I was reminiscing with my family the other evening, recounting a particular first day of class at Main Street School in Farmingdale. A pretty red-headed Science teacher deemed that from this day on, I was to be known as ‘Ron Salon’ because it sounded better. No argument here; we Solans have been called Sloan, Solan, Slogan—you name it. Thank you, Mrs. Noreen Rogers as well as the other fine teachers in Farmingdale… the place where I spent my ‘Wonder Years’.
Elementary school was very interesting in the 1960’s. My third grade class experienced the JFK assassination in 1963 and went on a class trip to the New York World’s Fair in 1964.
I met Mrs. Rogers a short time after that and Science was never the same. Along with her go-go boot-wearing peers—French teacher Ms. Larkin and CORE teacher Ms. Cooper—the Main Street Charlie’s Angels were quite a team. Mrs. Rogers taught me how to convert temperature scales, calculate time of day in different time zones, and the relationships among the Earth, Moon, and Sun. I’ve been a bit of a Science nerd ever since.
I miss the good times we had back then. From old class pictures and past reunions, I remember so many faces from 50-plus years ago. Maybe that’s why I was disappointed when not even a subset of 1,100 Classmates of ’73 couldn’t rally for a 40th reunion last year. It would’ve been great to see you all, although I realize desire as well as other logistics may get in the way of this happening.
To ease my pain, I followed the Farmingdale High School Football team this past season into the playoffs and felt that old Daler pride as they went all the way to the Nassau County Championship. Coach Buddy Krumenacker was my Physical Education teacher back in the day. Another guy on ‘my’ team went on to become C.W. Post’s new wrestling coach—life after Football, I guess.
I stay in touch with Uncle Mike, wide receiver no. 89, who’s been in western New Jersey for quite a while. Long-gone are the days of driving a carload of friends in a top-down convertible on a cold Saturday morning to root him and the team on to victory. Our sports teams were quite the dynasty in the early ‘70s.
I noticed the passing of a couple of my teachers over the years. I believe my red-headed Science guru from Main Street and my Physics teacher from Farmingdale Senior High had been in the news. I hope they are up there in the Heavens looking down on this old
Science nerd who they were very instrumental in creating.
God Bless all of the ‘Farmingdale family’ that I was part of for so many years.
Ron Solan
Farmingdale HS, Class of 1973
