Ralph Martin (1967)

Favorites Memory.....Being in the Class Play "Bye Bye Birdie"..I was one of the actors dragged acrossed to the stage be be hitched on Sadie Hawkins Day.     Favorite Teacher.....Ms. Waters Home Education...learned how to cook some really good breakfast ...Lil Ralphie Martin                                                                                                         

Ralph Martin (1967)

Question...Mike Henderson was the Star actor in Lil Abner in the PHS Play "Bye Bye Birdie"  who was the actress opposite him in the role of Daisy Mae?

Tom Brody (1969)

FAVORITE TEACHER.   This is to respond to the question from Sue Ferreira about our favorite teacher.   My favorite teacher was Bob Shayler.   I liked Bob Shayler because:

(1) He was a liberal hippie-type and in that day and age, that was abundantly fashionable.

(2) He taught physics, which was one of the best-taught subjects at Pacific High.  For example, for one experiment we were required to operate a ticking machine that determined the acceleration of an object as it fell towards the floor, where this acceleration was measured by a series of blue-colored dots on a strip of white tape that was pulled under the ticking hammer.  Twenty five years after graduating from Pacific High, I created a girl (with the assistance of somebody else) and when my girl was around seven years old, I bought the same ticking machine, and I made her measure the acceleration of an object as it fell towards the floor.  After that, my girl became a physics major at U.C. Berkeley.  I liked Mr. Shayler's classes about wave mechanics and nodes.  Great physics ! ! !

(3)  Once Mr. Shayler and his friend the journalism teacher took us to the Haight Ashbury district to visit the apartment of the journalism teacher, and then we went to GOLDEN GATE PARK and we smoked something (heh-heh-heh-heh !!!) while we sat on a big lawn in a crowd of other people, and we watched COUNTRY JOE & THE FISH perform on stage.   Do high school teachers get any better than this ???  The journalism teacher was, James MacKenzie.

(4) Once Mr. Shayler took us up to Mendocino County to spend the next two days in a cabin.  The cabin was owned by Mr. Gustafson (or maybe it was owned by Mr. Papas).  Mr. Shayler had us perform "sensitivity session" games with each other.  That was fun.  One of these games was being blind-folded, and allowing ourselves to fall backwards, and trusting our fellow students to catch us as we fell backwards.   Also, I liked this Mendocino trip because another of the hippie teachers was there.  This hippie teacher was John Pierce (political science teacher).  In addition, I liked this Mendocino trip because I hugged a girl for the first time.   We did this out in some remote meadow away from everybody else.  The girl was Cheryl Renner.  In the weeks that followed, she wanted to be friends, but I was too stupid and too socially clumsy to respond in a positive way.

(5)  Mr. Shayler created the "Nobody Club."  This was a social club, where students could get together and rap with each other.  Actually, I made up the name, "Nobody Club."   My reason for this was that the school-wide announcement, over loudspeakers, would say this:  "Nobody will meet today in the journalism room."  Mr. Shayler liked the name, "Nobody Club," and so that is what it was called.

Robert Shayler

Howdy Tom! FB friend request sent.  FB kinda overwhelms me so my apologies; I did not intend to ignore you,  My wife reads my FB page a lot and usually lets me knwo what's happening there.  Be kind and keep on truckin'!

Richard Lewin (1967)

Mr. Brody, you are very fortunate to have such great recollections. Thank you.

Carol Truex (Young) (1967)

Ralph Martin that was such a fun musical. The beautiful and talented Penny Bode played Daisy Mae and far less talented but very eager...me. Thanks for reminding us of a special time. 

Carol Truex (Young) (1967)

Sue Ferreira (Nunes) (1967)

#3  What was the dumbest thing you did at PHS???

Vincent Acosta (1967)

making a copy of that darn key. I DON'T THINK SOOOOO

Ralph Martin (1967)

Too Many to  list!  

Tom Brody (1969)

This is to respond to the question (May 6, 2020) from site administrator Sue Ferreira about, "THE DUMBEST THING YOU DID AT PHS???"  

SPELLING INCIDENT.  This is about English class.  We were having a spelling test.   One of the words on this test was, "azure."  I did not know how to spell this word.   Bob Hageman was sitting to my right, in the next column of seats.   Realizing that Bob Hageman was the smartest boy in the school, I looked across the aisle in order TO SEE HOW BOB HAGEMAN SPELLED, "AZURE."  But the teacher saw what I was doing and told me not to.   That was all that occurred in that particular incident.    

BIRD INCIDENT.  Another dumb thing that I did was this.  A journalist from San Leandro Morning News was on campus, and acquiring information and photographs for some news story.   One of the photographs had me with a few other students, and I was resting one of my arms on my desk.  But for one of my hands, I was FLIPPING THE BIRD.    A day or so later, this photograph was published in the San Leandro Morning News.   Somebody notified the principal of Pacific High School, and I got in trouble.  I recall, that the principal from San Leandro High School phoned the principal at PHS.   One of my friends, Randall Johnese, decided to be my "lawyer."   He accompanied me at the meeting where I got in trouble, and he represented my case.   That was the end of that incident, and there were no other consequences.   

FOOTBALL FUMBLE.  Here is yet another dumb thing.   This was during gym.   The gym teacher was training us to play football.   I never had any skills in or any proclivity towards any kind of athletics.  My only physical skills at that time. and up to the present year, was taking aerobic hikes in various mountains, e.g., twelve mile hikes in Redwood Regional Park, or hikes to the top of Hawkins Peak in Pinnacles National Park.   Anyway, in our gym class, one of the boys was very tall.   During our football game, he decided to throw the football towards me.   I can still remember the football zooming through the air, and I can still remember fumbling it.   And so, fumbling this football in gym class was another dumb thing that I did at Pacific High. 

Steve Larsen (1968)

1:Most memorable:  The so many good friends that we went to school with.  They were Happy Days for sure. The class of 1968 winning Spirit Week all three years of high school.  Paul and Elmers ranks right up there, oh but that wasn't high school was it?

2:Favorite Teacher:  Miss Patricia Ball, History Social Studies.  This quite, unassuming teacher, got me so engaged in History that I even did my homework and  that further to this day I still study history.  God knows we have lived through a lot, the assianation of JFK, the Vietnam War and others since,  The  man on the moon, the destruction of the Berlin Wall, The internet , the attack on the World Trade Center. 
 
3. The stupidest thing.  There were many to say the least, there are two that stand out,  climbing on top of San Leandro High school with fellow classmates,Ken Savino, Tim Musch and Greg Goodhart, in the middle of the night to hang a huge  letter P down from the front entrance, (see page 126 Valllaha 1968).  The other was letting geese loose on the strip and watching SLPD trying to catch them.

Ralph Martin (1967)

.. ...Hey Steve...Paul & Elmers...cruising the Strip on Friday nights (our very own America Graffiti)  most certainly was part of school and maybe the most important part..

Diana Carlton (Smith) (1974)

Question # 1=Favorite Memory 

School Dances

Bill Ross (1974)

#1: Favorite Memory:

In my senior year I had to transfer into Mr. Gustafson's Advanced Algebra and Trig class half way through the school year.  The way the class was supposed to work was that the first semester was advanced algebra and the second semester was supposed to be trig.  Gus blew that off though and spent the entire year on trig so when I transferred in, everyone in the class was already a semester deep into the subject and I was completely lost.  In desperation, I copied Bob Haines' homework everyday so I had something to turn in.  Fortunately, Gus never had a test the entire semester except for the final exam.  That final was the only class I ever cut in high school.  Gus asked Bob where I was and Bob covered for me saying that I had a family emergency.  When we got our grades, Bob got a B and I got an A!  

Don't feel too bad for Bob.  He ended up being a supervising engineer for Lockheed and was assigned to work for NASA at the Goddard Space Center.  I guess I should have learned trig....

#2: Favorite Teacher:

That's a tough one, but of all the great teachers I had at Pacific, I would have to say Mr. Rhodes.  I never had much interest in History or Economics before taking his classes but have been interested in both ever since.

#3 Stupidest Thing:

Not learning trig?  No, I would say not being more involved in social events and quitting sports in my senior year to work part time jobs.  Gunnari told me I was being stupid and I guess he was right.

Bob Booth (1975)

Here are mine Sue:

#1: I really don’t have just one, but all those times with the wrestling team with Mike Remer were good times as I had some good friends there... I actually kept up with wrestling while in the Air Force and for a number of months my job was training for the PAN AM games at Travis Air Force base. Unfortunately I never made it to the Games as I broke my neck on my first day of vacation that year and ended up in the hospital for a month (70 stiches in my head as well, as I fell off into a waterfall near Yosemite, 25 feet down to a flat rock just an inch below water level on the Tualomne river -- a place called Rainbow pools and falls.) But that's another story... Especially about the celebrating I did wth Vic Rogers after I got out of the hospital... :)

#2: Ed (Señor) Urquides... He was such a good teacher and made it fun to learn Spanish. I actually ended up being in Spanish 5 my senior year, which wasn't really a regular class. It was just me and two others that played Scrabble in Spanish, listened to radio broadcasts in Spanish and translated them, and lots of other interesting exercises.

Those lessons paid off as I challenged the Spanish course at Cal State Hayward (now East Bay) and didn't have to take the class after passing the written and oral exams.

To this day I use my Spanish as I manage a sales team in Latin America (I also now speak Portuguese since I need it for Brazil).

#3: Streaking with a big group in my 68 VW Bug… There were a number of us (at least seven of us -- luckily just one other guy and the rest girls) that streaked a steakhouse (I forgot the name -- near Merced St./Wicks Blvd.) and the El Torito (I think back then it was called Tia Maria or something like that...).

When we streaked the Mexican restataurant two girls and I ran up the stairs to the upper balcony overlooking the dining area and raised up our arms and yelled "streakers" while the rest were down below near the entrance doing the same. We then all ran out, but as soon as I got to the car with everyone else in the parking lot I realized I had dropped the car keys and I had to run back inside and up to the balcony again to retrieve them. Talk about embarrassing  :)

Sue Ferreira (Nunes) (1967)

Question # 3   Well I can think of a few but since I can verify this one I tell you about it.. I believe it started with spending the night with a girl friend so we talked all night and then went to Bay Fair Bowling for the Senior Breakfast which wasnt much fun so a bunch of us went over to Prings and then to school,, Well I stayed awake till 5th period Shorthand which I wasnt good at anyway and decided to take a nap

Sue Ferreira (Nunes) (1967)

It's Wednesday time for Question # 4,,,

Whats one thing you know now that you wish you knew in High School ???

Tom Brody (1969)

WHAT I WISH I KNEW IN HIGH SCHOOL.   This is to answer Question #4 from Sue Ferreira:  "What's one thing that you know now that you wish you knew in high school???"

First answer:  Dear Tom belonging to the years 1967 to 1969, it is a fine thing to be interested in a biochemistry major, but it will be a bad idea to have a biochem major, and an even worse thing to do your senior undergraduate project on vitamin biochemistry, and it will be a disasterous idea to do your graduate school work in vitamin biochemistry.   Don't do that, Mister Thommy-Whommy, because the field of vitamin biochemistry research will almost totally vanish soon.  It will vanish for three reasons.  First, by 1980, all of the vitamins will have been discovered and all of their functions will have been discovered, and so there won't be any jobs for you.  Second, during the 1980's, most fields of biochemistry will have been replaced by molecular biology.  And third, your graduate school (Dept. of Nutrition at U.C. Berkeley) will have failed to provide you with any job skills.  And so, don't do it, no, no, no."

Second answer:  Dear Mister Thommy-Whommy of the years 1967-1969, well it is fine and dandy to think of a biochemistry major, but if you persue this major and eventually get a job in a pharmaceutical company, you will be faced with frequent lay-offs.  That is what will happen to you a few times in the years 1985 to 2019.  Pharma companies have lay-offs or they just shut down completely, whenever they are not able to acquire funding or when the FDA refuses to approve one of their drugs.  And so, you should major in mechanical engineering or perhaps materials science.  Companies that need mechanical engineers or materials science majors never have layoffs whenever their drugs are refused by the FDA, because this type of company does not develop new drugs.

Bill Statler (1969)

FAVORITE TEACHER

Totally agree with Tom Brody about Robert Shayler. I struggled with math for virtually all my school career. But I had Mr. Shayler for advanced algebra my junior year, and actually got an A in the last semester. This was the last math class I ever took (high school or college); but it must have served me well, because my career as city finance director for over 30 years and now 10 years as a consultant, kinda use a lot of numbers. :)  Stated simply, he was an engaging teacher in a subject that many (including me) did/do not find engaging.      

And of course, while I didn't make the Mendocino trip, I totally remember our excursion to the GG Park panhandle and James Mackenzie's apartment in the Haight Ashbury. He also got me involved in Eugene McCarthy's presidential campaign. So, in many ways, a big, positive influence in my life.

But I would be remiss if I didn't mention two other outstanding teachers:

Carolyn Federighi: While numbers were/are a big part of my career, so is being able to write about them for elected officials, community and staff in an understandable way. And for that skill, I largely credit her. (Interestingly enough, we both we went on to public service: she was a planning commissioner, council member and mayor in Lafayette.)

Ward Bond: I had the pleasure of being in a number of shows at PHS, including the The Mouse that Roared (my first show as a Sophomore at PHS), the Curious Savage, The Music Man and the Male Animal. Mr Bond made this both a disciplined (he was a former Marine!) and fun experience. And believe it or not, the experience went onto be a big part of my career as well, in being able to present numbers in an understandable (and perhaps entertaining) way.

Lastly, while I learned skills that held me in good stead, I think the thing that also links these three together is that they also built character and values.

In short, all three of these teachers (as many did and still do) made a difference in my life and I'm sure on many others.

- Bill

Clifford Nannini (1967)

Bill, If any of us need to convince our grand kids of the values to be gained in high school, your post should be most helpful. I'm happy to hear the seeds planted in PHS bore such a fruitful career. Thanks for sharing your story.

Sue Ferreira (Nunes) (1967)

It's Wednesday time for Question # 5 

What do you miss most about San Leandro, thats not there any more  besides Pacific High??

Joseph Bustos (1962)

mario polvarosa

David M. Bunday (1965)

Castro brothers pool hall, it was on Washington Ave, across the street from Pelton center. 

Floyd Michaelson (1967)

I really miss cruising the Strip on Friday and Saturday nights. Anyone else? 

Me !!! 

Sue Ferreira Nunes