School Daze!

Besides my love of poetry, I had many other interests while in school. In Junior High I was active in tumbling, writing, and in small bits of acting. In High School I was very active in Drama, drum and bugle corps, and I did a lot of entertaining at sport rallies. I wrote all my own material. The coach would call me out of my classes and go over with me what he wanted me to do at the rallies. I would go home and write some comedy stuff and deliver it in the auditorium at the next rally! I was also on the local radio station (KSRO) in a program called "Us Kids Of Seventeen." There I wrote my own material also and was billed as a budding "Tizzie Lish" She was a character in the movies that did comedy in a rather falsetto voice. One such writing I did on the radio was "How to Ride A Horse Back After You Get Him There" I never starred in, but I was a character in many school plays and was the leading character in some plays that were for students only. In the drum and bugle corps we performed at every parade in town and at every sports game at half time. We fought long and hard to get to wear shorter uniforms, but in the end we were only allowed to have them three inches above the knee. My how times have changed! I had lots of girl friends in high school, but no boy friends. All my girl friends had boy friends, but not me. I dated one time and the guy was just awful and I never went with him again. I had a guy out of school that I liked and I sneaked to be with him a few times, but my dad did not like him so he forbid me any further contact. In Junior College I had lots of guy friends (not boy friends) and life was just great! I used to go cook dinner for one guy, once in a while when he complained he did not know how to cook and would sadly ask if I could not help out. I got to ride on the back of a motorcycle with another guy on a couple of occasions, and I had one very dear guy friend who would come by my house in his dump truck, honk and holler, "Want to take a trip with me to pick up a load of gravel?" Of course I did and away we went. I was friends with him up until the day he died. I am still friends with his last wife. I have this wonderful memory of him that I would like to share. When I was separated from my first husband and very pregnant, my oldest sister had convinced me I needed to get out of the house and go with her to sit and watch at a local dance hall where big bands came and played. I felt rather embarrassed to go, but I went with her any how. Harry James was playing that night. Well, my friend was there also and he came over to me, held out his hand and said, "Would you two like to dance with me?" How sweet was that?!! When I am gone and my boys go through my picture album, they are going to think mom was quite a "tart," but the truth is, I did have a lot of guy friends who were not boy friends. Also during the war everyone had guy friends. They were just there, and they were great guys! I am so glad I experienced all of that!!