Recently I received a nice email from one of my old classmates named Frank Zabrecky. Frank went to Masson School as well, and some of his high school years were spent at Admiral King (my Alma Mater). I remember his sister Monica was at King as well. Frank commented that he enjoyed my blog and that it brought back some pleasant memories for him.
"In regard to the Masson section, I especially took note of the picture showing your first grade class with Mrs. Pierce," he wrote.
Here's the class photo that he was referring to. That's me in the second row, second from left. (Mom helpfully drew a little arrow on it.) As you can see, it was taken March 29, 1966 – 59 years ago tomorrow.
Frank continued. "As I recall in a past site visit," he noted, "you had stated that Mrs. Pierce and Miss Duskey were somehow related.
Yes, Mrs. Pierce and Miss Duskey were cousins (and the subject of this post).
"I was in Miss Duskey's first grade class, and I happen to have the picture of the class taken on the same date. It is in good condition, and I thought you may possibly be interested in a copy of it to post."
Here's Frank's photo of Miss Duskey's class, taken the same day as mine, and with the same classroom as the backdrop. That's Frank in the front row, second from left.
It was neat to see kids in Frank's photo that I instantly knew. Frank felt the same way about my photo. "I was even able to recognize almost all of the people in your picture as well," he commented.
It's funny how even though I might forget people that I worked with over the last forty years, I can almost always remember classmates from elementary school. I certainly remember all of my teachers, such as Mrs. Pierce, who were all terrific. And although I didn't have her as a teacher, I remember seeing Miss Duskey at Masson and thinking she was pretty, with her distinctive hairdo.
My thanks to Frank for sharing, and letting me take a peek at who was in the classroom next door.