What I Remember — From Eleventh Grade (1967–1968)

I’ve heard it said that a child remembers nothing from his or her first three years. I’ve also heard it said that old people like myself — I turned 73 recently — remember more about their youth than they do about last week. Thus, as I prepare to attend my 55th high-school reunion of the class of 1969 later this summer, I thought it might be interesting to see what I actually remember from those early years, kindergarten through twelfth grade in the Catholic schools I attended in upstate New York. Since I don’t honestly remember much from those early years of school, I thought I would post my vague memories, and perhaps they might stir up the memories of others who attended school during that same era.

Our junior year was a turning point for me academically. As a sophomore, I barely passed Biology with a 67 on the Regents Exam, so I wasn’t allowed to take Chemistry as a junior and studied Earth Science instead. Then, I also struggled with all the formulas in Math 11, so I wasn’t allowed to take Calculus as a senior. In addition, while my grades overall were pretty good, they were not good enough for me to be admitted to the National Honor Society. At the time, those consequences didn’t bother me that much, but those academic results were obviously directing me away from science and math and toward the arts and literature where I eventually found my…