Judy Holtzer (Knopf)

Just wondering after Jon's Mr. Farnham's story - Anyone know if he forced left-handeders to write with their right hands?

Stephen (Steve) Dixon

Hahaha.... Marks, that is the funniest thing on here, so far. Other than my "Now" photos.

Ann Shepard (Rueve)

I found the thumbs up and the smiley face.  This is to S. Dixon's comment to Jon's handwriting tale.  Good one, Jon! Good one!

Larry Klein

Jon, et al, ironic that you "learned" an alternate way to hold your writing utensils.  Ironic because I would get so bored in Mr. Arcilesi's classes I would doze off and my pencil would fall out of my hand.  Of course the crashing sound hitting the floor alerted the entire class that I was "out".  Accordingly, and to avoid further embarassments, I engineered a new "hold" - between my first two fingers so the pencil wouldn't fall.  Later I discovered I could hold two pencils (black and red) which was handy for math notes in class.  Never had a teacher offer to re-train me, though.  I also still hold them that way today.

Paul Simons

Thx for your kind words Ira re: my pops, your uncle Joe Si. He was one great guy. So dedicated, stayed up late grading papers, carefully, he wanted everyone to be able to write clearly. Brokamp - way ahead of his time - he treated us as equals. About favorite teachers - regardless of criticism Mr. Williams was a great art teacher and Miss Verona Smukal made math come alive. In fact Van Halen wrote a song about her.

Ira Goldberg

Interesting you mention Me. Williams. I found him to be very talented, in particular remembering one of his own pieces-a watermelon with actual seeds embedded on the canvas! Also liked the elder Brokamp and has the pleasure of sitting next to him a few months ago at a meeting. Son is even more impressive as a school leader!

Gail Weintraub (Stern)

Verona Smukal! I loved her. In fact, when she was pregnant, I hosted a baby shower for her. I haven't thought about that for 55 years! And, Paul, what is the Van Halen song? What is the story behind that? I'd love to listen to it.

Nancy Messer

I liked Miss Hope and Mr. Gallenstein - algebra.  Going back even further - Mr. Bagnoli and Miss Downing from North Avondale School - write the Table of Measurements 15 times!

Paul Simons

To take these in order - about Mr. Williams, Ira - he told me to not look at the paper I was drawing on. Paper -  we were way too novice for canvas. Just to look at the person or object I was drawing, follow the lines, and doing what he said was the only way or time I ever drew anything that looked like the actual subject. I didn't know he used mixed media himself. That reminds me of Dick Cohen whom you will all remember, a golfer who wanted to design golf courses and probably does - at one time I visited his loft studio in lower Manhattan in around 1970 and he was building up thick layers of acrylic on huge canvasses and then sanding the stuff off to different levels. It was pure abstract, just color and texture, good to look at. Like a cubist Gauguin in 3-D.

And then Gail, about the nexus between Miss Smukal and Van Halen - more of my hyperbolic bloviating. Their song "Hot For Teacher" wasn't about her specifically, but I think the topic resonates with all teenage boys who had a sexy teacher, which she was. I'd put a YouTube link here but it's too incendiary for the generally respectful tone of these pages. I'll put it on my page.

It's worth it to remember that beyond everything else the teachers were good, knew their stuff, and I think in every case wanted to do a good job and wanted us all to do well.

Henry Cohen

I remember an incident with Mr. Carpenter our 11th grade math teacher who even then was known to take a few shots during the course of the day. Either that or red noses ran in the family. Anyway we were having one of his math tests which he mostly put on the blackboard. I was sitting in the last row of about 6 or 8 rows in the back left hand side of the classroom. Directly in front of me in all of the other rows were football players ( I'll name some names if anyone is interested). I had not yet gotten glasses although I needed them and I could not read the questions on the board so Mr. Carpenter gave me his original test to work from. There was one algebra problem on the test that was a very hard and convoluted one where plus and minus signs were critical and he had written it wrong on the board, but I had the right variation of it. So my answer came out nice and even, but everyone else if they did the problem according to what was on the board, should have gotten a different and rather weird answer. The issue was though that the football player right in front of me looked at my answer and copied that down. He then passed it up so all the football players also got my answer. The next day when the tests were returned and Mr. Carpenter had discovered his error, he did wonder why it was that anyone other than me got the right answer. One of the guys said that they had asked to see my copy of the test and somehow he bought that lame ass explanation. Of course nowadays keeping football players eligible has been elevated to an art form.

Laura Reid (Pease)

So who WERE the football players?

Steven Levinson

Jon and Gail, as for Danny Brown, I can give you his contact info (if you don't have it) via the message center.

Henry Cohen

Two of the math whiz football players with excellent eyes and stealthy talents were Mike Boyers and John Compton.

Steven Levinson

Mike Boyers chipped my knee bone in 10th grade P.E.  A simple expression of regret would have been nice, but was never forthcoming.  Mr. Lunsforth dealt with the situation as though I were a leper.  He would have made a first-class WWII fascist.

Henry Cohen

Lundsford, Varrelman and Whitey Davis were quite the athletic department triumverate. None of them had a sympathetic bone in their bodies and Whitey seemed to have a greater than average interest in the boy's swims suits or absence therof in the mandatory swimming class. Where was equal opportunity and title 9 back then, as I recall the girls did not have to suffer the same fate. I actually flunked gym the first semester of senior year for not taking showers every period, got an A the second semester as my strategy was to stay in the shower. Almost forget Will Bass, worthy of the award for best at making every sound and syllable virtually indistinguishable from any other.

Michael Hunting

I am still left handed and also still love football. As for teachers, all I can remember is Klatt and Innskeep. Loved both of them.

Henry Cohen

Does anyone remember Tom Welsh's very un PC mnemonic device for reciting the periodic table information on copper.?

Judy Holtzer (Knopf)

I apologize that this image has nothing to do with WHHS or with any of us personally, but collectively, for all of us - yes even for me in Israel - I've been hearing what a very bad winter it was. I thought that maybe this picture could cheer us up a bit. Best wishes, Judy Knopf (P.S. In Israel, instead of winter rains - and most of you guys got buried in evil snowstorms - we got days where the temperatures went into the 70s and 80s. The rainfall was spotty, and we still don't know what it will mean for crops, not to mention the price of food)

Enjoy, and hope this brings a smile. JHK

Doug Gordon

Henry (do you still go by "Hank"?), your post on the gym teachers was really funny. I also suffered from various gym-induced traumas and still remember that one of the high points of my life was when I was signing up for classes in my freshman year of college and saw that "Physical Education" was really, truly not on the list.

And my younger brother can still crack me up with his spot-on impressions of Will Bass!

Doug Gordon

Although I don't remember the mnemonic, Mr. Welsh was certainly one of my most memorable teachers. His class definitely gave me a leg up in my first semester of college, where Freshman Chemistry was the first big weed-out course we encountered on the way to an engineering degree.

Another really memorable teacher was Barron Wilson. I was lucky enough to have him for the first two years of Latin and one of French. What I learned there helped me immensely in later years on some of my professional travels where I had an opportunity to use my French as well as pick up a working knowledge of Italian. My mother actually remembered him as a freshman when she was in her senior year at WHHS in the 30s; I guess he stood out as a bit of and oddball even then.

Gail Weintraub (Stern)

Gym teachers: Reading the posts about the boys' PE teachers and learning how racist and authoritarian they were, got me thinking....who were our girls' gym teachers? Not one name comes to mind. Not one single memory. And, I was even involved in GAA after school sports. Were they that unremarkable or am I experiencing memory decline? Or, both?

Sharon Baum (Covitz)

Can anyone remember the name of our typing teacher? I can see her face, but I can't remember her name. I credit her with me being able to type theses and dissertations to make some extra money while Wes was a resident making $8,000 at Boston City Hospital.  My tuition at BC was $2,000 and because my husband was a "doctor" we didn't qualify for financial aid :)

Sharon Baum (Covitz)

Gail, Was Miss Hutchens one of our gym teachers?  That's the only name I can remember and I'm not sure if it was in high school or college.

Judy Holtzer (Knopf)

I am so with Shari about the typing teacher! Knowing how to type quickly and accurately really saved my life. Everyone wanted me to teach English privately. Ugh.

Ann Shepard (Rueve)

I mentioned in my "school story" hat Helen Hutchnson, the gym teacher, was my guardian angel.