Morris natives who are boomers will be moved as they observe the photo you see here. This "triumvirate" held reins of authority in our public school. I don't recall ever seeing this photo in a school yearbook. It was emailed to me recently. And so here we have two principals and the superintendent from the 1960s.
It was the decade that saw young men fearing the draft for getting sent to Vietnam. Can you believe this nation accepted the war for so long? Is there anything comparable to the immense nature of that tragedy today? I'll take some of the nonsense and stupidity of the DJT presidency by comparison. Some of it. Are you sure we don't have a ticking time bomb going from the stupidity and mendacity? And that the excrement has not hit the fan yet?
Inflation going up, pressure for multiple interest rate hikes growing? Are you sure you can countenance this? Will you regret standing idly by?
Well, a whole lot of school parents stood idly by in the Vietnam war years of the 1960s. Had all the young parents of the nation risen up, the USA would have had to do a turnabout. We know what really happened. The fall of Saigon did not happen until 1975.
The '60s? Forget the sentiment and nostalgia based on popular songs like "Scarborough Fair." They don't bring a tear to my eye. It was just entertainment.
Lyndon Johnson punched the accelerator for growth of our military commitment. A "World Events" poster was on display in my elementary classroom ("East Elementary") that literally taught me the word "escalation." We escalated the war effort to be sure. I had an interest in watching TV network news, much more than the average kid. So I'd come home from school after another dreary day, switch on the TV. The news shared the casualty numbers from Vietnam.
The boomer generation of kids in Morris spent countless hours in the old set of buildings that are now gone, razed. Today you could hardly guess that the old school property was the hub of school life. Right now it is the epitome of multi-family complex living. I would suggest it is the wave of the future. And it's not so terrible. It's a stone's throw from the large established set of apartment buildings that are just to the north of UMM. We see duplexes in that part of town too.
Let us never forget about the old Morris school which first sprouted in 1914 and then expanded in erector set fashion. I thought it had its charms. But nevertheless it was hopelessly outdated at the end. Time marches forward.
East 7th Street was the main entrance to town from the east when my family first came here.
The boomer children had a quite regimented experience in school including quite harsh, even physical discipline at times. Wow, the teachers and administrators of today can't even approximate that behavior. I gather the school people today live in fear, like of lawsuits. Oh but would we want to go back to the previous practices? I think not.
The boomer natives of Morris will instantly recognize Wally Behm at left in photo. The high school principal for the boomer youth has a special place carved out in each community's history. The boomers gave the school people an embarrassment of riches. I mean with our sheer numbers. We were products of the post-WWII resurgence in America's fortunes, the creation of the great American "middle class." Is the middle class now eroding or already extinct?
Wally made an unforgettable impression with how at the end of each year's graduation ceremony, he'd smile broadly as he looked across the rows of grads and proclaimed "let me be the first to congratulate you, the ALUMNI of the class of (insert year)."
He left the school under some discomfort. I think a school board member named Mary Ann Scharf had it in for him. She had an abrasive personality.
Wally was commanding, stately in his sheer presence with white hair in his later years.
The guy at center in photo is Carl T. Johnson, typically identified with his middle initial because there were three Carl Johnsons in town. He had a son who played trombone in band and ended up marrying my Class of '73 classmate Jane Edmister. Carl was a no-nonsense guy. Junior high principal. Ah, the awkward junior high/adolescent period of life. I don't wish to dwell on it.
Let's turn our attention to the gentleman at right in photo, Oscar Miller. He was superintendent who preceded Fred Switzer. He may look like an old stodgy guy in photo but he really had a PR personality and sense of humor, would be a super emcee anytime. Unfortunately he was not paid to do that. His job was school finances and eventually his work came under a cloud because of that.
Years later I had it explained to me. Too cozy with the local bankers? Harold Luthi shared that background or opinion. "I don't have anything against the bankers - they're good people - but we're in business for the kids, not the bankers," the estimable Harold, former school board member, shared for me.
Whatever, being a school administrator has its rocks and shoals to contend with. I believe Oscar left here for Onamia.
Is it right to feel nostalgia about the 1960s? Well, no. Forget the music of "Paul Revere and the Raiders," I can't get the Vietnam war out of my mind. So can I live with the Trump foolishness of today? It is very hard to put up with. Maybe the USA should be divided into two countries like what happened to Germany and Korea. The U.S. tried imposing that on Vietnam and we failed.
- Brian Williams - morris mn minesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
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