| Down Memory Lane |
| Share a memory with classmates and make them come alive! |
| Memories are a part of God's retirement plan! We invite you to share with your classmates some of those special memories and happenings since graduation that truly make life wonderful. |
Richard Waddell shares with us
some memories of people and
events while attending SHS.
Thank you Richard for helping us
on our trip Down Memory Lane.
some memories of people and
events while attending SHS.
Thank you Richard for helping us
on our trip Down Memory Lane.
Memories of 3 people from over 50 years ago continue to fascinate me. The first is Miss Emma
Gibson, SHS mathematics teacher. In my mind, I can still see bits of her lecture from my first
geometry class. She jabbed a finger in the air saying, "This is a point." She sliced the air with a
finger saying, "This is a line." This was my formal introduction to abstract thinking. Without my
being aware of it, she began to mold my thinking into patterns that would serve me well for the
next 50 years. I was lucky to be in her math classes for 3 years.
She seemed to have a child-like right-brain fascination with mathematics, and a solid
understanding of her class material. I took from her an attitude that math was more like a
one-person game than a set of skills to be mastered. We were given formal definitions and
assumptions, and the "game" was to use these "givens" to find and prove various conclusions.
Harvey Brown, the second person remembered, seemed to
share my high regard for both Miss Gibson, and for
mathematics. I think he was in all of my math classes, and we
often left class together. We would often talk for a while
before the next class. He was one of only two students with
whom I remember seriously discussing the contents of a class.
(The other student was Suzanne Rimbey. She and I were the o
only students taking second year physics.)
Harvey was killed, as you probably know, when his plane
crashed during Air Force flight training in 1956. I learned about
Harvey's death, when my mother sent me his obituary. I was also in the Air Force at the time, and
stationed on a radar site on the east coast of Korea. I think this was the period of my life when I
began to know the truth of the Thomas Wolf title, You Can't Go Home Again. Harvey's death and
other changes made it clear that The Fates would change home in ways I could never imagine.
During my time on K-18, I picked up a vicious reading habit, and several years later, happened to
pick up a book by J.D. Salinger, Catcher in the Rye. I saw a lot of Harvey in the main character,
Holden Caufield. They both seemed to have a healthy wariness towards adult authority, and
antennae set for detecting phoniness. I've often wondered whether any of my classmates saw these
similarities. Harvey had potential for doing great things, and his tragic death was our loss.
The third special person is Mrs. Julia Masters. Mrs. Masters taught some lessons on race
relations using NAACP material. Like most young Whites in Springfield, I was barely aware of
other races.
During the years immediately after our graduation, race
relations, as you know, assumed a consuming national
importance. At the time when Don Andrews and I joined the
Air Force, the military had been officially integrated for
about 6 years. Much racial tension was still evident. Serious
racial conflict came close to me one evening on K-18 when I
heard gun shots coming from the mess hall. An
African-American and a White from Georgia had opened fire
on each other, killing each other. The next morning at
breakfast we got to ponder the chalk outlines of two bodies
marked on the floor. One couldn't tell which belonged to the
Black man, nor which belonged to the White man.
Before my rotation to the 'States,' I requested an assignment in the South. I did this partly to better
understand the civil rights movement. (Southerners were living in interesting times.) The Air
Force assigned me to Barksdale AFB (Shreveport, La), where I spent about 2 years. Several
months after my arrival, I happened to meet a friend, a Black man, whom I had known in Korea.
The only place we were free to drink coffee together was at a cafeteria located on the base. Forget
about sharing a beer.
After my discharge, I spent 3 years at Louisiana Tech (Ruston, La), where I got an engineering
degree. My wife and I then moved to Ohio, where I worked for the Air Force (as a civilian
engineer this time) at Wright-Patterson AFB.
Not too long after I left Louisiana, President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Bill into law. I
applauded this action. I like to think I would have eventually come down on the side of integration
and social justice for Blacks, but I think the lessons from Mrs. Masters hastened that choice and
made it easier. I've often wondered how much courage was required for her to present those
lessons, and whether she ever experienced displeasure from community reactionaries.
Richard Waddell
SHS Class of 1953
Gibson, SHS mathematics teacher. In my mind, I can still see bits of her lecture from my first
geometry class. She jabbed a finger in the air saying, "This is a point." She sliced the air with a
finger saying, "This is a line." This was my formal introduction to abstract thinking. Without my
being aware of it, she began to mold my thinking into patterns that would serve me well for the
next 50 years. I was lucky to be in her math classes for 3 years.
She seemed to have a child-like right-brain fascination with mathematics, and a solid
understanding of her class material. I took from her an attitude that math was more like a
one-person game than a set of skills to be mastered. We were given formal definitions and
assumptions, and the "game" was to use these "givens" to find and prove various conclusions.
Harvey Brown, the second person remembered, seemed to
share my high regard for both Miss Gibson, and for
mathematics. I think he was in all of my math classes, and we
often left class together. We would often talk for a while
before the next class. He was one of only two students with
whom I remember seriously discussing the contents of a class.
(The other student was Suzanne Rimbey. She and I were the o
only students taking second year physics.)
Harvey was killed, as you probably know, when his plane
crashed during Air Force flight training in 1956. I learned about
Harvey's death, when my mother sent me his obituary. I was also in the Air Force at the time, and
stationed on a radar site on the east coast of Korea. I think this was the period of my life when I
began to know the truth of the Thomas Wolf title, You Can't Go Home Again. Harvey's death and
other changes made it clear that The Fates would change home in ways I could never imagine.
During my time on K-18, I picked up a vicious reading habit, and several years later, happened to
pick up a book by J.D. Salinger, Catcher in the Rye. I saw a lot of Harvey in the main character,
Holden Caufield. They both seemed to have a healthy wariness towards adult authority, and
antennae set for detecting phoniness. I've often wondered whether any of my classmates saw these
similarities. Harvey had potential for doing great things, and his tragic death was our loss.
The third special person is Mrs. Julia Masters. Mrs. Masters taught some lessons on race
relations using NAACP material. Like most young Whites in Springfield, I was barely aware of
other races.
During the years immediately after our graduation, race
relations, as you know, assumed a consuming national
importance. At the time when Don Andrews and I joined the
Air Force, the military had been officially integrated for
about 6 years. Much racial tension was still evident. Serious
racial conflict came close to me one evening on K-18 when I
heard gun shots coming from the mess hall. An
African-American and a White from Georgia had opened fire
on each other, killing each other. The next morning at
breakfast we got to ponder the chalk outlines of two bodies
marked on the floor. One couldn't tell which belonged to the
Black man, nor which belonged to the White man.
Before my rotation to the 'States,' I requested an assignment in the South. I did this partly to better
understand the civil rights movement. (Southerners were living in interesting times.) The Air
Force assigned me to Barksdale AFB (Shreveport, La), where I spent about 2 years. Several
months after my arrival, I happened to meet a friend, a Black man, whom I had known in Korea.
The only place we were free to drink coffee together was at a cafeteria located on the base. Forget
about sharing a beer.
After my discharge, I spent 3 years at Louisiana Tech (Ruston, La), where I got an engineering
degree. My wife and I then moved to Ohio, where I worked for the Air Force (as a civilian
engineer this time) at Wright-Patterson AFB.
Not too long after I left Louisiana, President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Bill into law. I
applauded this action. I like to think I would have eventually come down on the side of integration
and social justice for Blacks, but I think the lessons from Mrs. Masters hastened that choice and
made it easier. I've often wondered how much courage was required for her to present those
lessons, and whether she ever experienced displeasure from community reactionaries.
Richard Waddell
SHS Class of 1953
| Patsy Freelove -- Janice Constant -- Miss Emma Gibson |
| Harvey Brown |
| Miss Julia Masters |
 | |  | |  |
| Share a memory with classmates and make them come alive! |