This is a place to post comments, photos, whatever...about growing up in the Hialeah Area...or anything else that is on your mind. In the past, we've been using our individual webpages for this purpose, but now we have a dedicated forum on our website. Please note that this forum is "not secure" and that comments you make are available to anyone that visits this website.   Vince "Vinny" Rusinak

Linda Tuttle (Lantz)

What an amazing picture of Miami Beach Auditorium and our HUGE and wonderful class of '64!  Thank you, Genevieve, for posting it!   I was in that auditorium at the Jackie Gleason Show starring Brenda Lee, Robert Goulet and others just a few months before.  So many wonderful memories.  We are so lucky to have grown up in beautiful Dade County in the 1950s and 60s.

Genevieve Perkis (Steffen)

As I recall we were in that auditorium for hours!!! Here are some more OLD items from my Jr  Senior Year Scrap Book

Jerry Sullivan

That's me in Row 16 seventh from the Left............lol

Ray Valdez

You know the minute I saw the photo I said to myself.self that guy looks just like Jerry it was hard to tell becaused you had your back to the camera.Thank you for service, know that this was all in fun.

this flag is for you
 

Jerry Sullivan

Thank you Ray.   And Thank you for your Service also.

Genevieve Perkis (Steffen)

Ray Valdez

    I remember the parties we started at the Pizza shop on 25th street east of the horse track From there going house to house and then the south beach parties. The best time was the one on one with that special person walking on the jetties, we were not the only ones out there, but it didn''t matter.

Ray Valdez

Jerry you never know  when a new friend pops - up we Veterans needs to stick togethers we were brothers.

                           then                                                                                     now

Jerry Sullivan

We Still Are Brothers.........Salute.

Ray Valdez

You know the guy behind you was VC where was your gun?

Vince "Vinny" Rusinak

Since high school, I do not recall ever meeting anyone who had a senior class or a grade 10-12 high school with a greater student population than we had. Back then, I’m sure we thought the size of our school was large, but as the baby boomers moved through school, every school we attended seemed to be bursting at the seams…I think the term “modular” was coined when we hit the 1^st grade…no it must have been in kindergarten!

In our senior year, we had 4200 students in grades 10-12 competing for a spot on one football team, one swimming team, one track team, one softball team…you not only had to be very good to make a team (back then they cut players), but great to make the first string. The same competition existed for being selected to the limited slots in service clubs, to belong to music groups, to be selected to act in a play, and especially to be the captain of an athletic team or an officer in any of the clubs or other activities.

Today, the high schools have smaller student populations (around 2000), even with the inclusion of 9^th graders into high school. Senior classes in the larger schools seem to average around 400 students. I think HHS today has about 2400 in the entire school and about 500 in their senior class. 

I wonder what it would have been like if we had the current high schools in our area when we grew up. Depending on where we lived, we would have attended one of three schools: Palm Springers would probably have gone to Hialeah-Miami Lakes High School, Miami Springers would have gone to Miami Springs High School, Filerites would have attended Hialeah High School, and Westviewers would have attended???

With fewer students, we might have had a better chance to:

a. not only make the school’s football, basketball, baseball, track, swimming, gymnastics, softball, volleyball, etc. athletic teams, but to also make the first or second team and get some playing time.

b. be selected to join one of the activities and clubs with limited membership.

c. be selected to join and participate in one of the musical groups or plays.  

d. be the valedictorian, salutatorian , or winners of every competition we had throughout the school.

One negative side of having gone to a neighborhood high school back then is that many (about 80+ of us) who married HHS classmates or classmates from other classes, might not have ever met if we attended one of these smaller high schools.  

I feel so fortunate to have grown up in Hialeah during the 50’s and 60’s...and was able to attend Hialeah High School with the Class of 1964. To me that has become PRICELESS!

Jennifer Dennis (Munro)

I grew up in Opa Locka and would have had to go to North Miami High except that we were allowed to pick a school if we provided our own transportation.  My favorite cousin was in the first graduating class of HHS and I was bleeding red and blue for years before high school.  I was thrilled to be able to go there.  I thought rushing through the sea of kids from the music room to the gym in 5 minutes was a terrific experience and got to see a lot of friends as I passed by!  North Miami was big but we were bigger.  The only thing I ever saw as a negative was we made good friends one semester in a class and maybe would not see them again in our classes ever.  I think a large school is really good preparation for the real world where you move through cities and jobs and have to.build new relationships over and over.  When you see how many of us moved around the country and the world,  I think we  see how our experiences at HHS prepared us to face the unknown, whether our bravest went to war, or we moved to new cities.  But who could imagine that so many could form so many different but equally close, lasting and loving friendships in our wonderful, huge class and school.  Somehow, it just worked.  And worked beautifully.  

Christopher "Chris" Smith

Great comments, Vinnie. Thanks for taking the time to share and remind us.

Best Regards,

Christopher Smith

Richard Steans

For some of us the sheer size of HHS may have been a negative.  It made it easy to be anonymous, skip classes and skip school completely.  I had little structure at home and less self discipline.  HHS did not provide much structure or individual attention, primarily due to its size.  The result of all this was I came in one day in October 1963 and said I was dropping out to join the Air Force - and they said OK - sign these papers.  Done and gone.  

In the long run, all turned out very well for me, but it did not leave me with fond memories of HHS.

Ray Valdez

Vince you did a nice review of Hialeah High. Yes we were many and the good part was that we were many.You could make a new friend every day of school and still not know everyone.WE that go to the reunions, Round-ups, and the luncheon are still meeting new friends.I was not living in Hialeah at the time. In fact I was on probation and I was banded from the City of Hialeah. I was attending Miami Jackson High.I was  D-F student who was going to quit school.But I had a plan to get out Jackson.I would get a girl to call Jackson School and say that she was my mother...and that I needed a transfer to Hialeah. It  worked! I was in the 10th grade and was on my way to Hialeah. I spent my last two and a half years with the class of '64. It was too hard for the system to control with out computers. That was a good thing for me. All was good until my probation officer came looking for me at Jackson.I was told to go to the dean's office. I could not understand why the dean wanted to talk with me.My probation officer would siting down as I walked in the office.I think the planet earth stopped moving for a short time. I told him eveything, how I did it and why I did it.The Dean was on my side. He said that I was an A-B student. The PO said he was looking for me because I had turned 18 and was off probation now. The PO let me go back to class.What was good for the goose in not for gander. Every body has a story,different strokes for different folk.

Ray, how many of us had the "Leave it to Beaver" or the "Father Knows Best" families. Not me for sure!  Filer JH was good for me...HHS was even better. 

Ray, we lucked out by growing up in the area that we did and going to the schools that we were fortunate to attend. Additionally, you took all the lemons in your life and made lemonade! VERY WELL DONE! Vinny

  .

Jennifer Dennis (Munro)

Ray!  You are always a wonderful surprise!  What an amazing story of resourcefulness and resilience and initiative plus admirable accountability. HHS was blessed to have you as are we. 

Ray Valdez

             Thank You both Vinny  and   Jennifer.....I beleave that came from the heart...Ray

Vince "Vinny" Rusinak

Hey, we grew up in an era where we were supposed to be "seen and not heard." By the power vested in me as as the POTHHSCO1964 (I know you can figure out what that acronmy stands for), we are "officially" out of that era. I'd like to hear from each and everyone of our classmates...and our guests. You can say "Hi." or "I am still alive," or whatever you want to say to all of us. And if you do make a comment and don't say it the way you wanted to say it, you can always go back and edit whatever you said! I do it all the time...ok, to be precise, I edit what I say "everytime" and maybe even more than once. Whatever you say here...stays here (like in Carol City or whatever that city is that keeps things to themselves). All of us will be able to keep our jobs at Walmart greeting customers even though we might say something on our website that could be interpreted as opinionated. If you see the wording changed the next time you read this, you'll know that Walmart has counseled me about my future employment with them!

Walter "Buddy" Mozo

My name was once Bud or Buddy, now it's more Walt. I have 4 houses, a Mercedes,  a Harley,  and two horses. I also have a wife with stage 4 ovarian cancer. I spend my life on my knees!😷

Ray Valdez

God Bless You Walt, we will pray for your wife and for you...RAY

Philip Fried

Buddy, so sorry to hear this.  You stay strong during this test of your faith.  All of your family and friends join you on their knees praying for you and your wife.  Take care of her while you can and God will take care of her after.

Vince "Vinny" Rusinak

Hey Buddy…that’s the only name I remember you by. I also remember that you always brought fun into high school with your broad smile and outward lighthearted nature…even when the rest of us might have been down in the dumps. Whatever you might have said when you were with classmates you made us laugh with you…and out loud!

I know one of your homes is in the Ormond Beach area…you have lots of classmates who live in the Ormond Beach area. Let me know the next time you and your wife will be in town and we’ll roundup as many classmates as we can for lunch or and early dinner. I believe we can get you and your wife back up on your feet…at least for a little while.  In the meantime, especially at our ages, all of our classmates empathize with what you and your wife and your entire family are going through and we are here to do whatever we can to support both of you. Vinny

Bill Coffeen

Vince

On the size of our school ... Bonnie and I have been married over 50 years. We met just before graduation 55 years ago. I never was in a class with her ... do not ever remember seeing her ... we both worked in the office ... she as a PBX operator and me in the book store.Yes ...our class was big!

On the issue of Sports ... the idea of Summer Football's two a day workouts was to kill you ... 100 F and 100 percent humidity ... eating a lot of dust as we ran and ran ... that was also the days of no water breaks ... it is a wonder I did not die, The idea was to widdle the herd down to a manageable group.

Changing classes ... we went out into the street to get to TV classes ...

Have never met anyone that had classes that big ... actually made me feel a little special when I tell others about the size of our school .. Pride.

Bill Coffeen

Melvin "Jack" Krouskroup

Buddy and Tom Sayers in H F McDonalds science class................I didn't learn any science but I did learn that I personally thought  Buddy and Tom would end up comics. I sat next to Buddy and Tom and what a hoot. I was also lucky to be at the same desk with Judy Emmons and behind Cora Brown and Deidra Williams (prom date...had to beg) Did not learn science but REALLY enjoyed that class.

Buddy I live in Ormond beach and am lucky enough to have a mini reunion in March (thanks to Vinny the word is out) Buddy you would be supprised how many of our classmates live in central Fla. Vinny is the magnet that attracts us to these gatherings........The March reunion is set in concrete but Vinny does to town several other time during the year. all we need is a second date and we can be on for another gathering. 

Jack Krouskroup 954-494-0967 

Ray Valdez

Here to remind you of our Mini Reunion Luncheon at DiPiazzia on west 49th street Hialeah. High Noon on Wednesday the 19th.  If you can't join us this month we plan to go some were every month. move the location so  that if you live in South Florida and or Central Florida. All classes of the 60ties Welcome. Call Ray............... 772 284 9231