What I Remember — From Ninth Grade (1965–1966)

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 freshman year brought so many changes. All of our classes were on either the first floor or in the basement, we changed locations constantly, and we had to remember that the western staircase was “up only” while the eastern staircase was “down only.”

As I mentioned in my kindergarten memory, we had three different classes in the same classroom in the basement on the southeast corner of the building. We started the day with Religion, then we studied geography in fourth period, and we finished the day with English. Our English teacher, Mrs. G., was my all-time favorite teacher because she forced us to prepare and deliver short speeches to…