Meet Attila Barandi...Memphis Class of 1968

A fellow Memphis Alum, Attila Barandi discovered this Blog in his hometown of Hungary. Attila graduated from Memphis in 1968. Here's Attila's Memphis' sixth-grade school picture. Read Attila's excellent collection of memories of Memphis below. As always, click on any picture to enlarge.

Yes, that's our very own fellow Memphian meeting Princess Di. Attila was a military twin-turboprop pilot. We'll hear more from Attila in the near future.

Current photo of our friend, Attila Barandi.

My Memories of Memphis School by Attila Barandi.

For some reason I just decided to type in “Memphis Elementary School Cleveland” in Google and your site came up. I, too, along with a gazillion others, am an alumni

from Memphis. I started there 4 years earlier than you, it seems (I graduated HS in 1974---and never flunked a grade). Anyway, I remember Donald Sopka as a new teacher then, teaching Science. Also had Miss Krzepina for like the 4th and 6th grade. And back then the school year was split into As and Bs. If you were on the normal cycle, you started school as a B in Sep, then became an A in January (example they had grades 4A and 4B). Some kids were on the reverse cycle meaning their school year started in January as a B and they became an A in September.

Some other notable teachers, and this is a stretch of the memory: Mrs Dorn; Mrs Rieger; Mrs Florence Walzak; Principal Mrs Durkin;

I remember in 1968 one of the teachers brought a large radio in and we listened to the Russians quelling a revolution in Czechoslovakia.

Upon reaching the 5th grade, students were then “changing classes”, meaning you had more than just wanted teacher during the day.

I remember in 1963, in the 2nd grade, in the afternoon, a teacher came into the room crying, whispered to my teacher something, then they both left and the classroom became unattended. Before I knew it, we were all released from school early and sent home....President Kennedy had been shot. A few months later, the kids in class were buzzing about this musical group that would be on TV that coming weekend on the Ed Sullivan show. The Beatles.

There used to be CD (Civil Defense) emblems on the corners of school in case of nuclear attack, the basement would have been our refuge. I don’t recall ever having to do those drills where kids dive under their desks in case of nuclear attack, though.

I was also one of the school guards maintaining law and order on Henritze and W 41st, though I don’t think I ever had to strike anyone with my flag.

I remember the gym had ropes that you had to climb (or was that Mooney?) as a measure of a persons physical well-being.

I moved from the Cleveland area in Feb 69 (7th grade then at Mooney) and never really returned to the area. I mentioned to my sons that the school was something like you saw from an old 40s movie. The kids were well-behaved. When I got to Mooney, everything changed. First week of school, a punky kid named Charlie Brown, went to the teacher and punched him in the face a few times before the teacher could restrain him. Never saw the kid again. So it was a big change from Memphis where there maybe was a playful fight on the school grounds once a year.

In 1997, I returned to the Cleveland area with my young sons—we were living in Arizona then. We visited the Cleveland Zoo. Upon entering, I asked the ticket-taker what happened to Brookside Pool. She was in her 20's or so, said that there never was a swimming pool there. I told her there was, and evidently it was before her time.

Thanks for putting this Blog together and a big hello to all my classmates!...Attila, Class of 1968