This is the place for YOUR stories about our illustrious class
of 1973!
Email them to 73class @ southstation.org
today!
The plans were for the AV department to video tape the Thanksgiving football game between Bellingham and, uh, (who was it now? Jeez that was 30 year ago!) We decided to take advantage of the equipment we had and make it an ABC production (already been 'corded) with three cameras, instant replay, etc. Big stuff for a high school in 1972. Anyway, we enlisted the talents of Ken Hammond to do the color commentary, and borrowed a scaffolding to set the main field camera up on and provide a place for Ken and his cohort (it's time for YOU to come forward now!) Mr. Cataldo, the football coach was warm, but not hot about this idea.
The day dawned cold, and the big borrowed truck pulled up to the field, along with the fire department. They provided the generator, of course. We got set up and the game was on the air! I was in the truck, switching cameras and barking instructions to the field cameras ("Your OTHER left!") When there was a time out, the cameras swung around to Ken who talked it up as expected. We covered the whole game, including the halftime entertainment, which was mostly the cheerleaders.
The following week, the football team and Mr. Cataldo were in the gym, with the tape cued and ready to play. And all they saw was static and rolling bars. I was dispatched as quickly as possible, and decided that the tape was running slow and couldn't sync, so the power that we recorded it with was a higher voltage- that was from the fire department generator. A call to the fire department brought the generator over, and it was connected outside the back gym door with a long extension cord running in. And from the opening of the tape, Mr. Cataldo was on the warpath. The game was fine, the camera work good, but the rest of the tape, including Kenny and the cheerleaders, infuriated Cataldo. "A waste of my time!" he said. And sad to say, that tape never resurfaced for any of the reunions or America's funniest home videos.
I lost my yearbook decades ago, but its so funny the thing's I can recall. What did I learn in History? I don't remember a thing. But I can recall all the dumb stuff. Our Freshman year we were on double sessions Home Room started at 7:15am and first class was at 7:30 and out at 12:15. Car washes. Junior Class pen selling. Greaser Night. Senior year going into Boston and looking at Colleges and spending the day shooting pool in the student union.
Best one was when I skipped school and went into Boston. There was a protest rally on the Common. I had no idea what was going on and didn't think anymore of it. I got home that night and my father asked me "how was school today?" Little did I know that I was on the six o'clock news....grounded! Mr. Frappier didn't give me detention because "Mr. Hammond...if your stupid enough to be on the news and think we didn't know, I don't even want you in MY detention". No doubt...his loss. I guess he didn't want to spend Quality time with me. So many good times.
Ken's note on getting caught skipping school in Boston got me thinking about our senior bunk day. I got a bunch of kids together and we all came down here to Westerly to my parent's cottage. I know Phil and I went in one car, and Teddy Arcand had another car full. Teddy got stopped by a cop in Woonsocket, and being paranoid about the fact that we were skipping school, we thought we were done for. It turned out the cop only stopped him for a taillight being out or something like that. Onward we went to the beach. we had a great time. For the life of me I can't remember who else went. Does that mean I'm having a senior moment?
On another infamous trip down to the beach there was Phil and I, Don Cook , maybe Jodie, and a couple of other kids. It was when it was colder, so we undertook the task of making a fire in the fireplace. We lit the fire anticipating the warm glow of the logs. A few minutes later, the house began to get smoky and we realized we had forgotten to open the damper! Smoke started billowing into the room! We had to open all the doors and windows to air the house out. So much for warmth. Later, we drove downtown to get some lunch. We witnessed an accident on Rt. 1. There was a woman with a couple of kids. She had hit the windshield and had a really bad head wound. Blood everywhere. We stopped to help, and got blankets from our cars and stayed with them , talking to them and trying to keep them calm until the ambulance arrived. It did. We hopped back into our cars, and the boys said " so where do you want to eat?' The girls had lost their appetites by then and couldn't believe they still wanted food after what we had just seen. We went to Burger King or some place like that. The guys ate. the girls didn't. Again, I can't remember who else was on that trip. After thirty years I need some help.
Aerosmith used to play at the Lakeview Ballroom every other Tuesday night for $1.50 a person. During Senior Year, I got on the Prom committee and asked Aerosmith if they would play a prom and they said "yes." I went back to the prom committee and advised them of this and they responded that "... we have to be grown up that night... we can't be listening to that kind of music on prom night... we plan on getting The Bobby Shannon Trio!!"
I suppose that I should have expected nothing less from the people who elected Thomas Todd as class president over me!!!
Question: 1) Where is the Bobby Shannon Trio now?
2) Where is Thomas Todd now?
This article was recently in my local newspaper. I thought I'd share it with you:
"According to today's regulators and bureaucrats, those of us who were kids in the '40s, '50s and '60s probably shouldn't have survived. Our baby cribs were covered with bright-colored, lead-based paint. We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets, and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets. As children, we would ride in cars with no seatbelts or airbags. Riding in the back of a pickup truck on a warm day was always a special treat. We drank water from a garden hose and not from a bottle. Horrors! We ate cupcakes, bread and butter, and drank soda pop with sugar in it, but we were never overweight because we were always outside playing. We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle, and no one actually died from this. We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then rode down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem. We would leave home in the morning, go to school and play all afternoon, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on. No one was able to reach us all day. No cell phones. Unthinkable! We did not have Playstation, Nintendo, or Xbox. No video games at all, no 99 channels on cable, recorded movies, surround-sound, personal cell phones, personal computers, or Internet chat rooms. We had friends! We went outside and found them. We played dodge ball and, sometimes, the ball would really hurt. We fell out of trees, got cut and broke teeth, and there were no lawsuits from these accidents. No one was to blame but us. Remember accidents? We had fights and punched each other and got black and blue and learned to get over it. We made up games using sticks and ate worms, and although we were told it would happen, we did not poke out many eyes nor did the worms live inside us forever. We rode bikes or walked to a friend's home and knocked on the door, or rang the bell or just walked in and talked to them. Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Some students weren't as smart as others, so they failed a grade and were held back to repeat the same grade. Horrors! Tests were not adjusted for any reason. Our actions were our own. Consequences were expected, no one to hide behind. the idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke a law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law. Imagine that! How did we ever survive? This generation has produced some of the best risk takers, problem solvers and inventors, ever. The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas. We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned how to deal with it all."
Kenny reminds me of so much, especially Mr. Rook :) Do you remember what he did if you weren't sitting in the proper position at your typewriter? Talk about a "Bad Day!" I remember one day in Data Processing a bunch of us decided to "shuffle" the data cards then deal the hands. Can't remember all: (Lynn Sanchez, Joanne Clerc, Michael Fitts, maybe David Tuttle & Stuey Saltzman, Dennis Carr-were you there?) I don't remember who, but during a shuffle the cards went flying - and I mean everywhere. Guess who came in at that point?! Yep!! He turned on his heel and went right back out. Don't think we saw him the rest of that period. After cleaning up, we wired a board telling him how sorry we were. Don't know if it made a difference, but he never brought it up, in words anyway. It was "that look" I recall seeing in his eyes thereafter. Hope he at least got a chuckle out of it at some point. Oh, what we put that poor man through!! Bless you, Mr. Rook, for putting up with us!