was only speaking of the grade I received for my skirt, not for the course. I quite agree with you that she could not have given out for course grades too many Ds.

Judy Holtzer (Knopf)

Phil, I quite missed the pun about beer and the name of the city where I live since the "Beer" of "Beer Sheva" is pronounced "b-AIR", and I am so used to this in my mind that I blew the pun. Good for you, though. No hard feelings. :}  Judy

Laura Reid (Pease)

Miss Junk...it's amazing that any of us felt qualified to become wives after the torture she put us through; my experience with her was equally discouraging.  My full skirt had a horizontal pattern.  I remember my Mom making me stand on a table so she could mark the hemline by measuring from the floor to the desired length; then I hemmed the skirt, but the hemline didn't follow the pattern.  Miss Junk told me how terrible it looked and gave me a D.  So then cooking followed  so I was determined to get revenge; I shared that story in my profile but will retell:  we were making muffins, using a hand mixer; she left the room and I held the mixer over my head, while it was still running and sprayed muffin batter everywhere....she wasn't pleased, nor were my parents when called, but I loved every minute.

Barbara Kahn (Tepper)

Judy Holtzer,

I am not brave - I tell you about my hideous Apron experience to soothe all who thought their sewn item was the worst.  I thought mine was awful but I don't remember my grade.  I don't remember many of my grades.  I didn't dwell on them.  

Judy - I went to Bond Hill too until the middle of the 4th grade when we moved.  I'm just about getting over it - the trauma of moving mid-year and having to make new friends at Losantiville School was terrible.  

My favorite teacher was definitely Mrs. Levy.  One year when we were both traveling alone she was happily my seatmate on an airplane.  I don't know where we were coming from or going but I remember how lovely it was to sit with her, have a cup of tea and talk the entire flight.  

Philip Spiess

To go back to Nancy Messer's picture of the 6th Grade North Avondale class:  It's astounding how the identifiable faces of Rick Steiner, Mary Benjamin, Chuck Cole, and John Osher pop right out of that picture for me.  (Some of the other kids look generically like 6th graders I taught 2005-2013.)

I never had Mrs. Levy, though my sister did -- she thought Mrs. Levy was marvelous.  And I remember Mrs. Levy asking me what was wrong and sympathizing with me when I had some secret sorrow that apparently showed in my face and she found me roaming the halls.

Bruce (I was editing while you were posting; that's how I know what you're going to ask below):  Although I nearly flunked Chemistry, I thought Mr. Welch was a good teacher (and he did a good imitation of Danny Kaye); I just couldn't handle those valence formulas.  Mr. Woodward I thought kindly but naive (he probably wasn't); Dale Gieringer and Jeffrey Daum and Steve Berman and I used to hang out in his Biology lab during 6th period, ostensibly "helping out," but really running amok.  Danny Brown and I and a young lady whose name I've forgotten used to giggle in the back of the room when Mr. Woodward would be talking wide-eyed about a field mouse's [?] "great big testicles."  His wife used to substitute teach, as well.  No one has mentioned Mr. Meredith, coach and 8th Grade Social Studies teacher, who I highly regarded.  He taught both American History and Cincinnati history that year, which is where I got part of my interest in Cincinnati history that led to a lifelong career.

Laura:  It's not skirts and pastry that make for good wives; let's all be glad that Miss Junk didn't teach Sex Ed (Larry, no pun intended on "junk").

Bruce Fette

I would love to see thoughts about Mr. Welch the chemistry teacher, and Mr. Woodward the biology teacher. For me the sciences were good and so I liked these two, but I think a broader vote is required than mine.

Nancy Messer

I liked Mr. Welch and thought he was a good teacher, but I was a chemistry idiot.  The only thing I understood the entire year was balancing the equations.  Once you memorized the valences, it was algebra problems.  That I could do.  I never understood lab at all.  The main thing I remember is hot glass looks the same as cold glass!

Philip Spiess

Nancy, kudos to you!  As I've indicated, the part of Chemistry that you mastered was the very part that I couldn't handle!  And does anybody remember the sign outside of Mr. Welch's room? -- "LABORATORY:  More of the first five and less of the last seven!"  [P.S.:  Nancy, now that I think about it, I think you sat on my left in Chemistry class.]

Nancy Messer

I very well could have been next to you.  My presence there doesn't mean I was comprehending anything.  I wish some of your smarts could have found their way into my brain - there was plenty of room!