Michael Maresca Is a Runner Who Is Driven: He's Jogged 70,000 Miles -- And He Hopes to Hit 100,000

Michael Maresca, interviewed here by WTSP-TV, hopes to crack 100,000 as a long-distance runner.

Michael Maresca, NPHS class of 1969, has a passion for running.  Check out this recent interview  with WTSP-TV(Tampa, FL) where Michael explained his love for the sport, discussed some of the favorite places he's run and revealed that he's jogged 70,000 miles.  The interview starts seven minutes into the video clip.  Michael and his wife Gerda are expected to be at the October reunion.

NPHS Reunion Interview: Judy Nazemetz, Class of 1968

Describe your career. 

Judy Nazemetz, 2018, Los Angeles

I'm a performer, and that includes acting, singing, and dancing. My forte is comedy, though, when I can't make 'em laugh, I love making 'em cry. I'm also a songwriter and have released 2 albums of comedy songs, VARIETY PAK and BALANCING ACT. I've improvised, taught improv and I keep up my comedy chops by doing sketch comedy with the great Fred Willard. judnazemetzmusic.com  and  judynazemetz.com

 Where do you live now? 

I live in Los Angeles, after having lived in North Plainfield after college, then Weehawken, NJ; then New York City; Studio City, CA; Sherman Oaks, CA; and now Valley Village (North Hollywood), CA.

What was your sense of community in your class/in the school at NPHS?  

I felt a deep sense of community. In high school, I was in many classes with the same kids I'd gone to Stony Brook School with. And I loved 6th grade at Harrison School, when the Stony Brook and West End 6th graders were together. When I was a senior and worked as a cashier at Castroll's, Lou Carlucci and David Siegel also worked there and I used to see parents of many of my classmates there. I knew what everybody was eating! And, a PS here. Years later, when I was doing a comedy gig in NYC, in a small performing space up a rickety flight of stairs in the theatre district, I went behind the bar and found an empty bottle of 5v. You'd have thought I'd found gold! I told everybody there about Vitelli Brothers and those little bottles of soda, and why that bottle of 5v meant so much to me! Yes, the sense of community had extended into New York City and, again, into my life.

What experiences in high school, positive or negative, helped to shape you as a person? 

My modern dance training with Mrs. Schuman taught me to create and to focus and to work as part of a team, all qualities necessary for anyone in the arts. Our glorious first dance assembly, 7 pieces based on the music "The Planets", in which we danced the astrological essences of 7 planets, as defined by composer Gustav Holst, was stopped less than halfway through because the boys in the auditorium wouldn't stop yelling, mocking, and making fun of us dancers on stage in our leotards and tights. I was making my entrance presenting Saturn, the planet of old age, as the heavy maroon curtains closed on me. How did this shape me? It shaped me to be fearless. To go out and do what I train to do, to go out and do what I do, no matter the audience response. Key for any improviser or actor. This experience also influenced my volunteer work when my daughter was in grammar school. I made it my mission to bring music and dance assemblies to all classes in the K-5 school, and to teach the children how to be a good audience. Happy to report I succeeded.

Do you have any regrets about your experiences during your high school years? 

Absolutely no regrets. Oh, perhaps that I never really learned to play chess. I tried, at the Canteens, but it never stuck.

Now, 50 years later, has your perspective on your high school years changed at all? 

If so, how? I used to think everyone loved high school, just as I did. Then I met people who hated their high school years. For me, NPHS was great school. A terrific education and great extracurricular activities.

What is your fondest memory of your years at NPHS?  

I have to go back to 7th or 8th grade here (but, hey, we were all connected then) and I fondly remember David Schmedes getting an appendicitis attack in Mr. Kanter's math class. 

What was the craziest or stupidest thing you did in high school?  

I volunteered to be Decorations Chairman for our Junior Prom and worked for weeks getting all the giant daisies ready. A few days before the prom, I didn't even have a date and assumed I wouldn't go. But, Richard Quigley came to my rescue and I went.

What was your proudest accomplishment in high school? 

I'd have to say that it was getting my parents to go to my junior prom. All class officers' parents chaperoned. My parents had never gone to a prom. My mom made her gown. That night, when the band struck up a polka, only four couples got on the dance floor to do the polka. My parents, me and Richard, Linda Shebey and her date, and one more couple. My folks got an ovation! A proud moment for me!

Who was your favorite teacher? 

Mrs. Schuman, for showing me the world of arts and music. Miss Gordon, for letting us sing folk songs in English class. And, Miss O'Brien, for not giving me a failing grade when I wouldn't speak during Great Books discussions and then for letting me out of Great Books for a few months to make a movie with Mr. Dietzman. Oh, and I also had another English teacher one year who had an enormous effect on me. I can't even remember her name. That year, because of certain courses I had to schedule, I couldn't take English with all the other kids who'd I'd been in class with. I was put into an English class with all jocks and football players. I knew no one. I was incredibly shy and self-conscious. The teacher said we'd have to do oral book reports. I was so scared. I picked a book years too young for me. I got up in front of the class and fumbled, stumbled and finished, with tears in my eyes and knowing I sucked. The teacher just took me aside and said I had a week to prepare to do it again, but in front of a completely different class of hers. Strangers. She challenged me to face my fear. The second time, I flew. I soared. She'd seen potential in me and asked me to rise to the occasion. If I could remember her name, I'd thank her.

What was your worst class? 

Chemistry. Worst in college, too. Once, in a college chem lab, we had to boil water and add something to it and test it. Everyone around me was boiling water and finishing the experiment and walking out of class. At 45 minutes, my water hadn't even boiled. Then, the TA looked up, saw me, came over and discovered I was using a faulty Bunsen burner. No heat. Yes, Bunsen burner incident #2 (see below). I had no luck with chemistry.

What is your most powerful or haunting memory during your years at NPHS? 

Two things. One, the death of Irene Hutnick. She was our cheerleading advisor and, on Thanksgiving, she never showed up for the game and we couldn't figure out why. Later, we found out this beautiful woman -- inside and out -- committed suicide because of a rejection from a boy. I vowed to never let a guy make me feel like that. And, two, the time that my chemistry lab partner, Ricky Smith, set his hair on fire as he jokingly showed me how well he could handle a Bunsen burner. 

How did growing up at a child of the 60s – and all the social baggage and impact that it may have entailed – impact you at the time and in your young adult years? 

Judy Nazemetz in the late 1980s performing as
her hippie character Sparrow in "All that Naz"

The most horrific day of my life was Kent State. To be so let down by our government. I felt unsafe. I tried to finish the semester but was so emotionally distraught that I left my sophomore year early and went home. A couple of years later, I was working in Plainfield and every day saw a young man -- maybe my age -- out robotically walking his dog. Someone told me he'd been in Vietnam and this was the result. I just felt completely helpless. Empty. 

Were you a student at Kent State in the spring of 1970?

No, I was a student at University of Rhode Island. However, we had all been marching, going to rallies, protesting, taking part in whatever way we could, feeling we could make a difference...then, the shots. It was as if they went through me. I went from feeling powerful and hopeful, to feeling powerless, helpless, and afraid. I tried to make it through second semester but most of the URI students had already left, taking pass/fail grades. I so wanted to finish but was so downhearted I just left and took my grades pass/fail. I especially wanted to get a good grade in Urban Sociology -- the teacher was so awful and mocked me for coming to class in my gym clothes ('cause I didn't have time to change and run across campus to get to the class on time) but it was not to be.

NPHS Reunion Interview: Mike Watson, Class of 1968

Mike and Bonnie Watson

Describe your career in 100 words or less.
I spend almost my entire career as an electrician.  I also worked 38 years in the motion picture industry.  I was a post-sound technician and ended my career as a post-sound wireman foreman.  I retired in May, 2014.

Where do you live now?
I live in Arroyo Grande, California (almost halfway between Los Angeles and San Francisco).  After retiring, I moved from southern California to San Luis Obispo County, California where Arroyo Grande is located.  Among the places I've lived since leaving North Plainfield: Minnesota (1968-69), Mt. Pleasant, Iowa (1970-71) and Santa Monica, California, beginning in 1976.

What was your sense of community in the high school?
I attended young life meetings for a year.  I was in Cub Scouts and then Boy Scouts.  And for a time I was with the Sea Scouts.

What experiences in high school -- positive or negative -- helped to shape you as a person?
Everything turned out pretty well so I would like to dwell on the positive and point to the friendships I made and kept.

Do you have any regrets about your experiences during high school?
Not studying harder and not getting better grades.

Now, 50 years later, has your perspective on high school changed at all?
For a while I thought that I had totally squandered my chances for success in any field. But I found something I loved to do.  They say if you love what you do, you never work a day in your life!

What are your fondest memories of your years at North Plainfield High School?
Some of my fondest memories were hanging out with my good friends.  I had a solid family life.  It was really great that my dad came to all of my football games.

Mike Watson, on his sailboat, off the coast of Catalina Island (California), 1976.

NPHS Classmates -- These Were the Top Songs of 1968

"Sunshine of Your Love," from Cream's psychedelic Disraeli Gears album, ranked as the  #6 song of the year.

1. "Hey Jude" (The Beatles)
2. "Love Is Blue" (Paul Mauriat)
3. "Honey" (Bobby Goldsboro)
4. "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay (Otis Redding)
5. "People Got to Be Free" (The Rascals)
6. "Sunshine of Your Love" (Cream)
7. "This Guy's in Love with You" (Help Alpert)
8. "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" (Hugo Montenegro)
9. "Mrs. Robinson" "(Simon & Garfunkel)
10. "Tighten Up" (Archie Bell and the Drells)

NPHS Reunion Interview: Maggie King, Class of 1968

Maggie King at a Virginia conference for writers in October 2017.

In 100 words or less, describe your career.  

I started out as a retail sales manager but spent most of my career in IT, as a programmer/analyst, web designer, and PC trainer. My best career is my current one as a mystery writer.

Where do you live now and where have you lived since graduating?

In 2002, my husband, Glen, and I moved to the great city of Richmond, Virginia. We live with our cats, Morris and Olive. After college graduation in 1972 I lived in Boston (‘73-‘75); back to North Plainfield (‘75-‘77); out to Los Angeles (‘77-‘96); back to the east coast, this time in Charlottesville, Virginia (‘96-‘02).

What was your sense of community in your class/in the school at NPHS?  

I made many good friends during my high school years, and our relationships endure.

What experiences in high school, positive or negative, helped to shape you as a person? 

High schoolers are challenged with giant social, personal, and physical changes, resulting in frustration and anxiety—in other words, teen angst. I wasn’t immune and dealt with my angst through journaling and writing really bad poetry. I still have the journal and the poetry. And no, I’m not sharing. 

The journal entries and the angst continued throughout my life. In the nineties, I turned to writing mysteries, often incorporating my strong sense of justice into my work. And my political reps get a piece of my mind on a regular basis.     

Do you have any regrets about your experiences during your high school years?

I wish I’d been more serious. My mother always said I had high potential and when was I going to reach it, or even approach it? But studying and school activities (except for the social ones) didn’t top my list of priorities. The opposite sex took that honor.

Now, 50 years later, has your perspective on your high school years changed at all?  If so, how? 

This is the most interesting question that’s been asked for this interview.  Back in the day, I didn’t expect that everyone I knew, classmates included, would have an effect on my life, in big and small ways. But now I see that this is true. Reconnecting at reunions and on social media has made this realization all the more apparent.

What is your fondest memory of your years at NPHS?  

I performed a parody of Don Quixote for Spanish class. It was fun and the students and Mr. Kianese enjoyed it. 

What was the craziest or stupidest thing you did in high school?  

Lighting that first cigarette at age 14 in a misguided attempt to be “cool.” I quit and restarted many times over the next twenty years, but finally lit up for the last time in 1984. And no one thought I was cool.

What was your proudest accomplishment in high school?  

Getting my driver’s license. Being that I was the world’s worst driver—or at least North Plainfield’s worst—I was extremely happy and grateful the day I passed my test. I desperately wanted to drive. Before the day was over, I managed to back up into the car behind me at a light and smash the guy’s headlight. He took pity on me and promised not to report it if I paid for a replacement. Which I did.

My driving skills improved, but I can’t say I’m eager to get behind the wheel these days.    

Who was your favorite teacher?

NPHS was blessed with wonderful teachers, so I had a few favorites. Mrs. Charters for one. Not only was she a stellar English teacher, but she didn’t put up with any disruptive students. I remember the day she expelled the top three troublemakers. Too cool. I loved Spanish, so have fond memories of Mrs. Mayer, Mr. Kianese, and Mrs. Meise. Then there was Mr. Pecoraro (Algebra), Mr. Faulkner (Sociology), Mr. Radner (English), and several others.    

What was your worst class? 

Chemistry. Just wasn’t my thing.

What is your most powerful or haunting memory during your years at NPHS?

When Miss Irene Hutnick died from a self-inflicted shotgun wound at the age of 22. I’ll never forget the day Mr. Messer announced it on the PA system. She had graduated in my brother’s class and was in her first year at NPHS as a gym teacher. It was supposed that the recent breakup with her fiancée led to this tragedy. This was probably the first time someone I knew committed suicide.  

How did growing up at a child of the 60s – and all the social baggage and impact that it may have entailed – impact you at the time and in your young adult years? 

I often wish I’d been a hippie. In retrospect, it seems like such fun. But my family was very conservative and my brother served in the military, doing two Vietnam tours. They pressured me to be mainstream. Plus dressing well was very important to me back then (it’s ceased to be). Let’s face it, hippies weren’t the sharpest dressers.

That said, I did partake in some of the excesses of the time. I’ll be vague about the particulars.  

Parting words.

Be well, my friends. I look forward to seeing y’all at the reunion. Don’t forget to view my website/blog, or connect with me on Facebook (MaggieKingAuthor) or Twitter (@MaggieKingAuthr)

Maggie at 19.