Fall of 1955 was the start of our Freshman year at PCHS. We had heard rumors of the horrible things that would happen to us during a rite of passage called INITIATION.
A few days into the semester nothing had happened. I breathed a sigh of relief. Maybe they forgot? Wrong! Then it happened. The directions were given and the INITIATION was on. We had to dress as our the upperclassmen (I think it was seniors only) directed. I wore one of Mom's dresses and felt like a fool when I boarded the bus.
I don't remember when we were blindfolded and led to the gym. The order of events in the gym is murky. I am very positive of the last one.
We had our hands covered by eggs in a bowl and then we had our hands put into a bowl of flour and required to take a bite. We were told we had to eat an eyeball of some animal. Our hands were guided to a bowl of peeled grapes. We could not see they were grapes. We had to grab one and eat it. The taste gave it away at once.
Next (our blindfolds still on) we were told to have a seat and we would be lifted to the ceiling of the gym. Somehow our chairs were slightly raised and a noise indicated we were on our way up. I was about to scream! Never did like heights. After a few seconds, our heads touched a board held by an upperclassmen and told we were at the ceiling. Then we were told to take our blindfolds off and what a relief to see we were just inches above the FLOOR!
I am not real sure how we got wet but be were directed to sit in a chair that had been connected to the coil of an old car and a hand cranked generator gave us a real shock. The ordeal was concluded and we all survived.
The upperclassmen had lots of laughs at our expense, but the next day they welcomed us as full fledged members of the Paris Crossing High School.
The Initiation may have gone on one additional year. I know it didn't happen when my class entered the junior year.
Wonder how many lawsuits would be filed if that sort of activity went on today. It didn't kill us and we were made to feel silly for a day; but we had earned the right to be treated as members of the high school student body!
Its funny how some parts of our lives seem to never fade from our memories. The Class of 1959 started on a grand journey of learning, dreaming, and exploring all the while totally unaware the next four years would shape and mold so many of our futures. Furthermore, we had little understanding that in years to come our classmates, teachers, and events would serve as a centerpiece mental magnet of our individual and collective memories.
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Favorite Radio Stations 1955-1959
This brief Post will review the radio stations I liked during the 1955-1959 time frame: (From my fading memory)
WAKY---Louisville (New station--- Rock and Roll)
WSLM---Salem (Flat Top DJ in afternoons---Rock and Roll)
WLAC---Nashville (John R, Hossman, Gene Nobles---R&B)
WOCH---North Vernon (Eddie Sears DJ---Some Rock and Roll)
WJCD----Seymour (Sports, Chicago Cubs baseball))
WLW----Cincinnati (Sports, Cincinnati Reds baseball)
WHAS---Louisville (Sports, KY Wildcats basketball, News)
WAVE---Louisville (Sports and News)
WIBC----Indianapolis (Rock and Roll, Indy 500, H.S. BB)
WCKY---Cincinnati (Country and Gospel)
WSM-----Nashville (The Mother Church of Country Music)
WLS------Chicago (Rock and Roll, few commercials)
KOMA---Oklahoma City (Late at night, Rock and Roll)
WLOU---Louisville (Black DJ--Showbe Dobie--R & B)
All the above were AM stations, FM was yet to come. As you can tell, I listened to a lot of radio---still do. (Ham--- amateur radio operator). I once identified myself as an AM guy living in an FM world!
Side Bar Note: If I was President for just 1 day, I would sign an Executive Order that required all songs have lyrics that a man over thirty could understand!!!
What were your favorite stations?
WAKY---Louisville (New station--- Rock and Roll)
WSLM---Salem (Flat Top DJ in afternoons---Rock and Roll)
WLAC---Nashville (John R, Hossman, Gene Nobles---R&B)
WOCH---North Vernon (Eddie Sears DJ---Some Rock and Roll)
WJCD----Seymour (Sports, Chicago Cubs baseball))
WLW----Cincinnati (Sports, Cincinnati Reds baseball)
WHAS---Louisville (Sports, KY Wildcats basketball, News)
WAVE---Louisville (Sports and News)
WIBC----Indianapolis (Rock and Roll, Indy 500, H.S. BB)
WCKY---Cincinnati (Country and Gospel)
WSM-----Nashville (The Mother Church of Country Music)
WLS------Chicago (Rock and Roll, few commercials)
KOMA---Oklahoma City (Late at night, Rock and Roll)
WLOU---Louisville (Black DJ--Showbe Dobie--R & B)
All the above were AM stations, FM was yet to come. As you can tell, I listened to a lot of radio---still do. (Ham--- amateur radio operator). I once identified myself as an AM guy living in an FM world!
Side Bar Note: If I was President for just 1 day, I would sign an Executive Order that required all songs have lyrics that a man over thirty could understand!!!
What were your favorite stations?
When I Joined The Lovett Team (Background Info)
Some of you may remember that I was born in KY and started the first grade there. My teacher (Mrs. Wilder) DID NOT like me. On one occasion a student who sat behind me returned to school after a long illness. As it so often happens the teacher had rearranged some seats during his absence. I simply said to him as he started to sit down, "You don't sit there anymore." That was all I said.
Several minutes passed and the next thing I knew I was being jerked from my seat and pushed into the Principal's office. The student I spoke to had left the school grounds and walked alone on one of the busiest highways in McKinney, Ky. He walked all the way to the high school (about a mile away) and told his sister that Glenn Peck said I don't have a desk anymore. She goes to her Principal's office, who contacts my teacher/principal, and I am being charged with the crime of the century. I made a mild protest, but was sentenced to a week sitting in at recess time. I loved to play marbles; but it was another week before I got to play.
Side Bar Note: I had some excellent marble genes in my DNA: My Dad was Lincoln County marble champ and several years later my cousin, on my mother's side, was crowned county marble champion.
From then on, if anything happened in Mrs Wilder's class, I was the usual suspect.
Thankfully, my folks along with Coleman Frederick's clan moved to Jennings Co, Lovett Township, in early 1948. Wow! What a difference! The Lovett school had sidewalks and kids could bring their strap on skates and toy farm tractors to play with. My marble days were history. And they even had a school cafeteria and I didn't have to lug my lunch in an old Karo syrup bucket.
The kids at Lovett treated me well, but I felt like the odd man out. Then it happened. We were doing some math problems and I was the only kid to get the right answer. Mrs Branham said something that literally changed my life. She said smiling at me, "Do I have to send all of you to Kentucky to catch up with Glenn?" At that exact moment I felt that I was somebody special and I could achieve in school and she saw in me the potential Mrs. Wilder never noticed.
Maybe in another blog, I'll tell the story of how we came close to not moving to Indiana. It is nothing less than God's hand at work. My life and future changed forever when I joined the Lovett first grade team. Many of the students who welcomed me into the Lovett first grade graduated with me at Paris Crossing in April of 1959.
Several minutes passed and the next thing I knew I was being jerked from my seat and pushed into the Principal's office. The student I spoke to had left the school grounds and walked alone on one of the busiest highways in McKinney, Ky. He walked all the way to the high school (about a mile away) and told his sister that Glenn Peck said I don't have a desk anymore. She goes to her Principal's office, who contacts my teacher/principal, and I am being charged with the crime of the century. I made a mild protest, but was sentenced to a week sitting in at recess time. I loved to play marbles; but it was another week before I got to play.
Side Bar Note: I had some excellent marble genes in my DNA: My Dad was Lincoln County marble champ and several years later my cousin, on my mother's side, was crowned county marble champion.
From then on, if anything happened in Mrs Wilder's class, I was the usual suspect.
Thankfully, my folks along with Coleman Frederick's clan moved to Jennings Co, Lovett Township, in early 1948. Wow! What a difference! The Lovett school had sidewalks and kids could bring their strap on skates and toy farm tractors to play with. My marble days were history. And they even had a school cafeteria and I didn't have to lug my lunch in an old Karo syrup bucket.
The kids at Lovett treated me well, but I felt like the odd man out. Then it happened. We were doing some math problems and I was the only kid to get the right answer. Mrs Branham said something that literally changed my life. She said smiling at me, "Do I have to send all of you to Kentucky to catch up with Glenn?" At that exact moment I felt that I was somebody special and I could achieve in school and she saw in me the potential Mrs. Wilder never noticed.
Maybe in another blog, I'll tell the story of how we came close to not moving to Indiana. It is nothing less than God's hand at work. My life and future changed forever when I joined the Lovett first grade team. Many of the students who welcomed me into the Lovett first grade graduated with me at Paris Crossing in April of 1959.
The Way I Remember It
Many years ago, I walked out of the great Indiana high school basketball movie---Hoosiers---and wiped a few tears from my eyes. I recall saying to some of the people with me, "I don't know if Indiana high school basketball was really like that, but it sure is the way I remember it." The best line in the movie, from my viewpoint, is when Coach Dale was talking to his Hickory Husker underdog team before they took the court at the Butler Field House in the Indiana High School Championship Game, the hard nosed coach said, "I love you guys." The line was repeated as the movie closed by focusing in on a team photo of the 1952 champions on the gym wall at Hickory, "I love you guys."
As I approach the biblical three score and ten, I have an overwhelming desire to reconnect with the classmates who were fellow travelers on the road to maturity. Distance and pressing responsibilities do not permit me attending the annual reunion.We were few, in a small rural school, taught by under appreciated, dedicated teachers and we were trying in our own, and collective way, to make sense of the real world that awaited us. Hey, that's not true! We were mainly trying to figure out how to control acne, wondering whether Flat Top at WSLM radio (AM only then) would play our requested Rock & Roll song, and whether we could get Dad's car for a much anticipated date.
I hope you will let our other classmates know about this blog. Obviously, this blog is an inappropriate place to disclose information that could be embarrassing to anyone or lead to someone's identity being stolen. (My credit card was stolen and it is not fun working through that situation.)
Future posts will deal with favorite songs, cars, best places to eat, and other memories that will help the Class 1959 reconnect. (Yes, I am very much aware of other reunion type pay sites. This one is free and and concerns a rather narrow and exclusive readership.)
We await your comments.
As I approach the biblical three score and ten, I have an overwhelming desire to reconnect with the classmates who were fellow travelers on the road to maturity. Distance and pressing responsibilities do not permit me attending the annual reunion.We were few, in a small rural school, taught by under appreciated, dedicated teachers and we were trying in our own, and collective way, to make sense of the real world that awaited us. Hey, that's not true! We were mainly trying to figure out how to control acne, wondering whether Flat Top at WSLM radio (AM only then) would play our requested Rock & Roll song, and whether we could get Dad's car for a much anticipated date.
I hope you will let our other classmates know about this blog. Obviously, this blog is an inappropriate place to disclose information that could be embarrassing to anyone or lead to someone's identity being stolen. (My credit card was stolen and it is not fun working through that situation.)
Future posts will deal with favorite songs, cars, best places to eat, and other memories that will help the Class 1959 reconnect. (Yes, I am very much aware of other reunion type pay sites. This one is free and and concerns a rather narrow and exclusive readership.)
We await your comments.
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