Judi Bachman (Holtze)

I remember where I was on that fateful day.  In civics class with some old guy whose name I don't remember.  But I do remember how happy he was that Kennedy was dead. The shock of what he said and how he felt  has never left me. Whether you liked the man or not he was the President of the United States and his asssination was a shock to the entire world.  My husband just told me that he was in the hospital having his appendix out and another patient did not know who Kennedy was.  But that was before global media.  Denmark was a "little" behind the times back then.

Agree with Patty about the state of politics and non concensus you guys have.  Try explaining to Europeans how the entire US goverment can be held hostage by a few nut cases in Congress or complelety shut down anything under federal control because of no finance law,  or why millions of Americans have no access to health care, and then there are the gun laws or rather lack of them.... There are right wing parties in all EU countries but at least they manage to work with the goverments in power and across party lines.  Something that does not happen in the States.  Until this happens nothing can be changed.

Lawrence M Fields

For those of us who no longer live in the Cleveland area, I found today's article in the New York Times reason to hope for a Cleveland selection by the Republican Party for the political convention. See link: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/04/us/cleveland-ohio-2016-election-republican-democratic-conventions.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&version=LargeMediaHeadlineSum&module=photo-spot-region&region=photo-spot&WT.nav=photo-spot&_r=0

Jan Whittemore (White)

That day.......Mr. Meshenberg's Modern European History--discussing the French Revolution--I had just written "The Third Estate" in my notes.  Mr. Meshenberg stopped dead, gulped several times, teared up and said " I guess I won't get an answer to my letter."  We then had to go the the gym (single sex) to wait until the end of school bell.  We hated the idea, but it was probably best, so we could begin to process the news.  There was little chat as we walked home that day......

Martha (Marti) Kammen (Katz)

I, too, was in Mr. Goodman's class. ( confession) it was not a quiz it was a test. I stayed home because I was not prepared for the the test.

The TV show I was watching was interrupted to say that Kennedy had been wounded by a sniper in Dallas. 

I called my Dad at the office to tell him and I never moved from that TV again for hours.

I do remember hearing that the test was not cancelled and the sad story about Mr. Goodman's brother.

Lesley Dormen

As for being glued to the television that weekend of the assassination...I haven't pried my eyes away since, save for a stretch in the 1970s when movies were good.  Judi, thank you for not repeating whatever vile comment that civics teacher made about JFK. And please thank Denmark, for "Borgen."  What a terrific series. Larry, I too read that story this morning about Cleveland being on the short list for both conventions. And that the suburbs have become increasingly Republican. True?

Joseph G Blake

Interesting that Cleveland is on the short list of two for the GOP in 2016. Its biggest challenge is that it is not a hub airport that many know makes a direct flight hard to get.

The article mentioned that some of the suburbs leaned GOP. That is not new. In our days there were 4 congressional districts in Cuyahoga County. The congressmen were Mike Feighan, Charles Vanik, Frances Bolton and William Minshall. Two were GOP and two Democrats. Mrs. Bolton's district was probably Democratic leaning and included east wards of Cleveland but who she was made beating here almost impossible until Charles Vanik jumped districts in 1968 when Lou Stokes sought his seat and Mrs. Bolton was past 80.

In 1964 the majority of voters in Shaker were Republicans and the city leadership certainly leaned that way. There were few Kennedy signs to see in 1960. When Kennedy was killed, someone who knew I was GOP said "I suppose you are happy." I was amzed that anyone could think that or say it.

A statistic we may have forgotten is this one from the 1960census. Shaker Heights had the highest per capita income of cities over 25,000. Time called it the richestcity in America. But then Detroit had the highest per capita income of major US cities. That certainly shaped the era in which we went to high school in very unique ways including the fact that over 90% of us went to college when that was exceptional. We were very fortunate to say the least.

Finally it is no secret that the Vans promoted the building of country clubs to make their projects more desirable. As everyone knows our reunion will be held at Shaker which was once a restricted club. That is full of irony because the club was an example of how the Vans could make a silk purse from a pig's ear. The club as does Canterbury is built along the water shed of Doan Creek. The course at Shaker is long and narrow and crosses Torrington Road. But the entire water shed of the Doan Creek was given to the city of Cleveland in the late 19th century by the Rockefellers. When the Vans decided to build a club, they had to lease the land n a 100 year lease from Cleveland. That the club was restricted and on public land never was noticed for many decades. It may have played a part in the change in club policy plus the economic reality that clubs need members to cover costs.

 In fairness to the Vans, they were the last leaders to have a major vision for Cleveland. Few men ever had that much control of land to shape it as they saw fit.  Most of their plans were highly visionary. Their greatest virtue was their ability to attract and keep highly capable people who really had the visions and convinced the brothers to do things but OP was never able to walk away from a deal when he should have- the purchase of the Missouri Pacific Railroad in 1930. But he was as much a dreamer as a visionary and paid the price when the markets collapsed in 1929.

Alan M Cohen

This brings back so many memories.  I was on the road to Ohio University the day Kennedy was shot.  There were four of us invited to experience a taste of college and probably try to recruit us as National Merit finalists.  We were just outside of Columbus Ohio when the news of the shooting hit the radio.  We were all dumb struck.  Naturally the weekend was spent reflecting, with the whole program changed.  This changed evrything, not just the weekend.  When we returned our history teacher Mr. Cramer was never the same.  He was depressed for the rest of the year and after that I lost contact.  The Viet Nam protests occured while I was in Boston going to college.  There was a march on Boston commons that heralded his announcement to not run.

While on history I was also present the night before the Kent State massacre.  My first wife went to school there and I spent that night there before leaving for classes in medical school.  Governor Rhodes was up for reelection and had the whole town thinly covered with National Guard troops. They were more scared than the students which led to their firing on the students unprovoked.  Helicopters were flying over during the night hours every fifteen minutes stirring anxiety.  Truly stupid and abusive.  One of the organizers said it was freezing and raining outside and if the troops had just waited they were set to go home.  That would have ended the problem but politicians flamed the fire instead.

Much has happened over these fifty years.  Remember when we had the phrase "don't trust anyone over thirty". 

Burt Weiss

I was in Mr. Weil's typing class that afternoon when the announcement came over the PA.  Three observations---

Mr. Weil was a really nice guy.

I took typing as a senior slump class but it was the most useful class I ever took at Shaker.

Mr. Zednik did not call off wrestling practice that night.  Nobody fellt much like wrestling.

Dan Lesnick

I was in Mr. Snavely's 7th period English class on Friday when the announcement of President Kennedy's assassination came over the P.A. I remember the confused and incredulous faces – including Mr. Snavely's. And I remember him saying something to the effect of, "There's nothing we can do here; you might as well leave..."

The other assassination-related moment I recall (other than the t.v. coverage) took place the next day around noon or 1:00. l was driving to Betsy Neavill's house and had to come to a stop before crossing S. Woodland or maybe it was Shaker Blvd. Whichever it was, it was a broad boulevard that was usually filled with traffic, and now on this gorgeous sunny day it was virtually empty with only two or three passing cars. (Everyone else was glued to their televisions.) And I marvelled at the thought that at that very moment everyone in the United States (pop: approaching 200,000,000) was thinking about the exact same thing.

Gretchen Effler

Dan, I was in the same English class, and remember Mr. Snavely looking crushed, as we were.  Then the girls met in the gym, and we sat around in shock. Someone tearfully said she would go home and throw away her Vaughn Meader record, as if our laughing at a Kennedy spoof had somehow let down the guard and allowed tragedy to happen. Everything came to a halt; movie theaters were closed that weekend and the news preoccupied everyone. I went to Leslie Blonder's house, and we discussed what we would regret about not getting to have adult lives, as if the assassination meant the end of the world, too. It was the first time in any of our lives that the adults seemed as confused and uncertain as we were.  

Jeffrey D Woolf

I was in Mr. Warnement's French class.  Remember the older woman who was head of the department?  She used to come into his class to complain that the window shades were not all at exactly the same level.  When she came into the classroom and starting speaking with him privately that day, we all assumed it was to reprimand him about the window shades--until we were told the president had been assassinated.
 

Alaina Weisman (Zachary)

I liked M. Warnement!  And I have successfully blocked that short, dark woman's name. I akways did very well in French class including Mr. Kee at Byron, but that woman never liked me. Tant pis!

Hana Umlauf (Lane)

I was there also in Mr. Warnement's French class.  What I remember vividly is Anne Petty bursting out in tears when the news was announced and continuing to sob uncontrollably.

Betsy Dennis (Frank)

My father was out of town when the assassination happened and I remember he and my mom on the phone a lot. Then a few days later Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver died. The two events so close together really made for a traumatic and sad week for us all.

Joseph G Blake

Jeff Wolfe wrote:  "Remember the older woman who was head of the department? "

Now here is a scary thought. We are all older now then she was then.

I rememebr my kindergarten teacher Mrs Fox had white hair. I thought she was ancient then and I recall thinking many years ago that she was probably no more than 50. Would that I were that age again.

LOL

I think the older woman was Miss Politella.

Carol Schaffner (Maxwell)

You are right, that "older woman" was Miss Politella ... but here is a bit of trivia for you.  During the school year Miss P lived in Linda Kramer's garage apartment.  It was hush-hush!  In the summer (when Miss P visited France) Linda and I would have sleep overs in her vacant apartment and try to bleach our hair with hydrogen peroxide ....it never worked!

William A Sokol

No one has checked in yet who was in Mr French's Physics class -- the news was announced, and he simply passed out the exam we were due to take, said the President would have wanted us to take the exam....and we spent the first hour after hearing about it doing that exam....still seems remarkable to me when I think about it....I suppose he was either shell shocked and had no idea what to do, or indifferent to it....or so it seemed....

Evie Fertman (Braman)

I was in gym class in the Old Elbow Room (as opposed to the New Elbow Room?) and Leroy, the head custodian walked through announcing, and this is an exact quote, "Your president is dead".  President of what?  The School Board?  The City Council?  Our class?  The school?  We were clueless.  What really stunned me when we all found out who had died was his use of the word "your" - I had always looked at Kennedy as everybody's President and Leroy taught me that there was a divide.

Gretchen Effler

Leaving the most traumatic of our shared high school memories for a moment, I wonder if any of you remember a disciplinary assembly convened by Mr. Rupp for some members of our class. I cannot remember the infraction, and it can't have been too violent because I was passive and only susceptible to 'crimes/sins of omission' at that stage. Mr. Rupp came in to the auditorium to address us, and began to talk about the fine young men he had known during the war. (Korean War?) They were brave, resourceful, of sterling character, and also dead. He never mentioned our particular misbehavior, but we left the assembly feeling as if our misdeed had somehow caused the loss of those brave soldiers. Or maybe, little shits that we were, why did we deserve to be alive when better young people had been sacrificed unfairly. Does anyone remember this? 

Sheldon J Kelman

Wow, what memories.  I was in Miss Siley's Spanish class when the announcement came over the p.a. But Alan, as for Kent State, I  can't recall exactly where I was when I heard the news.  I was in law school at Cleveland Marshall going nights and working for the Ohio Civil Rights Commission days.  It's likely I was out on and investigation at the time but I can't be sure.  Now if you were to ask me where I was when I heard about Elvis . . . .

Lesley Dormen

Gretchen, what a bizarre event! Needless to say, I wasn't invited to that disciplinary assembly, my own crimes existing out there in the future somewhere. I'm still reeling from reading words like "Elbow Room." And the story of Miss Politella's apartment above Linda Kramer's garage. I'd welcome more gossip in this forum about the secret lives of other teachers. Miss Buehler? Anyone?  Who was it we had for homeroom, Gretchen? The German teacher. Mrs. Deutsch? She's one teacher I have no curiosity about whatsoever. 

Patricia Ann Richards (Armstrong)

Dear Classmates,

This is an apology for my somewhat apoplectic offering of 3rd July, 2014.

First of all, apologies to those who don't like the Anglo-Saxonism "Fucked" in a general message to all and sundry.  I have to plead living in a country where this particular word is used all too frequently...especially in the theatrical profession to which I once belonged.

And, of course. The country of my birth, to which I owe my first allegiance, is NOT "F****D"...no way, Jose!

But living for the time I have, almost 40 years, in another country, even though that country's language is English, somewhat changes one's perspective...one can be, perhaps a little more objective about the country of one's birth, without being a traitor!   Not that the English have cottoned on to consensus...who, except the Nordic countries have???and even they have their "moments"!

And all those commas, exclamation points...etc....obviously not only was I feeling the effects of one tumblerful of "The Famous Grouse" blended Scotch Whisky too many, but was also exercised by the memory of that horrible day...something I remember like it was yesterday...in spite of the fact that I cannot remember if I followed the leader (of men and women!) Nancy Crumbine out into the hall....and then where did we go...I don't remember being herded into the gym.  But memory is a very fallible thing.

Just an additional note on that whole weekend...on that Saturday I was scheduled to do an audition with "The Cleveland Messiah Chorus"...my "party piece was " Rejoice, Rejoice Greatly...oh Daughters of Zion"" and I was a shoo-in...nobody could sing those coloratura passages as accurately as I could! or the slow mid section with as much " feeling" and legato singing as I! -  a "believer" when I was singing, if not at other times...I was as I say! a shoo-in!  

But I completely forgot about this audition! and when the organisers rang my mother as to why I hadn't shown up...and all she could say was "that I forgot"....needless to say she was incandescent with rage that I could have passed up an opportunity like that....with a significant financial reward, as well.  I felt no guilt whatsoever,...they should have cancelled the bloody audition...."Rejoice. Rejoice", indeed....how could the words and notes come out of my mouth feeling the way I did???watching the whole thing on black and white television.  Thinking that my little world had changed forever.

Dear classmates, yet again, I'm going back to that initial and somewhat OTT offering of 3rd July...just before the glorious 4th, to edit it and make it more palatable and less offensive...my aim was never to offend...but truth, as I see it! is truth???and that's the amazing thing about "truth"...there ain't any such thing...it's a moveable feast...it's transitory...it's just a Goddamned WORD!  What is truth today is misinformation tomorrow...does any of you feel like me...swimming in the midst of a whirlpool...but still able to tread water?

Back I go to make my last contribution a little less OTT!

Please forgive me if your're one of the people I offended...blame ot on The Famous Grouse!

Best wishes to you all..can't wait to see all the people who want to see me...although that number might be diminished by my last email....but, on the other hand, you might want to put me right!

Best wishes to you all,

Patty...the most "piggertly" of all the piggerts...

hiskey

Janet Harold (Anderson)

I don't remember what class I was in, but I remember all the girls in the gym. We were sitting there on the floor wondering why the world had fallen apart. Feeling vulnerable. On Sunday, I was leaving the house to go babysitting, and the TV had the moving of Lee Harvey Oswald, and stood there and kept watching as he was shot. -------------Years later, one of my patients had lived in New Orleans and was very involved in the community. She had twin boys and one of them researched a lot of things going on around those years. Oswald was in the book a lot, working in a lab, things about the polio vaccine, the presidency, It is very interesting. It is call Dr Mary's Monkey and the authors name is  by Edward Hasslem. All his findings are very carefully documented. The notes on all his facts are as interesting as the book.:His mother was an extremely intelligent woman and their father was a Dr,. She has passed and I miss her  conversations.

As Amazon puts it: Dr. Mary's Monkey: How the Unsolved Murder of a Doctor, a Secret Laboratory in New Orleans and Cancer-Causing Monkey Viruses are Linked to Lee Harvey ... Assassination and Emerging Global Epidemics

Alan M Cohen

There was another french teacher, Mr Hansen? Maybe. Told the worst jokes over and over all year. Anyone remember?

Dana Shepard (Treister)

This is a totally different "topic", but I read in the New York Times yesterday that Cleveland has been selected to host the 2016 Republican National Convention, which sounds like quite a coup -- leaving aside my (or your) political affiliations!

DANA