(Recorded in 1976)
~ Introductory Text by John Sherin ~
Segment 1 - A promotional student film about M-T produced by Ellie Pride includes hand-fashioned posters, Polaroids, a Frank Zimmerman photo of Alvin Toffler with paperbacks, a handmade Steve Ingenito-carved wood sign, a printed reference to behavioral expectations, and our school attendance policy.
Segment 2 - View of parking lot in front of South School looking toward adjacent woods and Paradise Lane.
Segment 3 - A “Third Place,” much like the general store, post office or barber shop of years gone by, was a place other than work and home where people could congregate in a safe, informal setting to communicate with others of different ages, experience, and points of view. It was the Staff Room at M-T. Here were Gina Spellman, Ellie Pride, Facilitator John Sherin, and Mary Ellen Stumpf, as Janet Stumpf entered to join them all at a table. It was Gina and Janet, without being reminded by the bell, who looked to the clock on the wall and decided it was time for class. Students responsible for getting to class on time left, just as Facilitator Bob Primavera entered. Hallway footage shows Michael Weissman and Chris Walsh going to class as others converge on the carpeted classroom without desks. Once there, Ellie Pride and Andrea Feir tell their stories [as in a silent movie] to the camera.
Segment 4 - This was a Staff Meeting with Vieda Mazur, Jean Fox, Ken Moss, John Sherin, Conrad Follansbee, Alice Walsh, Holly Rasmusen, Jeff Trespel and Milt Siler in attendance, and Frank Catania ducking under the desk.
Segment 5 - We visit another classroom where a discussion shows several students sitting on the floor engaged in clowning behavior and light conversation prior to the start of class. Among them are Doris Zimmerman, David and Jeffrey Trespell, George Wachsmuth, Bob Cavanaugh, Facilitator Milt Siler, Andrea Feir, Frank Catania, Ken Vollmer, and others. A student leaning on the piano is talking about M-T to the camera. He has much to say. There’s a view of a keyboard, the back of David Trespel and a shot of a TV monitor, part of the district's black & white video camcorder and electronics equipment.
Segment 6 - A hallway scene cuts to the Staff Office where John Sherin is meeting with parents. Cut to Grace DiFiore and a group of students helping Joe Trusso position a pair of speaker columns in the school gym prior to the next PAC production. A panoramic view shows stage lighting already in place with student and AV technician Bob Cavanaugh preparing for a rehearsal. Jeff Trespel is on keyboard here, Mary Kennedy and another student are playing guitars and singing. Panoramic shots of a PAC dress rehearsal with Frank Catania on sound board, rehearsing scenes from the production, with Doris Zimmerman holding a cue card, Nancy Shannon, Ken Moss for two seconds with banjo, followed by scrambled scenes of PAC members seated in the audience.
Segment 7 - Scenes from Milt Siler’s semantics class with Doris Zimmerman, Bob Cavanaugh and other unidentified students. Tori Mazur (3 years old) is shown singing a popular jingle. Helen Weissmann appears for a split second in the kitchen. Jeff Trespel is on his keyboard here in a student-created recording studio surrounded by sound muffling egg crates. Steve Springer appears smiling in the hallway where, in a wing at South School, Doris is silhouetted. We see Joseph Hepworth at 1:05 pm and get a glimpse of Grace DiFiore sitting on the floor.
1976 Forum - The venue for this weekly meeting of the M-T community was the gymnasium and PAC performance space of the South Annex. As this footage, shot by a student from that year, pans the crowded floor where students and facilitators in attendance are leaving for part-time jobs, classes at the high school or late buses, we spot faces that are familiar to us. There are others more difficult to identify after the passage of years and under less than ideal lighting. Did you recognize yourself if you were there in '76? Did you spot a staff member known to you? As the person with camera panned back and forth and as the group said goodbye to each other, we get a glimpse of Pattie Gemellaro, Joe and Iris Trusso, John Sherin, Lenny Marsh, Doris Zimmerman, Laura Morelli and Nat Nannery, to name but a few.
Next we go outside to the courtyard of the U-shaped building that was South on one of the first mild days of spring. Students are playful, almost giddy in anticipation of warmer days to come. There's Patti again, and John Sherin with his class attendance clipboard in hand. Dennis Murray is there, John Sheehan, Tony Polidaro and Barbara Brattle (student teacher) from Stony Brook. A silk cargo chute given to the school by the Civil Air Patrol at Mitchell Field had the previous year been draped over a classroom to create what some referred to as "the womb room" until the Brentwood Fire Department insisted it be removed due to legitimate concerns for our safety. Now it was being pulled through an "emergency" window, with an occasional bean bag to act as a blanket of protection against the remaining dampness in the ground. A human pyramid is being built.
Back inside along a hallway we pass a ping-pong game in progress and meet Danny Ripoll and Butch Vancura; a quick look at the room labeled "Gentlemen," a proud feature of the school that once only had a boy's room. We visit a dance class, a cafeteria lady, Sue Rubenstein, Peter Murray, Vieda Mazur, Frank Catania, Matt Nannery, and scan the controversial "Tender Loving School" article, concluding with the reading of her letter dated August 24 to students and staff from 1976 graduate Colleen Cusack.