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01/28/08 - Email from Judy

I didn't get a chance to ask anyone if they remembered Drivers Ed? Was it just my imagination or did the car have a truck clutch in it so we could learn stick shift? And did Mr. ?????? (Merl Brightbill) sit on the right with a brake and a clutch and bang his fist on the side of the car like it was a cowboy hat and yell ride 'em cowboy as you bucked your way down the drive way to the library? It's probably just happenstance, but if you look at the in Memoriam page, five of those guys were in my Driver Ed. class.
Mr. Mygatt, please keep in mind that Tom Aveni was my almost very first boyfriend, I am not sure that I feel that is a topic for home room gossip. He is still just as sweet and kind as he was in 1956 thanks mostly to his wife Dorrie who appears to adore him now as I did then. I doubt seriously if he would look as handsome in a gorilla suit as he looked in his Tux at our prom. But if the whole idea of Fay Wray makes you happy I'm happy to provide a bit more fuel to the home room fire. Every time they show the roots of Rock and Roll on PBS or any channel they go on and on about Alan Freed and the Brooklyn Paramount. I always jump up, trip over my walker and scream I was there! I was there! But then I got to thinking that might not be true. After all I think I was at Woodstock and I wasn't. Maybe I just made up as I make up most of my life that Tom and I cut school and took the train and then a subway to Brooklyn one day. You were left in home room. He knew just how to do it. He had a wonderful older sister who shared everything with him. I think she must have told him how it was done. It was a movie and a rock and roll show. The show was what you wanted to see but in order to get into the orchestra you had to get a ticket to get in and watch the movie way up in the fifth balcony where there were seats. Then when the movie was over the people who were in the orchestra and had seen the show and then the movie were cleared out and you could, if you weren't too concerned for your safety, go like lemmings over a cliff running down five flights of stairs with so many people smooshed together your feet never touched the carpet. You know it might have been the Apollo Theater. Which ever it was so old and rickety that the balconey's swayed like hammocks when you stamped your feet or clapped. We saw Little Richard so close you could see him sweat. Oh it was glorious.
I think Tom had forgotten about it until I asked him at the reunion if we really did it. Yeah, he said we did that.
Also Jane asked me about a night when we had John Davidson's Jeep and we went out and smacked mail boxes with a baseball bat. Who else was in the Jeep? I remember about it as I was sitting on our couch a few hours later when the police came to the door asking if my Mom knew how our mail boxes got knocked over. No, I don't know nuthin.

Editor's footnotes

One of the most important popularizers of rock and
roll during the '50s, Alan Freed was the first disc
jockey and concert producer of rock and roll. Often
credited with coining the term rock and roll in 1951,
ostensibly to avoid the stigma attached to R&B and
so called race music, Freed opened the door to white
acceptance of black music, eschewing white cover
versions in favor of the R&B originals.

1956
The Brooklyn Paramount

Built in 1928, by the studio that bore its name, the
Brooklyn Paramount was a magnificent 4,124 seat
movie palace that closed in 1962, one year after
the horrific razing of the Roxy Theatre in Manhattan.

Now serving as a gymnasium for Long Island
University, the transformation is one of the strangest
in movie theater history. Although the old Paramount
has lost some of its original look, the building still
contains the original Wurlitzer organ.

The Wurlitzer, in fact, is still maintained and used for
the college's basketball games. Many argue that the
gymnasium's organ is the finest in the country, if not
the world.

	One of the most important popularizers of rock and roll during the '50s, Alan Freed was the first disc jockey and concert producer of rock and roll. Often credited with coining the term rock and roll in 1951, ostensibly to avoid the stigma attached to R&B and so called race music, Freed opened the door to white acceptance of black music, eschewing white cover versions in favor of the R&B originals.
1956 The Brooklyn Paramount
	Built in 1928, by the studio that bore its name, the Brooklyn Paramount was a magnificent 4,124 seat movie palace that closed in 1962, one year after the horrific razing of the Roxy Theatre in Manhattan. Now serving as a gymnasium for Long Island University, the transformation is one of the strangest in movie theater history. Although the old Paramount has lost some of its original look, the building still contains the original Wurlitzer organ. The Wurlitzer, in fact, is still maintained and used for the college's basketball games. Many argue that the gymnasium's organ is the finest in the country, if not the world.