Schools

I was born and raised in Pittsburgh. Our neighborhood was Squirrel Hill. The name came from the hilly terrain and abundance of squirrels! We lived in a rented duplex on Beacon Street, and I went to kindergarten to second grade at Davis School (on Philips Avenue where the assisted living home is). I used to come to school via the back entrance on Hobart Street through the school playground. We would come home for lunch mid-day and then return to school in the afternoon. In the middle of first grade I fell down the school steps and broke my left arm. My teacher forced me to write with my right hand, but I went back to using my left hand as soon as my arm healed!

My mother decided to move me to Colfax school when I entered thrid grade. It was an advanced school with extensive facilities: swimming pool, full gymnasium, proper library and auditorium. Its principal, Dr. Hedwig O.Pregler, a pioneer in gifted education, established “workshops” - special classrooms for gifted children.  My love affair with libraries began from our third grade’s first visit to the Colfax school library, being impressed by the organization of the card catalog – what a key to information! During recess we liked to play baseball.

In seventh grade I started Taylor Allderdice High School – a giant structure with chemistry, physics and biology laboratories, woodworking workshops, sewing rooms, kitchens, a large cafeteria, etc. At first it seemed to be a factory of people, but quickly it became familiar. I remember having had some outstanding teachers. We had one extremely strict teacher who taught grammar and would punish us for speaking incorrectly. He would ask, “10 or 100?” [10 smacks or 100 words]. If the choice was 10, we would put our nose on a circle he had drawn on the blackboard, hold the chalk shelf, and would feel his wooden paddle as he hit us in our “seat of education”. Today, of course, that is completely illegal – but then it seems that no one objected.

I remained in Pittsburgh for university and managed to whiz through the four year degree in 2 ½ years by taking advantage of the trimester system and an overload of courses. I worked part time in the French department and later as an assistant to the Provost’s secretary. Through the later job in 1959 I met Nikita Khrushchev.