Rant #1,896: Freeze Frame

I love pictures, in particular, I love pictures that show a different time and place.

And if I am part of the picture, then it makes it even better, because it brings me back to an earlier time in my life.

Now that I have reached the 60-year mark, these types of photos are even more important to me.

The other day, my old friend David P. from my old neighborhood--Rochdale Village, South Jamaica, Queens, New York--sent me over a photo that is a true relic from the past.

I have posted various versions of this photo to this blog site in the past, but never with the clarity of the photo that he sent me.

It is such a good, clear photo that it looks like it was taken just yesterday.

But, of course, it wasn't. It was taken some time in 1965, and we were both eight years old when this old class photo was shot.

It was the 1964-1965 school year, my first school year spent at P.S. 30, a new school in the then new development that we lived in.

Everything was new, and heck, we were kind of new, too.

When my family and I moved into Rochdale Village in July 1964, the place was so new that David's building wasn't even up yet.

The frame was up, but nothing else, but within seemingly days, his building--Building 12 to my Building 9--had gone from the frame to a full building, a place that hundreds of families could call home.

We all played ball in the park, and that is how I met David, and probably, how I met all my friends in this brand new place that we lived in.

This particular photo really shows us in a different time and place, when we were truly kids--and kids were truly kids, too.

We did everything that kids do, and some of those things were good, some of those things were stupid, and some of those things were bad.

But we were learning as we were doing, and the fruit of that learning has been shown as we matured into responsible adults.

David is a doctor, I am a writer, and although we have both had our ups and downs, I think that in 2017--52 years after this photo was taken--we are satisfied at where we are in life.

Looking at the photo, I tried to figure out who exactly was in the picture, and some of the people I remember, some I don't.

First off, that is Miss Marlowe, our teacher.

I don't remember that much about her. She was young, tall, willowy and eager to teach us.

The class--and the new school, P.S. 30--was in a bit of flux at the time, and it must have been difficult for her to keep everything on an even keel.

P.S. 30 was a new building, and we had just moved into it from portable classrooms that dotted our new landscape.

I remember that we had kids coming into the class and kids going out of the class at a rapid rate. Heck, we even had two twins--Larry and Eric--in the class at the same time for a spell, but they were both dispatched to other classes as the different classes took shape.

But what you see in the photo is the basic class that we had, those that stayed in the class probably for the bulk of the year.

And as for Miss Marlowe, I don't think she lasted very long in the school, as I don't remember her teaching there after she had us. I am probably wrong, but today, if she is still with us, she is probably in her late 70s or early 80s, and I hope she is doing well.

In the back row, from left after Miss Marlowe, I remember a few of the kids--there is Lori, I forget the next kid, then Hedy, then David P., and then the next four kids I simply don't remember.

The kid on the far right, though, made an impression on me, because he had a knot in the back of his head where you could fit a dime. And yes, he showed us this trait on a regular basis, and that is the only reason anyone knew about it.

Then you had in the next row down, Andrea, and then Rhonda, and the next six girls look familiar, but I cannot place them at this time.

The next row down consisted of, well again, the first two on the left I can't remember, but after that, it was Vicki, Stephen, I don't remember, Eric, I don't remember, and Howie, my good friend who I still see from time to time.

And finally, the bottom row, is me, Yale--who died very early in life from an intestinal malady, I do believe--and then I think the last kid was another David that we had in the class.

If anyone can fill me in on the other kids, I would appreciate it.

But that is what I remember right now.

How the years have gone. They have truly gone by so quickly that while much of it is a blur, I remember enough so that I can use those years as reference points for my life after Rochdale Village leading up to today.

Those were truly fun years, and I will never forget them.

Let me thank David P. for sending me the photo.

It truly made my day.