What a group! Are they all 'history' now?

Historian types
Originally uploaded by Brite Lights photos.

SWCS, HUNT ROAD - Does anyone remember Alberta Ulmer getting out of that little Nash-Rambler two seater that she drove to work - often dropped off by her husband?

Wow.

If you didn't have her in class, she's in the back row about third from the left, right next to Mr. Dominie (sp?) on her left...

History teachers were quite a bunch, but the one who stands out the most for me was Harold Burgard, a madman who had all those mimeographed pages we had to memorize and take notes on.

"Sir Philip Sydney?" he would shout and some fool had to remember about the death of chivalry. If no one knew, Burgard would start to bellow, so loud it would scare teachers two classrooms away.

But damn if I didn't do great on the Regents test, probably my best score.

It was a Regents exam, wasn't it?

I remember sitting in Burgard's class during the Cuban Missile Crisis. He didn't mince words that it was likely we would all find out what the net effect of Strontium 90 might be on our reproductive systems.

Years later, after graduating from SWCS, I got to know him better over waaaaay too many beers at my cousin Gordy Puls' house. (Gordy was a math teacher and eventually moved to Ohio.)

He confessed that he was terrified during the crisis.

And the story about him coming to SWCS after breaking some kids jaw at Panama High School? I don't know if it was true or not, but when I asked him if it was, he got a beautiful smile on his face, as if he was remembering a night of sex with Raquel Welch. (Hey! She was young then, come on!)

The rest of the historical crowd, we can talk about at the reunion.