"Doc" Gattis
(AN EPIC STORY/POEM)
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"IT'S GONE."
Beloved old La Casita School, in Clovis, New Mexico,
at Seventh and Thornton...is gone.
Lost in the sands of time...
Has been for half a lifetime.
Before it was.lost, in later years, I must've driven
by it dozen or more times!
Never thought to stop and walk around the school,
around the old two-feet-tall rock fence,
that went clear around it--back west on Seventh,
all the way to Edwards St.--- and it never kept
nothin' out--
No dogs, no kids, and no bullies. no perps.
(Were there "PERPS" in those halcyon times?)
Coulda walked it, the route of "Max and Doyle,"
clear around the grounds, where those two
first graders and their gang....terrorized us all;
They were like a little posse running, without
horses...but with their own legs.
Coulda snapped photo after photo...front and
back....but didn't...
Now, who has any pictures?
Ah yes, sometime...maybe back in the 50's,
or 60's, when the old school was left
unguarded...at that moment
They tore La Casita down--to the ground--
With all its history.
With it..and sit down for this...went:
THE OLD BELOVED "BLURBLY WATER
FOUNTAIN," the one-of-a-kind;
THE PRIDE AND THE JOY OF
THE PRINCIPAL, DOC GATTIS---
For who knows how many years it sat right
out in front, where the sidewalks
crossed--a weird fountain, to be sure--
And maybe not sanitary, for water that
hit your mouth and missed...fell right back
onto the new water coming up...
But who ever cared? Us "early Americans" of
those days were expected to have measles,
mumps, and chicken pox...
People were tough and down-to-earth, and
not as picky as we are today.
They tore down the school, and with it went the
Blurbly Fountain, and I reckon all the
candy stores closed. Our favorite being the one
right across the street--with display case in
their living room....
....where we all went at 12:45, after lunch, to
watch the kids with pennies, nickels and dimes
load up, buying: jaw breakers, penny suckers,
red hots, licorice, Luden's Cough drops, gum
drops, Paydays, Snickers, Baby Ruths, bubble
gum, O Henrys, Bit-O-Honeys, and "plumgranites."
The last were ten cents-and-turned-you-purple-
and-dripped-and-you-had-only-until-the-
ONE P.M. bell---to eat them, before class time.
When I had a nickel, my choice was a Black Cow
or Walnettos. Still had to eat fast!
Oh the memories of that school!
Getting there, in 1939, when we lived behind
the old laundry...I walked west from 417 W. Grand...
by Tom Phelp's Red-and-White Store---there
at Hinkle and W. Grand...(there was a Saykelly
Candy Co. across north on Hinkle, but those kids
went somewhere else to school.)
Then I walked by Jerry Crook's Mom's Beauty Shop,
and turned north on Thornton
at the Blaylock Grocery, headed up Thornton,
by the little "White Church On the Corner,"
on north, missing the haunted house on the west
side of the street...
Finally reaching La Casita, getting a drink at the
Blurbly Fountain (except in winter), and
heading in to an always warm room with
excellent radiator heat! Whatever grade,
we were in... there was good warmth!
Memories:
Free milk in the third grade, Ms. Bledsoe's room.
New song taught by Miss Dodie, "GOD BLESS
AMERICA."
"Red Rovsr," and tackle football on that cement-hard
playground, along with baseball!
Right across the first rock fence, every May 1,
we wound the maypole.
There was folk dancing before school---
"JUMP JUMP, JUMP JIM CROW," and such.
In the ancient school gym/auditorium (with bleachers)'
Mil sang the title role in the 6th grade musical,
"REDDY'S MAMMOTH SHOW." thus almost
beginning...a life in show biz!
In the sixth grade in wonderful Ms. Gustin's class,
we "EMBROIDEREED"---each kid sewed something...
My piece was a linen towel, with a waiter carrying
a slice of watermelon.
In the sixth grade, we had grown up a right smart.
WWII was winding down, tho' we may not
have realized it yet. The summer of THE BOMB
was ahead.
We lost a beautiful young blonde classmate,
that year--Mary Lou Powell---to a
lingering illness.
A popular new girl came into the future CHS '51
class that sixth grade year...she came from
Belen and became one of us...Dorothy Fawnette
Pike!
"Country Boy Bob," a couple of years behind us,
in CHS '53, loving marbles the way he did,
(and being a wicked "KEEPS" player also),
One year at the LC HALLOWEEN CARNIVAL
At the ten cents string pull, managed to figure
it out, and bought five or six sacks of
marbles @ ten cents each!
Mil won a flat caramel icing cake in "Musical Chairs,"
at that LC carnival. (Only thing he ever won!)
O the memories! But LC is gone, never to return.
Has been for a long time. It woulda been a fine
building for a Clovis Teacher's Museum. It's empty
rooms would have made good venues for
quilting clubs, book-readers' clubs, Spanish classes...
I coulda found 'em some land out west'o town
for car licenses and stuff.
The other day, I was pondering this story...and
remembering the school, the friends, the
times...and I sort of had my mental-photographic-
vision playing...maybe I slipped into a
reverie of sorts....
In my dream it was a nice spring day...I was at the old
BLURBLY WATER FOUNTAIN---out front of
old La Casita...drinking...and suddenly a line of kids,
as out of the mists of time were coming toward me and
passing by, old friends from the late-thirties and forties...
I raised my head and looked, but I was mute and
so were they...
But each one as he/she passed, smiled or nodded or
winked...and I got a coupla "thumbs up..." too..
In the haze of my dream, I recognized and remembered
them all...some were first grade faces and some
older grades---it didn't matter...
There leading the pack was Joe Bert Trimble...
Followed by Audrey Jean Cole...and Jimmy Blair--
(my first grade desk-mate); there was Ramona Garcia,
Wilma Foster, Jerry and Robert Roberts (two of
the smartest kids); here came smiling Jim Whatley
and Donald Todd...there was Albin Covington,
Cleijo Cherry, Arthur Snipes, Sue Barnett, and
Christine Barris...
Why that was Eugene "Hooky" Fulgham who just
passed, a boy with gravitas before the word
was ever heard. Jerry Crook and Alvin "Pike"
Jordan went by with a wink...no doubt remembering
those rough football games on the HARD playground!
Look at who just passed by--it was Fawnette Pike
and Betty Hillhouse, clowning already, as they
were to do in Jr.High! Geraldine Edwards, one of
my first school friends. was right behind.
The twins Newton and David, from the fourth grade
were next, and then came Frank Blackburn,
and some who were once in LC and left, like Clayton
and his sister (who sang "Catalina Magdalena"
at a second grade talent show---and Eldon Langford
whom I doubt that anyone remembers., a
curly-haired kid.
Donald Mardis came ambling along, with that congenial
grin...already a warm friendly guy...walking with
him was R.G. Snipes and Frank Blackburn.
Seemingly an endless line of friends...already showing
zest, love of life, and determination to
tackle the world head-on...even at their young ages...
Unbelievingly, I shook my head and threw some cold
water from the BLURBLY FOUNTAIN
into my eyes...thinking to clear out my mind's
photo camera...
I looked up again and lo---a distinguished line of
adults were coming down the sidewalk
behind the kids...it was the best group of
school teachers ever assembled on the planet..
They all smiled a bit---Ms Tennyson, Ms. Norris,
Ms. Bledsoe, Ms. Isaacs, Ms. Holloway,
Ms. Galloway, Ms. Ballou, Mr. Stalcup, Ms.
Davis, Ms. Gustin, and our old friend,
the janitor...ruddy-faced...khaki-clad Mr.Warren!
Ah, but also coming along thru the mists, a few steps
behind, a thin graceful man, wearing a
dark business suit---carrying a walking stick---
like a sort of symbolic herding stick...
As if to say; "These people ahead of me are
mine and my responsibility. Don't mess
with them!"
This man, this slender purposeful, dedicated-
looking man, bringing up the rear---was
obviously the leader...and underneath his
strict-looking demeanor...If you'd known him---
was a benevolent streak and a heart of gold.
The mists cleared a bit and I realized,
HE WAS DOC GATTIS!!
(A few years ago, a girl in that line of kids
mentioned above, now a grown woman,
said to me one day--- something like this:
"You know, I've been to quite a few schools
in my life, but sometimes I feel that old La Casita
School is my TRUE ALMA MATER.")
I think maybe, she might be right.
******BY MIL******
February 13, 2015
