January 2009 Archives

Angela, Christina, Rob

I'm guessing that's David's hands playing goalie for Christina. I remember that green shirt. Was one of my faves. Christmas 1974, I think.

I do not have the picture I referred to a few days ago. I went through the box completely and methodically this afternoon. Someone else has it or it's lost forever. Found these, though. There is four of each here.

Doots

Still searching my photo box for the one of me holding my infant twin sisters. Haven't found it yet but I did run across a few tidbits I thought were interesting and I'll be posting them in the coming days and weeks.

Anyone remember Wilson's? They were a department store that also had decent jewelry. They were later bought out by Service Merchandise but I liked Wilson's a lot more. We bought some rather plain gold wedding bands there because that was all we could afford. My canceled check is below. Mine was $200 and hers was $180. We still love them. Neither of us are all that big on jewelry. I don't wear watches, chains, or rings. Patsy only wears her wedding ring and her mother's engagement ring.

I think I like this ID picture best now.

In 1974-75, you needed 22 credits to graduate. After junior year, I had 18. If I took the full six classes in the first semester, I only had to take two classes in the second semester to get to 22. I wasn't opposed to getting more credits if there was a class I was interested in. I would have taken another computer science class in a heartbeat. That was my favorite. Computers were different animals then. Ours was located off campus in a room probably bigger than my house. Don't remember how we were connected. You would work on your program for a while and then save it to a yellow tape. When you wanted to use it again, you would feed the yellow tape back into the computer and then go back and correct all of the errors because the tape feed was horribly unreliable. Fun times.

I went off-campus to a fancy studio uptown for my senior picture. We were told that the photographer will be able to clean up all of our blemishes but won't be able to do anything about our hair. I had my share of acne as a teenager but there were guys who had it much worse than me. All of the seniors have smooth skin in our pictures this year. The studio provided the tux. It was filthy and it stunk. The shirt had brown stains on it that I didn't even want to think about and I don't think I can adequately describe the stench emanating from the jacket. I don't know how many guys had worn mine since it was last cleaned but it had to be a couple of hundred. I don't remember how many pictures he took but I couldn't wait to get out of that thing.

And, finally, that plan to just take two classes for my final semester in high school was realized. I would get out of school at 10:10AM after trigonometry class and head home. First period was PE. Life was grand ... for about a week. I did not have a driver's license yet. Typically, I would take the streetcar to the end of the line, transfer to a bus that would take me to another bus stop, and then catch another bus home. The streetcar and the first bus were Orleans Parish. The last bus was Jefferson Parish. The Orleans Parish transit workers went on strike about mid-January that year. No streetcar, no second bus. I would have to walk. It was five miles to the Jefferson Parish bus stop. The transit workers were on strike for several months. Put a lot of miles on my shoes and my now-deteriorating knees that semester. The caption on the photo to the left is "Senior Robert Ferrara going home". Couldn't get it in the scan. I remember that kid taking the picture but, at the time, I didn't know it was of me. He had to be a freshman or sophomore.

Him: Sir?
Me: Kept going because nobody addresses me that way.
Him again: SIR?
Me: Who? Me?
Him: Yes sir. I'm taking pictures for the yearbook. Can I use yours?
Me: Sure.

When I was a freshman, one of the seniors had to take freshman physical science again in order to graduate. He was not only a senior. He was a star football player, who later played at Tulane, and is now an NOPD detective. We would break into groups of four to do experiments and he was in my group. We were in total awe of him. That kid photographer made my day. I don't give a rat's a$$ about the "sir" part but the reverence and respect he showed to an upperclassman, who was NOT a star football player, well, I hope he's doing well in life.

This ID picture used to be my favorite from high school. Looking at it today, I'm not as pleased with it. When I was taken to shop for school clothes for my junior year, I was disappointed that the cuffed bell bottom pants from the previous year were not in the stores any more. My junior year was marked by the trouble I was in. My grades were OK as I recall. No, the trouble was that I smoked. Got caught smoking in the bathroom once and got caught returning to campus during the school day after smoking a cigarette. It was against the rules for us to smoke on campus and it was also against the rules to leave campus during the school day. De La Salle's campus extended for a two-block radius. Don't remember if I got caught on campus first and left campus the second time or got caught off campus the first time and took my chances on campus the second time.

I was in trouble at least one more time but I don't remember why. For punishment, the Christian Brothers, particularly the disciplinarian, liked to make us memorize and recite poetry. My first detention saw me recite Abou Ben Adhem. It remains my favorite poem. I look it up occasionally because I can't recite it any more. The thing about reciting poetry to Brother Justin was you couldn't skip a word or mix the words up because he knew the poems cold. If you messed up, you sat down and went over it for a few minutes until he was ready to hear you again. They got progressively worse if you had to see him again. The next one was Jabberwocky, which gave me fits. I couldn't stand it. It's Patsy's favorite and she CAN recite it. I can't put two words of that monstrosity together. The last was The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. Yeah, he was tired of seeing me. Despite its length, this one was easier for me to recite than Jabberwocky. This was all first semester nonsense. I straightened myself out.

Just an aside: Brother Justin is the only person I remember showing the picture of me holding my twin baby sisters. "They're beautiful. They look just like you with their brown hair and wide open brown eyes."

If you've ever seen That 70s Show, you'll see Topher Grace and Ashton Kutcher wearing bell-bottom slacks with cuffs. That was a short-lived fashion style and, for me, that was this year. You can have the rest of the 70s fashion, particularly the long-sleeved, all polyester shirts, but I LIKED those pants. The student ID picture was taken on the first day of school. On that first day of school, Mom asked me if it was different being a sophomore. I remember saying it beats being a freshman. I don't know why I didn't keep my freshman ID. All of the rest are taped into their respective yearbooks. We were the De La Salle Cavaliers. This ID was good for admission to any school activity.

I'm not sure when the yearbook pictures were taken. Once again, I apologize for the graininess. It looks like the hair is starting to get away from me here so I'm guessing the weather was still hot and humid but that's not much of an indicator in New Orleans. I think it was taken on campus, though. I remember going off campus for my senior picture but no other. The rule on hair was that it couldn't touch your collar. 99% of the student body was borderline on that rule. We all wanted to wear longer hair. Looking back at this frizzy, unmanageable mess, I have no idea why I wanted more of it.

No, not the fine 1990 film starring Marlin Brando, Matthew Broderick, Bruno Kirby, and Penelope Ann Miller. No, this one is me from 1971 or 1972. This is my freshman yearbook picture from De La Salle High School in New Orleans. Sorry about the graininess. Do I look like I could pass for a cop or any adult for that matter? Three of my classmates from Our Lady of Perpetual Help Grammar School chose De La Salle. One of them, Eric Renz, ended up having the exact same 7 classes as me and the other, James Stevens, had five with us. Mom would drop me off at Lee's Circle in the Central Business District and I'd catch the streetcar to school. It was 43 city blocks. I don't remember much about freshman year but I do remember initiation week. On Monday through Thursday, the freshmen had to wear a beanie and had to do pretty much whatever the seniors told them to do from 7AM until 4PM if I remember correctly. It could be carrying books, singing the fight song, doing leap frog with other freshman, etc. Mostly tame stuff. That brings me to the next photo.

The Line - De La Salle High School - 1971

On Friday, we had to walk the line. The line was a roped-off gauntlet. The seniors would line up along the outside of one of the ropes. The freshmen then walked between the ropes and the seniors would throw stuff at them. 75% of the time, it was a mixture of flour and water. Every fourth year, though, the seniors could throw pretty much whatever they wanted ... within reason. We were the fourth year and the last year this was allowed. Flour and water is nasty, folks. What those seniors threw at us went way, way beyond nasty. We're talking flour and water, rotten eggs, molasses, cat litter (Unused we hope but no one was sure), all manner of non-toxic household products, and the big one. The X-factor. None of the previous components worried us that much but there was one that frightened us big time. There was a fairly new product on the market then called Nair. The ads on TV showed women putting Nair on their legs and then wiping it and all of their hair off with a rag. What??? Our hair was a big deal to us in those days. Scared us to death. Our fears were unfounded. Doubt that stuff would have had any effect mixed in with the rest of those vile mixtures. One of the seniors had a garbage can full of some concoction that was bubbling. I have no idea who those guys are in the picture but I looked just like them when I was done. All of us threw our clothes away. This was the year BEFORE De La Salle got air conditioning. The schoolyard stunk for a solid 6 weeks and we had to cope with all of the windows open in the September/October New Orleans heat and you probably have an idea what heat does for an already noxious odor.

Today is supposed to be the last day of our bone chilling temps---it was at least -24 this am(hard to tell for sure as my thermometer stops registering when it gets below -20, maybe I need new batteries). Yesterday was nasty, with the wind, but we did have bright sunshine. Forecast is for mid 30s by next week. Yeah!! Saw on the news that even in the south it's been cold. We are all in for better days. Bundle up, throw another log on the fire and stay warm.

Stockholm, Wisconsin

Stockholm, Wisconsin

Saw the little opossum below come take a drink from the pond yesterday morning. Don't see them as much lately as we did when we first moved in. We never had them in large numbers but it was not unusual to see 3 or 4 per week. This is the first one I've seen here in a few years.

CrabAppleLane Backyard Visitor - January 10, 2009

Happy New Year

Did you do anything special? We spent a quiet evening at home but we did stay up past midnight just like the grownups. Yes, we have no life.