Larry Klein

Phil, thanks for pointing out all that artwork at school (that I never noticed in my 6 years there).  The only art I ever noticed was more mobile and came in tones like brunette and blond with some red and black sprinkled in.  I might add, our class easily had the majority of the "classics".

Ira Goldberg

Phil, you should make a visit to the school. But, I hear there will be more to see here next week! How do you dredge up all those details, anyway? In addition to the fascinating recollections and incredible accomplishments of you all, it is especially gratifying to get a glimpse of your personalities and humanity and eagerness to reconnect after so many years! If memories and messages are any indication, those years impacted us even more than I had realized before WHHS64.org was launched. Everything there influenced us. Such a gift to be part of this class reunion. I only wish that I knew 10% of what was going then, outside my narrow sphere. What fun!

Doug Gordon

Phil, re the flag pole, I remember a "big event" when we were about in 8th grade when someone ran a Confederate flag up the pole on Robert E Lee's birthday. Apparently it was tied up there in such a way that it wasn't easy to get down.

Judy Holtzer (Knopf)

I now truly reget that I was not more active in high school activities. Everyone has such wonderful and such vivid memories that I am envious....

One of my few memories is an April Fool's Day prank in Miss Gerwig's class - I remember it was in the Annex building - when on the stroke of the hour, we all silently stood up in place and turned our backs. I've always wondered what would have happened should we have done that to Stanley Leeds!!??

I loved Miss Gerwig. Great sense of humor, and the feeling that she loved teaching.

Judy Holtzer (Knopf)

Just told my brother - Dave Holtzer class of 1967- about our wonderful virtual reunion  fun, and he would like to know if anyone remembers him from stage crew.... Thanks. Judy Holtzer Knopf

Ann Shepard (Rueve)

For your edification, the old WHHS became Burdett Elementary when WHHS opened. That fortress of a building has long since closed for tha purpose. The buildng, well most of it, is still there. I just drove passed Saturday. It has been transformed into what looks like and apartment buildng. The upper level even has a few balconies. 

Bruce Fette

Yes, I think I remember him.

Doug Gordon

Judy, I'm with you on wishing that I'd participated in more things. But given who I was then, I probably couldn't have done differently.

By the way, I didn't know that you were Dave's sister. He's a good friend of my brother Colin, also from the class of '67. In fact, I exchanged some messages with Dave on Facebook a few months ago. He's been living in Israel for quite a long time now.

Margery Erhardt (Schrader)

I so agree with Ira. Until I attended our last class reunion and heard the many comments of fellow classmates in our Saturday afternoon class dicussion, I had no idea what some experienced both positive and negative. I am in awe of our class and the great accomplishments so many have achieved. In many ways I feel we were a unique class from my observation of classes before and behind us (my sister was in the class of 1967) and that remains today. Personalities show through in this forum and I don’t see any changes in them. I remain a quieter “classmate” and so enjoy the fun tales and wonder where I actually was half the time. A great way to get together!

Philip Spiess

Doug:  Thanks for the flagpole story; I'd forgotten that.  It's how I learned when Robert E. Lee's birthday was.

Ann:  Thanks for updating me on the old Walnut Hills; I now remember passing it on one of my flits through Cincy and seeing the apartments.  It's what we call "adaptive reuse" in historic preservation work (or what we used to call it; it's probably just called "recycling" these days).  But you haven't yet told me what happened to the "Peanuts" and the "Walnuts"!

Philip Spiess

Speaking of April Fool's pranks (except this wasn't on April Fool's Day), I remember in 8th Grade English, with a new young female English teacher (whose name I disremember at the moment, but we had the class in Mr. Inskeep's 2nd floor, south wing room, overlooked by a bust of the blind poet Homer), a prank which I think originated with David (M.) Schneider, possibly aided and abetted by Jerry Ochs and/or Frank Honebrink.

This particular young female teacher had two noticeable quirks -- she always wore very tight skirts and she was forever bending over as she roamed the room lecturing to pick up the numerous pieces of balled-up paper that got thrown on the floor during writing exercises.  So one day -- when her back was turned, Dave (or whoever) tossed a couple of wadded balls of paper out over the floor where she'd be sure and see them when she came round again.  And she did see them -- and she bent over in her tight skirt to pick them up -- and Jerry (or whoever), who had prepared himself for the event by smuggling in a piece of coarse cloth, tore the cloth in half with a loud ripping sound, seen by everybody except the teacher.  Poor Miss Whatever-Her-Name-Was straightened up so-o-o fast -- and kept her back to the wall through the rest of the lecture, which, i believe, she cut short!  We were so bad!

But nobody's picked up on my earlier comment somewhere about how badly we arrogant students treated substitute teachers, particularly Miss Kincaid ("Old Ski-Jumps") and Mr. Fish (who was actually quite brilliant).   

Ira Goldberg

Margery, we

have shared a 'bubble,' perhaps for the better in some instances....though it seems like such fun.

Henry Cohen

We also treated bus drivers quite regrettably. Does anyone remember the chant: Does you father work? No he's a bus driver! Is he strong? Yeah you can smell him a mile away! This was offered up frequently and in chorus.  Emotional intelligence is not a strong suit of adolescents, one can only hope it arrives at some point. Too often it does not.

Ann Shepard (Rueve)

Phil- The performing arts at the school has become commensurate with the talent. The level of sophistication has evolved from the Andy Hardy and Judy,"Hey kids, let's put on a show..." days to elaborate,full fledged productions. The talent was always there, but is now nurtured to a different level, with an incredible new venue to showcase the talent.

I lifted the following description from the Walnut Hills High School website:

Walnut Hills Theatre Department stages 3 – 5 productions a year, most of which (with the exception of Advanced Theatre class productions) are open to the entire student body for participation by way of audition. These include both musical and non-musical plays. The performance schedule for the year is posted in the Fine Arts Calendar, available in the music department or on the Fine Arts webpage

Audition calls are posted on the WHHS website, and on the Theatre Dept bulletin board. There are both Senior High and Junior High productions, structured for the different levels of skill and sophistication in each group. Musical productions often call on the talents of upper level band and orchestra students to provide instrumentation for the pit orchestra – announcements regarding those opportunities will be made by the respective music teachers.

Participation in any theatre production is a privilege and a responsibility, and entails a strong commitment to the entire endeavor – this includes being available to attend all rehearsals – be sure you are able to fulfill this commitment before signing up for a role. (This includes musicians as well!).

.

Gail Weintraub (Stern)

The Performing Arts at WHHS are supported by our WHHS Class of 1964 Performing Arts Fund. If you haven't done so already, scroll down to the "Our Class Performing Arts Fund" tab on the left hand menu of this website. You'll be impressed to see the ongoing contributions to our Alma Mater thanks to our classmates' generosity.

Nelson Abanto

OK Phil, I'm waiting for your response on the Opera question.

And by the way, did I miss something about Gail and the Greek Statute?  Pictures?

Nelson

Larry Klein

Sorry Nelson.  I threatened to do the research in the Library's Chatterbox archives, but a certain young lady outvoted me.

Philip Spiess

Nelson;  Either I missed something or you did.  I thought that I had answered every Opera question on your Profile page.  As to the other question, follow Larry Klein's lead on this (or go back and read Gail Weintraub's Profile -- nuff said!)

Philip Spiess

Ann:  Thanks so much for your detailed response.  It sounds impressive -- but at the same time it sounds like truly amateur opportunities, so important in the high school years, to give even somewhat mediocre kids a chance to perform, have been lost in the process.  Competition used to be very keen throughout the grades to be in "Walnuts" -- that was what my little poem that I posted was all about.  (Chuck Cole, who I believe was producer of our 1964 "Walnuts," should know all about that.)  {Rick Steiner, take note.]

Philip Spiess

Hank Cohen:  This bus driver chant thing is something quite new to me -- can you give any more explication?  (Also, you never responded to my draft physical remembrance; was I delusional, or do you remember it, too?)

Henry Cohen

Phil, must have missed your question on draft physical, please resend. Thanks, Hank

Philip Spiess

Hank:  It's on your profile page in the third block of comments down (the block below the "Chatterbox" picture).

Nelson Abanto

I'm not sure if Barron Wilson has been mentioned or not.  He was important to me because he sat down with me and taught me real Spanish as opposed to the dialect I spoke.  Pedro helped me a lot in that regard too.  The others seemed to be a little annoyed by it.  Mr. Wilson rode the same bus I did going home.  I remember him sitting there reading Latin out loud.  A true language scholar.

Doug Gordon

Nelson, I was lucky enough to have Mr. Wilson for the first two years of Latin plus a year of French. I remember going into his classroom on the first day as a bewildered Effie and having him come in and just start speaking Latin to us as we sat there and stared at him. At least we eventually figured out what a "finestra" was!

His classes gave me a lot of confidence in trying to learn languages, and I seem to remember more of my French than I would expect. It also helped in learning a bit of Italian when I spent a few years making numerous business trips there (tip: learning Italian causes loss of memory of Latin!).

He was definitely one of my most memorable teachers at WHHS.

Doug Gordon

Does anyone know how this "Virtual Reunion" on the 10th is going to work? I'm going to be on a vacation trip next week, although the hotels will have wi-fi and the site is reasonably usable from my tablet. Is it going to be a big chat session or ???