Living History and Influence BMMS

So I'm an alum of Blue Mountain Middle School, Class of '88. In 1982 we received the president's Excellence in Education Award, complete with a plaque and a photo up of Principal Frank Thomas (rest his soul) with President Reagan. We were also mildly famous because one of our social studies teachers was a historical re-enactor and started a 'Living History' program at BMMS.

Practically this meant that we had a Civil War drill team complete with uniforms (denim acid wash in those days,) flags, and toy muskets.

Recently my family and I attended a reenactment of the Battle of Boundbrook. This put me in mind of ole BMMS and I wondered what my old SS teacher was up to.

Well, here's his living history website. More amazingly here's a news video that was produced about said BMMS program:

My guess is that's the fall of '88 or spring of '89. I recognize many of those kids and grew up with a few of them. Actually, one of the girls in there is the real life Patricia Bloom.

Mr. Ryan was a great teacher. He was something like 6-4 with a big, booming voice one heard from waaaay down the hallway during class. In that sense he was something of an inspiration for me as a college professor. I was nothing if not loud.

He had me from day one, talking about the then raging Iran-Iraq war. He'd give cool assignments like interpreting Rock and Roll songs. When he played us Eve of Destruction I swore he had a flashback to being in a dive basement bar somewhere in NY State. Another time he had us war game the Battle of Gettysburg. Once he divided the class into pro and anti-slavery senators and had us debate an anti-slavery amendment. He'd make us interview people about historical events they experienced.

He told great stories too. One was about his old man being at Pearl Harbor another about growing up next to a B-52 base in upstate NY and hearing bombers taking off during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Mr. Ryan had a huge influence on me in another way. In the fall of '87 he made some remark about NATO and I scoffed at the idea that NATO could stop the Warsaw Pact. His exact words were, and I can still see him sitting there at his desk in the middle of the room, 'Read Red Storm Rising. That'll solve your problem.'

Well I did during the winter break of '88. The Result, well....