Thanks for walking the halls of THS with me

My years walking (you did not run, you could get detention for running and well, Carol Weeces just didn’t do that, wink) said halls in mostly my saddle shoes (cheerleader and I loved it) were some of the very best years in all my 67 years of life. All the beautiful souls that I met are all deeply cherished within my heart forever. Our 50-year class reunion meetings have cemented that reality. So, here’s to the ending of the frosh times for now with a nod to those days of incredibly lovely experiences:

Here’s an important mention, the hours spent with my besties that year—Vickie King, Cindy Kahlandt, Kathy Chamberlain, Theresa Gramke, Sharon Gibbs, Vickie Olson—aren’t exactly sharp memories for me at all (and besides,you know that good friends never tell, and here’s another wink). The memories actually come to me in the form of marvelously warm fuzzy feelings of unconditional love and acceptance, of gaining self esteem by accepting one another for who we were. We were girls figuring it out together while laughing and giggling and eye rolling the entire time.

The sleep overs at Vickie King’s and the hours and hours of fun with her amazing sense of humor, the Dairy Queen/malt making/chili dog with everything days. The Vickies and I worked there for Rex Kates and Rosie McNabb several summers. That’s another wonderful story. The car rides on the muddy country roads (Cindy had her learner’s permit before I did and was my “next door neighbor” of about three miles away) and the many special talks with her were absolutely the best. Absolutely.

I shall stop, as this subject could go on for days and fill volumes of books in a wonderful way.

And now we’re back on the second floor of the school and here again, as with Miss Hollander, I’m going to say it’s not entirely clear who is left to recall as actual freshmen teachers, but it doesn’t matter because the few left to mention are pretty amazing regardless of the year. So, let’s begin with Mable Aronson who was my algebra teacher and such a kind, dear soul. Patient, sincere, always a twinkle in her eye and an easy-going manner about her, Mrs. Aronson helped make my last year of math a good one (clerical was my focus). I truly enjoyed going to class and she truly made algebra seem less daunting. Thank you, Mable for being you.

Miss Orlander taught English and journalism and Mr. Bair was her student teacher. Now, I realize that Mr. Bair was later on and possibly Miss Orlander wasn’t freshman year either, but that southeast room held a ton of good memories for a lot of us. She was young, happy-go-lucky, fun. He was young, fun and energetic. She brought to us the 1970’s version of “Romeo and Juliet” on vinyl, then encouraged us to go to the movies to see the wonder of it, making us all lifetime fans, and he sparked my enthusiasm in journalism that I, well, can never, ever, thank him enough for. She was pretty and trendy. He was always smiling and still is. The energy in that room was what every high school kid yearns for. And it made our days perfectly balanced with everything else. Balanced the perfect ending word.

Having raised our own kids in a really good public school setting as well, it’s to be said that balance is what you hope to gain from it. The ups, downs, friendships with different personalities, growth from healthy exposures—all lead to a solid beginning and a solid foundation. Tekamah-Herman did that for me. THHS did that for so many of us.

Thank you.