During high school - summers, mostly - Neil and John Berthot (who was two or three years ahead of us) used to come to my house to listen to my dad's jazz records. My mother always told me that she had known Neil's father was a jazz musician somewhere in the Pittsburgh area. Neil, among others, also used to come and sit around our dining room table when it was time to get our U.S. History notebooks up to snuff for Harold Wisor's scrutiny or to study for tests.
I think it was at the very beginning of the summer after our sophomore year at Wittenberg that my roommate, Marilyn Bitler, came home with me on the way to her home in New Jersey. Neil came to visit and was "smitten" (Marl was a stunner!) with her. Then, later that year, when we were back in school, he and Jim Stewart came to Springfield, OH to spend a weekend.
I also remember one summer (late 60's or early 70's), when I was "home" with our kids spending time with my folks, my mom told me that Helen Lantz (Neil’s mother) had called to tell her that Neil was in town. So I went to Helen and Dick's house on West Market St. and had a really weird visit. At that time everything Neil said had to do with the "coming revolution", and he never used the personal pronoun "I". It was all "we". I chided him about that, and he accused me of "selling out" to the establishment! Helen later apologized for that. (She was the truant officer for the school district, and I used to see her a lot in the high school office.)
Monday, September 1, 2008
Neil Buckley Leads "Campus Wars" Against Vietnam War
- Clipping from The Progress, Clearfield, PA - January 7, 1967Following are excerpts from the book “Campus Wars – The Peace Movement at American State Universities in the Vietnam Era” by Kenneth J. Heineman, published in 1993.
Publishing these excerpts is intended neither to glamorize nor disparage Neil Buckley’s participation and leadership in the movement. It is simply an effort to illuminate Neil’s activities, ideas and writings at the time.
Heineman writes:
"Neil Buckley, a 'Hollywood version of a campus radical,' his critics claimed, had an enormous ego as well as ambitions to become a national New Left figure. Jealous of (another’s) influence in the chapter, Buckley at one point had to be restrained from beating up his rival. When Buckley and Creegan were not fighting each other, they were locking horns with Pam Farley, who was increasingly disgusted with the male SDSers’ sexism. In December 1965, at a national SDS conference in Illinois, Farley had encouraged the women delegates to meet separately in the ladies’ restroom…
"The winter of 1967 began miserably for SDS and then worsened. SDS’s unpopularity on campus mounted throughout the winter. At a SDS dormitory forum in January, a student argued that if SDSers did not like the university, they should drop out of school. Buckley replied that such an action would be like “committing suicide if one does not like the world rather than trying to change it. The audience then urged Buckley to commit suicide...
"Following that incident, the chapter learned that it lacked even minimal student support… Even though a number of SDSers, including Buckley… had grown weary of campus organizing and decided to drop out of school, they enthusiastically laid plans for a serious of spring actions against the war...
"A number of PSUers that summer eschewed street protest for their own version of community organizing, establishing a commune in nearby Bellefonte. Initially Buckley, who had announced with much fanfare his intention to leave school in order to work for revolution, sought to create a communal environment which would serve to radicalize the working poor. However, the SDS commune quickly became a magnet for juvenile revelers. None of those teenagers were interested in SDS diatribes on revolution. Indeed, the often drunken street kids physically intimidated the middle class SDSers.
"By autumn, the commune had disbanded, succeeding only in convincing the locals that SDS wished to corrupt the mores of those children."
Publishing these excerpts is intended neither to glamorize nor disparage Neil Buckley’s participation and leadership in the movement. It is simply an effort to illuminate Neil’s activities, ideas and writings at the time.
Heineman writes:
"Neil Buckley, a 'Hollywood version of a campus radical,' his critics claimed, had an enormous ego as well as ambitions to become a national New Left figure. Jealous of (another’s) influence in the chapter, Buckley at one point had to be restrained from beating up his rival. When Buckley and Creegan were not fighting each other, they were locking horns with Pam Farley, who was increasingly disgusted with the male SDSers’ sexism. In December 1965, at a national SDS conference in Illinois, Farley had encouraged the women delegates to meet separately in the ladies’ restroom…
"The winter of 1967 began miserably for SDS and then worsened. SDS’s unpopularity on campus mounted throughout the winter. At a SDS dormitory forum in January, a student argued that if SDSers did not like the university, they should drop out of school. Buckley replied that such an action would be like “committing suicide if one does not like the world rather than trying to change it. The audience then urged Buckley to commit suicide...
"Following that incident, the chapter learned that it lacked even minimal student support… Even though a number of SDSers, including Buckley… had grown weary of campus organizing and decided to drop out of school, they enthusiastically laid plans for a serious of spring actions against the war...
"A number of PSUers that summer eschewed street protest for their own version of community organizing, establishing a commune in nearby Bellefonte. Initially Buckley, who had announced with much fanfare his intention to leave school in order to work for revolution, sought to create a communal environment which would serve to radicalize the working poor. However, the SDS commune quickly became a magnet for juvenile revelers. None of those teenagers were interested in SDS diatribes on revolution. Indeed, the often drunken street kids physically intimidated the middle class SDSers.
"By autumn, the commune had disbanded, succeeding only in convincing the locals that SDS wished to corrupt the mores of those children."
Non-Believers Need Not Apply
More from "Campus Wars.." by Kenneth J. Heineman, 1993:
"SDS leader Neil Buckley did not welcome doves and libertarians into the movement unless they first recanted their political errors. Thus, with just sixty determined members, SDS claimed the (Penn State) campus antiwar movement as its own, and fraternizing with…the enemy, became unthinkable….
In one of his letters to another antiwar leader, Buckley said: … "the more I think about your suggestion for a coalition between the New Left and the libertarian right I get cramps in my brain…simply allowing the concept of civil liberties as defined by the Constitution –- which we see for what it is—to be perpetuated within our movement is detrimental, both because it allows people to take out frustrations through a system which in no way changes the basic tenents of capitalism and because it is internally inconsistent to base any of our analysis on the civil libertarian analysis which is several centuries out of date. Honest to Christ, Carl, sometimes I can’t figure out your politics."
"SDS leader Neil Buckley did not welcome doves and libertarians into the movement unless they first recanted their political errors. Thus, with just sixty determined members, SDS claimed the (Penn State) campus antiwar movement as its own, and fraternizing with…the enemy, became unthinkable….
In one of his letters to another antiwar leader, Buckley said: … "the more I think about your suggestion for a coalition between the New Left and the libertarian right I get cramps in my brain…simply allowing the concept of civil liberties as defined by the Constitution –- which we see for what it is—to be perpetuated within our movement is detrimental, both because it allows people to take out frustrations through a system which in no way changes the basic tenents of capitalism and because it is internally inconsistent to base any of our analysis on the civil libertarian analysis which is several centuries out of date. Honest to Christ, Carl, sometimes I can’t figure out your politics."
Neil Outlines His Objectives for SDS
Again, from "Campus Wars..." by Kenneth J. Heineman, Neil outlined his objectives or game plan for revolution around the time of a major antiwar gathering at Michigan State University:
"First that this movement in general and SDS in particular is ultimately committed to the destruction of imperialism and the recommitment to the requisto (sic) destruction of capitalism;
"second, that our movement is an element of the revolutionary vanguard painfully forming from the innards of America;
"third, that the object conditions for revolution are not with us, but are coming up (relatively) fast, and that our revolutionary conditions must be condition for the coming struggle;
"fourth, that by the time the revolution is upon us, we will have transformed from the movement as we know it today into a revolutionary political party;
"fifth that that we have not fulfilled our potential as a political movement in the past and, if we continue to follow our past course, that we will suffer deeply as a total movement;
sixth, that our failure, while in part a result of personal contradictions, is ultimately solvable in term of organizational restructuring;
"and seventh, that now is the time to change our subjective conditions to meet new objective conditions realizing that simultaneously, we must develop still newer forms of organization which will supplant those we now form when the former shall have outlived their political relevance."
"First that this movement in general and SDS in particular is ultimately committed to the destruction of imperialism and the recommitment to the requisto (sic) destruction of capitalism;
"second, that our movement is an element of the revolutionary vanguard painfully forming from the innards of America;
"third, that the object conditions for revolution are not with us, but are coming up (relatively) fast, and that our revolutionary conditions must be condition for the coming struggle;
"fourth, that by the time the revolution is upon us, we will have transformed from the movement as we know it today into a revolutionary political party;
"fifth that that we have not fulfilled our potential as a political movement in the past and, if we continue to follow our past course, that we will suffer deeply as a total movement;
sixth, that our failure, while in part a result of personal contradictions, is ultimately solvable in term of organizational restructuring;
"and seventh, that now is the time to change our subjective conditions to meet new objective conditions realizing that simultaneously, we must develop still newer forms of organization which will supplant those we now form when the former shall have outlived their political relevance."
Neil's Message (His Last) to CAHS Classmates Prior to 40th-Year Class Reunion in 1999
(Note - Click on the message to enlarge.)What More Can You Say...?
.
In the end, Neil Buckley traveled full circle:
- From Eagle Scout, high-achieving student, comedian, musician, athlete and “patriot” singing his high school alma mater and National Anthem loud and clear;
- To antiwar leader actively advocating the overthrow of the U.S. government. In this respect, he most certainly considered himself a "patriot";
- To PhD student and graduate, musician, big band sideman and band leader, pharmaceutical chemist, editor of scientific publications, and grower of heirloom tomatoes (26 varieties), peppers (20 varieties) and housecats (from a high of 6 to a low of 1).
One thing you can say: In whatever direction Neil chose to travel, he was earnest. Earnest beyond description.
Neil Buckley died of a lung ailment on December 14, 2003, in his adopted hometown of Sebastopol, CA .
I loved Neil Buckley. I always will.
- Dennis Mollura
In the end, Neil Buckley traveled full circle:
- From Eagle Scout, high-achieving student, comedian, musician, athlete and “patriot” singing his high school alma mater and National Anthem loud and clear;
- To antiwar leader actively advocating the overthrow of the U.S. government. In this respect, he most certainly considered himself a "patriot";
- To PhD student and graduate, musician, big band sideman and band leader, pharmaceutical chemist, editor of scientific publications, and grower of heirloom tomatoes (26 varieties), peppers (20 varieties) and housecats (from a high of 6 to a low of 1).
One thing you can say: In whatever direction Neil chose to travel, he was earnest. Earnest beyond description.
Neil Buckley died of a lung ailment on December 14, 2003, in his adopted hometown of Sebastopol, CA .
I loved Neil Buckley. I always will.
- Dennis Mollura
Friday, August 29, 2008
A Whistle Far Away
By Sandi Howland Archer
As I get older I notice that things pop in and out of my memory suddenly and certainly uninvited. More out than in for sure! Like today when I arrived home from work. I opened my car door and heard a distant whistle. A human whistle.
Now it's entirely possible that I hear that same whistle on a regular basis and just don't lumber into the house soon enough to write myself a little “gotta remember this” note. At any rate, I should get to the point before I lose my train of thought and tell you all about how we fry eggs on the sidewalk here in sunny Arizona.
Now about that whistle. When I was five years old, my parents bought a home in East End and moved us there from metro Turkey Hill. Or perhaps it was Olanta. We lived at 1311 Daisy Street. My father drove a Willys. It was green. The license plate read 2LP88. Our phone number was 59180.
There was an alley between our house and the large yellow one shared by the Hugar and Passmore families. And at the end of the alley lived a real swell fella. Robert Henry. The alley was paved with bricks. The red variety.
Now just to give you an idea of how far back my pathology goes, one of my most vivid – dare I say, fondest – childhood memories was watching my mother shovel ashes hot from the furnace on those slippery bricks so she could trek over and have coffee with Mrs. Hugar on a typical wintry day. I felt no pleasure while watching the shoveling. None at all. But just every once in a while, her feet would go out from under her. What joy!
Oh, yes, about that whistle. My sister, Carole, was the first-born. Two years later I joined up and became the oft-forgettable middle child. A short time later brother Clyde arrived. His steadfast pals from early on in school were Louis Mitchell and Jack Mitchell. Cousins I think. And those fellas whistled. I sat on the stairway with the phone and talked in whispered tones to Bea Accordino, Anna Marie Marino, and Forshia Vale. Don’t think Clyde talked on the phone. Maybe once when he made plans to run off to Altoona with Karen Knicely. They hitched a ride on the back of a snowplow. That’s another whole story. None of it good.
Clyde (I think his chums called him Clijo) and Louie and Jackie whistled to each other in various tones, repetitions, and volume. It was a language known only to them. I recall vividly sitting at the dinner table and hearing a whistle from at least 2 or 3 blocks away. Clyde would go outside and reply in code known only to “the gang.” Shortly he’d go off down the street.
Clyde died when he was just 48. Pancreatic cancer. A real beast it was.
Now about that whistle I heard today. Hmmm……….
See ya in ’09!
Sandra (Sandi) Howland Archer
Sandra (Sandi) Howland Archer
Monday, August 25, 2008
To Lea Davidson, with Love
Lea Davidson as News Editor of our CAHS newspaper, The Triangle, with faculty advisor Miss Jane Gillespie.Lea Davidson is one of my favorite classmates. She always greeted you with a big smile. And she was supportive whenever called upon for ideas or help. Maybe I missed it, but I don't recall ever seeing her in anything but a friendly, cheerful mood.
She worked hard as a member of the Press Club for three years and served as News Editor of our school newspaper, The Triangle, in our junior year.
You always knew she was going to be a teacher and a good one at that. True to her calling, she was a second grade teacher at The Phillips School in Pittsburgh for many years, retiring 12 years ago. She then turned her talents to serving customers in Kaufman’s Department Store for 10 years. In Better Ladies Wear, of course.
Her father, Bob Davidson, was one of Clearfield’s best-known and best-loved haberdashers. As owner of Davidson’s Store for Men and Boys, he greeted you with a big smile and could size you up without laying a hand or a tape measure on you. The tailoring was impeccable, and you left the store feeling on top of the world.
It’s clear Lea inherited both her smile and her knowledge of quality clothing from her father.
Here’s to you, Lea Davidson! We look forward to seeing you at our 50th-Year Reunion in 2009.
- Dennis Mollura
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Heading the CAHS Press Club in 1958-59
For some reason, the Press Club ceased publishing The Triangle in our senior year. In the same year, the club chose not to (or maybe was not permitted to) elect officers. Lea, however, continued her leadership role by heading a group of club members who contributed a weekly CAHS news column to The Progress. From left, Jerry Koval, Louise Long, Lea Davidson, Russell Read, Fonda Duck and Dennis Mollura. Second row, B. Graffius, Dixie Aveni, George Gaylor, P. Herbert, Mary Lou Kepner and Carmen Norman.- Bison Photo by Orvis Kline
With Future Teachers of America
From the Future Teachers photo in The Bison in 1958. At left is Jane Evans.
With Second Graders at The Phillips School
In the classroom with second graders in 1980. Look at all the fun things on the white board.Lea with Her Mother, Sara, in Philipsburg
In front of Uncle Harry Parsky's Men's Store on Spruce Street in Philipsburg.
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Teaberries, Tadpoles and Tipping Over Toilets
Childhood in Hyde / Hyde Child in the ‘Hood / Growing Up a 'Hyde Hood’
By Suzanne Sherkel Nagle
In the 40’s and 50’s Hyde City was the perfect place to be a kid. There were three general stores: Rafferty’s (which was also the Post Office), Paul Bailey’s and Schrot’s; two gas stations, a factory - American Mono-nickel, or the A & M, that I always thought stood for Airplane & Marine (?), a furniture store – Henry J. Brown’s (which is still there!), the Hyde Hotel, the Laurel Garden dance hall, the Pilgrim Holiness Church, two or three barber shops, a ball field, the “hill” (for sledding or tobogganing – NOT skiing!- usually on HJB’s cardboard), the village-dividing Montgomery “Crick” (which we dammed up in several places to make swimming holes), several vacant lots, some of them boggy or swampy (great for picking teaberries or catching tadpoles and salamanders) or woodsy (for “camp”-building using –you guessed it – HJB’s discarded cardboard appliance boxes). There was even a nearby Country Club with a nine-hole golf course! And, of course, there was “Hyde City Tech”, our much-loved four- (later, five-) room elementary school, with the super, l-o-n-g cement sidewalks for hopscotch and roller-skating, and a “football-field”- sized patch of real grass on either side.
But Hyde City was really its families, with names like Ammerman, Armstrong, Bell, Brown, Collins, Crawford, Duckett, Duttry, Faulkner, Gearhart, Guelich, Haag, Harper, Haversack, Heitsenrether, Hoover, Hummel, Hurley, Jay, Johnson, Lanager, Lanich, Lawhead, Little, Mabie, Magnuson, Michaels, Moyer, Poole, Quinn, Raybold, Reed, Reitmyer, Shimmel, Teats, Tornatore, Triponey, Viehdeffer, Vokes, White, Yatta – many of whom spawned dynasties of athletes who excelled, especially, in football, wrestling and golf.
From 1948 to 1951 I lived in one of the “suburbs” of Hyde City: the Montgomery Run, Fletcherville, Coal Hill, Riverview Road “loop”; and I got to ride the bus with kids named Barr, Carns, Fiscus, Fletcher, McBride, Powell, Ogden, Rauch, Rose, and Rumfola. Lest we forget, that’s where the airport and armory were. The Sherkels lived in the lower half of the old, then “duplexed”, McPherson farmhouse during the great ice-storm of the winter of ’50-’51. And to a nine-year-old kid, it really was “great”!
By the time I moved back to the “city”, some of the streets had been paved and given names (We never knew our “address”, except for a P.O. Box number.), fewer and fewer outhouses were in regular use, and most homes had indoor plumbing, including pure, sparkling water piped in from the Montgomery Dam. A few TV antennas were beginning to sprout up; but we kids still played outdoors until dark. (The Sherkels never did get a TV set until my mother’s beloved Pittsburgh Pirates played the Yankees in the ’60 World Series, after I was long-gone.)
Some may ask how we came to be known as “Hyde Hoodlums”. I honestly don’t know, except for the fact that we were all pretty “rough and tough”, due to our physically active, relatively unsupervised, “left- to do-as-we-pleased” childhood. As a result, some of us got hurt, and some even got arrested. (We started “halloweening” in late September: corning, soaping or, worse, waxing windows, tipping over outhouses, stretching ropes and/or chains across the streets, as well as dressing up in old clothes, with nylon stockings disguising our faces, and going begging from door to door.) As far as I can recall, we Hyde kids were not into Girl and Boy Scouting, which might have redeemed some of us – although I was in 4-H, but only because my grandmother was the leader.
Leaving Hyde City Tech for the Junior High was pretty traumatic; but that’s another chapter….
All in all, I wouldn’t trade my childhood in Hyde for anything – it was a gift for which I am eternally grateful.
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Planning Committee Moves the Agenda Ahead
- Fuzzy Photo and caption by Karl NagleThe planning committee meeting for our 50th-year reunion in 2009 attracted a number of new participants to the cause on Saturday, Aug. 2. Joanne Shimel Magnuson volunteered to head the decorating committee; Sue Weisshaus Speicher presented a number of great ideas for the commemorative booklet; Sam Lansberry agreed to host an picnic-type event at his Woodland home the Friday before the the formal reunion; and Tom O'Day presented a number of excellent ideas for events surrounding the Saturday event, including golf outing, canoe trip, bus trip to historic Clearfield County sites, and Sunday breakfast.
Following the meeting, Wilbur and Karen Shirey volunteered to host a Sunday breakfast.
All in all, the meeting attracted the largest number of participants to date, and most agreed it was one of the most productive sessions yet. The next meeting is set for Saturday, Nov. 1, at the Shaw Library in Clearfield.Watch this site for a full summary of the day's discussions and decisions.
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