Penny Pitt (Scheer)

Penny Pitt (Scheer)
  • But wait - Margo Burhans was milking goats?  Is this true?  While she was milking her goat, Penny Pitt was at the other end of the character-building spectrum, slumped on her sofa eating potato chips, drinking Coke and watching American Bandstand. Nevertheless, a happy memory.
  • Since I lived "in town,” in fact my house was the present Library parking lot, I remember as a little girl wandering all over the place with the other kids in the neighborhood, notably Meg Ryder and John Carlson.  The Village Fountain was, even then, from a distant age past:  cool and dark inside, with penny candy in a huge glass case, those wax lips, dots, Mary Janes and chocolate babies.  Then on to the Ridge Pharmacy (later the Corner Cupboard) for a couple of comic books. The library, where I loved those orange biographies with captivating subtitles: Abe Lincoln: Log Cabin Boy.  Amelia Earhart: Daring Girl. The entire book was a mostly fictitious story of a heroic youth, until you got to the last two pages, not so interesting, and sped through the real accomplishments of this celebrated American.
  • When we were in Junior High we (if memory serves: Ellie Pinson, Pam Maida, Joan Wagner and I) would sneak up to the "balcony" of the library until we were chased back down for making too much noise.
  • Also: paper dolls, riding bikes, jumping rope, sledding at the Oak Street School, roller skating at the Maple Ave School playground (a death trap with that merry go round and the see-saw), ice skating on the Kiwanis Pond.
  • I remember 4th grade with Miss McCartney in the Methodist Church (the teachers turned the jump rope for us on the playground) and taking the bus for the first time to Cedar Hill School.  On that bus a girl terrorized me for weeks by saying I was going to hell because I was a Protestant! (I didn't dare tell my parents because I wanted to shield them from this devastating news.)
  • Of course I remember the Blue Streak in Miss McCartney's 5th grade and growing mold on oranges for science class and dodge ball on the playground and bombardment in the gym. (Also a no-no in this more enlightened time...)
  • Listening to the World Series on the radio in class, learning the box step, the waltz and the chachacha in 6th grade after school.
  • I loved our teachers at Oak Street School
    • Mr. Koza for math - a sweet guy ["People, you're wasting my time!" - Editor]
    • Mr. Meys, (patiently tried to explain the game of football to me to no avail)
    • Miss Nardone who taught us all the grammar we would ever need,
    • except for the sentence diagramming we learned from Mr. Whitaker.
  • We heard the launch of the first manned satellite in Mr. Moody's "General Language" class.
  • We really did have some excellent teachers, and that's one of my great memories of High School as well.
  • And yes, Meg and I did have our characters built against our will by walking to RHS every day, rain, shine or snow, unless we were picked up on the way by Eleanor Hull the English teacher/Guidance counselor.  As a teacher to this day I know never to let a student in my car: too risky! Insurance won't cover you!
  • We truly were blessed growing up in an era when high school kids, as I remember things, didn't stress over the college admission process.  Am I making this up?  We dutifully showed up at the High School on a Saturday morning with our two #2 pencils and took the SAT test cold, no prep class.  Then we selected three colleges from a book in the Guidance Office and filled in a two-page application (plus essay) for each school and that was it. The bill, tuition plus room and board, was reasonable and nobody was saddled with debt for years to come.  Impossible to believe today.
  • Aside from the fire drills and polio shots and those air raid sirens, the world seemed safe.  And yet, no helmets, mouth guards, shin guards or seatbelts!  No adults watching every move! Roaming the streets unattended, especially on Halloween! And plenty of sugared cereal and mind numbing TV.  I'll never figure out why I was such a skinny kid, except that we were forced to play outdoors every day.
  • It was a good way to grow up... I look forward to our 50th Reunion, class of 1965.
      (Gotta run --- off right now for a face-lift...)