AUGUST 1 • 2024 | 17
J
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Calling All Mumford High 
Grads from 1952-1970

Orthodox shuls. Shaarey 
Zedek had a school branch 
building on Seven Mile.
We saw movies at the Royal, 
Mercury and Varsity.
We ate ice cream at Brown’s 
Creamery, Wilson Dairy and 
especially Sanders.
We got cured at Sinai, 
Mount Carmel and New Grace 
hospitals.
Most prescriptions were 
filled at independent phar-
macies. Don’s Drugs and 
Chippewa Drug were two that 
were near me.
Wyoming had Jerome 
Shoes, Modern Office Supply, 
Mumford Music and Joe 
Cornell. Curtis Drugs, Grunt’s 
Market and Dexter-Davison. 
The Raleigh House and Wy-7 
Bowling.
When I was there, Mumford 
had 4,000 students. It was 
designed for fewer than 2,000. 
So, I didn’t meet my wife, 
Karol, class of ’62, until college. 
There were so many kids that 
my class had two with the same 
name, so they got numbers. We 
had Ronald Cohen No. 1 and 
Ronald Cohen No. 2.
There were 11 class periods. 
Lower classmen went in the 
afternoon, and upper classmen 
in the morning. My freshman 
year, I started at about 11 a.m. 
and finished after 4 p.m. My 
senior year was great. I started 
at 8 a.m. and was done before 
11:30.
No yellow school buses. 
As a guy, you stuck out your 

thumb, hoping for a ride 
before the DSR bus came by. 
And your parents weren’t con-
cerned if you walked home 
from a friend’s at 11:30 at 
night.
We learned to drive on the 
track in front of the school. 
There was only one left turn. 
You pretty much drove only 
clockwise, round and round. 
During my time at Mumford, 
they had one stick shift vehi-
cle, a station wagon, three on 
the tree, no power steering. 
The objective was to get the 
car up to 20 miles per hour, 
and into third gear, on the 
backstretch along Wyoming. 
We really learned to drive on 
Sundays, at Northland.
I’m told that the girls had 
tank suits to wear for swim 
class. The guys swam au 
naturelle.
According to the Mustang 
Manual, and I quote, “The 
wearing of jeans by girls is not 
to be countenanced.”
We didn’t have much of 
a football team. Jewish kids 
didn’t want to get knocked 
around. However, we had 
great golf and tennis teams.
You raced from class to the 
lunchroom. Lunch period 
was 20 minutes. If you were 
at the end of the line, it was 
5 minutes. In the late ’50s, 
lunch cost 35 cents. There 
were large trays of homemade 
rolls. They were the best. You 
wanted to be there when they 
brought out a fresh tray. Milk 

was sold in small glass bot-
tles. When you dropped one, 
everybody watched it bounce, 
waiting to see if it broke, and 
you then had to clean it up, 
embarrassed by the cheers and 
clapping. And you had to pay 
for the bottle.
Among others, Mumford 
produced epidemiologist Dr. 
Larry Brilliant, jazz musician 
Earl Klugh, Grammy-winning 

songwriter Allee Willis, movie 
producer Bob Shaye, and 
his sister Linda. You might 
remember Linda as Magda, 
the orange-faced lady in 
There’s Something About Mary. 
If you went to Mumford, I 
hope this brought back some 
pleasant memories. If you 
didn’t, hopefully you learned 
something of what it was to be 
a Mumfordite. 
 

Congregation Shaarey Zedek in Southfield will hold 
a Mumford High School Shabbat Saturday, Aug. 17, at 
9:30 a.m. CSZ will honor graduates from 1952-1970. 
Lunch will follow services.
Respond to the synagogue office at (248) 357-5544 
by Monday, Aug. 12. Share your name and graduation 
year to be included in the special printed Mumford 
High School program. 
To register, visit tinyurl.com/2024MumfordShabbat. 

Mel and Karol’s yearbook photos