Class of '73

Class of '73
16,175 days old as of June 6,1999= 44 yrs.

Most common Moon Phase: 1st Quarter

Literary Figure: John Tenneil (1820) English cartoonist and illustrator of
"Alice-in-Wonderland"

Postage Stamp: 3 cents
President: Dwight Eisenhower
V.P.: Richard Nixon

Historic event: First shipload of Gold Rush prospectors arrive in San
Francisco (1849).

Historic figure: Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat in the front of a
Montgomery, Alabama bus and is arrested. This is the beginning event of the
Civil Rights movement (1955).

Entertainer: Cindy Wilson--singer in the B52s (Love Shack)

Song: Everlasting Love

T.V. Show--Prime Time: The Ed Sullivan Show
Saturday Morning: There was no morning T.V. then-but favorite children's
show--Captain Kangaroo with Bob Keeshan.

Toys: Tiny Tears, nurses kit, toy piano

Movie: Marty (Ernest Borginine)

Most popular girl name:Catherine/Cathy



Ms. Campanella--St. Philip Neri School--Metairie, LA
My name is Catherine Ann Campanella. I am the computer teacher at St.
Philip Neri School. My first name, Catherine means "pure". I was born on
February 28, way back in 1955--which made me 16,175 days old as of June
6,1999 or over 44 years old. On the day I was born the moon phase was a 1st
Quarter, which looks like what we usually call a "half moon". If I had been a
Viking my name would have looked something like "FPMRITM FTT
FMCFTMLLF". Viking Runes did not include the letter C and the L's would be
turned upside down--so this is not exactly correct, but it is the best I could do
with a word processor which (of course) does not include Viking fonts.

Some of the famous people I share a birthday with are: John Tenneil, who was
born in 1820 and was an English cartoonist and the illustrator of "Alice in
Wonderland"; Cindy Wilson, a singer with the B52s who had a big hit back in
the 80's with "Love Shack" (every once in while the video still turns up on
MTV); Rosa Parks, who was my age when she refused to give up her seat in
the front of a bus in Montgomery, Alabama. She was arrested because in
those days black people were forced to give up their seats and move to the
back of the bus if white people entered the bus. This seemingly small event in
a small southern town was the beginning event of the U.S. Civil Rights
movement and it happened in 1955--on the day I was born.

Historic events which occurred on some of my birthdays include: U.S. ATF
agents first raided the David Koresh Branch Davidian compound in Waco,
Texas in 1993. The Branch Davidians were a religious sect who had
stockpiled a large number of firearms and were considered by the ATF to be
dangerous. Several months later the ATF tried to break into the compound
and it went up in flames, killing most of the Branch Davidians. Most evidence
points to the Davidians setting fire to their building in a mass suicide; In 1849
the first shipload of Gold Rush prospectors arrive in San Francisco, California.

In the entertainment world: Singer Howard Jones had big hit the week I was
born with his song "Everlasting Love"; Musician Brian Jones (real name Lewis
Hopkin-Jones), the rhythm guitar player for the Rolling Stones was born in born
in 1942. The "Stones" had too many hits to type here but one of their biggest
was "Satisfaction".

On television when I was born many people were watching "The Ed Sullivan
Show" which I remember as coming on Sunday nights and featuring a wide
variety of guests. It was sort of like the Dave Letterman show except that when
it was supposed to be funny it often was not, and when it was supposed to be
serious it was often funny. Usually there was some sort of animal act where the
animals would do tricks that were pretty stupid but they were never called
"Stupid Pet Tricks" and sometimes people would do tricks (also being very
serious) that Dave would now call "Stupid Human Tricks". It was a VERY big
deal when I was in the 4th grade that The Beatles first appeared on The Ed
Sullivan Show. There was no Saturday Morning TV back in those days, but my
favorite show was Captain Kangaroo (played by Bob Keeshan). The show
was sort of like Pee Wee's Playhouse and featured Mr. Greenjeans, a talking
Grandfathers Clock, a magic drawing board, and Mr. Moose (a puppet). The
Muppets first appeared on TV-1955, but as guests on other shows. At the
movies the big hit was "Marty" starring Ernest Borginine who later played the
lead in the T.V show "McHails Navy".

When I was born a U.S. postage stamp cost $.03--now it is $.33. The U.S.
president was Dwight Eisenhower and the V.P was Richard Nixon who went
on to become President. Nixon left office when I was in high school because
he expected to be impeached for "The Watergate Scandal". My favorite toys
when I was a young child were "Tiny Tears" (a baby doll who would cry
whenever you gave her a bottle of water), my nurses kit (girls didn't even
THINK about becoming doctors back then), and a wooden toy piano (which
my mother still has in her attic and threatens to give back to me next time she
cleans out the attic--which will be never). Toys then were not very sophisticated
and usually sharply divided between "girl toys" and "boy toys". I was glad that I
had a brother because I got to play with the "boy toys" too (baseballs and bats,
football, model cars and rockets, telescopes, science stuff, etc.). Toys then
were usually not made of plastic, but of metal, heavy cardboard, or wood.

I enjoyed working on this project because I found out things about myself that I
did not know before. The most interesting thing I learned is that Rosa Parks
took her famous stand on the day I was born. I didn't realize that. The project
was not too hard or easy for me--but then I'm the teacher who designed it so I
certainly should be able to do it without problems. There are quite a few things
I plan to do to improve the project. One important thing is to make it more
appropriate for students outside the U.S. When I first designed the website it
was to be used only by my students at St. Philip Neri School. I had no idea that
it would be used by students all over the world but am so glad that it is. My
additional comment is one of thanks to all the teachers who have joined us to
share their students work with us and the world.