Junior High School

In sixth grade I went out for track. I had a teacher, Mr. Harvey, that I absolutely adored and he ran the after school sports. If you can imagine this, I was in the high jump. This was fairly amusing as I was always the shortest kid out of about 90 kids in my grade. I also ran a relay race. Pop took me to the sporting goods store and bought me track shoes with cleats. They were bright blue and boy did I ever think I was hot stuff. That was about the beginning and end of my sports career, though I did have a short stint with tennis and modern dance in high school. Mr. Harvey was also in the National Guard and I really remember when his “tour of duty” was over and he had not been called up for the Vietnam War. I was on the young side to be really aware ad concerned about our presence in Vietnam- I’m sure Nancy and Roy will have more comments on this than Allison and I will.

La Cumbre Junior High included 7,8 and 9 grades. We had walked to elementary school, so it was a change to ride a bus to school. I never did like trying to find a seat and felt intimidated by the other kids. Middle school itself had some good points. I did learn to sew and sewed many of my clothes in high school and college. We also had home ec cooking classes and learned to prepare and serve a wide variety of food. I also learned to type during summer school one year. I learned on an enormous manual typewriter. We didn’t even have electric typewriters at the time, much less desktop and laptop computers. At that time the girls and boys were separated and the boys all took shop and learned to work with tools. That would have been considered very sexist in my kid’s education and looking back on it, it does seem kind of amusing that nobody objected. Our middle school was my first real experience with integration as our elementary school was almost entirely Caucasian. There was quite a bit of conflict among the students and I have vivid memories of fights breaking out between the students- especially the girls punching each other and pulling hair. I spent 3 years trying to be inconspicuous and offend no one. I think it is interesting look back that I do not remember the academic part of the curriculum, but the sewing and cooking… Allison and I also participated in a drill team in middle school. We had uniforms and snazzy white marching boots with yellow tassels and we marched with the band in parades several times a year.

When we were in middle school, we also participated in a local theater company. We (Allison and I) would ride the city bus downtown after school to the theater for practice and we would periodically participate in a small production. I don’t believe I ever had a speaking part as I am sure I would have frozen and passed out in fright. I’m not quite sure why I participated in this at all looking back at it- probably something Allison roped me into!