It was so much fun to be in various organizations in Gordo High School!
I joined the Band my first day in Gordo. It was during the summer but band practice had already begun for the upcoming football season. Patsy Johnson lived next door to the house we rented and invited me to come join the band. I had taken band in grammar school and taken piano for a few years and knew music so, why not? The girl who had played the tenor sax had graduated that year so I was given the sax and showed me the keys and fingering. This was similar to the ‘tonette’ I had played in Amory Elementary. When Daddy got home from work that day he said, “I hear Gabriel blowing his horn. What’s going on?” He was glad I had already made friends. Gordo was our fifth school to attend. I later played snare and bass drum and cymbals. I was better with rhythm than I was on sax but I did my best with the sax for four years.
The band was probably the best organization I was a part of. For four years, there was not a Gordo High football that I did not see. We were the cheering section lead by some fantastic cheer leaders. We were a family united with football players and cheer leaders. There was no friction between any of us. We supported each other. The band members who rode the bus to school went home with ‘town’ kids and several came to our house for sandwiches, Kool Aid or milk before the game. Billy played football so until he graduated, some of the bus kids on the football team came home with him. I later learned that it took Mother’s full weekly salary to pay for some of those afternoons but she never said a word. Anyway, there was a band bus and a football bus so we all rode to the games.
The one year the band did not go to the game at Gorgus. I do not remember why the band did not go. My friend across the street and her boyfriend were going and asked me to go with them. That is the only way I got to go to that game.
When we were on the field performing, we were fairly good in keeping our band organized and doing whatever we had practiced. Of course there were times someone might go a step or two in the wrong direction. Ha. No one is perfect but we had a wonderful time.
Either my freshman or sophomore year the band went to Jacksonville State College for their homecoming. Mr. Whitt had graduated from Jackson State and this was a great trip for us. As we were marching in to the drum cadence, Clay Durrett who was playing the bass drum fell into a large hole. He did not miss a beat and whoever was behind him grabbed the drum strap from behind and brought him out. He did not miss a beat. I think that is where Nina Burkhalter fell off the top bleacher with the tuba. She was not hurt but the tuba got bent a little. It did not hurt her and she played whatever we played that night. Mr. Whitt had arranged for the band to sleep with some of the other bands that were there and we all found a cot and just sat on it. When he saw how crowded it was and heard sounds from the homecoming dance held in the in the same building one floor below where we were to sleep, he told us to get on the bus, we were going home. If memory serves me correctly, we got back home at 4:00 a.m. All parents were thankful that we were home ‘early’.
Everyone who could worked on floats for Home Coming. That was such terrific ‘work’. We would work after school until almost dark if we were outside. One year, the band worked on a ‘thing’ for one of our Half Time performances. It was a boat or car that someone ‘rode’ in. What it was, memory fails me. I just recall us working in the band room on ‘it’.
Andy Anderson was our drum major and he could lay down on the ground, put both his legs behind his head and twirl two batons. He was great. He was later Drum major for the Million Dollar Band at the University of Alabama. At last report, he had moved to somewhere overseas.
When Big Jim Folsom was Governor, our band (and many more) were invited to march in the inaugural parade. We left that day very early and dressed so many layers we could hardly walk much less march. BUT march we did. We walked a long way before we got in position. I played cymbals that day and was able to wear gloves so I may have fared better than those who had to finger keys. I don’t really know except it was cold.
After football season, we still had practice every day. I played bass drum one year for our concert season. It wasn’t bad since I was a bit better on that. One year, my sophomore year I think, we had to have a formal for the concert. I bought a used yellow formal from Durrett’s Store in Gordo. The day before the concert, a group went to a lake and I sunburned – bad – red as a lobster. The next night, my yellow formal on my red skin wasn’t very pretty but I played that drum.
We had state band competitions at the University of Alabama. Several of our members were outstanding and got first chair in the combined band by their performance. I don’t recall how our band did overall.
I was in the 4-H club in 7th grade. I got a blue ribbon for my biscuits and for my dress I made that year. I got a white for my biscuits and a red for my dress at the State Fair. 4-H is still a great club and it is still continued in many schools.
The Choral Club was another organization I enjoyed. We had concerts and members were in theatrical performances at school. I wasn’t good enough to get a solo (and still not) but was in some of the chorus lines. We had a good group and there were some really great singers in the Choral Club.
Future Homemakers of America was another club I enjoyed. There were business meeting but my memory of those is not good. I do know it is a good organization if that is still included in school. I doubt large city schools continue this club but should.
And, yes, I was in The National Beta Club. I’m not sure how I got there but I did. It was an honor to be in it. My grades were mostly an A and B but I had an occasional C. My behavior was always good. I cut up a lot and was sort of a clown. But in the class room, I studied and did my work.
The last three years, I was Library aid to the lady who later became my sister-in-law, Ruth Junkin. I learned to organize books which has been helpful to me since that time. Organizational skills have helped me in the rest of my life. She and her younger brother Clatus went by town before going home and sometimes gave me rides to work. This particular day, her oldest brother (younger than her), Thomas, had borrowed her car for a job interview. He had just gotten out of the USAF in May and had not found work. I knew who he was because the Junkin family attended Gordo First Baptist when Zion Baptist was not having church. (Their church only convened once a month.) Anyway, in November, Thomas was at the homecoming dance and asked to walk me home. We lived across the road from school. I let him (remembering that the year before, I had gone to the dance with his younger brother, Ralph). He asked to see me again and I told him I was engaged. I would not go with him at first but he won me over and we dated. I would not tell my fiancé that I was seeing someone else until he got home from Germany (Army). So after that, I dated Thomas until we married in August. And that part has NOTHNG to do with organizations. Just an important ‘intermission’ with how I met my forever sweetheart.
I was also teacher assistant for some of my other teachers. I typed stencils for tests and ran them off. I graded papers for teachers. I sat in the back of the room for some of them and got their notes after class to study. I did NOT type tests for my grade, just for their other grades. I always did homework and took test but if our daily grades were such that our semester grade was high enough, we did not have to take final exams. In English one year, Mrs. Glass asked me to take the test even though my grades were sufficient that it was not mandatory. I made an A on the test.
Other than working part-time on Saturday for three and one/half years and every day after school and Saturday the last semester, that is my story about my membership in organizations in High School.
No comments:
Post a Comment