Are You a Looky-Loo...?

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John Landess

Hello all, to quote Chuck Berry... I'm "Back in the USA"...

Looking at the photo of North, I notice all kinds of window ACs.. when my short tenure there happened, there must have been no cooling, don't remember ever being hot. In fact, the only school I remember as being hot was at RHS.

I think the basement windows nearest was where the crafts room was. One of my favorites.

Sherry Hester (Trasp)

Yes John, I noticed the airconditioners in the windows too! I don't remember them when we went there!

I also remember my Sister telling me that was the High School before North Junior High! She is 10 year older than me!

Rex Booth

John L.

You have good recall regarding the arts and crafts class being in the basement. The classroom was in the North corner basement of Kentucky & 4th. I had the same class with Mr. Preston.  He posed the same question on all of his 6 weeks exams... He said if you missed the question, you would flunk that 6 week period!  The question was: "What is the definition of perseverance"?  

North Jr. High was not ever Roswell High School.  When North Jr. High was built, it was called  "Junior High" . It was the only Junior HIgh school in town. It  became North Junior High when the new Roswell High was built in 1955 on Hobbs street.

The original Roswell High school was built approx. 1913-1915.  The main entrance was on South Richardson.  In 1955 this orginal Roswell High, became South Junior High the same year that  'Junior HIgh' became 'North Jr. High'. 

What puzzles me is how could them-thar little "puppies" of North Jr. high beat  South Jr. high "Rebels" in football, most of the time... That's my story and I'm stickin' to it.
 

Don Ervin

Well one year when South got beat by North.  It was because I was the quarter back and Roy Allen was the full back.

Thats my story and I'm sticking to it.

Rex Booth

Carnegie Library  3^rd & Richardson

Johnny posted an early picture of Carnegie Library a few weeks ago. Here's a brief history of the library.

Three Carnegie libraries were built in New Mexico, in Las Vegas; Raton; and Roswell. The Raton library was demolished, the Roswell library is a vacant office building, and the Las Vegas library is still in use!

The Roswell library origin dates back to the Women's Club who opened a reading room in 1897. In 1900, the club applied to obtain a grant to build a library from philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. At first, the women’s club efforts were delayed by Carnegie's reluctance to consider applications from women. In 1904, a lot was purchased for $700… due to fund raising efforts by the Women's Club. In addition to this grant, the library received funds from James Hagerman, an investor in railroad and irrigation industries in the Pecos Valley.  The library was built in 1906.

I remember going to Carnegie library in 4^th grade at Washington Ave. There were a series of little brown books about frontier explorers. Books about Davy Crockett, Daniel Boone, Kit Carson, and many other greats who helped shape our country’s early history.  Later researching the library during 9^th grade at North for a class paper on Great Expectations by Charles Dickens.  I am sure there are many of our classmates whom enjoyed Carnegie library over the years and have their own personal story to tell…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnegie_Library_(Roswell,_New_Mexico)

Saundra Bennett (Whiteside)

Rex, tha's an interesting story re the origin of Carnegie Library.  Thanks for sharing!  I remember doing research at the library while in high school for a paper for Mr. Luginbill's biology class.  At one point, the library was made into a bar called "The Library."  When I was teaching in Roswell during the early eighties, I used to go to happy hour there on Fridays with several teachers from my school.  It was a fun way to do research!  Does anyone else remember going there when it was a bar?

John Landess

Don, well, glad you are sticking to your story....TOO bad East came along and kicked everyone's can!!!!

Now before I forget....HAPPY BIRTHDAY to all the Octoberites!!

ps.. Rex, with your many rememberances of watering holes in Roswell, did you miss out on the 'Library'?

John Doyal

Happy birthday to all in Ocotber.  I spent a lot of time in the library, read every western book available.  My sisters and  I walked downtown on Saturdays, watched morning movie(10 cents) at the Yucca or Planes and then went to the library to check out books.   I remember hearing about the library being a bar, but was never in it.  John L. I was one of those who went to south and  got transferred when east opened.  East then beat everyone at football.

Don Ervin

To the two John's.  When East was created both South Jr. High and North lost about half of our good players  and East inherited them.  So even though East won  some games they did it with the Puppies and the Rebels. If you don't believe it just asl  ask TLW.

Rex Booth

The Library also carried western books by Zane Grey.  Grey's  'Riders of the Purple Sage, The Lone Star Ranger, and West of the Pecos come to mind!  Over 100 television series were based on his books!  Almost as many as Hopalong Cassidy (William Boyd).

Yes, every chance I had, when I came out on vacation from the West coast, I'd go to the "Library" during Friday's Happy Hour...  just to sit next to that mm-mm good-looking redhead about 5' 8" beautiful tall!  Unfortunately East Jr. inherited Saundra Bennett and North Jr. was never the same...     If I left out any other good looking ladies please accept my apologies...

John Landess

Gee Don, I can't think of a lot to say about you and TLW concerns about the arrival of the East dominance except..........."WAH, WAH" (I hope that is not TOO childish!)

Rex, I don't know if you might be re-reading any Zane Grey while hunkering down, but I found a while back that there are uncut, uncensored additions being published by Leisure Books in paperback. What was not known in the OLD days, was that his books were heavily censored and often nearly re-written by the editor (Ripley Hitchcock) as he thought they were too violent and realistic. I have read several of the new releases and it is somewhat incredidible the changes in the stories and the outcome of some of them..

Also, was it true while imbibing at the 'Library', you could get almost any type of libation available, but that you had to drink them quietly??

Pat Sullins (Carpenter)

Happy Birthday, Tommy.  Elbow touch, Pat and David

Mettie Cummins

Hope you had a very happy birthday Tommy!! Cheers

Stephen Wolfe

About favorite class: I think Mrs. Marion Dennis' English class. I remember Joe Wicker and I being asked to stand in the hallway for a while one day. We had "guffawed" at a very funny commentary by Fred LaTurner about the poet T.S Eliot's The Hollow Men. 

"Here we go round the prickly pear, the prickly pear.  Here we go round the prickly pear at five o'clock in the morning."

I also remember Chaucer's Middle English- from Canterberry Tales - first verse: For some weird reason I can do that by memory and had the opportunity to say it the other day.....!

"Whan that Aprill with his shoures soote, the droughte of March hath perced to the roote....."

John Landess

Of the teachers that I had so long ago, three are in my top ten.

Mrs. Ramsay recognized that I had some problems, mostly relating to the nomadic lifestyle of my family. She took it on to bring me up to speed. In addition, she made work for me at her home, where I made a few dollars while discussing various subjects that I needed help on. Later, she and her husband offered to let me stay with them, until I graduated....not to be,

Mr. Moore was a great guy and could really involve you in history. Additionally, he was a lot of fun, though that once lead to me getting into some trouble over a stunt gone wrong. 

Mr. Steed in Drivers ED was a real kick, lots of funny stories while doing a great job with those who had never been behind a wheel. Thankfully, I was not one. He also helped me get my first job in Alaska.... on the slime line!

Mr. Wolfe!! wow, what a memory. I can barely remember some stories that start "once upon a time...."

Paula Carl (Cowee Miller)

I loved Mr. Lugenbill's Biology class. The dissecting was particularly interesting despite the smell of the fluid those frogs were in. When my son was in 5th grade I assisted him in dissecting an earth worm for a science project. "We" got an A!  

Sherry Hester (Trasp)

 I Remember the cows eyeball! that was really interesting! I loved the eye lens! 

HAHAHAHAH!! Wonderful Memories! I also love Math and Algerbra! It was a

wonderful Mystery to solve!  

Patrick Riley

I'll add my vote for Ms. Dennis. She was my Senior English and home room teacher. Those of you who had her must remember her "When you go to England ..." speech.

I certainly wasn't her best pupil. She would open her classroom early and then disappear to visit with other teachers. This "open" room provided many opportunities!

I bet someone (don't recall who) that Ms.Dennis would not notice the Playboy Centerfold I pinned high over her blackboard. I was almost right ... it stayed unnoticed for the first 45 minutes or so of class time. It would have remained so, I think, all day if the whole class hadn't laughed every time she turned to the board to write something. Ms. Dennis would turn quickly staring at the class with a puzzled look after each burst of laughter. She even inquired "What's so funny?" several times. When she finally saw the centerfold, she made several fruitless and feeble jumps to remove it. I think she was no taller than about 5'1".

Her classroom also had a full side blackboard. Our assignment for this particular day was to memorize and recite in turn something like Beowulf, the Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner or something else I was equally unprepared for. No problem though, I arrived early and copied the entire required recital neatly to the side blackboard. More than half the class had completed their recitation, many taking advantage of my carefully lettered side blackboard text, until Freddie Tucker's turn came. He leaned, stretched and stared so intently toward the side that Ms. Dennis finally caught on and erased my hard work before my three minutes of fame in front of the class came. Damn ... I hate it when that happens!

I sincerely regret these and many more similar antics today and appreciate Ms. Dennis and numerous other RHS teachers for their efforts and inspiration above and beyond.

I had so many good teachers. Other favorites would include Mr. Berckes (Drafting), Mr. West (Junior English), Mr. French (History) and certainly others. My Sliderule teacher, Mr. Maxwell, was very good as well. And "yes", there really was a class in Sliderule at RHS and "no", I didn't wear mine in a leather case dangling from my belt ... this would have been considered about as nerdy as a plastic shirt pocket pen protector!

John Denton

Thanks Ms. Dennis, I had the Opportunity to attend NMMI due to her grade she place on me...and later found out she was one of my mom's good friends!

Ray Marshall

Mr Luginbill (Bio) was an all- time favorite. I also liked Mr Maxwell (math/slide rule) and his interesting classroom banter with the students.  My typing teacher also comes to mind. Can’t remember his name but do recall he had dark hair, soft-spoken and I think wore glasses. He offered some advice one day in class that for some reason has stuck with me for the last 58 years. He told the class:  

 “don’t ever crumple up a sheet of typed paper (printer paper today) that you are throwing away, just neatly crease it in the middle and put it in the trash can. That way you can retrieve it if needed and easily re-read it, save it or somehow re-use it”.

 For some reason I have always recalled and followed his advice for last 58 years and do today with PC print-outs. Weird how some advice, off-hand comments, etc go in one ear and out the other while others stick with you for 58 years. Anybody remember the guys name?

Don Ervin

Favorite teacher?  Hands down Mr. Gillis english teacher.  He told a story once of when he was in the Korean war.  He said, that it was freezing cold and some of the men were so dispondent they just rolled up in their blankets and died.  The moral of that story.  Never give up.  I will always remember that.

He talked at one of our class reunions and said that he had walked out of a bank one morning and fell dead on the sidewalk from a  heart attack.  A young man saw him a started giving him CPR and brought him back to life. That young man was a nurse and one of his students from the class of 1963.

He was also the class advisor for that class.  He talked about going to where the float was being built for home coming.  If there was anyy beer there he would take it away unless you gave him a couple of cans.  I was very saddend at his passing 

John Doyal

     Ray, believe you referred to Mr. Long for typing.  He was one of the last teachers we had that came to our reunions, still looked same age!   I worked as a janitor's assistant while in school, so knew most of the teachers outside of the classroom.  Mr.  Coffman was one that I had a class with .  He knew that I hunted quail and asked why he could not get them to fly so he could shoot them.  He was from a state where bobwhites  were  the only quail and it was only proper to shoot them in the air.  I told him ours were mostly scaled quail and would normally fly two times at most,  and then ran in and around cover making it as difficult if not more so than shooting them in the air, plus their ground speed seemed like it was 50 miles an hour.  He was the tennis coach and very fast for his size and he agreed about the speed of our quail.

John Landess

John D, I guess that I was a meat hunter even back in the day. The quail didn't have to fly for me, with my trusty J.C. Higgins .22.......... 

I also had a 'slight' memory of something that happened back then.

My Grandson here in Tennessee has a birthday (6) coming up soon, and his dad has bought him a small compound bow. I told him that I certainly hoped there would be a lot of safety training with it, and then I remembered??? about someone who shot an arrow up in the air and it came down and stuck in the top of his head... Anyone remember anything about that?

John Doyal

Jphn L. I remember the arrow story ,but not any of the details.  I do remember the first tv that I ever saw.  Until I was 8, I lived on a ranch at Caprock close to where the tallest tv tower was later built.  We had no electricy, so I got to listen to the battery radio to shows like Roy Rogers.  When we moved to town, kids across asked me to come over and watch westerns on tv.  I thought they were pulling my leg, but went to see.  Their tv was huge, but the screen was about the size of car radio.  I got to see all my radio heros live!  It was about 5 years later that my folks finally got  our first tv about like the one on the homepage.  We upgraded to color by buying one of the plastic screens  you put over your exsisting  tv.  Now I have 3 large tvs and still have very few new shows to watch due to covid, so I watch reruns of some of the old westerns.                                                                                  When that tall tv tower fell, we were down to 2 stations to watch, so only had to be the remote for those.

John Landess

John D, I think I have mentioned this before (senior moment), but when TV came to Roswell in 1953, several places got into TV sales, and offered a free 30 day trial. My Dad tried and returned them all, and after several months finally bought one from Bill Dean's in 1954. It was a Traveler, and must have had a screen of 15 to 16 inches and was in a wooden case. I think it cost about $250.

I was not to touch it and got into trouble more than once for not turning it off soon enough to cool off before he got home. As I recall, the afternoon shows (for kids) were old movie serials from our parent's day. My favorites were 'Tailspin Tommy' and 'Radio Patrol', and 'Sky King'.

Today, one can buy a pretty nice big flat-screen for $250. If inflation was a straight line, that original TV would be about $7500 or more. WOW