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SEPTEMBER 27, 2024
TO RESPOND WITH A COMMENT OF YOUR OWN, PLEASE CLICK ON WHSALUM63@AOL.COM.
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INVITE FROM THE WEEQUAHIC ALUMNI ASSOCIATION:
COME BACK TO WEEQUAHIC!
AND HAVE YOUR FRIENDS COME BACK TOO!
A CHANCE TO SEE YOUR OLD SCHOOL
GALA RECEPTION AT WEEQUAHIC ON SUNDAY AFTERNOON, OCTOBER 6th (2-5pm)
Catered by the famous downtown Newark deli, HOBBYS
We’ll honor the late Lt. Governor Sheila Oliver (6/70), the late Hal Braff (co-founder of the WHSAA), and all the other members of the WHS Hall of Distinction and have a mini-Tricky Tray.
Enter through Goldsmith Ave entrance. Parking is available at school parking lot on Goldsmith Ave across from the school.
TO ATTEND: Use the following link and cick on "Place Tribute/Reservation" and choose "Program Admission for $30.
2024 WHSAA HALL OF DISTINCTION WEBSITE
If you choose any of the other Tribute choices, you are also registered to attend the reception.
Tables for ten are available for $300. To reserve a table, contact Myra at weequahicalumni@gmail.com.
LOOKING FORWARD TO SEEING YOU!
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Lou Bassano (6/60) has an “It’s-a-small-Weequahic-world” sighting:
A number of years back, my wife and I were going to Aruba for a short vacation. Philip Roth’s book “Nemesis” had just come out. I usually do not read a lot of fiction, but I do read Roth because of the Weequahic connection. I had planned on reading the book while sitting on the beach in Aruba. As fate would have it, I left the book on a bench in the airport in Miami.
When we returned to Naples, FL after the vacation, I went to my favorite neighborhood Barnes and Noble to purchase a second copy. I walked up to the counter, where a woman asked if she could be of service. I told her I was looking for Philip Roth’s new book. The woman said, “follow me.” She started to walk with me behind her. Walking forward without turning around, she said to me, “He went to the same high school I went to”. I said to her, “Weequahic, Newark, New Jersey.”
She stopped, turned around and looked at me. And I said, “June 1960.” Needless to say, we had a nice conversation about our school and the old neighborhood. Her name was Phyllis and she graduated in 1962 or 1963. Unfortunately, I did not get her last name. But I did see her at Barnes and Noble numerous times after that and managed to have conversations about Weequahic and our times living in the City of Newark. Lou
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Weequahic Park once again remembered:
Esther Gordon (6/52)
Hey, Jack Lippman (50), yes, someone does remember the trotting track at Weequahic Park! And here's how. One weekend afternoon in the 1940s, during the intermission between races at Weequahic Park, a lone cowboy on a prancing white horse slowly cantered past the stands where my parents and I were sitting. He was waving his Stetson in greeting, and the loudspeaker boomed, "Ladies and Gentlemen, Tom Mix and Tony!" As a longtime fan, I squealed in delight. I don't recall how I knew Tom Mix's name. He was one of the first screen cowboy heroes. Maybe he was in my latent memory from movies I had witnessed as a baby when my mother had taken me along (she went on Tuesday afternoons, when the theaters gave away free dishes).
I just know that I always called every horse "Tony." Every pony on every pony ride I took became "Tony.” Even the little wooden horse on wheels, that spent nights hitched to my crib, was “Tony.” Then, one morning, when I had graduated to a cot, I opened my eyes and shrieked, "Tony growed up!" And truly. He was taller, and on rockers! And he had Tom Mix's picture painted on one flank!
| In those Depression days, what could he have cost my parents? All I know is that after not seeing him for many years, I lassoed him off eBay. Yes, about 20 years ago, I paid $340 plus postage. But now my beloved Tony is home again, standing hitched to my king-sized bed, right next to Little Tony, his wooden baby brother on wheels. Esther | |
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Some more on an “elementary” level:
Judy Mate Ellman (53)
I also went to Avon before going to the Annex and then to Weequahic. Also remember Dr. Gann. The students were very smart and the teachers were great. Judy
Elaine Hersh Krusch (50)
When I graduated from Chancellor in 1945, we had a play for an audience consisting mostly of parents. I auditioned for “Peace” and got the role. Marty Kastlebaum was “Father Time” and Stanley Lachman was “War.” That was a big step up from running around a circle in Kindergarten when we were running around as horses. Elaine
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Leslie Goldman Pumphrey (6/62)
Responding to Enid Kesselman Gort (57/58) about her mother, Rose Kesselman, who was my 2nd grade teacher at Maple. I adored her. She was an excellent teacher and also taught with her heart. I was already becoming less than confident about my abilities when she took me under her wing. Mrs. Kesselman told me many times that my hands (which didn't have the best handwriting) were fine, that I was fine. I actually began to believe her. She was the kind of teacher that made me want to succeed, and I never have forgotten her.
| Two quick stories about her; as a young kid, I never considered that a teacher would be anywhere other than in school. Maybe I never thought about the fact that teachers had a life. They simply were “there” every day when we got to our classrooms. So, I was completely shocked one day when my mom and I were shopping at Clem and Irv's Grocery Store, and who should be standing there but Mrs. Kesselman, shopping! I was totally shocked and for the first time I realized that maybe, just maybe she actually had a life. She was gracious as always | |
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Next story: Mrs. Kesselman loved Danny Kaye. I never knew if she had met him or knew him or simply liked his many talents. But she did talk about him in class. To show her how much this 7-year girl adored her, at the end of the school year I gave her my only copy (7 inch of course) of Danny Kaye's album of the movie Hans Christian Anderson, which I loved (and still do). She graciously accepted it and hugged me. I never forgot that hug.
So, Enid, please know just how much your mom helped me; she was an excellent teacher but also taught me to believe in myself! I will always remember her as one of my favorite teachers. Leslie
Eliot Braun (1/64)
I have a memory associated with my graduation from grammar school (Chancellor Avenue). The girl's mothers decided we had to have a special dinner at a place called the Chanticleer. I think it was actually a night club and what 14-year-olds were doing there escapes me. Anyway, we had some kind of dinner and when we left one of the students swiped a silver bowl filled with mints from the cashier's desk. Next day at school, we were all quizzed. Who took the bowl? If I knew, I don't remember. It was January 1960, I believe. Eliot
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Bringing up the W-past:
Jacqueline Kaufer Klein (66)
There were so many people who touched our lives as we grew up in the Weequahic section. As we have so often in these weekly chats remembered the great doctors who saved our lives and gave their time unsparingly to visit our homes at all hours to care for us, there were so many others who made our lives so beautiful and brought us culture and appreciation for art, music, and beauty.
Such a person was a well-known piano teacher in Newark, Halina Neuman, who taught me and many others to play piano in her little apartment on Goldsmith Avenue. She played a great role in my life and, though I was one of the worst students, she instilled in me an incredible love and appreciation for classical music.
Halina was a concert pianist in Poland and was in the Warsaw Ghetto. She stayed alive by playing for the SS officers at night, but by day was a member of the Resistance. She lost her husband and family in Auschwitz. Sent with her daughter to a Labor Camp, they eventually escaped to America and settled on Goldsmith Avenue.
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One of my more beloved memories of her was of my 16t birthday. Knowing I loved Chopin, she took me to the Mosque Theater to hear the great and legendary Artur Rubenstein play! He and his wife were close friends of Halina in Poland. She took me backstage to meet them and I actually got to softly shake the precious hand of Artur Rubenstein after he played my favorite Chopin Ballade as no-one else could ever play it. It was one of my most special moments.
Every Spring, we had our annual piano concert at the Lauter Music Hall downtown. It was a moment of terror playing my piece by heart! Along with another student, we were page turners for her at a concert she gave at the Newark Museum; it was a great honor. A play was made of her incredible life story. If you might be interested, or perhaps also studied with her (See -a video - Link to YouTube Video). I wish all of these amazing people were still here with us. Jacqueline
Mike Siegel (58)
One thing I really miss is Watson Bagels. I live in California. We had a place called Manhattan Bagels which was the closest to Watson, but they went out of business. If anyone knows a similar place in LA area, I would like to know. Write me at mikeyian22@aol.com. Mike
Alan Eisenberg (Hillside 60)
To Billy (Fruchter) Foster (60), as a long-time, youthful resident of Hillside and HHS graduate, I thought it was high time I dropped a note in your timely, memory-filled and most excellent publication to say: "Both of us are still alive and well with jump shots that have faded far into the past." How super sweet those moves were. Your "J" released from behind your head! Virtually unblockable! I can still see it launched in those halcyon days at Brookside only 70 (?) years ago. Such summers! The older we get, the better we were.
Dateline: Brookside, Union, NJ... Summer, 1956 (This just in…) "Al LoBalbo, Senior Athletic Director at BSC and Head Basketball Coach at St. Mary's High School, Elizabeth, NJ offers the Jewish Bill Fruchter, just 14 (I think), a full 4-year basketball scholarship to the very Catholic St. Mary's to team up with Jim Manhardt, a future All-State candidate and Seton Hall University star."
Bill, I am fairly certain I was "on the court" when this notable event happened between you and LoBalbo. However, I have always been a constant and vivid dreamer. So, I'm just not sure of the validity of this happening. If it didn't happen, it should have. You were so good and so tall and so young.
I hope the years have been kind to you. They have been for me. Alan
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The WHS NOTE is emailed to you by the WEEQUAHIC HIGH SCHOOL ALUMNI ASSOCIATION for the CLASS OF 1963 ASSOCIATION and editor, Jacob Toporek.
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