Farewell to Old CHS & Last Dance

[richard]

Saturday, May 19, 2007

Open House at Old Central School 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. FREE

Last Dance, Pearl Street Gymnasium 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. $5.00

Sponsored by Bartholomew County Historical Society

Sock hop at Pearl Street Gynnasium with Music by 40 Years of College.

For those of you that live out of town, 40 Years of College members are for the most part local practicing Physicians.

Post your memories in this thread.

[Ricky_Berkey]

I hope to see you all at the open house. I'll be a hall monitor all day so watch out and no running!

richard said:

Saturday, May 19, 2007

Open House at Old Central School 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. FREE

Last Dance, Pearl Street Gymnasium 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. $5.00

Sponsored by Bartholomew County Historical Society

Post your memories in this thread.

[richard]

I took my mother to lunch this week. One of her classmates at the Jonesville Public School was there also. We were talking and the fellow related this story.

The year was 1938. The location was the Columbus High School at Seventh and Pearl. His first class was Study Hall in room 109. He rode his Harley 45 motorcycle to school.

He parked his Harley and put the key in his pocket. While walking to the Seventh Street door a buddy asked him if that cycle would go up those stairs. The answer was sure, if someone would hold the door open. As you know, the next statement was, “I dare you.”

How could a young man not take a dare? So back out to where his motorcycle was parked. His buddy was holding the door open and up the steps he went, across the hall and around the water fountain that was located in front of room 109 and back out the door and back to his parking spot.

As I said above, his first class was Study Hall in Room 109, so he went in and took his seat. At the start of this period, Mrs. Dorothy Pruitt the teacher that day, entered the room and asked for the man telling this story. He pretended to not hear his name being spoken! Mrs. Pruitt then walked to his desk and told him he was needed in the principal’s office to come with her.

Mr. Talley was the Principal at that time and he told him that no real harm was done, but he couldn’t let it go without something being done! This occurred on a Wednesday morning and he would be suspended Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. With the weekend off, he didn’t need to go to school for five days!

He thought wow, that’s not a problem. He could leave home at the regular time and go to the motorcycle shop that was located in a building behind the Donner Home at Seventh and Franklin Streets. His dad ran a restaurant and he had dinner there every day so he could just show up there at the regular time and back at 4:00 p.m. for his regular work shift during the busy supper time.

Well, this would be great, a five-day weekend. He could handle that! Maybe he could learn a little about working on motorcycles while hanging out at the cycle shop.

As we all know, not everything in a young man’s life is as he plans! Unknown to this young man, Mr. Talley and his father were members of the same lodge! Mr. Talley had a conversation with this young man’s father at the next meeting. It seems he told dad that he was sorry he had to come down on his son...

When dad returned from the meeting that night he went up the stairs to his son’s bedroom and turned on the light. After his son opened his eyes, he asked him where were the keys for the motorcycle. He was told right there on the dresser where they always are. His dad picked the keys up and put them in his pocket.

The next morning while headed for the door he asked his mother why did his dad take the keys to his motorcycle. With a slight smile, his mother replied that “that’s between you and your dad.”

Well, you know a young man that has a motorcycle and is in high school had no need to keep his bicycle! He had sold his weeks ago! It now looks like he’s going to be restricted to walking for a few days.

Dad was busy at dinner and supper most of the time and they didn’t have the opportunity to talk about the motorcycle keys for several days.

After they did get to talk, he found that his little ride around the water fountain was going to cost him thirty days without his motorcycle.

[Deleted]

Richard,

I believe Rita and I had lunch at that " young man's " restaurant today, I think he goes by the name of Shorty !!!!!!!.

[Babs]

Ricky is going to be there all day long? Well I'm just working from 1:30 till 4:00 but I must tell you to "make sure you have proper hall passes" or you better now be prowling through my halls.

Hope a lot of you will come tour the school, hours from 11 till 4 and the dance is from 5 till 8. Which means the dance is over before it gets dark, so no excuses about "not driving after dark" folks! Its still daylight at 8 p.m. what with the daylight savings time we are all enjoying.

Come on out people, lets really have a great time at The Last Dance. Sounds like a lot of fun to me!

SEE YOU THERE!

[nancs]

A wonderful story, Richard, thanks for sharing. Okay, Richard and George, am I safe to 'guess' that the restaurant location is the one that Paige and I found there by Reeves? If I'm right, Richard, think Paige has a photo of the place, go ahead and post it. We didn't hear any good stories, but sure did enjoy the pork tenderloins!!!!! Thought so, thanks Richard!

Sock hop? Dance some for me, okay??? Sounds like so much fun!!!! Hope someone takes some photos during this weekend event and posts them on the message boards. Thanks.



Photo Courtesy of P. Kvancz

Nanc

[Ricky_Berkey]

I saw a lot of folks go thru Central School on Saturday and I hope most of them toured the new school as well. Many were a bit disappointed as the school had changed so much since they had been there last. Even though I never attended , it will be sad to see the building tumbling down. It has lasted and served this community well for a remarkable period of time but the decision to replace was made and Central School will soon be rubble.

I see a real lack of any focused effort to watch out for older buildings in the community. We have many fine examples of historical buildings preserved and given new purposes but there needs to be a renewed effort to prevent significant buildings from facing the wrecking ball in the future.

babs said:

Ricky is going to be there all day long? Well I'm just working from 1:30 till 4:00 but I must tell you to "make sure you have proper hall passes" or you better now be prowling through my halls.

Hope a lot of you will come tour the school, hours from 11 till 4 and the dance is from 5 till 8. Which means the dance is over before it gets dark, so no excuses about "not driving after dark" folks! Its still daylight at 8 p.m. what with the daylight savings time we are all enjoying.

Come on out people, lets really have a great time at The Last Dance. Sounds like a lot of fun to me!

SEE YOU THERE!

[Babs]

I personally had a grand time in the old school building on Saturday. Didn't have any special duties, just went around and
talked to folks. Most that I spoke with said the same thing Ricky posted about "things not looking like they remembered"...or "wasn't 109 a lot bigger when we went to school"? So much has changed in the school that it was hard to find places you thought you remembered. One friend and I thought we'd see if we could see the top floor...well duh! The fire destroyed that so no third floor, no auditorium and no home ec classes, as we rememberd. About the only thing that still looked like it did when we were going to classes there was the stairwells and they were the same. It was a fun time and I am glad Michele asked for volunteers and happy I said I would work Saturday afternoon.

The Last Dance was a lot of fun and those of you who didn't attend missed some good music. The Forty Years of College Band played some lovely music and my only fault with them would be that they didn't play enough "slow dance numbers".
When they played fast numbers there might be two or three couples at the most, but when they played slow numbers the floor was crowded with dancers. I suppose they have their favorites and that is what they play, but they could've taken a look at what the crowd liked and perhaps changed their selections just a little. Our class of 1953 had a good turn out and everyone said they "had a great time".
Thanks to BCHS and their board and whoever else came up with the idea (someone said it was a Mr. Baker)for the last dance because it was a fun evening and one I will fondly remember.

Sad to know the building will be torn down this coming weekend, and yes, I will even admit as I walked down the stairs to leave the main building the last time, I had a tear or so in my eyes . I didn't tour the new buildings but from what everyone said the new school is nice. Saturday, to me, was all about recalling the fun and the days of 1949- 1950, 1950- 1951, 1951-1952, and 1952-1953! We studied hard, we learned a great deal and yet through it all we had a good time.

Goodbye Columbus High School!

[Ricky_Berkey]

I never realized that the 3rd floor was no longer there - apparently never rebuilt after the fire! Apparently it is just a facade that was saved that is visible from the front. Many people were trying to find the stairs to the third floor and the auditorium and whatever else was up there originally. After I sent a few upstairs on a unsuccessful mission I went up and learned the awful truth.

I saw a lot us us from the website and the committee there. Dave was there early and watched the halls with me, Babs spent some time in the hall, Richard, Linda and Rhonda dropped by and probably many others. I saw a ton of folks that know and l met a lot of friendly folks who had not been in the building for a long time.

babs said:

I personally had a grand time in the old school building on Saturday. Didn't have any special duties, just went around and
talked to folks. Most that I spoke with said the same thing Ricky posted about "things not looking like they remembered"...or "wasn't 109 a lot bigger when we went to school"? So much has changed in the school that it was hard to find places you thought you remembered. One friend and I thought we'd see if we could see the top floor...well duh! The fire destroyed that so no third floor, no auditorium and no home ec classes, as we rememberd. About the only thing that still looked like it did when we were going to classes there was the stairwells and they were the same. It was a fun time and I am glad Michele asked for volunteers and happy I said I would work Saturday afternoon.

The Last Dance was a lot of fun and those of you who didn't attend missed some good music. The Forty Years of College Band played some lovely music and my only fault with them would be that they didn't play enough "slow dance numbers".
When they played fast numbers there might be two or three couples at the most, but when they played slow numbers the floor was crowded with dancers. I suppose they have their favorites and that is what they play, but they could've taken a look at what the crowd liked and perhaps changed their selections just a little. Our class of 1953 had a good turn out and everyone said they "had a great time".
Thanks to BCHS and their board and whoever else came up with the idea (someone said it was a Mr. Baker)for the last dance because it was a fun evening and one I will fondly remember.

Sad to know the building will be torn down this coming weekend, and yes, I will even admit as I walked down the stairs to leave the main building the last time, I had a tear or so in my eyes . I didn't tour the new buildings but from what everyone said the new school is nice. Saturday, to me, was all about recalling the fun and the days of 1949- 1950, 1950- 1951, 1951-1952, and 1952-1953! We studied hard, we learned a great deal and yet through it all we had a good time.

Goodbye Columbus High School!