Random Thoughts

I liked the school a lot the first year. It was a very nice building and I was actually a little proud to go there. Obviously it was new, but it was more than that. For one thing we all had equal footing that first day whether we were freshmen or seniors, we were all entering a strange new world. I think our whole class at one time or another felt a little special because we were the first class to go all four years there, and I think we left it in pretty good shape when we left.

At one time or another when we left school at the end of the day, one of the male teachers was always outside yelling at us if we cut across the grass. There was no walking on the grass, which was a little odd since you couldn’t walk all the way around the building without walking on the grass at the northeast corner. But they weren’t outside at lunch to keep us off the grass.

I probably smoked as much as anyone else while I was there, but in all that time, no matter what the function was I don’t ever remember a teacher smoking. Maybe they didn’t even smoke, or if they did they were told to restrict it to the teacher’s lounge, but whether it was during the day or at a game at night, I don’t recall any of them lighting up.

On the outside of the building, why was there a space between the auditorium and the band room? Looked to me like a mistake, but then again I’m not an architect.

What about that garden spot between home economics and typing? I know I’ve mentioned it before, but it looked like they ran out of money and decided to scrap one room. Okay, so I know it was designed that way, most likely some trend in the mid 60s, but it was too small to really do anything with. Are they doing anything with it now?

What would you guess, maybe 30% of the kids drove? Maybe it was more like 25%, but as I recall the parking lot was fairly small. You would think they would have at least consider ball games and made the parking lots bigger.

You didn’t need a calendar to know it was Chieftain day. The upper hall by the office smelled like the mimeograph machine. How the world has changed. Remember the hand written tests that were sometimes hard to read, either because of the mimeograph copy or the teacher was in too big of a hurry to get it ready for class, and the letters were sometimes faded in the middle because the copier only picked up the edges.

One of my most enduring memories of the first and second grade was the early morning smell of peanut butter cookies being baked because at Loudon Elementary, those two grades were directly over the cafeteria. At the high school the only smell I remember is when they made barbeque, and I don’t remember any smells from home economics. Did they cook or bake in there?

The rear of the auditorium was always cool. Late summer when it was hot outside, you could always go sit there and cool off. Plus it was usually empty.

As often as they yelled about walking on the grass, they yelled about street shoes on the gym floor. Coach Ratledge would get so mad sometimes he would chase you. I also can’t think of the gym without seeing Dickie walking the length of it on his hands. That was so cool and he was the only one I know of who could do it.