Do you remember?
Mrs./Miss Atwater, first grade teacher, Jefferson School. I received my first and only school spanking from Mrs./Miss Atwater. I was reading aloud and got stuck on the word “the”. I got a spanking with a wooden ruler for that inexcusable lack of intellect.
Betty Florence
Ramona Tarr
Corkey Seward
David Gastman
Paul Tinkham. The moment I heard that Paul was struck and killed by a car the previous afternoon is indelibly etched into my memory. I was at the top of the stairway to the second floor at Lincoln School when I was given that sad news from, I believe, Gary Gustafson. I relive that depressing moment, from time to time. Paul was a good kid.
When Tim McDonald shoved his hand through the glass door at Roosevelt. I heard about it from Carole Roberts. She witnessed it and was obviously traumatized by the blood. At least, that’s how I remember it.
Being the first class to be “Upper Classmates” when PAHS opened and we were the first class to be the highest grade at Roosevelt, not counting the generations of students who graduated from Roosevelt High.
When Ed Lisenbury was challenged to speak the “S” word at an Assembly. He said, “Sheeeeeee…” That was close enough for most of us.
I remember all of these and so many more. To spend some idle moments witnessing the miracle of the years being stripped away by memory is a gift that I will forever cherish. I hope that each of you appreciate that gift as much as I do.
At one of the reunions I attended, one of our classmates asked that those of us who had attended Jefferson School consider purchasing a “brick” with an inscription of our choice, to be added to the “New” Jefferson School. It was being renovated at the time. I purchased several of those ‘bricks’. Inscribed in those bricks is a message of hope, and a challenge, to the thousands of students who will walk across them in the years to come. I took the liberty of attributing that message to the PAHS class of 57. Few, if any of the students who might happen to read that message will understand what it really means. If you ever have the opportunity to do so, I challenge you to find that message that is attributed to you.
Peace, to each of you.
Frank Dailey