David Nicholls:  

June 2014..... Well, since it'd been 40 or more years since I've seen a lot of the folks on this site, there's no sense in recapping my whole life. I've been married to the same girl for 20 or so years, and although we never had kids, we've dedicated our lives to rescuing animals, especially cats lately. I've remained active in environmental issues since I was a teenager, and have been vice-president of the largest environmental group in Philly until recently. I have been in business as a design and construction builder for almost 30 years in Philly, and am slowly moving towards closing that phase of my life, and devoting full time to my real love, antiques. I buy and sell constantly, and have been doing so for almost 20 years. I do not watch those reality shows on tv, because as soon as they put those shows on, everybody wants to do it, and it f*cks up people who do it for a living. I had a real good life growing up in The Heights, and still think about my many friends who I grew up with, and went to grammer school with. Many of them also went to Gateway, where my experiance was definitely different. But I made a lot of good friends there, too, from Wenonah, Westville, and National Park. Most of it was good, but growing up is tough, and it wasn't easy in the 60's and 70's. We made it through, though, and those of you reading this have at least one thing in common; you're survivors. I'd like an email from anybody who's got the time and inclination. My email is vintageculture at comcast dot net. Just remember to put Gateway or something in the message bar so I don't delete it. ....It's now September, 2019. Hard to believe so much time has gone by. It's funny, but as the years from our time in Gateway grow longer, the more I think of those days. So much different now from when we went to school. Does anybody remember the crazy Mott the Hoople concert in the Gateway auditorium? It was an experience unlike anything any other teenager of the time could have had. Steve Starr put it together, with a little help from me, and I was privileged to help bring the band in, and set them up in their "dressing room". The first thing anybody saw besides the long, frizzed-up hair, were the thigh-high python boots that Ian Hunter was wearing. They were aloof but very pleasant, undoubtedly being somewhat frazzled at the thought of playing in a high school auditorium in front of a crowd of pimply-faced teenagers. They were awesome, and I spent the entire concert perched on Hunters' piano. The chaperones were aghast when he screamed into the mic for the engineer to "turn the F*ckin volume up!". HA! Cool! The End Story 2...It's Spring of 2023, and I'm sitting in my office looking through some items that my partner Eric and I bought at auction yesterday. More antiques for us to sell online and in person at shows and flea markets. But I'm writing this note after looking through some yearbook photos of my class of 1973, and classes both before and after that, and have come to the conclusion that we had some REALLY good-looking girls in that era. And there were more than a few good looking guys in there too. But the ladies really shine! And check out the clothes from the early 70's. Denim minis, polyester shirts and blouses, thigh-high boots, the first bell bottoms (circa 1967!), beads, peace sign buttons, shaggy hair cuts, platform shoes, chunky glasses, 3" wide leather belts! What a time! And the music. Too many awesome groups to list. So many memories from just a few old photos. 8th Grade English Class We had Mr. Simon for our English 101. He was the son of our Superintendent, and he was a Young Republican who wore his hate of the younger generation on his sleeve. He was constantly putting down the music we listened to and the clothes we wore. One day he had an assignment to read the words to a popular song in front of the class. His goal, we all realized, was to show how silly the lyrics sound when spoken without the music. We had all read our chosen passage when Jimmy Richmond came bounding to the front of the class. Jim was a constant source of funny distraction in our classes, and he could imitate any hot rod engine noise on demand. "Was that a car outside, or was that you Mr. Richmond?" The teachers never knew. So Jim gets up in front of the class, his stringy hair falling across one eye, and a stupid smirk on his face starts in "You know I smoked a lotta Grass, oh Lord, I popped a lot of pills. But I never done nothin, lord, that my spirit would kill....Goddam! The Pusher!" We were howling and applauding Jim's spirited reading of the lyrics. Mr. Simon's fat face turned beet red and sputtered "Mr. Richmond!" Go to the Principal's office NOW!" I went down with him and a couple others, and explained to Bob Catando (our cool VP) that Jimmy finally did a class assignment correctly. He laughed and sent us back to class without any punishment. Score a victory for the good guys! Sadly Jimmy died in a car crash a couple years after graduation but I still think of him occasionally and those crazy days when we were young. 1960's Winter in Woodbury Heights One of the strange things that has happened to our local environment in the last 50 years is the fact that we no longer get appreciable snow or have temperatures cold enough to freeze the Heights Lake. My earliest recollections of winter in my hometown was the lake that we all swam in during the summer continued to be a center of attraction for all age...Expand for more