Steven Levinson

I was a Kappa Sigma in college.  And Joe Knabb, in addition to dubbing individual people "buffoons," would say of any comment that he regarded as dumb that it was "enough to gag a maggot!"

Chuck Cole

Oh my!  Phil Spiess in a fraternity...and even President of the fraternity?  Hard to believe--very.  I went to Oberlin at least in part because there were no fraternities and sororities. And now I find myself at Dartmouth, where Animal House actually was located.  Every so often the administration tries without success to address the negative effects of the overwhelmingly dominant frat culture here where drinking is a professional sport.  Almost all social life revolves around Greek life even though there are some members of  GDI (G-d-damn independents) which is what I think some of us used to call ourselves.  The alumni here (and all of those who graduated before the early 1970s were male) threaten to cut off all donation if the college messes with the frats, so it doesn't happen.  

Which brings up another reminisence of life in the 1960s, when 3.2 beer was available to seniors.  I remember purchasing 3 or 4 quart bottles of one of the local swills (Burger, Bavarian, Hudepohl, Schoenling, Wiedemann) and heading for one of the local parks, and hours later, somehow heading home. Of course, all of those breweries disappeared and I don't know if any brewing happened in Cincinnati again until the coming of craft beer, which I understand is a rising part of the culture in Cincinnati.  A cousin of mine who used to live here in Hanover, NH (his mother is Judy Heldman, WHHS '67) moved to Cincinnati to be a apprentice in one of the Over the Rhine breweries.  I suggest we make a field trip to visit the craft breweries a part of our next reunion.

Philip Spiess

Chuck -- the sentiments you express in the opening of your comments above were echoed by some of the faculty members at Hanover College; I was kind of surprised at it all myself.  But I had lots of fun driving my fraternity brothers (many from rural Indiana) crazy, what with my walking stick collection, straw boater and bowler hats, and yodelling the "Prelude to Act III" of Wagner's opera "Lohengrin" in the showers at 6 in the morning (it echoed so nicely!).

Gail Weintraub (Stern)

I was a WHHS sorority girl. Gamma Kappa--GK. I admit that I enjoyed the deepening of friendships with my "sisters" and loved the creation of annual rush parties, musicals and entertainment. As much fun as sororities and fraternities were, I didn't like the devisiveness of the Greek system and the pain that it created for those who rushed and were not accepted into their first choice sorority or not accepted into one at all. It was yet another social caste system at WHHS. By the time we were applying to college, I intentionally applied to schools without the Greek system. It was liberating to live four years on a college campus without this social structure. I find it interesting that Phil and Steve went Greek in college after not being involved with it in high school. 

David Ransohoff

Phil,

Martin Ransohoff the Hollywood producer is a distant relative of Dick's and mine, but none of us ever met him, as far as I know.  I understand he was a real SoB, but maybe that's what you expect in Hollywood.

About Mr. Duval, does anyone remember how during class we would make bets about how many times he would clear his voice in a one-hour period... and how we figured out how to make him clear his voice more?

And has anyone discussed Mr. Gleason's throwing erasers at people, and was anyone ever hit?!

David

Ann Shepard (Rueve)

I was in Iota Sigma Chi, IEX. Founded for daughters whose mothers were in the college sorority Alpha Kappa Alpha, although there were exceptions. We had girls from WHHS, Withrow, Woodward and Taft.  We were a group of pseudo sophisticates who had meetings at the Y, smoked cigarettes and partied with the boys of Omega Delta Kappa, ODK. 

Paul Simons

Ann Shepard (Rueve)

Unlike Gail's experience, I enjoyed the high school experience of a sorority. My college experience was quite the opposite. As a legacy, it was always expected for me to become an AKA. It was also my dream. Having left OSU, I transferred to Knoxville College.  I had the misfortune of pledging while living in an upperclassmen dorm, where my big sisters, including my roommate, had access to me 24/7. The hazing was brutal, so much so that my "sisters" stripped me bare naked trying to get my pledge pin and pretty much beat me up. The pledge class was to be inducted the following day. My mother, her best friend, whose pin I was to use and the Grand Basileus (national president) were there for the ceremony. I told them I'd rather not get inducted. I couldn't believe they could behave that way the night before, then be my sister the next. 

I don't think I've ever expressed that before in writing (thanks Mrs. Levy). The whole experience sort of soured my memory of KC. Perhaps old trauma is the reason why some of our high school classmates aren't as enthused about coming to the reunion. 

Paul Simons

Michael White

Soooooooo 'SLIM' still lives??!! GREAT to hear!!! perhaps he too will come in out of the cold?? How 2 add photo??

Judy Holtzer (Knopf)

Phil - about those flute-like noses last night (hey, I live alone and it really freaked me out) - I have long suspected that my house is haunted. As for Kokopelli, I live in Israel, rather distant from Native Americans, unless you believe as some do that they are part of the Ten Lost Tribes... On the other hand, I am into childbirth, especially the early postpartum period, and there are some in my family, including a daughter-in-law (eerily, a flautist) who have musical talents.

I just have to hope it's from outside the house. As I moved closer to the sound, it stopped, by the way.

Lillian, I doubt if it's an owl. Haven't heard of any in my neighborhood. Night owls, yes, but ones with natural feathers, no....

Michael White

Ahhh ORANGE DAY!!! MAny funny recollections!! oranges filled with vodka-hypodermic bicycle tire inflators-watermellon-vodka smoothies brought to us by ADK I do believe, the teachers valliantly attempting to thwart our 'FUN'??!!  as an aside, remember 'BABY' day??? We had some crazy traditions 'back' then

Judy Holtzer (Knopf)

Shoot, there goes the flute sound again, and it's barely dark outside. Going to bed early and pulling the covers over my head...... Judy in haunted Beer Sheva. Who knows? Maybe my house was built over a graveyard? According to the Bible, Old Testament, this area was settled before the time of Abraham..... sigh.

Phil, I'm sure that being a historian is fascinating and rewarding, but living in a joint with so darned much history is sometimes daunting. Certainly humbling. Fabulous country.

Judy Holtzer (Knopf)

Must say that I am quite disappointd that "guffaw" did not originate in my list of favorite words from WHHS with Mr. Knab. 

Anyone wave any ideas?

Judy Holtzer (Knopf)

What's the matter with me? This is where I must seek validation for something that drove me nuts when I was doing medical editing in cardiology.... This hotshot from Tel Aviv handed me  manuscript with the words "ex vivo", which caught my eye immediately. Tried to explain to Dr. Hotshot that "ex vivo" means "outside the body", and could be dirt, a tree, a lake, a pen..... In answer, Dr. Hotshot showed me a published article with "ex vivo" in it. I then asked him, and if they spelled your name wrong, would you rush to the Ministry of the Interior to change it? He just walked away.

Of course, what he was describing was "in vitro", but Dr. Hotshot thought that since it was not a petrie dish, he could make up his own term.....

Sometimes so very *happy* to be retired! (Are you reading this, Dick Murdock?) Now trying to write - in English this time - a sequel to my first book on human lactation.

Yeah, the flute is still there....

Judy Holtzer Knopf

Larry Klein

Judy, r.e. the "flute".  You may have an old refrigerator and the fan belt in the freezer 'de-frost' unit may be slipping.  Mine has been doing that for years, and is extra active in hot, humid weather.  The slipping sound can vary from flutish to squealish pitch.  Check it out.

Dale Gieringer

David -  Yes, indeed, I remember bettiing on how many times Mr. Duval would clear his throat. As I recall, we tallied them with pencil marks on the wall.  Not only that, one of Mr. Duval's 11th grade AP math classes stands out in my memory as being the single most boring class I ever attended.   It consisted of him reading  llne for line the first few pages of the book about elementary logic - not not A is A, and so forth - in his flat, disinterested monotone, interrupted only by occasional throat clearings.  It was so deadly boring that I remember you cracking up;  I couldn't help snickering myself - now THAT's boring.  Outside of class, though, Mr. Duval was an interesting character.  

Or so I was told by Mr. Ankenman, one of my favority WHHS teachers. Ank only taught physics for a couple of years before leaving WHHS, but we kept in contact.  One summer after graduation,  I worked for him weekends on his tobacco farm in Indiana with Malcolm Montgomery (Denis' brother).    In his family time, Ank was a mentor and stepfather to lost adolescents.  He always was more down-to-earth than intellectual; in the end he left WHHS in disgust at big city corruption.   Ank was also a friend of Barron Wilson's, god bless him.  I never took a formal class from Barron, but enjoyed taking a few extracurricular Russian lessons from him after school.   He was a dedicated  teacher of many languages;  he also sang in the Zoo opera chorus.  After we graduated, he was the victim of a scurrilous sex frame-up at the Greyhound Bus Station that forced him to quit teaching, but I believe he was eventually rehabilitated and returned to teaching, where he belonged.  That was my first lesson about the nastiness of homophobia.

Larry Klein

It took awhile, but I finally have a current aerial view of the NEW WHHS from the contractors.  Enjoy.

Philip Spiess

Good lord!  What is all that?  It looks bigger than the original 1933 building!  I know, I've seen some PR about it, but Larry, can you explain what we're seeing in the new wing?

Philip Spiess

And what's that along the north side of the old Auditorium wing?

Ira Goldberg

Larry and I got in on a groundbreaking of the dirt portion of campus at upper left - a soccer and lacrosse field. Building, expansion and technical updates are great and our class gift is helping a truly diverse student body! Did you know the school is ranked #1 in Ohio, has #1 SAT ave. in US and are more AP courses than any HS? It's fair to be really proud! Phillip, I see you asked Larry about it. He's there more, so I'll listen too.

Ann Shepard (Rueve)

Thanks Larry.  Great view. 

Larry Klein

Here are the main differences in the new WHHS from OUR school in '64.

Arts and Science complex - that's the huge boot-shaped wing you see north of the old auditorium wing.  This is where the majority of our Class of '64 Rick Steiner Performing Arts Fund was put into play 4 years ago.  Nearly all science classes and labs and specialty classes like Photography are contained therein.

Stadium - Marx Stadium grandstand was added 6 or 7 years ago and seats a really good crowd.  It's clearly visible from I-71 northbound, and on a September Friday night at the football game, you can see the full moon at about eye level directly across the 50 yd line sitting on the roof of the next note:

New gym, swim, and Performing Arts Complex - the bldg east of the football field.  Gym and new competition pool are at the north end of the bldg; closest to the main bldg are concert halls, drama rooms, band rooms, and solo practice "closets" where Paul and Eugene could have practiced their guitars without drowning out the rest of the band.  Football locker rooms open directly onto the football field for a grand entrance through the student and cheerleader "tunnel".

Tennis courts - still in construction north of the new gym along Jonathan Ave.

Sports complex - our old girl's soccer field south of the main bldg is under construction (dedication Ira mentioned) and will be used for soccer, JH football, lacross, and other activities.  Grandstand will seat 400 w/concessions.  Also will have a batting cage for our future MLBers.

Parking and driveway - you can see these all along the east side of campus with a connecting driveway from the Jonathan lot all the way through to Gilbert Ave.

Old gym - has been refurbed and will house girls and JH basketball and gym classes.  I shot free throws last week and it's great.  Also, the old "naked" pools are converted to weight rooms and meeting rooms - the best in the city.

David R. Schneider

Other teachers I remember- Ms. Keegan and Ms. Schweitzer- English teachers, as well as Mr. Gleason, whose name was mentioned today.  I agree with you all who have posted about Mr. Knab. Another good memory I have is preparing for Peanuts.  When you think of all that we accomplished and the fun we had, it is one of my good high school memories.

Henry Cohen

I remember a few of us, I think D Ransohoff, perhaps David Engel and a couple of others had this brilliant idea of starting an anti-greek system fraternity which we wanted to name Signa Phi Nothing. Unfortunately it went nowhere but geeks instead of Greeks would have been refreshing.