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Saturday, September 19, 2009

Looking for Mrs. Perlmuter

Last Saturday a few Hazeltine Avenue Elementary alumni from the 1960's had a small reunion. I participated for a few minutes via a speakerphone on a cell phone. It was great to talk to my fellow classmates and my new friend Bob who I had not yet spoken to. The group had a wonderful time and swapped stories, and anytime stories of Hazeltine are shared the topic of the legend that was Mrs. Perlmuter comes us and looms large in our psyche. I was never in one of her classes but I saw her around the school and like many kids ran the other way whenever I saw he in the hall. From what I heard later she was a disciplinarian but not as bad as all of us imagined.

Bob reports that Mrs. Louise Perlmuter had a full life of 95 years and passed away in April of 2005.

With all the memories flowing and recently posted pictures we discovered that no one had a picture of Mrs. Perlmuter. If anyone out there has a class picture with Mrs. Perlmuter or any other photograph we all would love to see it. It is as Bob put it the Holy Grail of Hazeltine in the 1960's. Please let us know if you have a picture and can scan it and share it with all of us. I have left a picture off this post in hope of adding one in the future.

4 comments:

julie r. said...

Hi-
I have a pic of my sixth grade class with Mrs. Perlmuter. Part of her is missing but her smiling face is intact! She was my favorite teacher, despite checking our nails for dirt daily AND sending me home to change when I had the chutzpah to wear pants to school (red, white and blue bellbottoms, to be exact). she was smart, strict, and meticulous. She had high expectations of us and I for one always tried to meet them. In turn, she encouraged me to be my best and believed in me. I loved her and am happy to hear she led a long, good life! I will send the photo when I learn how to scan it. Thanks for all the memories~
Julie (Rosenthal) Meshchaninov, Hazeltine Ave. class of '69.

Anonymous said...

Julie,

That is great! You would make many people happy if you could scan and send me the picture of Mrs. Lousie G. Perlmuter.

Also, I have several comments to share regarding former students' feelings about Mrs. P. They're pretty amusing.

Please send me an email:
b w a l a n c e (at) r o a d r u n n e r . c o m

(Just remove all the spaces and change the (at) to @.

Thanks!
Bob Walance

Ann said...

OMG...I had the utter misfortune of being in her class TWICE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Julie,bless your heart for her being your favorite! Yes, she was stict,but she had a mean streak! My Mom,who was a teacher before I was born and then again when I started Jr. High,finally told me,when I was in my 30's,that she almost went to the principal to have my teacher changed.She felt that Mrs.P. should have retired ,that she just didn't have the patience for kids anymore,despite the fact she was a good educator.
love your blog..found it through an email Bob sent.
I went to Hazeltine Ave. Elem.,Robt. Fulton JH and Van Nuys High. I am one of the Redmond twins..Ann.

Carey A, Wilson said...

Thank you Julie and Ann for sharing your different memories. The legend continues. Thank you Julie for providing your class picture which I just added to the blog. Hopefully more will see it and post their memories.

Ann if you have any class photos with Mrs. Perlmuter, or any others from Hazeltine we would love to see them.

Please check out Bob's Photobucket page which has more Hazeltine pictures. it is a link on the right side of the page.