I wasn’t going to bother doing anything with this because the negative was scratched up and it was just another bulletin board shot.
When I looked more closely, however, I saw that the Safety Week display Joanne Bone was putting up a collection of spot news photos I had taken of overturned trucks and cars, fires and other Bad Things. What the heck, I always like to show off my work, even it it’s too small to see.
Remember the gory movie?
Did you have to sit through the gory traffic safety movie assembly, too? I was probably the only kid who watched it thinking, “Wow, that would have been a lot better if the guy had stepped over there a couple of feet,” or “a second light would really have improved that.”
Check out the ring
When I enlarged the photo on the screen to touch up some scratches and dust, I got a gander at the size of the ring on Joanne’s left hand. Either she bought her class ring super-sized, thinking she might grow into it some day or she was going steady with some big guy. (Clicking on the photo will make the it slightly larger.)
Somehow in the all the years of “assemblies” I missed the safety assembly every time….I remember Roger Ward the famous Indy 500 winner was at one of these fine efforts to get us to drive safer…and I missed that one too!
As you recall the auditorium was too small to handle all of us at one time so a couple of home rooms missed each assembly and got to listen to it over the speakers while sitting wit our hands folded at our desks…
This practice contined until the new middle school was completed and then, no more freshman and then everyone could then attend all the assemblies…That happened in ???
…and yes that is a BIG RING, not mine I have small hands.
Yes, Terry, 1967 was the year I graduated and the last year that freshmen attended CHS. 1968 was only sophomores, juniors & seniors at CHS.
Yes, Ken, who could forget the Safety Week gory movie? I think Benny Parsons was the Indy Driver at one of our assemblies. I think there was always an Indy driver present with these movies each year. I still remember a point one of them was making with a story. He said he had just finished an assembly and was leaving town. One of the “hot shot showoffs” pulled along side at each stop light and when the light would change, peel rubber, speed off and then wait for him at the next light. This went on for three lights then on the fourth light, the kid peeled out and dropped his transmission, as he rolled to a stop, the Indy driver waved to the kid as he went on by. I don’t think that story stopped me from peeling out all the time at some stop signs in Cape but having to buy my own tires for my car did!
I heard the same story. Wonder how many times that transmission got dropped over the years? I didn’t realize that the safety speakers were anybody famous. I just assumed they were ex-cops or the like.
One assembly that got a huge response was some ex-con who gave an inspirational speech about how he turned his life around.
It was only after I had left the auditorium that it dawned on me that the only thing he hadn’t shown was any remorse for what he had done.
Bill’s story reminded me of my Dad teaching me how to drive. We had a ’57 Chevy standard transmission, and he took me to the empty parking lot at Davis Electric, where he worked, for my lessons. The first time I sat behind the wheel he drew a picture of the gears on the dashboard and then turned to me and said, “When I say stop, you stop. If you don’t stop, then you will never drive this car again.” I understood him perfectly. Lessons continued on Sunday afternoons for several months. One Sunday, right before I was to take my driver’s test, we were returning to Cape and had to stop at the light at Broadway and Kingshighway. The guy next to me was driving a loud, fast looking car, and he kept revving his engine and grinning at me. Looking forward and without moving his head, Dad said the most incredible thing I ever heard him say…… “Get him off the line!” We took off and left that guy behind, and I experienced one of the best father/daughter moments ever.
Terry, the new junior high opened the fall of 1964. My class of 1968 was the first class of freshman at the new junior high.