Tom Saliture, Tom Suh, Kim Freyer Hahn, Bill Bahrke,
Jo Calatola, John Walters, Jeff Schmidt, Don Betts.



(unable to attend: Mike Truntz, Lynn Feltz Seitz,
Priscilla Boehme, Ted Papenthien, Tammy Adair Gorman,
Sharon Low Charlesworth)


"Mrs. Erdmann, Miss Greco, Mrs. Stehling, Sister Lataria, Mrs. Schliefer, Ms. Allen.
These are the names of my teachers from Junior Kindergarten to fourth grade.
In fifth grade we had Mr. Bahrke. Having a male teacher for the first time was
an enjoyable change. Young boys need good role models. During that year we spent
more time under the direction and influence of Mr. Bahrke than anyone else. I suspect
that we spent more time with him than even our own fathers. To say that this had no
impact on our youth would be a drastic understatement. I wanted to say thanks for all
that you did for us. For providing a secure learning environment free from distraction
and disruption. For your calm manner. For spurring our interests in learning while
allowing us to develop at our own tempo. For all the great memories, some of which
I have tried to recall and record.


I think many parents assume the classroom is a safe and secure place for their kids, but
I believe the value of such an environment is underappreciated nowadays. Back then I
remember no behavioral outbursts, no conflicts between students, bullying or the like.
I remember the respect we had for Mr. Bahrke and the respect that we had for each other.
We had a fantastic fifth grade class. Thank you, Mr. Bahrke."




What happened that year? Mr. Bahrke is a lefty (I believe). He plays touch football with us and
can throw the ball a country mile (or so it seemed) even behind his back. We are quizzed on
US geography. Mr. Bahrke pulls down a large US map and points to states with a long wooden stick
with a black rubber tip. We are asked the state and the state capital. We have challenges where the room
is split into two groups along opposite walls. Mr. Bahrke asks questions of the team players
one-by-one. If you get it wrong you had to sit down. It is the classroom version of dodgeball.
And it's fun (but not as much fun as real dodgeball). We do a LOT of reading. The assignments are in
small boxes on color-coded 5"x7" cards. We work through them at our own speed. The colors are
basic at first (red, blue, yellow) with large text and simple themes. They get progressively
harder. Paul Mueller is already on "aqua" and heading for "chartreuse" (where the text was
tiny and the content advanced) before most people have started on pastels. Ted Papenthein is
undefeatable in table tennis and likes to say "possible, but not probable" which tended to
annoy people. Paul Mueller is the most avid reader and completes all the "Big Red" series about
an Irish Setter; inspires others to read. Paul later claims to have webbed feet and then shows us
that they are actually partially webbed. (Everything is crystal clear a few years later when the
movie "Deliverance" comes out...da-da ding-ding ding-ding ding-dang-ding.) We do poster reports
on famous explorers like Columbus, Magellan and Leif Eriksson. Kim Freyer has the neatest handwriting.
After presentations are done Ted Papenthein is all too happy to announce that Amerigo Vespucci
discovered America and not Columbus. Bill Hoff performs a magic trick for the class with a handkerchief
giving the illusion that a live mouse was inside. My parents inform me that Sarah Eagan's dad
is the Mayor of Mequon which only partially explains why nobody can beat her in the 40 yard dash.
Josephine Calatola beats everyone in knuckle wrestling, boys included. Together with Sarah Eagan's
thrashing in the 40 yard dash, I (and many other male counterparts in the class) are psychologically
scarred for life. Barb Webb's family runs a hamburger chain. We hope she would bring in a sack of
burgers on her birthday for the whole class. It never happened. Don Betts keeps bragging that his
dad is a "boxer" and any dispute usually ends up leading to "my dad can beat up your dad". It later
turns out his dad works at Downing Box Company. Nerd genes start to get expressed. People start to
volunteer to be audio-visual assistants (a.k.a. A-V assistants) and leave their hard-earned posts
selling milk at the lunchroom entrance. They are quick to explain the difference between an
overhead and opaque projector, and work to perfect their timing of the "pings" on the record player
with the next slide on our filmstrips. Our classroom was the closest to the exits for the playground,
a key feature. We are also close to the library and school nurse, as well as the art rooms.
Mr. Ridgely comes to our class so we can try out musical instruments. After you blow on a horn
the mouthpiece is rinsed in water then dipped in Listerine. We had library time where
"Charlotte's Web" and "James and the Giant Peach" is read out loud for the class. We sit
"Indian style" on the floor and listen. A carton of milk goes up to 4 cents that year,
a 100% increase, yet still a bargain.



source: Google