P.S. 19 - Asher Levy School

I graduated from P.S. 19 - Asher Levy Elementary School, where I attended from kindergarten through 6th grade.

I always did well in school, even though I was a clown and I didn't try very hard. I have lots of memories from elementary school.

I didn't finish kindergarten, because my mom took me on a bus trip to California instead. This was after my teacher said I was going to fail kindergarten because I didn't know my colors. In reality I just refused to color my police hat purple...because police hats aren't purple.

In the third grade my principal, Mr. Shapiro, threatened to call the police on me and force me to take a lie detector test unless I told him "the truth." The truth was that I did not write any letter, offensive or otherwise, to Collette, but he refused to accept this. I do recall thinking that the handwriting did look awfully like mine, and eventually I succumbed to fear and doubt and said that I did write the letter, even though I didn't.

I remember learning about Greek and Roman history in Mrs. Drooker's class. She was my 5th and 6th grade teacher and she also taught music. We did a lot of shows. I was the Mad Hatter in a performance of Alice In Wonderland, and I sang the Unbirthday Song on stage...by myself.

In the fifth grade we began strings class. Of the ~30 kids in my class I was one of two who was selected to play upright bass. After a couple of months I got tired of having to stand all the time and I switched to violin, which I never excelled at, or even put much effort into. In the sixth grade I faked my way through our class concert.