The tower was adorned with the initials "Gut", "CF", "NL" and "CB" - we all know who they were. Personally, I thought it was the coolest thing - what a badge! What makes this incredible is that this was accomplished late at night and they literally climbed up there to do it. In fact, for some reason I seem to remember some of Fair Lawn's players being so upset by this that they arrived in the courtyard of our student center yelling and screaming - does anyone remember this or am I just imagining it? Nick Lagos (the "NL") has been putting together a better story which we hope to publish in a book we may do for the Class of '73 reunion on October 18, 2013 but until then see Nick's email below.
The above photo was given to me my senior year. I believe it was taken by a yearbook staff person. I still marvel at the guts - um, no pun intended Gut - it took to do it!
Below is Nick's email verbatim:
"A small group of 7 to 8 set out to paint the Fair Lawn water tower prior to the annual Thanksgiving football game. Within that small group, 4 actually climbed the tower with paint cans and brushes: Scott Gutting, Chris Ferraro, Chris Bowe and Nick Lagos. It is believed that Bob Haworth, Dan Pepe, Tommy Nepola, Brian Tobin and an out of town cousin of Chris Ferraro's - Johnny Johnson, were on the ground serving as lookout and getaway drivers. Although it can't be seen in the photo, there is a 4th set of initials - the initials "CB" were painted to the right of "NL".............." - thanks Nick!
Personally I can't wait to hear more - I sent Scott a message on Facebook and hopefully we'll get a good accounting from Chris Ferraro, Chris Bowe and more from Nick. You can't say this class wasn't memorable and you have to admit - where football was concerned we indeed were number one that year!
Anyway, I'm sure Nick won't mind me using his story as it was one of many episodes during our years that made living in Ridgewood so much fun! This crew was definitely cool!
The above photo is the more modern Fair Lawn water tower as it looked in 2012. In fact, in the Fair Lawn Patch of March 21 that year this was the headline:
"Water Tower Paint Job Budgeted at $1.3 Million" - I kid you not. Hey Cutters, I know a few guys who would do it for free!
We will be honoring this group at our reunion in October! If you're still wondering if you should come to the reunion - just do it! Its gonna be so much fun - reunion weekend goes from October 18 - 20, 2013 - Friday night at Smith Bros (in town) to town walk-thrus, high school and neighborhood visits and dinner on Saturday to small breakfast or brunch get togethers on Sunday. Hey it's not just about water towers and football - it was the whole experience at RHS and Ridgewood. I know RHS was always a great experience all of the time for some but hey, my freshman year was less than memorable but I loved high school and my junior and senior years were so much fun! We just want to see everybody so mark the calendar!
We were more a loose assortment of cliques than a unified student body. Each clique has its own memories. Some cliques were decidedly outside the box. Do you remember the clique in the class before us which liberated the town's Christmas Tree from its stand with a chain saw? Now THAT must have been a sight to behold.
ReplyDelete