HK wrote:

We had a very progressive mayor in the mid-1950s, and there was a lot of
community pressure to "dump" school prayer locally long before it
happened nationally. I don't recall how it was handled within the school
system, but I do know that at the grammar school I attended, it just
stopped in about the fifth grade. By the time I got to junior high (we
had seventh through ninth junior high in those days, no more, though),
there was no morning standing and pledging.

One of the delights of New Haven in those days was the mish-mash of
cultures and religions, to the point where no group or sect really
dominated. The public schools did close, though, on the Jewish high
holidays, for which everyone was thankful!

Did you fight to get that religious holiday taken off the secular public
school calendar?