Jackson Heights Life

I played stickball there regularly in the 1960s on weekends as there were some great strike zones etched on the walls. Also played basketball after class in the the yards, Mr. Hartstein taught me the hook shot which somehow I can still do from a long distance out. I'd occasionally play pick up softball games. I think we fungoed the balls.

LOL I have no idea who you, Lynne Brophy are but we have the exact opposite tastes/memories concerning the teachers you named. I had Mrs. Levy in the 4th Grade (I think it was 1961) and she was one of the nicest, kindest teachers I ever had. I had Mr. Jacobowitz  who changed his name to Javits in the beginning of the 5th grade and he was one of the nastiest most miserable vile people I have ever had the misfortune to know. I had forgotten about him till now- thanks for reminding me of a truly evil human being I had forgotten about for over 50 years! Luckily after a few months they transferred part of the class including me to Mrs. Millstein's class. who was so-so. Jacobowirz was such a nasty work of art he tried to get a kid transferred out of the school (I don't remember if he did) because he lived a few blocks out of the district. The rest of your memories I share good thoughts on but that fish store that sold French Fries was not open that long or kids were forbidden to buy French Fries their or something- Maybe my nutso mother whose still living forbade me to go there in one of her insane actions. I have memories of being insane myself of going to the 78 street park in the middle of a freezing winter with ice on the ground & playing basketball on the courts when I was 14 a few times.

Only (soon to be celebrities) that I personally knew when I lived in Jackson Heights (left NY in 1977) were: 1. Academy Award Winner Mercedes Ruehl who I had a crush on when I was 6 and she was 10 (her mother taught at PS 69- and may have been my first grade teacher) and Mercedes would occasionally help out in the Classroom. My crush ended at 7 when she threatened to beat me up and somehow (I'm not a stalker) remember the last time I ever talked to her when I went at the age of 12 or 13 to play basketball inside PS 69  which was the first time a girl had ever "flirted" with me! Mercedes recognized me and I didn't immediately recognize her because I hadn't seen her for 5+ years. She came up to me and talked to me very sweetly for about 20 minutes and then said to me "I bet you don't recognize who I am" and after staring at her for about 14 seconds, embarrassed, shouted "Mercedes". I asked her how come I never saw her after second grade and she told me she was going to some Drama School in Long Island. Like an idiot, I didn't realize that Mercedes Ruehl was the Mercedes I knew as a kid till I googled Jackson Heights on Wikipedia and had my Cosmic Revelation. Duh!
2. 2 of the NY Dolls, Johnny Thunders and Sylvain Sylvain. Johnny was more of a slight acquaintance at JHS 145 who once told me he admired my "Semi Beatles Boots". Johnny played "Walk Don't Run" at the JHS talent show and was great. Sylvain Sylvain was in my 4th grade class at PS 69 with Mrs. Levy and I didn't like him and barely spoke to him. I was never a particular fan of the NY Dolls and/or punk rock.
4. Gene Simmons lived about 100 feet from my apartment building and even at 14 he looked like he does today which scared the hell out of me every time I passed him in the street. I think maybe we exchanged 10 words with his being "F You" for something. I never was into Kiss's music but I do find Gene Simmons entertaining and intelligent when I see him speak on TV today.

I had one of my earliest crushes on a girl at 6 years old around 1958 with an older girl (by around 3 years) named Mercedes who occasionally helped her mother, my first grade teacher (as I remember). I thought Mercedes was beautiful and she was so nice to me. The next year Mercedes was not so nice and she threatened to beat me up a few times for something I did. That ended that crush and the last time I saw Mercedes was a few years later in 1964 or 65 or maybe it was 1966 when I went to play basketball at the PS 69 indoor ground floor court and some pretty girl who I didn't recognize came over to me with a smile and started talking. I said "who are you". She smiled and said "don't you recognize me?" I took a long look and said unsurely "Mercedes"? She smiled and said "yes" and we had a nice long talk and she mentioned she was going to some performing arts school in Long Island. I never saw her again unfortunately but I never forgot that moment as that was really the first time I ever talked/flirted with a good looking teenage girl. Somehow like an idiot I never put two and two together until recently when I realized that she was Mercedes Rheul. I had seen her in many movies including The Fisher King and TV Shows and somehow never connected that she was Mercedes who I "knew" as a kid. Duh!

As a classmate of Barbara Maris, I always wanted to tell her when she took a "demerit for me" that I deserved in Mr. Hartstein's class (the year where he turned white one day in November when a teacher whispered in his ear that Kennedy was just shot), that, that was the nicest thing anyone's ever done for me.  Unfortunately, I never saw her after June 1964, she didn't go to JHS 145, and other than thanking her briefly as an 11 year old in that class when that incident had occurred (don't remember the date), never really got to tell her how much that meant to me. If anyone stayed in touch with her over the years, please tell her Michael never forgot her kindness.

9th grade was discontinued). The most idiotic thing ever for a kid was the SP program at Junior High School 145 (Joseph Pulitzer) in which kids had to keep up an 85 average or get kicked out of the program. Do you know how F'in insane that was? Even more insane was the fact that an above average intelligent but not genius kid like myself would suddenly look like the Village Idiot compared to the many genius kids in my class. I remember the moment I got in the SP and my Jewish Mother was so proud of me after telling me I'd never get into the SP program because my IQ wasn't high enough- thanks mom. Mom then freaked me out my 8th grade year because I could only maintain around an 82 average and she swears to this day I would have been kicked out of the program if it wasn't for the fact that the next year they got rid of the 9th grade.

I was in the class with my buddy Paul Kutscera, the sadly late Corey Suferin, the genius Daphne Atkinson. The kids in the class were for the most part OK but some were totally obnoxious. The teachers were generally OK but not great with the exception of my history teacher who had a beret and name I think was Mr. Beruh and he made history great and turned us on to James Knox Polk. I had a Mr. Spiegel the year before in History and to this day remember he devised the best way to learn and take a test by basically giving us all the answers the night before but not the questions so we'd study what those answers meant! Some of the answers weren't on the test so he basically "forced us" to learn the stuff by this method. Still the best teaching and test method I ever had.

Most of the teachers were pretty nice like Mrs Reed (?) in Math, Mr. Sandler in Science & Phys Ed, my 8th grade English teacher who caught a bunch of us cheating but handled it really well (I forgot her name I think it started with an S) and Mrs. Tucker in French who I later got private French tutoring from but still sucked at French in High School through no fault of her, I just wasn't into it. I do remember in 8th grade I had a total AHole teacher for Science I think he was balding in the middle but may be wrong-it was 47 years ago! and on the last day of school walked into his classroom while he was teaching another class and yelled you suck! I didn't anticipate that he would come out of the classroom, grab me by the neck, lift me up in the air and threaten to kick my ass! Looking back I wasn't right doing this and I don't blame him for his reaction but he was a mean, nasty SOB.

In the 8th grade when they said the 9th grade was discontinued I took a test for Stuyvesant High School but didn't get in (lucky me who the hell would want to go to an all boys school at that time). I remember how I found out. A nasty old woman who I think was my 7th grade home room "teacher" who was now working in the Admin Office or something said, I kid you not, "Sadly you didn't get in. You don't know how ashamed you've made your parents by this". If I was older I would have said F you to her but just said nothing. At least the old hag whose name I don't remember must be dead by now!

I left Jackson Heights & NY for good around 35 years ago & basically lost touch with my classmates when I went to a Private High School in the City but to this day memories of the SP still get me mad as what was the point if you weren't a genius. It certainly didn't help my self esteem by being one of the dumbest kids in a class of geniuses because I was just above average! It could have been worse though and I could have taken the 2 year SP Program which was even worse and totally retarded as who wants to skip a year and as a result be physically smaller then all your classmates? To this day I've never understood what the purpose of that was. So you can work one extra year in your life? Lucky you, lol!