( Above is Rick's '55 Graduation Photo and then today, with wife Jane and their three grandaughters )
You made me dredge up memories I had buried. You brought back a lifetime long ago and far away.
What the hell do I remember- THE PLAYGROUND of Mountain Brook Grammar School. Swinging from the flag pole chain in front of the school. Touch football in front; tackle football in back. The water fountain in back- "Don't put your mouth on it". The playground fights. The fraternity initiations. Gus Valahos riding his horse through the front yard of the school. The horse kicked him so he kicked the horse back.
The track meets. The football games - "Don't drink water or you will puke!" So, the players fainted from dehydration.
Dodge ball on the asphalt. Krispy Kreme donut sales behind the school. Sliding down the rails down the steps behind the school. The girls making clover chains behind the playground. The creek. The bridge across the creek.
Cleaning erasers outside the classroom on the south side of the school.
My brother falling through the floor as they were building the addition to the school. Me, carrying him home - across the street.
The mystique of "Cambridge Road"
We were a world apart. We were being protected, isolated, educated.
What was going on outside of our world? We got war news from Saturday morning newsreels. We knew nothing good about blacks except that we were being raised and taught by our black maids. We had fear of "the bomb". Antisemitism raised its head on the school yard and in synagogues being bombed. We were protected but we were impacted nevertheless.
We were kids. Oh, so far away and oh, so, so long ago.
Rick Paskowitz
Name: Richard A. Paskowitz, M.D.
AKA now Rick
AKA then Rickey
Spouse's name Jane Stineman Paskowitz
Address 3482 Hokan Lane
Wheatland, California, 95692
Phone 530- 633-9557
E-mail rrap@jps.net
Children 2, Grandchildren 3
Education/Career Highlights: Medical School, Residency, Practice in Memphis, Tennessee
Medical Officer Nuclear Submarine SSBN 636
Retired from Kaiser Permanente Sacramento/Roseville California
Highlights of Community Service/Honors:
Clinical Professor Obstetrics and Gynecology
University of California, Davis
Sacramento, California
Hobbies/Favorites Pastimes: Teaching and Consulting
"Working a lot less, enjoying it a lot more."
Living and recreating in the Sacramento Valley and the Sierras
Currently lecturing on "Medical Lessons From the Death of
Elvis Presley"
Favorite Memory of Growing up in Mt. Brook: THE PLAYGROUND OF MOUNTAIN BROOK SCHOOL
