I was quite moved by Thomas J. Caulfield’s recollections of the opening day at Woodlawn Junior High in 1964. I, too, was there that day, entering eighth grade after spending my entire school career at School 74, near my inner-city home. I remember how excited we students were at the pristine appearance of the new building, at the modern desks and equipment, at the first lockers most of us had ever had. We were full of hope, though we were too young to understand it as such, and the sparkling new school gave us a feeling of moving toward the future.

It was a future I had been well prepared for in my neighborhood school, especially in sixth grade by Bernard Grestl and in seventh grade by Caulfield, who wrote the June 28 Viewpoints article. Grestl made science live at a time I was reading science fiction and beginning to write my own stories. In English class, Caulfield strengthened my writing and prefaced news of John Kennedy’s death by explaining that a president once had been assassinated in Buffalo. Some weeks later, tracking down that piece of history, I discovered newspapers on microfilm in the central library.

As a writer and a scholar, I owe these teachers a great debt and I would like to take this opportunity to thank them.

Gary Earl Ross

Buffalo