 Joan Wagner (Weller) |
- I arrived in Basking Ridge in May, 1956 . Although I lived on Rocky Lane, for some reason I was sent to Maple Ave and not Liberty Corner School. I became friends with Penny in Miss Schmeltzer's class, and thus began our lifelong friendship.
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- 4th grade it was off to Millington Baptist Church where I made friends with the Homestead Village gang (Linda, Kenny, Peggy, Steve, Greg, Jackie and Barbara). What a fun year and Mrs. Hedden was the nicest, sweetest teacher. Lots of double Dutch jump rope at recess, squeaking out tunes on the flutophone and throwing water on the boys from the top of the steps that led to our classroom. Good times!
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- Cedar Hill - 5-6th . A brand new modern school that had a "cafetorium", and a huge gym where we played many hours of dodge ball and bombardment (McCartney's Men Mowers ruled
 ). Outside recess we played lots of kickball and softball. Remember after school dance lessons and learning how to do the box step and the cha-cha? To start off the school day, I remember having to read from the Bible (most kids picked Psalms) and leading the Pledge of Allegiance. We did endless reports on countries (thank goodness for The World Book), flour and salt maps, shoe box dioramas, planets from balloons and paper mâché, and book reports Handwritten and in Cursive.
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- Oak Street - 7-8th. Junior High- those gawky, teenage years when you were trying to find your way, fit in, and wear the right clothes. There was a lot more homework and it seemed like we took endless notes. The highlight of every day was when we had the 10:30 AM chocolate milk break. I remember making those awful looking skirts with plackets in Home Ec. and I was incensed at not being allowed to take Shop (but Mr. Houtz nicely allowed a couple of us girls to hang out there before school). I had a crush on that cute, young Social Studies teacher (Mr. Meys), passed many notes in Miss Nardone's English class, and had lots of laughs in Mr. Moody's General Language class. And, how many of you went to The Snow Queen Dance (February 1959)?
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- Ridge High - 9-12th First class to attend all 4 years. I hated the horrible green gym uniforms and the communal showers after gym class. Gymnastics was fun and I loved bouncing and flipping on the trampoline. One of my favorite outfits was a mohair sweater, a kilt, and knee socks. Skirt length was a big issue, and I took many trips to the Guidance Office, where Mrs. Hull conducted her skirt length check (you had to kneel down and the skirt had to touch the floor).
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- And I will never forget learning to use a stick shift in Driver's Ed and rolling backward trying to make it up the hill and over the railroad tracks on Lake Rd. (Kenny Wark and 2 other guys in the back seat were laughing their heads off).
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- I was really bummed because we had no senior class trip to Bear Mountain, because the year before someone took off and hid in a laundromat? So to appease us, the administration designated "senior steps" for us to hang out on, I think. Maybe it's an urban myth!
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50 years since graduation-say it ain't so! Hope we have a great turnout at the reunion so we can catch up and talk about pressing issues like knee replacements and Medicare.
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