School Days

Auf zwei Füsse, Scooter. And in HS, a combination of walking and thumbing a ride. When we lived in Altoona, I walked about a mile to Mt Carmel. Then when we moved to Larimer, I walked the 3 miles to Immaculate Conception in Irwin along with Mike and Ants. In HS, I walked a little over 3 miles but kept my thumb out for a ride which I’d frequently get. After graduating from HS, I went to Pitt-the Cathedral of Learning in Oakland, a neighborhood of Pittsburgh. I thumbed a ride to Wilkinsburg, about 15 miles, then took a trolley from there down through Squirrel Hill, Shadyside, and finally to Oakland where Pitt was located. If I got there early, I’d hang out in the Carnegie Library till classes started-or maybe to the Carnegie museum alongside the library. Forbes field, the Pirates’ baseball field was another place I liked to visit. Upon coming back home, same trolley to Wilkinsburg, then thumbed a ride to Irwin, and then either walked the 3 miles home to Larimer or was able to thumb a ride. When I went to Penn State in Altoona, I either walked or thumbed a ride. Sometimes, I’d get a ride with one of Grandpap’s neighbors who had a milk route. We’d deliver the milk and then he’d let me out about a mile from school. On the way home from Penn State, I walked or thumbed a ride. Usually, I walked that long steep hill from Newburg up to Red Hill. By the time I was in the army in ‘42, 10 mile marches were humdrum.

Hey Scooter, yers truly, in HS, was on the HS wrestling team, never won, and played, but not for the HS, softball, American Legion baseball, and football for our neighborhood team. Sem ting in grade school. I used to walk home from grade school - 3 miles, then walk back to play football against another grade school. Baseball was my main sport, though I couldn't hit worth a darn. Good left fielder, fast and with a good glove. Not many balls went past me. In HS wrestling, we always had a 'wrestle off' to see who would wrestle at a given weight. My weight was 75 lbs. and wouldn't you know it, the other 75 pounder was a Sokol trained one. Sokol was an athletic organization that trained kids in athletic events. It was a Russian-Slovak organization. My mother used to call them 'communists'. Every couple of weeks I had to go up against this Sokol-trained kid. He was unbeatable. Good friend, though.

Hey Scooter-would have to say Latin and Math for the same reason that even today, I enjoy doing the cryptogram, jumble and sudoku, i.e. the challenge of 'beating the game.' I remember our Latin class was taught by Carrie Sowash, aka Porto Sowash. It was the first class of the AM and Mrs Sowash always started it with having us stand and recite the "Our Father," and then read a passage from the New Testament. Back in those primitive times, it was ok to pray in schools, even encouraged. We had an excellent Algebra teacher, Johnny Rodgers, so that was my most enjoyable math class. Trig was taught by the football coach and consisted mostly of the previous Saturday's game rehashes. Though Trig was more difficult for me than algebra and plane geometry, I grew fond of trying for answers before anyone in the class. I think I was mostly second or third because of a couple of whizzes that seemed to know the answer before the teacher, Mr McMunn, had fully presented the problem.

One subject I never got around to answering was the one on beauty. Our trip to California in '58 would qualify for the most beautiful sight I had ever seen: the country's heartland, the West. Another sight, though not of beauty, but of timing was the lightning strike over El Capitan as we were driving through Yosemite

A subject involving schoolwork and beauty was my trip from Tampa to Seattle when our battalion went overseas in '43. I took the longest train ride-our Bn was on a troop train-that one can take in this country, the diagonal one across the U.S through the Moffat tunnel under the Rockies and then through the big timber states. I was able to go all the way back to where the train crew was quartered, the caboose, and look back on the forests primeval.

Later when I was in grad school at Penn, staying up till the wee hours of the AM, and trying to solve unsolvable obtuse math problems, I would take a break and listen to Gene Shepherd on KYW. He was a story teller unrivaled and one night he told a story that reminded me of my troop train ride to Ft Lawton near Seattle. Gene told of a similar troop train ride he took where one of the soldiers just disappeared after one of the frequent stops the train made. The story is about the machinations the company commander and his first sergeant go through to hide the fact there's one soldier missing. One of Gene's best.

Scooter, my all time favorite was Dr Umberger, who taught Calculus. He was an inveterate chess player who bragged of his prowess but said that any student of his who could beat him would get an 'A' in the course. Though he beat me many times, I did win one match and rec'd my 'A'.

Another favorite was the Prof who taught a Shakespeare, Dr Dye. He never failed to use histrionics to make the course interesting. Once he fooled us by letting a dog into the classroom, just so he could yell, "Out damned Spot". Must have be Macbeth that week.