In These Hallowed Halls
Gerald “Jake” Jacobs breaks out in a big laugh when he tells a story about his
experience with certain standards for behavior at school. “I still love this one!” he chuckles.
One day at East, he and Dorothy Robinson, a friend from their days at Mathewson Intermediate, got a conspiratorial look in their eyes. “She was kind of ornery – like me,” says Jake. As a spoof, they decided to walk down a hallway at lunch, holding hands. Their purpose, according to Jake, “was just to cut up a little bit.”
Back in the day, official East High policy prohibited public displays of affection, including holding hands, in the school building and Jake and Dorothy got more attention than they had expected. Soon they found themselves in Sid Moore’s office, where he told them never to do that again. They didn’t.
We will never know for sure whether the principal’s primary objection was to their hand-holding or appearing to be an interracial couple. Given what we know of the politics of that time, maybe both. Jake still has a bit of the devil in him, and he would probably do it all over again. And shake Sid Moore’s hand.
Jake added that he hopes Dorothy is still cutting up a bit when the spirit moves her.
