March 3, 2017 Coats Museum News
All across America, students who had begun school in 1950 were beginning their senior year of high school in September of 1961.These students had been among the 150, 697, 361 people counted in the 1950 US Census and were a miniscule part of the 64 percent of the American citizens living in cities in 1950. Their houses could have contained one or more of the 10 million televisions sets. In 1950, there were 800,000 children in the world and there is the possibility that some of the 480,000,000 undernourished children may have been one of those 1950 first graders who would graduate in 1962.
These 1962 graduates would be some of the first to attend shopping malls, drive-in movies, chain super markets, and bowling alleys as first graders. They would read Peanuts by Charles Schulz and watch their parents use their first credit card. They would smell the first instant coffee and hear the words such as “witch hunt”, “the ten most wanted criminals”, and “Doomsday” in connection to nuclear weapons. The pictures of individuals such as Sugar Ray Robinson, Al Clapp, Ted Williams, Winston Churchill and Jimmy Stewart would be on the covers of magazines when first graders began school in September of 1950 (Dickson, From Elvis to E-Mail, Springfield, MA: Federal Street Press, 1999, pp 40-45).
In 1950 at Coats School, eighty first graders had classes on the first floor of the brick building built in 1936 mainly by WPA workers. In 1951-52, they might have watched the gymnasium and primary school building go up on the Coats campus. I do know in 1958, most of those same students would enter that same 1936 building as freshmen in high school.
As seniors of 1962, they would follow the tradition of putting together a school yearbook called “Echoing Memories”. They chose the school colors of black and gold for the annual. The Editor –in-Chief was Cheryl Dorman and Business Manager was Miriam Ennis. Assisting Cheryl were Rita Faye Byrd, Bobby Fish, Ray Lee, Gail Myatt, Becky Langdon, Shelby Stephenson, and Kent Langdon. Lynda Stewart, Kenneth Allen, Jimmy Stevens, Barbara Whitman, Sarah Ennis, Betty Ruth Tart, Marshall Danenburg, Roy Stewart, Ronnie McLamb, and Jean Smith were on Miriam’s business team.
As second graders, some of these 1962 seniors might have been prescribed some of the 400,000 pounds of the miracle drug penicillin produced in America, could have ridden in one of the 8.2 million trucks in America in 1951 or might have ridden a Chrysler Crown Imperial with power steering (Dickson, pp.48-51). However, in 1961-62, several of the seniors were selected as class officers: Kenneth Allen, president; Kent Langdon, vice-president; Miriam Ennis-secretary; Sarah Ennis and Barbara Whitman, co-treasurers and Gerald Hayes, Jr., reporter.
Faces most often seen on magazine covers were General Douglas McArthur, Ava Gardner, GI Joe, Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower and Bobby Thompson (Dickson, p. 51). In Coats faces being shot to appear in the 1962 “Echoing Memories” for class superlatives were Cheryl Dorman and Marshal Danenburg (Best all Around), Carol Jones and Bobby Fish (Beau and Belle), Laura Johnson and Ronnie McLamb (Most Talented), Joe Gregory and Miriam Ennis (Most Likely to Succeed), Sarah Ennis and Sammy Pope (Most Athletic), Diane Holmes and Ronald Avery (Best Sports), Kenneth Allen and Dottie Bowden (Friendliest), Edwin Norris and Becky Langdon (Most Intellectual), June Baker and Glenwood Pollard (Most Original), Jean Smith and Ray Lewis (Cutest), Ray Lee and Barbara Whitman (Most Courteous), Peggy Messer and Douglas Johnson (Most Dependable), Gail Myatt and Gerald Hayes (Neatest), and Kent Langdon and ____(Wittiest). Tony Langdon and Jenny Denning were the class mascots.
While in the second and third grades, the seniors of 1962 would have heard about atomic fuel for houses, atomic aircraft, and atomic cars. The average American ate forty-two hot dogs in 1952.. Polio took its toll-50,000 stricken and 3,300 died and many crippled. Families ate a new cereal called Sugar Frosted Flakes which were 29% sugar. The nation had collected a record $69 .6 billion in income tax receipts. Open-heart surgery, no-cal, bathtub ring, and buyer’s market were words that the third graders might have heard on TV and radio (Dickson, pp.55-56).
As seniors, the 1962 yearbook staff would add a new feature for the annual- “Mr. and Mrs. Typical Teen”. Gerald Hayes and Sarah Ennis were selected. Libby Turlington was “Miss Coats High”. Debbie Jones had been picked as FFA Sweetheart and had been sponsored by Danny McLamb. The Student Council was headed by Marshall Danenburg as president, Ralph Denning as vice president, and Vicky Gauldin as secretary.
As fourth graders, the seniors of 1962 had seen their first Bermuda shorts, played Scrabble, watched Americans fall in love with a fiberglass and plastic sports car known as a Corvette, eaten Kellogg’s Sugar Smacks with 56% sugar, heard the words-IBM 701 (Big Blue’s first computer), Scientology, and the abominable snowman.
These fourth graders had watched “I Love Lucy”, had consumed TV dinners, had heard that the cost of coffee went from ten cents to fifteen cents per cup and had seen their parents shop in chain supermarkets where two-fifths of all food was sold at retail (Dickson, 69-71).
As fifth graders, they could read about the Ford Thunderbird which was a two-seat sports car that was an immediate hit, viewed the TV shows called “$64,000 Question”, Lawrence Welk, and Davy Crockett. In 1955, possibly the youngsters heard their parents talk about the fact that U.S. senators and congressmen made $15,000 to $22,000 per year. During their fifth grade year, automobile deaths over the Christmas weekend had totaled 609-a record and the automobile industry had its biggest year to date after producing 9,188,000 cars, trucks, and buses (Dickson, p 79).
Wonder if any of those buses were in use in 1961-62 when Ralph Denning, Bill Weaver, Bruce Lee, Mike Joyner, Don Whittington, Paul Collier, Kenneth Allen, Pat Johnson and Jean Smith were recorded as being student bus drivers in the 1962 Coats” Echoing Memories”.
As these 1962 seniors had entered their sixth grade classrooms, their teachers were likely aware of the book - “Why Johnny Can’t Read” by Rudolph Flesch in which he argued that schools were not teaching phonics. Some students likely had sung along M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-SE from the Mickey Mouse Club. They were exposed to new words or statements such as bugging, television special, Coke, brainstorming, soil bank, freedom fighters, and “We Will Bury You” by Nikita Khrushchev whose full quote was “History is on Our Side. We will bury you!”(Dickson pp 81-82)
Wonder if any of the FFA boys recalled hearing the words soil bank in their agriculture class. Holding offices in the FFA were Gerald Hayes, president; Joe Gregory, vice president; Larry Stephenson, secretary; Ronald Avery treasurer; Don Whittington, reporter; Sammy Pope and Kent Langdon, co-sentinels and Mike Cooke, chaplain. Don O’Quinn and M.O. Phillips were faculty sponsors.
As seventh graders, the girls who served as top leaders in the Coats FHA in 1962 might have danced as teenagers to the “Hound Dog” and “Don’t Be Cruel” by Elvis Pressley. They surely must have given double looks at the “Ducktail” haircuts. Beatnik and Asian flu were words that these students surely remembered years later. The FHA officers in the 1962 “Echoing Memories” were President Cheryl Dorman, Vice- President Lynda Stewart, Secretary Saran Ennis, Treasurer Ann Ennis, Historian Linda Weaver, Reporter June Baker, Song Leader Betty Avery, Parliamentarian Becky Adams and County President Carol Jones. Jane Rectenwald was the faculty sponsor.
The eighth graders in 1957-58 could have had classes in the 1921 brick building which had also housed the school cafeteria in its basement since the 1930’s; but in 1957, the students could purchase lunch in a new, modern cafeteria that was built in front of the oldest 1921 brick building on the school grounds. Working in that new cafeteria in 1962 were Carrie Williams, Alma McKoy, Vernie Creech, Evelyn Ennis, Geraldine Johnson, Isabelle Fish, and Bessie Stewart who were under the supervision of Lillian Earp.
Officers for the 4-H Clubs were also pictured in the 1962 yearbook at Coats. Those shown from Senior 4-H Club were Linda Ennis, president; Gary Denning, vice president; Edna Collier, secretary; Linda Ruth Barefoot and Sondra Ennis, song leaders while June Powell was pianist. In Junior 4-H Club, officers were President Jennifer Flowers, Vice- President Robert Pleasant, Secretary Ginny Ferrell, and Song Leaders Debby Taylor and Patsy Matthews.
Were current events like those above taught in schools in the 1950 and 60’s or was most emphasis devoted on things which had already occurred?
This I do know. Wallace Stone of Coats was injured and treated elsewhere when a spectacular fire fed by a shipload of high Octane jet aviation fuel burned out of control for more than 12 hours in Morehead City, NC (Daily Record Sept. 27, 1961).
Many of the Coats students that you have read about in former columns are being remembered with memorials to the Coats Museum. A special thank you goes to Virginia Norris Holden who sent a check from her 1956 classmates to remember Ethel Dorman Barbour and Betsy Jo Williams Dawson. We likewise wish to thank Ralph and Lorena Denning and Robie and Lynda Butler for remembering Lib Guy. Bobby Harvey was remembered by Hilda Pope, the Coats Kiwanis Club and Robie and Lynda. Sincere appreciation goes to all these donors.
All across America, students who had begun school in 1950 were beginning their senior year of high school in September of 1961.These students had been among the 150, 697, 361 people counted in the 1950 US Census and were a miniscule part of the 64 percent of the American citizens living in cities in 1950. Their houses could have contained one or more of the 10 million televisions sets. In 1950, there were 800,000 children in the world and there is the possibility that some of the 480,000,000 undernourished children may have been one of those 1950 first graders who would graduate in 1962.
These 1962 graduates would be some of the first to attend shopping malls, drive-in movies, chain super markets, and bowling alleys as first graders. They would read Peanuts by Charles Schulz and watch their parents use their first credit card. They would smell the first instant coffee and hear the words such as “witch hunt”, “the ten most wanted criminals”, and “Doomsday” in connection to nuclear weapons. The pictures of individuals such as Sugar Ray Robinson, Al Clapp, Ted Williams, Winston Churchill and Jimmy Stewart would be on the covers of magazines when first graders began school in September of 1950 (Dickson, From Elvis to E-Mail, Springfield, MA: Federal Street Press, 1999, pp 40-45).
In 1950 at Coats School, eighty first graders had classes on the first floor of the brick building built in 1936 mainly by WPA workers. In 1951-52, they might have watched the gymnasium and primary school building go up on the Coats campus. I do know in 1958, most of those same students would enter that same 1936 building as freshmen in high school.
As seniors of 1962, they would follow the tradition of putting together a school yearbook called “Echoing Memories”. They chose the school colors of black and gold for the annual. The Editor –in-Chief was Cheryl Dorman and Business Manager was Miriam Ennis. Assisting Cheryl were Rita Faye Byrd, Bobby Fish, Ray Lee, Gail Myatt, Becky Langdon, Shelby Stephenson, and Kent Langdon. Lynda Stewart, Kenneth Allen, Jimmy Stevens, Barbara Whitman, Sarah Ennis, Betty Ruth Tart, Marshall Danenburg, Roy Stewart, Ronnie McLamb, and Jean Smith were on Miriam’s business team.
As second graders, some of these 1962 seniors might have been prescribed some of the 400,000 pounds of the miracle drug penicillin produced in America, could have ridden in one of the 8.2 million trucks in America in 1951 or might have ridden a Chrysler Crown Imperial with power steering (Dickson, pp.48-51). However, in 1961-62, several of the seniors were selected as class officers: Kenneth Allen, president; Kent Langdon, vice-president; Miriam Ennis-secretary; Sarah Ennis and Barbara Whitman, co-treasurers and Gerald Hayes, Jr., reporter.
Faces most often seen on magazine covers were General Douglas McArthur, Ava Gardner, GI Joe, Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower and Bobby Thompson (Dickson, p. 51). In Coats faces being shot to appear in the 1962 “Echoing Memories” for class superlatives were Cheryl Dorman and Marshal Danenburg (Best all Around), Carol Jones and Bobby Fish (Beau and Belle), Laura Johnson and Ronnie McLamb (Most Talented), Joe Gregory and Miriam Ennis (Most Likely to Succeed), Sarah Ennis and Sammy Pope (Most Athletic), Diane Holmes and Ronald Avery (Best Sports), Kenneth Allen and Dottie Bowden (Friendliest), Edwin Norris and Becky Langdon (Most Intellectual), June Baker and Glenwood Pollard (Most Original), Jean Smith and Ray Lewis (Cutest), Ray Lee and Barbara Whitman (Most Courteous), Peggy Messer and Douglas Johnson (Most Dependable), Gail Myatt and Gerald Hayes (Neatest), and Kent Langdon and ____(Wittiest). Tony Langdon and Jenny Denning were the class mascots.
While in the second and third grades, the seniors of 1962 would have heard about atomic fuel for houses, atomic aircraft, and atomic cars. The average American ate forty-two hot dogs in 1952.. Polio took its toll-50,000 stricken and 3,300 died and many crippled. Families ate a new cereal called Sugar Frosted Flakes which were 29% sugar. The nation had collected a record $69 .6 billion in income tax receipts. Open-heart surgery, no-cal, bathtub ring, and buyer’s market were words that the third graders might have heard on TV and radio (Dickson, pp.55-56).
As seniors, the 1962 yearbook staff would add a new feature for the annual- “Mr. and Mrs. Typical Teen”. Gerald Hayes and Sarah Ennis were selected. Libby Turlington was “Miss Coats High”. Debbie Jones had been picked as FFA Sweetheart and had been sponsored by Danny McLamb. The Student Council was headed by Marshall Danenburg as president, Ralph Denning as vice president, and Vicky Gauldin as secretary.
As fourth graders, the seniors of 1962 had seen their first Bermuda shorts, played Scrabble, watched Americans fall in love with a fiberglass and plastic sports car known as a Corvette, eaten Kellogg’s Sugar Smacks with 56% sugar, heard the words-IBM 701 (Big Blue’s first computer), Scientology, and the abominable snowman.
These fourth graders had watched “I Love Lucy”, had consumed TV dinners, had heard that the cost of coffee went from ten cents to fifteen cents per cup and had seen their parents shop in chain supermarkets where two-fifths of all food was sold at retail (Dickson, 69-71).
As fifth graders, they could read about the Ford Thunderbird which was a two-seat sports car that was an immediate hit, viewed the TV shows called “$64,000 Question”, Lawrence Welk, and Davy Crockett. In 1955, possibly the youngsters heard their parents talk about the fact that U.S. senators and congressmen made $15,000 to $22,000 per year. During their fifth grade year, automobile deaths over the Christmas weekend had totaled 609-a record and the automobile industry had its biggest year to date after producing 9,188,000 cars, trucks, and buses (Dickson, p 79).
Wonder if any of those buses were in use in 1961-62 when Ralph Denning, Bill Weaver, Bruce Lee, Mike Joyner, Don Whittington, Paul Collier, Kenneth Allen, Pat Johnson and Jean Smith were recorded as being student bus drivers in the 1962 Coats” Echoing Memories”.
As these 1962 seniors had entered their sixth grade classrooms, their teachers were likely aware of the book - “Why Johnny Can’t Read” by Rudolph Flesch in which he argued that schools were not teaching phonics. Some students likely had sung along M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-SE from the Mickey Mouse Club. They were exposed to new words or statements such as bugging, television special, Coke, brainstorming, soil bank, freedom fighters, and “We Will Bury You” by Nikita Khrushchev whose full quote was “History is on Our Side. We will bury you!”(Dickson pp 81-82)
Wonder if any of the FFA boys recalled hearing the words soil bank in their agriculture class. Holding offices in the FFA were Gerald Hayes, president; Joe Gregory, vice president; Larry Stephenson, secretary; Ronald Avery treasurer; Don Whittington, reporter; Sammy Pope and Kent Langdon, co-sentinels and Mike Cooke, chaplain. Don O’Quinn and M.O. Phillips were faculty sponsors.
As seventh graders, the girls who served as top leaders in the Coats FHA in 1962 might have danced as teenagers to the “Hound Dog” and “Don’t Be Cruel” by Elvis Pressley. They surely must have given double looks at the “Ducktail” haircuts. Beatnik and Asian flu were words that these students surely remembered years later. The FHA officers in the 1962 “Echoing Memories” were President Cheryl Dorman, Vice- President Lynda Stewart, Secretary Saran Ennis, Treasurer Ann Ennis, Historian Linda Weaver, Reporter June Baker, Song Leader Betty Avery, Parliamentarian Becky Adams and County President Carol Jones. Jane Rectenwald was the faculty sponsor.
The eighth graders in 1957-58 could have had classes in the 1921 brick building which had also housed the school cafeteria in its basement since the 1930’s; but in 1957, the students could purchase lunch in a new, modern cafeteria that was built in front of the oldest 1921 brick building on the school grounds. Working in that new cafeteria in 1962 were Carrie Williams, Alma McKoy, Vernie Creech, Evelyn Ennis, Geraldine Johnson, Isabelle Fish, and Bessie Stewart who were under the supervision of Lillian Earp.
Officers for the 4-H Clubs were also pictured in the 1962 yearbook at Coats. Those shown from Senior 4-H Club were Linda Ennis, president; Gary Denning, vice president; Edna Collier, secretary; Linda Ruth Barefoot and Sondra Ennis, song leaders while June Powell was pianist. In Junior 4-H Club, officers were President Jennifer Flowers, Vice- President Robert Pleasant, Secretary Ginny Ferrell, and Song Leaders Debby Taylor and Patsy Matthews.
Were current events like those above taught in schools in the 1950 and 60’s or was most emphasis devoted on things which had already occurred?
This I do know. Wallace Stone of Coats was injured and treated elsewhere when a spectacular fire fed by a shipload of high Octane jet aviation fuel burned out of control for more than 12 hours in Morehead City, NC (Daily Record Sept. 27, 1961).
Many of the Coats students that you have read about in former columns are being remembered with memorials to the Coats Museum. A special thank you goes to Virginia Norris Holden who sent a check from her 1956 classmates to remember Ethel Dorman Barbour and Betsy Jo Williams Dawson. We likewise wish to thank Ralph and Lorena Denning and Robie and Lynda Butler for remembering Lib Guy. Bobby Harvey was remembered by Hilda Pope, the Coats Kiwanis Club and Robie and Lynda. Sincere appreciation goes to all these donors.