Freshman Year

For algebra I had Mr. Gerber who was also the school athletic coach. Typically high school teachers had to teach various subjects in which their proficiency was secondary. Mr. Gerber was primarily the coach, secondarily the high school math teacher. I can still see him coming to the classroom carrying the text and looking through the book to find where he had left off the last time and reviewing hastily in his mind what he thought he should cover in the current class period. Perhaps this incident occurred in the geometry class which I had with him as a sophomore.

Farm shop was taught by Mr. Millard, who was also the instructor for our class in general science. Mr. Millard more or less spent his entire teaching career in the Gowrie school. I can recall him coming to the town — this was before I was in high school, and I think he roomed at a home, along with other teachers, not far from the school. In addition to the two classes I had with him as a freshman, I had him for a senior class called “American Problems.”

My final, fourth, class as a freshman was English, and I believe this was taught by a Miss Elizabeth Amlie. She was a somewhat older teacher — maybe 35 years of age or so, and she worked for a time as a reported in the newspaper field. She was an excellent teacher, and had probably retreated to teaching from reporting due to the Depression conditions. Teachers of her caliber did not remain long at Gowrie and early in my sophomore year when she was again my English teacher, she had the offer of a position in the Des Moines school system and the local school board allowed her to break her contract and leave.

It was either during my freshman or sophomore year that I entered an essay contest (I believe it was statewide but I don’t recall who the sponsor was) and I chose the subject of immunization as my topic. It may have been that the topic was specified. I suspect that it was Miss Amlie who steered me into participating. I placed third in the context and my prize was $5, quite a sum for me in those days and for our financial condition. My father cashed the check for me, the cash being in the form of five silver dollars.

I still had them at the time my mother broke her glasses. She broke down and cried and I recall offering them to her to comfort her and help defray her loss. She refused my offer but I think it helped her regain her poise. I had the five silver dollars for some time, but I don’t remember what I used them for. The following year I again entered the same contest but this time my effort achieved no recognition.