High
School Double Sessions
By
Don Browne, Harding Class of 1962
Whenever
I talk about the high school experience with non-Bridgeporters, I have to
explain about "double sessions". Most comment that they perceive
double sessions as an factor that reduces the value of the high school
educational experience.
I
point out that double sessions schools, like Warren Harding until 1967-1968, had
no less percentage of students accepted at Ivy League colleges, many with
scholarships.
The
true distinction of having the entire afternoon free becomes important when the
student becomes sixteen; the age that "working papers" were issued in
Connecticut.
Many
students had "part-time" jobs each day after "morning
school."
Those
who worked in "family-owned" businesses may have started several years
before reaching the age of sixteen.
Those
who were in courses other than "college-prep", usually worked in order
to afford the purchase of that first automobile. Many worked an eight-hour day,
1 p.m. to 9 p.m., while attending high school full-time, from 7:50 a.m. to 12:30
p.m.
The
"college-prep" crowd usually worked in order to afford the tuition of
that important freshman year at college. The plan was to work
"full-time" during the college summer break.
My
first "part-time" jobs, during my junior year at Harding, were in the
two major department stores of the city, "Read's" and
"Holland's". They didn't last very long.
I
especially remember my "part-time" job during my senior year (and
senior summer).
Each
day after class, I would board the "special" CR&L bus parked on
Central Avenue along side Hedges' Memorial Stadium...the bus that would follow
the traditional route of #9 - East Main Street. The bus would depart at 12:40
p.m., and I would eat my bag lunch on the bus, while in transit. My daily
peanut-butter-and-jelly-sandwich.
I
would exit at Main & Fairfield, and walk to Fairway Market (formerly Mohegan
Market), at 56 Fairfield Avenue. It was there that I worked in the grocery
department from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m., Monday-Friday, and 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., on
Saturday. Gratefully, the store was closed on Sundays. (Remember the Connecticut
"blue laws" of the period)
I
looked with envy at the students who worked "next door", at Rudy
Frank's Record Store, 52 Fairfield Avenue. A customer would select a vinyl
record to be "previewed", and the record store clerk would play the
single or album into a sound-proofed "listening booth"!
Imagine...being
paid to play records!
Fellow
students in my curriculum also worked "part-time", but not one every
talked about it.
Almost
like a disgrace for not being a member of the "leisure class".
I
particularly remember two students, with whom I attended every course, including
"gym".
The
late Harold Bumberg worked in a drug store/deli counter on East Main Street,
near Ohio Avenue. I remember that
he sliced off the tip of one of his fingers on a cold-cuts slicing machine!
And
the other, Ted Skiba, had what I considered to be "The Dream Job".
He
was a chemical technician (with lab smock and everything) at the Columbia
Records Pressing Plant, at 50 Ridgefield Avenue, at Ridgefield and Barnum
Avenues.
His
mother worked "full-time" at Columbia Records in a secretarial
capacity.
In
the morning, she would "drop" Ted at Harding, and drive to the
"plant".
At
12:30 p.m., Ted would walk four blocks to the "plant".
And
at 5 p.m., Ted and his mother would drive home. What a situation! A
"technical job" somewhat related to your future career
aspirations...and convenient transportation as well!
(Historical
Note: A vinyl collectors site on the internet stated that the Columbia Records
Bridgeport vinyl pressing plant closed in 1964).
But
most of the student "part-time" jobs were not as glamorous...mostly
"clerks" in grocery stores.
From
the memory of Don Browne
Press the 'BACK' button to return to the Previous Page.