Messages in a Cyber-Bottle between a Couple of Old
Marooned Pirates
John R. Rogers
W-
May we discuss Roger's 1960 peer schools this month? I enumerate them as:
Lewis and Clark
North Central
West Valley
Central Valley
Shadle Park
That last school didn't exist when we started in 1956, but it was going
strong when we graduated in 1960. I started my exile in 1960. Ferris High
School is pretty much an unknown to me. It's interesting that I did happen
to meet a fellow at IBM in Kirkland in 1967 that graduated from it after
moving into its district from Deer Park. Nevertheless, "Ferris"
means a big wheel to me. Havermale - there's a real Spokane name. I know
even less about that alternative school.
My knowledge of Rogers' peer schools in 1956-1960 is centered around
athletics and more eclectic kinds of competition. The former probably
matches the experience of most members of the Pirate crew.
My earliest memory of contact with the other schools was the 1956 Merry Go
Round football game of 1956. What a great memory! I have no idea who came
out on top. It's not important. It was the experience and ambiance that I
liked. A crisp Fall night. A different team pairing every quarter. There
were only four schools then. A special Spokane City Lines shuttle ran from
downtown to Memorial Stadium. Yes, that was the name. Who is Joe Albi,
anyway? Remember, I'm an exile. I remember that bus struggling to get up the
Monroe St hill into the Garland district. I was with old Cooper schoolmate,
Chris Rossmeir. By the time the game finished and we transferred to the
Minnehaha bus it was quite late - later than I'd been allowed to be out the
year before in the eigth grade. Life was good!
A string of four basketball seasons at the Spokane Coliseum formed a
derivative string of good memories. I used to watch the games played on
either end of the Rogers time slot if we were in the middle slot. I remember
walking across bridges to Havermale Island from downtown to get to the
coliseum.
In our sophomore year, 1957, Shadle Park high school opened. It was the
first high school built in greater Spokane since Rogers was completed in
1932. Interestingly, my mother's old employer, Culler, Gale, Martel,
Norrie, and Davis (mom had to say that when she answered their phone --
male egos you know), designed and built the school. I worked there in
summer, 1960. I remember the Shadle drawings. I think that a North Central
split populated Shadle. I'm not aware of Rogers losing any district
territory. The coliseum basketball games got noisier during the first season
that Shadle Park played. I think it was the excitement of being part of
something new on the part of the students and fans. Did you know that the
green and gold colors and the name "Highlanders" were chosen by an
all-school election in 1956? The first Shadle graduating class was 1960, the
year we graduated. My brother works for the city. He told me last month that
he repainted the green and gold water tower recently. They should have been
the Ducks.
I was active in Inland Empire science fairs all four years of my Rogers
attendance. Some were held at Lewis and Clark in 1957 and 1958. That is one
of the other forms of competition I alluded to. The fairs lasted two or
three days. I hung out or attended functions at the venue during those days.
Thus I became familiar with the inside of L.C. They had a science teacher at
L.C. named Skip Lauderback. I have no idea what his real first name was. He
was a mentor to me. For instance, he took an L.C. student and I up to Trail,
B.C. to speak to a group of educators. We stayed in the mayor's house. A
good memory. My high school experience was expanding beyond the halls of
Rogers. Skip Lauderback also led a group of students to Glacier National
Park, including my Rogers friend, Bob Parry. I couldn't afford to take that
trip.
The Inland Empire Science Fair was held at Shadle In 1959 and 1960. I got
familiar with its halls and the restaurants in the Shadle shopping center.
Alas, no new Skip Lauderback materialized.
Bob Parry and I took "Safe Driving" in summer school of 1958. This
was a kind of hybrid experience. The class was held at Lewis and Clark, but
the teacher was Rogers' Mr. Russell -- you would call him Herb Russell. He
educated us better there than he did in metal shop. The class was an hour of
lecture and an hour of driving lab twice a week. Of course the lab wasn't
scheduled contiguously with the class hour. Thus, Bob and I had two hours of
wandering around L.C. and the near South Hill area twice a week that summer.
We were out of our league; two guys from Minnehaha district wandering around
the South Hill, but we knew our roots. Hey, I'm a partial alumnus of L.C!
How about North Central? The only times I darkened its door were when Mr.
Grafious' Rogers debating team debated at N.C. I was a member. Did you ever
have a dream where you had to address a group of hostile people about an
issue that you knew nothing about, and cared about even less? That happened
every time I debated. Why did I even attempt this? I've told you I have a
little voice that tells me to try things for the potential added life
experience. The voice usually does me a favor. This time it really let me
down, but then again, it generated an interesting memory. It didn't help
Roger's debating score though. I remember that Joanne Brown, and Dudley
McCraken were on the team. They offset my effect by actually knowing that
they were talking about.
My impression of N.C.'s physical plant was that I'd just entered an evil
medieval monastery. The doors to the classrooms were inset into the wall. I
swear that the top of each doorway was rounded. I looked around furtively
for Igor. Excessive light in the hallways wasn't a problem. N.C. was dreary.
Rogers seemed airy and cheerful when I returned. Today, "N.C."
means North Carolina to me.
I cannot say that I ever was inside either Valley school then, but their
tennis teams sure did run me around their tennis courts outside. You see I
was not only a science geek, but also excelled at being a darned poor
athlete. I was not a normal Rogers crew member in most respects. I was a
member of Mr. Mabbot's tennis team for two years. I remember being seeded
about 15th. That means that there were about 15 people on the boy's team --
I'm serious. My little voice probably steered me wrong there again, but the
rest of the tennis team weathered my being a member ... I guess. Fellow
homeroom colleague and class president Ray Miller was usually seeded about
number one. Thanks for doing one for the old homeroom, Ray! I think the only
match I won was against some poor slob that had a bad knee or elbow. I
learned that the culture of tennis could be genteel -- once the racket
throwing part was over. I was chagrined at the bratty behavior of some of
the top seeds, except for steady Ray Miller. You can see bad diva-like
behavior in some tennis pros today. Such behavior never permeated down to my
layer. I was always told that I played a good game by whoever had just run
me all over the court. I got a lot of exercise at that game. When my mom
died I found a pair of tennis shoes I used at Rogers. They had holes in the
balls of the feet. I must have gone through four pairs in two years. I held
onto them until we downsized three years ago. I hear that the Raleigh
landfill smells worse since I chucked them.
You spent your Rogers athletic years picking them up and laying them down.
I'll bet you have many interesting memories of the Roger's peer schools.
-E
E-
Let's take a look at those schools one at a time:
Lewis and Clark, once called South Central until a fire destroyed the
original building, I heard tell. Makes sense if there's a North Central
there must have been a South Central. Or does that make sense? Educators
don't always make sense. Anyway, it served as the central school. You said
we took summer school driver ed there. Correct. Along with all the city's
ruffians who failed classes during the regular year and would spend much of
their summer school sitting on the wall near the curb where we would begin
our driving adventures. I remember my driver education as mainly trying to
get the car going somewhere since it was the time when they used stick shift
cars. Herb had enormous patience, which I try to emulate in my own driver
education instruction. Those ruffians would laugh and ridicule us for
constantly killing the engine. Ron Bodvin and I were partners. Once we got a
ride home in Bob Bass' 1940 Ford, who drove like a typical teenager,
whipping through the back streets of Spokane and charging us 50 cents for
gas. Not only a thrilling ride, which we admired his skill, but sure better
than the Spokane City Lines.
LC, as we called it, was also the home of the All City Band many of us took
part in when we were grade schoolers. It was where Red Somebody used to have
Saturday afternoon square dance lessons, which hordes of kids attended, not
to learn square dancing, which was considered to be for squares, but to meet
persons of the other gender from other schools.
LC seemed so old and traditional, making Rogers seem almost new. It was the
home of the "South Hill snobs," according to Coach Tracy Walters
in a pre track meet pep talk. It was huge in numbers. Seemed large in size.
We had fun making fun of them, paraphrasing their fight song at the Coliseum
basketball games, to the like of, "LC fights for victory, LC fights
for fame, why should LC fight at all, checkers is their game. Royal sons of
Ovaltine, fight for the sugar and cream, fly your colors very high it looks
like Halloween." I even remember the tune. Actually, as pep songs
go, it had more zip than ours ... worthy of the college level.
LC, being an urban school, had no athletic field, so track meets were held
at, was it Hare Field? I don't think I could find it today. But that's also
where the All-City and Tri-District meets were held. I guess that's why we
also felt it was the snob school. They always seemed to be the central of
everything. Everyone had to travel to get to their place.
North Central: I almost became a North Central Indian. (I wonder if they are
still the "Indians.") Being a Loganite, I was on the border. My
two closest friends, Ron Bodvin and Jack Rojan persuaded me to attend
Rogers, which wasn't really my choice because of its reputation for being
full of roughies that pantsed freshman, sat them on drinking fountains,
smeared them with lipstick and whatever else they could do to torment the
frosh. Anyway, Rojan bailed out after the freshman year for NC. Bodvin and I
went our separate ways. About that time I became close friends with Ken
Pointer.
NC is remembered for having the only all-boy band in the city. It was huge
and loud. They also had a great fight song. I never went into the school,
but it looked foreboding even from the outside. Their track was tucked into
an area by the school near some of those basalt rocks, so it was more of a
trapezoid than an oval. You had to run slightly more than one lap to get a
440. In all my years of running, coaching and officiating track, and that's
45 years, a meet to be held at NC was cancelled because of flooding by a
huge rainstorm that hit Spokane that afternoon. We trackrats were, and still
are, proud that track meets go on no matter what the weather, not like that
pansy baseball that cancelled games right and left.
It seems strange, but I never set foot in NC. I heard stories from those who
attended that it was condemned as being too old, faucets leaked, plaster
fell from the ceilings, it was literally falling apart. Anyone who had
attended NC said they were told that long ago. When I returned to Spokane
after my stint in the Army and well into the 60's, it was still there. Now
that it's gone, I kind of miss it.
I always resented Shadle coming along. New schools always are considered to
be better. I didn't like their name. I didn't like their colors. I just
never took to them. A school named after a park? Highlanders? What does that
have to do with anything Spokane? But then again, what do tigers and pirates
have to do with it either? I guess you could say eagles, bears and Indians
would fit, although not very imaginative. Not as imaginative as the Richland
Bombers or the Pullman Greyhounds.
Central Valley was out in the sticks. The farm school. Just didn't seem to
be in our city slicker class ... except in basketball. Their coach, Ray
Thacker, was a real good coach. As was West Valley's Jud Heathcoate, who
went on to WSC (then) and later, get this, ED, your OWN MICHIGAN STATE
SPARTANS! Both the valley schools are important to me, though. Central
Valley is where my wife, Nancy, of 38 years attended. Makes her a sort of
Valley Girl. And West Valley is where I did my student teaching, having such
a great experience that I knew teaching is what I wanted to do, and did, for
31 years.
And now there's Gonzaga. The Bullpups. Always wanting to slug someone. I
even saw a Zag football player slug a Rogers kid for no reason as the team
was leaving the field at Rogers. My first two years at Rogers I had to sneak
through the Gonzaga campus to take a short cut home. Spokane had no school
buses, and I had to either take the SCL bus or walk the mile. I walked the
mile and ran the gauntlet through Gonzaga, literally sneaking through a
lumberyard nearby. Gonzaga kids were easily identified on school days
because they carried every textbook they had home, tucked under their arm. A
common expression we used if a Pirate was packing a load of books was,
"you look like a Gonzaga kid." Gonzaga always had good teams. In
my track days, Gonzaga and LC were the teams to beat. Gonzaga kids had to
wear salt-and-pepper cords with a navy blue sweater. All boys. Not much
mention was ever made, as though they didn't even exist, of Holy Names
Academy or Marycliff, the two Catholic girls schools. They had a reputation
for being hot dates, though, if you could get one.
I guess what made the whole Spokane high school thing so memorable was the
Friday night, triple header basketball games. Six schools, later seven,
doing battle. It was a great time to be a high school kid. I like to tell
people about it. They agree, it must have been neat. It was.
W
W-
Oops! Hate to take the last word, but I completely forgot Gonzaga and
other parochial schools. Yes, you could spot a Bullpup by the stack of
books. They even carried them a distinctive way.
