This is a collection of stories related to my school attendance through the years.  This post is on my high school years.

When I started high school, the Township of Woodbridge was undergoing tremendous growth in schools due to the “baby boomers” that came when the families started after World War II.  I was part of that generation.  As a result I moved around a lot from school to school.

Woodbridge Jr. High – Grade 7 

I started junior high school at Woodbridge Jr High on Barron Avenue in Woodbridge Proper.  It was the original high school but at this time was the only Junior high school.  Several others were being constructed but were not opened yet.  It was also built before 1920.  The thing I remember most was shop. I really liked building things and I remember the shop teacher vividly. 

Fords Jr. High – Grade 8-9

From there I went to Fords Jr. High which had just opened.  It was a long bus ride from Port Reading to Fords but that’s where they sent us.  The thing I remember most is that many of the teachers were very young and used to kid around with each other.  It changed my impression of teachers since up to this point they had all been “old” from my viewpoint.
 
Woodbridge High – Grade 10-12 (double sessions)

From there I entered high school in Woodbridge. Woodbridge High School was bursting at it’s seams since it was the only high school in the township but now there were several junior high schools feeding it.  For grades 10 and 11 it was on double sessions.  I went to the morning session that started before 7am and ended at noon.  Due to the shortened day, the teachers gave us extra homework.  Most days I stayed at school for the afternoon session and did my homework in the library.  I was enrolled in the upper tracks for math and science and worked hard to keep up since I was competing against the best of the best.   JFK High School in Iselin opened up in my senior year which allowed Woodbridge High to go to a normal day schedule.  I graduated in June 1965. 

It’s hard to pick out anything specfic but it was a challenging time for me.  Here are several things that might be worth noting:

• I was initiated into the National Honor Society as a junior. 
• My dad and I moved out of our home during the early high school years (See other post on this).
• I had a hard time finding someone to take to the prom (being shy) and asked Ester, my next door neighbor from the barracks who now lived in Edison, to be my guest even though she didn’t go to Woodbridge.  It was strange to say the least because we didn’t know each other very well, but at least I was able to go to my prom.