East High School - Exodus Yearbook (Cleveland, OH)

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A TRIP TO TOMORROW It was a cool morning and the sun was brilliantly shining, reflected on the moist dew of the grass. How well we remember that morning of May 16, 1963. There was a knock on the door and the porter came to pick up our luggage. This was the start of our first tour of Europe. On board the plane to New York City, we met our hostess, Mary Sluger, who informed us that our pilots were Vic Kovacic and Dennis Kuby. After getting off the plane in New York City, we took a limousine to our waiting ship. As we were on our way to the ship, we passed the Waldorf Astoria where in bright lights was the name of the famous singer, Carole Morgan. We just made it to the gang-plank as we heard the purser, John Relic, call, All ashore that are go- ing ashore. We were shown to our quarters where we prepared for the long voyage. Not having eaten since early morning, we made our way to the dining room. Much to our surprise we found that Bob Henry was the head cook. The waiter, Ken Piunno, came to take our orders. As the captain, Phillip Simon, was visiting with the passengers he stopped to chat with us, too, telling us that our first stop would be Lisbon, Portugal. Going up on deck, we saw Beverly Pacileo and Kenneth Stevens swimming in the ship’s pool. Play- ing shuffleboard were Edward Prelock and Barbara Parish, and, as usual, who should be sunning herself but Rae Merkle. As we made a round of the deck, we saw lounging in the deck chairs enjoying themselves Edward Sabath and Norma MacNeil. We were very surprised to see so many faces from the Class of January, '53. While we were talking to them, we all seemed to share the same enthusiasm of the Cleveland Indians winning the pennant again with the great help of Ernest Lang and Russell Stich. After the boat had docked in Lisbon, a guide, Donna Swindell, was assigned to take us on a tour. She showed us Pracca do Commercio, one side of which faces the Tagus River. While talking about her govern- ment, we discovered that Betty Noble was the official representative to the U. N. from Portugal, and her two secretaries were Vera Puz and Janet Sefcik. Going back on board ship, we were also fascinated by the beautiful Portuguese coastline. The next stop was in the famous capital of Spain, Madrid. Plaza Mayor, one of the many squares of Madrid, was our first sight after we docked in that city. While looking about, we met Joyce Powell and from Joyce learned about the many heroic bullfights that had been staged on the very ground where we were standing. Also in Madrid on the Prado is situated the Royal Picture Gallery containing canvases by such masters as Gladys Smith, Loretta Mencin and Pat Robinson. The University of Madrid, founded in 1590 as the College of Dona Maris de Aragon, was of special interest because of the fact that there we met Tom Kotnik, the leading professor of Spanish in the University. Tired, we finally made our way back to the ship and noticed that the agenda now called for a visit to the most talked about city in the world, London, England.

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 Then at last, in the fall of 1952, we picked the tools and materials to build a successful 12A semester. Looking back, the time we once thought was passing slowly had actually passed quickly. The construction job we had begun in January, 1950 was almost finished. First we selected those to lead us in our final and most important semester. The chosen ones were Ed Koporc, president; Tom Kotnik, vice president; Rosemary Romano, secretary; Ronald Bond, treasurer and Bill Eneix, sergeant at arms. Committees were formed for the yearbook, senior dance and prom. In charge of our highly successful Falling Leaves Dance . were Effie Vassos and Howard Kretzer, co-chairmen; chairmen of the prom were Evone Anderson and Steve Stoyko. January, 1953, and our immediate construction job is completed. Our high school goal has been at- tained—we are graduating. Does the real construction end here? Certainly not, for now each of us faces a much bigger job, the job of making a place for ourselves in the world. We sincerely hope, though, that the class we have built will go out with better structures to continue to build those things that have made the name of East High great.

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The famous Convent Garden Theatre, located on Bow Street, was of interest to us because the bright lights about us spelled out the name of the famous international theatrical star, Mary Ann Shively. While back- stage we also met Doctor Andrew Okulovich who had completed his study at the Royal College of Surgeons in Lin- coln's Inn Fields. Before leaving London, our guide, Dolores Panko, told us that we simply had to see a cricket game. Going back to the dressing room after the game, we met the star players, Dolores Margraff and Howard Kretzer. We left London by plane at 6:30 a.m. EST after a two-week stay there. Our hostess, Rosemary Romano, directed us to our seats and we were in the air in a matter of seconds. Looking around the plane we recognized Larry Rufin and Effie Vassos. Larry had become quite well- known during the ten years since he had graduated from East High, and we were interested and surprised to find out that he was planning on running for Governor of Ohio in 1964, while Effie was campaigning to be the first lady Senator from the state. While we were discussing these things, our pilots Steve Stoyko and Bettie Osborne came down the aisle to tell us that within the hour we would land in Paris, France. As we took our first steps in Paris, we were met by Shirley Kufrin, who was the American ambassador to France then. She showed us around the city and that night we had dinner at Hotel des Invalides. During the course of our meal, we met Jane Levis, who is now the most distinguished designer of women's clothes in all Paris. Her assistant. Rose Lorenzo, gave us a hint of the new look which was to be an abundance of ermine trim on evening wear. The favorite color combination would be orange and pink, and shoes were to have a low heel of about six inches. At the end of her talk, one of her models, Katherine Lewis, came out with the new look clothes on. We spent the next morning preparing for our first visit to a foreign race track. Our chaffeur for the day, Eugene Stermole, picked us up about 11:30 a.m. and drove us to Chantilly where all the important races are held in France. That noon we had lunch with Joseph Nescola, who was the new owner of Chantilly. Mr. Nescola thought that we might be interested in meeting Nancy Wagner, the leading lady jockey of France. Later that same night, after having dinner with Mr. Nescola in a small cafe, we excused ourselves early so that we might pre- pare for the next leg of our journey, Rome, Italy. Leaving Paris at 8:45 a.m. we arrived in Rome in time to have lunch with Annie Sullens, leading archeologist of Rome. After lunch we relaxed a bit by taking a trip along the Tiber River. Taking the same trip with us, we met Arlene Wuescher and Sophie Sarinoff, who had already seen most of the interesting places in town and proceeded to point them out to us. From where we were, we could see the Piazza delle Terme railway station, for whom Garry Wilson had been working as advertisement manager for the past two years. We also saw a monument of Victor Emanuel II, which was designed by Anna Zollos. The Colosseum and the Bridge and Castle of Southern Angelo and also the Vatican were a few of the many other places we visited before leaving for the U.S.A. again.