continued.........
Going to High School
8th Grade through 12th Grade
Actually my high school years start
when we move from Spencer to Sac City when was 13 years old in 1954. I
started school in Sac City in 8th
grade.
My last
days in seventh grade in Spencer, as I mentioned before, were spent living the
last Month with my aunt and uncle and cousin. My parents and brother Jim had
moved to Sac City so dad could start his new job for the Mobile Gas Company. I
think it was my dad’s brother, Dale that was able to point my dad to the job of
tank wagon driver there in Sac City.
They had moved to Sac City during April of
1954 and I followed after my seventh grade year in May. I was a little
apprehensive about moving out of the fire station but I made it through the
change
I can barely
remember the first time I saw our new place to live on (I think 408 12th
Street). It was a white two-story house and Mom told me that it was called a
duplex. It had 2 families living there. We lived on the ground floor and
another family named the Beaver’s lived on the second floor. There were stairs
in back of the house that went up to their place. Directly behind the duplex
was a small garage that had been converted into a small apartment. A young
couple with a baby lived there.
Attached to the garage apartment was a small
shed that we were able to keep garden tools and lawn equipment. Then behind all
that was a large garden spot that mom and dad had already planted by the time I
got there at the end of May. On the north side of the garage was a raspberry
patch that yielded lots on
delicious red
raspberries.
Our Duplex was located at the edge of the
residential area in that part of town. Behind where our house and garden were
located was a very large wooded area.
I will take
different parts of what I can remember and elaborate on the things that come to
my mind. I may jump around a little but
please stay with me. Our car. We still had our 1940 or 41 Desoto that was dad’s
pride and joy. I don’t think we had it too long after we moved to Sac because I
remember a square black Plymouth that I learned to drive,
It didn’t
take too long before a boy, younger than me by a year or two, came from across
the street to play with me. His name was Jimmy Joe. Jimmy and I started playing
right away and the one thing I remember specifically about him was that he
warned me not to go too far south down the street because there was three
pretty mean boys that lived there. So for the most part until school started I
stayed close to our house playing with Jimmy. Jimmy’s dad was a carpenter and
had a large work building behind their house. Jimmy and I would often go there
and watch his dad as he did his work.
My
mother made friends with some ladies that lived pretty close to us. Floris
Miller, Dorothy Beaver (who lived in the apartment above us and a lady named
Mrs. Green that lived across the street.
Floris
and Dorothy both had boys about the same age as my brother, Jim.
I do remember the smell of the sweet rolls
and coffee cakes that they would serve at the coffee gatherings
I remember the boy upstairs from where we
lived was named Fred. We call him Freddy. I would play with brother Jim and
Freddy a lot. We played a made up game of football all the time. There were
just the three of us, but we would pretend to have opponents and play many
hours each day running play after play.
Another
thing I would do to occupy my time was take my BB gun and go walking through
the wooded area behind our house shooting at tin cans as targets.
Warned about
Bully Kids
Jimmy Joe, the friend from across the street also
warned me about playing baseball. I had played a lot of Little League baseball
in Spence and was actually first team 3rd
base there. When Jimmy told me that the local Little League team was coached by
a Catholic Priest and that he really yelled a lot I decided to forgo my
baseball career.
I remember I was warned by Jimmy Joe Molar that me that there were there 3 "bully's"
that lived just down the street from where I lived so I managed to avoid them
from May until the beginning of our 8th grade year. (just about 3 months) It
was on my way home after my first day of 8th grade that I encountered the 3
Bully's" It was Terry, Mike and another Terry.
I was riding my bicycle home
from school down 12th street when about 3 blocks from my house I heard this
person yell "Hey kid!" It turned out to be Terry and I soon
recognized he and Mike as being in my 8th grade class from school that day.
Well to make a long story longer......
I started playing with them
soon after that first time we met. I remember one thing about Terry and Mike
that I have never forgotten. They had me convinced that they had this secret
club and boy I wanted to become a member real bad.
So gullible as I was (and still
am) I allowed them to put me through all sorts of
I want to mention that we were asked to choose a "locker mate" at the begining of 8th grade and Kelley Hoskins and I found each other and we ended up being locker mates through 12th grade! (That was a record I am sure)
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