When Did Greg and I Meet?

When did Greg and I meet? I can't remember a specific time or incident. I believe we first became friends in the 4th grade when we both had Miss Aldrich for a teacher in 1962. We had to be aware of each other before that time. We both went to St. James Catholic Church in Westfield, and we both would have gone to catechism together on Mondays at the church. For that matter, we made our 1st Communion together in the second grade. We also both played little league baseball at the Fireman's Field under the viaduct and at the base of the wooded hillside below the Welch's plant. But although I can almost force my brain to conjure up images of Greg in those situations I can't remember any interaction with him. Even tracing my memories back to the 4th grade I can't come up with any specific event where Greg and I did anything together, but I do remember a few things about Greg that I know I became aware of during that 4th grade year: he liked baseball a lot; he was into Civil War history; and he liked to read.

In fifth grade we had different teachers. That was 1963. But in 1964 we were both in Mrs. Carr's class and from that point on we formed a friendship that has grown stronger and older with time.

Westfield Academy & Central School consisted of kindergarten through 12th grade, all in one building. There were roughly 90 to 100 students in each class, so there were about 1300 hundred students in the building at any one time. Mrs. Carr was in her last year of teaching. I think she was 65 years old and looking forward to retirement. She had a reputation as being a strict disciplinarian. She was especially known, as rumour had it, for cracking a ruler over the knuckles of your hand for misbehaving. Little did I realize as I started my 6th grade year that a small group of us in the class, including myself, would end up bringing Mrs. Carr to tears and totally destroying the myth that she was a strict disciplinarian. She never once attempted to hit any of us with a ruler, and I am not proud to say now that we might possibly have made her final year of teaching the most difficult year in her long and admirable career.

I won't use last names as Westfield is a small town and to this day there is a good chance that everyone in Westfield knows everyone else. But I will say that myself (Doug), Greg, and Bob, created a triumvirate that basically held court throughout our 6th grade year in Mrs. Carr's class. We did have two female co-conspirators, Sue and Donna, who, if not as openly contemptuous of authority as we were, certainly provided us with plenty of moral support and encouragement. Actually, we weren't really contemptuous of authority, but Mrs. Carr had such a formidable reputation that when we found out it was all built on a deck of cards we just couldn't help taking further advantage of her. It was just too much fun and we were unable to show any restraint once we realized we had the upper hand.

None of us had ever experienced a classroom where the students could rule before. This was Westfield, a small rural town in the farthest western reaches of New York state in 1964. I have always thought that Westfield in the 60’s was probably not much different than Westfield in the immediate post WWII years. It was off the beaten path, far from the suburban growth and culture that was happening in the country’s metropolitan areas where probably 85% of the nation’s population was then living. Change came slowly to a place like Westfield. It was still o.k. and standard for teachers to paddle students, crack a ruler on their knuckles, or smack them on the top of their head with their class ring. I know of these things "firsthand." And if you got disciplined at school, you were apt to get it even worse from your father when you got home, and your parents would find out if you had misbehaved at school. Westfield was small and “news” spread quickly.

I would not be fair to myself, or to Greg and Bob either, if I make it sound as though we were a bunch of bratty little piss ants who had no respect for our elders or our public school institution. And Mrs. Carr was an excellent teacher and a very warm and giving person. In her 6th grade class that year we were heading into adolescence as she was heading towards retirement. When we discovered that we had the ability to control her classroom on a fairly regular basis, it brought the three of us together in a series of year long adventures and episodes that cemented our friendship and a relationship that lasted through high school and continues to this day, some 40 years later. There were simply times when we "pushed the envelope" further than we should have due to the sheer exhiliration of escaping the tedium of another elementary class day by creating our own distraction that actually made school fun ... at least for us. It never occurred to me until now that there might have been serious students in that class who actually enjoyed recitations, written assignments, and listening to other students read lessons from the social studies text. Well, I hope it's not too late to apologize 43 years later. Sorry. (But I do remember some of you laughing at our antics, and that was our main goal. Laughter made the day go faster!)

So yes, I guess I could say that I really met Greg in 1964, in Mrs. Carr’s 6th grade classroom, and from that point on we revelled in the simple beauty, freedom, pleasure, and even excitement, of growing up in the village of Westfield, N.Y., in the 1960s. With its incredible cast of characters, and during a tumultuous period in our nation’s history, Greg and I started our journey towards adulthood in this small rural town which to this day serves as an anchor for our friendship and a sanctuary for so many wonderful memories that provided us with an incredibly positive start to our lives. And if you don’t believe me, read on, because you are about to find out what it was like to live your chilhood, adolescence, and teenage years in the “Grape Juice Capital” of the World ... Westfield, N.Y.!!!