On school, public facilities & changing times

Morris High School was grades 10-12 when I was there. Sophomores were the "young kids" and seniors were the settled, mature ones (relatively speaking).

Longfellow Elementary School in west Morris was still in existence.

Longfellow memories came back with the recent passing of Ruth Moerke. I remember the "milk machine" in the commons area and the "George Washington in the Clouds" wall hanging.

That was indoctrination, right? We might have been told that in the '70s as we went off to college. No, seriously.

Today everyone has their head on straight.

The Morris High School building seemed new in the 1970s. There seemed to be considerable difficulty getting the vote through to construct it. I'm not sure if that was due to the condition of the economy or if less non-local money was available.

It took more than one try. Many would lament years later that we voted down a proposal that included a swimming pool. Swimming pool proposals were bandied about for years until the RFC got built.

I have written before about the "earthen pool" chapter in Morris history. That flash in the pan was out at Pomme de Terre City Park. It had its merits when it was well-managed.
Costs may have taken it down. I probably swam there once or twice after it was officially closed.

I was in junior high when "split shifts" were implemented at our public school.

Student numbers were bulging in the mid-1960s. The community was divided on building a new school. "Split shifts" were a somewhat drastic means of dealing with the burgeoning numbers.

Were they a means of showing the community the folly of not building new, soon?

Up through most of the 1960s, the old, now abandoned school was the heart of our local educational efforts. Each year's high school yearbook proudly presented a photo of the exterior in the first few pages.

It doesn't seem that long ago in the scheme of things.

Grades 7 through 9 were the junior high and they stayed in the old building. The old building never really seemed the same after the high school left.

For years I felt like wincing when referring to the art deco auditorium as "the elementary auditorium." This is where the grand all-school musical "Oliver" was presented in 1970.

I remember watching a couple of varsity basketball games at the "elementary auditorium." It was substandard and certainly couldn't have been maintained much longer for that use.

It was the kind of gym you might see in the movie "Hoosiers." Today it's the home of pigeons.

Progress should concern itself not only with building the new, it should remove the old. It's painful for those who have memories in the old building.

I had Bill Coombe as a teacher in the seventh grade - the man for whom Coombe Field was named. Coombe Field had the same fate as the rest of that complex.

The only good thing about that mess is that the city - the proud owner - can't point fingers at anyone for having a "nuisance property." The city has the biggest nuisance property.

The high school auditorium was built after I graduated. It really seems kind of modest. Believe it or not there was controversy about it. The superintendent was known to tell people he "almost got fired" pushing it through.
A friend told me this who had come back to town to help judge a Miss Morris Pageant. He said the superintendent repeatedly mentioned the peril he was in, advocating for that.

The irony now is that the auditorium has been dwarfed by the concert hall. The concert hall is absolutely opulent. I continue to believe it goes beyond our needs.

That former superintendent might want to pinch himself looking at it, seeing if he's dreaming.

I also believe the gymnasium space has become way excessive. When the school expansion was on the drawing board a few years ago, one of my journalism compatriots wondered if Morris was trying to become "the gymnasium capital of western Minnesota."

All the rhetoric about needing expanded athletic facilities has always seemed to work here.

That compatriot of mine also suspected that "large commons areas" in new schools might be remembered as a transitory fad.

I have my own theory about this. Cavernous gyms, concert halls, cafeteria areas and the like are a means of "wowing" the public, to get the public's jaw to drop, as it were, and appreciate the money spent.

Schools without such amenities might seem humdrum. What do you think a school is, a place for students to sit at desks and learn?

If these gyms are such assets, why do we hear more and more about the "obesity epidemic" among our youth?

The new gyms here startled me a little because I remember the 1968 gym as being new and quite special. That was the gym that lifted us out of the supposed dark ages of the "elementary auditorium" gym.

I was always amused by how many schools used the words "gym" and "auditorium" interchangeably for their facilities.

I was in the Morris High School band when it gave concerts at the 1968 gym. Remember, the high school auditorium was not yet built.

Actually the gym seemed to work nice for concerts. I remember attending a concert there when Renee Schmidt played a dazzling flute solo.

Most of us probably thought the high school building would always house grades 10-12 only. We didn't see the demographic tremors coming. Maybe the administration did but I didn't.

It's amazing how in school, someone just one year older or one year younger seemed so separated from your world. Only your exact age peers really seemed to have affinity with you.

As you get older, you realize that a mere one year of age difference is nothing.

This thought occurred to me recently in church where I was greeted by someone who said "Hi, do you know who I am?"

I should have remembered but I didn't. She would have been a junior when I was a senior. She was a drummer in band.

It's ridiculous to think of her as being "younger" than me now.

Maybe it's unhealthy to have such rigid age divisions. Maybe it encourages too narrow a social orbit. Broadening our relationships would prepare us better for the big wide world.

The woman I saw in church asked "Do you still play the trumpet?"

It reminded me of that old joke where you're in the doctor's office and ask "Doctor, after this operation will I be able to play the trumpet?"

I suppose her question showed that we're all "known for something" when we're in school. You're a homemaker, an athlete, a musician or whatever.

The hockey players were sort of rebel kids because we didn't have school-sponsored hockey then.

On the trumpet question I answered "no."

I remember asking at a pawn shop in Alexandria whether musical instruments were a highly sought commodity at such stores. The worker said unfortunately, no.

The reason is that band directors impose requirements that mean you can't just use any type of instrument. The ones available at a pawn shop might be lacking for some reason.

Too bad, because they seem reasonably priced. So you end up going to Sarlettes Music in Morris and having to contribute to the Sarlettes' immense wealth. (Just kidding.)

So, I don't still play the trumpet, Tracy.

I have a theory that traditional musical instruments are becoming archaic. Who wants to listen to someone blowing air through a brass cylinder who has to "empty spit out" periodically?

There, you'll probably never listen to brass instruments the same way again. I'm reminded of how Don Klein said he could never watch basketball on TV again after someone mentioned how the "shoes were squeaking" all the time.

I would have preferred that Tracy ask "Brian, are you still driving that ol' Toronado?"

Unfortunately the answer is "no" to that question too.

- Brian Williams - morris mn Minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com