Jerry Helzner now lives in Abington Township and shares a funny memory of his days as a teacher in the 1960s..
When I was a young history teacher at Edison High School in North Philadelphia, I was teaching about World War I and the German Von Schliefen Plan that was designed to defeat both the French and Russian armies.
The plan was to attack France first, in the west, and then swing around later to the east, to defeat Russia, which was much slower to mobilize its forces. As I was speaking and illustrating on the blackboard, I noticed that one of the students who never paid attention and often slept in class was taking copious notes and raising his hand to ask question after question about the lesson.
At the end of the class, I called him aside and congratulated him for taking such an interest. "William, I am really proud of you. You are becoming a star student," I said.
"No, it ain't that, Mr. Helzner,"he replied. "We have to fight the Valley Gang and the Vineyard Gang and I needed a plan to take on both of them"