High School III

My sophomore year of high school was a great year for me! Our sophomore football team went 8-0 for the season and we were on cloud nine. We thought we were studs and, I expect, were pretty obnoxious. I went out for intramural wrestling that year and was successful even against some of the juniors and seniors. I lost to a senior in the end of the season tournament. The following year Mt. Pleasant started competitive wrestling.

Mrs. Clark was my English teacher. She had a rather large bosom and often wore a top that showed some cleavage. I remember that she always had a hanky stuck in that cleavage. She would use it occasionally to wipe her forehead and then plunge it back in there. This, of course, didn’t go unnoticed by the boys in the classroom. Although I was afraid of Mrs. Clark she was kind to me. My oral language skills carried me in that class.

I had Mrs. Lawrence as my biology teacher. I was somewhat interested in biology but really didn’t put forth much effort in that class. That was something I have always regretted. I have a strong interest in the sciences and should have worked harder at it when I was in school. Mrs. Lawrence was kind of timid and students took advantage of that often. I regret that, too.

My advisor strongly advised me not to take geometry given all the trouble I had with algebra as a freshman. I took it anyway and did quite well. When my algebra teacher heard about it he came to visit me and asked me how I could be doing so well. I told him that it was just easy for me and made sense. I couldn’t say the same for algebra. I think I hurt his feelings. He left the district the next year.

I had Latin II my sophomore year and we read Caesar’s war commentaries. Caesar had a five-year command in Cispine Gaul and Illyricum, the Roman provinces of northern Italy and the lands along the Adriatic coast. He saw this as a great opportunity to expand Rome's empire and we read about every detail, in Latin. It was kind of interesting but I grew bored with it about halfway though the year. I survived the class largely because the focus was on using the language and not studying it.

That year I took drivers education. I already had my license but Dad said we could get a discount on our car insurance if I took it so I did. Kent Acheson taught it and I did well. While driving with him once I did get stuck in the mud and he wasn’t very happy with me cause he had to get out and push me out.

That year I also took typing. I don’t remember what grade I got in that class but can say to this day that it was the most obviously useful class I have had in my entire academic career. I use the skills I learned often and find them invaluable in my job.

High School II

My freshman year of high school I had Latin I, Algebra, English, and General Science. That was the normal load for most ninth graders. There might have been one more class but I don’t remember what it was. Perhaps it was driver’s education. I was signed up for physical education but only attended the class twice in my four years of high school. In those days athletes didn’t have to go to physical education class.

My Latin teacher was Bernice Huffman. I took Latin because I thought I wanted to go to college and everyone told me that I should take Latin. We spent most of our time conjugating verbs. I don’t know why but we practiced that over and over. I found myself doing it in my sleep. School Latin is a rule driven language. The thought must have been that if you learn the rules you learn the language.

Living languages like English are in flux and don’t match up well to rules. They are always taking on new forms and dropping old ones. That is what makes them more functional. A language that doesn’t change is dead. I am always amused at the amateur grammarians who go around correcting everyone else. True grammarians, and I have known a few; know the futility of such pursuits. It is the language of the people and not vice versa.

Anyway, I did average work in Latin class. Miss Huffman moved me to a desk near her desk and went out of her way to be sure I was successful. I guess Latin has been useful to me but I did find it a little confusing when I took Spanish later on.

Dale Mundt was my algebra teacher. I was pretty much clueless in algebra. I just didn’t see any practical application for it and couldn’t get very interested. Mr. Mundt promised that he wouldn’t fail anyone who tried. His measure of that was if you came in once each quarter and asked for help. I did just that and scraped by in that class. At the end of the year he did highly recommend that I not take geometry my sophmore year. I did. More about that when I write about that year.

In ninth grade my English class was mostly drill and practice of grammar. That was a shock for me after a very successful eighth grade English experience with Mrs. McDowell. In eighth grade we actually used the language and read and wrote a lot. I adjusted but did not like it nearly as well. My ninth grade teacher, Mrs. Traut, was a nice enough person but the class was a disappointment to me. The influence of my mother and teachers like Mrs. McDowell had convinced me that language learning was a fun and engaging experience. I guess they spoiled me and I didn’t like it when it turned into work.

My Science teacher was Kent Atchison. He was young, owned a Corvette and was a pilot. Everyone, especially the girls, liked him. I loved the class and did well. One evening Mr. Atchison gave me a plane ride to Des Moines and back. He had to go for some reason and I went along. Round trip was less than 3 hours. It was pretty cool!

All in all my entire freshman year was a good year. The varsity football team was undefeated, untied and unscored upon that year. A feat unheard of and to my knowledge never duplicated anywhere to this day. I got to play in a few of those games. It wasn’t because I was so good. It was because the team was so good and would get so far ahead that Coach Evans would let the freshman play. I remember for the Fairfield game Mt. Pleasant dressed over one hundred players and every one got in the game for at least one play.

Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum viditur (“Anything in Latin sounds profound”).

High School

I was in the Drama Club my freshman, sophomore and senior years of high school. I don’t know what happened my junior year? I think it was my sister Loretta’s influence that got me involved. I have always contended that drama folks were all kind of weird and, I guess, that accounts for me being one of them.

I was in the all high play my sophomore and senior years and in the musical my freshman and senior years. I was in a one act play my freshman year, the junior class play, the senior class play and the contest play my freshman, sophomore and senior years. When I look back at it that seems like a lot. I guess it was the ham in me wanting to express myself.

I remember the two musicals. One was “Little Abner” and the other was “Oklahoma.” Not being much of a singer I had bit parts in both. They were a lot of fun. I was in the contest play three times and we had great success. We earned 1s for at least two of them. The one I remember most was a scene from the “Crucible.” I was the sheriff and it was the scene where I came to get Sarah and Tituba and take them to jail. Jackie Tolson was Tituba and Jan Johnson was Sarah. That was my senior year. Tom Owen, who had the lead in the play also earned “All State Actor” for his role in the play.

Sometimes I would go from football practice to play practice. I played football all four years of high school and earned a varsity letter the last two years. The odd thing was that I was the starting center and the lightest guy on the starting team. My class didn’t lose a football game from seventh grade until the last two games we played. Why it came apart then I am not sure? I think injuries and fatigue must have taken over.

I was also in the Creative Writing Club, the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, the Letter Club, the Future Teachers of America, wrestling for three years and track for three years. An ankle injury in football ended participation the latter two. I also belonged to the Science Club on and off during my high school years.

The FTA (Future Teachers Of America) group was just kids who thought they might want to be teachers. Several of us actually ended up in education. I don’t remember much about the meetings but I think we did get to go on a field trip to Iowa Wesleyan College for a conference.

I loved school and being a part of all of it. I didn’t care much about studying and was skilled at avoiding it at all costs. It was all just one big social event for me and I took full advantage of that. I was a below average student and couldn’t have gotten into a respectable college after high school so I ended up in junior college and that was only because they had to take everybody.

The Swimming Pool III

One summer we were particularly annoyed by people who were sneaking in the pool at night and then vandalizing the place before they left. If they had just went swimming and then gone home it wouldn’t have been so bad. They left behind beer cans and bottles at the bottom of the pool. They left items of clothing that made you wonder what they wore home? I hated the cigarette butts that were left on the deck and in the water. We even found left over pizza and other kinds of food.

The intruders usually climbed over the fence near the west end of the pool. They could get over easy there near the filter room and diving board deck. The other spot they sometimes came in was the gate on the north side of the pool. It was a good spot because the cyclone fence there didn’t have sharp wire sticking above the top bar.

We tried several deterrents without much success. Terry Conrad had an Edmund’s Scientific catalogue. We bought waterproof fuse in the hopes of making bombs that would explode under water. We did and they did but there was no practical way to make them work if we weren’t there to light them. We tested our explosive devises in the pool and in the park. If a kid were to do something like that now he would be put in jail and forever labeled a terrorist.

I ordered a whole head ape mask out of the catalogue. My mother wasn’t happy about it and wondered why I would order such a “horrid’ thing. It was pretty creepy! I couldn’t sleep with it in my room and had to hide it in the garage and not think about it when I wanted to go to sleep.

Terry was the only one I shared the mask with. He agreed that it was really cool and creepy, too. We tried spooking people by driving around town with it on. That worked but it was hard to see out of it and drive at the same time. We tried hitchhiking with it on. That worked, too, but what we usually ended up doing was scaring ourselves more than anyone else.

Terry and I decided we would sleep overnight at the pool and try to scare anyone who tried to sneak in. I don’t know if you have ever tried to scare someone but sometimes you end up the one being scared. We hid in the basket room one night and when the intruders came into the pool area we got so excited we forgot what we were going to do. We were too scared to put on the mask and run out there so we waited for them to get into the water and then we turned on all of the lights.

There were about 6 naked people in the pool and boy were they mad! Four of them were guys, big guys and they started coming towards the bathhouse. We were terrified and started calling the police. That was the only thing that saved us. The mask just didn’t seem to be the right thing that time. The people made us turn the lights off while the girls got out of the water and they all got dressed and left over the fence long before the police arrived.