SHOOTING OFF ROCKETS

In the spring of my ninth grade year, I went on an overnight outing that included the Explorer post in our ward.  The Explorers were participating in an event with other Explorer posts in the state in which they designed homemade rockets.  It was a competition of sorts to determine which post had the most effective rocket. The event was held at an Army camp, Camp A. P Hill, that was somewhere in south eastern Virginia. I don't remember why girls from the ward were included in the trip.

We stayed in barracks that I described in my personal history as being a mess.  "They looked like they hadn't been cleaned in years.". I remember that it was hot and muggy. But apparently, I still had a lot of fun.  While waiting for and watching the rocket launches, we stood in a log bunker that provided some protection should there be an errant rocket or two. The only bad thing about the trip was that our post's rocket didn't work.

I may have been excited to go on this adventure because I had a real bad crush on Jimmy, my ninth grade prom date. I knew he would be going and it was an opportunity to hang out with him.

Here's that rocket shoot group.  

 Most of the girls in the picture were in the ninth grade. The boys were in the ninth grade and high school. I'm the second girl from the right side.  Norene is standing to my left.  And, the dark haired, handsome young man behind me is Jimmy.  Wow, I had forgotten how good looking he was.

Some interesting things about this group - the boy directly behind Norene is Kenlee.  He and his younger brother were killed in an automobile accident less than a year later.  They were on their way to Priesthood meeting.  Norene married Monte, the first boy on the left.  The marriage ended divorce after only a few years.  I have no idea what happened to the rest of these kids.  Did the dorky looking guys ever out grow their dorkiness?  Did all of the girls end up married and happy? And who is the girl standing directly behind the girl on the left side?  I know it's a girl because you can see the hem of her skirt behind the girl in front of her.

SAD AND DEPRESSING?

In a personal history that I came across recently, I wrote "Ninth grade was the one that I enjoyed the least."  "The whole year was depressing."  I'm not quite sure why I wrote this because these comments are followed by a recap of some of the fun things that I did during that school year.  The only clue given about my depressing ninth grade year was this "I didn't have as much fun as other years.  I guess I was expecting to much that I didn't get.". I have no recall what those expectations were.

This is what that sad and depressed ninth grader looked like.

She also looked like this.

  I wrote that I had good teachers and that my favorite was Mr. Wood, my geography teacher.  I apparently almost hated my English teacher because was we "just didn't get along".  I was happy that I was made a Musette that year. But it seems as though the highlight of the year was the ninth grade prom.  I must have been on the decorating committee for the dance because in this history I wrote "I helped to make a mural for it.  I was sorta of proud of my first effort of drawing Venus.".  I wonder what the theme of the dance was if it required a mural that included Venus.

I went to the Prom with Jimmy, a boy from the ward.  We double dated with my best friend, Norene, who also went with a boy from the ward.  Jimmy must have been at least 15 because he had a driver's license and access to a car. Back in those olden dates, you could get your driver's license at 15. My date to the prom was the first date I had where a parent didn't have to do the driving.  I remember Jimmy picked me up in either an Oldsmobile or Buick that was painted two-tone blue and white.  It also had huge fins. I felt pretty grown up. 

Now it may seem shocking that at fourteen and a half, I was allowed to date and go on the date in a car.  Back in those olden days, the church didn't have the hard fast rule that teenagers shouldn't go on a date of any kind until they were sixteen.  I never dated anyone steadily at that tender age.  But Jimmy wasn't my first date as I went to a ward Gold and Green ball with a young man in ward the previous winter. 

I finished up the ninth grade with promotion exercises held in the school gym.  Quoting from my personal history "It was all very formal and saddening.".  "Next step, senior high, YORKTOWN HERE WE COME!!".

SING ALONG WITH ME

I grew up in a family of singers. My parents always sang in ward choirs.  My older brothers and sisters participated in school choruses and Madrigals.  In fact, since my father wasn't much for athletic activities, chorus and Madrigals was about all the was acceptable.

When I started junior high, I took girls chorus.  I wasn't too fond of the teacher, but I loved chorus.  We sang a variety of music and I learned a lot about choral singing.  In the ninth grade, I was a member of an audition only group called the Musettes.  We practiced outside of regular class time and performed for various events in the community.

I continued with school choruses until I graduated.  By the time I was a senior, I was singing with the A Capella choir and was a member of the Madrigals.  Many of my best memories of my teenage years are from chorus.   It was also good training for my adult years.

SPEEDY

Back in the early 1960s, a woman named Evelyn Wood developed a speed reading course called The Evelyn Wood Reading Dynamics course.  Wood's method involved using a pointer, such as a finger, pencil or pen, to move along a line of text or page patterns.  The pacing of your hand improved reading efficiency.

My ninth grade English teacher must have taken a Reading Dynamics course because she introduced it to us.  I remember spending time for weeks in English class practicing speed reading.  We'd read to ourselves using the method while being timed.  Then we were also tested on what we comprehended.  My ninth grade English teacher was rather intimidating as she would walk around the classroom supervising our speed reading.  Sometimes, I felt like she was going to whip out a ruler and rap my knuckles if I didn't have my pointer in the position and moving it along fast enough.

I must have learned something from this method because I read fairly quickly.  When reading just for facts, it's great to be able to read entire sentences and, sometimes, paragraphs, all at once and still get the facts.  When reading for pleasure, it is sometimes difficult to slow down to relish what's been written.   It's a blessing and a curse.

SCHOOL DAYS PICTURES

In a previous post, I wrote about being vertically challenged.  This series of school class pictures prove it.  I won't be too hard to find if you look for the shortest girl - even if she's kneeling.  These pictures are also a photo history of kid's clothing back in the olden days.  And if you study the pictures, you'll find many of the same kids in my class - year after year.  You'll also notice that this is an extremely white group of children.  There were only Caucasian kids in my school until I was in the 8th grade. It wasn't until the 11th grade that there was an African American student in some of my classes and she was the only one in the entire student body.

Second Grade - 1953

Third Grade - 1954

Fourth Grade - 1955

Fifth Grade - 1956

Eighth Grade - 1960

 Did you find the shrimp in all these pictures?  In the 2nd grade picture, I'm on the back row at the right end.  In the 3rd grade, you'll find me kneeling in the middle row between a boy and a girl.  Look for me in the 4th grade picture on the back row at the right end.   In the 5th grade picture, I'm the one kneeling on the middle row wearing a dress with a white collar.  In the 8th grade picture, once again, I'm on the back row on the right end.

I wonder where all these kids are now.

LET'S PARTY

Every once in awhile when I was a young teenager, my friends and I would organize a party.  It didn't take much to put one together. All we needed was a basement, plenty of snacks, a record player, records, boys and a parent to agree to have the party at their home.

Since the majority of my social life centered around church friends, the party guests were boys and girls from my ward.  My friends and I were always hopeful that the latest boy that we had a crush on would be able to come.  There wasn't much pairing off.  But occasionally, a boy and girl who liked each other would make out when the lights were dimmed.

Most of the time was spent listening to records, talking and dancing.  The parents were always at home and would make the obligatory visit downstairs to check on things.  It was usually done under the guise of seeing if we needed any more food. 

For the most part, it was just good, wholesome fun with the kids from church.

NEVER HAPPEN TODAY

I did  a lot of things growing up in the olden days that would never happen today.

There weren't seat belts in cars back then.  So I rode around unrestrained in either the front or back seat.  Sometimes on long trips, I would even lay down in the space just below the the rear window behind the back seat.  I often rode standing up in the front seat between my parents.  Most mothers back then had an automatic reflex of throwing their right arm across the child in the front seat if they had to braked suddenly. 

If you happened to have one, the child's car seat would have been a fabric seat attached to two metal hooks that fit over the front seat back.  The car seat usually had a small plastic steering wheel attached to the front.  It really didn't do much to restrain a child. Mothers held babies and children on their laps...in the front seat!

As a child, I routinely ate raw cake batter and cookie dough.  No one ever said anything about raw eggs being bad for you.  There were no warnings on cake mix boxes about not eating uncooked cake batter.  In fact, there were no warnings on any packaged or canned food that something in it might be harmful to your health.

If you bought a soft drink, it was usually in a bottle.  The empty bottle was supposed to be returned to where it was purchased.  If you did, you'd get a bottle deposit back of a few pennies.

And, of course, there were the many hours I spent unsupervised in the neighborhood.  I walked all over and a lot of the time, my mother didn't know where I was.