Stages of Life---High School and the big yellow bus
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| Kind of a funny thing but as I worked as a teacher and coach at the North Dakota School for the Deaf I became the bus driver for the football and basketball teams. That bus was older than the ones at Sargent Central year before. There was a little fan up front so during the winter one could keep the window kind of free from frost! |
Much of high school was about the big yellow bus. The miles and the hours spent in the bus maybe were close to the total time in school. One of the towns we played was 100 miles one way but most were within 50 miles. An estimate of miles and hours over 4 years of high school would be 48,000 miles and an entire year of 40 hour work weeks!!! From the start of school the day after Labor Day to the end of basketball in early March it went like this. AND in my freshman year it was spring baseball and in my senior year it was track but.
- A typical day without a game went like this. We would see the bus drive past as it went a half mile north to pick up Ricky. That meant we had about 4-5 minutes to get out to the mailbox as it returned. The time would be around 7:10 as driver Ray opened the door. IF I had a test that day it would be sit and study BUT if not it usually would be a card game on our way to Cayuga. After we dropped off the grade school kids in Cayuga it was then on to Forman for high school. We usually arrived at school about 9:10 or so, two hours after getting on.
- On a none game day it was practice from 3:45 to 5:30 or so. Then a bus would take us back to Cayuga. From there Dad would pick me up OR if not it was a night at Grandma's house.
- On a game day let's say to Kulm it was like this. Cayuga boys would gather in the lunch room after school to do home work and one of the lunch ladies would be there to offer us left over food from noon. We would then get on the bus and head west. We would stop at Cogswell and pick up guys there and then arrive in Kulm in time for the "B" game or the "9 grade" game to start at 6:30. The varsity would start about 8:00 and we were again on the bus by 10:00. After stops in Cogswell, Forman and Rutland we were get into Cayuga about midnight or later. Usually for those games Dad would not be there so it would be a short walk to Grandma's house to spend the night.
However high school was much more than bus rides and sports. It was about band, chorus and SOME studying. For me it was much about social life or I should actually say about my shyness as a farm boy who lived 25 miles from school. For some odd reason I always felt like a tiny mole in a big lawn. IF someone would pay attention to me I would grab onto it and hold tight. When I was in a crowd I would tend to focus on one person if I could get their attention and I was comfortable with that. I have little regrets but as I look back I think I sold myself short much of the time. Each fall classes would vote on class officers for the year. I was the only person who was an officer all 4 years. Of course there was little to do but as I look back it tells something that I was not aware of at the time.
I was in the band and not all that "into it" really. Towards the end of my senior year the band director came in one morning and said the band would have a raise of hands to see which student could direct it for part of the morning. They raised their hands for ME. I am sure I did an awful job as I felt it put all eyes on me and I did not know what I was doing. In my world today I probably would enjoy that role and ham it up a bit but I am a totally different person today than in 1965 AND I guess one would expect that!
In sports I felt a huge responsibility and a let down as well. As the captain of the football team I think I did an OK job but our season, mainly due to injury, was a disaster and I felt in some way it fell on my shoulders. We did have a successful basketball season until the tournament at the end. John and I were co-captains. A funny thing happened each game. We would go out onto the court and warm up and then about 10 minutes before tip off we would go back into the locker room to talk. We would then come out in a line as the cheerleaders and crowd would cheer. I always made sure John was at the front of the line as we came out and I always brought up the rear. Now at times as I sit and think about things of the past I think that was reflective of my view of self as a whole. At the time of my life I wanted to be in the background or as one could say, "in the rear".
I probably should not say a whole lot about my social life. As I have stated being 25 miles from high school did not lend itself to much on the social scale except for school parties which did not happen all that much. We had the homecoming dance, the snowball dance in the winter and the prom. In my freshman year JoEllen asked me to dance at homecoming and she became my girl friend for that year. Why? I think because she showed an interest in me and so I was IN. In my naive being I thought we would date all through high school and be together forever! Well I am not sure of that but maybe. By having a special friend it gave me an excuse to not have to be social with others! Well guess what? By the time we started our sophomore year JoEllen had found a more interesting friend! What a surprise!!! About the middle of my junior year I kind of thought I may like Gail and it seemed like maybe she liked me so there I was set for the last half of my junior year as I had a special friend. But Gail went off to college and there I was starting my senior year and again in a social vacuum. I was so into my "shyness" that I did not even go to the homecoming dance. Somehow as basketball season came into being JoEllen came into the picture again. AND I would say, again, it was mainly because she showed an interest in me and I thought wow! I may add here that especially in my senior year Terry gave me advice on my social lack of skills. I am NOT saying she in anyway criticised me but rather she helped me come out a little bit of my shell.
I could not talk about high school without talking about the death of my hero, brother Ronald. My world changed forever that Saturday morning. I had a football game Friday night and when I returned to Cayuga Grandma was still up. She said Ronald had been taken to a Fargo hospital and Mom and Dad had driven there. She said I could go home in her car. Late Saturday morning I heard our car come into the yard. Dad got out and looked like he was lost. Mom got out with stains of tears all over her face. I did not have to ask as their appearances told it all. My big brother, my mentor, my friend and my hero was gone from my life forever and little did I know how often during my life I would sit and think, "what if". Ronald's death made a huge dent in my world and into my senior year. I think it had a lot to do with my taking JoEllen again for a special friend for those last few months of high school. I remember I had a silver little horse shoe thing that a person would get from a machine at the fair or where ever. It was something Ronald had given me and it had his name on it. I gave it to JoEllen as a keepsake! I kind of chuckle now as I am sure, even at the time, it meant little or nothing to her. Kind of a petty silly little high school act that sticks in one's mind. Sometimes when I think about it I wonder when it was thrown away!
So graduation came and that was the end of my high school social ineptness for a time. This is a sad thing to admit but I think I never came out of my social ineptness to a large degree until after marrying Terry in 2011. I know that sounds really strange but it is true. I could write many stories most of which would not be good reading but would get my point across about my shyness and lack of social skills. Some of them were not so bad and some of them, to this day, I regret but.
So ended my high school days. I would say, for the most part, they were made up of many good experiences but of course my lingering shyness and my personality often got in the way of what could have been better. I do not know WHY but I was not excited to enter college. It may have been because of on lack of social skills BUT back in 1965, as a young man, you had two choices. You went on to college or you got drafted so college it was for me. What would I major in? I had NO idea.
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