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Our Memories - Page 4
Updated
04/25/2024
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SYLVIA WHITLOW '61
One bright WEHS memory is of the ever-helpful Hi-Y Ushers who hoisted me from
floor to floor in those pre-accessible days and the rotating team of classmates
who helped me meet Mr. Wilder's rule to get to the
next class ahead of (out of the way of) the class-change swarm. What a swell
bunch, one and all! Accompanying Ms. Praytor to a
citywide Roman banquet for Latin students where everyone wore white sheets and
prayed the safety pins wouldn't snap open and send our sheets plummeting to the
floor. Our freshman year version of Oklahoma! where powder used to "granny" my
hair set a cluster of cast members to sneezing just before curtain time. Adding
nuts to a recipe in cooking class with the mixer at max speed. I still get a
chuckle remembering the surprised look of classmates as those little missiles
torpedoed through the air!
ANITA WILLOUGHBY '61
So many wonderful memories of high school. Mainly, of course, ballgames
and pep rallies, making pompoms and painting signs. All the teachers,
especially Ms. Ezell, Ms. Whaley,
Ms. Beatty, Ms. Gibson,
Ms. Spurrier, Ms. Haywood and Ms. Baughan.
JOYCE WOOLEY '61
My memories have really been getting stirred up with this
West End Online web site! I remember Miss Prater's Latin class and her
saying, "Est stultus, Harold!" (no last names to embarrass anyone!) - The Latin
Book Burning Ceremony at Helen Likis' house. Mr. Baughan testing a gas we
produced that wasn't supposed to support combustion and the lighted splint
exploded! The B-Y Teens and Ms. Baughan trying to teach us to sit like
"ladies". Buying cigarettes one by one at the corner store by the school. The lovely blue suits that we girls had to wear in gym class. Practicing
Midsummer's Night Dream underneath the stage area in the auditorium. The
skits that we did for the class officers' election. Filling bags with
groceries and toys at Christmas with the B-Y Teens. Piling in Henry
Haney's green car and riding to the swimming hole. And finally, a May pole
dance on the football field when we were students at Robert E. Lee! There's more - they just keep tumbling around in my brain. I'm remembering
more than I ever thought I would, so these ol' gray brain cells aren't all
completely dead!
BARBARA GANN '62
My memories of West End High School are similar to the TV
show "Happy Days". Tony Wright was the "Fonz" We had so much fun- all good
natured variety nothing disruptive, illegal, or even
mean. It was going to football games/ piling into Joanna Martens' parents
station wagon (who knew seat belts then) on our way to
Legion Field for the game and then the Big Nine Dances, Also when Genie Rogers,
Paulette Hinton & I would go in Charlcie Livelys' green '51
Dodge (which she bought from Barton Lewis' mother) and Charlcie would drive us
all over town, or as far as $1.00 worth of gas would take us. Such freedom we
had! It was a great way to grow up and I am so glad to have been part of West
End High School, Class of 1962.
MIKE JORDAN '62
I remember Ridlehoover's BBQ at Five Points West, West End
Theater and Spivey's 5 and 10 cent store (now where the theater was). I remember
the big tree out in front of the school where everyone gathered in the mornings
to talk. My friends and I gave that tree a special significance, reverently
calling it "The Tree". Does anyone remember having a W shaved in the back of
their head on the 1st day of school as a Freshman Rat? I do and I was always
grateful to that guy for not doing any more to me. I was also glad the suspense
was over, it had been the worst summer of my life not knowing what terrible
thing was going to happen to me when I started school!
JOYCE LAWRENCE '62
Does anyone remember driving over to cruise around at Ed
Salem's or going to the Spinning Wheel for the best milkshakes? I remember
having to dress up to go downtown shopping and we didn't even wear pants to
school in those days. Having so many movie theaters with the movies changing so
often. The privilege of having so many excellent teachers, but especially the
"mature, unmarried" teachers who were so dedicated, capable and yet each one
unique and special, from Hemphill through WEHS. Riding the bus to go to the
symphony in grammar school and then the wonderful vocal classes with Ms.
Sophia Davis. kick ball, dodge ball, playing on the
bars at "play period" and the lunchroom in the basement at Hemphill.
CHARLCIE LIVELY '62
I remember that when Miss Praytor's rubber
tree bloomed, it was quite an occasion! Also have fond memories of Ms. Shelburne
playing the bagpipe and waxing poetic about her adventures in Paris just before
the Nazis marched in. The only thing I learned in Mr. Baughan's chemistry
class was how to make a stink bomb, but that information has come in real handy
over the years. Actually, the most useful classes I took at WEHS were
Latin and typing. Can anybody else still conjugate hic, haec, hoc?
JERRY SPRUIEL '62
West End holds several warm memories for me, but the most important was the
football team and that little sign over the locker door, “You’ve gotta want it!”
That little motto and the lessons of sacrifice and determination taught by
coaches Mitchell, Roy and Short helped me achieve life’s goals that I never
could have imagined possible. I still have my '62 letter sweater and I’m just as
proud of that letter as I am of my wings! There are so many great stories and
memories that space won’t allow here, but I sure remember the locker room
episode of Bobby Atchison and the scoop of “red hot” on a tongue depressor! Then
there was the time Mr. Merchant, our science teacher,
banged two erasers together creating a cloud of dust. I had many friends other
than on the football team and it has been a real treat to read on these web
pages what has happened in your lives.
JACK BERDEAUX '63
I remember running around with Jack Hulon, Bill and
John Cantrell, Buster Patterson, Jim Roberts and too many others to list here.
Playing kick-the-can with neighborhood kids, even in high school, on warm summer
nights with the Holly kids, Jack Hulon, Sandra Barker, her brother and
many
others. I remember dates with some of those lovely ladies at WEHS, in particular
Charlcie Lively, whom I also considered a good buddy, as brief as our
relationship was due to my leaving for the AF.
Just a note after reading Mary Louise Ross' memory. I
was one of the people that pick up her sisters car and put it in the hall.
BECKY HAFFNER '63
Three
things I still find funny today were indirectly involved with science. 1)
Watching Mr. Merchant rolling the skeleton from
classroom to classroom always made me smile. 2) I was in Coach Mitchell's class
one day when he asked, "Have any of you ever been shocked when you slid across
the seat of the car?" Hands shot up all over the class. He said, "Stay on your
side of the car!" 3) I believe I was in a history class when some science
students came in to share with us some fried grasshoppers and chocolate covered
ants from a deli. three in our class tried them. A
short time later, all three jumped up holding their
mouths and ran out of the room!
ANNETTE JACKSON '63
I started WEHS
in the 10th grade and remember that several key friendships were made in the
transfer students' home room that year. Fun teacher memories are of Ms.
"Rooten Tooten" Wooten reading "Bells, Bells ...." and of Mr.
& Ms. Baughan for Chemistry
and History respectively. Also had special fondness for Ms.
Sophia Davis, the choral teacher, who died of cancer during my HS days.
BARBARA ANN McREE '63
I enjoyed my 4 years at WEHS; I think most days my head was in the clouds but I
managed to learn enough to graduate. My most embarrassing moment was in Spanish
with Mrs. Hilleke (Spanish was not one of my best subjects). She asked me a
question in Spanish, "Do you have any bananas?" and she said I said, "Yes, we
have no bananas". She said that didn’t make any sense!
MARGARET MELCHER '63
Does anyone else remember first period English with Rootin' Tootin' in the dead
of winter when she would throw open all the windows on Monday mornings for a
little fresh air? It was a chilling experience as I recall. She died many years
ago and I still miss her trusted friendship.
MARY LOUISE ROSS '63
I remember the day that I drove my sister Barbara's tiny blue car to school. I
had pleaded with her for weeks to allow me to drive it. She gave in one day and
I came out after school to drive the cool, cute car home only to find it missing
from the parking lot. It had been picked up and placed in the school hallway! I
remember taking up money for friends who had gotten speeding tickets. I used to
go into Mr. McIntosh's math class and write 2+2=14 or
some other wrong answer. He always knew it was me. I remember Ms Ezell saying,
"Your High School record stands for you or against you and it will follow you
the rest of your life. Know what, she was right!
MARGARET WRIGHT '63
I remember B-YTeens with Ms. Baughan. We did lots of
community projects that I enjoyed, especially Easter for a little girl and
Christmas dolls. I enjoyed working at the Goodfellows Store during Christmas
break. The camaraderie of the girls in that club was great. I also liked
Shorthand and Typing classes, I guess because that was the only thing I did
really well. Remember Ms Martin "The verb to be never takes an object." The
WELION gossip columns.
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