carry it in to go to school . I put my gun in my locker as you did back then . When it was my period to go to the rifle club , I would go to my locker , get my weapon and then walk through the halls and into the rifle range that was located in the school . I was a pretty good shot and I believe that I had won several competitions .
Interestingly , on my way home , I would take my rifle with me as I went into the luncheonette for a burger and stand it up next to me as I ate with some friends . I had become an expert with my rifle and safety was a high priority when you are an expert so the thought of shooting someone or someone being shot by your weapon was possible but not probable .
Game changing moment
My Dad never went on any of my camping trips but he did on occasion take me for a ride up to Bear Mountain for me to hike on the trails and climb the rocks . The only other time that we had spent time together is when we visited my sister Marcelle who was studying to be a teacher Trenton State College in New Jersey . It probably took around 2.5 hours to get there and we had a Diner that we looked forward to stopping at that had roast beef and mashed potatoes . Although we spent quite a bit of time in the car together there was minimal
Marcelle Epstein conversation so we listened to music most of the time . I remember the song “ The Lions Sleep
Tonight ” possibly sung by the Kingston Trio . Also , I am not sure why my Mom did not accompany us but perhaps it was the fear of driving in a car due to an accident she had in the rumble seat of a hot rod so she said . She had lost partial hearing and she always wore a hearing aid and spoke very loudly .
Marcelle returned one time to our house in New Milford and wanted to show me some things that she had just learned at teaching college . She showed me a tray filled with wax and then she took out a dead frog that she pinned to the wax . I was intrigued . She took a scalpel and opened up the frog ’ s belly and pinned back the wall to expose the organs . I was mesmerized . She then pointed to several of the organs and told me what they were and what they did . I had blown up frogs and fish before with firecrackers but I had never looked at the science of a frog . What Marcelle had done was better than anything and was clearly a game changing moment for me . We then boiled the frog until there was nothing left but bones and we pinned the bones together . What a project . I am not sure what year this was but I may have been in year 7 or 8 . It wasn ’ t soon after in biology class that we were repeating this experiment with a really cool teacher of mine that had a crew cut and drove a convertible Corvette stingray 1965 or earlier vintage . I was doing well in school and I really liked science and algebra as I think that both were ordered which I probably needed as I represented chaos !
Mr Little and the T ’ s
I became quite lost in high school as it all seemed confusing and difficult . Although I was very good in sports , I never got organized to joined the baseball or football teams . I am not sure why but probably due to being overwhelmed with the entire school , with more than 2,000 students , and not having any mentor support mechanism . So I tried wrestling and I trained intensively with the team and I had turned out to be quite good amongst our own team members . I was feeling quite cocky for my first inter-school competition and I jumped onto the mat eager and ready to go only to see a big black guy with muscles much much bigger than mine ready to go . Three seconds after the whistle blew , he had thrown me over and pinned me and won . I quit the team and that was it for sports . I really could have used some guidance from someone regarding sports , school ,
BARRY STEVEN EPSTEIN - PhotoAutobiography DRAFT 9 of 156