Remembering the MJM building with fondness

Dear Editor, People who live in the Kingston area have seen many changes over the years. One of the most recent is the major renovation of Kingston High School.

Included in that project is the demolition of the former Myron J. Michael Junior High School, a place where many of my best memories originated.

I was a student at “MJM” in the late 1950s, where some of my classmates became my “forever” friends. Two years after I graduated from high school, I was fortunate enough to obtain a job at MJM as a secretary in the main office, and I spent 17 of my 35 years in the Kingston school district at that location and made more lifetime friends.

My first recollection of MJM is of my seventh-grade teacher, my good friend, Jack Finch, who is a well-known and respected Kingstonian. I also remember fondly my wonderful aunt, Isabelle Dunn, now deceased, who taught English at MJM in the 1940s and 1950s. I reminisce often, with great affection, about a group of staff members, the “Top Ten,” who were a very big part of my life during my working years at MJM, as well as countless others whose lives became intertwined with mine.

The above cannot capture the nostalgia I have for MJM. The people I met there on life’s path will always be etched in my heart. To those who are here and those who have gone before us, your smiles, your laughter, your encouragement and inspiration, your camaraderie and your love have enriched my life. Although we will no longer see that legendary building “on the hill,” its spirit and the spirit of all those who walked its halls will continue to live among us.

Jean Steuding Kingston, N.Y.