Special thoughts from the Class President

Tim Neely

Fifty years ago this June -- anyone remember the date? -- will mark our graduation from Avonworth High School. For a little perspective, imagine yourself back in the gym that evening. You see an elderly couple up in the seats, he with a glistening scalp and ample waistline, she with gray-white hair and very sensible shoes. During the ceremony, they are introduced by our Principal, Mr. McLaughlin ("Teddy Snow-Crop" to some), as Sally and Bill Jones, high school sweethearts back for the 50th reunion of the class of -- 1911! Imagine further that during the weekend of our reunion beginning this September 23rd, you strike up a conversation with a teenager serving your breakfast and learn that she has just graduated from Avonworth, with most of her life yet to come (barring, of course, that treacherous "unforeseen"); fifty years later she could well be enjoying her 50th reunion in 2061. 'Nuff said about time and its passage.

Many of us attended the class "get-together" (as Jack Faulkner so aptly called it) a year and a half ago, which was great fun but seemingly over almost before it began. I think we all left with a bit of a who-was-that-masked-man feeling as we sort of caught up with some, waved across the room at others, and chatted just briefly with the rest. At least I felt that way. Fortunately, that's not going to be the case this year as the get-together grows into a full fledged reunion under the planning of a hard working committee consisting of Robb Bell, Fern Clark Cassidy, John Corfield, Carol Warne Egan, David El-zik, Jack Faulkner, Herb Hamilton, Peg Maier Henrich, Louise Wetzel Lakatos, LaRae Hill Lawson, Linda Turner Owens, Charlotte McCalister Pack, Diane Groetzinger Scanlon, Janet Renner Shaffer, Dave Stevens, Carole Christy Stroyne, and Diane Kenyon Wilson. Special kudos to Herb whose computer skills have given us our own class of '61 web site with details about the reunion and the ability to communicate with each other as the year goes on, so that when we actually join together on the 23rd we will have had the chance to catch up through emails, phone calls, and the like.

After the get-together and in anticipation of the reunion, I pulled out our senior yearbook, the De Rebus, for the first time in many years. I must admit that I opened it with some misgivings. What would I find, would I recognize everyone, would I recognize myself? Well, I'm happy to report that it's been mostly a fun trip back in time, bringing up many fond memories along with a few that weren't so nice, all of which I guess is what the business of growing up and going from elementary through high school is all about.

I was particularly struck by what a good job Carol Stewart and her staff did. It captured who we were then and what the times were like, and even its length, a little over 100 pages, got it right. I was reminded of the general unfairness then -- and maybe it still holds too true -- that while the boys got a lot of the space, the girls did most of the hard work. For example, the De Rebus staff was almost all girls: Carol as editor, business manager LaRae Hill, circulation manager Sue Fisher, circulation staff Barbara Johnston and Holly Gerlach, literary editor Fern Clark, literary staff Janet Schuler and Carol Smith, photo editor Lynne Cotton, photo staff Lyn Penyack. I was surprised to see that I was part of the literary staff because I know I didn't lift a damn finger to help out -- but maybe fellow staff members Robb Bell, Bob Eback, Gary Lewis, Paul Needham, and John Wilks did. (I have my doubts!) The same was true for the Avonews, edited by Prudy Emery. Boys got far more space for sports than the girls did and more than we deserved. Only by re-reading the yearbook did I learn that Janet Schuler's "volleyball serves were the talk of the school." Jack, can the committee set up a net and encourage Janet to show off her game?

A few pages in, there is a photo of several of us standing in front of our lockers. My eye went into the picture through a natural path just to the left of center and focused first on John Corfield, tall in khakis and a white shirt. John is looking to his right as though he might scan over to say hello to Walter Turner in the left foreground (I had forgotten how tall Walter is), the only person actually looking in his locker. To the right in the foreground is a group of seven folks chatting -- Barbara Johnston is in the center with her patented great smile, Holly Gerlach is listening intently, Carol Stewart (I think) is on the far right with her back to the camera, and Dave Lipke's head is visible from the nose up. The rest of Dave is behind Lyn Penyack who is obviously poised -- at least in my version of the story -- to make a classic Penyack Point, which will convulse the group in laughter. Ah, would that we could turn this into film to see the next few frames.

Moving on a few pages we see Janet Schuler and Carol Murphy holding -- a large pumpkin? The picture on the facing page is taken in lunch room 202. Jack Faulkner, always a bit of a Peck's bad boy (never lose that, Jack!), has told a slightly off color story that has amused everyone in the room, except Mike Gaughan who seems none too pleased. Ken Krebs is also laughing in the background, but at an outright dirty joke that Bob Eback has just told him.

On page 26 we come to the faculty. The first picture in the upper left is Benjamin F. Bast, a stern visage, all business that Mr. Bast. I remember sitting in some meeting in the ninth or tenth grade that was being run by an upperclassman. I forget who it was, maybe Phil Derringer? I can see him but can't quite get the name. Mr. Bast stormed into the room and interrupted the meeting. Phil was in the middle of a sentence, remained cooler than I would have, and politely asked Mr. Bast to wait until he had finished his thought , which caused Bast to yell, "Don't be obstreperous, young man!" Cracked me up and taught me a new word. Next to Mr. Bast is Marjorie C. Carter, the librarian. In the seventh grade I checked a book out and forgot to return it until the end of the year. Mrs. Carter was a very quiet woman but she chewed me out royally, if quietly, which scared me off libraries for several years.

Turn the page and in the upper left is Charles T. Wright, who taught 8th grade math. Miss Harris, the Latin teacher, had the room next to his, and it was obvious that Mr. Wright had a crush on her. I guess it went both ways because they got married, I think while we were still in school.

Down the page is Mr. Ringer, a good teacher and a thoroughly decent man. I was in his class when Bill Mazeroski hit the home run to beat the New York Yankees in the 1960 World Series. Mr. Ringer had let someone tune in the game on a transistor radio "but only if you keep the noise down," because Mr. McLaughlin's office was just across the hall. As you can imagine, when Maz hit the homer, the class erupted and Mr. Ringer stood there in the middle shouting -- at high decibel level -- "keep it down, keep it down!" (To his credit, he let us keep the radio on.) If we had stepped outside the classroom, I'm sure we would have heard a similar ruckus in the Principal's office.

At the bottom of the page is Thomas D. Regney, assistant football coach and head baseball coach. Coach Regney grew up in Ambridge and came to Avonworth when we were freshmen. That first year, he coached the junior varsity and was not impressed with our athletic skills or toughness. One day he told us that he could bring a group of 5th grade girls over from Ambridge who would kick our butts but good. I believe that he was serious, and maybe they could have. On the baseball field, well, let's be charitable and say that as a baseball coach Mr. Regney ran a good spring football camp. His major piece of coaching insight was, "You got to be the master of the ground ball." Good advice, I'm sure.

The next page includes Tom "Will I See You in September" Monito and the band leader, Mr. Lee, who gave me a well deserved D in music. Also there is James K. Sewall, French and Spanish teacher. The last semester of senior year I sat in the back of his class with Sue Daub. Although the class note next to her picture states that she was "very quiet," she was a bit of a troublemaker and, Susan Daub, wherever you are, I hold you wholly responsible for the "unsatisfactory" conduct mark I got from Mr. Sewall.

Also on that page is one of my favorite pictures in the book. Ken Krebs is at his desk, back to the camera, with his right arm in the air, a pencil in his hand. Even though we see only a bit of his face from the rear, you can tell that Kenny's flashing a big grin, as he usually did. At the head of the room is Mr. Woods, an English teacher, and he too is beaming right back at Ken. Tom Kelley has turned around in his seat to face Ken and is obviously not buying any of his act. The caption drolly notes that as Ken Krebs offers his philosophy to Mr. Woods, "Tom Kelley looks on." By the way, Kells, a very belated 50 year "thanks" to you for being the best football manager imaginable. You worked longer hours by far than the players and probably the coaches, too. You were the original Radar O'Reilly.

At the start of the section on seniors (a word with new meaning for us now!), recognition is given to academic achievement. We had three national merit finalists, Susie Pannier, Paul Needham, and Carol Stewart, a terrific result for a class our size. On a county-wide exam Susie, Paul, and Carol were joined by Beverly Hoyt, Carol Smith, and Prudy Emery as prize winners, and Paul placed first among all who took the test. (Paul had a ping pong table in his house, and I recall thinking that while he was a boatload smarter than I was, surely I could wax him at ping pong. No so, in fact not even close. Son of a gun has a tricky left hand serve that puts on some wicked back spin; I never had a chance. So if there's a table at the reunion and Paul saunters up to you in his friendly, unassuming way and says wouldn't it be fun to play a few games, and oh what the heck, let's put down a few pennies to spice it up, my advice is just walk away.) We had other good students too, including (and apologies to those I'm missing) Robb Bell, Bill Bingler, David El-zik, Sue Fisher, Louie Struble, Carol Warne, and John Wilks. And Bob Eback knew more math in his little finger than the rest of us put together.

Next we come to our senior pictures and class notes. I've gotten tremendous pleasure out of looking at the pictures and reading the notes, and could have comments about everyone. While I'll spare you that, here are a few observations:

•  Bob Craig was one funny guy.
• It is written that Walter Dimling "hated dancing." I think it was the other way around.
• I didn't realize that Ed Dzubay's "future plans included the safari business."
• At least four kids transferred to Avonworth as juniors : Sue Daub, Bob Eback, Gary Fielder, and Jerry Matczak. I'm sure that was a lot harder than I realized then, and I'm equally sure I didn't do enough to be welcoming.
• We had excellent musical talent: Diane Kenyon and John Thumm (voice), Gary Lewis (piano), Ben Mayo (bass), Don Harper (sax), my cousin Jack Scandrett (French horn); no doubt many others I've missed. Ed Shaffer, didn't you play the trombone? I expected to see that in your class note but there was no mention of being in the band, so maybe I was dreaming. Walter Dimling was a budding trombone player until the day he shoved it, case and all, under the wheels of a bus. He always swore it was an accident, but I never bought that for a second.
• Our cheerleaders were excellent and made a difference, and Darlene Dreier and her majorettes put on a terrific show.
• On page 43 there's a photo of LaRae, Bev Hoyt, and Betty Hilke showing off their motorcycles to Dave Hinton and Lyn Hoffman.
• We had some good athletes, too: Bill Bingler, John Corfield, Walter Dimling, Jack Faulkner, Gary Fielder, Herb Hamilton, Lyn Hoffman, Bill Langell, Dave Lipke, Mike Milliken, Tom Reilly, Bill Snyder, Skip Snyder, Chip Struble, Doug Taylor, Ron Tempalski. Alas, as noted above, the girls weren't given the opportunities they deserved, but pictures show Lynne Cotton, Becky Stout, Janet Schuler (with a bowling ball, not a volley ball or a pumpkin), Fern Clark, Sue Pollock, and Jane Duesing hard at work in various sports. I'm sure that Linda Turner ran a tight ship as president of the Girl's Athletic Association. When it came to sports, though, I note that there's a little fellow in the junior high football picture, sitting between R. Eshenbaugh and D. Edmunds, named E. Morris, who went on to later fame under the name "Mercury."
• Because of school crowding, we went to Emsworth for fifth and sixth grades. This was a change for me and I was afraid of what it might bring. I remember that when I first ran into Tom Reilly and Frank Pickell, I was sure they were going to pound me into the ground. I could not have been more wrong. They were great and they were welcoming, as were all the Emsworth kids, and I really appreciated it then and I appreciate it now. (I will admit that I was terrified of my fifth grade teacher, Miss Agnew, and still occasionally wake up at 3 a.m. in the middle of a scary fifth grade experience.)
• I wonder if people have followed the paths mentioned in the class notes. Ed, did you make your mark in the safari business? Carole Christy, Judy Ertl, Betty Hilke, Barbara Johnston, Chris Rozday, Ginny Weiss, did you go on to one of the noblest of all professions, nursing? Ed Loedding and Paul Toncic, did you join the military as you had planned? And LaRae, Betty, and Bev, I sure as heck hope you're still riding big Harleys. Everyone, please fill out and return the questionnaire attached to the class web site so that we'll all have a sense of what the last 50 years have brought. 

These are just a few of my thoughts about our class that have come to me as I wander through Carol's De Rebus. I encourage you to do some wandering there yourself. If you do, I'm sure you'll have a flood of your own memories and stories to put with many of the pictures and class notes. (If Barbara really is asleep on page 11, how come the book hasn't fallen from her hand?) And be sure to mark your calendars for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, September 23,24, and 25. See you there!

 Tim Neely

We will see you all in September !!