Was there ever a better time to be in High School? We don't think so! And neither does Hollywood, TV, and Broadway. Our high school era has been immortalized on Broadway in 'Grease', and then Hollywood put it on the big screen with John Travolta and Olivia Newton John, and it is now back on Broadway for a second run. TV glamorized our era with 'Happy Days'.

So what was going on in 1955 outside of Nyack High School?

Politics of 1951-1955:
President Harry S Truman was  in office when we entered High School. In our sophomore year, Dwight D. Eisenhower became the first Republican president in 20 years. Sen. Joseph McCarthy was digging up communists in every facet of American life.

Events of 1955:
James Dean was killed in a car accident. Albert Einstein died. The Korean War had just started as we entered High School, but by our sophomore year, a truce was declared which lasted through graduation and beyond. Juan Peron was ousted in Argentina. The Brooklyn Dodgers beat the NY Yankees in the World Series. Disneyland opened in California. It was the first model year of the Ford Thunderbird. Ray Kroc became a franchise agent for a small hamburger stand owned by 2 brothers in San Bernadino, CA. In 1955, he opened his first franchised restaurant in Chicago. 6 years later he bought out the brothers, but kept the franchise name, which was the brothers' last name, for his restaurants. McDonald.

Movies:
'Marty' (Academy Award), 'Mister Roberts', 'East of Eden', 'Picnic', 'The Rose Tattoo', 'Love is a Many Splendered Thing', 'The Man with the Golden Arm', 'Bad Day at Black Rock', 'Rebel without a Cause', 'The Blackboard Jungle', 'To Catch a Thief'.

Television:
Good old black and white television, no colors to get in the way.  Sunday nights were the best. 'Victory at Sea' (caused me to join the Navy), 'Omnibus' with Alistair Cooke, 'Your Show of Shows' with Sid Ceasar and Imogene Coca, 'Toast of the Town' with Ed Sullivan, 'The Colgate Comedy Hour' with numerous comedic talent, such as Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, 'Gunsmoke', 'Ozzie and Harriet', 'The Jackie Gleason Show', 'This is your Life'. the Kefauver Crime Committee Hearings, the McCarthy Hearings.

Music:
"Rock Around the Clock' (Bill Haley and the Comets), 'Sincerely' (The McGuire Sisters), 'Earth Angel' (The Penquins), 'Let Me Go Lover' (Joan Weber), 'Autumn Leaves' (Roger Williams), Yellow Rose of Texas' (Mitch Miller), 'Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White' (Perez Prado), 'Sixteen Tons' (Tennessee Ernie Ford), 'Only You' (The Platters),  'Hearts of Stone' (The Fontaine Sisters). Other popular singers of the day were; Patti Page, Jo Stafford, Frankie Laine, Jaye P. Morgan, Sinatra, The Mills Brothers, Peggy Lee, The Ames Brothers, Rosemary Clooney, Johnnie Ray, etc. Some guy down in Tennessee by the name of 'Elvis' something was breaking into music.
Some Big Bands were still around and some new ones were taking their place but as a genre, they were slowly dying out. The Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra, Mantovani, Sauter-Finegan, David Rose, Hugo Winterhalter.
45 RPM records. Stereo...? What's that?

During the vote for the Senior Prom theme song, a bunch of us rowdies (the Raffa boys; Chris and Jerry, and some others) voted for 'Skokian', a popular song with african influences song by the Buluwiao Sweets Rhythm Band, or something like that. I don't remember what the final outcome of the vote was, but I think it was something with 'Moon' in the title (Blue Moon?).

Personal Remembrances:
Hanging out at 'Schmitt's' after school.
Ice skating on the Upper Nyack Pond.
Setting pins at the Nyack Bowling Alleys for 10 cents a game per player.
Late nights at the Nyack Diner.
Watching the Tappan Zee Bridge being built from the classroom window.
The 1954 yearbook being recalled because there was a picture of someone sitting on an American flag draped over a barrel.
The Nyack Sea Scouts.
Jamie MacArthur (Helen Hayes' son, and later as Det. Danny Williams on 'Hawaii Five-O') spent some time with us in our freshman year at Nyack HS.
Joanie Adams falling from my '41 Ford ('Yellow Fenders') on Haven Court while going to school one morning. I could never keep a girl in my car with that broken passenger door.
Loitering with the boys on the corner of Park and Main Sts.
The Nyack cops: Chief Royden Garrabrandt, Pete Gentile, Tony Guerrieri, Justin Kaney, Hugh Gaynor, Don Schiebel, etc. All of them used to chase us from the aforementioned corner (Schiebel gave me my first ticket for racing up the Fifth Avenue hill in the same '41 Ford. 50 at the bottom and 2 gears later, 20 at the top. I think it was the pirate flag on the antenna that ticked him off).
The swimming hole behind O&R in West Nyack (I forgot what it was called. The 20 foot??).
Art class and the Halloween store window painting (I won some awards for mine).
Cruisin' all over Rockland on 50 cents worth of gas and 6 spare tires (I was an expert on changing tires in less than 5 minutes).
South Nyack and Eddie Nolan's Restaurant's shrimp cocktail before the TZ bridge ramps covered it up.
Picking tomatoes at Handwerg's during the summer.
Driving Doris Lindfors crazy in English 11 (she got even by failing me).
Cuttin' up with Mary Bergin in English 12 (I didn't fail that one).
The Nyack-Tappan Zee football game played in the mud.

Bill Schnakenberg