Throwback Thursday: Rocker Remembers When PS 84 Was New in the Tumultuous Year of 1963

John French (Segall), 72, has lived on the Upper West Side, in the same building, since he was a child. He grew up to become a guitarist who founded the heavy metal band Twisted Sister, which had some smash hits like “We’re Not Gonna Take It,” and toured the world, filling stadiums and arenas.

Here’s John in 1984.

But in 1963, John was still the sweet-faced fifth grader you see in his school picture above — top row, second from the right. John came upon the school photo recently and sent it to the Rag along with the following reminiscence. It is unedited.   

By John French (Segall)

My parents moved up to the UWS on Oct 1st 1958.

My mom and I got out at the old 91st street IRT station and I thought it was great to have a station on our block (that was very short-lived as it was closed a year later). 

I was promptly enrolled into PS 93 on Amsterdam Ave at 93rd St. The building, to my 6 year old eyes, was very dark, depressing and imposing. I walked into the first grade class of Miss Acherno. She was taking attendance. As she called out each child’s names I thought they were saying “president.” They weren’t. They were saying “present.” When she announced my name, I said ‘president.’ Everyone laughed at me. Great, I felt stupid on my first day!

A girl named Rose Soohoo, whose parents owned the laundry on the corner of 92nd st and Amsterdam kind of felt sorry for me. She walked over and asked me if I wanted to paint with her. I was excited. So excited that I accidentally spilled an entire jar of yellow paint on her dress. That ended that friendship for years!

The schoolyard behind the building (still visible today as you pass the development that replaced the school) is where the blackboard eraser wall was. That wall, now covered with graffiti, is still there. If you were a ‘bad’ kid, you were sent down to the schoolyard by your teacher to bang the chalk out of the blackboard erasers on the wall. It seems I was sent there a lot!

By 1961 I became aware that something was happening up on Columbus Ave between 91st and 92nd street. All the tenements were being torn down along Columbus ave and up and down 91st and 92nd street. 

A new school was coming!

A makeshift office was set up on 92nd street between Columbus Ave. and Central park west to relocate all the people being dislodged from their soon to be former homes.

Finally, in the spring of 1963, our fifth grade teacher Mrs. Harvey, told us on a Friday that, come Monday, we would clean out our desks and walk over to our new school. That Monday, we grabbed whatever we had, marched up 93rd street and walked into our new building, PS 84.

We were greeted by our new principal, Mr Forrest.

The whole building was new and shiny and unlike the dour darkness of PS 93, my former gothic gulag, it felt like another world.

Going into 6th grade that following September was kind of giddy as we all knew that come the following year we were all going to the really big junior high school, Joan of Arc. Who could know about  the cataclysmic events that were about to take place within the next 6 months.

On Friday, November 22 of 1963, we were all in the auditorium watching a Danny Kaye produced movie about UNICEF. All of a sudden the film stopped and we were all ushered out back to our classrooms. As we walked into our classroom (6-308) our teacher Mrs. Craig was crying. What was happening? I walked out of the room and walked into a guidance counselor’s office at the end of the hall. The radio was on. I heard the news. President Kennedy was assassinated. I went back to class and just as I got there we were all told to go home. I remember that day as it was yesterday. It was a beautiful late fall day, crisp and clear.

As I walked down 91st street toward my apartment building I was in a state of shock. When the elevator door opened on my floor, my mother was in the hall with a neighbor. They were both crying.

While hard to believe, a mere 10 weeks later, on the evening of February 9th, 1964, the Beatles appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show. The next day, that was all anybody could talk about.

Beatlemania took over the world!

The dark cloud of despair that had hung over all of us since November 22 was lifted and the joy of rock n roll took over across America. The rest of the school year consisted of daily after school sessions at Peggy Chance’s apartment on CPW with schoolmates  Peter Nicolas, Berly Kobritch and Melody Phillips listening obsessively to Beatles records. 

Pop music on the radio took over the rest of the school year.

My memories of PS 84 are forever encased by these songs and events. 

To this day, I walk by the PS 84 schoolyard and remember the whipsaw of the life-changing events in my last year at PS 84.

Those events went on to shape my life as well as the lives of millions. 

Here is John today.

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