Roger’s Remembrances

Hutchinson had two junior high schools — Liberty in the northwest part of town, and Sherman in south central. I attended Liberty, which was between 14th and 15th on Adams — 7 blocks west and 5 blocks north of 506. Most of the time I rode my bicycle. There was a year when roller skating became the rage, and I did the mile on roller skates. In junior high I started being a “locker mate” with Buford Hayden, and we continued as such through high school.

Junior high hours were from 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 with an hour break for lunch. I went home for lunch, though there were many who brought their lunches and ate at school. There was no cafeteria. Junior high was the first experience at going from room to room for classes — UP the north stairs, DOWN the south stairs. I do not recall having had a problem learning my schedule of rooms, but an occasionally recurring dream in adult life has been one in which I can’t find my way to the next classroom. We were grouped (alphabetically by grades) into Home Rooms for intramural activities and competition. Games included tennis, Recreational Football, softball, basketball, volley ball, hockey, and horse shoe pitching. Jean Eicher, a neighbor boy, and I used to pitch softball to each other by the hour. I got pretty good at it. In later years I was the regular pitcher in the church softball league in the summer. My tennis game was above average, but I don’t recall ever winning a tournament.

Times were hard, and I can remember Mom telling me she really did not have the money (about $5 I think) to buy a set of horse shoes. I finally did get a set — I used mostly paper route money, with some help from Mom I think — and practiced out by the alley. I was ninth grade singles champion, throwing a “flat” shoe with one turn to put the open end right on the stake. When I was in the 8th grade, we had a home room track meet. I got a ribbon for third place in the shot put and was on two relay teams that placed second. The ribbons are hanging (at least they were in 1992) on a hook in the radio/computer shack at 2115.

In the class room my grades were mostly B’s and some A’s. In manual training the best I could do was a C. (I’m still not much good at furniture-type projects.) The most enjoyable classes were band and orchestra. Carl Malmberg did a super job getting the most out of us. (In the photo I’m just over Carl’s right shoulder.) Each group had about 35 or 40 students, so there were enough to turn out some acceptable sounds. I played the clarinet well enough to be third chair (out of 20) in
the band.

I learned most of my English from Ms. Olson in eighth grade. She was very high on sentence structure. Would dictate 15 or 20 sentences to us to be diagrammed by the next day. I liked the process, but trying to keep up with her dictation didn’t help my hand writing much. I had received an “A” for hand writing in sixth grade, but it was downhill all the way from there.

We had assembly each Friday, but I can’t remember a single thing we ever saw or heard at one — other than the admonitions by Principal J. W. Jarrott about no gum chewing, no running in halls, and such stuff! However, I DO remember the day the ceiling fell —

The auditorium had a balcony over about the back third of the first floor. I had English in Miss Walsh’s room just before assembly and usually went right from her room directly across the hall to the rear entrance of the auditorium on the main floor. That put me directly under the balcony as I walked to my seat. However, on this day I stayed a minute after class to talk with her about something — haven’t the foggiest idea the subject of the talk. I had just left her room and was crossing the hall to the auditorium entrance when there was this loud “vrrrrrrrooooom!!!”, shaking the floor. A large section of the heavy plastering on the under side of the balcony had given way and dropped on those underneath. If I had been to my usual schedule, I would have walked right into it!

There was a good deal of excitement. The teachers did a super job of calming the rest of us down and having us go to our next class rooms to get us out of the wa y. There were no serious injuries but considerable cuts and bruises. Fortunately, the balcony was so low above the first floor that the plaster did not drop far enough to get up much speed.

One year we were encouraged to learn a hobby and had a once-a-week session during the activity half hour. I choose photography, for that was about the time that one of the companies nationwide — I think it was ANSCO — offered a free (or VERY cheap) box camera to 12-year olds. I failed to get one, but Mom let me have the old box camera she used out on the farm. Mom told me of the “kit” she got from Eastman Kodak which she used to develop her own pictures. Most of the farm photos were her handiwork.

One of our assignments was to take a time exposure of some dimly-lit subject. I set the camera on the dining room table, and Mom sat motionless reading a book for about two minutes. It turned out real well.

On a trip to Hutch in September 1991 (55th HHS Reunion), I drove by the LJHS location and found a new building on the site. Time marches on.

(End of Chapter)