"MR. GATTIS"

LA CASITA KIDS REMEMBER BELOVED PRINCIPAL

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We called him “Mr. Gattis”.  

There was one thing everybody knew:  You didn’t fool around with Mr. Gattis.  He was principal of old La Casita School in Clovis, in the thirties and forties.  Here is “the rest of the story” from some little kids----who were there.

Let me tell you--he was a serious, dedicated man---serious about his calling, his school, his teachers, and us kids.  He had “gravitas” long before the word was ever heard.

There were GIANTS IN THE LAND in those days. He was one.

He was all business.  I say that respectfully.  In the vernacular of our day and time, we would say:  “He took no prisoners.”  I never saw him smile.  (If I’d been leader of that rowdy crew of depression kids, and responsible for them, I might not have smiled either!)

Today I don’t visualize him as being a guy who had coffee and lots of laughs with all the other men principals, or even being out on the golf course with them.  I visualize him more as a man who tied his own flies and liked to wrestle with the big trout on secluded mountain streams.

I, in September 1939, was a skinny, scared five year old kid, just being thrown out of the nest.  School had been going for five days when my mother decided I ought to start school a year early.

Hitler was rampaging and blitzkrieging across Poland, but I didn’t know or care.  I was having to give up my “trike.”  We went to La Casita and to Mr. Gattis’ office.  He scared me.  (In those days, I’d have been scared of Mr. Rogers!) He sent us to see Mr. Bickley, the school superintendent, at his office, down there behind the high school.  

Mother did some fast talking, likely saying:  “Sir, he’s really smarter than he looks....” and she got me in.  Ergo, another trip back to see Mr. Gattis.  So I started to school....five days late...another story.  

His office was dark and daunting, varnished real good, and with a big desk....almost as scary as that doctor’s office where I got my smallpox vaccination.

My memory of Mr. Gattis is that he was a slender man, slight---about 5’11”----weighing maybe 160 lbs.  He was probably 45 at the time, and always wore a gray suit...so it seems in my memory.  His “Adam’s apple” showed.  He was graying at the temples.

No grass grew under his feet.  He moved with a purpose.  I never saw him “stroll.”   Never saw him out on that cement-hard playground.  Never saw him hitting grounders to the boys or standing around chatting with his faculty.  If the “blurbly” water fountain out front quit working, you might see him out there with a wrench, fooling around with it!

He ran a good ship (read: “school”) and by heavens, it was going to stay that way!

His office was right at the SE corner of the south wing!  When in the fifth grade, I passed that scary office every day, and my eyes were drawn to it in fascination.  The boys all said there was a BIG PADDLE hanging on the wall....and Mr. Gattis knew how to use it.  (Good thing I didn’t see it in ’39!)  I never saw that famous paddle!

I suppose he made announcements and stuff when we had school assemblies in that little beat-up all-purpose “gym,” with the bleachers on the south side. In the 6th grade, I sang the lead as “Reddy” in “Reddy’s Mammoth Show,” but alas, Mr. Gattis didn’t come up and hug me, and say: “Great job, Mil!”  But that’s OK, I understood.  Real men don’t gush....and stuff.

I recently read an account of a modern school situation....and when I read it, I thought “they wouldn’t get away with this with Mr. Gattis.”  (But then we live in weird times, don’t we?)

This event happened in a teacher’s class:  One of her students called her a "stupid ass" in class.  The principal put the kid in detention.  He then phoned the mother of the kid and told her that she should come get him.  On arrival and grasping the situation, she told the principal that her kid was right and they were all “stupid asses” in that school.

I have a couple of observations here:  First, I fear that Mr. Gattis, if it had been his situation, might have spanked the mother....and secondly:  are we raising another “Greatest Generation” in the USA?

This being somewhat of a history of memories from those of us little kids who were there, I must say that I cannot give you any hard facts or history about Mr. W.D. “Doc” Gattis.  I do vaguely remember that "Doc" terminology, but I could have heard it later.  To me he was always just ....Mr. Gattis!

A man to remember....a man of purpose....a man who wore authority like a finely tailored suit!  A fair man...and I never heard a negative word about him----never.

I repeat:  There were giants in the earth in those days.
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Here are memories from other schoolmates:

MR. GATTIS: "DIRECTING TRAFFIC"

by Bobby Joe, CHS class of '53

W. D. 'Doc' Gattis-----  Mil, I can't give you a lot of information about Doc Gattis.  You remember him about the same way that I do.  One thing that sticks out is that Doc Gattis would get out in the middle of 7th street, near the intersection of Thornton and 7th and direct traffic,,,,actually slow traffic down when kids were crossing 7th street. That was before they had a signal light at that intersection.  He would wave his hands and arms at vehicles that were going too fast.  Yes, he would sure spank you if you misbehaved, but he was a great man at heart.  The news of those spankings traveled pretty fast and was definitely a deterrent to some of those rowdy boys.  No, I never did get sent to the office but I sure got some swats by my teachers.

MR. GATTIS: "APPLYING THE BOARD"

by Albin, CHS class of '51 

This request brought back a lot  of memories.  I think I wrote some of this to you before, but I will say some of it again.  We had just moved to Clovis from Sudan, TX.  First, I was confronted by Miss Bledsoe.   To me, she was scary, but I learned to love her.  But that first day, I got stabbed with my own pencil.   She took me to the nurse's station, all the way at the north end of the front hall.  As I sat there having my arm bandaged, I could hear Mr. Gattis "applying the board of education to the seat of knowledge" even though there were at least two closed doors between us down that long hall.  I made up my mind that I never wanted him to introduce me to that "board".   

I can't say too much about Mr. Gattis, except that I would never do anything that would allow him to punish me. Yet we all  seemed to love him in our own ways.  For some reason, it seems to me that he was "Dr." Gattis.

MR. GATTIS: "GOOD JOB!"

by Richard, CHS class of '53

I don't have many specific memories of Mr. Gattis.  I never got into trouble, so I never had a one-on-one with him.  One time the sixth grade bully made me meet him at the west end of the school grounds just over the rock wall.  I had a big board to help me even the odds.  I guess someone told Mr. Gattis because about two days later, he said "good job".    The bully left La Casita within the week.

 MR. GATTIS:  "HIGH RESPECT"
by Sue, CHS class of '51

In the lower grades I sensed the high respect that the teachers had for him and that we were expected to have because he was the PRINCIPAL!  In the fifth and sixth grades I was sometimes asked to be the errand girl in Mr. Gattis' office, and that was considered an honor. An errand girl was a necessity, before intercoms, to take messages to teachers all around the school.  I think he was a rather slight man, somewhat crouched over, though not elderly.

Art and Mil, La Casita Days

"School Days"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1i76i7NN0Ag&feature=youtube_gdata_player

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Mil's Place

by Mil

Bobby Joe Snipes

Dr. Albin Covington

Richard Drake
Sue Hale