There would be no more walking to school - no more home for lunch - we would take the bus now. I was looking forward to the cafeteria - but who would I sit with? At the age of 11 the social jockeying was a little intimidating. What I had going against me was that I was a quiet kid in junior high - didn't miss anything but never wanted to make a fool of myself - just couldn't break out. Whereas now I don't care so much what people think, back then I cared a lot about what people thought! Just like in Glen School - I admired a great many of the kids I went to school with at BF. Weird writing such things when I know people are reading this but when you write a blog you tend to put it all out there I guess!
Above, a scene from the 1967-68 school year in our BF cafeteria.
It's not that I wanted to be someone else but I sure as hec wanted to have the confidence of some of these people I knew! Vuke, Frank, Cancelmo, Artie, Tad - Rusty - I mean nothing fazed Wescott - that crew seemed to move with no issues! How do they do it?
What was BF like? It was big, fun, imtimidating - and more!
Homeroom - this was a new thing for us - having a base in the morning and late afternoon before you went home even if you didn't have a class with that teacher. In homeroom you received all your school info, school newspaper - they took attendance. We had homeroom sports teams. My 7th grade homeroom teacher was Virginia Colbeth - she was pretty cool - always smiling. Homeroom 209. Among those in my homeroom were Kathy Stella, Janet Helms, Kevin Marshall, Nanci Hesse, Fred Strype, Bob Whitehead and Colleen Moran.
Above, the back side of BF - the cafeteria is on the right. Above the door in the corner (at the right angle) was where I entered every morning when the bus dropped us off. The second set of windows above and to the right of the door was my 7th grade homeroom - 209. As high school seniors we would return to BF one last time when we graduated high school. Our parents had decorated the BF gym and set up food in the BF cafeteria for an all-night party after our big graduation dinner. BF would be the last place we'd see on our final day in the Ridgewood school system.
We would take classes like woodshop, graphic arts, science, health among all the others. We took language now - French or Spanish. I had 3 great Spanish teachers. The first one was Wilma Farina - I liked her. My 8th grade Spanish teacher was Mavrovitis - she was the one who would make me stand up at my desk and roll my R's - my name was Ricardo and I always seemed to say it like you would say Ricky Ricardo - you know, very American sounding! I would stand there before the class and go "Me llamo Rrrrrrrrrrrrrricardo! Me llamo Rrrrrrrrrrricardo!" I could barely keep from laughing but it worked nonetheless! In the 9th grade it was Dona Maria Garcia. Spanish class that year boasted a pretty good group - Colleen McCarthy, Willie McKee, Elisa Foca, Robin Gneiting (dear Robin!), Sue Nunno and Sandy Toney.
We had lockers for the first time. We would shoot hoops after lunch outside the cafeteria. I made some woodshop projects that took no imagination - a wooden stool, a pine shelf - run of the mill stuff - all this while a 9th grader was putting the finisihing touches on a grandfather clock that he started building in the 7th grade! Pine stool - grandfather clock - oh well! Wanamaker made sure to point all this out to us when we first entered his class - we all thought it was downhill from there!
For the first time, we would take showers after gym class - this was new! The biggest thing was avoiding the snapping towels - but hey we gave it back too! We didn't have the greatest food in the world but it was edible! If the day's lunch menu didn't measure up there was always Linden's chocolate chip cookies!
There was the corridor patrol - where's your pass? - some teachers would give you the simplest pass, others would have elaborate, foot long pieces of wood with the classroom number on it you had to carry. Corridor patrol was great cause you could catch up on your homework - I wouldn't know about that!
Above a member of the corridor patrol was stationed at the end of each hallway to monitor student traffic - "Let me see your pass!"
There was Mr. Higgins and his drama workshops if you were so inclined. BF actually put on some extravagant shows that would rival any high school today. We had 2 great art teachers - art class was elaborate for junior high. The teachers were 2 BF classics - Art Weil and Peter Tilgner. Mr. Tilgner had taught for a year in England when we were in 7th grade - he traded spots with Mr. Trueman who spent a year with us.
Above is a montage of rehearsals for "That's the Way It Is!" - our 8th grade production.
Above, my sister Ginger as a toy soldier in the 1960-61 BF production of "Babes in Toyland".
Above, the entire cast of "Babes in Toyland" at BF in 1960-61. Look at the costumes - this was a junior high school production - pretty cool! My sister Ginger is among the toy soldiers on the lower left - click on the pictures to enlarge them.
We signed yearbooks - I was friends with everybody or I liked to think I was - that is to say I genuinely liked everyone and the thought of perceived status, money, ethnicity, etc. really meant nothing to me. Yeah, I do have the usual "You're a nice kid", "Have a great summer" and "See you next year" signings in my yearbooks but that's ok - looking at my 8th grade yearbook it seemed like just about everyone signed it - a way to feel accepted I suppose. Despite my lack of great grades - I did love BF and made it through!
Above, in 7th grade we did our signings on a sheet of paper!
There were the dreaded "laps" around the field on the hill seemingly every gym class no matter what the season!! There were the guys that never took their gym shorts & shirts home to wash! There were spit balls - tons of them - using Bic pens was the best way to "shoot" them! Penny football in the cafeteria - the tables were perfect for it! Mr. Murphy and Mr. Nelson - Principal and Vice-Principal in 7th and 8th grade and Mr. Watts and Mr. Swinkin in 9th. Chris Tilgner, Cobb, Yennie, Bennett, Mrs. Pade, Latham, Lamm, Garcia, Gooding, Kalina, Bleeden, Kim, Geils, Cobb, Cooke, Collis, Pierro - there were so many classic BF teachers - for good or bad how could you forget them?
Above, the classic Bic pen - take it apart and it made the perfect spit ball shooter!
Above, behind the backstop (where I played baseball one year) was the hill - at the top of the hill it was flat and it went the entire length of the BF field - this is where we ran our laps - Yennie and Bennett seemed to take delight in making us run no matter the season! For several years we always had our baseball tryouts at the BF field.
There was the bookstore. "Franklin Speaking" - our school paper. The BF shows. They included: "The Inspector General" in 7th grade, "That's the Way It Is" in 8th grade and "Up the Down Staircase" in 9th.
There were also the long walks home for some of us if we missed the bus.
Then there was Marlboro Country. This is where you hung out and smoked before and after school. I've said this before in the Glen blog but when I arrived at BF I remember seeing all these people and realizing that I was definitely missing out on something here and I was definitely not cool - how I wanted to be out there - to be smoking! (Pretty funny to think of it that way - as if that was how it was supposed to work!) If I remember right I think the group started directly across from the main entrance of the school and then moved over by the cemetery. It was a Who's-Who group of kids.
Like with every school year, fashion was an inevitable part of the deal whether you liked it or not. More times than not you attempted to keep up with the times lest you be left out or worse have no reading at all on the cool meter! Speaking for myself, there was the Peacoat - I wanted one in the worst way and finally got one. There was the CPO shirt - usually in navy blue - had one. There were the half boot / half shoe um - shoes. The wide belt. Bright pants. Always the chinos too which went perfectly with your paisley shirts! Bell-bottoms. Even sneakers began a transformation. Slowly going away were the PF Flyers and Keds - in came Adidas and Puma's. I remember Chris Ferraro showing off his Adidas sneakers in class - everybody was asking about them - "Where'd you get 'em?" "How much?" "There's a running style AND a cross-country style?" The mini-skirt was in for the girls and frankly the guys didn't even notice anything else! You can mark the years just by looking at what a kid is wearing in photographs!
Above, the mini-skirt was a girl favorite and well, a guy favorite too!
Above, Artie wearing the popular paisley shirt, wide belt and chinos! L to r in front are Sue Nunno and Jill Neandross.
Then there were the girls! Lots of new girls - of course there were the girls you knew from church, Glen School and camp, but now there were girls from Somerville, Travell and HoHokus. I recall being in 7th grade homeroom - I sat next to Fred Strype - he had a wicked crush on Nanci Hesse who was also in my homeroom. Nanci - like all the Ridgewood girls - was cute! Fred would ask me: "Should I ask her out?" "Do you think she'll say yes?" "Where should I ask her?" We debated whether it be outside after lunch or afterschool! It felt great that he wanted my opinion!
Then there were the guys who were already going steady with girls seriously - you know, you'd go to class - as soon as you were out the door you held hands together (or more) til next class! I forget who it was - Mr. Gooding maybe? - anyway this teacher would walk the halls during the class change near the library. He would come up to an unsuspecting couple and he would split their hands with his arm breaking their grip and say: "There will be no hand-holding in the halls! Get to class!" He would battle the couples all year long.
All in all life at BF was new and exciting. Discussions about girls always on the bus ride home. Thoughts of "How can I buy a pack of cigarettes?" "What do I need to do to be cool?" Yes, it is ridiculous that one needs to ask such questions - to think that you need to plot how to be cool - it just doesn't work that way. However, the issue is huge when you're a kid though!
There were also the incredible struggles with math class - especially my 7th grade year - Mr. Bleeden was the best and spent a good deal of time with me after school helping me to understand it all. By 9th grade I always hated to ask questions - it stems from Mr. Kalina who said: "Any questions? No question is a stupid question." - oh, really - well, yeah I have a question and then I proceeded to ask it - Mr. Kalina responded: "Didn't you listen to anything I said in class?!" From that day on I had no more questions! Some teachers just didn't get it - sorry Mr. Kalina! That poor man broke a lot of chalk on the board - he had an amazing temper and no patience!
Anyway BF was a special place where you met a lot more people than the small world of grammar school.
In 9th grade, the HoHokus and Mount Carmel kids would join us and in high school the GW kids and kids from Mount Carmel would join us if they hadn't already in 9th grade - we doubled our size and ultimately graduated with 658 kids!
It's a cliche, but man if only I could go back knowing what I know now!
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