Last session you said you moved to a town called Baldwin. On Long Island.
Right. In Nassau County. Know where the town is?
No.
Not many people do. It’s on the south shore. I tell people that, if they drive out Sunrise Highway, or if they take the Long Island Railroad, they’ll find it between Rockville Centre and Freeport.
More people know where those towns are.
Why did your parents choose Baldwin?
Not sure. It was a pleasant little town. Not too big. My folks rented for a few years and then bought a house in another part of town.
So you went to school there?
Right. Coolidge School. They didn’t add the word “elementary” for some reason. Baldwin had several elementary schools — three or four, I think — and a high-school building.
No middle school?
No. That was before middle schools came along. On paper we had a junior high, but there was no building for it. Grade 7 classes were in the elementary-school buildings, and grades 8 and 9 were in the senior-high building. We had a junior-high graduation ceremony, but then we continued to go to the same building for grades 10 through 12. Kind of weird. Want to know what they have now?
Sure.
I looked it up on the Web the other day. Baldwin now has a senior-high building, a middle-school building, and seven elementary schools.
The Internet is something, isn’t it?
Sure is. Say. We’re gonna talk about my volunteering, aren’t we.
Right.
How about I tell you now about my very first act of volunteering?
Okay.
It was in maybe 6th or 7th grade. They needed an older kid to stop traffic so the little kids could cross the street. And I volunteered. I tell this to people and they say No Way. But this was back in the quiet days before World War 2. Traffic was scarce and slow. So they put a white belt on me, one that goes diagonally across my chest — that was before they started using yellow — and I would stop the few cars that came while the little kids crossed the road.
I see.
And I wore an armband to show that I was legit. And — would you believe this? — I still have it. And here it is.
It must be 75 years old, but I still have it and it’s in pretty good shape.
What do the letters stand for?
Well, the CS is for Coolidge School. The P I’m not too sure about. I’m guessing it’s for Patrol, as in Safety Patrol. It’s been a while.
Any other recollections from elementary school?
A few. But let’s leave them for next time.
Okay.