Melody Hill & Other Rumored Stories

Here are some oft told accounts that are probably more fiction than fact:


1. An  alum, who had graduated several years prior to 1959, was reported to have experienced three days of blindness as a result of lead poisoning from some bad moonshine.


2. A classmate is alleged to have discovered his father's beer in a cold water spring near their house. The classmate, as the story goes, finished off the six pack and was later confronted by his father and the story goes that the encounter was as follows, "(Name omitted), did you drink my beer?" The guilty classmate confessed, "Yes, Daddy I drank your beer." The father's next comment reflects no concern for his son's underage drinking, but rather anger at losing his six pack, (Name omitted), you are a (four letter word deleted) bird!"


3. Another story involved a classmate who found a pint of whiskey his father had hidden in a culvert near their barn. The classmate drank a considerable amount and was subsequently beaten by his abusive father. The father's abuse was well known in the community.


4. There was a rumored account of a underclassman coming to school drunk and being forced by the principal to stand outside in a cold rain until he sobered up. He was then taken home to change clothes and returned to school.


5. Melody Hill wine was allegedly the alcohol of choice for some boys, primarily because it cost $.99 a quart. One of my classmates paraphrased Fats Domino's hit song: "I found my thrill on Melody Hill."


6. It is a fact that I never heard of a student, or their parents, being arrested for DUI. That surely doesn't mean it didn't happen; it does mean it was not widely known or reported.  


7. A related unanswerable question: Would we have behaved differently had we been exposed to the many. many temptations faced by youth today? While I cannot answer a hypothetical question about the past, I can report that underage drinking in Oklahoma is epidemic. Some readers of this Post probably have family or friends who have had their dreams, and maybe their lives, shattered by drugs and alcohol. It is a pain that never goes away.


8. OK. I have drifted some distance from the title of this Post. This true event is worth reading. Some years ago I was asked to give a graduation speech at a state prison for inmates who had completed their GED. Before the ceremony started,I turned to the warden and asked him what percentage of his "residents" were their because of drugs. He said over 90 percent. Please, please do all you can to help prevent your children/grandchildren from falling into this pit of destruction.