I remember dance class, for us boys in 8th grade we were threatened with bodily harm if we didn't go and try to be enthusiastic about it. But MAAAm do I have to dance with a girl? Either that or no baseball after school for a week. My mother was told that no boys were signed up for the lessons. To this day whenever I hear a Cha Cha being played the little hair that I still have stands up in the back of my head!! I remember back at Byron in the 8 th grade a friend who I won't give his name, (John Corlett ) found a bushel basket full of M-80's and cherry bombs in the basement of a new house he had moved into, left by the previous owner. And two enterprising fellows that we were, decided to sell them to almost everyone at Byron. The principal went through almost every lockers till he filled his desk with them. I was lucky the my business partner has some "Pull" that we only got a slap on the wrist.
Some of you were talking about Grubers restaurant, at Van Aken, it seems the only time I went near it they were having a kitchen fire and had to remodel, which seemed like every other month. But Danny Budins had the best corned beef or deli food in Shaker, or you could go to Solomons at cedar center, where I learned to eat dill pickles with everything from their cheese cake to Icecream sundays. I worked as a Soda Jerk at the Lynfield Drug, and Avalon Drug for about 3 years before graduating High school. I think I took most of my pay in Malts and candy. Back then I never realized why every day at about 5:30pm men would come into the drug store and get a paper cup with a shot of Bromo Seltzer and celtzer water, after the got off the Shaker Rapid at Lynfield, from their trip from their down town office. This was so they could ease into their "Better Half" the pharmacist would say.
Leslie the dance Carlo & Kay attempted to me was the Stroll. That's the only dance I could do without tripping more than once or twice. We headed for the Shaker Square Rapid Stop for Burgers after the Dances at Plymouth Church.
I love the pictures! I loved my years at Moreland! That was Barbara Adelman in the back row and Dick Fox in front of her on the left. I would love to see Ricky Brenner again. Where did he go? Terri Gelb, I want to see you.
Kenny, I hope to see you soon. Thank you, Bobby, for these pictures.
Wow! All this reminiscing is bringing back some memories--but not others. I guess if you went to Sussex you had a completely different Shaker experience than Moreland or Lomond. One funny thing, Alene, (Alaina, right?): I was also in the Friday evening class at Flossie Shapiro's (remember her castenets?), but my mom told ME that it was the Friday night class that had the "higher" society kids. Sounds like Flossie had a good little scam going to everyone!
I have no recollection of any trips to New York or anywhere else except the Great Lakes Choral Festival. The choir members got to spend an entire day at another school (Lakewood?), singing our songs and learning some more that the whole group then sang together in the bleachers of a large gym. Nowadays the school choirs do competitions--ours was just a get-together, though. I seem to recall that Chanticleers very occasionally were asked to entertain at outside venues.
I was the "wardrobe mistress" for the choir (something I just remembered.) About the only part of that job that I remember is sitting on the floor with a ruler to measure how far the hems of the robes were from the floor. (They had to be 11 inches per Mr. Ellis) I have no idea how they were then altered to fit that. Maybe we just traded robes til we found one that made the 11" mark?
I also have a recollection of some of us in the choir going to Horseshoe Lake Park one night and standing in the sandbox singing the "Hallelujah Chorus" from "Messiah." (I'd love to sing that again at the reunion with any other choir members who might be interested.)
Looking forward to seeing everyone this weekend!--Marianne
Indeed I remember you well. In most of the pickup football games, I believe you were the quarterback. The Moreland years were indeed wonderful. I can't remember how many 5th grades there were. I was in Mrs. Sigworth's along with Eugene Greenstein, Marilyn Bosson, Joanne Spimoni, and Merele Pilus. We were prepped well.
I went to summer school in Junior High to take my typing courses, six weeks each. So I was able to type all my papers through high school and college at 62 wpm. It has served me well over the years. It's the same skill on a computer.
Ah, Little Italy--- I lived there for a number of years before moving to Florida, right on the corner of Murray Hill and Mayfield Rds. I remember Tuesday nights when suddenly the neighboring parking lot was filled with black limos for an event at the Italian American Club next door to us. I loved the FEAST of the Assumption, celebrated heavily for days up to August 15th, actual feast-day. I remember the little church across the street, and that Library that you mention. I never did attend the Library there--not into drinking and partying. I was into school at Mather College of Western Reserve University which was very close.
Larry Nudelman, shades of AJ Soprano! Boys and their gunpowder. Does anyone remember that there was a hall in the basement, maybe near a gym, which became a target range after school, maybe one day a week? The program might have been sponsored by the NRA. There was a sign posted so you wouldn't inadvertently wander in and get blown to bits. Actually, the guns may have been BB guns, but I know my younger brother would participate several years after we graduated, and it was not thought odd or dangerous to bring a gun (long barrel) to school, keep it in one's locker and then go for some shooting after school. How our sensibilities have changed, and how lucky we were to have no fear except the pop quiz.
Another after-school event was the Religion & Philosophy club about which I can't remember much except that two young Mormon gentlemen addressed us upon one occasion. Leslie Cross and I, not wanting to hurt their feelings by the general lack of enthusiasm, asked lots of questions in that polite, perky way so revered by parents of young ladies. Then we walked home and forgot all about it. A day or two later the Mormons, citing our intense interest, showed up at the Cross home on Morley Road, asking to see Leslie and requesting my address. Mrs. Cross informed them that Leslie could not be disturbed from her studies,and that I came from a deeply religious Catholic family (a bogus claim) that would be appalled if Latter Day Saints came calling.
I did the NYC trip the Xmas of 63. I recall taking the train. We arrived on a Friday and had dinner at jack Dempsey's steak house on Times Square. We did the usual tourist stuff and I recall going to Rock Center to see the Rockettes and a movie- charade as I recall with Cary Grant. I recall Stenson White, Gerry Goetz, John Robison and John Garnett were on the trip. The train back was so cold. Good time was had by all. Speaking of Heron's ice cream reminds me of prices. A pint was 50 cents, a gallon of gas was 35 cents, and I could buy a pack of Camels in the vending machine at Avalon Drug for a quarter. Filters were 30 cents. My older brother reminds that when a pack was 22 cents over the counter the pack would have 3 pennies in the pack. No one seemed to object that I smoked at 17. My father saw me and said, "all my friends who smoked are dead. So smoke if you want to die young." I quit by age 30. Still alive.
Times were so simple back then. When we were young our parents would never thin twice about letting us go out by ourselves or with a friend. Almost every Saturday we would go to the Shaker, or Vogue Theaters where for a quarter we could see a couple cartoons, news reel, and a movie, and every once in a while there would be a Yo-Yo contest where you could go up on the stage and maybe win a Yo-Yo or a candy bar. The theaters are all gone along with the bowling alleys, skating rinks, pool halls. Even the Manner's Drive-in and others are gone, no more cruseing. How many times did a Saturday date wind up at Music Carnival on Warrensville, where you would see a play, or show with big name entertainers. That too closed in 1973 when they moved to The Front Row Theater. Twenty years ago that became a Home Depot. I wonder if there are still any Submarine Races around the Shaker Lakes, or has that stopped also.
Little Italy had the Library Bar and the Agora Bar. Both are now condo's or part of University Hospital. The Agora moved after 4 or 5 years to near Cleveland State, and became a venue for some big entertainment for a long time. Even the Big Bell at Cedar Center has gone the way of a bank parking lot. You can't meet under the bell any more. The only reconized sign from 50 years ago is Geraci's Resteraunt, with the same family and the same flavor. Hough Bakery is long gone, but there is still one Davis Bakery in Woodmere, on Chagrin and they still make the best coconut bars, and Russian Tea biskits.
Joseph Blake, I remember that some enterprising person or persons made and sold us very thin sandwiches on that train! Did we see the Christmas Show at Rockefeller Center? What else, eh? When we stayed at the New Yorker Hotel, it was a shock how noisy the city was and how exciting. I can even remember what it smelled like. Dana Shepherd Triester said that she and I went strolling through Greenwich Village alone. I cannot imagine that that was ok to do, but maybe the chaperones thought we could handle ourselves. IN addition to the Broadway shows, I remember nearly all the meals out. And I too have tucked away all the menus and souvenirs from that trip in my storage unit just across the hall.
I remember the New York trip - though I didn't remember all of the details that you did Dana. I remember loving Mama Leone's so much, and being disappointed when I went back a few year later and it was not good. I remember JoAnne Perlmuter and I (and I'm sure others) going to the French restaurant you mentioned, and eating chocolate mousse for the first time. I also remember getting no sleep and feeling totally sick. Thanks for reminding me about the plays and other things we did - what a great opportunity. I know I loved it.
In response to several references the Shaker Theater (Theatre?), I think I was in first grade, but maybe it was second, when I went on my first DATE - to the Shaker Theater, for the Saturday matinee -- with Jimmy Turner. Can't recall which mom dropped us off, by mine was picking us up after. The movie ended, we walked outside, and my mom hadn't yet arrived, so I announced to my date that I was going to WALK home (probably about 5 blocks or less from Lee Road to Avalon). Jimmy reminded me that we were supposed to wait for my mom. I shrugged and took off down Lomond. I think my mom and Jimmy picked me up along the way; I was probably reprimanded, but don't remember that part; my mom made us Boston Coolers, and Jimmy squirted part of his on the kitchen window with his straw. A TRULY memorable first date. Not sure if he ever asked me out again...
I have had a few requests to organize a Moreland reunion. We can reserve a meeting room at Moreland, now the Shaker Library, on Saturday morning. We can meet before the High School lunch from 9 - 11. I know it's early but I'm trying to fit in between all the other festivities.
Please let me know if you are interested or have any other ideas on how or when we can get together.
1959 the theater flooded. Judy Hirsh Selsby sent this to me. I remember walking to the Sat. afternoon cowboy movies here. There was a bar next door that had a fake cemetary where "Billy the Kid" and other notiables graves were marked. I wonder if it is still there. This was at Kinsmen and Lee Road near Morland School.
The movie playing in this photo is "Up Periscope" with James Garner. I remember seeing that movie on a Saturday afternoon at the Shaker, though presumably not on that day.
The fact that we all remember so much is a very good sign at our age. Larry, I had forgotten, however, about Lynnfield drug until you reminded me. But the best still in my mind is chocolate phosphates from Corky and Lenny's. As far as the tea biscuits-someone asked me about those a few years back when I went to a class at HUC in Cincinnati. She had grown up in Cleveland Heights, but was living in Wyoming at the time.
With regard to Flossie, since I moved to Shaker in 6th grade my parents didn't know the importance of that rite of passage, but by the time my brother reaching "dancing age" he went to the famed dancing school.
Ellen Friedman Smith! I did go to Moreland (we were next door neighbors on Hildana for kindergarten and 1/2 of first grade and I'm in one of the photos. I think I transferred to Malvern because we built a house. So... if you have a reunion, please give my best to all our old neighbors and I remember a LOT of them. xoxoxox
Larry, I had forgotten, however, about Lynnfield drug until you reminded me. But the best still in my mind is chocolate phosphates from Corky and Lenny's. As far as the tea biscuits-someone asked me about those a few years back when I went to a class at HUC in Cincinnati. She had grown up in Cleveland Heights, but was living in Wyoming at the time.