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| Thoughts from Jim Mahoney, former CHSS English teacher: | ||
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…In 1971, I was
in my
9th year of teaching and still not feeling as if I had reached my
stride. I just did my job, was not very
reflective,
I don't think, coached baseball and football, and attempted to scrape
together
the means to feed my family. I didn't
step up until I became the Burr English Chair and had responsibility
thrust on
me. For some reason, those 3 years at
South, before I returned in 1978 to replace Ed Leigh, seem very foggy,
despite
my pretty good memory for names… ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I
spent
some time yesterday looking at the web site and must tell you that it
is quite
impressive. I think I hit all of he areas, though I was rushed at the
end and
did not sign the guest book. There were several occasions
during my
viewing that I have a strong nostalgic moment and felt some deep
emotion. To
begin with, I spent thirteen years of my life at that school, the three
during
the beginning years and then ten six years later in 1978 when I
returned as
English Department Chairperson. I never spent in all of my current 42
years in
teaching more time in one building than that and I had not considered
that ever
before. (I did spend ten years at Miller Place Schools from 1987 to
1997.) I
think some of the photos of the teachers gave me a glimpse into the
past. Another view was some photos of
your
reunion when some of you went back to the building. One view of a group
at the
upstairs windows between D and E wings was very powerful. I just found
myself
back there again as a 30 year old teacher. It was surprising to see what some
of the
students look like today. Some appear to have changed little and some I
wouldn't recognize… …As for myself, I am beginning my
forty-second year of teaching, supervising student teachers and also
teaching a
writing methods course to future teachers at The College of New Jersey
in
Ewing, NJ. I am also teaching two composition courses at DeVry
University in
Fort Washington, PA… …As
far as
Mr. Spengler (note the E, not the A), I believe he is alive and kicking
in
Smithtown, probably still officiating slo-pitch softball or maybe even
assigning the umpires to games. He came to a faculty impromptu reunion
a few
years ago at the Bonwitt. It began with just the English Department but
we were
joined by Pete Brasch, Carol Bertolotti, Dave Spengler. By the way, in
1968, he
and I were umpiring high school baseball games and we together did a JV
baseball game at Port Jefferson that I will long remember for its
bizarre
events. We had a couple of games together that year and then I gave it
up for
good the next year when Bob Dell asked me to coach the JV baseball team
in the
spring of 1970. Also, the year I umpired baseball, I had my final game
of the
year over in Kings Park with Mr. Ennis who was then a varsity umpire
and a
pretty good one. He taught me a thing or two that day about umpiring... |
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Jim
Mahoney on Edmund Leigh, Chairperson of the English Department: |
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