Show Posts

This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.


Topics - Hifi

Pages: [1]
1
Jackson Heights of Yesteryear / The Idiots in NY School System & PS 69 First Day of School on a Hurricane 1960
« on: April 07, 2020, 08:55:12 PM »
In the midst of these times, I suddenly remembered the idiot decision by the NY Board of Education not to cancel classes on the first day of school despite Hurricane Warnings in September 1960 and my genius mother sending me to school that day at PS 69. I especially remember this because no one at the Board of Education lost their job over this moron decision to have schools open as scheduled. I was in the third grade and basically what I remember of that day was at around 11:00 or so, they decided that yes, duh, there was a full Hurricane and we could all leave as long as a parent picked us up. My mother came and I remember we walked to our nearby grandparents home as our umbrellas all broke and stayed there until my father picked us up by car I think. The problem with being a kid then was lack of information and common sense. Our parents certainly had none as almost every kid showed up for class that day. Jackson Heights of Yesterday!

2
Jackson Heights of Yesteryear / Mr.Hartstein PS 69 1964 6th Grade Class Picture Barbara Marus Email Contact?
« on: June 19, 2017, 06:51:43 AM »
Somehow my sister found this online this week. I don't remember this Class Photo ever being taken even though I'm in it! My mother was too cheap to ever give me the money to buy these Class Photos. I recognize about 30% of my classmates in it. This was the class where at about 2:40 on Friday a female teacher suddenly without warning burst into our classroom,  whispered something into Mr. Hartstein's ear and Mr. Hartstein suddenly turned completely white, a look I've never seen before or since and silently walked to the blackboard and wrote in block letters "President Kennedy Has Been Shot". I was the blackboard monitor and he asked me to erase it about 2 minutes later as we were dismissed 15 or so minutes early. Like an idiot, many of us played punchball right afterwards in the schoolyard.

If anyone has an email address for one of the girls in the photo, Barbara Marus, would appreciate it as I always wanted to thank her for "Taking" one of Mr. Hartstein's demerits for me which would have been my 4th one and a phone call/letter to my parents. Until recently I always thought her last name was spelled Maris like Roger Maris and wasted time Googling this nonexistent name. Nowadays these kids in school can stab their teachers and they won't get in trouble and I was about to get a demerit for whispering something during class to the classmate next to me!


3
Jackson Heights of Yesteryear / Wow I Had a Crush on an Academy Award Winner at PS 69 Who I Knew!
« on: February 17, 2015, 06:52:13 AM »
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!

4
Jackson Heights of Yesteryear / Mr. Hartstein Class of Sept 1963-June 1964 What Became of Barbara Maris?
« on: February 17, 2015, 06:18:48 AM »
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.

5
Jackson Heights of Yesteryear / When President Kennedy Died & Mr. Hartstein informed our 6 Grade Class at PS 69
« on: September 03, 2012, 04:48:37 AM »
One of the few memories that are permanently etched inside me is when at around 2:00 while I was just counting down the minutes in my 6th grade class at PS 69 till the weekend started, a female teacher suddenly burst into our classroom and whispered something into our teacher, Mr. Hartstein's ear, who turned absolutely white. I never saw anyone turn white before and haven't seen it since. He was frozen in shock for about a minute or so and we were all wondering what the hell was wrong with him. Then without saying anything, he picked up a piece of chalk and walked to the blackboard and without saying anything, wrote that President Kennedy Has Been Shot which I think was amended a few minutes later to President Kennedy is Dead. We then were let out early. Mr. Hartstein who was a good man unfortunately died a few years later from a fall from his stairs at home.

As I was a dumb 11 year old and PS 69 had a lot of us, I then went outside and played punch ball in the schoolyard with a lot of other kids as the gravity of the situation didn't register. I just remember I was so ticked off that weekend which was before cable TV, that all the TV channels didn't have any of the regular TV Shows on for the next 3 or 4 days. Somehow incredibly, I still find it hard to believe to this day, the NFL played their regular scheduled football games. My family & I had gone that Sunday to visit some friends of my parents in New Jersey and I remember just as we were leaving them and driving home, that my dad's friend ran to the car and said that Lee Harvey Oswald was just shot dead. The whole thing was like a cartoon to my 11 year old mind and I think I might have started laughing at the whole thing- the President gets assassinated, no TV and now the Assassinator has been shot dead. Felt like one of my Saturday morning cartoons.

Of course as I grew older I realized that Lee Harvey Oswald did not assassinate Kennedy, the Warren Commission was a cover-up and basically the President of the United States does not have real power (at 11, I thought the President "Ruled" the United States). Anyone want to share their experiences of November 22, 1963 and that weekend?

6
Jackson Heights of Yesteryear / Bad Memories of the SP at JH 145 around 1964-66 (3 Year SP that never was cause
« on: August 11, 2012, 06:15:59 AM »
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!

Pages: [1]