Seventh and Eighth Grades

Junior high in Gowrie at the time of my schooling consisted of seventh and eighth grades and the two grades were together in the assembly hall which was on the same floor as grades 1–6. In the assembly hall, the seventh grade was seated furthest from the windows, the eighth grade next to them. Where I sat as a seventh grader I don’t now recall. In eighth grade I was about midway in the row of seats next the windows.

The hall was about midway in the front side of the building and had behind it a classroom and in front of it the superintendent’s office. The desks, which were non-movable, faced south so we had the windows on our left. The room had the ubiquitous blackboard on the front wall facing the students and I seem to remember there was a blackboard also son the side opposite the windows.

The classroom behind the assembly hall the desks were movable and of the type found in many college classrooms of the time — that is the desks were entered from the left side and on the right was a small writing surface. This classroom was entered by a door from the assembly hall at the end next the central hall of the building. There may have also been a door to the hall (the assembly hall had two doors, at the front and back of the room). As in the assembly hall the desks faced south, looking at the blackboard ahead of them, but the rows were parallel to the blackboard instead of perpendicular. The room had windows on the left (on the front side of the building) was was relatively narrow When one grade was having a class session in the assembly hall the other would be in this auxiliary classroom.

There were two teachers assigned to junior high. In seventh grade the principal was Lucille Hayes and her associated was Mary Wood. Miss Hayes was a longtime, no-nonsense teacher, who had one outstanding characteristic — the ability to snap her fingers with a louder crack than any other teacherm or individual, I have ever met. This was useful in her maintenance of pupil discipline, for which she was noted. She left teaching the following year to marry a local farmer, Clarence Norberg. He was a farmer somewhat north of the Peterson farm but exactly where I never knew. I believe she died a few years back, somewhere I heard of or read her obituary.

Miss Wood on the other hand was a relatively new teacher, one of the many who taught a year or two in the Gowrie school and then moved on. Where Miss Hayes had a face to match her reputation for discipline Miss Wood was a pretty, nubile creature. She too was gone the next year,

For eighth grade, the principal was Mrs. Knapp, a window, who was certainly am earnest, well-intentioned teacher. She had a child I believe and from her appearance I’d guess she was past the age of 30. Miss Hayes was noted for the way she could snap her fingers; Mrs. Knapp’s distinguishing characteristic (for me at least) was her practice of carrying the pencil she always had with her stuck into her array of rather bushy, fluffy hair.

Although I do not fault Mrs. Knapp for her teaching capability, she was not the equal of her associate, Margaret Nagel. Miss Nagel was in my estimation the best instructor I had in the elementary grades. She was a rather tall individual of husky build, not particularly prepossessing of physical mien or structure but with a strong personality that showed in her teaching technique.

As for grades 1–6, I have a few memories, inconsequential of themselves, that have stayed with me. Why I have these particular memories I am at a loss to say and why they were remembered and others not is a mystery to me. My one memory of the classroom behind the assembly hall was the time the teacher (Miss Nagel?) was querying the class on the assigned reading and the question was the identity of a crop being grown in some region. The answer was “yam” and the class, including me, failed to come up with an answer until Richard Swanson, the sole offspring of the local florist, responded with it.

Richard’s father was I believe partly incapacitated, perhaps because of a WWI injury. Anyway he and his wife operated the one and only greenhouse in Gowrie, partly as a sideline I think — I believe the mainstay of their income was from farm property. Richard had many of the toys I wanted, but I can’t say I was ever envious of him. Generally he was a moderately good student — when we were freshmen in high school he qualified for the trip to Iowa City in the every [sic] pupil testing program. I can remember the trip down to Iowa City in Mr. Millard’s car with him. I don’t think he ever continued on to college, just went into the florist business. He was a cousin of the Dale Hauser that led me astray in second grade.

Another recollection from junior high is related to the music instruction. All during the elementary grades we had periods of vocal music, provided by the music teacher. For part of this time the teacher was a Miss Berg, who happened to be a sister of the high school coach, Lester (?) Berg. However in junior high there was a replacement for her, name not remembered.

One time in eighth grade this new teacher had a group of boys up at the front of the assembly hall having us perform. Somehow or other, perhaps because my voice was changing I tried singing in a high tenor voice. The teacher noticed this and singled me out for attention to my discomfiture. Anyway it dampened my interest in singing and though I participated for awhile in the boys’ glee club in my freshman year in high school, I drifted out of the activity. Perhaps had I persevered I could sing better than I now do, which is with a quite limited range.