Van Horn and Other Friends - 8th Grade

At the start of the school year in 1960 I put on my best pair of pants, matching short sleeve shirt and headed off walking to what up till then would be the greatest adventure of my life - High School.

It was over a mile away but walking to school back then was no big deal.  I encountered a couple of friends along the way and the closer we got the more our little contingent grew.

I don't remember what we talked about and don't recall how I ended up in my first class.  I do remember the class was called Common Learning's and the teacher was Mr. Fridel, the first man teacher I had ever had other than the weekly visit from Mr. Green the PE teacher at Mt Washington Elementary School.  (as an aside years later I would be a co teacher with Mr. Green in Sedalia, Missouri.)

Common Learning's was a two and half hour class.  The first hour was devoted to history, the second to English, and the last half hour was our study hall.  After study hall came lunch that cost thirty-five cents.

After lunch I went to gym, art, and then ended the day in a math class that was just basic arithmetic.

How I managed to go from a one room, one teacher elementary school to a high school of close to 2000 kids without any feeling of trepidation or concern I am not real sure.  But as most things I have encountered, venturing into the unknown has always come easy.

I cannot remember any of my class mates that year but I do remember thinking that it was odd that none of my friends from Mt Washington were among them.

In the 8th grade there were no sport teams to join and to the best of my memory I attended no football, basketball, or any other athletic events that year.

I do remember there being a sport assembly right after football season where the coach introduced the team members and apologised to the student body that the team had not won a game that year.

There is not much point to this muse because the events of that year all seem vague.  For some reason I did not buy a year book so I have nothing to look at to help jog my memory.

The only real thing that sticks out is that towards the last of school they had a Senior Assembly where many of the older students showed off what talents they had.  I was much impressed.  I turned to the girl sitting next to me and told her "that will be us in five years."

Five years later I was sitting  by the same girl, Karen, and I remembered saying what I had said to her five years earlier.  I then wondered out loud  how had time gone by so quickly.