Junior and Senior High School (“Reverend Bob”)
Section 1. Overview
Back in the 1960’s, elementary schools in Los Gatos ran through 6th grade, with 7th and 8th grades comprising junior high, and years 9 to 12, high school. There was only one junior high in town: Raymond J. Fisher (which was located just a block or so west of my elementary school, Louise van Meter), which, if I remember correctly, consisted MOSTLY of seventh and eighth graders, but two 6th grade classes were also ensconced there, and I was in one of them, taught by Mrs. Edith Buhler. The other class was taught by Mrs. Beverly Garland. We 6th graders spent most of the school day in our “base” classroom, but for one or two periods, we’d be switched to the other one – Mrs. Garland taught us math and science, while Mrs. Buhler taught everything else. I was never impressed with Mrs. Buhler – she put me in mind of a bland, kindly aunt. On the other hand, Mrs. Gardner was younger and much cooler, not only teaching the “better” subjects, but she did fun things, like reading humorous stories to the class. Sadly, she was my first personal exposure to death, as she passed away a year or two afterwards.
The progress from elementary school to junior high was not very remarkable, as we returned to the same campus, and had already been exposed to switching classrooms for different subjects. And like elementary school, I remember very little about my junior high days. Except instead of taking the bus to school, I’d ride my bike, and we had seven periods, each with a different teacher. My favorites were (in alphabetical order) Mr. Barker (math) Mr. Kensinger (PE), Mr. Kerner (Science, and who demonstrated the effect nitrogen had on vocal cords to our great delight), Sr. Maytorena (Spanish), Mr. Schmidt (Science, and who reminded me of Dr. Kokintz from The Mouse that Roared, by Leonard Wibberley) and Mr. Spivey (English). Academically, I remember only one thing from this period: Mr. Spivey’s teaching of the parts of speech … through sheer memorization. The first group, the seven conjunctions, was easy: and, but, or, nor, for, yet and so. But the second group, the prepositions, was tougher, because there were 50 of them. But Mr. Spivey presented them to us in five batches of 10 words each, and that made the task manageable. First batch: about, above, across, after, against, along, alongside, among, around, at. Second batch: before, behind, below, beneath, beside, besides, between, beyond, but, by) [note the repeated use of “but” from the conjunction list]. Third batch: concerning, despite, down, during, except, for, from, in, inside, into. Fourth batch: Like, near, of, off, on, out, outside, over, past, since. Fifth batch: Through, to, toward, under, until, up, upon, with, within, without. [And I swear as God is my witness, I wrote this without referring to any source than my memory – Mr. Spivey taught us very well]. AND, not only did I memorize them, but this actually came in useful … once. I was playing a game of charades, and was given the signal for “short word”, and after a little putzing around, I was able to rattle off all 57 words in about a minute, to the delight of my fellow gamers.
There are a couple of “miscellaneous” radio memories I have from this time. I used to enjoy KGO’s radio lineup on Saturday nights, when they broadcast The Lives of Harry Lime (with Orson Welles, recreating his character from the movie The Third Man), Secrets of the Black Museum, The Scarlet Pimpernel (with Marius Goring), as well as a comedy show, wherein they simply played bits from the record albums of the comedians at the time. One of my favorites was the 1967 album, What month were you born in? There were twelve cuts, each one beginning with the host reeling off the personality traits for each sign of the zodiac (Taurus folks were stubborn, Gemini changeable, Leos bold and loud, etc., while the last two traits for each sign were always “sensitive and creative”). And then the person representing that sign was interviewed, responding hilariously just as “the stars” had predicted1.
One summer night I wanted to sleep out in our backyard, but didn’t want to miss the shows; I solved this by plugging an extension cord into a socket in my folk’s bedroom, and leading that out back where I could plug my radio into it.
I also remember listening to The Coyle and Sharpe Show. Jim Coyle and Mal Sharpe did outrageous “man-on-the-street” interviews in San Francisco in the 1960’s. I think once they asked a mechanic if he could install either (I can no longer remember which) armor plating or a machine gun on a vehicle, so they could rob a bank, and then asked if the guy would like to go on a heist with them. And that was one of their milder skits. They also told a story about how San Francisco was threatened by the human leech (from Los Angeles), but he was stymied by our local champions … the baby battalion. They sure don’t do radio like THAT anymore.
I was never into Rock and Roll back then, but I did enjoy some of the popular songs broadcast by KYA and KEWB (I think it was Kim Moore who expressed his disdain for the latter station noting it was pretty “square”). One of these stations also used to broadcast their “DJ speedway” during breaks: they’d play the sound of race cars and provide commentary on a “race” (that lasted about 30 seconds) whose drivers were five DJ’s from the station, including Gene Nelson, Ron Reynolds, and James Bond (I can’t recall the names of the other two).
Given that I was a skinny, shy kid with glasses but few friends, I guess I was lucky in that I wasn’t bullied very much. In fact, I remember only two instances (both during junior high), neither of which were very physical. I often arrived early to school, and so before first period I’d sit outside the door waiting for the teacher to show, and once or twice Jeff Petersen would come by, lean heavily on my shoulder and make some kind of threatening remarks. I just kept my head down and responded minimally. But then at some point afterwards Jeff did a 180° turn and became very friendly towards me – I never did figure out what that was all about. The second time was when I accidently bumped into Jeff Tiddy during either recess or PE. I didn’t think of it as any kind of big deal, but he appeared incensed and called me out to settle it with a fight after school. But at least I can guess why he was anxious to fight me. He was a short, chubby kid with a funny last name, and I bet he got teased a lot, and was anxious to find someone else he could best, in order to gain some cred … and I probably looked like an easy target to him. In any event, when he tried to start a fight with me in the bike parking area, I simply ignored him and rode away on my bike, even though he was calling me “chicken”. After that, he never approached me again, so I passed that obstacle successfully.
Unlike some folks, I enjoyed attending high school (Fig 3.1.1). Now don’t get me wrong – I experienced a lot of unhappiness during that time, but that wasn’t because of school. Instead school provided me a structure both a social structure where I could meet a lot more people, as well as a place wherein I could flourish academically, which helped my self esteem. I always liked math and science the most and so it is not surprising that my two favorite instructors were Will Barley (Math – more on him in Section 5) and John MacDonald2. I had Mr. MacDonald for both Biology and Senior Lab – he had posters in his class room promulgating two phrases: “Scots wae hae” (a patriotic Scottish poem, reflecting his ancestry and speaking to my own attraction to that country), and “Ignotum per ignotius” (a Latin phrase meaning explaining the unknown through the unknown), and was the person who did the most to help me shape my concerns over environmental issues. My other favorites included Martha Allshouse, who I had for Social Studies and also allowed me to ordain her in the Universal Life Church – see section 4). Then there was my sophomore English teacher Joseph Glasner (a very “dappy dresser” as per my Mom), who played the role of “Stage Director” in our Junior Play, By the Skin of our Teeth, and directed our senior play, A Midsummer’s Night Dream (in both of which I had minor roles – please: no autographs3). This class happened to be my homeroom (the only class that mandated role-taking) that year, and to make it a little easier on himself, Mr. Glasner seated us in alphabetical order. So he began every day calling out the names (Tom) Babich, (Todd) Benson, and (Allen) Burch, and at one point remarked that their names “sounds like a law firm” (which I thought quite droll – it reminded me of Jay Ward’s Fractured Fairy Tale episode about King Midas, who had as “his ad visors Bauble, Bangle, Bead and Benson”). I definitely didn’t care for PE, but I did like Coach John Mackey, as well as my Civics instructor Gerald McCloskey (more on him in section 3). I was especially fond of my Chemistry teacher Ellsworth Welch, who had a quirky sense of humor. One thing that sticks in my mind is his teaching Fleming’s “left-hand rule” (used to illustrate the relationship of magnetic field, current and force of electric motors) with the droll caution, “Don’t worry, its not loaded” (Fig. 3.1.2). He also regaled us with his ”sea stories”, from when he served as an ensign on the USS Johnson in WWII, especially the one on how he helped capture Kwajalein Island with his .45 caliber pistol. Because he was one of the few instructors with a PhD, Dave Vandenberg, myself, and a couple of others in the class would refer to him as Mr. Dr. Ensign Welch. I’m not sure “like” is the most appropriate term, but I certainly had an immense respect for the English teacher I had in my senior year: Steven Ridgely (“da Ridge” as per Fred Woodson), who certainly carried himself as the military vet he was. And although my facility for foreign languages is simply abysmal (I’m fluent only in English and Pig Latin, the latter courtesy of Moe (Howard), Larry (Fine) and Curly (Howard): e.g. “Am-scray” and “Ix-nay”), I quite liked both my Latin teachers, Nancy Greenfield and Ronald Barrans.
In my junior year, the administration allowed students to broadcast music over the PA system before the morning announcements. And (no surprise) rock and roll predominated. As noted above, I was not into that genre (although my tastes have since changed) and much preferred the classical music albums that my mother owned. My home room class that year was English taught by Jack Cody, who had a record player in his class. So with his permission, I set it up at the door to his room, and each day played a different one of my mom’s records. So while the rest of the students in the school were treated to 60’s rock, anyone who walked down the west end of the hall on the 2nd floor of the main building would hear Beethoven or one of his ilk.
Although I remained socially inept for years after (especially when girls were involved), high school did provide a geometric increase in my social circle compared to elementary school and junior high. It’s not that I had a lot of friends, but rather the number of people with whom I was friendly (who I considered as “classmates” or “acquaintances”) as opposed to the term “friend”, which to my mind, meant someone you enjoyed hanging out with after school.
Due to the importance of alphabetical order in so many things during high school, one of my better acquaintances was Greg Wulf. One year, we shared a class where all the students were paired up to paint a Christmas theme decoration on windows of various local businesses. Well, Greg was a fantastic artist, while I didn’t have an artistic bone in my body, so it was only natural that he do the work while my contribution was staying out of the way (the business we drew was the office of my dentist, Cloyd R. Chamberlain). And his work won a prize (first place, I think): $20.00. Had I been a more mature, understanding type of person back then, I would have suggested he keep the whole prize, but frankly it never even occurred to me to do so, and instead I simply accepted half of the award as part of our team.
And putting aside the crowd I knew through war gaming (all of whom were one or two years older than me, which tended to preclude an “equal” friendship) there were perhaps only a half dozen people that I enjoyed hanging around with, mostly sitting against the music room wall facing the quad during lunch break, including Dave Eklund, Reid Karkau, and Lou Swisher. Late in my senior year, I met Ray Swedenberg who had a humorous streak I really liked, and when I began taking lunch on the front lawn for a change, I enjoyed the company of Meg Green, but those relationships began too late in my high school career to have a chance of flourishing. And in the break between our senior year and heading off to college (September 1971), I joined Fred Woodson and John Hitchcock for a six day backpacking trip (the only one I’ve ever taken) at Stanislaus National Forest4. But there were two people from high school that I hung out with a lot and considered as real friends: Kakie Hanson (Fig. 3.1.3) and Dave Vandenberg (Fig. 3.1.4)5.
I had met Kakie in junior high, when we discovered we shared a love for the Sherlock Holmes stories and the two “wellses”: the science fiction writer H.G. Wells, and the movie actor/director Orson Welles (Citizen Kane and The Third Man both being masterpieces of the silver screen: if you haven’t seen them yet, do it ASAP). Kakie was also the person who introduced me to Abbot & Costello’s “Who’s on First?” routine – I think it was amazing that I hadn’t heard of that classic bit until high school, so I will always be indebted to her for that. I met Dave in my first or second year of high school, when we enjoyed several classes together. He signed my sophomore yearbook with: “Well Bob another year is over and I’m going crazy because of your stupidity and bungles. If I get you as a lab partner in Physics I’ll … Well I’ll do something rash.” Luckily we did not take Physics together as juniors, so our friendship managed to survive. Dave and I both (sorta) shared a love of cycling, although my taste ran to bicycles while his to motorcycles – once we sat tandem on his motorcycle and simply cruised up the road to Mt. Hamilton, which was so much nicer than the occasion it took me 2+ hours to go up the same road by bike (as I report in Section 7).
But there was one more social angle that developed during those four years. I met Charlotte Croall (Fig. 3.1.5) when we had a class together in elementary school. I do not remember what grade it was, but I remember feeling concerned for her at one point, because knowing little kids, I figured somebody must have teased her about her name, as we were then reading E.B. White’s Charlotte’s Web in class. My only other memory of her at that time is that we shared a school bus pickup site at the corner of Chirco and Corrine Drives. In high school, we remained friendly with each other, but we never hung out together.
Now since I wasn’t very social in high school, it is not surprising that during my four years there, I attended only four parties. Two of which were the cast parties for our junior and senior plays. The invitations to these were automatic – if you participated in either play, you were invited to the party, so there was nothing special about being invited. I vaguely remember attending a third party at someone’s house in the Loma Alta Avenue/Johnson Avenue part of town, but nothing more than that. But the fourth one has stuck with me to this day. It was a party that Charlotte had at her family’s house on Lester Avenue. The invite was a bit of a surprise for me, since, as already noted, we were not close buddies. But I remember being greeted at the door by Charlotte’s older brother, Bob. But it wasn’t just an off-the-cuff “Hi, how are you? C’mon in,” type of greeting that one would expect from the older brother of a classmate. Instead, in just a few words, he made me feel extremely welcome, and that he was very happy that I could attend. Keep in mind I had never met him before (nor since, for that matter – if we were to meet by chance I would never recognize him), but his warm greeting to an unknown (to him) friend of his little sister, has impressed me as one of the most marvelous things one human being could do for another. And although I have not succeeded, I have since aspired to match the high standard of humanity that Bob Croall demonstrated that day, and for that I will always be grateful to him.
In high school, I was MOSTLY a pretty good student – I never cut a class, nor delved into smoking, partying, alcohol, or drugs (which back then, meant strictly grass), which were the more conventional methods of rebellious teenagers testing limits. However, I was not a complete mindless nerd, and did enjoy what I thought were my own (or others’) clever little rebellions, and other non-academic experiences. Like when I sat with Jonathon Walton in a science class and we tried to assign first names (all male, as they turned out) to the elements, like Harry Hydrogen, Henry Helium, Larry Lithium, Bob Boron, Ollie Oxygen and the like. That’s when we discovered there was NO element then discovered (and still true to this day) that started with the letter “J”, and so we were unable to come up with a Jonathon something. Oh well.
It also was ridiculously easy to crash the photo ops for the yearbook’s “picture day” that were taken for the various clubs and activities. So that is why, aside from my senior portrait, my mug was visible in eleven photos that ended up appearing in our senior yearbook. Of these, four were actually defendable: I was indeed a class representative to the student council, one of the National Merit Semi-Finalists, an active member of the Cycling Club, and a past member of the Los Gatos Research Society (Fig. 3.1.6)6. And although I did participate in both our junior and senior plays4 and took Latin, Math, and Science classes, I really was never in the Drama, Latin, Math, and Science clubs, while my appearance in the photos for CSF, the Hiking Club and Music Commission were completely spurious.
Other “sidebars” to my time at LGHS are detailed in the next seven sections
1 As I was born in early June, I’m a Gemini, and we Geminis don’t believe in astrology.
2 Curious about the difference between “Mac” and “Mc” names? When someone misspelled Mr. MacDonald’s name, he corrected them by saying “I’m Scottish, not Irish”.
3 Both times in minor roles, although Adrienne Davidson’s character did react enthusiastically when I serenaded her in By the Skin of our Teeth.
4 I have two memorable incidences from this expedition. First, both Fred and John decided to eat some berries they found along the trail … and ended up puking their guts out. Second, I think it was Fred who picked up a piece of wood at the outset of our trek, and used it as a hiking stick for the entire trip. He discarded it once we completed our circuit, but I picked it up and brought it back with me. And I carried it with me during my entire freshman year at Berkeley (and maybe even my sophomore year as well), where I suspect it – but one day it just broke into three or four pieces, and that was the end of that. I also purchased a backpack for the hike, which held me in good stead when I went to Europe three years later.
5 And talk about coincidences: Both Kakie and Dave lived in (or near) Bend, Oregon simultaneously in the years around 2010 (although they never ran into each other at that time).
6 Of the 16 people in the photo, I was the only actual member7 … although the group had been inactive for a couple of years by then.
7 Clearly demonstrating I wasn’t the only one who crashed the pictures that day.