The “Best” of Memories

The “Best” of Memories by Robert Binder

(Written for the 1966 6^th grade class of Paul L. Best Elementary School and others)

The last time I saw a number of you, was at my Bar Mitzvah in November of 1967. We were already in 8^th grade and my parents had moved us to a larger house on the other side of Oak Park. I guess they needed a larger house when my youngest brother showed up after no children for nine years. The 2 bedroom, den and one bathroom on Ithaca had gotten to small that August 1965 and it took my mother about 2 years to convince my father that we needed to move. I commuted to Lincoln Jr. High School the last few months of 7^th grade before starting 8^th grade at Clinton Jr. High School in the Oak Park School District. This story however is about the “Best” memories that I have of attending the “best” school and living in that area of Oak Park.

I remember…. (just in order of remembering, not importance, )

Hot dog luncheons, (hotdog, celery, carrots, milk and that Twinkie), oh wasn’t it great that we could eat at school one day. Did we really go home for lunch the others days?

The paper drives to raise money so that we would be able to go to camp with the class.

The annual fair, playing ring toss to win a cane. You tried to win as many canes as possible. The time I asked a girl to go with me, for which I saved my allowance to buy her something.

Walking a girl home from school, carrying her books.

All those cute little girls, who were probably taller than I was.

Being a safety, that white strap sure made you feel more important.

Cub Scouts, a number of local kids were, we had meetings at homes and some at the school.

6^th grade (or 5^th) that my brother gave me chicken pox and I could not go to the overnight camp.

Carrying a pocket knife to school.

Carrying a brush (or comb) to brush my hair in my back pocket. I had a great brush with a curved end that I used to comb my hair back when we combed it back and then to the side when that was the style. No need for that anymore.

Puske’s (sp) store that you either rode your bike to or walked to for the penny candy, oh, the flavored bubble gum, the jaw breakers, the wax lips, mustaches, fingers, the candy cigarettes, the small wax bottles filled with sugar water…

The small streets around Puske’s.

Marching in the Best School band for the Memorial Day parade, down Livernois?

Box hockey.

Summer recreation at the school.

Winning 3^rd place in the 50 yard dash, not that that was that great, but it meant that there were only 2 faster than me.

Breaking my front tooth playing basketball in gym on the playground in 6^th grade.

The PA announcements and the one that we wish we never heard on November 22, 1963 about President Kennedy and that walk home that day.

Those long summers that never seemed to end, staying out as late as you could, playing hide and seek, riding a skate board with metal wheels, only to go home when it turned dark or your mother screamed down the block for you to come home.

Those winters when you got snowed in and did not have to go to school, ice skating on the street or in your back yard.

The streets by my house going away from the school: Rosewood, Ithaca(my street), Majestic, Manistee, Oneida, Seneca, Rennselaer, Geneva, and Scotia.

Knowing who lived in every house on the block on my side of Northfield.

The Ithaca kids from our class, Linda Lublin, Cindy Segal, Marla Applebaum, Neal Golden, Bruce Lowen and Rene Kaplan. There could have been more.

A few notes about the writer of these memories. As I stated before, we moved to the other side of Oak Park when I was in eighth grade. I graduated from Oak Park High School, Michigan State University and then California College of Podiatric Medicine in San Francisco, California. I came back to Michigan in 1979 -1980 and lived in the city of Riverview, downriver, where I did my surgical training. I left in 1980 because of the unemployment (recession?) that was happening in Michigan at the time. I moved back to California, this time southern California and lived in Van Nuys, Northridge and ended up in Oak Park, California. My wife, Arlene, who I met when she was in 8^th grade and I in 10^th were graduates from Oak Park High School, as are our two sons, Matthew (24) and Seth(22), only they graduated Oak Park High School in California. They both graduated college recently. Matthew, a computer information systems major is seeking employment. Seth, a history major, is currently playing professional baseball in Israel. Our hope is that their lives in Oak Park gave our sons the “best” of memories.

(This was written after I heard that the Paul L. Best Elementary school class of 1966 was having a reunion. I later found out that it was on the same weekend as the Ferndale High School Class of 1972. That's 35 years out of high school. It would have been great to see my classmates. Oak Park is not having their next reunion until 4o or 5o years..... ouch. I thank the organizers for letting me relive the memories.)