SCHOOL DAZE
“Listen all you rounders if you want to hear. The story about a brave engineer. Casey Jones was the rounders name, on a 6-8 wheeler he road to Fame”.
I’ve been trying to work on a book about my grade school, Milan Center. Yes, there was such a town and it is still there. A buddy of mine was talking to me yesterday and he said there was an incident that he remembered about me. We were in 5th or 6th grade and the teacher tried to grab my hair. He said it was too short and she couldn’t grab it. Of course I don’t remember that, but I do remember this teacher was a doozy. I don’t even remember who cut my hair but it was probably my dad.
I have always said that if you had one good teacher in your life you are most blessed. I hope all of us have had at least one because I did. His name was Wally Kenzie and he taught 7th and 8th grade. The teacher in the 5th and 6th was terrible. I remember one incident, something happened and she made me stay in all recesses. In that day we had three recesses every day and it is kind of hard to stay in in nice weather, or any weather.
After several days I finally told my mom and she went to talk to Mrs Grandma. The next recess I was allowed to go out. Don’t know what was said but it must have been effective. My mom was a mild person, but she could be convincing because her father was a quite strict individual.
I hope each of us has had one good teacher. There is a very small percentage, maybe 5% that are truly good, 50% mediocre, 20% okay, and about 90% terrible. I have no idea if it takes talent or hard work, but some have it and some don’t.
My wife was talking about an incident that she vividly remembers. An ornery boy sat in front of her in 5th grade. The boy kept turning around and talking to her. The teacher made them both stay in to teach him a lesson. This was quite an unfair, and she never forgot it to this day. Needless to say, this was probably not her favorite teacher. This was the only time that she ever stayed in from recess.
My wife went to a small school, Milford High School, that had only 29 people in her class. She had an outstanding band director, by the name of Mr. Judkins. She and her two brothers both played in the band. They did many concerts each year and played in a service on Memorial Day in the cemetery. Each year they marched from the school to the cemetery, a distance of nearly two miles, and she remembers the wool uniforms were always hot.
One unusual thing they did every other year is take a trip to Southern Indiana and give concerts at high schools. She doesn’t remember how they traveled but it was probably in school buses. They stayed at hotels. This trip lasted 5 days and was quite memorable. Nowadays you wouldn’t be able to take a class out for a day without having a dozen sponsors and then someone would slip away.
In the class of ’56, we and many other schools, took a senior trip to New York and Washington DC. We worked 4 years to raise the money. In our school the class of ’57 was the last one to take a senior trip,Two boys had been sent home during the trip.
Just one more story which I find kind of funny. Their band sold candy bars. She remembers beating the streets of Nappanee selling candy bars. Kind of funny, Milford was a tiny town, and to them Nappanee was a metropolis. She remembers the candy bars being quite large and rather good.
I can’t imagine her being tempted by candy bars. Even today, if you gave her a candy bar she would eat one bite a week and it would last 6 months. She doesn’t understand that if you keep chocolate for more than 2 weeks it gets stale. Nothing in this world is worse than stale candy.
—James Neuhouser
