David Hente: “I started here in 1956. Fall. I’ll never forget the first day I walked through that door. This place was immaculate. There was a smell of varnish. The gym was only two years old at that time anyway, and every summer they came in here and redid the floors.
“When I worked at the paper, I was out here a lot for various functions, and, just for the fun of it, I always make sure to go down to the gym, walk in and just take a whiff. As soon as you’d walk in that door… and if they were still using it, you could get over by the dressing room and get that smell of water and whatever….”
More pictures later
I promised you pictures of the public’s last glimpse of the old gym, but I need more time to edit the photos and go through my notes. I’ll give you this quote from David Hente about walking through the door behind him on his first day as a freshman as a placeholder. I’ll post the rest later.
By the way, you can click on David to make the photo larger.
The night before its wake on Saturday, January 30, when the public would be invited to say goodbye to the Central High School gymnasium, the lights were burning brightly.
I had forgotten I had taken more photos in the gym when I wandered the halls in 2009. I was impressed then with how well the overall building and the gym had held up since it was built in 1955. Maybe its defects are hidden.
Click on any photo to make it larger, then use your arrow keys to move through the images.
The countdown has started for the gym we old Central High School students remember. The Missourian reported that the 84-by-50-foot gym, built in 1955, will be replaced by administrative offices and other features sometime in March.
The public is invited to see the gym one last time on Saturday, January 30, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. I guess it won’t matter if we walk across the polished floor in our street shoes this time.
Here is a collection of stories I’ve done where the gym was featured.
Kid Adam looked at this picture and commented, “Did dark socks not exist in that time frame?” The post has several random CHS photos in it. (Click on the photos to make them larger. Click on the links to go to the original story and more pictures.)
The dreaded rope climb
I remember how much “fun” PE was. I always wondered whose job it was to inspect the “Jesus Nut” that held the rope to the ceiling.
“All you could hear was breathing”
Students gathered around a TV hastily pulled into the gym so they could hear details about the shooting of President John F. Kennedy. Our Age of Innocence was over, and it was only going to get worse.
I envisioned my female counterparts being ushered into individual cleansing facilities where there would be soft music playing, the water would come out at the perfect temperature, towels wouldn’t be needed because each compartment would be equipped with air-drying fans and there would be a gentle spritzing of the perfume of the girl’s choice on the way out. Attendants, probably freshmen, would take care of nail and hair maintenance and see that clothing was restored with nary a muss.
There’s no telling how many queen crownings I shot in that gym.
The September 21, 1967, Missourian listed the 1967 Girardot Queen court: Miss Mary Hirsch, center, daughter ofMr. and Mrs. Ralph Hirsch, 1855 Thilenius, was crowned Central High SchoolGirardotQueen at ceremonies last Friday in the school gymnasium. Her attendants are, from left,Miss Holly Lueders, daughter ofMr. and Mrs. Paul Lueders, 1115 North Henderson;Miss Jane Dunklin, daughter ofMr. and Mrs. Maurice T. Dunklin, 839 Alta Vista;Miss Georganne Penzel, daughter ofMr. and Mrs. George Penzel, 1844 Thilenius, andMiss Debby Holland, daughter of theRev. and Mrs. W.T. Holland, 2221 Brookwood.
Gym Jim putting up decorations
Jim Stone and some other classmates were decorating the gym for something or other.
More decorating pictures
Right after I published Jim, I discovered more pictures of the gym being transformed into something special under the watchful eye of Miss Sackman.
Secretary Helen Ketterer watching wrestling
Quiet Helen Ketterer became a different person at a wrestling match.
Coach Bob Goodwin 1925-2014
Bob Goodwin taught a total of 33 years in Southeast Missouri schools, including Lilbourn, Chaffee, Cape and Jackson. He died in 2014.
Principal Dallas Albers, an inveterate suspenders-wearer, noticed Sylvester Johnson admiring the pants-holder-uppers at an assembly one day, so he made a “deal” with him: if the team won the homecoming game with Sikeston, Syl wouldn’t have to worry about his pants falling down at the dance – they would be securely held up by the coveted suspenders.
This pep rally made me think of the TV series Friday Night Lights.
Looking for contact lens
I’m pretty sure this was the first game I covered that involved a lost contact lens. Follow the link to check out the pep band in their tiger-stripe jackets.
1965 Majorettes
After taking several outside shots, we moved the 1965 Majorettes indoors to the gym.
1970 aerial shows new gym being built
This aerial view of Central High School from the early 1970s is looking from the southeast corner roughly to the northwest. Caruthers Ave. is running along the right side of the photo. The new gym is under construction and the swimming pool with its bubble hasn’t been started. The post also has more recent aerials of the school.
World’s ugliest cheerleaders
I’ve shot scads of cheerleaders at high school, college and pro games. Every organization must have used different qualifications. Some girls were picked for looks; some for popularity; other for spirit; others for athletic or dancing ability; others must have been daughters of community movers and shakers. This group must have been selected for having the hairiest legs.
I remember Anne Buchanan
One of the pictures I found of Anne Buchanan was with the other cheerleaders collecting for the March of Dimes in 1963. She’s on the right.
After I started school, we quit following Dad from town to town in the trailer he’d park in whatever space he could find for us. That meant that he was living in hotels, motels and boarding houses for weeks at a time, maybe making it home every weekend or two.
There wasn’t a lot of entertainment options when you’re building roads and bridges from cain’t see to cain’t see, even if you weren’t too tired to avail yourself of them.
That’s when he turned to paperback murder mysteries.
He preferred Perry Mason
His first choice was Erle Stanley Garnder’sPerry Mason mysteries. If nothing else, the story descriptions on the backs of the book were almost as good as the book.
“You find too many bodies, Mason,” said Lieutenant Tragg coldly. [Tragg was the cop who always seemed to be the one accusing Mason’s clients of murder.]
“Don’t be silly,” Perry Mason answered, “I had no idea this man was dead. I brought you here to hear him confess.”
Pocket books became popular during WW II
Pocket Books, now a division of Simon and Schuster, produced the first mass-market, pocket-sized paperback book in 1939, but they became really popular when material shortages during World War II worked to their advantage. The books would fit in a pocket, were easy to read and cheap to produce.
Most of Dad’s books cost a quarter, although I did see the price start to creep up over the years to 35 and 45 cents. They generally had brassy colors and semi-revealing models.
Mickey Spillane and others
If he couldn’t find a Perry Mason, he’d dip into a Mickey Spillane or Shell Scott or whoever else happened to be on the shelf. Their covers tended to be a bit cruder (both in execution and subject matter), and their tease copy wasn’t as well done.
I read lots of paperbacks, but they were mostly non-fiction I picked up at Metro News on Broadway across from the Rialto. I never read the mystery genre, so I’m going to dip into Dad’s stash to see what I missed.
I asked my grandfather why HE liked to read murder mysteries, but never picked up any of my sporting or adventure magazines like Field and Stream or Argosy.
“Reading a murder mystery doesn’t make me want to go out and kill somebody. Reading about fishing would make me want to go out and do that, and I can’t,” he explained.
Mystery book photo gallery
Here are some other books cluttering up the shelf. Click on any photo to make it larger, then use your arrow keys to move through the gallery.
David Hente: “I started here in 1956. Fall. I’ll never forget the first day I walked through that door. This place was immaculate. There was a smell of varnish. The gym was only two years old at that time anyway, and every summer they came in here and redid the floors.
