Hats Off! Musings of being a Pirate
February, 2001
By Wyatt Newman
(Note: first edition of
what is intended to be a monthly column on Rogers' Class of '60 site)
There she stands, the pride of
Wellesley Avenue, the grand lady with diamonds, located in the rough
north side of Spokane, the scrappy Hillyard District: John Rankin
Rogers High School, named after the third governor of the Washington
Territory, if memory serves correctly. If one wants to reach for
the loftiness of Ronald Reaganese, you might want to call it the
"Shining School on the North Hill."
Remember what it was like to
enter that big, red edifice as a fourteen-year-old freshman? There
were all those stories told to us 8th graders headed for Rogers about
how rough the place was. You might get beat up. They would smear your
face with lipstick and sit you on a fountain. You might even get
pantsed! It seemed so huge approaching it for the first time after
leaving the comforts of the smaller grade school. At least, there was
some similarity in that all Spokane schools seemed old, of another era
long before we were born. Soon, the citizens and school board (we
never really knew; it just happened, it seemed, overnight) started to
change the place. For the better? You have your own perceptions.
Remember as freshman and
sophomores the old cafeteria, which doubled during the non-lunch hours
as a study hall for underclassmen, or underclasspersons as we would
say now? Rough, older kids would roam around just waiting for some
hapless freshman to speak to a tablemate, so he could drag him off to
another table, the study hall teacher seeming to approve of what would
today be a near violent act. Rogers was a rough school!
Remember, those of you who took
shop, those old World War II wooden buildings behind the boiler room
(doubling as a smoking lounge for teachers)? They were probably hauled
there from Geiger Field or Fort George Wright after the victory our
fathers fought for over there.
How about those portables? Cozy
little cabin-like structures, giving one a feeling of independence and
away from the hustle of the hallways, but not protecting the serenity
of the classroom from outside lunchtime noises.
The dank, tiny, stuffy gym? Did
they really play basketball in there in the old days, we wondered.
We saw the changes. First,
about the time for us to dine as juniors, the new cafeteria. Bright,
clean, better tables, better chow line, maybe even better food. It
seemed good to have a hot lunch rather than a brown bag special from
home. Did they even serve hot food in the old cafeteria? (Editor:
Yes, but there was only one salad dressing -- Thousand Island).
Then came the field house, a
first in Spokane. A dirt track, giving it an outdoor feel of
authenticity (whoever heard of indoor track in those days?), but a
shiny new basketball court in the middle.
Out with the portables, in came the new addition on the Eastside near
the tennis courts. Hey, it was starting to look a little less old.
About this time, Spokane School
District must have come into a pot of money because enough mils were
passed by the voters to build. Shadle Park was built in our time, down
the Wellesley road, but on the other side of the border, Division St.
Yes, it was new, but it just didn't seem to have any class; just a
flat building that had no defining architectural features. Right near
a nice, new, big park, though, from whence it got its name. But,
whoever heard of a school named after a park? Highlanders! What kind
of a mascot is that?
In the Reunion tour, Rogers has
taken on other changes, but much has been preserved. The tiled floors
and wall remain in the front hallway. No slip edges on the steps and
wooden banisters, remain on the staircases. The courtyard is still
there, but now they can actually use it instead of just look at it
from the hallways. The grand wooden double doors remain to the library
on the second floor; the heart of any academic institution, home of
the now defunct card catalogue.
Many of the standard,
one-size-fits-all classrooms have been converted into something now
called labs, with some walls knocked out. But, there's still the
feeling of it being a school.
Built in 1933! Going on
sixty-eight years old. She's looking good and, we can all agree, she's
aged quite well.
- Wyatt
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