Dr. Gatell's Latency Stage - Age 8 to 11: 1965-1968

May 1965 (Age 8) - Here I am with my little brother Bobby (Age 6) on the corner of Broadway and West 82nd Street. We posed on a Sunday after attending our Holy Trinity Church - we stood just down the street from our apartment at 214 West 82nd Street. I believe I am in 2nd grade at Holy Trinity Catholic grade school.

This was a relatively happy times for me except for the forced short haircuts or crew-cuts by my father and my uncle Frank. When we visited my Uncle Frank and all my cousins at family get-togethers, we got the short haircuts by two very frustrated barbers.

I can still remember being so embarrassed one time with a new crew-cut that I wore a hat to school one day. A very very pretty and young  second grade teacher - a Catholic Nun - removed my hat slowly after talking to me so sympathetically. As she slowly removed my hat, she remarked that I looked so handsome and that my haircut was not so short after all. This Catholic Nun was so beautiful and so sweet. I believed her with all my heart and wondered if I could only marry her someday.