Demolition of Woodrow Wilson High School & thoughts on high school

Two summers ago when some of my teacher friends from Mary Ethel Costello School and I were meeting for lunch at Maritsa's in Maple Shade, there was a group of lively and cheery elders at a table nearby. I couldn't help but notice there was an array of high school memorabilia at a table beside them, they were alumni from Woodrow Wilson High School, class of 1955. Although they were obviously elderly with the usual short white permed hair and the seriously outnumbered men, they were joyful and having a great time. I think there may have been about ten people, about two or three men. There was a yearbook, a letter jacket, a large format class group photo, and a couple of other artifacts.

My own high school group still meets for reunion and I was surprised to find from several friends with whom I spoke about this event that other high schools didn't! Perhaps it is because my high school is from the old days of small local schools with smaller class sizes. We had 150 graaduates, about a hundred of us survive and about 50 of us come to the reunions.

I have often said that high school had little impact on my life but I was wrong. When my family moved from South Philadelphia to New Jersey, my life took a radical turn to the better. Merchantville High School at that time took tuition students from Maple Shade because they didn't have enough teens to keep the school open and the neighbor towns had the new developments springing up for the upwardly movile veterans of World War II. Lots of huge housing ventures sprang from that event and the resulting baby boom.

The kids at Merchantville were sophisticated, well dressed, well behaved and a good example to set a standard for those of us from Philadelphia. I dread to thin k what my high sschool life would have been like if we hadn't moved. The schools in South Philadelphia were notorious for fighting, bulgarity, and low class behavior of all kinds.

Immediately, I learned how to talk like the kids from Merchantville, and eradicated expressions such as "youse" and "I senen" from my speech. It also raised my expectations. My best frieds went to college, so it occurred to me that perhaps I could go to college too. Of course, eventually I did go to college and in fact, pretty much never stopped going. I got my fial dgree, a masters at age 60!

We are dwindling, the alumni of Merchantville High School class of 1963. Just a yeaar or so ago, I lost two classmates, my best friend Chris Gilbreath (married name Borget), and a neighbor and teen friend, Romeo Benrtura.

I am one of those people who feel that places hold a residue of emotion. Can you imagine the layers of teenage emotion that went into the dust of the demolition of Woodrow Wilson High School? I bid the building a sad farewell and a memorial honoring of the memories that now exist only in the hearts ad minds of the thousands of young people who once passed through those halls on their way to adulthood!

wrightj45@yahoo.com