Robert Pettit:
CLASS OF 1961
New Bedford High SchoolClass of 1961
New bedford, MA
Stevens High SchoolClass of 1961
Claremont, NH
Oran Moser Elementary SchoolClass of 1961
Rocky hill, CT
Claremont Junior High SchoolClass of 1957
Claremont, NH
Way Elementary SchoolClass of 1955
Claremont, NH
Robert's Story
April 19, 2011
After growing up through the 5th grade in Rocky Hill, CT, my family moved to Claremont, NH in early June of 1954. There I attended Way School in Mrs. Perkin's 5th grade class. I went through school with many people of the class of 1961 but, sadly, moved away early in our freshman year at Steven's HS. When I first moved to Claremont it was late in the school year so I didn't get to make many friends in Way School right away. During that summer I did make neighborhood friends. Then, when school started again, most of them went to St. Mary's. I lived at 25 Walnut St. Next to the Pomieckos, across the corner from the Rollins and across the street from Joanne Smith and Sheila Wolcott. The friends I made were from the two large families next door and behind, the Fourniers and the Emonds.
When 6th grade started in September I was in Mrs. Rollins class to start with. I square danced in the 6th grade and Mrs. Rollins liked me as a partner. I remember dancing with her a lot. But who was a normal partner for me I couldn't remember.
After a few weeks in Mrs Rollins class I was singled out, I never knew why, to go over to the screamer's class, Mrs Philbrick's. Mrs. Philbrick, the screamer, drove me NUTS !!
I recently have had second brush with Vietnam agent orange caused diseases, Lymphoma again (currently in treatment and headed for stem cell bone marrow transplant in about three weeke ), diabetes and neuropathy.
I live in Endwell, NY, upstate near Binghamton with my wife of 44 years, Suzanne. We have two grown children, Robert 43 and Jeffrey 37, both married. Jeffrey and his wife just blessed us, and their sister Soleil, with healthy twin girls. So we are now grandparents to thee girls and two boys .
When my family moved from Claremont, it was to Milford, CT where we lived a block from the beach on LI Sound. Sadly I spent the summers at Boy Scout camp and my parents rented out the house. So my summers were not on the beach but on the lake the scout camp was on. After two years in Milford we moved again to New Bedford, Mass where I finished up HS, graduating in 1961. After graduation, my parents were on the move again so I moved back with my grandparents in Rocky Hill, CT to try to earn enough money to attend New Bedford Tech for Mechanical Engineering. That didn't happen (at $1 an hour), so in late August of 1961 I joined the Marines. I spent 6 years on active dut...Expand for more
y, the last of which was in Vietnam. I then came back to my wife and child to attend Worcester Polytech where Suzanne taught school and supported us. I finished in 1971 earning my BSEE. My wife and I then spent June, July and half of August of 1971 driving around Europe and came back to a job in Binghamton at Singer Link, the world leader in simulation. I retired in June of 2001 as Manager of Engineering of a spin off company, Doron Precision Systems, where I still put in a few days a week, coming and going as I pleased for about 15-20 hrs a week as an electronics technician with no responsibilities. I worked until the end of 2009 when I was suffering the effects of lymphoma so badly that I just could not work. I finally went to the VA hospital where I was efficiently diagnosed and cured with only 6 chemotherapy treatments, no surgery and no radiation.
I did return to Claremont one Sunday, probably in the winter of 1988 or so. My wife and I had just dropped Jeff and a friend at Killington to ski and drove over for church at Trinity Episcopal. After church we looked around the town (sooooo much smaller than I remembered) and I believe I saw an old flame, although I could be very wrong, I did not make contact with her but I do remember the car and very large 80s style glasses.
Coming back from Vietnam for me was not traumatic. I was very focused on the forthcoming four years of college and I had a welcoming family to come home to. Plus I saw very little combat. I went into the Marines expecting to get sent to college to become an officer - didn't happen. I also had the opportunity to learn to fly helicopters, at the beginning of the build up in Vietnam. That also didn't happen. In either case I probably was lucky and would not have survived in one piece, if at all. Young officers and helicopter pilots/co-pilots both had a very high rate of casualties. Anyway, they eventually did help me through college, with the GI Bill and my wife's teaching getting me through.
I remember the penmanship classes of an hour or two each week in 6th grade. Swirls and swirls and swirls ? And real INK !
I also remember lining up at the end of the school year to collect money (was it 1¢ a day of attendance ?). That money didn't seem like very much at the time as I had a large paper route and always had some pocket money. Most went toward baseball cards and comic books. Wish I had them now.
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