Zooming with the Aces #31: Back to School Memories, August 15, 2024

Class of 1960 Zoomers, 8/15/24

Top Row: Skip Granger, Fred Elder, Marilyn Tompkins Bellert. Second Row: Glenna Stearman Park, Dan Tontz, Tom Tatlock. Third Row: Lee Ayres, Perry Ann Porter, David Robinson. Fourth Row: Linda Soderberg McKay, Kay Ellen Consolver.

Memories of Back to School Days

This group of Zoomers shared stories about starting school after summer vacation, especially when we started first grade in 1947, intermediate school in 1954, and high school in 1957.  Some of those memories were hair-raising. Girls may not have known, for instance, that boys were hazed at Intermediate School, and that the boys all knew to never, ever visit a Boys Bathroom or else not to stay long. The notes below are a summary not a transcript of the stories we told on August 15, 2024. If your story needs revision, let Marilyn know (mbellert@niu.edu).

David Robinson – This is a 2024 story. I was taking my dog out for our afternoon ride. I forgot that this was the first day of school at East High and it was 3:00 p.m. The students pouring out of the building were not scary. The biggest difference I noticed was that we would probably not have worn any of those clothes except to take out the trash. There have been lots of changes in the local schools.  Before I started high school, I remember that my dad bought property north of Wichita in a place that seemed way out in the country to us. While the house was being built, I stayed with my grandparents and went to Roosevelt. I was afraid that the new house would mean I would attend Valley Center High. Fortunately, that didn’t happen.

Perry Ann Porter – We moved a lot while I was a kid, and I have few memories of starting school. Because I was new, I was mostly ignored.

Lee Ayres – I grew up in Oakland, New Jersey, just outside of Philadelphia. My dad worked at RCA Victor, and I attended Clinton Avenue School. The playground was asphalt, very different from the Midwest. I can still name all of my teachers. I looked forward to school. My first year, pre-primary it was called, most of the kids were crying about being left by their parents. One other kid and I were not crying. I wondered if we were abnormal.  We moved to Wichita just before 7th grade. For me, Roosevelt was a whole new world. I was well-prepared in math and English by my school in New Jersey, so academics went well. 

Every year, summer seemed to get very long. I was always ready to go back to school. Today, I would have a great problem sending my children in public school in Fresno. The schools here seem to be plagued by low achievement, poor student behavior, low parent engagement, and so forth. I would probably seek a charter school or a private school. Things are so challenging in California. The schools need a transformation. I have been working with Dr. Tim Sterns at Fresno State, who is writing curriculum to improve student engagement and parent attitudes. He focuses on project-based learning. It’s problematic for many schools, since it requires facilities they don’t necessarily have.

Glenna Stearman Park – I started 1^st grade in Enid, Oklahoma. We lived on a farm out of town, where my dad was building cloth planes in the barn. I thoroughly enjoyed my childhood. I was learning how to fly by jumping off the chicken coop. One afternoon, thinking I had the wing thing solved, I dived down a staircase. A trip to the hospital was followed by stitches, and then by threats.  During grade school, besides watching my dad build planes, I played with the farm animals. I didn’t have friends out there, and I didn’t have toys or need them. We moved to Wichita when I was in 2nd grade, and my whole world changed. There were so many people to be friends with. I remember being extremely shy. On the first day, Helen Olson (called Jane at the time), asked if I wanted her to push me on the swings. If I said yes, she told me, “You will will have to be my best friend.” I was thrilled. Helen has some memory problems now, but she and I still talk often on the phone.

Dan Tontz – Glenna, your tale about flying reminds me of a great song by Guy Clark. He sings about a guy on the side of his house, wearing a cape, and fully intent on flying off. The story stops before he jumps. It’s all about empowerment and building self-confidence. Great song!

In 1954, I started at Robinson. On the first day, I got initiated. It was not a nice thing to have happen to you. There were always big bullies, 9th grade boys. On my first day, they tackled me and covered my face with some mother’s red lipstick. And I wasn’t the only one. (Editor’s note: At this point, Skip Granger contributed the name of a notorious bully and said, “He’s still in prison.”) The Boys Bathroom was a place you learned not to go into or else not to stay long. I was really lucky because my grandparents lived right across the street from Robinson. I just held it all day, and then made a beeline for Grandma’s bathroom right after the bell rang. 

I remember lots of bike riding. We rode every place. In high school, I started in the summer before 10th grade as part of the summer band. This helped me get familiar with the building. It was easy to get lost among the three floors in those early days.

Tom Tatlock  –  I was surprised by my first two remembrances.  First, I remember my Home Room at Robinson, downstairs in the Annex. My Home Room teacher as Ms. Tuckwood, who had just been named Miss Oklahoma. 

(Dan Tontz couldn’t resisted chiming in.) OOHHHH, Ms. Tuckwood. I had her in 10th grade in Room 310. She got married. We all fell in love with her, and the guys all sat in the front row in her class. She was provocative. The way she crossed her legs!)

(Tom resumed) The theme of my first two memories was beautiful women.  The second memory was in 1968, when I was working as an assistant director for KU Admissions. We used punch cards. Across the room from where I was working was a beautiful woman in a red dress.  Her name was Andrea. I was immediately attracted to her. Eventually, she married me and became Andrea Tatlock.

Skip Granger – I went to elementary at Irving School in Joplin. We moved to Wichita when I was 12 and started at  Roosevelt. I enjoyed being a proctor, but have to say that Butch the Bully did cause a lot of problems for me. As a new kid, I had a hard time getting acquainted with people. Doing a magic act helped. When I went on stage for a talent show, there were two guys who played trumpet and drums, “Cherry Pink and Appleblossom White” I think. They had always won the talent shows, but this time, I won instead.  At East High, I have many fond memories, as I also do from KU. These days, I watch my granddaughters going back to school. Zoe is dealing with braces. Remember that? I’m in Utah now and going to Zion Canyon tomorrow. I’m really looking forward to the coming week, when we will also be visiting Bryce Canyon and Grand Canyon.

Linda Soderberg McKay – Yesterday, I went to a mall, something I rarely do. I began looking at the teenagers who were shopping and wearing midriff tops and short shorts. I remember the controversy at East over new Pep Club uniforms. Would we be allowed to wear them? Other memories came back to me. I moved from Hyde to Robinson to East High. At Robinson, we went on Friday nights to an Episcopal Church on Douglas. In high school, we went to the Hangar. At both places, there was adult supervision. Young kids today have a wide open world, not the safe, controlled environment where we grew up. Many times today, people talk about problems they had with diversity, with students getting along. My memories are of Black students who were good friends in class. I also remember Bill Foster, the Drama teacher and what he must have done to get away with performing the plays we did at East High. We were doing plays that were on Broadway at the time. This could not have been legal. 

I’m looking forward to going abroad this next year. I do not remember us having international students at East. My daughters did Study Abroad, and their school had international students. It’s essential that students have this experience, that they learn first-hand about the world and its people beyond their small environments. Three of my granddaughters are current earning international degrees, including one getting a Masters at a university in England. They are preparing to work in the world that they will be living in. 

I am still working with schools and hearing a lot these days about students with anxiety and depression. Teachers were not trained to help students deal with these problems, nor were parents. Some of the emotional distress is linked to use of cell phones. I’m interested that phones are being locked down in many schools. We grew up in an idyllic time in high school for many reasons. More and more adults seem to be realizing that as a society, we need to give our kids more guidance.

Kay Ellen Consolver – I’ve been reading David Kroenlein’s “50 Things” that happened while we were in high school. I was struck at how complex things were in the 50’s. So much was happening that changed our lives. The end of War War II, the moon launch, the Cuban missile crisis, JFK. We didn’t have the media or ways of learning instantly what was happening. I was moved by the stories in the website’s remembrances of 1948, 1954, and 1957. Now, in this “act of our lives, we are in another time of great changes and a very different time in our own lives. I am a childless cat lady. This is a challenging time for us as adults, just as it was for our parents and for us in the 50’s and 60’s.

My first experience abroad was after my freshman year, a summer abroad in France. With my dear friend Martha Parmeley in the Bois de Boulogne, I remember talking with a gendarme and realizing that this was a global world. 

I also remember learning that East High was such a well-regarded school in 1960, the largest in the U.S. I had no idea that our high school was so special. For me, these Zooms are very important. I agree that it’s important to listen to others, especially to young people to learn what they are going through. These Zooms provide excellent retrospectives.

Skip – Yes, things are changing. I can sit in Utah, listen to you in Connecticut, and also ask Alexa, “What time is it?” (Alexa answered)

Kay Ellen – I now have a roommate other than Siri and Alexa:  a cat.

Fred Elder – Thinking about Back to School times, I remember a small park near where Lee Ayres lived. I worked out in that park most afternoons in the summer, getting ready for football season. Fast Forward – I spent time this last week with my granddaughter at UW-Madison Student Orientation, Advising, and Registration. I saw most of the girls wearing short, short shorts. My granddaughter will be a freshman. She wants to be a mechanical engineer! I visited the house where she will live with 11 other women, a place run by the Catholic Church. She chose it over a dorm. Freshman live in the attic. I followed her up a nealy vertical stair to see the space where four girls will be living. There is no restroom on that floor. It will be cold in winter and hot in summer.  I am really looking forward to seeing more of her while she is a student here in town.

Diane Rusch Zinn – (Editor’s Note: Diane wasn’t actually with us on August 15, but before she left town, she asked Fred and Marilyn to share her Back to School thoughts.) I would not like to be going back to school this month. Schools are so different than when we went, or even when our kids were there.

(Life-long learner Diane sent this photo from Norway, where she is traveling with her daughter. Pictured at right at the fish market in Bergen harbor.)

Marilyn Tompkins Bellert participated in this session energetically, but she is out of time for today and will add her part later.

 

 

 

 

Back and Forth

Tom Tatlock – One of my fondest memories was Mr. Lindquist’s government class. Students in this class were diverse, not tracked in college prep or other kinds of preparation for life after high school. All kinds of kinds. He treated that composition of the class as really important. You all need to know each other because you will all be voters.  While he emphasized that we all needed the same preparation for citizenship, he had a sort of sliding scale of readings. Some students were assigned to read and report on columns by Walter Lippman, while other students got more appropriate assignments. We had a very meaningful experience in class. No one was stigmatized.

Perry Ann Porter – I want to share how lucky I feel to live near my local high school. We have a new principal who tells students, you know right from wrong. If you do something wrong, you will have to present a note that you told your parents what happened. If you do something else wrong, you and your parents will come in to see me together. The standard of behavior is high.  This high school is as good as East High was, and as good as any high school in the country. I’m impressed with the quality of academics, the way they teach students to deal with bullies, the huge range of extra-curricular activities. It sounds like a wonderful place to go to school.

Fred Elder  – My view from recent teaching is that students today are much less mature than we were. I wonder if that’s because we all had jobs when we were in high school and college.

Last Thoughts

Kay Ellen – Many thanks to Fred, Diane, and Marilyn for keeping us in touch.  Zoom is one of the great things that came out of Covid.

Lee – Life is still a school full-time

Perry Ann – We are all books and libraries within ourselves. It’s nice to share our stories together.

David – Getting together again is part of what keeps us young.

Tom – These Zooms  are a day brightener.  Thanks to those of you who make them happen for us.

Dan – I look forward to the Zoom calls.

Glenna – I just went through a two-month scare. The issue was that my husband Joel was a finalist for a job in Australia, a three-year job with the U.S. Navy. Now, we know that we will be staying here. I’m sleeping peacefully again. Joel has a consolation prize, an engineering conference in Australia for naval ship designers. I said I would not go, but happily, our eldest son will go with Joel. From the time he was a child, he was fascinated with Tasmanian devils and wanted to have one. Now, he is going to see them!

The discussion finished with a list of names of people we would like to catch up with – Martha Parmeley, Wilbur Love, Robert Arnold, and others. 

Fred Elder closed out the session with a reminder to turn those memories into stories and send them to Marilyn (mbellert@niu.edu) and Diane (ddzinn@aol.com) for the website. 

Readers who were not Zoomers on 8/15, we look forward to your stories of Back to School memories. Send your story or your story ideas to Diane (ddzinn@aol.com) or Marilyn (mbellert@niu.edu).

Our next Zoom session will be Thursday, September 19 at 2 p.m., Wichita time. Plan to join us!