Thursday, February 26, 2009

3rd Grade Classes Go To Museum Village - 1964!

In June 1964, we all went to Museum Village on a field trip. My mom was one of the chaperones. Incredibly, she saved the thank you notes from the kids in my group! I must say this was a great group! Aside from myself, there was Greg Rehe, Beth Perdue, Melanie Teasley, Lynn Malley and Katie Knight! In addition, Beth Daly wrote to my mom because she had Miss Beattie leading her group and Miss Beattie asked her group to pick a mom to write to - Beth picked mine!

The trip as I remember it, was the typical roadside-type historic spot. It had a blacksmith, drug store, general store, etc. I remember I bought a horseshoe nail ring which turned my finger dark green!

We all had a blast and the 2 pictures included here are when we posed in the stocks. It capped the end of a very memorable year that started out normal - but the death of JFK in November, 1963 and the arrival of the Beatles in February, 1964 changed all that.

Remember the white field trip permission slips? I couldn't wait to get mine signed - we went on some really fun trips over the years.

Above is Beth Perdue - Beth was in Miss Trantum's class (married and became Mrs. Jones). I remember wishing Beth was in our class!

Greg Rehe posing in the stocks! Greg was the only guy in my group but we weren't complaining!


Here are the letters of thanks (Beth Perdue's even has a self-portrait!):



Katie wrote 2 pages! The coaches Katie writes about were the wagons that were out front.

Beth Daly wishes she was in our group!



Monday, February 23, 2009

Poetry By Glen School Kids (9th Grade!)

Here are 7 samples of poetry by 4 of my Glen classmates. These were published in our 9th grade BF yearbook in 1970. This is great stuff! We obviously had a lot of talented kids in my class! I couldn't resist posting here not only for the nostalgic value but so others can appreciate it!

Karen Eide

Cara Worthington

Cara Worthington


Melanie Teasley

Melanie Teasley



Gary Vukov


Gary Vukov

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Glen 6th Grade Goes To BF!

The Summer of Love - that's what was between us and 7th grade at Ben Franklin Junior High (now middle school). If you're like me, music is a great yardstick for marking a period of time or one's life. 7th grade would begin September 5, 1967. (Click on photos to enlarge)


The Monkees were still clinging to their popularity but were giving way to incredible musicians and bands of the time. That summer saw The Beatles hosting the Monkees in London at the conclusion of their short tour there. Jeff Beck made a splash in London. The Bee Gees would release their debut album.


Categorized as the oddest pairing to ever share a tour bill - The Monkees started out their US tour with Jimi Hendrix as the back-up band! It would only last for several shows as Jimi had had enough of the 12-year old crowd. It would be claimed later by Jimi's manager that it was all for "outrage publicity".

What would truly mark the music scene that summer was the Monterey Pop Festival - June 16-18 - which featured The Who smashing their instruments and Jimi Hendrix "making love" to his guitar then lighting it on fire on stage. Other acts that weekend would include Simon & Garfunkel, Janis Joplin, Otis Redding and Ravi Shankar. Almost making more headlines than those who actually performed were the amount of top bands who were no-shows including The Stones, The Beach Boys and The Kinks.


Though they had been around for a while, Simon & Garfunkel would really come onto the scene in a big way later that 1967-68 school year dominating the soundtrack to the movie The Graduate in January 1968 and realeasing arguably their most beautiful album "Bookends" in March 1968.


The debut album of The Jimi Hendrix Experience "Are You Experienced" was released that August. Also in August the Beatles' manager - Brian Epstein - would be found dead. The two major albums of the year included Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band by The Beatles and Pet Sounds by The Beach Boys.

I remember heading to the Jersey Shore in August - as we did every summer - and buying my first love beads! I was trying to model myself after a hippy/surf bum type! Remember all the pop-art posters and pop-culture of the time? My room was filled with posters of The Beatles, The Doors, The Who, surfing and later that school year a huge poster of Goldie Hawn (my favorite female star of the time!) Obviously everyone remembers her but she was the lovable blonde on tv's Laugh-In which debuted in January, 1968. I remember we all talked about the show on Tuesday mornings (Laugh-In aired on Monday nights) while we waited for the bus to BF in the Glen School parking lot. The show definitely wasn't as over-our-heads as our parents would have liked to think!


7th grade was the first time a lot of us started taking the bus to school. It was the first time we would eat lunch at school. The first experience with locker rooms & showers - which for many was awkward! And of course relationships! I will never forget sitting in homeroom - Miss Colbeth's class. Fred Strype had such a crush on Nancy Hesse! We all had a crush on Nancy but Fred was more mature than I so I acted as a go-between (find out information, "you think she likes me?") for Fred. Fred really liked her and asked me what I thought. Both were great and I remember on the bus one day after talking about Nancy with Fred thinking how suddenly insecure I felt!

Teachers? Who can forget Dona Maria Garcia or Miss Farina, Mr. Yennie, Mr. Cooke, Mr. Bleeden, Mr. Wanamaker, Mr. Rispoli, Mr. Cobb, the Tilgners, Milton Kalina! The list goes on!

Anyway 7th grade was the time when the Glen School crowd started going in our own directions.
I realize this post doesn't have much to do with Glen School, however I just couldn't resist adding some of the photos from our BF years! Enjoy!

7th Grade Choir:


First Row l to r: Holly Magro, Mary Humrich, Jean Lineweaver, O'Driscoll, Mark Zacharias, Bruce Meneghin, Mike Adams, John Cooper, Jeff Auger, Peter Fore, Alex Kramer, Ron Schneider, Greg Rehe, Karen Eide, Sue Lerner, Jane Richardson

Second Row l to r: Kris Faulstick, Barb McCutcheon, O'Brian, Maryann Vaz, John Petrik, John Chase, Julie Nies, Sue Sergeant, Cindy Leather, Terry Di Egidio, Maureen Butler, Lori Picozzi, Carol Tschudi, Brian Fawkes, Stephen MacKay, Marianne Sullivan, Nan Kritzler, Joan Wenner

Third Row l to r: Emily Dubner, Luann Speechly, Sakol, Vallerie, Elisa Foca, Kate Harbison, Jennifer Rudy, Linda Breitkreuz, Jan Potdevin, Jean Woodcock, Sue Musson, Linda Pursiano, Jill Tringham, Sue Sparrow, Sue Kerner, Gayle Allard, Sharon Du Flocq, Denise Sheehan

Fourth Row l to r: Beth Perdue, Nancy Cohn, Martens, Whitley, Hillary Jones, C Campbell, Jacqueline Erle, Garey(?), Meyer (?), Kathleen Burke, Melanie Teasley, Nancy Toney, Joyce Germanio, Robin Morris, Christine Meyer, Janet Helms, Elaine Pedersen, Mrs. Holderith

Fifth Row l to r: Darleen McGrath, Parks, Jill Osborne, Joyce Hamilton, Roxanne Hobbs, Beverly Kilian, Gail Nuber, Barbara Taylor, Cara Worthington, Barbara Hall, Diane Lungaro, Linda Struse, Mary O'Rourke, Huffman, Marina Schidlovsky, Miller

Sixth Row l to r: Maria Pcelli, Wendy Douglas, Nancy Roberson, Ann Rimmer, Katie Knight, Sue Holsten, Beth Daly, Camarillo, Sue Leahy, Sharon Anderson, Daun Paris, Danforth, Jim Leach, Jency Pelley

7th Grade Band:


First Row l to r: Nan Kritzler, Barb McCutcheon, Julie Nies, Virgens, Ed Nalbantian, Arne Olsen, Ron Schneider, Martin Vaz, Dave Porro, Robbie Whittemore, Jay Vandenbree, Marianne Sullivan

Second Row l to r: John Oshin, Mark Zacharias, Darleen McGrath, Carol Risch, Peter Appert, Mark Barnthouse, Nick Stamatos, Tom Lyon, Peter Fore, Alex Kramer, Jean Woodcock

Third Row l to r: Barbara Hall, Cara Worthington, Katie Knight, Margaret Finucane, Pat Dillon, Carol Larned, Ann Rimmer, Panforth, Beth Perdue, Anita Simos

Fourth Row l to r: Bob Norton, Joyce Hamilton, Mr. Tesar, Bill Hart, Sue Nunno

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

3rd Grade Class 1963-1964 - Miss Beattie!

1963 - when we started school that year in Miss Beattie's class, little did we know that we would experience 2 of the most historical moments of the 20th century as a class - one of them sad and one happy and musically historic - the assassination of John F. Kennedy and the arrival of The Beatles!

Our teacher - Amy Beattie - grew up in Warwick, NY just over the New Jersey border. She attended Miss Hall's School in Pittsfield, MA and earned her teaching degree from Elmira College.

Above is an early view of Cowles Hall at Elmira College, NY.

After graduating in 1961, she was hired by the Ridgewood Public Schools System in the Fall of the 1961-62 school year at Glen School for a whopping salary of $4,800!

While all of us went home for lunch, Amy recalls getting invited to some students homes for lunch! Usually teachers would have their lunch in the faculty room. Sometimes they would play bridge but she also remembers a lot of cigarette smoking!

Her memories of our principal Arthur Linden are what you would expect - wonderful! She says he was a wonderful man to work for and she has a special place in her heart because he was her first principal. Looking back she remembers that when her mom passed away suddenly during our school year, he was very kind to her, came to her mom's service and arranged for Pat Di Lauro (Miss Mercer) to come to the service as well (Pat and Amy shared an apartment together at the time).

Everyone has a memory of Mr. McFall and one of hers is that he took care of the school supplies and was very frugal about giving extra pencils and such when you used them up too fast!

Amy also recalls that she and Pat Mercer (Di Lauro) had talked about how memorable the space flight of John Glenn was! The space age was such an exciting period and we were all so impressed with each new mission! Of course once we landed on the moon, we sadly weren't impressed with much after that!

She remembers Glen School as a very special place - cut off as it was from the main part of Ridgewood. She says that it always seemed like it was a close, tightly-knit neighborhood where we as kids all got along together as did our parents.

Above is the outside of our 3rd grade classroom. The door opened out to the playground. Of course we didn't have the luxury of air-conditioners - when it was hot we simply opened the windows!

For Amy Back-To-School night - particularly her first year - was nerve-wracking. Unlike today, ALL of our parents went to Back-To-School night. It was a time for us to clean our desks, post our latest artwork and leave out special books, papers and a note for our folks. We all looked forward to finding a reply from mom & dad the next morning! Her first year, Amy had written the daily schedule on the blackboard and she misspelled the word "alphabetize". When one of the parents called her on it - she was mortified!

For us of course, this class will always be remembered for the death of JFK and the coming of The Beatles! The range of emotions from these 2 events would go from the lowest to the highest level in 2 short months.

On November 21, 1963, our two 3rd grade classes led by Miss Beattie and Miss Trantum (Jones), went on a field trip to Seton Hall University to record a variety program that was to be broadcast on the radio the very next day. We were also joined by Mr. Linden. (Please refer to the archive on this blog for a more detailed look at this field trip). Well, the next day of course was November 22 and as we all anxiously waited to hear ourselves on the radio, the broadcast was suddenly interrupted with news of JFK's death. We didn't hear the news reports but were abruptly sent home where we all found out the terrible news.

Here is Amy's recollection of that day:

"It is a day I will never forget! I think Mr. Petrik had made the arrangements for the recording. I wish I could remember more of what it contained. I think it was based around It’s Raining by Peter, Paul and Mary with poem, songs etc. by the class. Anyhow we all were gathered around to hear it at about noon on the 22nd when Mr. L. came in and called me out into the hall and told me the President had been shot and obviously the program wouldn’t air. We were also told to send you all home but not to tell you why. As I think about it now I’m not sure that was the right thing to do but it was what I was told to do so that’s what I did…."

Christmas would come and then in early February, 1964 The Beatles arrived in America and we all watched their first appearance on the Ed Sullivan show! Many of us bought everything Beatles and along with baseball cards we also traded Beatles cards! It's funny how you remember specific things. I recall running home for lunch that spring so that I would get home in time to hear my favorite Beatles song "She Loves You" which was played on the radio at exactly noon every day for like 3 weeks!

I can't think of anyone in my generation that didn't watch The Beatles on Ed Sullivan that Sunday sunday night. Art Brierley recalls staying at his grandparents house until they saw the whole show! His grandfather "yelling about The Beatles on Ed Sullivan!" On the rainy Monday after Art recalls hanging up his raincoat and everybody asking "Did you see it?" (The Beatles on Ed Sullivan)


At the end of her last year at Glen School (1964-65), Amy married Carl Carvell - a Ridgewood High School graduate (RHS 1954). For her last year, Amy taught 6th grade and got to experience 6th grade camp at Camp Green / Cooper Union in Ringwood.

Amy and her husband Carl moved to Hartford, CT shortly after leaving Glen School and reside there to this day.

She taught one more year in Bloomfield, CT before taking off several years from teaching to raise 3 children and finally returned to teaching nursery school for about another 20 years or so before retiring. She is also a big UConn Huskies fan and attends games when she can.

Asked about what she takes away from her career as a teacher, she says she feels great pride when she meets with her former students. She recently attended a church service where about 20 kids were making their confirmation - she realized that she had taught 5 of those children and it made her feel wonderful to watch these young people that she had a hand in molding!

We loved your class Amy - it is forever in our memories of course because of the events that surrounded it but your skill as a teacher was always aparrent and appreciated by many of us.

Of course, there was this one time when Ken Merrill (Miss Trantum's class), me and whoever else were still outside after the bell rang. We were just around the corner, flipping baseball cards against the wall when Mr. Linden came outside, scolded us and took our cards away - I never got mine back! Hope I didn't lose too many good cards! A lot of wonderful memories in that class!


Above is the wall where we always "flipped" our baseball cards. Closest to the wall won 'em all! Leaners were a killer! This is where Mr. Linden came upon us after the bell and took our cards!

Beth Daly (Rhoten) remembers Amy Beattie this way:

"We thought she was so cool, young and pretty - she was probably like 24!"

She was indeed a classic Glen School teacher!

Thanks to Miss Beattie herself for supplying the class photo! The day it was taken was a cub scout den meeting day (we always wore our uniforms on meeting days!) My thanks to Beth Perdue, Mrs. Perdue and Cara Worthington for having Pat Mercer (Pat Mercer-Di Lauro) get in touch with me which led to the above story about Amy Beattie-Carvell. Cara Worthington - where are you!?

So far we have found Bruce Meneghin, Chic Voorhis, Beth Daly, Beth Perdue, Katie Knight, Ann Rimmer, Penny Ward, Jennifer Rudy, Cara Worthington (I think!) - we think we found Kara DeGraw too! We'll keep trying!

Don't forget to check the archive to the right for the other 3rd grade class and photo - which was Miss Trantum's (Mrs. Jones) class.

This photo is classic Glen School!

Back Row l to r: Chic Voorhis, Carey Hoff, Barbara Durheimer, Cara Worthington, Gary Vukov, Beth Daly, Randy Sharp, Jill Neandross, Art Brierley, Lisa Faeth, Katie Knight, Melanie Teasley, Betsy Kline, Kara DeGraw

Middle Row: Carl Vrabel, Jennifer Rudy, Lynn Malley, Cindy Edinger(I think), Miss Beattie, Carol Anne Mastrogiovanni, Penny Ward, Linda Pursiano

Front Row l to r: Robbie Wittemore, Corey Duvall, Greg Rehe, Jan Koper, Ricky Flannery, John Petrik, Tommy Skinner.


Above the same spot our picture was taken 44 years before! This picture was taken in Dec, 2008.

Sunday, February 8, 2009

1st Grade - Class of 1969!

A salute to our friends in the Glen School Class of 1969! Its been a lot of fun getting to know some of the Class of 1969! My first real crush was on your classmate - Cindy Pomeroy! I even gave her my id bracelet - remember those? Cindy lived 2 houses down from me and was one of the sweetest girls I knew! The Meneghin's, Pomeroy's, me and Melanie Teasley spent all of our time together before Melanie moved across town! Lots of football, baseball, swimming, biking, trick or treating together. Great memories!

Here are the 2 1st grade classes - 1963-64 school year!

Mrs. Boerner's Class


Above Photo:

Back Row l to r: Cindy Ward (Penny's sister!), Jimmy Duerbeck, Jeff Davis, Trisha Daly, Tommy Chicino, George Yakowicz, Cheryl DeGrouchy, Bryan Krueger, Paul Pettofrezzo, Margaret Silvers (class president!!)

Middle Row l to r: Doug Terhune, Kim Vukov, Cindy Pomeroy, Susan Skinner, Miss Boerner, Teresa Mastrogiovanni, Patty Breitweiser, Pam Morton, Phillip Denu

Front Row l to r: Roger Fortino, Chris Leyden, Scott Yates, Steve Trogner, Mitchell Perdue, Brian Lally, Walter Fennie


Mrs. Cook's Class

Back Row l to r: Kathy Johnson, Mary Lou Breitweiser, John Brevoort, unidentified, unidentified, Janis Avery, unidentified, Nancy Oswald, Pam Bennett, Teresa Merrill

Middle Row l to r: Kim Skater, Judy Wilson, Janis Malley, Mrs Cook, Sandy Brown, Karen Stewart, Karen Stewart, Barbara Demick

Front Row l to r: Scott Gordon, unidentified, Mark Petrik, Bryan Krueger, David Clay, unidentified, unidentified

Help us fill in the other names!

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Glen School Faculty Photo - 1964-65

Here is another great faculty photo from the 1964-65 school year. Thanks to Amy Beattie-Carvell (our 3rd grade teacher) for supplying this one!

This one was taken outside in front of the gym/auditorium.

Back Row l to r: Pat Prescott, Nancy Cook, Rhea Boerner, Pete Gahara, Amy Beattie (Carvell), Jeanette Janicke, unidentified, Miss Trantum (Jones)

Front Row l to r: Alice Coan, Bea Blumquist (librarian at the time), Arthur Linden, Agnes Larsen, Pat DeJongh

3rd Grade & 2nd Grade Class - Miss Trantum (Jones)

Recently Beth Perdue (Sontag) sent over this classic photo! At Glen we had so many kids that there was always a full class and a split class made up of our classmates and some from the younger grade. Miss Trantum's class (who married to become Mrs. Jones) is pictured here.

We know all the kids from my 3rd grade class but can't identify all of the second graders - if you can help identify these kids please email us!

We always wore our scout uniforms on meeting days! Check David Stanley-Brown's bow-tie! That's alright David check our early class photos - we pratically all wore them!

This is easily the most fun part - getting the photos - please keep them coming - we still need class photos!

If anyone has any great memories of this class please email us!



Back Row l to r: Frank Fortino, Beth Perdue, Susan Lavoy, Bruce Meneghin, Sue Nunno, Ken Merrill, David Stanley-Brown, Kara DeGraw, unidentified, unidentified

Middle Row l to r: Unidentified, Karen Pursiano, Gail Wexler, Lis Ege, Mrs Trantum-Jones, Sandy McCormick, Karen Eide, Kathy Johnson, Bobby (?)

Front Row l to r: Bobby Shumeyko, Billy Kline (Betsy's brother), Doug Brown, Mike Rogers, Steven Perez, Billy Corcoran