"Hey, look us over, give us a cheer,
We're from Pulaski and we're going to make it clear"
And that's about all I remember from Mr. Santora's marching band at Pulaski High School in New Britain, Connecticut from 1964. I wanted to play in the band, and Mr. Santora told me that I couldn't play the accordion, so he gave me the next worst instrument on the planet: the French horn. Never did learn to play that darn thing even though it only had three levers to it. It was all French to me.
But I certainly had a lot of fun at Pulaski. And learned something about American history from Mr. Prouty, and a little about chemistry from Mr. Ritter, and absolutely nothing about geometry from Mr. Partin, but two out of three ain't bad.
Sue Symecko, one of the popular cheerleaders at Pulaski High School back in our class of 1966, just gave me a call about the upcoming reunion and anniversary for all classmates of our High School. The last time I saw Susan she was singing "Heat Wave" on class day, accompanied by Pete Verano on organ and David Skinner on guitar. They were great.
And on class day, I will never forget Johnny Lepito's imitation of Pulaski's physics teacher, Mr. Leiber, walking around the stage wearing a bow tie and a silly grin. Johnny, wherever you are, you missed your calling: you should have been on Saturday Night Live.
For all those Pulaski-ites who want to get together for the reunion or anniversary, please visit the website, https://sites.google.com/site/wearepulaskihigh/, and register.
It is scheduled to be held, no less, at Falcon Field in New Britain on September 8, 2012. Please don't bring your books; just lots of booze.
I hope Sue is going to sing "Heat Wave" again.
Incidentally, all the kids were great at Pulaski. And I loved every one of them, except that one obnoxious...LOL!
And the physics teacher's name was, I believe, Leiper, and not Leiber. Obviously he failed to make a memorable impression upon me. All I remember about him was that he roller skated and I learned absolutely zilch from him. When I took physics at UConn, I got an A and learned a lot about physics there, no thanks to Leiper, or Leper, or whatever the heck his name was.
"the bridge, the bridge" and he showed it to us a bunch of times. I remember going on a trip with the German club to Germany & Austria with Mr. MacNamera. It was a lot of fun, we went skiing & saw some sights. I hated girls P.E. The teacher was really mean.
It's remarkable that we have very similar memories of Pulaski High School. I, too, learned little, if anything, about physics from Ralph Leiper; however, when I attended the University of Connecticut and took physics, I learned enough to obtain an A in the course. I was fortunate to have Bill Eaton for gym. He was a great guy. I hate to confess but your gym teacher did look mean. I remember looking at the girls during gym period and seeing terrified faces ... LOL!