Pershing
I went to kindergarten there. My teacher was Miss Kitsenberger. Now that I think of it, she seemed old, but obviously she wasn’t married. Now I wonder how old she really was? We had show and tell, the only one I remember was Ronnie Hoagland and he sang “I’m forever blowing bubbles”. We always took a break and in a single line, went to the cafeteria. I remember the big tables with attached seats (kind of like picnic tables). There we were all given a small carton of homogenized milk, which was really cold, but I hated milk. I liked it on cereal, but not plain! Now, as a grown up, I now know why I didn’t like it, because it bothered my stomach. To this day, I can’t drink milk by itself without having really bad stomach cramps and gas. If I have it with cereal, it still happens, but not as bad. I was only at Pershing for 1 year, then to St. Mary’s for 1st through 8th grade. I can’t remember when Mom and Dad decided to change to Pershing, but it wasn’t before I finished up at St. Mary’s. Maybe it was when Matt started school?
Most of the Christmas craft shows were held at Pershing in the gym. I remember Mom gathering ideas all year long just for us to make for the Christmas craft show. Some of our entries were:
Christmas tree – made with toothpicks stuck into small styrofoam balls, stacked on a flat, round Styrofoam base, to form a tree, sprayed with fake snow, then hung tiny, colorful Christmas ball ornaments on the picks and sprinkled it with glitter.
Santa’s sleigh – Mom saved the turkey breast bone from our Thanksgiving turkey. It had plenty of time to be dried out. I think she sprayed it gold. I don’t remember exactly what it look like, but it worked perfectly!
Christmas tree – made from a magazine, you folded each of the pages in a certain way, to form a Christmas tree. Then we sprayed it gold.
There were many more, but those are the 3 I remember most. They were judged, too, and it was always so exciting to go the day of the show to see if we won any ribbons. We did win quite a few times!
Dad was in some kind of Dad’s club with Cleland Dewey (I think) and they put on a comedy show where they all dressed up like women! That was pretty crazy! They must have been raising money for something. I wonder if Mom volunteered him for that?
When the Adams family – Bob, Dixie, Kathy, Shelley, and Kris – moved in across the street, they went to Pershing. I think they moved in around the time that Kathy was in 7th or 8th grade because I was very aware of her boyfriend, Gary Dunham. Dixie talked about him all the time. I really think she was as boy-crazy as the girls were! Anyway, Gary had a band (I forgot their name, maybe it was Gary and the Playboys-ha,ha!). He played the guitar and the only song I remember them playing was “Wipe Out”! It was awesome!
But I most remember Pershing because they had the best fall festival. I must have been in 7th and 8th grade and liked boys. There were always new people to meet and it was so much fun to hang out. All of our friends met us there, it was the place to be! The most fun was the “Dime to Dance” room and dancing slow to “The End of the World” by Skeeter Davis. I don’t remember who all I danced with. I do remember, it was 8th grade, being out on the playground with Dick Tiffany and he asked me to go steady and I said no. Afterwards, I felt like such a weirdo, and no one could believe I turned him down because he was so popular!
St. Marys:
My first crush was Charles Veneman in 1st grade. He was shorter than me, little and wirey and was pretty loud, too. I don’t remember why I liked him. Maybe because he wasn’t shy and I was.
My 1st day of school, I was supposed to ride the bus and I really didn’t know where to go and I ended up missing it. I know I was crying, but I went to the office and they found someone to take me home. That never happened again. I don’t remember the name of our bus driver, maybe Mr. Moser or Mosley, but I can still picture his face. He was very nice, but he didn’t have any teeth.
Sister Blanche was the meanest teacher I ever had. I think it was for 5th and 6th grade. But she taught choir and I loved to sing and she had us singing very well. We sang for all the Masses and special occasions and that was fun! I especially remember the choir loft, which was high above the back of the church. I don’t know how many times we dropped song books from it, or how many times Mike Dixon, Dick Tiffany and Mike Wright got in trouble for acting up or laughing (because they were farting). Another thing I remember about choir, she took us to a choir competition in Kansas City and we sang “The Ash Grove”. I can still sing a few lines from it. I was also in her class the day we found out President Kennedy was shot.
I remember Fr. John and Sister Jeremy. They were both young and a lot of fun! We all thought they were in love, even though we knew they were not supposed to be. Fr. John used to do a lot of controversial things. He used to have dances in the gym that he called “hootenannys” and his nephew had a band and they always played. These dances were so much fun! That was around the time that the Beatles started. Fr. John also planned and organized an annual Passion Play around Easter time. Seems like that was all everyone was focused on then, and it was a big deal!
In 7th or 8th grade, when we couldn’t go outside for recess because it was raining, we used to go to the gym and do square dancing. All the boys threw a fit because they didn’t want to dance with us girls, but I think they would have to admit that it was a lot of fun!
There was a speech competition for 7th (me) and 8th graders. The topic was “My Responsibilities as a Young American”. Dad helped me write my speech, which I had to memorize and use hand gestures. One of the sentences I used was President Kennedy’s quote, “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country!” I remember the dress I wore, it was green with small pink and white flowers. It had pink piping at the waist and the sleeves were all white. It had a round neckline and zipped up the back. Now that I remember, I can’t believe that Mom didn’t make it for me! However, she did add her own special touch to it (which I hated, sorry, Mom). There was a small fake flower tacked on for decoration at the waist. Mom removed it and made me wear it in my hair, right smack in the middle of my bangs. When it was time to do my speech, I did forget about it and got through my speech without making a mistake, I remembered all of it! I was so thankful to be done and to sit down and relax! It was a proud moment when they announced my name first as the runner-up and then Robin Soper was the winner. I knew I did a pretty good job, but I was really surprised to win. I know Dad was really proud of me, and it was really his speech that won, but I delivered it. And I do remember most of what he told me about speaking and I was nervous, but I was very well prepared! Thanks, Dad! Oh, and I got my picture in the newspaper.
We used to always go to 11:30 Mass. I remember this one Sunday, Dad was driving us home from church. All of our family wasn’t in the car because otherwise we wouldn’t have been able to do this. He saw Mike Dixon and Dick Tiffany walking home from church and he stopped to give them a ride. I was so excited, embarrassed, who knows what. All I can remember is not saying much, but when I did say something, it was a question for Dad, but I didn’t call him Dad, I went really formal and called him Father! After I said it, I knew how stupid it sounded! I wanted to jump out of the car I was so embarrassed.
My 1st best friend was Denise Mckeaver, but then she moved. Then it was Suzanne Armstrong, then she moved. From there it was Josie Rock and Debbie Ritchey. We spent a lot of time out at Debbie’s house on their farm. She was the only girl and she got everything she wanted. In 7th and 8th, it wasn’t Debbie anymore because she took up with the new girl Jean Ann Harrison and they kept to themselves, probably because Jean Ann was spoiled too and they always wanted things their way. But I had many other friends: still Josie, plus Mary Kay Whitehill, Nancy Nash, Angela Dassero, Barbara Slibowski and Jeanie Lawson (8th grade she was new girl). We all had slumber parties together and continued to be best friends through high school.
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