How Lucky I Am To Be A Baby Boomer - All School Play

Since I started the story about the Jack Gregory and the Speech Department at Muskogee Central High School last week I guess it would be good to finish it.  Although all of Jack Gregory's years at Central were filled with accomplishments I think the first musical play production for the school was his biggest challenge.  It was a sheer miracle with what he had to work with and treading in totally unknown territory that it turned out so well.

The speech and drama department put on a Sophomore and Junior Play every year.  The last production of the year was called the All-School Play.  Some years it was a play, some years a series of skits and some years a combination of both.  In February of 1965 Jack Gregory announced that the All-School Play would be the musical comedy, Bye, Bye Birdie.

Bye, Bye Birdie is satire on American society set in 1958.  It was inspired by songs of Elvis and his draft notice into the army.  The original Broadway show opened in 1960 and the movie was produced in 1963.  It has won a Tony award for best musical, had many revivals in New York and is a popular choice for high school and college productions. The stage and the movie versions differ dramatically but both are light hearted and fun.

First order of business was to let all the prospective cast members get an idea of what the play was all about.  The film version was rented and one night after the local theater closed a screening of Bye, Bye Birdie was shown several times into the wee hours of the morning. Being a lover of musical productions I had already seen the movie - maybe a couple of times.  It was a great excuse to stay out half the night since Jack Gregory was pretty good at keeping people in line.  Bleary eyed we left the theater with a good idea of how all the characters and costumes should look.

The big surprise came when the actual play arrived and everyone realized the movie and play differed a great deal.  Not only the actual character parts themselves were different but there were five additional songs to be learned for a total of sixteen for both the cast and the Central High Ensemble to learn. I wonder how many times everyone really wondered if we could pull this off.  If Jack Gregory was ever in doubt, no one would have ever guessed.

Students in the play made up one of the largest groups for a production that Central had ever had before.  In total there were seventy-two cast and  Central High Ensemble members. There were a few roles with only one student playing them but most were double or triple cast so that every one had a chance to shine.  This meant that everyone need to be at every rehearsal whether they were in the afternoon or the evening.  The local dance instructor in town provided the choreography for six dance routines for people who had never danced before. The Stagecraft class built the sets and helped in the set changes.   

The twenty members of the Ensemble were pretty well behaved but can you imagine the other fifty-two students behaving when they were waiting for their turn to practice?  There was one time when the ornery seniors in the cast got a little out of hand at a practice and we got to witness Jack Gregory more than a little upset.  I think we were seriously threatened with cancelling the whole production.  That was enough to put every one on their best behavior.  No one wanted to see Jack Gregory mad again but no one also wanted to be a disappointment to him.  We all realized what experience and fun he was providing for us.

Lin Moore and I got to share the part of Rosie.  That part included six songs, three dance numbers and four costume changes.  I panicked and went back to dance class that I had quit in the ninth grade.  I bought the sound track albums and practiced singing to them at home when no one else was there.  My next door neighbor, Pat Mackey, had a wonderful Mom who made three of the dresses for me for the play and Mom took me to Tulsa to rent one dress.  Pat told me recently that after her Mom passed away she found a thank you note I had written to thank her for all she had done for me.  Wow!  I actually had some manners back then.

It would have been fun if the play had been filmed - no video stuff back then.  I just think it would be nice to see if it was the rousing success that everyone said it was.  I don't think any of the cast members were propelled onto Broadway, television or movies but I do know that many of them continued on in little theaters and other productions all over the country.  For me it led me on to some interesting projects, some I might just as soon forget but it also helped me in doing a lot of talent shows and plays with children through the years as well as a few other fun entertainment ventures I may tell about later.

From a Muskogee Phoenix newspaper article after the play:
"This is the hardest I've worked on something in my eleven years of teaching." reflected Jack Gregory, thinking over the hours he and his students have spent preparing for the All School Play, "Bye, Bye Birdie".
For the first time in Central's history, a play has been a complete sell out days prior to the opening performance.  The demand for tickets became so great that Mr. Gregory had to call New York to secure permission to do a matinee from the publishing company that handles "Birdie's" royalties.  Another first for "Bye, Bye Birdie is that it is the only play in Central's history that has a packed house for every performance with over 1600 tickets sold. "Bye, Bye Birdie has set a precedence that will be hard for plays and play casts to come".


I told my two boys when they complained about school being boring that school was a blast if you participated in the activities whether it was band, sports, theater or something else you found fun and interesting.  Later in life you may not remember the difference between Hawthorn's  heroines or the square route of some number but you will remember the things you participated in and had fun doing. You might not remember who sat next to you in Chemistry but you will remember some  silly event at a football game or a play and the friends you were with at that moment.

School is much more than just going to class and doing homework.  All that is important now and was perhaps more important to all of us baby boomers.  With all the fun and silliness I have written about high school so far there really was a serious side to it.  In our senior year we had to think about what came next.  If it was to be continuing on in school there was a lot to think about and to do. SAT's,  ACT's and college applications had to be squeezed in among everything else.

How Lucky I Am To B A Baby Boomer - Senior Year II

I sat at a table the other night of people relatively close in age to me.  They asked what Marshell and I had been up to lately and I mentioned I had been writing a blog. When I told them that it was about how lucky I felt we were to grow up in the era we did they all agreed.  Not only growing up as a baby boomer was lucky but attending Muskogee Central High added to that experience.

When you are in high school there is the normal tendency to know that your school is the best one in the country. School pride or school spirit is normal especially when your high school is the only white high school in town. Muskogee, at that time, was the third largest city in the state behind Oklahoma City and Tulsa with a population of 35,000 residents. My class, the Class of 64, with 500 students was the first year of the baby boom. All three classes, sophomores, juniors and seniors added up to 1800 students.  It has taken many years of being involved in a lot of schools all across the country to realize how lucky I was and that Central back then could have surpassed the vast majority of schools today.

                                                  B.L.Wertz

Under the guidance of Mr. B.L.Wertz, who became the principal in 1947, an unbelievable amount of classes and activities were added along with almost a total replacement of everything from desks to lights to band uniforms to specialty classrooms.  The school paper, The SCOUT, was the top ranked student paper in the state and the only one in the state to be totally done by the students.  The staff wrote the articles, the editorials and did the set-up.  The print shop students took, developed and printed the pictures along with printing the paper every Friday which sold for five cents.

                                       1963-1964 Speech Class

In Mr. Wertz's sixteen year stay at Central he added driving, drama, speech, radio speech class, advanced homemaking, future teacher's,
 radio-electricity, economics, college English for seniors, 3rd year french, swimming, golf, tennis, 2nd year chemistry, 2nd year biology, German, calculus, 4th year Spanish, girl's baseball and journalism. In addition to classes he also added memberships in the Oklahoma Honor Society, Future Homemakers of America, Future Farmers of America, National Forensic League, Little Hollywood Drama Club, Ham Radio Club, Health and Careers Club, Hi-Y, Tri-Hi-Y, Youth for Christ, Chess Club, Library Club and three more girl's Literary Clubs. He set up a diversified educational program where students could take a half day of school and work a half day downtown, there were college and careers days so students could explore future options and let the student council take over monitoring the cafeteria so the teachers did not have to do it.  I think a lot of my classmates never realized the amount of effort Mr. Wertz put into giving us everything we needed  to become successful, well rounded people.  Lucky us.

Naturally  he could not do this alone but was supported by a tremendous staff of teachers.  Everyone likes to tease or complain about their teachers. Interesting that the teaching staff of eighty was pretty well split between men and women. I do remember that every teacher I had was more than willing to spend time before or after school to help anyone lagging behind. My poor math teacher got to see me in the eleventh grade every morning before classes started.  There was something about the new SMSG math I never understood until college.  Better late than never.

Hopefully everyone has a teacher who made a real difference in their life. I have actually had three. One was a physics professor in a small community college in New Jersey many years after high school and one was an ice skating show director, set and costume designer and most talented person. The third was the speech teacher at Muskogee Central High School, Jack Gregory.

Jack Gregory

I think I was in every play in grade school.  My very first part in the second grade was to be a hollyhock in a play.  The thrill of standing on the stage looking like a flower set the pattern for a lifetime of "Where do I audition next?".  My brother, Kenny, and I used to do the Little Rascal's thing and put on plays in the garage for the neighborhood kids.  So it was speech class in junior high and more speech class in senior high. I loved the plays but tried my hand at debate, humorous and dramatic readings, radio speech and extemporaneous speaking.

Of course speech class was an elective and there were those students who signed up for it only to learn that it wasn't an easy A.  Mr. Gregory had a unique ability to bring out the best in people and to show them they could do something they thought they couldn't.  He had a way of making you want to be the best, never by yelling or putting people down. In the days when teachers wore coats and ties, I remember Jack (he was known as Jack among the students - always Mr. Gregory in class) in slacks and a dress shirt, collar open and sleeves rolled up. There was usually a smile and I only saw him mad once in three years. It is funny that after all these years that I can still remember how he moved his hands when he talked and brush his hair to the side with his hand.  Maybe I listened more in his class than any other because I wanted to learn.

Now, just because he was a good teacher doesn't mean that any of the usual ornery stuff didn't happen. You have to remember that Speech class attracted those less than dedicated students plus no one loved to laugh more than Jack Gregory. We worked hard but also had fun.  I can't remember anything my class did as far as funny stuff goes so I asked a classmate. Here's the story and if it isn't true you can blame Drew Edmondson.

The Great Debaters

Jack Gregory and Clu Gulager were classmates at Central.  If you don't know who Clu Gulager is - Google him - he was a Muskogee grad who went on the be in several TV Series, The Tall Man and The Virginian plus The Last Picture Show. Anyway he came to Muskogee for a visit and showed up in Jack's 5th hour class dressed in all his western garb. Mr. Wertz started to give an announcement over the intercom and Clu pulled out his six-shooter and shot the speaker box.  It was a blank of course but he was close enough to make a hole in it.  Drew said they were all impressed and I can see and hear Jack's laughter.

Every November the Speech Department had a huge tournament in Muskogee called the Little Nationals.  The year I was a senior twenty-four schools from Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri came for the sixteenth annual event.  It was a big three day event that took lots of work to pull together.  The Muskogee students were not eligible to win but it was good practise for future events we travelled to.  I don't think there were too many years that Jack Gregory did not have students eligible to go to the Nationals in Washington, D.C. and not come home with trophies.

I have always said that I am basically a shy person around people I don't know but Jack Gregory gave me the ability to stand up anywhere, anytime and rattle off a speech, introduce someone or narrate a show.  We all worked hard at being our best for him out of respect that he would work for and provide us with so many opportunities.  There was one thing he wanted to do that had never been done at Muskogee Central High School.  Somehow he looked at this class of ornery people and decided he would try with us.  You have to tune in later for that fantastic project.

How Lucky I Am To Be A Boomer - The Beginning of the Senior Year

It is interesting to look back on that year of school you waited for for eleven years.  I had to really search the depths of my brain to try to piece it all back together. Needless to say it has been awhile since I ran up the steps of Muskogee Central High School for that much anticipated year.

There were many urban legends about previous senior classes and some of the shenanigans that went on.  I have always felt that the Class of 64 had set a path way back in junior high to have many really brilliant students but also was a very mischievous group. One of my memories at the start of school occurred after an assembly of all the five hundred seniors. What the assembly was about doesn't come to mind but when it was over and time to head off to our classes for some reason we en mass ran out the doors of the auditorium, across the hall and out the front door of the school. Why? I never knew or who started it was never certain.  Someone started it and the entire class followed.  Then we all stood on the steps bent over in laughter until some teacher came out and told us to get to class.  In a previous post I mentioned Office E's awarded for bad behavior....I think it took someone in the school office a long time to record all those for the entire class.

At the very beginning of the school year our class managed to set the stage for a year of "break-the-rule" behavior.  When it came time to elect the Senior class officers there were a couple of the good student/athlete/good guys running for President.  There was also the class leader in mischievous behavior which maybe a nice way to put it. Do you need to guess who won?  His first order of business was to walk into the office of the Dean of Boys, take out a pair of scissors and cut off his necktie.  That was not the only time during the year that happened. we had chosen a good person to keep things in an uproar for the year.

The fall was always filled with football and all the activities surrounding the games. Muskogee had an all-boy Marching Band and a seventy member all-girl marching unit called the Crack Squad.  They practiced most of the summer and at 7:00 in the morning all through the season. I have been to many high school football games through the years and can't really think of better half-time shows than Central's. The football season that year was not one of best for the team but the games were always fun at attend.

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On Football Friday's there was always a pep rally in the gym first thing in the morning. The entire school was in attendance along with the team, cheerleaders, crack squad. pep squad and band.  There was the usual pep talk and cheers for the team but there was always some sort skit about the upcoming game.  The skits were funny and the participants dressed in silly outfits.  Much to my dismay, although no one else probably noticed or understood, someone would yell into the microphone "Why wasn't ___________ invited to Donna Hansen's party?".  Ah, one of those moments when I wanted to be invisible but never seemed to be.

Besides the morning pep rallies, on occasion, there was a parade downtown on the night before the game.  This was followed by a un-sanctioned pep rally and bonfire on the sandbar of the Arkansas River. 
On one of these evenings someone had the brilliant idea to burn a dummy of the school principal during the sandbar rally.  Looking back it was a pretty stupid idea since our principle was a very well respected and loved educator. Kids!  We all had our moments of lack of judgement.  Of course the dummy got to ride on the back of my convertible in the parade. Who would notice it on my car?  Oh, boy!  Another one of those Office E's come Monday morning.  

Football season that year was memorable for me not only because of the Muskogee Roughers. Chris, my friend from from first grade, who had moved to Tulsa and showed up on my doorstep played for Cascia Hall. Their games were on Saturday afternoon. That fall there were a couple of Saturday afternoons that my girlfriend and I would feel the need to go to the library to study.  We must have had a lot of homework for all those hours we spent at the library.  Actually we jumped in my car, drove the forty-five miles on the two lane highway to Tulsa to go the the Cascia Hall football game.  As soon as the game was over and a fast hello to Chris and his friends we would speed back home.

On one of these adventures my car would not start after the game. I probably had a severe panic attack trying to figure how I was going to get home without getting caught.  Luckily Chris's Dad came to the rescue.  The generator - one of those things cars used to have to keep the battery charged - must have died.  He jump started my car and told me not to stop until I got home.  That was a pretty fast and maybe a little scary trip home.  We made it with no problem.  The next morning with big innocent eyes I told my Dad something was wrong with the car. I could not imagine why it wouldn't start and of course there was no mention of the trip to Tulsa.  Dad to the rescue.

There were a lot of fun times with Chris that year.  He would call and see what was going on in Muskogee on some Saturday. Cascia Hall was a Catholic boarding school with boys from all over the country. They really didn't have the opportunity to meet many girls so Chris would bring three or four of his friends to Muskogee with him. I found dates for his friends and we would go to a dance, have a picnic in the park, take in a movie or just enjoy the day.  Since I wasn't allowed to drive to Tulsa my parents would take me over to go to dances or some event at his school.  Can't say that we were really ever boyfriend/girlfriend but just great friends who had a lot of laughter and fun together.

On the subject of dating.  I think all of us Baby Boomers really had a lot of fun dating.  There was something special about getting dressed up to go to a dance or the movies. Can't imagine how many times I talked my Dad into letting me go to Hunts, Calhoun's or Susman's on Friday afternoon to find something new to wear and then to the beauty shop to have my hair done. Girl's had to wear dresses or skirts of a certain length and boys had to have their shirts tucked in at school and dating attire was pretty much the same. It is still hard for me to not "dress up" even in the casual world we have now.

                                 Skirts, Dresses and Loafers

Wheat Jeans, Tucked in shirts and Loafers

It did seem like calamities struck on a lot of my dates.  When the movie, Tom Jones, opened in Tulsa there were three couples that got approval from our parents go see it.  The boy driving had a beautiful black flip-top Ford.  Somehow we missed getting to Tulsa in time for the early movie and decided to stay for the second one. My mother always said for me to call if I was going to be late so I called and said we would be late. It was not met well with her and I was not in good standing when I arrived home at one o'clock in the morning.  Another time I went to the drive-in movie instead of the one playing downtown.  Since I wasn't allowed to go to the drive-in I at least knew the name of the one playing downtown.  T he next morning mother asked me about the movie and I made up an awesome script for John Wayne's In Harms Way. I was pretty proud of myself until mother announced that she and Dad had gone to see it.  Guess I was pretty good at getting myself into trouble and not very good at getting away with anything.

The year started off well for our class with ties of the Dean of Boys getting cut off, pretty rowdy behavior and the dummy of our principal. 
What would we think of next?

How Lucky I am To Be A Baby Boomer - Home From New Mexico

Pat Mackey's parents, Bert and Lorraine, arrived at White Sands to take us home at the end of July.  It was hard to believe the month had flown by so fast or that we had so much fun. It was years later before I fully realized how much I had grown up in that month. Lessons we learn through our lives usually don't dawn on us for a long time.

It was nice that we did not drive at break-neck speed to get home.  We stopped and toured Carlsbad Cavern which was the first cave I ever had seen. Then there was a stop for a day or two in Hobbs, New Mexico. Pat had moved from there to Muskogee and had many friends. I can remember staying with a girl friend of hers while her parents visited other friends.
Not having gone to but one slumber party before then I can remember the fun of talking with the other girls way into the night.  The only drawback to the trip home was IHOP Restaurants. Back in those days IHOP only served pancakes.  Pat's Dad must have never gotten pancakes at home as I swear that is the only restaurant we stopped at for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Back in those days IHOP only served pancakes and I can eat them for any meal - not every meal for five hundred miles.

It was in a way, nice to be home but after a month of being surrounded by lots of other teenagers it seemed a little quiet.  I still threw newspapers at dawn and played golf at eight o'clock before it got too hot. I can't remember dating anyone but spent a lot of time with Joan and little Don who was a year old that summer. I was, of course, still banned from dating the boy I was sent out of town for.  That relationship had begun to seem pretty silly after the fun I had in New Mexico. With several weeks before my big Senior year there had to be something fun to do.

Remember the cartoons where the characters would have a big light bulb appear above their heads?   Well I had one of those moments, one of those brilliant ideas!  I would have a party.  Now just to be sure you understand the Hansen household....we did not have parties except for little children's birthdays.  We did not have people over for dinner. Anything like that caused a mother to have panic attacks because she had no clue as to how to entertain, the house could never be clean enough, the food good enough or even as outgoing as she was away from home what would she talk about when company came over. Knowing all this I dug up the courage to ask if I could have a few friends over, in the backyard of course, for a little Senior party.

After several questions about how many friends and what to serve we agreed on some rules.  The party would be for about ten to fifteen friends, chips and pop sounded fine and of course the one person who could not set foot on the lawn was the forbidden boy. That sounded okay - I could abide by those rules.  Pat and I started planning the guest list together.  It was a little over the number of classmates agreed on but it was after all summer and some of them may be on vacation or some may not have wanted to come. So Pat and I went down our list and invited our friends.

The day of the party came, the record player was set up on the patio, lawn chairs were gathered together and pop and chips purchased. At the appointed time kids started arriving.  Then more arrived and more still showed up. My Dad came out and asked if he should go to the store and purchase more pop and off he went.  As the crowd got larger I could look into the patio doors and see my mother's lips getting thinner and thinner.  I knew not to venture into the house for any reason especially when there was a faint hint of smoke emitting from here ears.

                                Dad probably dashed to the store
                                    dressed in his usual attire.


All in all, my Dad made three trips to the store for more pop and chips. The yard and street was filled with God knows how many of my classmates. I think they had a great time and no one seemed to be in any hurry to leave until quite late. What I had not planned on was the people Pat and I invited invited more people and soon the word was all over town that their was a party at my house. Granted it was not like one of THOSE parties where the parents weren't home or everyone demolished the house.  This was just hanging out in the back yard, listening to music and talking. I was just happy that everyone had a good time and did not rush to leave.

The next morning there  was a note from my mother when I returned from my paper route. Sometime after two o'clock in the morning I was awakened by the screeching of tires. Evidently the uninvited boy backed into our driveway, thru out a whole bunch of beer cans and laid rubber down the length of the driveway. Hmmm, not a good way to make friends and influence people.  The instructions in the note were to get the yard cleaned up and the rubber off the driveway.  This also meant that I would not get yelled at or lectured - it would be the sound of silence for a few days and then never mentioned again. Interesting feat to get rubber off the driveway. There was a song in Bye,Bye Birdie with the lyrics "What did I ever see in him"  that sort of ran thru my mind that hot summer day scrubbing the drive.

One other interesting event happened that month before my Senior year.  When I was in the first grade there was a red-haired boy in my neighborhood. His name was Chris and we were buddies along with Larry Wright. Walking together to and from school made the walk seem short and fun. The boys catching crawdads from Cootie creek while I stayed far away on the swing set was one of our big adventures.  The summer after the first grade he came over one day to tell me that he was moving to Tulsa.  Before he left that day, on the foundation of the playhouse my Dad was building for me, he kissed me good bye. I wish I had a picture of that.  Two six year old children  standing on the floor of a yet to be constructed playhouse having a quick, sweet kiss good bye had to be cute.

One day that Senior-to-be summer my doorbell rang.  Larry Wright and some boy I did not know were standing on my porch.  Larry asked if I knew who his friend was.  Now there is a tough question.  Of course I had no idea who he was but it is one of those questions you hate to answer because you know that you are going to give the wrong answer. After several minutes of rolling my eyes around trying to figure out how to answer the boy finally said "I'm Chris".  Silence. "Chris, Chris Archer" he finally said. Let me tell you, that was a huge surprise. We had written a couple of seven year old three sentence letters on Big Chief Tablet paper to each other a for year or so after he moved but then for some reason we stopped.  Now, eleven years later he is standing on my front porch. You have to wait for more on this story.

Ever wonder how much time was spent in brush rollers? Must
been something special happening that night.

School started the day after Labor Day in 1963. It was not just the start of another year of school.  This was my friends' and mine Senior year. It was without a doubt the most difficult, most educational, most fun, busiest and happiest year of my life.  I have a feeling that all my classmates and the majority of the Baby Boomers feel the same.

How Lucky I Am To Be A Baby Boomer - Summer of 1963

Last week I had trouble getting my thoughts together on the summer after my junior year in high school.  Not that I forgot any of the events but more from how to start the story.  It was easier to write about current events when you have a "brain cloud" on how to tell those teenage events that seemed so important at the time.

Of all of the silly ways to begin the story I read some thoughts of Willie Nelson's on his 83rd birthday.  There were lots of really good ones but the one that helped to unlock the writer's block was "Ninety per cent of the worlds lovers are not with their first love.  That's what makes the jukebox play." First, think about the subject that a lot, if not most, of the popular songs were about lost loves.  It seems like the baby boomer generation grew up listening and dancing to far too many of those.  In the growing up process we all went thru those times when we thought we were in love even though we were just learning about it.  Even now you can here a certain song and it will remind you of some special person. At sixteen or seventeen you knew you were really in love regardless of how bad the relationship was.

So began my summer of 1963. Sometime back in the spring I had begun dating a fellow classmate. Now I dated a lot of really nice boys.  My only bad experiences were the couple of times I went out with my brother's friends.  This boy was not that popular, perhaps one of the worst academically in the class and my Mother could not stand the sight of him. Maybe at that particular time the fact that my Mother hated him made him seem more attractive.  When she forbid me to see him it only made matters worse.

This is beginning to sound like one of those love songs.  I went out and played lots of golf every morning and spent the rest of the day thinking of ways to sneak around and see him. There was even talk between us about running off and getting married.  After all lots of kids did that, even my brother Paul. Did it really seem so romantic to get married and live in some cute garage apartment?  Just how intelligent was it to throw away your dreams of going to college?  Funny how stupid it sounds now.

Fellow classmate, Pat Mackey lived next door to me.  That summer she was going to spend a month with her brother who was stationed at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. Our Mothers got their heads together and the first thing I knew I was put on a bus with Pat the last week in June and shipped off to New Mexico.  It was a long bus trip through the barren land of west Texas and more than a little scary for two seventeen year old girls. I had only been on one terrible vacation with my family so travelling and the thought of going somewhere for a month with people I didn't know except for Pat was also a little scary.

It was well after dark before Pat's brother Bill picked us up in El Paso and we drove to White Sands. Bill was an officer so he, his wife and their child had a nice house with a spare room for Pat and I.  Even with all the uncertainty of being in a new place it did not take long to drift off to sleep after the five hundred mile trip on the bus.  Any dread over what was to take place in the course of the next month was quickly forgotten that night. 

The next morning Bill announced that he had made arrangements for us to be Junior Lifeguards at the Officer's Club Swimming Pool.  That way we would have something to do and have the chance to meet some of the other kids on the base.  Wow! Is that right up a teenagers alley or what?  Within a week's time a group of about eighteen kids from age sixteen to twenty-one who were all pretty bored with one another gathered around us and the fun began.

                                    Officer's Club Swimming Pool

The base Commander's son, 21, and daughter, Boo, 17, became the leaders of the pack.  They had access to two Volkswagen busses which we filled to go on picnics at White Sands National Park, there were trips to Juarez, Mexico for the bull fights and exploring the town on Sundays and off to Los Cruses for dinner.  The base had a teen club that had not been used in years. A little cleaning and a record player gave us a place to hang out together after going to the base theater in the evenings.

THE BULLFIGHTS

It was fascinating to meet army kids that had lived all over the world. They in return enjoyed having two new kids arrive that gave them the spark they needed to get together and show us a good time while having fun themselves. It seemed that every day they thought of something new to do like hiking up to an old mine in the mountains or how easy it was to get arrested by the MP's by roller skating around the missile silos.  Perhaps their parents were quite happy when it was time for us to leave since they were never sure what we were up to.

Movies in 1963

Hanging out at the Teen club

Pat's parents came to pick us up at the end of July.  Arriving there a month before I had no idea how hard it was going to be to leave.  What turned out to be a summer of fun with new interesting friends was also a summer of some important lessons.  My world suddenly expanded beyond the city limits of Muskogee, Oklahoma. I listened to stories from the other kids on how hard it was to move from base to base and how they envied me being able to stay in one place growing up. Because these were kids I had not grown up with and would probably never see again it was easy to talk about feelings I didn't share with my friends at home.  Besides all the fun and laughter of that summer I learned an awful lot about myself.

                                 Hiking up to an old gold mine

By the time I arrived at home I had come to the conclusion of just how stupid it was to think getting married at seventeen would be so great. There were so many people I would disappoint.  There was so much more I wanted to do. 

It was not easy to end the relationship that had seemed so important the month before. In truth there was no way to tell him I didn't love him.  I look back now and realize that you can love a lot of people in your lifetime for a lot of different reasons.  The first real love of your life never really goes away no matter what circumstances ended the romantic relationship.  We went our separate ways but remained great friends until he passed away. There are still those times when I hear some song that reminds me of those days and I have to smile.

Of course their had to be a summer beau just like in all the teen movies.

How Lucky I Am To Be A Baby Boomer - Shit Happens

One of the reasons I started writing these stories is that when you look up Baby Boomer Blogs they are all pretty depressing.  Maybe information on social security, medicare, how to care for aging parents, downsizing and everything else we as baby boomers are supposed to be worried about are important.  I want to read about more positive things myself. Stuff is going to happen to all of us as we age but stuff happened to us when we were younger too.

Back in my ice show skating days there was a year when everyone was having trouble with routines, getting their costumes done and just showing up for rehearsal's. The show director showed no sympathy for anyone and that year he had a big sticker on the back of his clipboard that said "Shit Happens". If you mentioned an excuse or complaint the back of the clipboard flashed in front of your face and you knew to close your mouth. In other words, no excuses or moaning, just put your skates on and glide on through life with a smile on your face.

I put that philosophy to good use three weeks ago tomorrow. As we age
there seems to be more and more discussion on slowing down, being more fearful of one dreaded ailment or another and forget doing all those things you have enjoyed doing all your life.  Go get a recliner, cable TV and a closet full of pills because you retired to the recliner. God forbid that you would go skating and break a leg or don't live in a house with stairs that you won't be able to climb next year. 

                                            Our Stairmaster

Three weeks ago I got tired of looking through dirty windows. Time to get the little ladder out and at least do the bottom part (I do live in a building with twelve foot tall windows). No big deal except when you step off the window sill and just miss the top of the two foot ladder. I crashed to the floor with all my weight on the back of my right shoulder. Oh, shit did happen! My right shoulder was at a very strange angle and my arm felt really different with a considerable amount of pain. Time for the emergency room only problem was that Marshell was on the roof and no way for me to tell him we had a problem.

                                      Scene of the accident

Two hours later I met Marshell at the door and suggested we go to the emergency room. Living in rural Oklahoma picking an emergency room can be a challenge.  The closet one is one we have had experience with before - veto. We could drive 35 or 40 miles to a larger town but I was not bleeding, only in pain - veto.  So we drove 20 miles to a new facility that turned out to be excellent. Verdict....dislocated shoulder (easily put back into place after much pain meds) and....a proximal humerus fracture (not so good).

My precious Dad was a pharmacist for 52 years. Growing up I can never remember going to the doctor except for stitches, a broken wrist and mono. Dad had a basic distrust of doctors after many years of seeing what drugs they gave to people and what the drugs did to them. If my brothers and I had a sore, swollen throat a nurse came to the house and gave us a shot of penicillin or our necessary immunizations. I never remember him going to a doctor or taking any medicine except for a Bromo Seltzer for stomach problems mainly because my Mother drove him crazy. After I got married a typical present was a Physicians Desk Reference that was so big it could have been a boat anchor but actually described every drug on the market, what they were for and most important - the side effects. Since I was not a baseball or a football fan I became pretty well versed in pharmaceuticals in order to have long conversations with my Dad.

After several stints in college majoring in how to be a Broadway star, an artist or an English teacher I went back at the age of twenty-eight with two boys ages one and five and a husband who complained every day about my going to college.  My goal was to obtain a degree in pre-med. Wow, I only needed fifty-two hours of math and science to graduate. The laughable thing about that was according to my SAT scores I was so bad in those two subjects it was a wonder I got accepted to college anywhere.  Besides that I needed to make all A's to bring up my past college grades for a future a medical school to even open my application must less read it.

My Dad had passed away before I got the brilliant idea to become a doctor but somehow I think he was proud of me for graduating from college with an overall 3.7 average with a degree in Biology and Chemistry. The medical school story is one I will leave for another day but what I learned in all this is to pay attention to your health and take charge of it. Only you know how you feel and no doctor is going to fully understand when you try to explain it. Any pill you pop into your mouth may solve your main complaint but comes at a cost of creating more problems. I never even fill a prescription until I have read the information on it  and most important what side effects it can cause. You can pretty well figure that you will have a fifty-fifty chance of getting one or all of the side effects listed which can lead to more drugs or even death. Drug companies are in business to make money. The more drugs they can get you to take, the more money they make. If you think they care about you as a person and your quality of life I have a bridge I would like to sell.

After coming home from the emergency clinic with my arm in a sling and being told in a week to ten days to go see an orthopedist I spent days reading everything I could find on the Internet about a broken humerus and the pain killers I was given. I learned that where I broke my arm is pretty serious and that surgery with plates and screws really is not helpful because it will cause limited mobility and complications requiring more surgery. Surgery might seem to be the quickest way to recovery but will cause long term side effects. It was not particularly good news to read it can take six months to a year to heal on its own but that is the best way to go. They said it happened often in older people with more brittle bones but it can happen at any age if the fall or car accident or throwing a baseball wrong puts the right force on the wrong place. Shit happens no matter what age you are.

On the pain killers.  Since the last time I took some for some dental problems they have started to add Acetaminophen (Tylenol) to them.  The theory is that the opioid plus the acetaminophen helps stop the pain and reduces the milligrams of addictive pain killer per dose.  Nice thought but acetaminophen can cause unusual bleeding and bruising and dark colored urine leading to liver damage. Those side effects popped up a week into the pills and I really had to argue with the doctor to change the prescription. Always remember that doctors do not have time to study every drug and their side effects so you need to be well versed in what pills you are popping into your body. After the argument I got a low dose pain killer with the option to take Tylenol only if I needed it.  That cut the amount of acetaminophen down to one-third of the amount in the other pill. Side effects gone and pain amount okay.

When the day finally came for my appointment with the orthopedist I was really ready to see what exactly they were going to do. Of course I am very picky about doctors and had looked for the best.  We were told to arrive early and all the wrath that would befall us if we didn't. Got there fifteen minutes early and sat in the very busy waiting room for an hour and forty-five minutes.  Then back to an examining room for forty more minutes.  I was on the verge of tears and had decided to give someone ten more minutes before I walked out when a Resident finally walked in all cheerful. It was all I could do to keep from crying and I was a little rude.

They finally took x-rays at which time the doctor showed up. This is a large practise with lots of doctors and I just got which one they picked for me.  Who would believe I would end up with a young doctor named James Bond? Has to be a sign.  To my surprise he repeated everything I had researched and I feel confident that I am in good hands. The orders were to keep the shoulder immobilized in a sling, use the hand and elbow as much as possible, sleep sitting up and come back in a month.

                                              My New Bed

So I am getting pretty good at being left handed, still cook and clean, can type with one hand and can actually hold a paint brush and paint my art stuff with my right hand. Marshell is great at helping me do stuff like getting dressed, chopping up food and anything that takes two hands. After going over to the bank one morning to acquire just how "full service" they were and having one of the girls curl my hair I bought a curling brush that works great one-handed.  I even had to redesign the sling since the ones they sell are made for people who sit in chairs. My new ones in designer fabric do what they need to do for a person who hates to sit.  Shit happens but life is great. and I am sure my arm will heal good as new.

One of the main reasons I have written this story is because I am tired of hearing about how high medical costs are going to be as baby boomers turn sixty-five. Ninety percent of the ailments that come with the aging process are brought on by each of us in the way we eat, lack of exercise and taking medicine without knowing what they do to us.  Marshell will be seventy-four in July and I will be seventy in June but we take no prescription drugs, get lots of exercise and became vegetarians three years ago.  

Where dieting never worked for losing weight both of us have lost between thirty and forty pounds, Marshell's arthritis is pretty well gone except when he eats the foods that inflame his joints, my cholesterol dropped about a hundred points, blood pressure hangs around 120/65 and we feel fantastic.  We rarely get sick and I am sure my arm will heal as fast as someone half my age. Think about it - all it is a choice between feeling like you are thirty and taking charge of your life and health by making a few simple changes.

How Lucky I Am To Be A Baby Boomer -

                                                                        PROM 1963

This week there has been a longer patch of spring-like weather.  The trees blossomed a few weeks ago but colder weather returned and made the blossoms on the trees disappear.  It is funny how you can walk outside some mornings and suddenly be reminded of a day from the past. Springtime when I was in school was always pretty special as it brought all the end-of-school activities like prom, graduation and the nearing of summer vacation.

Several years ago I was reprinting some pictures from high school at a local store.  There was a class reunion coming up and everyone was supposed to bring some.  I was working on the one posted at the top of this article when a friend came by to see what I was doing.  She made the remark that all the girls had waistlines! Guess it had not dawned on me that not only have clothing styles changed but also body shapes. Am I the only one that remembers that girls/women were supposed to have what was known as an hour-glass figure? Dresses were designed to show off a figure and no Prom outfit was complete without heels dyed to match the dress and hose.

The Prom picture was from the spring of 1963 and it was a pretty eventful one.  Paul and Joan had been married for almost two years and their son Don was beginning to walk and become a lot of fun. It was probably a bigger challenge to all the family involved when kids in high school get married than I realized at the time. Actually I think Joan's family and ours blended together pretty well considering two children were the only thing they had in common in the beginning.

Another thing we need to remember is that was the day of no cell phones and no answering machines. The only phone we had was a wall phone situated on the wall between the kitchen and the living room. I suppose that their were some teenagers who had Princess phones in their rooms. Not in the Hansen house.  I got to talk on the phone right in the middle of the whole family.

                                          

                                              

Muskogee had a beautiful country club. My parents were not members and I am quite sure that joining or participating in activities there ever entered their minds.  I had attended dances at the club and snuck into the swimming pool "after-hours" with Joan but had no knowledge of golf at all. Joan, however, had grown up across the street from the club, her parents were very active members and to top it all off her sister, Beth, was a championship golfer.  That spring the Ladies Professional Golf Association came to Muskogee for a tournament.

With my never ending quest to not miss out on anything I think I must have skipped a lot of school that week and spent the week hanging out at the golf course.  If I was a pest to Beth and the other golfers no one ever told me to go jump in a water hazard.  They were all actually very helpful in showing me how to hold a club and attempt to hit the ball. To 
this day I have to laugh when I see golfers riding around in golf carts as I was told the best thing you can do is to carry the clubs across your shoulders as it builds up the right muscles and helps your posture. As I write this I now wonder if they were jacking with me? So began the golf phase of my life.

Joan's dad dug thru the garage and came up with some of Beth's old clubs and a bag.  He must have been trying to get rid of a lot of clubs.  Who carries five woods, fourteen irons and three putters?  When I say carry, I did carry them as I was told to do.  Then, because there was no way my parents were going to join the country club, I started playing at the public course, Meadowbrook.

                                            Don and Beth

Meadowbrook Golf Club has been mentioned in these posts before but not as a place to play golf.  It consisted of a nine-hole golf course, a swimming pool and a huge building with a pro shop on the back, a bar and in past days, a restaurant and a huge but rather dingy space with a stage. It was in the huge open part with the stage where Muskogee teenagers danced to the rock and roll music of the Huff Band and other local groups.

The dances at Meadowbrook were probably one of the highlights of growing up in Muskogee during the fifties and sixties. I guess our parents thought they were chaperoned. I can remember the guy that ran the club might stick his head in from the bar on occasion and there was a three hundred pound rent-a-cop parked on a chair outside the door who collected money.  I am sure that there was a lot of under-age drinking going on and a few fistfights in the parking lot but I actually never paid any attention to any of that. I went there to dance, listen to the music and have a great time.

The end of the school year arrived and with the start of summer I got to begin my chance to play golf.  Still had my morning paper route so I sprang out of bed at 4:00 each morning, threw my papers and then off   to play golf by 6:00. I  usually beat the manager, Bob, out every morning but would go by the club house to pay when I was done. That may make me sound like some sort of a nut but I have always thought mornings were the best part of the day.  Meadowbrook did not have the best of fairways but it was so beautiful every morning when all you could hear were the birds singing. Also helped that no one else was out that early to see my attempts to learn a pretty difficult game.

They say practise makes  perfect.  A lot of the facts hiding in that statement include if you know what you are doing in the first place, if there is any natural ability and how much practise you want to do to achieve your goal. Can't say there was any natural ability but I was pretty determined to learn well enough to go out and play with some of my friends. Bob would come out in his golf cart every once in awhile to make sure I was okay and to give me a few pointers which was a big help.

Summer was starting out to be lots of fun. Over the course of a lifetime I have come to realize that having a lot of fun can be great or it can be a serious omen of things to come. 







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