SMOKIN' IN THE BOYS ROOM!!

Picture courtesy of
 "The Good Review"

Contributed by: Rufino Aviles  The boys’ room outside the cafeteria was nicotine haven. It seems that everyone that went in there had a cigarette after taking care of business. For some, having a cigarette was the main business. The room was always filled with smoke and the smell of cigarettes overpowered everything else. Every so often you could detect the smell of the “funny” cigarettes or, as they were so affectionately referred to, joints. Whenever I had to use that boys’ room, I’d first fill my lungs with air, then hold it, rush in and do my business as quickly as possible (and I think we all know that we can’t hurry these things along that much) and then leave right away. Now, I used to be a smoker, but that was way too much smoke to breathe!

I remember once, while I was trying to do my Flash routine and hurry up, the Cop who used to patrol Brandeis came in. Some of you may remember him – red haired, freckles and built like the Incredible Hulk. We used to lovingly call him RED, and nobody messed with him. The room was of course filled with smoke and when he walked in, he yelled for everybody to get out, which everybody immediately complied with. (Moses probably could have used him when he was trying to get the children of Israel out of Egypt.) He looked around to see if everybody left, then he spotted me, dutifully doing my business at the urinal. He gave me a mean stare and, confronted with this challenge to my manhood, I had no choice…but to sheepishly look away. He was one dude I did not want to mess with. Even though I was taller than he, he looked twice as strong as I did, and besides that, he had a gun on his side. Additionally, I was sort of in a vulnerable position, no way ready to confront anyone. He didn’t say anything to me as he turned and left. I couldn’t hold my breath any longer and had to inhale the toxic air. I don’t think I ever went back in to that restroom again. Ahhh, those were the days!

Motley Crue - Smokin' In The Boys Room 

(In order to play this video, please click on the mute feature on  the
Ipad on your right)

Memories of my German Language Class!

Lynda Jensen Sobieski, Miss Scott, Chester Tom

We all had a language class that was part of our curriculum.  I remember it being in my junior year, most of us took spanish, french and there was also german. When I received my list of classes my language listed was german. That is great but I already spoke german. I wanted to change my language to french. I thought that would be an awesome language to learn and who knows I may go there someday. I had to go and see Miss Scott..does anyone remember Miss Scott?  She was the german language teacher in our school.  She was Scottish, but had an excellent german vocabulary.

So, here I am in her office and she asked me what I wanted to study instead.  I told her that I was eager to study french and she then asked me what do you plan to use it for?  I don't know..I just want to learn it and I may go to France one day.  She started to speak to me in german and I answered her when she came out very loudly, "you don't know the proper german, you speak low german:".  Wow!!..I got upset at what she said and found that to be pretty harsh words.  My pronunciation of some words were not correct as she later explained and felt that I would be better off in her german class where I will learn to speak "proper" german.  I walked out of her office so disappointed.

The class was almost full and I was surprised on how many were interested in german.  I felt good and thought I had one over on everyone since I already speak german.  Not so..whenever a new word was introduced, Miss Scott would call on me to pronounce the word to the class.  "Did you hear how the word sounds?"..class said "yes", then Miss Scott said  "That is not how the word is pronounced", ofcourse the class laughed.  This happened a couple of times until I told Miss Scott that it was upsetting to me.  When she explained to me why she was so rough was that she wanted me to improve my german and since I was speaking it at home, we were starting to include english words and losing the german I already knew

After some time, I grew to like my german class and Miss Scott and enjoyed the challenge.  Towards the end of school, an opportunity was brought to us to be an exchange student in Germany during the summer months.  We were to attend classes at a university and would stay at a host home for that whole time.  The cost was not that much but enough that we could not afford to send me.  It would have been a really wonderful opportunity.

After that conversation with Miss Scott, we got along very well.  Infact, she wrote in my yearbook in german and it says "The dear little Senaf, I wish you well in everything".I appreciated her concern and help because german has a proper and a lower vocabulary and to speak it correctly in business the proper is much needed.   (proper and low means regional language)

I am inviting everyone to share your story of your language class. You can comment your story below or if you are unsure about writing a blog, send me the information you want posted and I will post it for you. We all are interested in your experience.

Have You Traveled?

WHERE HAVE YOU TRAVELED TO??

I was going to post this as a poll on Facebook and then decided to post a poll here.  I was not happy with the result since it would take many lines to post all the countries in the world and would take up ALOT of space and it would defeat the purpose.  I decided to ask the question right here in the blog and anyone can use the comment to leave his or her response.  In order to know who you are there are a few steps to take.  

If you are commenting as an Anonynous (you don't have to sign up with a 3rd party) then leave your full name and the year you graduated.  If you have an account with any of the others listed and have a picture uploaded, it will show your picture and if not then no picture.  But for each one who comments, please give your name and year you graduated and tell us where you have traveled.  

If you were in the military, where did you travel while serving our country.  I am sure we have many alumni who have served in the military and traveled not just in civilian life.  We want to hear from you too!!

I will leave a comment first and then anyone can follow!!

Is Shorthand A Dying Art??

I decided to write about shorthand since most of us had taken shorthand in high school.  I am sure many of you will relate to this and recognize the script or may even be able to read it.

I was first introduced to shorthand in my junior year when I and a group of other girls entered into the Pre-Tech program which required us to take business courses and office skills.  The Pre-Tech program consisted of a 2 year study of shorthand, typing, and academic studies needed to complete in order to fulfill my grading requirements and continue to the next level of my studies. With the completion of the 2 year program we would be able to attend a 2 year community college. We were the first group to enter into this program. You might say that we were the ones that were the test group being the deciding factor whether this program was going to continue depending on the success of the program.

I can recall how exciting it was to learn shorthand.  I also knew that once I understood it that other people would not be able to read it.  Everyday we learned a new

consonant

vowel

punctuations. 

It was a fun class and I learned alot.  Here is a video of the introduction of Gregg Shorthand Dictation.  You will have to mute the music on the right side Ipod in order to hear the video.  As the man is talking, he or she is writing it all down in shorthand. 



Here is an article about a woman who translates shorthand from documents and it is titled Miss Stevens, can you take a letter? Shorthand skills dying out   Her name is Letha Sanders and she is a shorthand translator and she has turned it into a business.  Here is her website Shorthand Translation Services.


How many still use shorthand at your job or in writing your journal?  Has court stenography replaced shorthand? Would high schools bring this art back into their curriculum? For anyone who has been through this program and remembers shorthand, let us know what you think about this.  Are you or have you used shorthand at your present or previous jobs?  You can leave a comment on after this article.

References:
Gregg Shorthand - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregg_shorthand
Gregg Shorthand on Facebook "like" page - http://www.facebook.com/pages/Gregg-shorthand/106179482745866
Gregg Shorthand Dictionary - http://books.google.com/books/about/Gregg_shorthand_dictionary.html?id=J5kLAAAACAAJ

Class of 1968 43rd Reunion 2011

June 25, 1968 was the day of our graduation and June 25, 2011 was our 43rd High School Reunion.  What a wonderful day to celebrate that day. We had a smaller group this year and it was just as fantastic as it was the year before.  Our celebration started at Tosca Cafe which is located in Bronx, NY and ended at Sonia Peralta-Munoz house for a gathering. It was a wonderful reunion and we all enjoyed seeing each other again.

Now that I am back from my fantastic vacation from New York City, I was a bit saddened that I was not able to spend more time with friends and more time in the city.  Our reunion turned out FANTASTIC!!..I as well as classmates who were able to attend this years reunion had a time of our lives.  A big surprise was in store for us all which Sonia Peralta-Munoz planned out but did not tell anyone except we were going to have a surprise coming.  I wondered why Sonia put her bag on the chair next to her and said leave this chair empty.  Could it be Eric Estrada?????...or (Henry Estrada) as we knew him.  He is our famous actor of our time..OURS because he belongs to LDBrandeis HS Class of 1968. How can anyone forget CHIPS!!.  It was a much BETTER surprise (we love you Eric!!), it was someone we have not forgotten.

Sonia had left the room and missed what was about to happen, and  here we are all talking with each other and catching up on what has been going on in our lives when a surprise caught my eyes and I turned to my left as our beloved teacher Miss Libby Bleaman walked in.

Miss Libby Bleaman

We were totally surprised, so surprised that I have proof on pictures how we all were shocked to see her. As one of our classmates wife said "She came right out of a Vogue magazine", I do agree!!  Miss Bleaman looked fantastic.She was as surprised to see us as we were.  There was plenty to talk about and catch up on all these years.

From left, Nylsa Carrasquillo, Miss Libby Bleaman, Maureen Johns-Davilla, Kenneth Lattimore (sitting),
Sharon McIntyre-Marks, Lurlene Lowe (back) Millie Diaz, Alma Medina Fielder, Senaf Dillon-Pickhardt,
Sonia Peralta-Munoz, Jean Moriwaki (sitting)

.  

As last year, I will be posting videos of pictures that I am working on and videos which were taken by Angel Munoz who is working diligently on them will be posted here.  In the meantime, please leave a comment on how you enjoyed the reunion this year and what you might want to see happen next year.  I welcome each and everyone to leave a comment.  Look for the videos very soon!!

JUNE 25, 1968 - JUNE 25, 2011 (Same day as our graduation)

The Apollo Theater

How We Remember

We all know that the Apollo Theater is still there around 125th Street,. but it brought some memories back for me.  Jean Moriwaki and I had tickets to go see Cousin Brucie at the Apollo..WOW!!..yes WOW!!. First of all I never attended a concert or seen Cousin Brucie other than hearing him on my transister radio that I would carry with me.  This was a highlight of our high school years. Jean and I both bought dresses that were just alike..meaning only the style not the pattern. The dress was called a tent dress and it was the in style in 1967.I bet most of you do remember this dress. I remember it was around Easter..either before or after. It was a beautiful spring day but a bit windy because the dress would blow up from the wind and I remember having to hold the front of my dress down as we walked. When we arrived at the Apollo there were many people waiting to get in. We received free tickets. I don't remember how or why but we both had tickets to see the show. My parents would never let me go to any concert let alone by tickets. There was no money for that kind of luxury. But, nevertheless, we both had tickets in our hands and we were on line to go in. The seats were on the lower level and we both had good seats. It was not close enough for me. I wanted to be in the front row.  

I remember Jefferson Airplanes  (once called Jefferson Starships) were there, James Brown and Aretha Franklin making up the motown group including The Supremes and Marvin Gaye.  There were others, but it has been so long that these are the ones who stand out in my mind.  The concert was not that long because when the concert was over it was still light outside.

Did anyone attend a concert at the Apollo?  Were you at the concert at the same time?  Write down in a comment and share it with us.

85th Street and Columbus

Do You Remember??

Now I remember a pizza place on the corner of 85th and Columbus Avenue.  I don't remember the name of

the place. I am also not sure if it is the first restaurant there or the second one in.  We would come out of school just before 3pm and some of us met at the pizza place just for a slice of pizza, socializing and then we went home. Now I know you must think I have nothing better to do than to search out places of memories.  Well, I do have better things to do but being that we are having a one of a kind reunion and since we all missed our prom (remember?) it's kind of making me melancholy.  Good thing that I am for we all get to enjoy and bring our minds back to the days before our lives changed and we became responsible adults.  

If anyone has anything to add to this, comment on the bottom of this blog. If you have any photos of the old pizza place, let me know too.  

Class of 1968 42nd Reunion 2010

Harlem BBQ

(Photo by D. Bell) Courtesy of UptownFlavor

Last year on June 26th, 2010 our Class of 1968 had our 42nd Reunion.  It was our first reunion since graduation in 1968.  Here is a video of the day taken at Harlem BBQ, NYC

I was not able to attend our first reunion.  Leave a comment on the bottom and share your experiences on this special day.

(You can turn off the IPad on the right panel in order to hear the video and when done you can turn it on
again)

Thanks to Angel Munoz, we have live videos of everyone who attended the reunion.  It is a long video and comes in 6 parts.  Enjoy!

Planning our 43rd Reunion for Class of 1968

Hello All!

Here is our first step in having a successful reunion. As was posted on Facebook, we will be posting all the information on the website as well. Reservations will be for 50 or more. You can bring a guest.





Time:              Saturday, June 25 · 11:30am - 3:30pm

Location:       Tosca Cafe  
                      4038 E Tremont Ave  (Corner of Miles Ave)
                      Bronx, NY   10465

More Info:     Our graduating class of 1968 will be hosting our 43rd High School Reunion at Tosca Cafe
                     located in the Bronx, NY.

                     WE HAVE 2 OPTIONS:

                    1. PRIVATE AREA - Cost for one person $36.50 (includes taxes BUT NOT gratuities) w.      
                         guest $73.00

                    2. PRIVATE ROOM - Cost for one person $50.00 (includes taxes and gratuities) w. guest
                        $100.00

                    Option 1 is for a private area and
                    Option 2 is for a private room

                    PLEASE LET US KNOW IF WE WANT A PRIVATE ROOM VERY SOON!!!

                    We will need a deposit of $200 before April 22nd. So we will need everyone who will be  
                    attending to send a check to Sonia Peralta-Munoz
    
                    We will have a buffet style..here is the menu Toca Cafe Menu

More will be posted as we get more information. We are looking forward to seeing all of you who graduated in 1968. This is also a very special day for us since this day, June 25th, 2011 is the same date we graduated on in 1968.

     Tosca Cafe  Go here to view other rooms and events