Newspapers, Movin' On Up..., LaSalle Parish, La. Submitted by Jack Willis Date: 11 Oct 2004 Source:Grass Roots and Cockleburrs Date: 7 Jul 2004 ************************************************ Submitted to the LAGenWeb Archives ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ********************************************** *********************************************** Movin' On Up... During the 1946-47 school year students in the Jena School System from the fourth grade through the eleventh were incarcerated in hastily erected in wartime shotgun buildings known as "black beauties" because their exteriors were clothed in black tar paper, nothing more. One observer was supposed to have said, "There wasn't any noise in the halls; there weren't any halls!" Some students had spent their earlier formative years at one of two churches commandeered for classrooms by the School Board because of two disastrous fires that had razed both the elementary and high school buildings in 1942 and 1944 respectively. On the old campus the sixth grade class of Mrs. Delcie Posey, of which I was a member, and Mrs. Eva Whatley and Mrs. Nita Garrett's seventh grades classes were housed in what once was the old Agriculture/Industrial Arts building located down in the extreme southeast corner of the old campus. Since we were on the west end of that building we were in an advantageous position which enabled us to keep abreast of construction involved in the erection of the new Jena Elementary School plant, and furthermore the west end of this proud new building occupied a portion of the same ground covered by the first Jena Seminary building erected in 1912. As we watched two-story structure take shape we wondering if there were going to be any seventh grade classes in-house during the next school year. We had already heard the new school would have radiators for heat and before the school year was up, we could already see the installation of acres and acres of windows that could be opened wide for maximum cooling. We were sick and tired of our feet freezing during the winter, and only an occasional draft of hot air through narrow standard windows wide open during the fall and spring of the academic year. The sun came up hot and brassy and was really bearing down on the September 1947 morn of the first day of school, as I trudged down what would later become Sycamore Street. After crossing Hemp's Creek I meandered down the east bank towards my eventual destination of the Nolley Memorial Methodist Church to attend the general assembly called for opening day of school. As I emerged from the auto services bay of Truett Doughty's service station and looked across US 84, just to the right of Judge Oliver Smith's double-pen house perched upon the red hill next to the church, I could see a never-ending parade of school buses discharging a sea of school-age pupils milling around preparatory to entering the sanctuary of the church. I spotted several of my classmates from the previous year and we were all bent on getting into Ms. Corrine Lindsay's room that we had found out would be housed in the new building, but it was a first come, first enrolled basis. I put in with Donald Claunch, Jack and Jerry Germany, and Wendell Oliphant and we all trooped into the church auditorium. Due to the departure of long-standing principal Milton Posey to retirement to Rayville, LA, a gentleman by the name of Raphael Teagle from the Baton Rouge area had been hired by the LaSalle Parish School Board to fill the vacancy. After all the introductions of old and new teachers were formalized, the student was apprised of the locations of the classrooms and respective teachers. The only one I was intently listening for was the room number of the classroom in which Mrs. Corrine Lindsay would be teaching and it was number 14 on the second floor, and I felt like that was all I needed to know. Using a King trombone played by his father J.J. "Jack" Stafford, when he was a member of many professional musical groups like John Phillip Sousa's Marching Band and Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus Band, Jimmie Stafford favored the assemblage with a musical solo of "Danny Boy." After our tears had dried, the student body was dismissed to attend token first-day classes to be issued textbooks, two new LaSalle Parish School lead pencils, and a rough and slick tablet of paper per student. When we got to the front door of the church all of the students wanting to be placed in Mrs. Lindsey's room took off at a dead run across the parking lot. I had on my new U.S. Keds with the white molded rubber traction soles with the contrasting black canvas tops and white laces and this brand new footwear seemed to speed me on my quest for a choice seat in room 14. Around the corner of Judge Oliver Smith's yard fence and onto the sidewalk we went like a herd of frightened antelope on our way to our rendezvous with destiny. We were in such a hurry we just climbed and jumped the schoolyard fence, not bothering to use one of the styles. Into the wide-open hall doors on the west end of the building we sped until we reached the first stairwell. Up and around the stairs and into the second floor hall where we began pulling doors back to see what room number they represented. Just beyond the boy's "basement" was room14, my final destination. After registration, we were treated to our first hot lunch we had every partaken of anywhere except home. The School Board had purchased an old "chow hall" from Camp Livingston, which was being deactivated after World War II, and Hubert Mitchell moved it over and gotten it set it up in time to get it operational before the first day of school. The first day's menu was wieners and red gravy over mashed potatoes, green beans, and two slices of bread and peach cobbler. Mrs. Rose Smith, Mrs. Audie Taylor, Mrs. Edna Coleman, Mrs. Bernice Floyd and Mrs. Mary Grace Coon ably served all this fine fare up. The lunchroom supervisor was Mrs. Lydia Henderson. After all the trouble I went to, to get in Mrs. Lindsay's room, I messed around and got in the doghouse with my teacher during the first week of school. One of best buddies, Donald Claunch, who later tragically drowned in Old River, and I were having a spool tractor shoving contest on the floor next to our desks and got caught red-handed resulting in three licks with her paddle in front of the class. What added insult to injury, was that Donald's tractor ended up shoving my machine all over the place. GR&C (7-07-04) JMW