Saturday, June 29, Day 68
Bear with me while I finish up my trip through childhood memories. Here is the Junior High I attended. It was brand new at the time. The town was expanding during my school years, and each year, I went to a new school. I attended five different elementary schools, including fifth grade in a military barracks on Larson Air Force Base.
My favorite part about the barracks was that the bathroom for the girls was just a men's bathroom, full of urinals. This was a Strategic Air Command (SAC) base, and we were always told that if the US was attacked, Larson would be a target. But, over one urinal was a sign, "In case of air raid, hide under here. Nobody's ever hit it yet!" Somehow it was a great relief... (pun intended!)
The Jr. High and the High School were new the years I started there. Nice to be in new buildings, but they were also lacking some amenities, like the playgrounds at most of the schools I attended. As I remember it in elementary school, they were all dirt, strewn with large round rocks. During our recessess, we followed behind a flat bed truck and pitched these rocks onto the truck, making way for grass to eventually be put in. I'm sure that using such "child labor" would be totally un-PC now! Never did see that grass!
This sign struck me funny. I think I would have done better doing 50 minuets than playing tennis! It's great imagery though!
Overheard this morning at the Farmer's Market. "I was going to get up and water my lawn this morning, but God did it for me! I'm just so grateful to him, because then I could come to the Farmer's Market."
We were pretty proud of our school mascot, an Indian chief in full regalia. I also don't know
if this is politically correct, even though it was named after the real Chief Moses.
Frontier Junior High was the high school when my three sisters went there. They were at the end
of their high school years when we moved to ML. But this school became a Jr High the same year I started Jr. High and they split the student population in two. I went to Chief Moses instead of Frontier. So my sisters and I never shared an Alma Mater.
I guess one of Frontier's claims to fame was a school shooting in 1996. I recall it as the first school shooting that received notoriety in the mass media, but I am not correct. Wikipedia
shows school shootings going back to the 1760's! This kid killed two students and his Algebra
teacher. It was a defining moment for the community when the incident was on national television.
Moses Lake had about 2600 people when we moved there, and 11,000 when I left. Today it has about 20,000. Hottest temperature recorded there 115 degrees, lowest -31. Boy do I remember those days!
This is a picture of the police station. Once when I was home, I got a parking ticket.
It was $2.00. I was leaving the next day, so I drove directly to the police station to pay it. I gave them
a $5 but they didn't have change. So at their suggestion, I put the $5 dollar bill in the coke machine, got all quarters in change and paid my $2 dollar fine in quarters.
When I was in high school, this was a Tastee Freeze. My friends Toom, Wirey and I drove down here on our lunch hour to get burgers. We delighted in ordering Baby Burgers (who thought up that name?) just to feel diabolical. Now they are called mini burgers - how mundane!
Wirey didn't like anything on his burger except catsup, but you had to pay the same price.
So, he would order a deluxe burger, and ask them to hold the lettuce, tomato, onion, pickle and mustard. That seemed to be OK with them and he got what he wanted!
The old Tastee Freeze has been Woody's since 1983, long past my time, but there are a lot of people who will make a special trip to Moses Lake to have their burgers, fries, and vanilla cokes here. The Jody Special is 2 quarter pound patties, four strips of bacon and a slice of ham. And, they have a following for their fry sauce. Generally, this is catsup and mayonnaise mixed together, or at a fancier place, 1000 Island and Russian dressing combined.
The Grant County Fair and Rodeo was the highlight of the year, and was always preceeded by a parade downtown. I was on the Rainbow Girls float for several years, and spent many long hours stuffing tissue paper through chicken wire to make those floats.
The TV series Bonanza was at the height of its popularity and we had one of the Bonanza stars as the Grand Marshall of the Parade every year for quite a while. I think Hoss even came twice!
So the father, Ben, then Adam, and Hoss, and Little Joe led our parade. But Little Joe was not well received. His hair was too long, and they said he looked like a sheep herder. Them's fightin' words
to a cowboy!
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