These were taken at Vernondale Elementary School, 1432 Wilkins Road, Erie, PA 16505, during summer vacation when the shool was closed. I got some good shots inside by putting the camera flush to the window. It's changed a lot of course since 1967 or so. My first principle, who scared the daylights out of me, Mr Luschen, died while I was still in grade school. He was a heavy smoker and in those days school teachers smoked in schools. He smoked right in his office. Imagine that. I looked for news of him, tried to get a picture, but came up empty. I understand he was a nice man.
Mr Luschen's nephew, John Luschen, was my classmate. John hung with a different crowd and I never got to know him. He took speech therapy classes once a week as I recall. His speech therapist looked like Michael Constantine from Room 222[1]. I never thought John's voice was odd. It was actually kind of endearing. His closest friends were Richard Clouser, John Tushak (sp?) and Steve Schloss. My dad worked with Mr Schloss, Steve's dad, and I was friends with Steve to some extent, but Steve was an athlete, and I was, well, not, and when you're a kid, that's everything. Someday I'd like to meet them again. Richard Clouser plagiarized one of my science reports in 6th Grade. Gary Locke, our science teacher, caught him and arranged a little public drama around it. (As a former educator, I'm not sure how I feel about that, but I'll bet Richard never plagiarized again.) I always felt sorry for him after that. He was not a bad kid.[1]
Be still my heart...
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