Recently, Mr. Matt, one of our weekly Friday afternoon poobah lunch participants e-mailed me a short, but simple statement after reading one of the recent Time Out installments.
"Nostalgia sells", he said.
Latching on to his middle-age wisdom, this week's installment will be about my educational ladder through Stillwater's past. It will, dear readers, be loaded with magical nostalgia.
Moving to this little piece of paradise in the summer of 1953 was certainly a different experience for our family. We had been living in the metro Washington, D.C. people-filled area for several years, only to plant ourselves in the county seat of Payne County, where life was like a gentle blowing breeze across the vast Oklahoma prairie.
After settling into the neighborhood and our rental home on South Orchard Lane, next door to then Oklahoma A&M President Oliver S. Willham, yours truly, started the first grade at nearby Westwood Elementary. At the time, the almost new school had only one building running east and west, and the rest of the entire school land area was playground. We had some great morning and afternoon recesses on that vast play area. We also had a group of logs in the se corner of the front of the facility where we would gather for our kid conferences, and settle the problems of the world, mid-1950's style. There was no public school kindergarten offered then, so we all began our journeys in the first grade together. Today, I have lifelong friends I relate back to being classmates at Westwood, and the memories are absolutely priceless. Lincoln, Highland Park, Jefferson, and Will Rogers were the only other full elementary schools in Our Town; Skyline, Richmond and Sangre Ridge didn't exist. Eugene Field Elementary at the sw corner of West 6th Ave. and South Washington St. was a feeder-school for 6th grade then, as we had 3 classes of 6th graders at Eugene Field after I "was graduated", along with my classmates from Westwood, in 1958. Again, most of the Eugene Field school area was playground, too, since West 6th Ave. then was only 2 lanes wide. Our class was the last one in that school, as West 6th Ave. was widened the next year to 4 lanes, the school was demolished, and Humpty Dumpty Supermarket was constructed on the west side of the playground. After years, the store name was changed to Consumers IGA, now soon to be replaced by a Sprouts chain grocery store. Ahhhh.........progress.........
For the 7th and 8th grade years, I moved on to the old Stillwater Jr. High, and I mean old, as parts of the building had allegedly been condemned, but were still used by us. It was located on the east side of South Duck St., between West 10th Ave. and West 12th Ave., the current location of the Stillwater Public Library. The entire old structure was 2-stories tall, and its auditorium survived demolition. It is still in use today by the library for meetings, upgrades having been done, of course. We also had a single-story, separate, industrial arts building, just north of the main building, that housed various useful, practical, shop courses, such as woodworking, foundry, etc. (hands-on courses). There were also some separate portable classrooms on the sw side of the main structure, because of our enrollment was steadily increasing. For boys' physical education (PE) classes, we had to walk several blocks west down West 12th Ave. to the old Washington School and back to the main building each day. That walk was rather messy in bad weather since West 12th Ave., west of South Duck Street, wasn't good quality street material, and mud, debris, etc., would get all over our shoes.
9th grade saw us attend the old high school building, West 9th Ave. & South Duck St., now the Stillwater Community Center. This had been the high school location, but the newly-named C.E.Donart (a gentleman on our school board) High School had been built and opened on the north side of town. It was renamed Stillwater High School (SHS) in the 1970's, I believe. So, as high school freshman (9th), we had the entire old building during 1961-62. Our boys'
PE classes still walked to the old Washington School that year, just having 2 more blocks to go each direction. The little grocery store on the ne corner of West 10th Ave & South Duck St. was possibly off limits to the walking students, but we provided a huge amount of the store's revenue, stopping in and buying junk food and other items. Rumor had it then........... some cigarettes were even sold there to students. Really???Gosh.....
On to my 3 years at C.E. Donart High School, 1962-65. We really thought we were something, as best I can remember? Of course, we only had 1 gym then instead of 3 now, no fine arts center on the east, no large all-purpose room inside the school and no huge Pioneer Stadium with its parking lots. There was also no north side wing of classrooms, as our graduation class was 306. Of course, over the years those SHS graduation numbers have grown, and have necessitated the demand to increase the physical size of the school and add more facilities. Another factor causing classroom expansion happened when SHS went to the block system of classes years ago, causing the number of courses offered each quarter to swell greatly.
As has been the case for many decades, many SHS grads have gone on to Oklahoma State University, and I was one of those people. I REALLY feel like thousands before and after me, the quality of education I received in the Stillwater Public School system for 12 years was outstanding.
Just another strong positive for many, many years for Our Town.....
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