Pingry School


Pingry was a notable decline from my chaotic Middle School days. I put more work and effort into my classes and became good friends with Mike Plocek. Mike was older than most others, so he was one of the first people with a license and a car, and one day we got busted for being off campus during the day, but for the most part I kept within the boundaries of good behavior during school times.

I worked constantly thoroughout high school, at Shop Rite, which gave me enough spending money to go out in my free time and have a fun time with the friends I still retained from middle school. Most of them went to the Watchung Hills Public High School, but I stayed good friends with them throughout this period. Along with enjoying ourselves in many perfectly legal ways, we would occasionally go out and destroy one person's mailbox who shall remain nameless here. Driveby knocking over trash cans was always a little bit amusing, and of course Karl's driving always kept us entertained. He lives among trucks, and had been driving since he was just a wee tot, so he had a penchant for driving his vehicles to the limit. He would avoid objects with inches to spare and when everybody complained he would respond calmly that he was "miles" away from the object. Of course, driving at the limit occasionally ends in going slightly over, and he did end up getting into an accident or two with his '63 Ford Pick-Up. Once he lost his brakes, another time an elderly guy cut us off on a rainy day and we backended him, and finally a tire blowout resulted in an impact into a mound of dirt which was the death knell for that vehicle. He quickly replaced it with a '67 Ford Galaxie 500 which he is still driving today.

One thing that we did do a number of times which was quite a bit of fun involved going to an old boarding school which was boarded up and off limits to trespassers. It was ubiquitously known as "The Mansion," and was truly scary to go through for the first time. Among the attractions were a pentagram, a noose, and a dank and dark basement.

Pingry was a good time for me, though. I did learn a lot there and it really broadened my horizons. I got pretty good grades, and scored well on most of the standardized tests. While there, I met Apu Mullick, a genuinely nice guy who went on to go to Stevens Institute where I eventually ended up going to college for two years.


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