FDR grads set to party
No, that’s not a toy
AT LONG LAST a feelgood Brooklyn tale out of school. When I met them in September, the faculty and a few dedicated alumni of Franklin Delano Roosevelt High School in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, kicked around ideas for a possible 50th anniversary celebration.
They worried about legal issues. There was no corporation to do fund-raising. Some doubted they could attract top talent to fill the 1,000-seat auditorium with a doo wop concert. Where would people park? They couldn’t decide on a luncheon venue.
There were too many Brooklyn opinions, many pessimistic.
But when I met with the much streamlined committee in Del Rio Diner on Kings Highway last week, FDR grad Downtown Ronnie Califano handed me a slick flyer produced by the newly formed FDR Alumni Association Inc. announcing a 50th anniversary celebration concert on May 16 featuring the legendary Jay “This Magic Moment” Black, a Borough Park native, and Bob Miranda and the Happenings, La La Brooks of the Crystals, the Manhattan Skyline and Barbara Harris and the Toys.
Price tag: a very reasonable $40.
“More than half the tickets are gone and they just went on sale last week,” says Califano, Class of 1969.
Ground was broken in 1963 for FDR High on former Brooklyn farmland across from Washington Cemetery on 20th Ave. from 58th to 59th Sts. Struggling in the long shadows of celebrated high schools like Lincoln, Lafayette, Madison and Erasmus, FDR was as handicapped as the President it was named after.
“But the teachers at FDR were so good they even kept a street mug like me interested long enough to get a diploma,” says Califano, who organized the concert. “That school probably saved my life. And I learned math there, which came in handy over the years.”
“FDR has a special place in all our hearts,” says Linda Scadutto, a retired gym teacher. “We had riots in the school in 1968. We struggled when our demographics changed with an influx of new immigrants who are English language learners. But this school always had such a close bond between students and staff that many teachers never left.”
“Linda was my mother’s teacher and my teacher at FDR,” says Stephanie Acciarito. “Now I teach at FDR and I love it. My brother also graduated from FDR before going to Princeton. Our Valedictorian last year went to Harvard. We’re a proud school.”
“We overcame a lot of negatives,” says Judy Berger, a biology teacher who became an administrator. “We’re still graded on our Regents test scores even though it’s so hard for a kid who just landed in Brooklyn from China, India, South America or Russia with no English to pass a state Regents exam. That helped put us on the atrisk list. But we worked harder. So did those kids. And today we’re no longer at risk. No reason FDR can’t last another 50 years.”
Califano adds, “This committee here is like the ‘Little Engine That Could.’ No one expected us to make it up the hill, but we did. And now we’re racing downhill to celebrate our 50th big time, fuhgedaboudit.”
Instead of a single event, the organizers will stage three events over three days from May 15-17.
“Some people are coming to all three events,” says Acciarito.” Some two. Some can only make one. On Friday night, May 15, there will be a $10 door pub night at the Bean Post bar on Fifth Ave. and 76th St. in Bay Ridge.”
“Then comes the concert on Saturday night, May 16,” says Califano. “Doors open at 6 p.m. The cops at the 66th Precinct promise we’ll have parking along 20th Ave. by the school and cemetery.”
“Then we’re having our luncheon at Gargiulo’s Italian restaurant in Coney Island at noon on Sunday, May 17,” says Lucille Tedtsen-Shaw, FDRAA president. “If people can’t make the pub night or the concert they can make the soup-to-nuts luncheon with wine and beer for $110. We already have 150 people booked for the luncheon.”
Over 1,000 former students who were teens in the early 1960s will return a half-century later in their own 60s to celebrate the forgotten school that was like a stepchild in the Brooklyn family but the place that helped turn boys to men and girls to women.
“After the first story in the Daily News the calls flooded in from all over the country,” says Acciarito. “People confirmed they were coming and then just wanted to talk about the old days.”
They will all get to relive those vanished Brooklyn years over three days at the FDR 50th anniversary celebration next month.
To book tickets by credit card call (347) 339-9815 or visit fdralumnibk@gmail.com.