Larry Klein

Can't find my "original", so posted this from the 40th reunion (compliments of Rick and John's goodiebag)

Jonathan Marks

I had totally forgotten that I declined to participate.  I guess if there's any occasion about which I might persuade myself to feel guilty, I will eagerly embrace it.

And let's face it, the lyrics were indalible.  I serve as a commencement marshal for roughly six ceremonies a year, and every time I hear the tune, the words pop back into my mind. I grin, I march, I feel guilty.  Life is good!

Jeff Rosen's participation was the sort of trick of the memory that we're all prone to (except perhaps Levinson).  He wasn't anywhere near the scene of the outrage; he had long since decamped to Country Day.

Judy Holtzer (Knopf)

"Hail P.H. McDevitt..." pure adolescent high jinks and, typical for WHHS, pretty sophisticated humor.

I honestly do not understand why the guilt, belated handwringing, and big deal over who participated and who did not. My brother, who was 3 years behind us, 1967, remembers to this day more of the lyrics than I do.

Why don't we lighten up a bit here? Just my opinion, btw.

JHK

Paul Simons

Chuck Cole

While our lyrics for Pomp and Circumstance aren't quite a tune that you can't get out of your head, I share Jon's experience of ALWAYS beginning to sing our version whenever I hear the opening bars.  And usually, it stays with me for the rest of the day.  

I believe I had Joe Knab for European History and then again for AP European HIstory.  He certainly kindled in me a love for the subject and taught me enough so that I could move directly to more focused history courses in college.  We used to call the AP course "Advanced Joe".  

Chuck Cole

And while we are at remembering old pranks, let's hear it for Orange Day (I think it was May 1) when we used to bring oranges injected with vodka to school.  I was amazed that I could actually go to the drugstore and buy hypodermic needles (usually used to inject insulin in those days).  Some folks even brought watermelons--you can cut a small hole in the melon and invert a bottle of vodka.  Leave it overnight and much of the contents of the bottle will have ended up in the melon.  Wasn't some sort of "fight" with water baloons also part of this ritual?  I have a vague memory of hurling water ballons out of Mrs. Dobbins room above the circle entrance to WHHS.  

Henry Cohen

Wasn't Bill Mr. Luedeke?

Ann Shepard (Rueve)

I'm with Jon and Chuck. I can't listen to Pomp and Circumstance without thinking of those lyrics, although I only remembered the first and last stanzas.  It was great to see all of the lyrics for the first time in fifty years. 

Gail Weintraub (Stern)

Paul/Si, "Effies" were 7th graders. "E-Flats" were 8th graders. 9th graders were Frosh, and so on. And Henry/Hank, I think that Mr. Leudeke's first name was Howard. I don't have my Remembrancers available to confirm.

Laura Reid (Pease)

Gail, Effies I remember, E-flats, I had totally forgotten , but I Do remember the watermelons, orange day, etc., and the vodka.  how did we get away with that?

Ann Shepard (Rueve)

I remember orange day well. I think it was David M. Schneider who shared one with me. Marvin Whistler had the watermelon.  

Ann Shepard (Rueve)

Do you all know hiw effie's got that name and the reason the prom was called th B/A Prom?

goes back to the early days at WHHS, when the grades were lettered not numbered. Grade 12- A, grade 11-B and so on. The lowly seventh graders were the F class, therefore, effies. 

By the way, I went to the prom only my senior year. I went with Martin "Ace" Walton. Who'd you go with?

Dale Gieringer

   Mr. Ludeke's first name was Howard.  He was a neighbor and friend of our family.  From 7th through 11th grade, he drove me and a couple of other Westwooders to school every morning, which meant arriving half an hour before everyone else; we were on our own going home, which involved a 50-minute bus trek.    I was fond of the Ludekes;  they were childless but used to invite us neighborhood kids over to visit;   his wife Katherine taught me to play canasta.   He retired before our senior year, then had a stroke and passed on not long afterwards.

Philip Spiess

The information above is all absolutely correct:  the authors of the "Pomp and Circumstance" parody were Dale Gieringer, Philip Spiess, Chuck Cole, and Frank Dauterich, not necessarily in that order -- we all contributed episodically, usually over lunch.  (Although Jeff Rosen had moved on, we still consorted with him, but he was not involved in the song.)  And, yes, perhaps because I was one of the authors, it still goes through my head too when I hear the tune (I was at the U. S. Naval Academy's graduation last weekend, and what do you think went through my head as the midshipmen marched in?).  I, too, have a faded copy of the words.  But let the truth be known -- when Mr. McDevitt said during graduation rehearsal that "That song has gotten under my skin and if I find out who wrote it, they're going to be expelled!" it put the fear of God into us authors (graduation was only a couple of days away), so we put out the specious (Spiess-ious?) story that it had been written by Withrow students as a sort of rivals' revenge.  This was pretty thin gruel, certainly -- anyone thinking about the matter would have realized that Withrow student had neither the wit nor the intellect to write such a song.  And, yes, "Bill" was Bill Spreen, who had replaced Howard Ludeke after he retired in 1963.  (by the way, when Mr. Ludeke came back for a visit the next year, either for an assembly or graduation, he received a standing ovation from the WHHS student body.)

Philip Spiess

Now, as to the matter of Mr. Knab.  Yes, Ira, that story about the broken back and a brace or truss (which, the story said, was why he stood so straight) was certainly going around, for I remember it, but I was never able to ascertain the truth or untruth of it (though I will say, as a cultural historian, that it has all the earmarks of student folk myth).  Although Mr. Knab did wear bowties, I do not recall that he wore them exclusively.  What I particularly remember is his unique pronunciation of and precision with words.  I also remember that he was a teacher of such clarity that I knew thoroughly the day's lesson after he had lectured on it.  Unfortunately, that was too late for good presentation of the lesson in class on my part -- with the result that, just before the AP exam in "Modern European History" was about to be held, Mr. Knab called me in and suggested I not take the exam, as "it might reflect poorly on the school; history is not for you."  I was aghast, and in complete irritation I took the exam anyway.  [Note to Mr. Knab:  I have been a highly successful professional historian for the past fifty years!]

Judy Holtzer (Knopf)

I am so glad to see Phil has joined us. I remember with a smile his twinkling eyes and impish grin, and of course his somewhat devilish sense of humor. And yes, I am yet another who cannot hear Pomp and Circumstance without flashing back to Hail P.H. McDevitt, Hail Raymond and Bill.

Phil's career(s) and lifelong achievements, as do many of my former classmates', completely humble me. I always knew that we were all overachievers, but honestly now! Too over-the-top! Seriously, I have a feeling reading the few posts that I get to that there is a genuine sense of pride of the entire class of WHHS 1964 for the class of WHHS '64. Nothing wrong with that! I thik we really were special.

And could someone of the more informed out there help me with something odd that just started this evening? I keep hearing a sound, much like a note of a flute, and I'm a bit concerned it's from inside my house? It could be from outside, of course, and just my paranoia of living alone - my dog is a bit useless at times like these. Now two notes quickly following each other. We have had many generations of fruit bats (date palms nearby), but they never ventured this close to houses.... And they never sounded so flutey... I'm mystified. Would really like answers!!! Only serious ones, though. I'm too nervous.

Judy Holtzer Knopf (Israel)

Judy Holtzer (Knopf)

Phil - did Mr. Knab use the word "guffaw" in addition to his famous "buffoon"? I can't remember....

Philip Spiess

Judy:  Although I remember "buffoon" well, I don't immediately remember Mr. Knab saying "guffaw," nor can I quite hear his particular intonation saying it.  But that doesn't mean that he didn't.  Somehow it sounds more like something Barron Wilson would have said.  On a truly serious note, I cannot explain your flute sounds, but I can tell you that some years back the distinguished King Arthur scholar Geoffrey Ashe was spending the night on Glastonbury Tor in England, prehistoric and one of the reputed sites of Camelot, and heard flute-playing in the valley below the Tor.  When asked if he'd investigated the sound, he said, "No, no; you don't disturb the supernatural."  Just sayin' . . .

Richard Winter (Winter)

Dale (et. al) -

Thank you so much for reminding me of Narcissus!   Does anyone else remember American Chop Suey?

Richard

Richard Winter (Winter)

To pick up on another thread of this discussion, Jimmy Schloss posted a message about Whitey Davis, our long suffering swimming teacher and coach.   Because of my ninth grade back injury, I was in swimming class for three years and have vivid memories of Whitey.  In our typical class he would bellow out instructions something like, "Alright now, I want four laps of freestyle".  When you finished that, he would ask for four laps of some other stroke. 

We swam without suits and Whitey's trademark was, "Give me four laps of backstroke, and keep those periscopes up!"  -- which meant that you supposed to keep your body more or less elongated as you swam.  

Larry Klein

Whitey Davis was a great swim coach for sure, but he could never teach me to breathe in the water.  I could swim one lap nearly as fast as Dana Cohen, but the only breath I got was at the 'turn'.  I was turning blue by the time I got to the second wall.  Backstroke was a whole 'nuther matter!

Lillian Vendig (Bandyk)

I also remember Mr. Knab, with his very erect posture and bowties.  Also remember his having written an outline on the board of his lecture for the day and the expectation that we would copy it and fill in his additions to it.

I also remember French class with Monsieur Eick not permitting us to speak English and listening to tapes of French in the language lab, with many attempts to pronounce the vowels correctly!

Judy, I suspect you may have bats which have gotten closer to your home.  Owls are another possibility.

Philip Spiess

Notes on Several Subjects:  First, to Dick Winter:  if I understand correctly, you are responsible for setting up and running this magnificent Website.  Many thanks and congratulations!  Now to American Chop Suey:  are we talking about a food served in the lunchroom or the song from Rodgers & Hammerstein's "Flower Drum Song"?  Next, to Judy:  Maybe it's Kokopelli (where do you live?)?

Philip Spiess

Oh, I forgot the subject of Whitey Davis.  Seems I had him every semester I took P. E., no matter whether it was Swimming or Gym.  Somewhere else on the profiles I saw some comments about the boys swimming naked at good old WHHS.  Yes, we did -- although members of the swim team got to wear suits.  There is a long and interesting set of discussions all over the Internet on this subject (most boys in America, it seems, swam naked in high school from about 1946 to 1966 -- but some had female teachers! -- and the girls loved to look through cracks in the gym doors).  I'll let you look it up by yourselves (start with the subject "Skinny Dipping"); okay, don't get ideas:  just remember I'm a Cultural Historian.  And some of you said you were somewhat embarrassed to do this; curiously (and my body was nothing to write home about), I was more embarrassed when we had co-ed gym classes, due to the flared boxer gym shorts we wore, than I was swimming nude with the boys.  Whitey Davis (in addition to the "up periscopes!" command he always made, mentioned above by others) would also tell us to "Imagine Sally Rand is across the pool!"  This was no later than about 1962, when I stopped taking swimming, but I feel fairly certain that I was the only person in six grades of WHHS who knew who Sally Rand was (maybe Jeff Rosen or Johnnie Marks did)!  Sally Rand was famous as a "fan dancer" -- that is, she performed nude but was coyly covered by the constant manipulation of fans (almost wings) over her body as she danced.  I must have seen her on television in the movie "Bolero" (1934) with George Raft (anybody remember him?).  [Further note:  in looking up the date of "Bolero" in my movie book, I came across Martin Ransohoff, who produced "The Beverly Hillbillies" and "The Addams Family" on TV.  Any relation, Dick and David?]  Whitey Davis also occasionally had to teach us simple dancing steps (mandated?), which he performed on a table in front of us.  He seemed terribly embarrassed by this.  Finally, he would occasionally (in winter) bring out a "cage ball" (my favorite!), a giant but light-weight ball that we would kick around with our feet while lying on our backs.

Philip Spiess

Okay, I'm curious:  how many of you were members of fraternities or sororities in college?  I myself (considered a Geek, not a Greek), nevertheless joined Phi Gamma Delta (Fiji) -- which was seriously dubious about admitting me (it didn't help that I flaunted a walking stick) -- and was elected president my sophomore year.  This led to my 2nd, 3rd, and 4th years of college being very much akin to the movie "Animal House," especially in my relations with the Dean of Men (of fragrant memory).  [More on this perhaps later.]