Class of 1967 Message Center
Don't feel bad about not your remembering me, Bobby. In many ways I was remarkably un-memorable. I was tall but more like Olive Oil then, and I had bad hair until the end of my sophomore year. It was still growing out from 8th grade when one of my parents who purported to love me, convinced me to cut it very short. Add to that the freckles from head to toe and the fact that I made most of my clothes, and you may begin to see how I dissolved into the tide of students rippling from class to class. However, at the end of my sophomore year, four events may have saved me from total extinction.
First (besides the national fitness test that JFK sent out to the entire country - remember that, folks?), a national math assessment was given to all high school students. At MHHS the top three scores were recognized in an all-school assembly. Of course, we had no fore-warning what the assembly was about, let alone the names and the manner of announcing them. First, reeealy smart John Dalton was called and he came down from the senior section; next, my cousin-the-brain Bob Terrell, also a senior; and then . . . oh, groan! . . . me? I was dumbfounded, shocked. Also chagrined, because my "cover" was blown. But with no way to escape, I climbed down from the sophomore bleachers in all my gangliness and walked self-consciously to the stage while the entire student body watched. It was beyond embarrassing.
Second, I was selected for Honor Society, and I have since read in my yearbook how everyone thought that was a really big deal so I guess it was. The third event was the romance that developed with my biology partner, whom I had known for years but didn't appreciate until we injected frog sperm into frog eggs and produced lots of little froggiwogs. From that time we were high school sweethearts for nearly three years (into college). I guess just knowing that someone would like me enough to be my boyfriend, gave me some confidence. And finally - you guessed it - my hair was growing and growing until it was long enough to iron.
The point to all of this is, Bobby, you would have missed me altogether my first two years of high school. But the last two, you would have missed me, too, because then I was never in one place for more than 15 minutes! I never had study hall but devoured learning and was buzzing around in nearly every club or activity in school. Weekends and summers I/we partied, or dragged Main, or headed out Canyon Creek Road or to the Sand Dunes, went to Teen Town or Gary's Sugar Shack, or hit the drive-in . . . well, you get the picture.
As for the other - what I was asking concerning you as a student, Bobby - it's this: you have done exceptionally well without all the hundreds of additions to the special ed programs that we have today. Surely in your wheelchair you struggled sometimes, but you don't seem like the kind of person who was a whiner. Your disadvantage was more visible than the problems others may have had. You were "out there," while others were hiding internal issues that were perhaps as debilitatig. You graduated from GU because you made up your mind to do it (and you obviously did it well). But with today's multitude of micromanaged programs, our students with diabilities are pandered to and protected so closely that, paradoxically, the efforts to help them BE successful are keeping them FROM succeeding.
So, I suppose what I was trying to ask is, what kinds of real help might you propose that our schools need for today's kids who are physically challenged? And anything else you want to add that might help them have that "tingling" reaction to articulation/erudition.
(Cute. Very cute.)
***I probably won't be in Spokane until next Bloomsday. My summer plans are to keep running/swimming and start biking, while supporting my boyfriend in his training for this year's Ironman competition - so after June 22, I'll be staying with him for the summer.
Too bad there's not a [/sarcasm] or [/tongue in cheek] emoticon. It was a jestful post, I thought.
Iny, I got by with a little help from my friends, to borrow a phrase from Ringo.
I'd enjoy revisiting this topic next year, the first weekend in May when you journey to Spokane for Bloomsday.
Till then, keep it light. 
Hey, Carolyn, whatever happened to that shy buddy of mine who was in Girl Scouts with me? You've become assertive. Yeah! :) (I really missed not seeing you at the reunion!!) Anyway, I agree with you about American Idol. Does anyone remember Ted Mack's Amateur Hour? It was a talent search and the audience decided the winner by means of applause monitoring. I have fond memories of watching that with my family along with the Ed Sullivan Show. It was good, clean entertainment for the whole family. I know of many families who all gather around to watch American Idol, all different generations watching it together. They put in the weirdos and "hype" it up, probably so that those who aren't really interested in a talent search can have fun with it also. I do agree people need to read more, but we also have our senses of hearing and sight, and being selective (there's great stuff on the Discovery channel, History channel, AMC, PBS, etc.) is the key to being "balanced"...we need to control our television and COMPUTER choices, not let them control us. Hey, Iny, Sue, and all others who have recorded memories...I grew up in the neighborhood a block away from yours, and I've enjoyed immensely the memories about such things as the noon whistle, the sawmill whistle, & even you mentioning those mysterious grape vines lining the arched trellises by Gridley's Market. Can you tell me why they were "scary" to me as a child? Were we forbidden to walk through them or what????? (Oh, & Kathi, you're right about the phone numbers...in fact, mine was 678-W!!)
