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| A 1940s Classroom |
When I initially asked Aunt Grace about discipline in school, she seemed to be a bit taken aback and really needed to think about it. It may be difficult for a lot of you to imagine, but kids then were generally well-behaved and respectful toward their teachers and one another! Possibly because they knew misbehavior and disrespect would not be tolerated and there would be accountability or punishment. She remembered that, occasionally, someone would be threatened with a trip to the principal's office, although she has no idea what would happen when they got there!
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| Paddles, hung in a prominent place to make kids "sweat," had holes drilled in them to cut down on air resistance as the paddle was swung. |
One time, in Ila Harris' class, Principal Clayton came into the classroom and batted Kenny Tower around! Mr. Clayton hit him with an open hand and Kenny fell on the floor. It's hard to imagine that kind of behavior from a principal in today's world, but I'd be willing to bet that Kenny never committed the offense that had Mr. Clayton so angry again.
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| Reeve Thompson |
There was a music teacher in Oswego, Reeve Thompson, who now has a school named after him. He apparently had little or no use for Ray who had no use for school. Aunt Grace remembers Mr. Thompson telling Ray that he'd "never be anything more than a ditch digger." That comment seemed to have a considerable impact on Ray. I remember him saying, on occasion that he was never going to be any better than a ditch digger.
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1940s Prom Dress |
None of the Zielke girls had the opportunity to shop for the perfect prom dress. Dances, in general were not allowed at Oswego High School. The reason is not really known; all Aunt Grace knows is that the school board wouldn't allow them.
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| 1930s Christmas Pageant |
They may not have had dances, but the schools did hold other activities and events, like Christmas pageants. Aunt Grace remembers one in particular when they were all lined up on the stairs to go sing, when that snotty kid, Richard Young (who was dressed as a shepherd, so kind of like a dress) decided to slide down the banister! "Poor" Richard got a splinter in his butt and she remembers thinking that he deserved it!!! The splinter must have been embedded pretty deeply because they had to call Dr. Weishaw to come remove it. Old snotty Richard later became a conservationist and there is a park on Nelson Lake Road in Batavia named after him.
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| Atomic Bomb |
Remembering old classmates, Aunt Grace remembers the Young family of three boys and one girl whose dad, Dwight, was frequently gone out of town. They didn't know it at the time, but found out later that he was in New Mexico working on the atomic bomb!
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| 1940s Basketball |
Finally, we come to sports! Oswego didn't have a football team or girls' teams. Basketball was the big sport for the school and Aunt Grace used to go to all the games! She'd ride the bus to the away games and she had a good, loud voice for cheering her team on! Apparently, she could become quite animated in her cheering as well. She used to have a little, round drawstring purse with a mirror on the bottom. In the winter of '43, she was at the Yorkville vs Oswego game and was approached by a referee. He came to tell her that he had received a complaint about her from a spectator on the opposing side. It seems that, in her enthusiasm, waving her arms about, the mirror on the bottom of her purse would catch the light and blind people on the other side! She found out years later that the complainer was none other than Austin Pope! Some people are just destined to connect!
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| Grace and Austin Pope |
Oswego High Fight Song
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