If any of y/ou classmates have any "I Remember When..." memories that you would like to share, please email Sharon ~ singo2@frontier.com Sharon will put your "I Remember When" on this post. The post will be updated once a week with any "I Remember Whens" received.
or snail mail to Cheryl Edwards Harris, 820 West 9th, Alliance NE 69301
If anyone wants to comment on any of the "I Remember When...." items, email them to me (singo2@frontier.com). I will post the comment below the item in pink. Then you can easily spot the new comments. I have commented on one by Kathy Thomas as an example. (And if there are more comments, it will be in green.) (And if there are any more comments it will be in blue.)
8/20/11 ~ Steve Magnuson ~ I remember that I lived in Chimney Town longer than any other classmate.
8/20/11 ~ Cheryl Edwards ~ I remember when Judi Von Tour taught me how to hot wire a car.
8/20/11 ~ Remember when Konnie Herman had curlers in her hair for 24 hours prior to the Junior/Senior prom.
8/20/11 ~ Julianne Hempel ~ I remember when we made all the paper flowers at Sharon Phillip's home for our Junior prom.
7/20/11 ~ Jim Brice ~ I remember we use to keep our ponies at Sanderson's place just west of the school and I use to give Diana Smaha rides on my ponie named Captain. Those were the times.
Message from Mark Lotspeich (7/12/11) ~ I was pleased to read some of the information on John. I did get to see his name on the Vietnam Memorial, also. Quite moving and sad. Below are some remembrances I have of John.
8/20/11 ~ Cheryl Edwards ~ I remember when Judi Von Tour taught me how to hot wire a car.
8/20/11 ~ Remember when Konnie Herman had curlers in her hair for 24 hours prior to the Junior/Senior prom.
8/20/11 ~ Julianne Hempel ~ I remember when we made all the paper flowers at Sharon Phillip's home for our Junior prom.
7/20/11 ~ Jim Brice ~ I remember we use to keep our ponies at Sanderson's place just west of the school and I use to give Diana Smaha rides on my ponie named Captain. Those were the times.
Message from Mark Lotspeich (7/12/11) ~ I was pleased to read some of the information on John. I did get to see his name on the Vietnam Memorial, also. Quite moving and sad. Below are some remembrances I have of John.
John was my first “town” friend since my first years were mostly at the ranch. His family lived just a few doors south of mine on Emerson Avenue. We got acquainted at about age five--kindergarten at old Emerson Grade School.
We spent many afternoons at one another’s home, playing cars and trucks, being soldiers (his choice) or cowboys (my choice), riding bikes, antagonizing his Irish Setter dog, or snooping in his older brother Charlie’s bedroom in their basement.
We built a two-story, wooden fort, with a basement, in my back yard. Ronnie Sword’s dad furnished the lumber--it’s just that he didn’t know it or authorize it. We rode our bikes down the alley behind his house at night, placed two or three long boards on our bike handle bars (one bike in front of the other), then pedaled quietly back to our construction site, guiding with one hand and securing our loot with the other.
John had a nose and a knack for making money. He had a paper route, lawn jobs, snow shoveling deals. On a snow day from school, he’d call me to get ready to shovel snow. We did the two houses he always cleared snow for first, then we knocked on the door of any house that hadn’t been shoveled yet. We made $20.00 or $30.00 apiece each day.
At some point in time, during our grade school years, we made a pact to be each other’s best man when we got married. (We hadn’t yet learned the protocol of brothers in that ceremony.) So, when I got married in 1965, John stood up with me as my groomsman. When he got to the wedding, he was recovering from a car accident that happened in Montana where he had attended college. He had a broken arm supported in a sling, and his fiance had been killed in that wreck.
This turned out to be my last contact with John. He reported shortly after this to Officer Candidate School, and then died in Vietnam. He was a true friend for me.
Dick Graham ~ 5/1/11 ~ 1) I thought my parents were the only ones to park on Box Butte(favorite spot was in front of Hested's) and just sit and 'people-watch'. My folks loved it. My sister and I found it totally boring but they dragged us along. And there were always lots of people walking up and down the street between 3rd and 5th Street. For certain the west side of Box Butte had more activity and was the choice side to sit on. We would be there sometimes on Saturdays, more often late in the afternoon before everything closed down at 5:30.
2) I also thought I was the only one ever to climb the pool fence at night and go 'skinny-dipping'. I believe it was with Doug Bedient and a couple of other kids. 1030 PM and we were near the deep end just enjoying being naughty when one of us noticed a rather large (we were quite young) person climbing silently over the fence by the diving boards.. It was Doug Thomas (lifeguard). I still have this image of him swinging his leg over the top of the fence and dropping down to the concrete. He didn't see us and we just sat there in the pool and watched him walk over to the lifeguard chair and pick up something, stand there for a couple of minutes looking around and finally climbing back over the fence and leaving. We were terrified, especially since our clothes were in a pile next to the fence right by the pool ladder. I was sure he would spot our clothes or notice the water was rippling. He didn't or if he did, he ignored it. After waiting a few minutes we put on our clothes, and exited the area. Didn't try that again.
3) Who can ever forget poor Mr. Carrari. I was taking a bathroom break from studyhall. Walking down the hall I could hear singing from the floor above me: 'Sing a song Mr. Carrari, sing a song'....then feet going stomp stomp...and repeating the chorus continuously..... I looked up and the principal was charging down the hall(I believe it was Mr. Bruce) and he nailed me thinking I was from Mr. Carrari's class. I quickly explained I was heading to the restroom from study hall. And the singing was still going on upstairs......I stood there and watched him charge up the stairs.....about 20 seconds later I could hear the mad scramble of feet and desks and then total silence. I knew Mr. Bruce had arrived......
4) Also remember the English teacher in Junior High (7th or 8th grade??) who quit after losing control of her class (rumour had it she had a nervous breakdown). Still remember in her class taking those little homemade 'BBs' wrapped in apple paper with a 'cap' in it. When you threw it against the blackboard it exploded.......Poor lady lost control of our class and quit. I remember her replacement (think her name was Miss Nelson...older lady). Her first day in class she took about one nanosecond to let us know things were changing......there was a new sheriff in town.........
Kathy Thomas ~ Micky Coleman's bicycle incident with my Dad brought back some memories. Dad grounded me twice concerning bicycles...once for riding my bike at night without a flashlight, and again for riding double. He had very strict rules when it came to safety. (4/1/11)
Jacki Vallentine ~ As I watch the fruit trees blossoming, I am always reminded of Paul Thiessen. I don't remember the exact occasion - a talent show, perhaps - Paul came on stage with his trumpet and said, "I'd like to play 'Flight of the Bumblebee' and the crowd went wild. He then added, "...but I can't, so..." he played "Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White" - beautifully. I love this memory. (4/1/11)
12/18/2011 ~ from Eleanor Austen ~ Jacki was in my second grade class at Central (teacher was Mrs. Tatum). I remember clearly when Miss Cruikshank had our 2nd grade class sing a song, and as we sang, she went around and listened to each of us. She picked Jacki and me (maybe a couple of others too – I don’t recall) to sing a little Pilgrim and Indian song called “Grinding Corn” for a Thanksgiving program for a PTA meeting one day. So, at one time, I could hold my own vocally with Jacki. The thought of it makes me laugh now.
Roger Brooks ~ Steve and Roger Brooks came from a ranch North of Antioch
It was grades seven and eight for Steve and me, grades six and seven for Monty and second and third for Sam. Now, this will take some explaining. The school was a one room building about four miles from our ranch house sight. There was another ranch sight closer, about one mile away but there were no children there. The only students in the school were Steve, Monty and Sam, and me. Our teacher, Minnie Michaelson, lived at the ranch sight close to the school for the first year and then lived with us for the two years that my brothers and I attended. There was one large room with a fuel oil stove which we used to keep water warm and soup too. I recall that at some point we had a young male teacher, and he had a heart attack in front of all of us. He did not die but that was the end of his career. Weather permitting, we would ride our horses to school and would hobble them for the day in the schoolyard. Driving was allowed when the weather got cold and there was snow on the ground. We drove the 1936 Ford pickup until the teacher started to live with us, then we were allowed to drive the 1950 Chevy family car. Steve was the driver. He would always take on the biggest drifts of snow and usually get us stuck. Monty and I would push or shovel to get us out.
Mickey Coleman ~ REFERENCE TO KATHY THOMAS'S DAD WHEN HE WAS THE CHIEF OF POLICE! DO YOU EMEMBER WHEN WE HAD TO TAKE OUR BIKES TO THE POLICE STATION TO GET OUR LICENCE" FOR THEM . (THE POLICE STATION WAS IN THEN SAME BUILDING AS THE CITY AUDITORIUM.) WE HAD TO PROVE THAT WE KNOW ALL THE HAND SIGNALS AND COULD CONTROL OUR BIKES BEFORE WE GOT OUR LICENCE. WELL, I HAD JUST "PASSED MY TEST" AND RECEIVED MY BRAND NEW LICENCE AND WAS RIDING MY BIKE EAST DOWN FOURTH STREET, LOOKING ALL AROUND TO SEE IF ANY ONE SAW ME ON MY NEW BIKE WITH MY BRAND NEW LICENCE WHEN ALL OF A SUDDEN BLAM!!!
I RAN SMACK DAB INTO THE CAR THAT WAS STOPPED AT THE STOP LIGHT AT 4th
AND BOX BUTTE. GUESS WHAT! IT WAS THE POLICE CHIEF'S CAR. HE GOT OUT
OF THE CAR AND STOOD UP AND UP AND UP AND UP. HE SURE LOOKED AWFULLY
BIG TO A POOR LITTLE GIRL WHO HAD NOT BEEN LOOKING WHERE SHE WAS GOING.
I KNEW I WAS DOOMED!!!!!!
Jacki Vallentine ~ I remember the dances in "Bobby" Dahl's basement, dancing with John Anderson in particular. Five or so years ago we were in DC and visited the War Memorials. The Viet Nam monument was so impressive; there was a book there with each Veteran's name and where they are on the wall. I looked for John and found him(his name) engraved with the rest. It was a very moving moment - he was gone way too soon, as were others of our class. From Sharon (I, too, went to the Vietnam Memorial and found John's name ~ then volunteered once for the travelling Vietnam Memorial in Arizona a few years back ~ it is a very impressive and moving experience to see)
David Andrick sent in this "I Remember" ~
How's This For Nostalgia?
- It took three minutes for the TV to warm up?
- Nobody owned a purebred dog?
- When a quarter was a decent allowance?
- You'd reach into a muddy gutter for a penny?
- Your Mom wore nylons that came in two pieces?
- You got your windshield cleaned, oil checked, and gas pumped, without asking, all for free, every time? And you didn't pay for air? And, you got trading stamps to boot?
- Laundry detergent had free glasses, dishes or towels hidden inside the box?
- It was considered a great privilege to be taken out to dinner at a real restaurant with your parents?
- They threatened to keep kids back a grade if they failed. . and they did it!
- When a 57 Chevy was everyone's dream car...to cruise, peel out, lay rubber or watch submarine races, and people went steady?
- No one ever asked where the car keys were because they were always in the car, in the ignition, and the doors were never locked?
- Lying on your back in the grass with your friends? and saying things like, 'That cloud looks like a... '?
- Playing baseball with no adults to help kids with the rules of the game?
- Stuff from the store came without safety caps and hermetic seals because no one had yet tried to poison a perfect stranger?
- And with all our progress, don't you just wish, just once, you could slip back in time and savor the slower pace, and share it with the children of today.
- When being sent to the principal's office was nothing compared to the fate that awaited the student at home?
- Basically we were in fear for our lives, but it wasn't because of drive-by shootings, drugs, gangs, etc. Our parents and grandparents were a much bigger threat! But we survived because their love was greater than the threat.
- . ..as well as summers filled with bike rides, Hula Hoops, and visits to the pool, and eating Kool-Aid powder with sugar.
- Didn't that feel good, just to go back and say, 'Yeah, I remember that'?
- I am sharing this with you today because it ended with a Double Dog Dare to pass it on. To remember what a Double-Dog-Dare is, read on. And remember that the perfect age is somewhere between old enough to know better and too young to care.
- Can you still remember Howdy Doody and The Peanut Gallery, the Lone Ranger, The Shadow knows, Nellie Bell , Roy and Dale, Trigger and Buttermilk.
How Many Of These Do You Remember?
- Candy cigarettes
- Wax Coke-shaped bottles with colored sugar water inside.
- Soda pop machines that dispensed glass bottles.
- Coffee shops with Table Side Jukeboxes.
- Blackjack, Clove and Teaberry chewing gum.
- Home milk delivery in glass bottles with cardboard stoppers.
- Newsreels before the movie.
- Telephone numbers with a word prefix...( Yukon 2-601). Party lines.
- Peashooters.
- Hi-Fi's & 45 RPM records.
- 78 RPM records
- Green Stamps.
- Mimeograph paper
- The Fort Apache Play Set.
- Do You Remember a Time When.
- Decisions were made by going 'eeny-meeny-miney-moe'?
- Mistakes were corrected by simply exclaiming, 'Do Over!'?
- 'Race issue' meant arguing about who ran the fastest?
- Catching The Fireflies Could Happily Occupy An Entire Evening?
- It wasn't odd to have two or three 'Best Friends'?
- Having a Weapon in School meant being caught with a Slingshot?
- Saturday morning cartoons weren't 30-minute commercials for action figures?
- 'Oly-oly-oxen-free' made perfect sense
- Spinning around, getting dizzy, and falling down was cause for giggles?
- The Worst Embarrassment was being picked last for a team
- War was a card game?
- Baseball cards in the spokes transformed any bike into a motorcycle?
- Taking drugs meant orange - flavored chewable aspirin?
- Water balloons were the ultimate weapon?
If you can remember most or all of these, Then You Have Lived!
Julianne Hempel ~ At Central Grade School, the first floor had wide stairways at either end. We kids would stand on the stairs singing carols, while our parents stood on the floor between the stairways. In high school, I remember the choir concerts at Christmas with our wonderful soloists. Diana Smaha and Jacki Vallentine. I especially remember Jacki's beautiful, "O Holy Night". (Note from Sharon ~ I also put these memories on the Christmas greetings post ~ but thought they should also be on this "I Remember When..." page)
Eleanor Austen ~ When Mickey Coleman and I were second graders at Central, after school she used to walk with me as far as the Holy Rosary Catholic Church before turning around and walking home herself. It was during one of these walks together that Mickey and I decided that the church, which we thought was the Holy Rosaly, was named after Mickey’s cousin Rosalee, whose name we didn’t know how to spell. (I’m still not sure.) Years later, whenever I happened by the church, I thought of Mickey and her “holy” cousin Rosaly, and smiled.
Patty Reddish ~ Miss Burns always called me either Dorothy (my mother's name) or Pauline (my aunt's name). Does that give you any indication of her age?
Mickey Coleman ~ How times have changed…I remember when I was a kid, when we went “downtown” or even to the grocery store, my brother and I would have to come in and get cleaned up and I would have to put on a dress or a skirt. My Mom would get dressed up and put on her high heels and “fix” her face. Now folks just wear what they feel like, which at times is not very much. What a difference!! Comment from Sharon Phillip ~ I remember when my parents would take us downtown on Saturday night in the car. We would park on Box Butte Avenue and sit in the car and watch the people go by (in one of the diagonal parking spaces between Third and Fifth Street ~ always on the West side of the street where the action was). Comment from Betty Lurvey: I also remember the Saturday nights on Box Butte Avenue. My parents would have a six pack of beer and would park on the street in front of the taverns. They would watch people going in and out. I think we (my brother, sister and myself) would sit in the backseat and would probably fall asleep.
Dick Graham ~ I was in Mrs. Skala's 4th grade class and can remember well how a group of us (4-6) including Dick Bilstein would walk home with her (she lived close to the school) and then we would
continue on to our respective homes.
Eleanor Austen ~ "I remember one of our teachers used to clobber a classmate for the slightest thing, such as not giving the correct answer to something when she called on the classmate. The classmate's desk was right beside mine, and I wanted so much to shove her through the wall when she beat the classmate. What a witch she was. I really hated her. She never laid a hand on me, but I had nightmares about her for years afterwards because of how she'd treated other kids." Emerson grade school
Dale Moore ~ (after looking at the Blog) Memories are just flooding back. Sad to see some of the best childhood buddies I ever had "Gone!" We were ornery!
Carolyn Cole ~ The desk stories (see Paul Nelson's comment) reminded me of the day in Mr. Carrari's class that the boys were throwing desks out the window. We gave that teacher such a bad time. I wonder if he gave up teaching.
Dale Moore ~ Did Rod Eichenburger replace Mrs. Crankshaft? (She`s the reason I can`t carry a tune.) She pulled my ears for cutting up in choir!
Paul Nelson ~ I also recall being given a month of early morning detentions by the feminine English teacher with a lot of help from my Mother probably for the moving the desks to the front of the room from the back. I always wondered what she would have done to me if she had known I dropped a whole package of firecrackers on the stage of play practice just after someone turned out the lights, so that he ended up dancing around trying to get away from them going off. I certainly was not perfect either. (from Sharon ~ see Penny's comment below for the rest of the story)
Glenda Harvey ~ Who could forget our 20th reunion at the Weed Quonset when Betty (Heinlein) Walker drove her red convertible inside and we listened and danced to her stereo? Betty surprised us all by coming and what a fun time we had! Hope Betty makes the 50th, but guess we are too old to stand around in a quonset...we have reached the point of doing sit down reunions. Perhaps I should speak for myself! Comment from Sharon Phillip ~ I was standing beside Jerry Culp when Betty drove inside....Jerry said "I didn't know we had Dolly Parton in our class". Betty did look great at the reunion!
Penny Wright ~ One of my memories was of a terrible male social studies teacher who had very little classroom control. One day our ring leaders (I wasn't one, but I was a good follower) decided the teacher had bad breath, so we all moved our desks to the back of the room. The teacher got very upset and told us to move our desks to the front of the room, so we did -- all the way to the chalk board. Then we moved them all to the back of the room again. They were in this arrangement when Principal Trout came into the classroom and asked what we were doing. The main problem with our activities was the fact that Lemoine Trout was in our class. We were worried about what his dad would say to him at home that night. He reported the next day that all his dad said was something about him having an interesting social studies class that day. We all felt relieved. The teacher only lasted one year. Comment from Paul Nelson ~ I think Penny has a few details confused or left out the fact that she and her particular class were being disciplined by having to copy about 50 pages of a health book. But she or someone decided to change part of the contents to read something about putting a tourniquet around the teacher's neck instead of whatever it was suppose to say and ended up getting in more trouble.
Eleanor Austen ~ I remember when in Jr. High, my boyfriend Dale Moore broke up with me because I'd mystery-rung his doorbell one evening while walking home from Zesto. He secretly followed me home and bawled me out for being so immature. The next day, he asked Betty Lurvey for a date. I reassured Betty that it was fine with me if she went to the show with Dale, but Betty said she felt funny about it and wanted me to be at her house when Dale picked her up, so he'd know I was okay with it. I gleefully obliged. Comment from Betty Lurvey ~ Hey, Eleanor was the one that said that Dale Moore ditched her and took me for on a date or whatever, which I do not remember that at all. Dale just probably came over to the house with Roger Rusk. Comment from Eleanor ~ Nuh-uh, Betty, you told me about Dale asking you to the show and asked me if I'd mind if you said yes. I assured you I didn't. You said you still didn't feel right about it and asked me to be at your house when he came to pick you up so he'd know you hadn't betrayed me by accepting his invitation. (You were always a faithful friend, and I seriously mean that.) When he arrived (without Roger Rusk, I might add) your mom invited Dale to have a seat in the living room while you finished getting ready. I was sitting nonchalantly in the living room, pretending to read a magazine. When he started into the living room, I said "Hi!" and flashed him a cheesy grin, whereupon he backed away and waited for you by the front door. As you and Dale walked down the porch steps, your mom and I waved goodbye to you from the doorway, calling, "Have fun, you two!" and things like that. Then I walked home, feeling weird. Comment from Dale Moore ~ Just can`t understand the mentality of getting upset by a pretty girl ringing my doorbell! Duh! But a date with another pretty little girl was sure okay, too! Lol!
Sharon Phillip ~ I remember when Judie VonTour fell out of Konnie Herman’s vehicle when Konnie was going around a corner. Judie was most concerned with where her hair spray had rolled.
Eleanor Austen ~ I remember when in the 9th grade, Charley Rusk hated my poufy bangs. Whenever he passed me in the hallway in between classes, he flattened my bangs with his hands and called me a shmo.
Penny Wright ~ I remember when Mrs. Alice Nelson, the math teacher and yearbook adviser, said, "It never fails. A yearbook staff member always has the worst picture in the yearbook, and, Penny, it has happened to you two years in a row." That statement is etched in my memory, and in all my years as a yearbook adviser, I was always concerned that I might make a similar statement. Despite that unforgettable comment, I would never have traded those memories of our work on the yearbook in Mrs. Nelson's back room.
Eleanor Austen ~ I remember when in the 7th grade, right out of the clear blue sky, Roger Rusk, my secret heartthrob, asked me to go steady. It happened in the hall, right before second period English. Actually, it wasn't Roger who asked me. David Van Dusen asked me for Roger, and gave me a beaded sword pin of Roger's to wear. I was so thrilled and dazed, I sat down at the wrong desk in English class, and when my classmates told me I was sitting in the wrong seat, I didn't understand. I was floating! Later that day, David asked me for the pin, saying Roger had changed his mind and wanted to go steady with Carol Wright instead.
Kathy Thomas ~ I remember standing guard while a friend (was it you, Betty Merritt) took some doughnuts from the teacher's lounge at AHS. If I recall, we didn't really enjoy them because they were kind of stale. Crime does not pay! Comment from Sharon Phillip: I remember Kathy's Dad being the Chief of Police and her Mom being our swimming instructor on all those cold Nebraska mornings at the Alliance swimming pool. Possibly some of you remember her Dad up close and personal.
Ruby Roberts ~ I remember getting whacked on the hand more than once by Miss Burns in geometry.
Carolyn Cole ~ I remember having a sleep out on the last day of school in Eleanor Austen's back yard and crashing a tent party at Sharon Phillip's back yard. Comment from Eleanor Austen ~ Carolyn, was that the night that you, Betty and I climbed the fence at the city pool and went skinny dipping? Or did we do that at a different tent party? Whenever it was, I still remember frantically struggling to get dressed while soaking wet after someone called the police on us. Sirens, flashing lights...we barely (haha) got away. Hey, wait. Can they still get us for that?
Glenda Harvey ~ Not sure I remember the teacher, but I am thinking it was Miss Aspen. I definitely remember the tattle tale ART FLORES. The teacher assigned students to catch a student using incorrect grammar and when that happened you had your name put on the chaulk board. Art turned me in for saying "How's Come"? My name was on the board which seemed like FOREVER!
Sharon Phillip ~ I remember that Barb Stewart was a fantastic diver!
Sharon Phillip ~ I remember a bicycle ride with Myrtle Chandler. Myrtle was peddling and I was on the handle bars...it was a barrel of laughs...an accident waiting to happen!
Glenda Harvey ~ I remember my prom date, Bill Wilson, showing up about 3 hours late. His uncle wouldn't let him off the ranch in time to get dressed in his "white sports coat and pink carnation" to get all dressed up for the prom. I thought I had been stood up, but he made it so we could get a couple of dances in. We have become good friends with Bill and his wife, Ann, through the years. I forgave him.
Sharon Phillip ~ I remember when we were very young (probably the seventh grade), Mrs. Walston (Wanda's Mom) said she always knew who Wanda was talking with on the phone ~ if the conversation was about "clothes" ~ she was talking with me. If the conversation was about "boys" ~ she was talking with Diana Smaha. Comment from Diana Smaha ~ I was shocked to see your entry regarding Diana Smaha being boy crazy--I was thinking I was a tomboy until ninth grade :) Nevertheless, it did make me smile. 10/12/10
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