The Lottery

For the first time since World War II the government held a lottery drawing at the Selective Service National Headquarters in Washington, D.C. It determined the order of call for induction during the calendar year 1970. It was for all registrants born between January 1, 1944, and December 31, 1950. This was a change from the pattern of drafting the oldest man first, which had previously been the practice.

They put 366 capsules, each containing a date of the year, into a large glass container. Then on national television and radio they drew out one capsule at a time, opened it and read the date. You would think that on that evening, December 1, 1969, that I would be standing by the radio or TV anxiously awaiting the results but I wasn’t. I was in the library at Iowa Wesleyan studying for a test.

A friend of mine, Calvin Crane, a fellow student at Iowa Wesleyan, was in the work-study program at the college. He was an AV technician. When a professor needed an overhead, a projector or whatever they went to Calvin. He had a desk and storage area in the lower level of the library. I often saw him rolling around equipment on a cart.

That night, December 1, I was in the lower level of the library studying for a test. Calvin came by pushing his cart and informed me that he would be listening to the drawing and I could come and listen to it, too. I told him I wasn’t that interested but that I might at least check in with him later. Somehow just sitting around waiting for them to draw 366 capsules and read the date didn’t sound too exciting. I was only interested in one date, September 13th. What number would it be? He said if he heard it he would let me know.

Shortly after the drawing started Calvin came down the hall and said, “You’re first! September 14th is first.” I said “September 14th?” And Calvin said, “Yes, September 14th is first!” I said, “I’m September 13th.” Calvin laughed and said, “You are lucky!” and went back to listening.

Later that evening Calvin came by again and said “One seventy-five, You’re lucky! They probably won’t ever get to you.” I asked him what he meant by that and told me the Selective Service would reorder their files to the order birth dates were drawn and that Henry County would meet it’s quota long before they got to one seventy-five. He was right.

If you weren’t selected that first year then you dropped into a second category when the new eighteen olds were added to the mix. Each year after that it was less and less likely that they would ever get to you.

I saw many friends leave and go into the service. Some of them never came back. Most of those who did were somehow different when they returned. Some of them described the horror of war and while others said nothing. It was a difficult time! I thought we would never let it happen again.

Staying in School

I went to summer school after my freshman year of college and again after my second year. Back then you needed to stay on pace to graduate in 4 years or it could jeopardize your draft status. After my earlier experience with the draft board I wanted to avoid that at all costs. I went to summer school at Iowa Wesleyan both summers and did Ok.

Still after two years at Southeastern Community College it appeared that my critics were right. I was not really college material. In the spring of 1969 I took interest surveys and aptitude tests. After several consultations with my advisor it was determined that I was best suited to be an industrial draftsman. The assessments said I had a high aptitude in math and would do well in that field. Go figure! I lost my faith in those tests right there!

Nevertheless, wanting to stay in school and believing I couldn’t get in a four-year college I enrolled and was accepted in the two-year industrial draftsman program at Southeastern. I planned on attending until late that summer when one day in early August my Dad said someone from Iowa Wesleyan had been in the store and said that Wesleyan was really hurting for students because of the war and would take almost anyone. Dad thought I should apply.

Not really believing I had a chance I went through the whole application process. I was surprised that I received a letter of acceptance in just a few days. I was accepted on academic probation. All I needed was a 2.8 GPA my first semester and I was in. If I didn’t get a 2.8 my slate was clean and it would be as if I had never been there at all.

I don’t know exactly what happened? Part of it was maturity. Part of it was that the college was very supportive and made sure I did well, and part of it was the fear of the draft. Anyway, I had a 3.1 GPA after that first semester and was never in academic jeopardy again, eventually ending up on the dean’s list.

In the two years I had been at the community college I had been an English major, a Physical Education major, a business major, and back to an English major. When I enrolled at Iowa Wesleyan I decided that I would be a physical education major.

Olan Ruble, a famous teacher and coach was my advisor. He had coached a number of Olympic women’s basketball teams and was well known. Google him today and you will find that he was a pioneer in women’s sports nationally and internationally. It was him who brought the Russian women’s basketball team to Mt. Pleasant for a game.

He was a genuinely kind person and very good to me but after a semester as a physical education major I knew it was not for me. I told my sister, Nancy of my dissatisfaction with that major and that I just didn’t know what direction to go. Nancy told me a story about a man who had gone into elementary education. She reminded me of my love for teaching swimming lessons and told me male teachers were in great demand. The rest is history.

Burning Draft Cards

During the 60s the country was deeply mired in the unpopular Viet Nam war. Young men were being drafted and sent to fight in this far away war. Protesters demonstrated on college campuses and marched in the streets. Many draft eligible men burned their draft cards in a public demonstration of their distain. Burning a draft card was a federal offense and those who did it were often arrested.

The University of Iowa campus was a hot spot for demonstrations and in the news a lot. Iowa Wesleyan students tried to copy University students but on a much smaller scale. The FBI visited students known to be involved as a method of intimidation more than anything else. I knew one student who was identified as a leader of the local dissidents and visited often.

In 1968 I was still at Southeastern Community College and only read or heard about the things happening at the University of Iowa and Iowa Wesleyan. There were a few posters around our campus but not much was happening.

In the fall of that year I was taking Speech I and having a fairly easy time of it because of my experience in speech and drama in high school. We were assigned different topics and then learned about the different parts of a good speech. We learned we needed a good introduction with a strong attention getter. The teacher thought the first 30 seconds were the most critical. The speeches were usually 3-5 minutes. That seemed like a long time then but seems very short now.

We were assigned a 3-minute speech on a topic of our choice with the focus on our introduction attention getter. I had a weekend to think it over. Headlines in the press on Saturday were about a University of Iowa student who burned his draft card. He was arrested immediately. A year or so later he was sentenced to 2 years in prison.

I decided that was what I was going to do, burn my draft card. Well, not really my draft card, but the card that came with it that was exactly the same size and from a distance indistinguishable from the real thing. Then I planned to talk about the origins of the conflict and it’s impact on the youth of America. I saw the fake card burning as a good way to get everyone’s attention and accomplish the assignment. I had no idea about the stir it would cause.

Eager to get it over with I volunteered to be first. The teacher reviewed the goal of the lesson and then went and sat down in the back of the room. “You're on, Perry.” She said.

I went to the podium turned and faced the class and pulled the card out my breast pocket and then a lighter out of my jeans. I held the card up about eye level and then lit the lighter and held it to the corner of the card. The instructor screamed! The class gasped and the card was gone in a few seconds. I let the last bits of it drop to the floor and stepped on it. The instructor was shouting and trying to get out of her chair. Another teacher in a nearby room came rushing in to see what was happening.

I had to assure my instructor that it really wasn’t my draft card before she let me continue with my speech. She was visibly shaken the rest of the class, but afterward told me I had done an excellent job and she gave me an A. She also told me that if I ever was going to do anything like that again I should tell the instructor in advance.

By lunchtime that day several students and instructors had approached me and said they heard the whole story. Everyone, even the other instructors were quite amazed by the whole thing.

First Summer

Angela Sue Ross was born of Wednesday, May 1, 1968. May 1 just happens to be my parents wedding anniversary so that has been convenient. It has always helped me remember both. We took Angie home on Saturday morning. We had a nursery ready in the room next to ours. The crib was on the wall next to our room. We had a changing table there, too. It was just a few steps from our bed and we always left the door open.

Becky was the perfect mother and took care of Angie in every way. I was glad of that because it meant I didn’t have to do the diapers very often. I could do it but it wasn’t a job I looked forward to. My job was to make the baby smile and eventually laugh. Angie was born smiling and laughed long before most babies do so that part was easy. She still has a great sense of humor.

Becky was off work for at least 6 weeks but after two was stir crazy from being in the house all of the time. One day when I was getting ready to mow the yard she said she wanted to do it. I agreed to let her, figuring she could handle it or she wouldn’t have asked.

I stayed inside with the baby and Becky went at it. About 10 minutes into the mow a backyard neighbor called almost hysterical. She was screaming about me making Becky mow the yard! She said I was an awful person and she was calling my parents immediately. She did!

I went out and told her what the lady had said. Becky was unruffled by the whole thing and insisted on finishing the lawn. I went back to my babysitting duties in the house and Becky went back to the mowing.

When my Dad called and told me she had called him, too. He said Becky shouldn’t be mowing the yard just two weeks after having the baby. I explained that I didn’t make her do it. He felt I should make her stop. I guess at that point he didn’t know Becky very well.

I don’t think that neighbor ever forgave me and actually reminded me of my terrible offense years later. She was much older and from a time when women rested much longer after childbirth. I wonder what she would say about the hospitals sending new mothers and babies home after one day now?

That summer we took Angie everywhere and she was the life of the party everywhere she went. It was never hard finding someone to help with her because kids and adults were just drawn to her. Well, pretty much the same as now.

I worked at the pool that summer. Becky and Angie came down often and enjoyed the sun and water. Becky even took Senior Lifesaving that summer. Being competitive Becky didn’t hold back and it is a rigorous course so it was very difficult for her.

Kids Raising Kids

Sometime during the day of April 30, 1968, in dawned on me that the next day, May 1, was the day I was to report to the military. That was, of course, before the events outlined in the previous story. So the welcome waves of relief that passed over me as I thought about it were great. I wasn’t totally in the clear with the draft but I’ll tell more about that later.

I don’t remember a lot of what happened that day except that it was warm. Late that Tuesday night Becky and I decided to go for a ride in our convertible. We enjoyed being outside and the fresh air. Maybe it was the fresh air that did it?

When we got back to 305 North Jackson it was after 11 PM. I was tired and headed for bed. Our baby was due in five days and Becky was quite uncomfortable. Sometime after midnight, Becky woke me up. She said she thought her water had broken and that the baby would be coming soon.

I was instantly wide-awake! We went to the Henry County hospital about 2 AM. I need to say here that this all happened before prenatal classes and the fathers getting to go into the delivery room. The latter was happening in some places but Dr. Rankin said it wasn’t an option in this hospital. In retrospect that was a good thing!

When we reached the hospital Becky and I were sent up stairs to the maternity ward. There in the reception area at the top of the elevator the nurse took Becky and instructed me to go down stairs and fill out some forms. Downstairs they really only wanted to know one thing. Who is going to pay for this? My Dad had already said he would take care of it sort of as a gift to us and the new baby, so that problem was solved when I put his name down. I think the hospital bill was around $160. Dad used to joke that Angie was his because he paid for her. The doctor bill for the birth and the previous nine or so months of office visits was close to $400. We paid that as we went along so it wasn’t so bad.

When I had finished at the registration desk I went back up to the maternity floor. Not sure what I was supposed to do I waited in the reception area near the elevator. The hospital seemed to be almost empty. Occasionally, I would see a nurse pass. I kept trying to get their attention because I wasn’t sure if I was to wait there or go to Becky’s room?

It was standing by the elevator that I first heard it. It was the most agonizing groan of pain I had ever heard and it went on for what seemed like minutes. It subsided and then started up again in a few minutes. I was horrified! I was sure it was Becky and I was powerless to help.

Finally, a passing nurse said, “What are you doing here?” and she led me into a room where Becky was. I told Becky I had heard her and she said, “That’s wasn’t me!” It was someone down the hall whose baby was coming breach. I was incredibly relieved!

Becky and the baby weren’t making much progress. Sometime around 5 AM the doctor decided that Becky was exhausted and needed to rest to get some strength. He gave her some medication to let her sleep and said they would induce the baby later that day.

Becky slept until that afternoon. In the meantime I called Becky’s parents and my parents. I went home briefly to shave and pick up some things and retuned to the hospital. When Becky woke the nurse gave Becky a pill to hold under her tongue. The contractions began soon after that.

Somewhere around 2:30 in the afternoon Angela Sue Ross was born. I stood outside the viewing glass as Dr. Couchman, the assisting physician carried her into an adjoining room where she weighed her. Angie was covered with some gunk and her head was pointed. I was shocked. The doctor turned her over in her hands and examined her like she was a toy doll. She looked at me from behind the glass, smiled and gave me a thumbs up.

Dr. Rankin came out of the birthing room. He said everything was fine and Becky was doing well and would be out soon. I was afraid to ask about the pointed head thing but decided if it was bad someone would say something. Becky later explained the reason for the pointed head to me.

That day I was convinced I was the luckiest man alive. In one short year I had graduated from high school, enrolled in junior college, married the girl of my dreams, avoided being drafted, and became a parent. The birth of a child, of course, pales the other four but they were all very significant positive events for me.

After we had taken Angie home we often got up in the middle of the night just to stare at her in her crib and marvel at our good fortune.

By the way, I still think I am the luckiest guy alive.

The Draft

The Vietnam War was raging in 1967 but I had a deferment (II-S) because I was enrolled as a full time student in college. The war was very unpopular by this time but there seemed to be no way out. (Sound familiar?) Many others and I were just hoping it would end before we had to go. My cousin Terry was enrolled part time in Burlington Community College. Part time students were considered eligible for the draft but Terry had an I-H deferment because of his weight.

Each county had a quota each month and the local draft board determined who would go. Darlene Taylor, at the local draft board office, checked on every deferred person regularly to see if their status changed. If you dropped a class and dropped below the full time status the college was required to report it to draft board. They kept close tabs on II-S students and even knew our grades and who was likely to flunk out.

In February of 1968 I received an Order to Report for Physical Examination. I didn’t realize it at the time but this letter is the first step of being drafted into the armed services. Other friends had gone for physicals so the only thing that really bothered me about it was being gone overnight and away from Becky.

The army physicals for Iowa were given in Des Moines. We all rode up in a bus one afternoon and checked into a barracks when we arrived. We were informed that we were in fact in the military while were there. I was bummed that they didn’t serve us supper or breakfast the next morning because of the tests. The physical itself was uneventful except they made me go through the colorblind test several times and finally determined that I wasn’t faking and I was actually colorblind. I asked the guy if that disqualified me from service and he said, “No, you would make a good sniper!”

On a gloomy day in late March while I was working at Glanzman’s Printing, Becky came in crying and holding an envelope. It was an Order to Report for Induction. I had been drafted. I was baffled because I was a full time student and didn’t understand what was happening but there it was. I was ordered to report for duty on May 1, 1968. The problem was amplified by the fact that our baby was due to be born on May 5.

I took the letter and went to talk to Darlene Taylor at the draft board office. She was stern and had no sympathy for me. She said I had been dully drafted by the board and there was nothing either of us could do about it. I protested and said I was deferred because I was a full time student and showed her my II-S draft card. She said I wasn’t a full time student so that didn’t matter. We argued loudly back and forth, but I made no progress.

Finally, she opened my file and pulled out a document from Burlington Community College. “Here!” she said. “Is the proof you are a part time student!” and she slammed the paper on the table in front of me. She pointed to phrase “part time” on the page.

I was speechless as I looked at the page. Then my eyes drifted to the top where it said “Name Terry D. Ross.” I could only point and finally stammered. “That’s not me!” Darlene was hysterical! Now she was the one who was upset. The county had met their quota with me and now she couldn’t send me, or Terry either because of his deferment.

My emotions that day had been on a rollercoaster. When I went home and told Becky of our change of fortune she almost didn’t believe me. We were so relieved!

On the day I was to report for duty, May 1, 1968, the greatest thing happened in my life. It has been equaled but never surpassed. It was the birth of our daughter, Angie. But that is another story.

Just Getting Started

Ok, enough about my high school years for now. I’ll tell about my high school initiation, parties at the cabin, the serious car accident, and trips to New London, driving the loop, and all kinds of other stuff another time.

A lot happened in the year after graduation! I certainly can’t do it justice in one piece so expect two or three. Up to now I have written about National Aquatic School. That happened the summer after graduation.

That summer I bought a white Dodge Dart convertible. It was a cool car! It had push button drive and a red interior. I loved that car and the girls did, too. Of course, by then I was a one-girl guy so it didn’t do me any good along those lines. But, after driving my parents uninspiring Studebaker it was nice to have a car that impressed. My Dad thought it was a little too flashy and expensive. He was probably right on both counts.

I enrolled at Burlington Junior College that summer and knew I would need a car to get back and forth. My Dad thought I could car pool with others. I probably could have but it just wasn’t very exciting for me.

The summer of 1967 was the summer Becky and I decided to get married. It was a huge decision. The wedding wasn’t until October 28 so we had plenty of time to get ready. I was 19 years old but still had to have my mother come and sign with me to get a marriage license. Becky, at 18, didn’t have to have her parents sign. I still haven’t figured that out almost 40 years later?

I wasn’t much into the preparation but Becky was. She took care of all of the arrangements. We were married in the Methodist Church in Winfield and honeymooned at the Holiday Inn in Burlington, Iowa. Probably not the most romantic place but we went there because I had to go to class on Monday morning.

When we returned to Mt. Pleasant we had to stay at my parents house for about a week before our apartment was ready. That wasn’t the best arrangement for all involved either but we all got through it.

We moved into 305 North Jackson with a bed and two dressers, a kitchen table with three chairs, some appliances we got as wedding gifts. The apartment had a kitchen stove and a refrigerator. It had a huge old oil burning heating stove in the living room.

Billy Jackson showed up about suppertime the first night we were there. He couldn’t seem to take the hint that we were about to have dinner or he was hoping we would feed him, too. I think we finally did. It wasn’t the cozy dinner Becky had planned.

Becky worked at Lauser’s craft and paint store. I went to school and worked part-time for Glanzman’s Printing Company. I made a dollar an hour and worked about 12 hours week. Becky made about forty dollars a week. Needless to say we didn’t have much money. We probably could have collected food stamps but never seriously considered anything like that. From time to time our parents did help us out with food or furniture and since my parents owned the duplex apartment we didn’t have to pay rent. We lived in that place the first four years of our marriage.

High School V

My senior year of high school went quickly. I took the ACT tests in the fall and it was determined that I really wasn’t college material. Community College or vocational schools were options as well as enlisting in the armed forces. That latter meant most likely a tour of duty in Viet Nam so I wasn’t too excited about that. Failure to enroll in some kind of school meant the draft was inevitable. Undaunted I applied at the University of Iowa and Iowa Wesleyan and was rejected by both. My years of a casual school approach to learning were now narrowing my options.

Burlington Community College was my choice. (It was renamed as Southeastern Community College while I was there.) That settled, I continued my pattern of enjoying high school but not doing much work.

I did take an elective from Roger Williams that year. The sole purpose of the course was to speed up your reading. They used a machine called a tachistascope that projected the text on the wall and gradually did it faster and faster. It worked I got so I could read very fast. I have retained that skill at least to some degree to this day, however if you don’t use it much you lose a lot of it.

My senior year in my regular English class with Roger Williams was the first time someone suggested I might be colorblind. The assignment was that we were to find an interesting piece of text to read aloud to the class. We were to paste a copy of the piece on colored paper that reflected the mood. I picked a blue piece of paper because it was a sad story. When I said that to the class they burst out laughing because the colored paper I had chosen was purple. That was an embarrassing and even humiliating experience! Someone said, “You’re a senior in high school and you don’t know your colors!” Mr. Williams just said, “You must be colorblind!” and we went on.

My class tied its first football game that year and lost the last two games of the season. Up until that time we had won every game from 7th grade on. It wasn’t the way we had hoped to end our football careers. I suffered what I now know was a concussion in the tie game with Fairfield and remember little of it. It was surreal the day after the game to watch myself on the video and have the coach yell at me. I didn’t start the next game for the first time in my career but was back in the starting position before the game was over.

I did have an offer to play football at Iowa Wesleyan. That lasted only until they looked at my ACT scores and then it was quickly withdrawn. I was way too small anyway and would have been way out of my class. Eventually, I will get to my days at Iowa Wesleyan and my experiences as a collegiate athlete.

High School IV

My junior year in high school was an up and down year for me. A serious ankle sprain marred a successful football season. It was the year I met Becky officially at a basketball game and I was fairly successful in school.

I was the long snapper on the varsity football team. During the Ft. Madison game I was injured. I watched it over and over again on the videotape but couldn’t really figure out why it happened. I had snapped the ball for a punt and ran down the field and made a great tackle on the star running back and in the process forced him to fumble. After the play the video shows me sitting on the ground rocking back and forth in pain.

I was on crutches for three weeks but still played in football games. Dr. Rankin came to the dressing room before each game and taped my ankle so heavily that it was like I had a cast on. I was helped onto the field to hike for each punt and extra point. Our opponents were aware of my injury and tried to tee off on me a few times but most of the time the guards on each side of me kept me safe. The injury, however, has plagued me the rest of my life.

After football season I didn’t go out for wrestling because of the lingering ankle injury. That gave me more time, which was not always a good thing. Idle time for a boy my age led to hanging out at the Princess Café and smoking cigarettes. I took great care not to get caught smoking by anyone from the school or anyone who might tell my parents. I was never caught. Too bad I didn’t because it might have caused me to quit sooner.

Academically, my junior year was not so bad except for chemistry. I had Roy Oliver as a teacher and it was kind of tough. I did enjoy the labs but needed all the help I could get in the classroom part of the course. Fortunately a friend took mercy upon me and often helped me with the homework. I think I failed the tests but my lab reports and homework were good enough to carry through with at least a C in the course.

We all had to do the dreaded research paper that year in English. To this day I am not sure what that entire exercise is all about but nevertheless everybody did it. It wasn’t really research but the rewriting of someone else’s work. The methodology of the whole process was something that was used in no other place than the school research paper.

I think I had U.S. History with Ron Statler that year, too. I enjoyed the class and Mr. Statler was a good teacher although he almost never left his seat at his desk in the front center of the classroom. I later did my school administrator practicum with Mr. Statler when I finished up my master’s degree. At that time he was principal at the junior high.

After meeting Becky in February that year I was hopelessly in love and spent all of my spare time in Winfield or on a date with her. We went to movies, dances, and even a few parties. The parties were pretty tame compared to the parties kids seem to be having now. We went to Winfield’s prom and then Mt. Pleasant’s together.

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.

The Swimming Pool II

The Swimming Pool II

Over the years I worked at the pool with a lot of different people. I met Terry Conrad while working at the pool. Terry was a lifeguard along with me and he attended high school at WACO. Terry was very bright and loved technology. He was always fiddling with old radios and gadgets like that.

Terry had a great sense of humor and was always coming up with cleaver tricks and practical jokes. In the filter room there was a huge over flow tank. It was round and about three feet in diameter and six feet tall. Near the bottom of the tank was a three-inch pipe with a small wheel valve. The pipe led directly to the main line just before the large filters. Over it was an eight-inch pipe with a large wheel valve. That line is what we used to add city water to the pool. It came from a well not far from the pool.

In the heat of the summer when the pool water temperature was too warm to be comfortable we sometimes added well water to cool it down some. It really didn’t help much but it was better than nothing. One very hot summer day we got the idea that we could really cool down by crawling in that big tank. We would open the bottom valve full blast and the top valve and the tank would look like a boiling caldron of water. It was far from being hot with the water temperature about 60 degrees.

Once, on a hot afternoon after we had backwashed the filters Terry decided to get into the tank before going out to guard the pool. As often happened there were four or five kids at the top of the steps watching us work. The kids were shocked to see Terry crawl in the big tank with the water swirling around. Terry seized the moment and begin acting like the water was pulling him under. The kids imagined that the tank went deep into the floor of the room and eventually into the pool. Terry struggled, screamed and disappeared. The kids were screaming frantically. I yelled at them to run out and see if he came out in the bottom of the pool. By the time they came back Terry and I were laughing hysterically.Those kids went and got their friends and we did it again. We replayed the trick over and over. We even fooled a few of the female lifeguards with that trick.

Although this may have sounded risky it really wasn’t. The suction out the side pipe was minimal and both Terry and I could hold our breath for quite awhile. Some of our other escapades were really risky.

We challenged each other to see who could hold their breath the longest. We would both swim the length of the pool under water and start back the other way sometimes getting as much as halfway back.

We tried diving from the back rail of the diving board stand. That meant the diver had to clear about 12 feet of the deck to get to the water. The diver would stand on the top of the rail with the other person bracing him. We easily cleared the deck so naturally we moved about four feet back to the deck rail. Miraculously we both cleared the deck that way, a full 16 feet. We only did that once each! If you think this is crazy wait until you hear the next story.

The Swimming Pool

I worked at the Mt. Pleasant Pool every summer from age 13 through my first year of college. I started as the basket boy for the morning Red Cross lessons and ended being assistant manager. I usually worked six days a week and many times seven. During the six weeks of Red Cross lessons, work started at 9 am and didn’t end until we closed the pool at 9 pm. I usually had an hour for lunch and supper but usually taught private lessons during those times. Needless to say I didn’t have much of a social life except when it rained. Those days we closed and we usually went to a movie or something like that.

People used to ask me if I ever saved anybody. I would usually say that I pulled someone out on an almost weekly basis. Did that mean I saved them? Well, I always thought that if I hadn’t done it someone else would have. That sort of thing is fairly common at most pools. Someone gets in over their head and needs a little help getting out.

It wasn’t quite as common to have someone slip under the water and not be noticed. Lifeguards are all about prevention and using rescue as little as possible. When it was necessary the guard would try to extend something to the swimmer or throw a life ring to them. We were to only enter the water as a last resort. On one occasion we had to use the resuscitator. As it turned out the person was having a seizure. We used it to provide oxygen. I don’t think he was ever in serious danger. Although I practiced it a thousand times, I never had to use CPR.

The pool was divided into areas with a guard responsible for each one. The areas were deliberately overlapping to make sure we had complete coverage of the entire pool. We practiced scanning our areas in patterns and then reversing the pattern and scanning again. That went on over and over all day long. It is so hard wired into my head today that I find myself doing it every time I am around people who are in the water. It is kind of a curse to always be looking for trouble.

In all of those years at the swimming pool we had some great times. I swam everyday and became a strong swimmer. At the annual swimming meet every summer I was undefeated, even swimming against swimmers two or three years older than me. It was the one area of my life that I had great success.

At every swimming meet the guards put on a show. We usually dressed up in crazy outfits and did crazy things off the diving boards. One trick was to line six guys up on the very end of the board and all dive in at exactly the same time. It was dangerous and tricky but I don’t think anyone ever got hurt. I still have the picture of us doing it that was on the front page of the newspaper.

Sometimes on hot summer nights some of us would stick around after the pool closed and go for a moonlight swim. It was cool to have the whole pool to ourselves. We often ordered pizza and had our own small party. Sometimes the police would stop in and check to make sure we were pool employees.
The police checked the pool after hours regularly throughout the season. It wasn’t unusual for us to find clothing left behind by skinny dippers who had climbed over the fence the night before. Sometime we had vandalism or damage to the pool. On a few occasions they broke into the bathhouse and would take whatever they wanted. Sometimes we were very frustrated.

We cooked up schemes to get back at the scoundrels. We put jelly on the counter we knew they would crawl over to get into the bathhouse once and the intruders left a messy trail but probably just washed it all off in the pool so we weren’t ahead much. Once we hid in the bathhouse until the swimmers snuck in and then turned on all the lights. When we realized how many of them there were and how big they looked we called the police. Fortunately, they left before anything happened.

We spent the night a few times at the pool waiting up most of the night to catch intruders. That didn’t work to well because we scared ourselves more than anyone else that came along. I’ll tell some more about that in the next installment.

Collections

My family has always collected things! I collected arrowheads, marbles, buttons, iron toys, coins and gadgets. I still do. I have expanded to old tools, unusual musical instruments and harmonicas. If I think about it very long I am sure I could think of a couple more.

I don’t know what possesses people to collect things but some people do and some don’t. It is almost a curse. I am sure some of the folks who declutter houses would have a field day with me. It is not all my fault! It’s genetic! Yes, it came down from both sides of my family.

My Mother has always collected things. I remember when she collected apple dolls. She made them and still has many. She collected different kinds of dishes and then Avon collectables. She has a collection of dolls, trivets and I am sure she has a collection of many other things.

And books, oh, my family collected books. My family has such a profound respect for a good book, fiction or non-fiction, that they can hardly bare to give them up even after they have read them.

My Dad was the worst! He, of course, had a large collection of arrowheads, which he shared with hundreds, maybe thousands. Many others things he tucked away somewhere. He had a button collection, an old map collection, an old tool collection, and more. He clipped articles from all sources and pasted them in scrapbooks. He collected historical information about areas of the county and put them in three ring binders. He was almost always looking for something.

One winter, when it had been particularly dry for sometime, we went to Merrimac. Much of the river bottom was exposed. First we collected a large spike that was part of the 1855 dam and then two boards from the Mill that was there in 1841. Dad also had a brick from that mill.

Dad had a brick from the Trenton Institute of Science that was built in 1868. I remember seeing the building when I was growing up. At some point the building was torn down but Dad made sure he got that brick.

He had a spindle from the stairway of the hotel that was in Rome. He used to hold it in his hand and say, “Think of the stories that piece of wood could tell!” and then he would tell me the hotel had a reputation for being a wild place.

Dad collected boards because good lumber was hard to come by and expensive, too. The walls of the garage are lined with those boards today. You never know when you might need a good board for something?

Besides the arrowheads, bones of prehistoric creatures and all of the other stuff, we collected rocks. All kinds of rocks! We found geodes, fossils, and just interesting looking rocks. If we could lift it we would bring it home. We piled them in stacks in the yard. Many are still visible there and others have sunk into the ground. Dad speculated that archaeologists a thousand years from now would be baffled by the odd assortment of rocks in the location of our house.

Even though this seems like a lot of stuff there is more! I don’t know how many collections we have or even why? I just know we are collectors.

National Aquatic School

During my senior year in high school the Henry County Red Cross decided they wanted to send me to National Aquatic School. It was partly because they wanted to reward me for loyal service and partly because they had never sent anyone before, had the money and thought it was a novel idea.

There were schools located in four or five places across the country. The nearest was at a place called Little Grassy Lake Campus near Carbondale, Illinois. It was part of the campus of Southern Illinois University. In those days the Red Cross had a big office in St Louis and some of the national leaders were involved in this school because St. Louis was only about 130 miles west of Carbondale. The one I attended lasted 10 days and while I was there I focused on becoming certified as a Handicapped Swimmer Instructor because I was already certified as a Water Safety Instructor.

One of the instructors was a person named Walter Housganick. I don’t think I have spelled his last name right but he was a famous man in the Red Cross. He was retired by this time and came to our school to teach for a few days that summer. He had done many movies for the Red Cross on how to do different water safety and rescues.

Walter was not much more than five feet tall. He was not a big man in any way except his belly. It stuck right out like he was ten months pregnant. His favorite way to teach was flat on his back in the water. He would float on his back, that huge belly sticking out like a whale and lecture away at us for an hour. He was fascinating to listen to and had story after story about daring rescues and what did or what should have happened.

The curriculum was rigorous and focused on classroom activities and practical application of the training in the water. We had the classroom part in the morning usually and were in the water all afternoon. Many times the instructors would teach from the dock while the students treaded water or floated. We were in about 20 feet of water so there was no rest. By the end of the camp I could tread water for couple hours without much problem. You learn to minimize your effort and maximize your buoyancy.

To better understand being disabled we simulated different kind of problems. We tied an arm or both arms to our side and then tried to figure out the best ways to move through the water. I was the one who had to try it without arms and legs so my arms were tied to my side. A board was placed between my legs and then my legs were tied together. They shoved me off the dock before I was ready and I was on my own. I was able to roll over relax and my face came out of the water just enough to gasp of a bit of air. Fortunately, they fished me out soon after that but the feeling of helplessness was horrible. I have never forgotten it.

Another, not so traumatic, activity that we did was called the “blind man swim.” In that activity a blind folded swimmer was paired with another swimmer. We were told to swim to the sound of a bell about a quarter of a mile away. The other swimmer was there to help if the blind folded swimmer got way off course. Once we swam around the bell a different bell sounded back where we had started. Each person took a turn with the blindfold and as the escort. I hated being blind folded and swam as fast as I could to get it over with. My escort couldn’t keep up with me but it didn’t really matter cause I swam right to the bell and then back.

I graduated in June of 1967, about a month after I graduated from high school. The trip by Trailways bus to Carbondale and then back home was quite an experience for me and something I will write about another time.

Berkshires Barbershop

Barbershops have been gathering places for a long time. Usually, men gather in places like that to talk over the issues of the day or gossip about anyone who is not there. Eventually conversations turn to sports.

Berkshires Barber shop in Mt, Pleasant was no different. In the daytime there was almost always someone hanging around there to share or pick-up on the latest. In the evening it was no different. The crowd was much younger in the evening though.

My cousin, Terry Ross, cleaned the barbershop in the evenings for Wayne Berkshire. He wasn’t supposed to let anyone in while he did that but you know how that goes. Everybody knew where to find Terry from about 6:30 top 8:30 on Sunday through Thursday night. Friday nights Wayne just swept up a little after the shop closed at 9:00 and besides Terry was otherwise occupied on Fridays. The same was true for Terry on Saturday nights. Cleaning the barbershop was the last thing on his mind. That is why he waited until Sunday evening to clean it.

Terry was one of the hardest workers I have ever known. He took great pride in cleaning the barbershop. It had been remodeled just prior to him starting there. It had shiny chrome fixtures and chairs. It had huge mirrors across the wall behind the chairs and another large one across from the chairs. I remember Terry polishing those chairs to perfection. More than once I waited for him to finish up and on the way out the door he would notice something that wasn’t just right. Outside the shop he would look back in the big front window. If he saw anything that wasn’t perfect he would unlock the door and go back in and fix it.

I subbed for Terry a few times when he was unable to be there to clean the shop. I don’t think I ever lived up to the expectation but it was good money so I didn’t turn down the opportunity.

Terry was masterful at using the reflection in store windows across the street to see who was coming down the street on foot or by car. He knew you were coming before you got there. Sometimes he would run out and stop a friend in a car if he had something important to share.

Terry played as hard as he worked. After finishing up at the shop we would sometimes go out and get in mischief somewhere. We never did do anything terribly wrong but definitely did things we shouldn’t be doing.

Once we chased around some out of town thugs until they decided to chase us. We were in my parents car and headed out into the country and eventually down a very muddy road. Of course, we got stuck and so did the other guys. Since we were in front we talked them into helping push us out and promised to have a nearby farmer come and pull them out. They helped us get out and we left them there. I don’t know how they ever got out but I do know they were pretty mad when they did.

Hang Out

Ty’s grill was located on the southeast corner of the Main Monroe street intersection. It was a very popular teen hangout my first few years of high school. It was owned by Ty Fitzpatrick. Almost everyday after school it was packed with kids buying a cherry coke and maybe some French fries.

I was a little intimidated by some of the older kids who hung out at Ty’s and so I really didn’t go in there unless I was with someone else. I don’t know why I felt that way but I did. Ty’s closed sometime during my sophomore year and everybody moved about a half a block west to the Princess Café.

Dennis and Kent Lamm’s parents owned the Princess Café. They were friendly, outgoing people who welcomed kids in the restaurant even though we weren’t big spenders. Sometimes they did hurry us out of there if they had paying customers wanting a booth to sit in. Before it was the Princess it was the Candy Kitchen. Years after the changeover my Dad still referred to it as the Candy Kitchen.

The Princess had booths all along the east wall and a long counter with stools along the west wall. My Dad worked down the street a short distance at Roederer’s Clothing and he usually took his morning and afternoon breaks and had a cool drink there. The kids usually went for the booths and the businessmen on break took the counter. I always had to be careful that I wasn’t doing something stupid when my Dad was around. Sometimes I wasn’t careful enough.

We did do some silly things. Sometimes we would loosen the lid of the salt and peppershakers so that when someone tried to use them the lid would fall off and the contents would be all over their food. We got in trouble for that. Then we would take the lid off the saltshaker and put a thin layer of paper napkin over the top and then put the lid back on. Last we would pull the entire remaining napkin off the shaker so it looked like normal. We would laugh uncontrollably when someone tried to use the shaker.

Ralph Lamm, the owner, did come out of the kitchen to scold us a few times. He was generally pretty supportive of kids but didn’t like it if we were too noisy or caused problems for the more serious diners. Having the Princess Café as a place to hang out probably kept us out of some of the more unsavory places and I think Ralph knew that.

Kids gathered at the Princess, guys flirted with girls and we sipped Cherry Cokes and ate French fries or onion rings. The princess is where I perfected my wink. There were lots of girls there and we were expected to flirt. So I practiced, first with one eye and then the other. It is good to be an ambidextrous winker. You never know when that ability might come in handy. I have used it many times myself although I am not quite as good at it as I used to be. In my prime I could wink like the lights at a railroad crossing.

Workin’ On a Hog Farm

I worked at the swimming pool every summer during my high school years. In the fall, winter and spring it wasn’t as easy to find work that could accommodate school and athletic schedules. Most jobs I did find were temporary one-shot deals. There was, however, one job that I worked regularly all through high school. That job was working on Dick Cornick’s hog farm.

Dick was a big operator! He had his farm, his father’s farm across the road, and another one not too far away. He grew corn and soybeans on the land and had a large granary on his father’s farm. On all three farms he raised hogs during the cooler weather. This was the days before the big hog confinement operations that are now in place all over the countryside.

Farmers raised the hogs from beginning to market back then. Dick had his own sows and he used each one for several years. After awhile you got so you could tell one from the others and know which ones to stay away from. He would put a boar with the sows for a while and then wait for farrowing.

In this day and age farms have a farrowing house where sows are placed just prior to giving birth but back then we didn’t always get the sow in the shed in time and she would have her pigs in the lot or pasture someplace. Then we would have to wait for the “old girl’ to fall asleep. Then we would sneak up and carefully, put her babies in a five-gallon bucket and with a bucket in each hand, hurry as fast as we could to the fence. Usually the sow would wake up about the time I had picked up all the pigs and was heading for the fence. She would soon figure out what was up and would take off after me. It was close several times but I always made it to the fence.

We would put bedding down in stalls in the shed and place the little pigs in there. When it was just right and ready all we had to do was open the door and get out of the way. That sow would make a “bee line” to those pigs. She would nose them all over to see if we had done anything to them snorting at us all the while for taking her babies.

I rarely worked on the farm alone. Dick had two boys, Doug and Brad who often worked with us. Then there was always a crew of us from town. Sometimes as many as four or five guys would come out to work for the day. Dick was a great employer and paid us well in those days so it wasn’t hard to get other guys to come with us. I was a study employee and become the recruiter and the contact guy when Dick wanted us to start coming out to work.

The hard work was cleaning out the stalls and the lot floor every week. Today hogs never get out of a confinement house their whole life but back then hogs got to range in much larger areas. Each week we scooped all the manure out of the stall and off the lot and put down new clean dry bedding everywhere. The mixture of pig poop, mud and bedding was sometimes so soupy that it was hard to keep on the shovel.

For some reason when we went to lunch they often asked us to sit outside and when I went home at the end of the day my mother always made me take all of my clothes off outside before I came in the house. We always worked hard and it felt good! I made enough money in one day (about twelve dollars) to take a date to a movie, have a drink and popcorn there and then get a pizza afterward. Today, twelve dollars wouldn’t get a couple into a movie.