On May 18, 1971 the Montreal Canadiens defeated the highly-favorite Chicago Blackhawks to win the Stanley Cup. Two days later, Thursday, May 20, 1971, five Hebrew Academy Grade 10 students were sitting having lunch in the High School lunchroom on Ducharme Ave. downtown. The five of us quickly hopped on to the three bicycles at our disposal and double rode down Park Ave. to St. Catherine St. to take part in the festivities. Upon our return, we decided that we would gladly accept any fate that was awaiting us. We very quietly snuck in the back door (at that time there was no security concern), up the steps, and, needless to say, straight into Mr. Alpert, the principal at that time. He called us all over, looked at us in complete silence for what seemed to be the longest moments in history and then proceeded to say, “Gentlemen, I hope you had a good time. Wish I could have joined you. Go get your books and have a good evening!” -Raphael Faust, ‘72 In Grade 7, Mrs. Laufer was the only teacher who kept an organized attendance record. However back then if you were not in school, no one called home and no one expected a note from parents. It was just her very neat, organized white notebook. So when we needed a bit of a break - for example, meeting kids from Herz /Bialik to pick up scalped concert tickets - we'd take a day off. Several kids from different grades were in on this (afternoon movie, etc.). I believe it was only with the arrival of Mr. Weinberg that a morning call and notes were required. Mrs. Lehrer caught me once pretending to be my mom one morning and the jig was up. Later on in high school, though, Rabbi Fluk offered me a deal: I could occasionally ask him to leave school for a few hours as long as he knew where I was going. I believe he felt this was easier than dealing with me getting purposely kicked out of classes so I could leave or hang out in the library where we would call want ads and leave messages with the school's return number. -Sandy Abitbol, ‘87 Editor’s note: so much to say about this one - so little space! Back in the days on Ducharme, when the fire alarm rang we’d have to evacuate the school and walk all the way down the block to a “safe zone”. Instead of stopping at the zone, we’d just keep walking all the way to the kosher bakery where we’d buy rolls, then continue on to J&R to fill our rolls with meat. -Anonymous, ‘82 Sarena Goldberg and I once got locked in Alex's tiny bathroom overnight. We slept on the floor using his toilet as a pillow. No one thought it was funny....especially our friend Alex. -Sandy Abitbol, ‘87 Editor’s note: There were no cell phones in those days and in Sandy’s mother’s defense, she thought she was sleeping over at Sarena’s house and Sarena’s mother was out of town… When we were in Grade 11, at lunchtime the whole class (with the exception of three to four students) went to see the Expos Home Opener without telling anyone. After lunch, class started and the teachers had no idea where Grade 11 went; they couldn't find us. When they found out, they were not very happy but couldn't suspend the whole class so they gave everyone detention for one week. -Ilan Saul, ‘92 Play hooky, 'be absent from school without an excuse', is an Americanism first recorded around 1848. Did HA students ever Play hooky? Boy, did we ever! 23