"RED ROVER, RED ROVER, I SEND MYSELF OVER!"

                                                           Art and Mil

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OLD LA CASITA SCHOOL REMEMBERED (FONDLY)
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Why did they tear down old La Casita School anyway? They could have built a  building anywhere to sell state license plates! I'll admit my first meeting with that school did not begin very auspiciously. As you have read, I started to school at age five, five days late into the term, and had five days to get a smallpox scratch, and  couldn't tie my shoe or find the rest room!

La Casita School was a good cozy building with radiator heat, always warm in winter. It had two wings with a connecting front hall with  classrooms. It had sidewalks around it, as well as a really nice low rock wall, maybe two feet tall all the way around except in front. The wall enclosed the playground and was handy for sitting. It was not even tall enough to keep a first grader "in." But it was a good wall; everyone who went to La Casita loved that wall!

There was a "Blurbly" water fountain right at the front sidewalk. It never failed to amaze the kids. It didn't shoot the water up into the air like modern-type fountains, it just kinda blurbled the water up an inch or two, in a half-hearted way. It was like the water fountain had failed long ago but was still half-trying.

Leaving the building for now, let's talk about the playground. It's difficult to be ebullient about that playground! It was probably never fertilized and was watered only by nature.It must have been about a block square. It was big. The west end was bounded by Edwards Street. I'm not sure anything was ever done to that land after the day Coronado's men trampled it in 1542. It was packed and hard. Now I say this guardedly: I may have spotted a bit of Bermuda grass along the north fence one day-- there next to W. Seventh!!

We loved recess! Standing on the north rock fence we'd shout: "Red Rover, Red Rover, I Send Myself Over," and we'd take off like a bat, trying to get to the south fence without being tagged! Otherwise, we'd become a chaser. (No one ever flunked recess at La Casita.)

But "Red Rover" was child's play compared to playing football on that hard ground. (Concrete might have been an improvement!) By the third grade we played tackle---not "touch" football! What else would you expect from Clovis boys? Ooohh, that ground would jar you when tackled. Soon I decided that I was destined to be an "interference runner" rather than a ball carrier. My respect for speedy Jerry Crook and Alvin "Pike" Jordan really went up, as they bit the dust many times. They were fast little guys.

There were several candy stores around the school.  Two that I know of were in homes, and of course there was Alexander's Grocery northwest of the school on Reid Street. The favorite was directly across Thornton in front of the school. That "store" was actually a living room with candy counters.  It was full of kids at the end of their lunch hour, hurrying to buy some candy before they had to be back to their classrooms by 1:00.

However, not all kids had money every day. Some had only a penny or two, Some just came to watch the ones who paid a dime for a "plumgranite."  These were fascinating to watch, as that luscious red/purple juice dripped off the chins of the eaters, and sometimes onto their clothes. If I were ever lucky enough to have a nickel, I'd without any doubt, buy a Black Cow---a delicious caramel sucker. The problem there was to finish it before class started in 12 minutes! Second choice was a pack of Walnettos; you could finish these little caramel-tasting squares covertly in class!

The school building had the first and second grades in the north wing, along with that hated E-VIL-smelling nurse's office (the office, not the nurse!) The third grades and fourth grades were in the cross wing, and the fifth and sixth grades were in the south wing. The half-size gym-auditorium was attached to the inside of the south wing.

There in that auditorium we had school assemblies, plays, and folk dancing. I was a folk who couldn't dance. However, I did get my big SHOW BIZ break right there and sang the "Reddy" title roll in "REDDY'S MAMMOTH SHOW," a musical-play about the circus.

There was never a cafeteria in that school, in those days, and just for the record, we kids growing up then never had one in any school. It was go home, or "paper bag it." Good or bad--that's just the way it was.

Clovis Public Schools always had the best teachers in the world. First grade teacher was Ms. Tennyson and second grade was Ms. Norris. Can't recall the others in those grades.Third grade were Ms. Bledsoe and Ms, Isaacs. Forth were Ms. Holloway and Ms, Galloway. Fifth were Mrs. Davis and Ms. Ballow. Sixth were Mrs. Gustin and Mr. Slalcup. Two who kinda scared me were Ms. Ballow and Mr. Gattis, the principal. Our janitor was a quiet stoic ruddy-faced gentleman who dressed in khakis. We called him Mr. Ward or Mr.Warn.

The third grade was memorable because of a number of things. The Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor December 7th of that year. We received a bottle of free milk about twice a week (but no cookies.) We had a music teacher who came to our class once or twice a week. Her name was Miss Dodie. Also that year I was  egged-on by my worldly classmates to kiss my heartthrob, Lucy Jane. That didn't turn out to be a good plan. She cried.

The fourth grade in Ms. Holloway's class was unsurpassed! she was a great teacher. We had a neat story time, show-and-tell, joke telling, and she read to us---every Friday after lunch. State Theater once gave free movies to all the kids and the whole class walked down Sixth Street one afternoon to see a Frank Sinatra movie!

In the fifth grade, with all those penmanship letter illustrations around the top of the room  (script A,B,C's), we learned to write, not print. There were the spelling bees in class and Sue was hard to beat! Mrs. Davis was a nice military wife whose husband was stationed at the air base. She was a fine teacher! That was a good year!

In the sixth grade we lost dear blond little Mary Lou Powell from our class. She had been sick and out of school a long time. Mrs. Gustin was a marvelous teacher. I did six extra book reports in that class and embroidered a little kitchen towel.  It was a waiter carrying a watermelon. Yes, the whole class learned to embroider!

On and on we could go with memories...what ever happened to some of the kids...what ever happened to "Hooky?" What about "Max and Doyle," leaders of that noon-day playground gang? What happened to the teachers? What about that haunted house a block south of the school? Or the one a block or two north, where the guy had a cellar full of weapons? And that hard playground---did they finally...plant grass? What happened to the candy stores? 

                             

And we are all wondering about that crazy, worthless BLURBLY water fountain out front of the now "Bruce King Building." Maybe it's still there. You know, I think I'll stop by next time I'm in Clovis, and maybe just...get a drink...from that old fountain, for old time's sake!

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"How we laughed with the joy that only youth can bring!
Looking back through memory's eyes
We will know life has nothing sweeter than its springtime,
Golden days, when we're young,
Golden days!"

--- M. Lanza
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(Please excuse the weird paragraphing.  Sometimes the computer just does what it wants to do!)

                             

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BY MIL
7/18/12





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