5 Jan 2018 Life Through High School

What Was Your  Life Like Through High School

If you ever watched the show “The Wonder Years” you get a pretty good idea what my life was like up through high school.  I had a middle class upbringing in a small town in Indiana called Chesterton, population about 6,000 at the time.  It was a small town but not in a rural setting. Chesterton was three miles from Lake Michigan and the Dune National Lakeshore Park.  We were an hour from Chicago and a lot of people worked there and at the many steel mills that existed at that time.  The town was far enough away from that heavy industry and the sprawl of Chicago that it did feel somewhat isolated.   The farm fields did start on the edge of town.  I lived in a neighborhood called Morgan Park. Morgan Park was three blocks long and three block wide.  It was surrounded by a rail line, a cemetery and a creek so it was not going to grow much.   We moved there in the summer of 1964 just before I started 2^nd grade. My mom still lives in that house.  We went all over town by ourselves all day.  There was never a thought that something bad would happen.  We did not just stay in town. We ventured out in the rural areas.  Wherever our bicycles took us.  We ran around at night all through the neighborhood.  The doors to all our houses were unlocked all the time.  When it was time for dinner, one family’s kids were called home by a large bell.  Another had a dad who could whistle real loud, it was heard all through the neighborhood. My mom or dad would just yell out the door for us.   

I was part of the baby boom generation.  There were many classmates in the neighborhood and most were with me through high school.  There were similar numbers for the classes above and below me. Each family seemed to have at least three children. 

The walk “uptown” was a few minutes.  In town there were two grocery stores, a couple of small family owned hardware stores, clothing, barbers and a diner.  The town did have several taverns, one called Flannery’s right at the intersection of downtown. It is still there.  One thing Chesterton did not have was a movie theater.  We did have a drive-in theater about 5 miles out of town, still there today, that provided many summer evenings of fun.

The first school I went to was Thomas Elementary. It housed grades 1-6.  It was an old square shaped building.  It was also the only school I attended that my older sister was there too.  She is three years older. I have a brother two years older and a younger sister.

I mentioned the steel mills within a 30 mile area of Chesterton.  What I didn’t know when we moved there was the newest mill in the USA was being built five miles out of town on Lake Michigan.  This provided a big boost the local property tax income for the town.  A large school building program commenced.  In 4^th grade I moved into a brand new school, Bailey Elementary.  There was also a new Junior High and work to improve the existing high school.  I spent grades 4-6 at Bailey and 7-9 at the Junior High.  The facilities were great.  The teachers were great too. 

Sports were always a big part of my life.  I had Little League baseball through age 12.  That was the only organized sport available for ages 9-12.  Nothing during the winter.  Of course we played whatever sport we could on our own in the neighborhood.  We had a field by the railroad tracks that was used for baseball and football.  We also played hockey and ice skated on the creek bordering the neighborhood. There was an empty lot next to the house behind ours where many games were played.  Sadly, a duplex was built on the lot in the 1980’s and townhouses on the field robbing the kids of open space to play.  During the summers we spent a lot of time at Lake Michigan.  The beach there was wide and we always looked forward to days when there were waves on the lake.  My mom would walk along the shoreline and pick up glass whose edges were smoothed by the sand. Over the years she collected a lot of glass.  

Once Junior High started, organized sports through the school became the main place for activities.   There was cross country running and football in the fall; basketball and wrestling in the winter; track and baseball in the spring.  I did football, basketball and track for grades 7-9.    

The high school had been under renovation for several years. When I arrived there to start 10^th grade the renovations were done.  Also, 9^th grade was brought over to the high school.   For a small town, our high school had amazing facilities.  There a very large indoor pool, rarity for the area.  It even had a high diving area.  I was on the swim team in 10^th grade.  There was a large auditorium for musical performances.  We even had a school radio station.  One thing that did not need added onto was the gymnasium. Basketball is the big sport in the state of Indiana.  The gym in Chesterton was built in the early 1960’s.  It held over 3,000 people.

Football was my number one love for sport. However, my body did not hold the same love for the game that my mind did.  I never completed a season.  There was always a broken bone here or a knee injury there.

I was willing to try just about anything in school.  I participated in Speech and Debate in 10^th grade. That was very demanding but enjoyable.  I did impromptu and extemporaneous speaking.  Impromptu was a contest where you went into a room and a judge sat at a table in front of you. He gave you a word or a phrase and in a minute you had to give a 3-5 minute speech on that word or phrase. While you are giving the speech you are thinking up the parts you still want to cover.  Extemporaneous was similar, however you were given 45 minutes to prepare the speech.  I enjoyed extemp a lot more than impromptu.

In 9^th grade I started choir.  We had 3 performances throughout the year. I liked choir a lot.  I also participated in plays that were performed.   There were two dramatic ones each year and at the end of the school year was the big musical play.

My high school years in Chesterton were altered when I was selected to be a foreign exchange student for a year in Australia.  This took place from the middle of 11^th grade to the middle of 12^th grade.  I will write more on Australia in another post.                 

A little more about Chesterton.  There was no diversity.  It was all overwhelmingly white.  In fact I doubt a black family would have been allowed to live there.  I did not see or outright racism, however, once I was older and returned back to Chesterton I did learn how many people felt about blacks living there.  It was not positive.  Some of the people my family knew very well and were friends with held extreme views.

My parents came from a small steel town in Pennsylvania were blacks and whites were just part of the makeup.  There was no us versus them.  They instilled in us a feeling of equality. I never looked at someone who was “different” than me in skin color in a negative way.  My parents did tolerate friends, some close friends, of theirs who had negative feelings about blacks. I couldn’t have a friend who was racist.  Or at least if I knew they held those views and expressed them.  I have been fortunate to have seen some of the world outside small town Indiana and the USA.  There are good and bad people of all colors.  I just won’t assume someone is bad at the start due to skin color.     

I am very grateful for the life I had in my younger years.  I was fortunate to grow up there when phenomenal educational facilities became available.  I had every opportunity to get ahead.