Why did we write on our yearbook pictures?

Barbara Bunce - 1966
Originally uploaded by Brite Lights photos.

JAMESTOWN, N.Y. - I'm not sure what possessed us to write all over our own photos in the yearbook, I had to crop the heck out of Barbara Bunce's photo to post it here but she did leave most of her face in good stead.

Randy Carlson, on the other hand scribbled so much you can't see him at all. Randy's photo we will save for a later post.

I've been getting some great emails from people, with lots of memories. Barb Bunce's was great, and I was going to pull sections of it for the web page, but I note that she sent it out to the entire list, so I won't take up any bytes here again.

Barbara and I were in 5th grade together at Lakewood Elementary School, our teacher one Mr. Augustine Gugino, who had a bad ulcer and had to eat brown-bag lunches that were even more disgusting than what was served in the cafeteria. Sally Smith and Carol Wright were in that class, too. I remember clearly, because that was the year that the boys all started looking slightly different at the girls - and vice-versa.

There was also a fellow in that class named Douglas Brandow, who disappeared from our ranks about sophomore year. I heard that he ended up doing a stretch in prison, but I'm not sure.

I do remember - more vividly than I would like to - the day he showed up for P.E. without his gym clothes (about 9th grade) and was forced (as in wrestled to the floor) to wear a girl's gymsuit for gym class. He was also pushed through the door separating the gyms and made to have P.E. with the girls that morning.

Can you imagine that today? He would've ended up owning the school district from a lawsuit. And I would've testified in his behalf. Well, ok, maybe not then. But suppose that happened to one of your kids? Or grandkids?

Jaysus!

A much nicer story coming out of that same 5th grade era is about a fellow named Ted Capella, who left our 5th grade class and moved away. As a newly arrived-from-Brooklyn kid, I had a lot of sympathy for his emotional parting.

I believe he moved to California, leaving school one sunny day in the back of his parents' convertible, the top down, of course.

That was a class act, Ted, wherever you ended up.

TODAY'S CLASS OF '66 SONG: Tossin' and Turnin' by Bobby Lewis

I couldn't sleep at all last night,
just a thinkin' of you,
cause I was tossin' and turnin,'
turnin' and tossin' all night...