What Ever Happened

Whatever Happened to Diane Lampila?	1958's Diane Lampila

Editor's Note: It seems like just yesterday that we began those memorable years at Southside after having journeyed from our infancy in knickers and pigtails to our confusing period - the wise and wonderful years of puberty. Some or all of that eight-year pilgrimage was spent by each of us at our own little grammar school somewhere on the Southside of Elmira.

Mine was in a comely brick building in Southport at the foot of Mt. Zoar Hill. The name was very inspirational. It was called Hopkins Street School, after a famous someone named Hopkins Street, I had thought until I was about seven and discovered its real origin. Until eight or nine, I had never traveled Hopkins Street. My small world of mom-approved streets was the direct route, which included Cedar to Holdridge to Spruce. These were all benign little streets with hardly any traffic and provided lots of dilly-dallying adventures for a kid in the Forties.

By contrast, the other grammar school in Southport was Pennsylvania Avenue. Named after another famous Elmiran, I supposed. It had much different surroundings and was located on a busy thoroughfare that must have caused parents nightmares getting their kids to and from school. We used to joke that someday kids graduating from Penna Ave. would become Olympic champion runners and javelon throwers because they had to first, fling their heavy books across Penna Ave., and then run like hell to get to the other side.

Hopkins Street and Penna Ave. used to get together occasionally for special events. We'd visit their school or they would visit ours. We had grass to play on and they had blacktop. I liked their blacktop because you could bounce a ball on it. They liked our grass, because they could roll around in it . At any rate, it was always a joyful time when we visited each other.

One kid that I remember very well from Penna Ave. is Diane Lampila. I thought she was the prettiest girl at that school. I'll confess now that I wrote some poems to her anonymously when we were in 6th grade. She might not remember, and I regret that I don't still have copies. I recall thinking that they were masterpieces, written on the Roses are Red, Violets are Blue theme. I was truly inspired.

And so it is that we finally get to the topic of this piece. It's about Diane, a person who went on to be a very popular classmate in our Southside graduating class, who married another graduate of Southside that a lot of us knew by the name of Bill Cusick, and worked in several interesting careers while becoming a great mom to three wonderful kids.

I've had an opportunity to query Diane about the past recently. Please join us as we wade through the memories.

BC: Diane, how did you feel about seeing the old Penna Ave. building torn down?. Do you miss not not seeing it anymore?
Diane: I thought Penna Ave. was a great little school. Actually I didn't think of it as little during my school days there, 1-8. Yes, I would like to see it again. The whole two blocks where it used to be has changed totally. The old Penna Ave. Methodist Church next door was a big part of my life. When Mr. Shepard was pastor, we could go to the parsonage and get the key to the gym, which was upstairs above the Sunday School rooms.
We had some rousing pick-up basketball games there. Everyone that played was not a member of the church, so social life revolved around the church to some degree for everyone in that neighborhood.
Softball was played on the blacktop behind the school. Around springtime, my favorite softball games were played on Smith Street in the evenings. The players were all ages and even some of the parents would play. I've always thought that those of us who grew up in that area were very lucky. We had hills to climb and explore, Seely Creek to swim in and skate on, the Caton Avenue Overpass hill to sled down in winter and sometimes slide down on cardboard in summer.
BC: What was Penna Ave. like for you? Favorite times.
Diane: One of my favorite memories is when Mrs. Bidleman would come and do flannel board Bible stories for us. I guess we were easily entertained before the days of TV. My favorite teacher was Mrs. Lanterman. She was strict but fair and a good teacher. We used to have picnics and ice cream socials on the school grounds. That was fun. We also had our Brownie and Girl Scout meetings in the school basement.
BC: Do you remember walking to school? How did you get across Penna Ave. It was pretty busy.
Diane: I lived on Smith Street, which was two short blocks from the school. One day when I was in First Grade, it had snowed a lot during the night. My mother dressed me up warm and sent me to school. When I arrived, I was the only one there besides the teacher, and I had to stay. I was not happy. One of my lasting memories of walking home from school is how, on a snowy day, all the boys would rush to the church yard and pelt us girls with snowballs as we went by. Crossing Penna Ave. was not a problem back then except in the afternoon when a Remington Rand shift ended - then it seemed you had to wait forever for a break in traffic.
BC: Do you ever go back to Smith Street for a look?
Diane: My mother still lives on Smith Street, so I've watched it change over the years. Of course I think the area was much nicer when we were kids. Mom is doing fine and still potting, weaving and tackling home improvement projects at 81.
BC: Do you remember who you played with when you were a kid?
Diane: My first playmate was George (Joe) Cole. We were neighbors and played as pre-schoolers. I was so shy, I would go hang out in his driveway, hoping he would come out and play. He usually did. I remember once we somehow got involved with a snapping turtle and a stick and I think Joe got poked. Later Maxine Schneider moved in and we have been friends along with Bernadine Butler ever since. There were many more friends that I cared about very much but Maxine, Bernadine and I have been friends for a very long time.
BC: My mom was the spanker in our family. Did your mom ever spank you?
Diane: No, but my dad did and it happened because I was marching up and down in a mud puddle in Joe Cole's driveway - stomping as hard as I could and having a wonderful time. The problem was, I was all dressed up to go somewhere, good dress and shoes. It never dawned on me that I was doing anything wrong until I saw my dad coming across the lawn.
BC: Was Southside a fun time for you.
Diane: I had a great time at Southside. We had a large group of friends that we called our "gang". That was when the word gang had a different connotation. We went to football and basketball games, dances, hung out at Pitts - I never saw anything bad happen there by the way, despite the reputation. I never ate lunch at school, always at Pitts. My favorite classroom was Ma Bower's. She was the best!

Note: Diane goes on to tell us what has been going on since Southside.

After I graduated from Southside, I went to Rider College in Trenton, New Jersey. Now, Rider is a university with a campus in Lawrenceville, but then it was a city campus. Sometimes we pointed out the Trenton Post Office as a Rider building because it was more impressive. Polly VonHendy went there also. It was great to have a friend there as we got acclimated to being away at school. Polly and I shared a room with two other girls in Mary Hooper Hall our freshman year. We had to be in the dorm by 8:00 pm on week nights and we could not wear slacks outside of our bedroom - skirts only. Hard to believe now. I took Medical Secretarial because I thought the medical part would be interesting and I could be done in two years. I graduated with an AA in 1960.

I met Bill Cusick in 1958 on a blind date arranged by Mary Costello and her brother Dave who was a friend of Bill's. We were married in 1960 when I finished at Rider and celebrated our 40th anniversary last year in October. We have 3 children: Dan - born in 1961, Beth - born in 1962 and Bill - born in 1977. That's right - 13 months between the first 2 and 15 years until the next.

After we were married, Bill finished his BS evenings at Elmira College while working as a claims adjuster. I worked at Arnot-Ogden Memorial Hospital until Dan was born and then went back in 1962 and worked split week - Thurs, Fri and Sat.

In the first years we lived in Hathorn Court. Maxine (now Manning) and Bernadine (then Stewart) lived in the same building so the friends were still together. On nice evenings, we would sit in the yard and visit - the babies' rooms faced the yard and with the windows open and our ears cocked, it was just like today's monitors. In those days Hathorn Court was in good shape. They painted outside and inside every few years. Now it looks terrible. It's too bad. It was a good place to get a start back then.

In 1966 Bill started his career with Corning Glass and that started our family travels. Over the years we lived in Greencastle, Pa, Muskogee, OK, Fayetteville, AK, Elmira again, bought a house in Indiana but never lived in it because Bill got a better offer from Libbey Glass in Toledo, OH. That's where we ended up for 22 years. I actually liked moving, meeting new people and learning new ways of doing things, etc. But I hated moving my children.

As we moved, I taught nursery school for a few years in Greencastle, did medical transcription for an OB/GYN office in Muskogee, surgical/path transcription in Arkansas, sold Avon for a few years when the last baby came along, helped out in the Lucas Co. Auditor's office doing dog licenses and personal property taxes. In 1985 I went to work at a Home Health Agency and was there until 1998 doing medical records, Medicare billing and whatever else needed doing.

Bill retired in 1998 and we moved back to Elmira. Some people are surprised we chose Elmira for retirement but there is nothing like family and old friends to enrich your life. Our older children are in Gig Harbor, WA and Salt Lake City, UT so we spend time there each year

Every few months the girl friends from high school get together - Beverly Parks Moffe, Laura Fanning Beagle, Sandy Dean Leach, Maxine Schneider Manning, Lynda Roby DeRigge, Diane Logue Bower - sometimes Barb Tremaine Sanford, Bernadine Butler Royce and Mary Costello come but they live out of state and can't make it often. Barb Sanford has us at her cottage for a weekend in the summer. We have such a good time together and you'll never find a better support group than friends who have known each other since high school or before.

We've also added the title of Grandparent to our resumes. We have two grandchildren - Rachel who is 20 and Glen who is 2. We did have a long dry spell there. Last May Rachel made us great-grandparents with a baby boy Kollin. The hard part is that Rachel and Kollin live in Ohio and Glen lives in Salt Lake City so we don't see them often enough - two or three times a year.

Since we've been retired, I've developed an interest in scrapbooking - putting photos in archivally safe albums with an attractive format and embellishments and enough journeling so someone in the future will know who the people are and something about them. Salt Lake City is the Mecca of scrapbooking - many stores devoted to just scrapbook materials. When I visit my daughter, I stock up and also attend a workshop or convention when available. Since we keep taking new pictures, and I also want to do ancestors and my own children growing up, I'll never run out of something to do.

BC: Diane, it's been great getting caught up on what's been going on with you and Bill. Thanks for giving us a peek into your world and for sharing your memories with us.

Editor's Note: Diane invites you to correspond with her via e-mail at WJC1937@aol.com or if you'd rather write to her using the postal service, just contact us and we'll get you her mailing address.

Please send your comments, questions and suggestions to us at
memories@shs58.org

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