A condensed history of Ed Thomas, class of 1961, after being a student at Division Avenue High School

By ED THOMAS

Class of 1961

A friend once asked me to pick one word to describe myself. I thought for a few seconds, and said “Lucky”. Every time I have needed something to happen in my life, something good happened.

1961 - Went off to Dartmouth. Freshman year was a disaster. I was hurt (concussion and retina) and couldn’t play football anymore. Also found that I couldn’t do calculus so I wasn’t going to be an engineer. My chronic depression appeared at this time. I was the right age for it and displayed classic symptoms. I would not be diagnosed, sort of, for not quite 20 years.

1961-65 - Muddled my way through school until I was asked to “take some time off” in the middle of senior year.

1965 - Enlisted in the Army. Went to Vietnam May 1967 and returned home July 4, 1968. In retrospect, this was the best year of my life. My daughters have asked me to write about it because they’ve heard bits and pieces over the years.

September 1968 - Took my messed up head (I had nightmares until February or March of 1969) back to Dartmouth to finish up. Biggest surprise was making Dean’s List after my less than brilliant earlier performance. Thought about going to grad school for Urban Planning but opted to take a job as a programmer with the Bank of Boston in April 1969.

Drank a lot. Started sailing in 1970 – made possible by the development of sunscreen which allowed me to do things outside. I have always burned easily which you may or may not have been aware of.

Summer 1971 met Carol Frost. Engaged in May 1972 with the agreement that I would do the laundry and we would buy a boat before a house. (I just fold the laundry now and we still have a boat so we have a sort of win/win/win /win here.

Married in January 1973. Bought our first boat, a Pearson 26, named Chantecleer in Jan 1974 and sailed it to South Freeport, Maine where we based it for four seasons.

Working, both of us, at Bank of Boston, and living in small town, Norwell, south of Boston. Sold the boat in September 1977. First child, Kerri, born in January 1978.

1978-79 - I went to an office automation conference in Chicago, I think, and had a few beers with the guy who invented the mouse!

1979 - Depression finally diagnosed when I went to see a shrink because I was thinking about suicide. Diagnosis was “asymmetric bi-polar”. I didn’t get manic, just depressed. I thought it was depression, but what did I know? I was a geography major.

1980 - Changed jobs, went to Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC).

1981 - A few weeks after hostages came home from Iran all the guilt and anger from Vietnam came out one afternoon on the way home from work. I was carpooling with two women from my group that day. I just started crying. They stayed with me for a couple hours until I was able to drive home. I got hooked up with a Vets counseling group that met at our DEC facility. It took about two years, but that group saved my life.

October 1983 - Daughter Lindsay born. Still in Norwell, in our second house.

1983-1988 - DEC and Norwell. Played bridge, badly, at Newcomers and taught Sunday school at the Unitarian Church in Norwell.

1987 - Bought our third house in Norwell, an antique farmhouse that appeared on a map of the town from the 1760s. We bought it from the folks who had done all the renovations/modernizations.

1988 - Left DEC to go back to school to get my Massachusetts Teaching Certificate in Elementary Education. Mr. Mom during the day. Went to school at night.

May 1989 - I’m a teacher, no job but got my certificate. October - Talking to local school district about a position as a permanent sub. October - Carol’s recruited by Nationwide Bank in San Francisco

1990 - We’re off to California. Lived in a village named Alamo which is near Walnut Creek which is just east of Oakland. I become a full-time Mr. Mom because California didn’t recognize my Massachusetts certificate. AAARRRGGGHHH. My PTA buds find out I’m a techy and recruit me to open the computer lab at Lindsay’s elementary school. Recruited to run lab at a bigger school two years later. I’m having a ball.

1992 - I have to change shrinks because mine’s leaving the area. I find this new guy in Berkeley. I’m telling him my history and he says, “Sounds to me like you have depression. How ‘bout I put you on an antidepressant”. Three weeks later Carol says to me “The new meds seem to be working. You actually seem happy.” Seratonin reuptake inhibitors do the trick for me.

1997 - Carol’s recruited by Citizen’s Bank in Rhode Island. We move to historic district in Wickford Village in town of North Kingstown. Buy and renovate a 1888 Victorian.

1999 - Buy a Cal 29 sailboat. We sail locally, Naragansett Bay and cruise to Nantucket, Martha’s Vineyard, Block Island, Montauk and eastern Connecticut.

2005 - Sold the Cal and got a Hunter 36 which ain't as pretty as the Cal but is a whole lot roomier.

Present - We’re both retired. Carol’s started re-learning to play the piano. We’ll spend our time this summer at the lake in Denville, New Jersey (near Morristown) and on the boat in Maine.

THANK YOU TO THE NEARLY 100 PEOPLE WHO WISHED ME A HAPPY BIRTHDAY ON FACEBOOK. BUT WHO'S COUNTING?

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The first Division Avenue High School yearbook was distributed 52 years ago

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"No wise man ever wished to be younger."

- Jonathan Swift

By FRANK BARNING

June 9, 1960 was a memorable day for me. It was my 18th birthday, so by law I could now be a patron of my favorite bars. Almost magically I was legal at the North Village Green bowling alley's (Bowlder Lounge) and the watering holes on Hempstead Turnpike near Hofstra College. Three months later, my freshman year at Hofstra began.

June 9, 1960 also stands out because it is inscribed in fountain pen on one of the first pages of my copy of Perspectum, the first ever Division Avenue High School yearbook. That day, yearbooks were distributed and there was much excitement in the halls of our school.

Dewain Lanfear was the editor-in-chief and I was co-sports editor with John General. Many of us on the staff had been involved in the planning of the yearbook, which was extensive because there wasn't a previous volume to use as a guide nor something upon which to improve.

Fifty-two years later, one of my favorite features of the "Pioneer" yearbook were the two pages for autographs. We did not request fellow seniors to sign here. Instead, we asked 1960 classmates to put an inscription next to their senior photos and looking at those in my copy sort of gives me an idea that people thought I might become a sports writer or announcer.

I filled up the first of the two "Autographs" pages with 43 signatures. Page two has only two. Most had great penmanship. After all these years, I am still in touch with several, mostly through Facebook. Many are on my "Early Levittown and Beyond" blog mailing list. Sadly, at least three are deceased. Many of the 43 are fresh in my mind, yet some I hardly knew.

So Happy Birthday to the first Division Avenue High School yearbook, a gift that keeps on giving. And thank you to those signees who are still in touch more than a half century later.

A MARINE VETERAN RETURNS TO VIETNAM, 42-YEARS LATER

By HOWARD WHIDDEN

Class of 1962

I had enlisted in the Marines in 1967 and thanks to Mrs. Miranda’s adept teaching at Division Avenue High School, scored very highly on the Army Language Aptitude Test during my first days on Parris Island.

After basic training I was sent to the Defense Language Institute in Washington, DC for a 32-week course in Vietnamese. Eight hours per day, five days a week we intensively learned not only the language, but also the history, culture and customs of the people. The old joke about ‘military intelligence’ being an oxymoron seemed to be true since I went to Camp Pendleton in California where I sat for a year before finally receiving orders for Vietnam with less than a year left in my enlistment.

I arrived in DaNang and was assigned to the 26th Marines guarding Dai La Pass, and participated in four combat operations, almost getting medivacked after contracting jungle rot in both feet. I was then put on TAD to the Army, lived in the old, French-built DaNang Hotel and worked at the interrogation center attached to the POW camp out by Marble Mountain. In January of 1970 I received an ‘early out’ to pick up the spring semester and was happily returned home.

Recently a former student from the class of ’80 who became a software engineer got in touch with me. He said he remembered the slides of Vietnam I had shown in class and as one of his most influential teachers, invited me to return to Vietnam with him as his fully paid guest for two weeks serving as his interpreter. Truly, it turned out to be a trip of a lifetime.

We began our journey in Hanoi, a place I fortunately had not visited during the war. We did the typical tourist sites, such as the 1,000-year old Confucian Temple of Learning, the National Museum and the French-built Opera House, but skipped the museum to Ho Chi Minh and his imposing Mausoleum.

Of particular interest to us was Hoa Lo prison where John McCain and other American flyers had been incarcerated, and we did see one room devoted to them, but most of the prison had been torn down, with the remnants primarily devoted to the Vietnamese nationalists who, fighting against French colonialism were executed there. From Hanoi we tooktwo day trips, one to Ha Long Bay, a truly magnificent ‘World Heritage Site’ where we sailed among hundreds of limestone islands, and another to Chua Huong, an ancient, holy complex of Buddhist temples.

The second leg of our journey was to DaNang, the city in central Vietnam where I had been stationed. Gone, obviously, was the POW camp, but Marble Mountain was still there, as was Monkey Mountain, north of China Beach and directly across the river from the city. So much had changed that I recognized very little of the city proper, but the change was very much for the better. There are now large, modern bridges crossing the river, many tall buildings in the city, and a six-mile long tunnel has been carved through the mountain above Hai Van Pass on the way north to Phu Bai and Hue.

We again took two day trips, one to the old imperial capital in the city of Hue, and another to Hoi An, another World Heritage Site where tailors are everywhere and you can have suits, dresses, shirts, blouses, and even shoes custom made for you in a matter of hours and at extremely reasonable prices.

A little beyond Hoi An is My Son, where we explored the remains of a temple complex created by the Cham people, the original inhabitants of the area who were pushed out by the Vietnamese. Before leaving DaNang we visited Monkey

Mountain to find Chua Linh Ung, a gorgeous temple overlooking China Beach where they have just completed the construction of a 250-foot high, gleaming white statue of the Lord Buddha’s female incarnation.

Final stop, Saigon! Yes, the older generation still calls it Saigon, while the youngsters refer to it by its new name, Ho Chi Minh City. We stayed in the Park Hyatt Saigon, centrally located by another old French Opera House, the former Presidential Palace of South Vietnam and Notre Dame Cathedral. Also nearby were the old US embassy, now our consulate, the magnificent post office designed by Gustave Eiffel, the complex containing the museum, zoo and botanical gardens, and the historic Caravel and Rex Hotels. Saigon is now a city of nine million people with many tall buildings, but the old French influence is still there, with wide boulevards and horrendous traffic, most of it motor bikes.

I would highly recommend visiting Vietnam, where you will find people who are extremely friendly, and an absolutely delicious cuisine influenced by India, China and France. Bottled water is everywhere, and the dollar goes very far. They use an inflated currency (a meal eaten while sitting on a tiny plastic stool at one of their thousands of sidewalk ‘cafes’ will cost you all of 20,000 dong, or $1), but taxis are metered and haggling over the price of tourist items is expected. Western brand name goods, however, are very expensive. The general rule of conversion is to drop four zeros and divide by two, so a pair of Diesel jeans will cost 6,000,000 dong, or $300!

Be adventuresome with the food! Their national dish, pho (pronounced fuh) is eaten anytime of the day, but especially for breakfast and lunch. It is a delicious soup containing rice noodles in a beef, chicken or shrimp stock, with fresh vegetables such as mung beans, basil and cilantro added as you eat.

Thanks for the memories.

Coach Jimmie Amen left a wonderful legacy at Division Avenue High School

1956-57 freshman basketball team. Coach Amen is between Nos. 8 and 13, while Dewain Lanfear is No. 7.

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By DEWAIN LANFEAR

Class of 1960 and DAHS teacher

My first real experience with Mr. Amen was freshman basketball in 1956. That team, 9-1, was the highlight of DAHS basketball for several years. He was a terrific coach and teacher. Whenever I watch a game on TV I see it through his eyes and how he taught the game. He taught us to understand the game. His overly enthusiastic "pats on the back" were well known.

I had the pleasure of teaching at Division while Jimmie was still there, and learning to address him that way and calling Mr. Jewell "Jerry" were tough steps to take. Anyway, Jimmie was an entertaining person to be around in the faculty room. He and the other coaches ate together at the "jock table" and pretty much dominated conversation. Lots of jokes and personal jabs - not a place for the thin skinned. These were definitely the days before PC was the rule.

They would collect ice cream slips from teachers who didn't want them and wind up with three or four desserts apiece. New teachers were always welcome at their table, especially if they were female and under 60. In the days before enlightenment, any birth in the faculty was required to be celebrated with cigars, and these guys would turn the air in that lunchroom blue with smoke.

Jimmie was well known for his general impatience. Famous quote was "I got things to do". We played in the teachers' golf league together; par for Jimmie was measured in minutes and hours the round took, not strokes. He rarely sat still and contemplation was not a familiar state for him.

During the teachers' strike in the late 1970s, I was walking the line with him one day and we took a break and were sitting on the curb in back of the shops. He was kind of down that day and said "Here I am after all these years coaching and teaching and I wind up here, sitting on the curb, eating peanuts." I recall feeling so bad then because the strike was so nasty and he was such a good dedicated man. He retired soon after that. His son followed him to DAHS years later and showed many of the same strengths and idiosyncrasies as his Dad.

Jimmie Amen left a wonderful legacy at Division Avenue and we are better for having known him

Some photos recently added to Frank Barning's Levittown collection

Kathy, Kendall and Perry Berns (1960) at Kendall's May graduation from the University of Texas at Austin.

Ken Plass (1960) with his wife Sandy and two of his seven grandchildren on a recent cruise to Alaska.

Brian Williams, class of 1963, plays the upright bass. He is a graduate of St. Lawrence University and lives in Ionia, NY.

1965 DAHS yearbook photo of Mr. Lawrence Lasker, beloved teacher and administrator.
World traveller Annajoy Herman Romdalvik (1960) on a recent visit to the Isle of Wight.

A tastefully expanded Levitt house which still resembles the original

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By MARILYN MONSRUD FRESE

Class of 1963

Here are some pictures of my little piece of heaven in Levittown. From the front there is no expansion evident, looks like the basic ranch with garage and small dormer window.

All extension was done to the back, leaving us with a bright airy room with a view out back that feels like an extension of the house. This is all that we needed, just to open up the living area and a smaller room off to the side as a place for the toys and another TV for the grandkids to call their own.

Levitt really made his homes extension-friendly, one smart man! And our builder and contractor told us that the Levitts are one of the best constructed homes on Long Island!