With the slightly cooler weather this week I pulled out my green and white Muskogee Rougher sweatshirt. In the little town I live in it gets lots of comments usually referring to my being an Okie from Muskogee. I was stopped in the little local grocery store by a man who asked if I was from Muskogee. He said he grew up there also but had graduated several years after I did. We chatted about how much fun we had and I did remember his Dad as one of the more famous names from the weekly stock car races. It is always a warm, fuzzy moment when you realize what a small world this really is.
I recently heard John Irving, the author, discussing his theory of developing characters for a book. He said that by the time a person is thirteen or fourteen they have developed their character or personality characteristics. Wow! That is scary when I think back about my class in the 9th grade at Alice Robertson Junior High.
My memory is pretty good but looking through piles of scrapbooks and old yearbooks from Alice Robertson Junior High provided most of these little stories about my interesting class. There had been inklings of what was to come in the 8th grade. Seems like my class was so disruptive during assemblies that the entire class was banned from further assemblies. Sulphur bombs had strangely appeared in front of the principles office on several occasions.
I always thought as a cheerleader that we did a pretty good job of cheering the teams on. The AR Warriors always seemed to have a great team. The two years before us they only lost one game and that was to our cross-town rival, West Junior High. The team of 1960-61 had a perfect record, they lost every game.
Surely the basketball season had to be better. They did win some games but did not take loss lightly. After losing to the team in Sapulpa it seems like a little damage occurred to Sapulpa's gym. The basketball team then won the record for the longest stay in Mr. Abbott's Blue Room. For a week they reported there every morning for the day and for a long time could not be seen walking their girlfriends around in the hall.
One of the cheerleaders who shared a locker with me accidentally got locked in it one day. This was not easy since there was a combination lock on the outside. Their were the classic slumber parties that were whispered about for weeks after, sneaking off campus at lunch time for no other reason than just breaking a rule and boys from West Junior High sneaking into the sock hops just to check all the girls out.
A couple of the teachers had their own creative way to punish disruptive students. One kept a supply of empty gallon cans from the cafeteria in his room. Cut up in class and you had to sit on a can in the middle of the hall. Another teacher had a dunce hat which you had to wear while holding your nose in a circle drawn on the blackboard. Let me to tell you from experience that this was not an easy thing to do. It is really hard to keep you nose in a little circle when you and the entire class is laughing.
I still feel bad for all the straight A students and the basically good kids who did not participate in all of the shenanigans that went on during our ninth grade year. In the 1960-61 Yearbook there is no picture of the students inducted into the National Honor Society. There is no picture because our class was banished from anyone in the class gaining that honor. Does that give you a clue that some of the rule-breaker, pranksters were good students?
In the days of motor scooters and Cushman Eagles it was amazing how kids could drive cars around town well after dark. A little skinny kid became a class member when he moved in from Brushy Mountain to get, as he said, better educated. He kept everyone entertained flying around on a huge motorcycle he constantly wrecked. How did my Mother know every time I was riding around town on the back on a motor scooter, skirt flying?
If I had any thought about being grown up or cool, my brother Paul, dashed that fantasy when he had to take me to school or any place in public. When he turned sixteen there was no way my parents were going to let him drive one of their cars. For his birthday they bought him a 1952 Willis Aero Sedan. Not quite the car he had in mind and no amount of Thrush Woodpecker or MoonEyes stickers could make it look anything but ugly. No - I didn't get to ride in the front seat. I had to hide in the backseat so none of his friends saw him hauling his little sister around. Actually I am surprised he didn't put me in the trunk.
At the end of our ninth grade year I think Alice Robertson Junior High was glad to pass every one just to get rid of us. Through the years we had met a lot of the students from West Junior High at sporting events, church and summer camp. There was a huge question as to whether they were as ornery as we were and just how would we all blend together the following fall at Muskogee Central High School.
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