This may be 'old news' to some of you, but this link takes you to a YouTube video of Silverman's in Livingston. I nearly died when I saw those old familiar faces. I used to walk from my house on Taconic past the old Sugar Bowl and to Silverman's with 50 cents to buy five packs of baseball cards and get a 'black 'n white' ice cream soda. The BEST ice cream soda you ever had!

I remember a hot day near the end of our senior year and we're all wilting at a table in the cafeteria. The windows right behind us are open, but not even a faint hope of a breeze. Mr. Ransegnola is chatting with us and then says, "Ya know, I bet you could climb right out one of those windows and down at the shore before anybody even missed you." He then very deliberately turned his back and stood, arms folded, staring intently at the opposite wall. A few of those swifter on the uptake were gone before I could blink. Me, I couldn't believe he was serious. What that got me (and a few others) was a pitying look from Mr. R. when he turned back around. But I always greatly appreciated the gesture.

Hard to believe that in the late 1960s, a dance committee came up with a computer match-up idea. We didn't have personal computers then. We filled out questionnaires, and we were given so called "matches" on pieces of paper to search for a dancing match. I don't remember meeting anyone special from that night, but there was big trouble on the way home. There were seven of us guys walking on the sidewalk of South Livingston Ave., when three other "classmates" followed us. Jeff H. was with us, and was dating an ex-girlfriend of one of these three angry guys. Jeff was grabbed in a split second and punched out of jealousy. Poor Jeff. Bruce A. was also with us during that walk, and he thought it was better not to get into fight with guys who might have weapons. I was new to Livingston at the time. I also remember another night, when Ken S. and I drove to the diner in Livingston. A few guys from our rival high school in West Orange attacked us, and Ken used his car keys against some of them. Luckily for us there were witnesses to tell the police that we did not start the fight. Ken and I were escorted to our parents' homes. Ken's parents were playing cards, while my Mom was asleep. Dad never told her about the fight until years later. I also remember my U.S. history teacher Mr. Shields. He called me Dan instead of Don, and I wouldn't answer to the name Dan. He also once asked me a strange question, when I was writing an answer on the blackboard. He said, "Dan, do you have trouble writing with your left hand?" I could not help myself and I answered, "Why, do you have trouble writing with your right hand?" He laughed, and that was the end of that.
Mr. Shields also thought I had a Dean Martin casual attitude about me. I remember I slouched a lot in his class, but he also didn't know I was also nervous that he was going to call on me to answer one of his quick questions.

I remember mini dresses; granny dresses; fake fur; fake eyelashes; coulottes; kneesocks; someone's striped sweater and matching striped kneesocks; gold bangles; heather sweaters; daisies were our flower; Jean Nate; English Leather; Jeanne's Twiggy haircut; Andy Siegel's Sassoon; Maggie's amazingly beautiful hair; Y groups; Y dances; the old Y building; Susie Cruse and I dancing our asses off; Dave Gusky's fight with the policeman at a Y dance -- it was all over the place; Jim Hill and the Cavedwellers; Sweet 16s - Robin Feldman's bomb shelter; Robin Feldman's Sweet 16 -- great band and a mentalist (I think he was a mentalist); cutting school on a weekly basis and going to the Village; Emily Heller's party when someone hurled a rock thru her parents' big window; Emily's black Corvair- motor always hot; Joy's VW; Elise and Elise's Firebird; John Collins' old army ambulance; us girls smoking cigarettes; Barbara Walsh's laugh; LHS football games; basketball games in the gym; Roger & Jack; going down the shore; going down the shore when Andy Kreedian came with us (do you still like Tequilla and the worm, girlfriend?); the Courts; our Proms; our senior trip when the boys mooned everyone on shore from the float, and finally graduating. It was a very good year!

As you all remember, Mr. Hurley - the Vice Principal for Discipline - left after our Junior year. In tribute to his memory I wrote a song parody to the Rolling Stone's tune Goodbye, Ruby Tuesday. Here is part of that song, and if I find the original copy of it, I'll submit it in full.

He would never say where he came from / Walking the halls 'til the school day's nearly done /
Smiling like a bear / He says: "You! Cut your hair" / and lose your cool / for such a fool / ...
Goodbye Leo Hurley / You know we think the same of you / You're a pain through every new day / Sure ain't gonna miss you.

Mr. Hurley. This was no ordinary man. Even his title was extraordinary, "School Disciplinarian." What was behind the door and in the room clearly inhabited by a man who slept hanging by his feet, waking up thirsty for blood? His face was pock-marked, clearly second in horror to the curse etched on Cain's face when he killed his brother. Did I notice that students went in and never came out? Wasn't there an incinerator right outside his office? (Come to think of it, there are no more incinerators. Did they eventually discover all the student dental work not completely burnt?) I never did get sent to Mr. Hurley because the idea of checking into the roach motel and not checking was a successful deterrent. What was it really like in there? Anyone live to tell about it?

Great story by Roger O'Neil about Doyle's Rock. Of course I was right in the middle of it being on the bus coming home from the game at Morris Hills HS and it was funny and scary at the same time. But another baseball/life story... I was pitching against West Essex HS during our April Spring Break in 1968.... one of those coldish damp days NJ springs can offer. I had the good fortune to hit a double and was standing on second base talking with the West Essex second baseman who said "nice hit." I was dating a girl from West Essex HS at the time and we went to her school play that same night (Saturday) to watch a production of "Damn Yankees." She told me during the play that the lead role of Joe Hardy was being played by the same kid who played second base for the baseball team that day. I didn't think anything of it at the time -- fast forward through college and my 20s when one day during a phone conversation with Carl Vidal he dropped a "bomb" on me. He said "do you know who that second baseman for West Essex HS was?" I said "no...who?" Carl said.. it was Joe Piscopo. Joe was on Saturday Night Live at the time so it was kind of fun looking back thinking about playing against him. And as the old saying goes... we are all separated by just six degrees and if you know me... then you know Joe Piscopo. I just thought of that story because I saw Joe Piscopo on the news this morning... looking forward to the reunion in September.

I read the posting for Jim Beverly written by his sister and it got me thinking about that time period when he and I dated in our senior year. As you all know, he was a cross country runner. We had talked one night and he made a comment that he was going to surprise me the next morning for my birthday in April. I had no idea what he meant by this. But, early that next AM, I awoke to tapping at my window. This may not seem like a big deal, but Jim had actually run the distance of our entire town to wake me up. After I realized what and who this was, we laughed, he waved and took off again to get home in time to wash up and get to school.

Here are some of the memories I have from LHS days..... Entering High school with St. Philomena's friends.... Jane, Myles, Peter, Jimmer, Al.... Spending lunch hours in John Collins' ambulance in the school parking lot.... Early years with Beverly and Leigh... Getting to know Andrea Reisner, our exchange student from Austria... Driving around town with Mindy and Nellie... Throwing Bob Higgins' shoe out of the window in English class.... Acting in "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner".... Hanging at the "courts".... Playing flag tag around Cedar Hills Country Club in the middle of the night.... Waiting tables at Don's Drive In.... Summers down the shore with the Y group and Mrs. Mathesias.... Hating Mrs. Feiber's Geometry class.... Being sent home from school because my skirt was too short.... Y Dances.... Getting a ride to school from Steve Beck.... Tobagganing at Cedar Hill Country Club the night Joey Falcone broke his leg.... Decorating for the Senior Prom and being told I won the Student Council election.... Working with Cal Nordt and Jeannie Penagokas on the Student Council.... Watching Buddy, GJ, Jimmy, and the guys play basketball for LHS.... Cheering at Football games in the cold autumns.... Penny loafers and saddle shoes.... The hoods and the frats.... Painting the Rock.... Milkshakes at Seymour's.... The night before I left for college at Don's Drive-In.... Graduation party and the sadness the day after, when flowers arrived at my door from a certain someone.

Remember Mr. Berry? Track coach? His wife had a baby. Someone in the class asked what he named the baby. Jack Henning “H” throws an eraser at me and at the same time bends down to pick up a pencil on the floor by his desk. As he is reaching for the pencil he says “Dingle” in answer to the name. Berry goes nuts and thinks I said it. Everyone in the class is howling and Berry wants to kill me. I looked like a deer in headlights so he knew I didn’t say it. He knew Jack said it but there was no way he could prove it. The amazing thing was that in the split second after the question was asked and before Berry could answer himself, Jack pulled off the stunt. I have never been around someone who could constantly come up with instantaneous plays, pull them off completely, and never get caught.

We just got done playing Morris Hills in baseball at Morris Hills. We won and clinched the conference and everyone was pumped. We had been on a winning streak and someone started throwing pebbles out of the bus window after games on the way back to Livingston. We figured it was what made us win and baseball players are very superstitious. So Kent Doyle decides to pick up a granite curbstone laying by the field and he brings it on the bus. Remember, we traveled out there via Route 10 which was just 2 lonely lanes each way. We’re booking down the highway going about 70 mph and Kent decides to heave the curbstone out the window. I guess we all figured it would just hit the ground and lay there -- no rocket scientists on that bus. The stone hits the road and proceeds to bounce about 30 ft above the bus and it is traveling like a missile. We were in the right lane and Kent drops it out onto the left lane. Brilliant. The thing to do would have been to take a look to see if there were any cars in the left lane behind us. Naturally, that was an afterthought, and, lo and behold, there are two guys in a corvair about 500 ft behind us in the left lane who see this 40 lb stone bouncing down the road in front of them. It probably looked like a depth charge. They go in the right lane and the stone follows them. They go back into the left lane and there’s the stone. They finally time it so it goes under their car and bounces up taking out god knows what on the undercarriage. The bus slows down for some reason and the guys in the corvair pass the bus with everyone screaming and cheering at the top of their lungs. Coach Lampeter stands up and says “You’re right. We did play a great game”. He had no idea what happened. I was sitting next to Kent when he dropped the stone out the window. When he saw it bounce way above the bus he looked at me and I will never forget the expression on his face. Everyone on the bus turned around and watched the action with the stone and the car hoping that we would have a direct hit through the windshield. After we get back to the HS, the bus driver pulls Kent and I aside and says “That was the most fun I’ve had in a long time."