Remmick-Hubert Special Page - Lodi Union High School, Class of 1960-Newsletter

Vol. 4:  20 April : Page Three

Question and Answer Page continued......

Mrs. Vaughan was my 5th and 6th grade teacher. She was strict, but she was the type of teacher who took personal interest in her students. She opened up whole new worlds for me when she took the time to show me the school library and teach me its use. I became an avid reader and, to this day, go to the library several times a week. She also helped to find me a piano teacher and was my sponsor when, as a teenager, I became a member of the her church.

Mr. Recksiek was my high school German teacher. But he taught so much more than German. He gave us insights into history and the world. He was the first person who made me realize the difference between one's ethnicity and nationality. I was very fortunate to have had such good teachers.

Claire Fujita Omura

The 5th and 6th grade of Mrs. Vaughan was sent to us from Claire Fujita Omura

Can You Tell Us Who Are The Unknowns?

Claire Fujita, Pres. of German Club - 1960

German Club - 1960

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See my Memories.

I can honesty say all of my teachers changed by life in some degree. Some more than others, of course.   Here are the ones I remember today:.... I remember my US History Teacher Mr. Carney,  I think his name was.  He insisted that we not only know our history,  we, also,  had to know the correct spelling of everything.  Soooo, he'd mark off one point for each word misspelled. Since my spelling has always been miserable,  I'd get the answers correct but not the spelling,  so,  very quickly my grade crashed into a solid "F".  Fortunately, for myself, a student teacher took over our class and the young man didn't worry about spelling...  A life saver for me.  This same  poor young student teacher,  I don't recall his name, was given our next project,   Sex Education.  I believe his face held a continued "red blush" during these lessons  Who could ever forget Mrs. Dorothy Hasselbring, our choir teacher? Because I had a wide range, I ended up singing tenor with Leland Hauck, our only true tenor who wanted to sing professionally but Mrs Hasselbring never liked Leland and he was greatly disappointed...... Then there was Mr. Recksiek who taught German. I remember it was a cool day, because his classroom windows were closed. This was a day he acted out everything he said in German. He said he was standing on his chair, which he did, then he said he was standing on his desk, which he did, then he announced he was going to throw his eraser through the window, he did...  "CRASH" the missile went through the glass....  From what I understand,  that wasn't the first time he broke a window with his eraser nor the last.  There was the day that my other favorite English teacher Mr. Lynch walked into our first period class and we all uttered a loud, "Phew!"  A skunk had bombarded his house  during the night or earlier that morning. His clothes spelled like a skunk and sprayed them directly that same hour....

Mr. Lynch - English

I' sure  someone will refer to Mr. Lynch as being one of their favorite teachers so I'll on about the others I remember. . Since I liked English,  it shouldn't surprise anyone they ended up being my favorite teachers.  There was a Mrs. Mulvihill who left on maternity leave and a Mr. Maraz took her place and it was he who gave me the highest grade given in his class that semester. Proving one doesn't have to be the smartess to be able to write.... There was one English teacher who liked my spelling so much,  this teacher placed up on the corner of the blackboard: Judy's Word For Today. And under the title would be another one of my words that was misspelled. I didn't mind. Some of the words were pretty funny. Thank goodness for spell chick [.check] ......   I remember when there were three  or four of us  [Martha Gabriel, Vera Schmidt, and, myself in Girls Sports who were in line to receive a special award for having reached the point range above 1800 points. But that award was to be given just to  Martha Gabriels. I regret this fact because, I felt, it it should have gone to Vera as well. There had been some kind of "error" in correction Vera's test in dance and it was never corrected. She never complained. I would have, in fact, I think I did when I wasn't picked for volleyball my senior year, which ruined by chances for the award. . Sure, I wasn't fond of the game because it hurt my wrist, but I  thought had been good enough to make the team, as I had the first three years. So, in our practice against the chosen team, I talked those of us who were not chosen, into a lather and we beat the chosen  team badly in all our practices. Sore loser? Me?  Yea, I guess. .  Is it too late to apologize to those who were chosen.  "Sorry for my whining and grumbles. ." Later, I was to learn that  it was tradition, until our senior year,  that no one was to be given the highest point and award [name  of the award escapes me] which had been given to someone special  many years earlier.  I still say, however,  Vera  should have been able to have shared it with Martha since they both deserved it. When I think back, now,  I can blamed myself for having gotten on the wrong side of Miss Bernard. I remember driving Miss Benard right up the wall when I told her that winning wasn't everything, it was the enjoyment of the game that was more important.  Hmmmm, there must be more memories about teachers.... . Oh, yes, Mr. Hanlon. I don't know what kind of magic he had in teaching math but he managed to drill enough in me to get a "C". I remember my mother talking to him during one of those "Back To School Night" and she said something  about her hopes of me getting a better grade and Mr. Hanlon replied, "Madam, not everyone has a mathematical brain, therefore, you should appreciate what talents Judy does have."  Well, he was right, math was never to be in my future accept for the check book and other limited subjects.  I think Mr. Londahl's ability to understand Shakespeare has to be applauded.  And, too, he had such patience in our essays which he allowed us to redo until he thought they deserved a grade...  Mr. Levy was my favorite  favorite teacher.  He not only taught us drama, he had the ability to incorporate all this missing subjects that embraced the culture of a particular play. He'd play music and show us art that represented a particular  time period of a play. One of his favorite playwrights must have been Tennessee Williams.  I remember seeing  one of Williams' plays the Cat on the Hot Tin Roof that had been made into a popular movie with with Elisabeth Taylor and  Mr. Blue Eyes, Paul Neuman.....  

To show you how one teacher can affect a person's life, my life, I remember Mr. Levy commenton one of my heroes in one of plays I had written. My hero  was kind, good looking, athletic and smart. Mr. Levy said, such a character in real life was hard to find...   Mr. Levy was right so when I found someone who did fit this description I married him. We've been married 39 years....

Mr. Levy unknowingly held a  second impact on my life. It  came about during a simple assignment from him.  Levy chose for myself and ___ ____,  a scene from  the play called "Anastasia".   The main character was bassed on a real person known to most as Ana Anderson (Ingrid Bergman played Ana's part in the movie by the same name) claimed she was the Russian Grand Duchess Anastasia, which  was to my part and ___ ___'s part was the Dowager Empress who was the grandmother of Anastasia. The movie had been out in 1955. I hadn't seen it. Anyway, Mr. Levy gave us each a copy of the play, told us the pages and the lines, and we were to present to the class and  sent  us off to some corner to learn our lines.....  That night, I read the play and when I was done,  I was in a state of confusion. The play was nothing like what had really happen to Anastasia and Ana Anderson..  At least it wasn't anything like the story I had been told when very young. I went out into the kitchen where my mother was ironing. I asked her if she knew about this Ana Anderson  who claimed she was the surviving daughter of the Russian Tsar Nicholas II and his wife Alexandra?  She did. To make a very long story short, I explained to my mother some of the story I knew about Anastasia and Ana Anderson.....  In 1972 I started a manuscript about the Grand Duchess Anastasia and her family, about the people around Ana Anderson and  who she really was. In the 80s I almost had it accepted and published, but it wasn't and the manuscript ended up in the closet and remained unpublished.  With all the new information about the Russian Royal family, I do not have to change anything in my manuscript.  In 1998 my younger son Devin, who for a short time was an English teacher in a local High School, edited my manuscript which has been renamed Forgiveness Day. It's presently ready to send out for another attempt of being published.  To add to this adventure, I became   interested in genealogy. At first it was to find evidence as to  how our family had ties with the Russian Royal Romanovs of Russia. With these answers, I began to learn about  my ancestors who were Germans who migrated into Russia. I've written more than a dozen family books and have a huge web site about my German-Russian-American families as well as the Hubert's Norwegian and Austrian families.

Thanks Clyde for the question and stirring up old memories. 

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