SEVERAL WEEKS ago, they tore down the old DuPont Junior High School building near Belle.
SEVERAL WEEKS ago, they tore down the old DuPont Junior High School building near Belle.
For many of us from the eastern end of the Kanawha Valley, it was our junior high. For my mother-in law-and her siblings, it was their high school.
It is always sad to see a piece of your childhood ripped away. But even though the building is gone, the memories remain. Here are a few of mine.
Having trouble sitting still in the last period of the day in the seventh grade in Mr. Watson's study hall. If you talked instead of studying, he made you get up and squat in front of your desk. Childhood friend David Elkins and I did a lot of squatting that year. Maybe that laid the groundwork for David becoming the back-up catcher on the 1972 baseball team that won the Kanawha Valley Conference title.
Enjoying the performances of McDonald Cary's chorus. Listening to my friend Sam Moore sing loud and clear as the chorus sang "Do You Hear What I Hear" at the holiday Christmas show. Moore later would go on to play tennis at WVU and has been a long-time fixture in the Public Courts tournament.
Being excited when trumpeters Ken Lewis, Chuck Hall and Tim Coffman played "Bugler's Holiday" at an in-school band performance. For those of us who were basketball fans in 1968, this song was better known as the theme of the Bucky Waters Show, which we watched every Saturday. Waters was the Mountaineer basketball coach at the time.
Getting cut from the 7th-8th-grade basketball team as a 7th grader.
Getting cut from the 7th-8th-grade basketball team as an 8th grader
Being told "not to bother" coming out for the team as a 9th grader.
Watching a young Danny Williams play quarterback for the first time in 8th grade and thinking to myself, "He has a chance to be something special." Williams would go on to be the state's first two-time winner of Kennedy Award in the falls of 1972 and '73.
Watching with 7th-grade awe when ninth-grade girls Cheryl Cardi, Connie Samples and Jackie High entered the building. Cardi really was royalty in our school. She had just won the International Junior Miss World beauty pageant or something like that. Pretty heady stuff for a girl from DuPont City.
Being impressed with the basketball teams from Lincoln Junior High that used to come into our gym. I always thought it was odd that our gym was on the second floor of the building. During that time, Lincoln featured such players as Roy Thompson, who signed to play basketball at Xavier; Raymond McClure, who signed to play football at Rice; and Ron McCartney, who played football at Tennessee. Thompson loved to shoot. He once took a shot in a game at DuPont while sitting down after falling into the foul lane.SEVERAL WEEKS ago, they tore down the old DuPont Junior High School building near Belle.
For many of us from the eastern end of the Kanawha Valley, it was our junior high. For my mother-in law-and her siblings, it was their high school.
It is always sad to see a piece of your childhood ripped away. But even though the building is gone, the memories remain. Here are a few of mine.
Having trouble sitting still in the last period of the day in the seventh grade in Mr. Watson's study hall. If you talked instead of studying, he made you get up and squat in front of your desk. Childhood friend David Elkins and I did a lot of squatting that year. Maybe that laid the groundwork for David becoming the back-up catcher on the 1972 baseball team that won the Kanawha Valley Conference title.
Enjoying the performances of McDonald Cary's chorus. Listening to my friend Sam Moore sing loud and clear as the chorus sang "Do You Hear What I Hear" at the holiday Christmas show. Moore later would go on to play tennis at WVU and has been a long-time fixture in the Public Courts tournament.
Being excited when trumpeters Ken Lewis, Chuck Hall and Tim Coffman played "Bugler's Holiday" at an in-school band performance. For those of us who were basketball fans in 1968, this song was better known as the theme of the Bucky Waters Show, which we watched every Saturday. Waters was the Mountaineer basketball coach at the time.
Getting cut from the 7th-8th-grade basketball team as a 7th grader.
Getting cut from the 7th-8th-grade basketball team as an 8th grader
Being told "not to bother" coming out for the team as a 9th grader.
Watching a young Danny Williams play quarterback for the first time in 8th grade and thinking to myself, "He has a chance to be something special." Williams would go on to be the state's first two-time winner of Kennedy Award in the falls of 1972 and '73.
Watching with 7th-grade awe when ninth-grade girls Cheryl Cardi, Connie Samples and Jackie High entered the building. Cardi really was royalty in our school. She had just won the International Junior Miss World beauty pageant or something like that. Pretty heady stuff for a girl from DuPont City.
Being impressed with the basketball teams from Lincoln Junior High that used to come into our gym. I always thought it was odd that our gym was on the second floor of the building. During that time, Lincoln featured such players as Roy Thompson, who signed to play basketball at Xavier; Raymond McClure, who signed to play football at Rice; and Ron McCartney, who played football at Tennessee. Thompson loved to shoot. He once took a shot in a game at DuPont while sitting down after falling into the foul lane.
The pride that the school experienced after the 1968 football team went not only undefeated but also unscored upon.
Collapsing in the cafeteria in the early fall of 7th grade during lunch with an appendix that was about to burst. After being rushed to CAMC Memorial hospital, I spent the next 10 days there. I received an encouraging "Get well" card from some of my new classmates. It was especially exciting to see that my 7th grade crushes LeeAnne Kimble and Patty Groves signed the card. Truth be told, my buddies probably forged their signatures to lift my spirits.
Being impressed by the playing ability of the faculty in the annual Faculty-Varsity basketball game just before the Christmas break. It made me realize that teachers such as Jim Young, Dave Gillespie, McDonald Cary, John Lyons, Ed Edmonds, Jack Pauley and others were good athletes.
Having my name randomly pulled out of a hat in civics class as one of two students in the school to get to leave school to go watch Gov. Moore's inauguration and parade in the winter of 1968.
Making a feeble attempt at flirting with a majorette from Horace Mann Junior High at that parade and being told to get lost.
Going to a retirement event for outgoing principal Irish Garrity, one of our state's top athletes from earlier in the century. I remembered thinking Garrity must have really been special since former Gazette sports editor, A. L. "Shorty" Hardman was the event's keynote speaker.
Making a footstool in shop class that wobbled so badly that you risked serious injury if you stood on it.
Feeling fortunate to have had teachers such as Ms. Harless, Ms. White, Ms. Lockhart, Ms. Baroni, Ms. Vorholt and Mr. Young. Heck, even in my 50s, I still can't bring myself to call them by their first names.
Reach Frank Giardina at fl...@hotmail.com.
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