April 10, 2024
Teaching in the Fifty and Better (FAB) program
Submitted by Cary Ginell
Some of the best moments I have in teaching are when I have a guest who was integral to whatever topic I am speaking of. Several meaningful interactions come to mind. Probably the best was when I was teaching a class on comic parodist Allan Sherman and I had the honor of having Sherman’s daughter Nancy join me for commentary on her years growing up with him in Los Angeles when she was a child. It helped bring a human element to the class and I know I received some laudatory comments about her appearance. On another occasion I had Dick Weissman, the sole surviving member of the Journeymen folk music group guest with me for an entire hour and that turned out to be a fabulous experience as well as he reminisced about the legendary people he encountered in the Greenwich Village folk music scene of the early 1960s. It’s always good to have something like that create its own historical moments when I teach a class.