James Hensel

No one called me James, it was usually Jim, sometimes Herbie - not anymore, except when mom was not happy. I have yet to attend one, something about not being able to go back, sorry. That was a wonderful time and place, but ............

Have lost two very good friends, Ricki Rovner and Rick Dombrowski, and his little brother Paul (72) too.

I became the Jerry Cohen (Earth Science Instructor) of Williamsville, and surprising, had a few classmates kids while at North. Have done a goodly amount of volunteer work, Tonawanda Police Underwater Squad, Niagara Dive Rescue, and now Ellicott Creek Fire.

Even though I won't be attending, it is still fun to see how successful we have become and read about your lives. We were a force in 1970, and it is nice to see that we still are.

I remember that we were the first class at Sweet Home to win the Clarkson Trophy for the best all around athletics. A football team that gave Joe Shiflet his start. A wrestling team that was second to none. A high school education that made me a pretty decent educator.

I recall some really horrid ones like Ruby Bass and Julius Fernbach. The Slavic Club still makes me laugh. The bulletin board where we posted stuff of all flavors. The outstanding teachers we had, the late Jerry Cohen, Mike Lopardi, Robert 'Deo datus' Brophy, Emil 'Iron Cross' Schweissing, Ma Fernsted, Russ Mendola, Harold Pliss, the late Phil Russell, Carl Roesch, the late Bob Vartanian, Bob Barczak, Fred Schroth. When I look back at them as a teacher, we had a pretty eclectic group. Roland Ransom was a tough guy, but if you got to know him, he was a pussy cat, and SH made a huge mistake losing him, especially for Kidd. Remember the time in the gym when we came back from the Senior breakfast pretty well toasted and Kidd tried to tell us he was not "tight-up" about our drinking. I think we all almost peed our pants laughing at him.