---- — Many of us would have been up a creek without their paddles. Let me explain. When we were kids in the halls of Farrell Junior High School, two of the teachers that we feared (as in respected) the most were Gene Leonard and Tom Cimoric. Back in the days when corporal punishment was legal in Pennsylvania and most other states, Tom and Gene knew how to wield the paddle when we needed it the most.

Gene was the industrial arts teacher, whom we had for metal and wood shop. Tom was our mechanical drawing teacher, or as I have joked on many occasions, he taught me how to draw straight lines. I loved the class.

It has been some 45 years since these two excellent teachers were trying to show us how to conduct ourselves in the right way, and we were honored when they attended the 40th reunion of the Farrell High Class of 1970 Saturday night at Oak Tree Country Club.

As classmate John Matsis, who traveled from Las Vegas to attend, said during the social hour preceding the dinner, “Looking back, Gene had to be the way he was. I mean, we were 13-year-old kids with power tools.”

Good times filled the ballroom throughout the evening, with many guys telling stories about being put on the hot seat by Gene and Tom (many of which they denied as fiction, but we knew better). They and their wives were spotlighted in a dance dedicated to them, and near the end of the reunion around midnight, they were serenaded to a rendition of “Daddy’s Home” by a gathering of classmates led by Paul Samuels, Randy Wright and the former Yvonne Malloy.

I have the good fortune of seeing Gene all the time. He lives in Sharpsville up the street from me, and he keeps busy throughout the area in the home remodeling and repair business with his son Brian.

Tom is retired as well, and when the organizers of the reunion were looking for some old photographs, I called Tom and he found a few. I spent an hour with him at his house last Thursday when I picked them up, and relived a lot of great memories from our junior high days.

More than a third of the 183 living members of the class attended the dinner, during which we paid tribute to 28 of the original 211 classmates whom are no longer with us.

Get the Class of 1970 together and it’s all about the music, and DJ Dean Leonetti played probably every hot song on the charts from 1968 to 1970. As the brother of a classmate, the former Janie Leonetti, he pressed all the right buttons throughout the night.

The Class of 1970 remains one of the tightest-knit in the history of Farrell High. When it’s not a reunion every fifth year, it’s an annual summer get-together. While he has lots of help from several other classmates, it’s Jack Monaco who is largely responsible for keeping things together. We owe him and the others a huge debt of gratitude for it.

When I walked into the lobby to use the restroom as one of the great soul songs from the fall of 1969 was shaking the walls in the background, one of two people leaving Oak Tree from a different function asked, “Where’s that great music coming from?” The other responded, “It’s from in there,” she said, nodding toward the ballroom. “It’s all the reunion kids from Farrell.”

I smiled. It was two of our finest teachers and just us Farrell “kids” — again, at least for Saturday night, anyway.

The editor’s mailbag

I got the following short letter from Anna J. Weber of West Middlesex, who found out that we have Good Samaritans out there, but we don’t often hear of their good deeds.

“On Sunday, Aug. 22, I was driving north on Route 18 in Hermitage when I got a flat tire. When I realized it was flat I had to wait until I could get off the road, past the golf course. A very nice lady from Hubbard pulled over and came back to check on me. I was shook up and she waited until I called my son, Patrick, to come. She stayed with me until I calmed down and she offered to stay until my son would come from Pulaski, I finally told her I would be fine and she did leave.

“I saw a car going toward West Middlesex make a U-turn and pull up behind me. Two very nice men dressed in Army fatigues got out to check on me. I told them my son was on his way. However, they offered to change my tire and said they could have it changed before he would get there. They told me to open my trunk and they found the spare tire and jack. They did have the tire almost changed when Patrick pulled up.

“We hear about people not getting help when they need it. I feel very thankful for these three great people who came along to help me. I really appreciated the concern. I thank these men for serving our country.”



Jim Raykie is the editor of The Herald and writes this column on Mondays. His e-mail is jraykie@sharonherald.com or you can find him on Facebook at jraykie@facebook.com/jim.raykie