Jacksonville Reflections - high school (#0305)

Overall high school was much more positive than grammar school. Though I had some teachers who had taught my mother 30+ years before, I had exceptional writing, geography, civics, art, band, and math teachers who I count as having been important for later life skills, interest, and perspectives.

On a less academic level, the first two years of high school were relatively rough mainly because my nemesis from grammar school (PR) was there and it was impossible to get away from his threats – in fact, I have a long scar on my wrist that’s thanks to him pushing me into a broken bottle. Later grades though went better, largely because I found ways to get out of the phys ed classes where bullying most often happened. I was in the band for two years (even though I’m fairly tone deaf), and then my last two years were in a program (DCT) where we worked half a day.

DCT was technically supposed to be for kids who didn’t plan to go to college and wanted to get an early start on acquiring technical skills, but it was actually a mix of kids who either really needed to earn money for the family, or outsiders who didn’t fit in the regular school classes (my reasons were a combination of both). In it we started school an hour earlier than other kids, but left at noon for lunch and then a half-time job. My first job (11th grade) was sorting and delivering mail for a mortgage company, my second job (12th grade) was being responsible for the incoming cash for a small vending machine company (more on that with later picture.)

DCT worked out wonderfully for me. We went through it in cohorts of about 25, so my11th and 12th grades were with the same 25 kids, mostly coming from similar backgrounds and sharing a culture of independence from much of what was expected in high school, combined with learning the responsibilities of keeping a job. And, since Jacksonville didn’t have a bus system that would get us to jobs, we all got to have the independence of having our own car (often undependable) at a time when other kids didn’t drive to school. Both of my cars were inherited from my brothers, the first being a ‘49 Chevy that I hated because it regularly overheated and I could barely see out of it or reach the clutch, the second being an early 50’s Studebaker that was much more comfortable but the transmission (automatic) slipped so badly that you had to remember to avoid stopping in a pothole.

Notable historic events while at Landon:

1) Bay of Pigs and Cuban Missile Crisis happened while I was at Landon. Since my classes that year were on the east side with a clear view of the railroad tracks, I remember watching long trains of military equipment and troops moving south.

2) “Americanism versus Communism:” In 1961, Florida passed a law that required all high school students to be taught a course that was labeled as teaching the advantage of Americanism over Communism. I recall thinking the course a joke, and if my memory is correct, most other students also thought it a joke – I don’t recall it having any content about Communism and only being American boosterism. I don’t know when the requirement for the course dropped, but I found an article regarding an effort in 1983 by a Florida legislator to have the course dropped and that effort being roundly rejected, but I also found a newspaper article saying that the requirement was dropped in 1983.

3) I was at work (the mortgage company, 11th grade), when Kennedy was shot. The response in my extended family was mixed, with some (including myself) upset and glued to the television for news, others having no response, and even some saying ‘good, glad to be rid of him.’ Since it happened just before the week of Thanksgiving, school was canceled until after Thanksgiving.

4) Local citizens (including some of my family) were very vocal in protesting the renaming of Cape Canaveral to Cape Kennedy right after Kennedy’s assassination.

5) The county high schools lost accreditation the year before I graduated – luckily I didn’t have plans on applying to Harvard….

6) The school district was sued for segregation in 1960 but there was no change in the racial composition of the school while I was there.

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A personal note on civil rights while at Landon: For a short period in the 7th grade I was labeled as a “N(prohibitted word) lover” for asking the teacher why blacks had to attend different schools. Only one other student stood up for me when I was harassed about that, my friend Sam.

(Part of a photo-essay series on personal history and race with keyword FlaAla0518)