JimBlackBooks.com
1950 - 1959 (Cont'd)
When I was in either the 1st or 2nd grade, they had 2 people sitting at each desk. Janis Harvey and Donna Horany were sitting across from me. Janis winked at me and I ran all the way home and told my mother I had a girl friend.
I quit school in 1958 along with Gerald Smith and we joined the army.
James Harris
--------------------------------------------------
I remember the old radiators in our classrooms that kept us warm (real warm if your desk was next to them) but, oh, how cold we’d get if we were sitting on the other side of the room!
I remember going to many football games as my brother Bobby Patrick (graduated in 1950) was a “star” player. He later became football coach for the Wildcats in 1958 – 1960. We also went to basketball games in the old, old gym. If we got there early we could sit on the stage—if not, we went to the 2nd floor of the school and watched the games through “window like” openings. What fun!!!!
Bobby, my two daughters, Mitzi McDaniel McMurray (Class of ’81) and Teresa McDaniel Robertson (Class of ’83) and I all graduated in the same auditorium. Wooden seats, long aisles, maroon curtain. Lots of plays, band concerts, pep rallies, Miss Archer County contests, etc.
Many sweet memories, good teachers, lots of friends. I am very sad to see the old ACHS building destroyed, but it’s only a building; here today, gone tomorrow—but always good memories. AND THAT CAN’T BE DESTROYED!!!!!
Jo Ann (Jody) Patrick McDaniel – Class of 1958
-------------------------------------------------
I started kindergarten in the old school and went through the 9th grade there. It housed all the grades in the beginning with the exception of the cafeteria and the home ec building.
I would have been the 5th Burkhart girl to graduate from that old three-story red brick building if my father had not been transferred to Lovington, NM in 1956. My parents were Robert M. and Edna Burkhart. The Burkhart Girls:
1. Evelyn Geraldine “Jerry" Burkhart - Class of '39. She married A. J. "Hefty" Morris, Sr. Jerry and Hefty are both deceased. R. Burk Morris (son) still lives in AC and is an attorney there and Julie Morris Eckard (daughter) lives there, also.
2. Elizabeth Anne Burkhart - Class of '40. She graduated from UT Austin - '44 or '45 ( was the first independent Sweetheart of UT) ( it wasn't called that back then!) and went to NYC and never looked back. She married a "Yankee"- Thomas O. Boucher and remained in "Yankee Land". She and Tom are both deceased.
3. Peggy Jane Burkhart - Class of '43. I came to AC to celebrate her 50th Reunion with her. She married L. J. Cathey. Son T. Lee Cathey used to live in McKinney, TX but is traveling the country in an RV. Peggy and L. J. are both deceased.
4. Nancye Gaye Burkhart - Class of '51. I attended her 50th Reunion also! She graduated from UT Austin and taught several years at ACHS before moving to Lovington, NM and then to Knoxville, TN. She married W. Fleming Reeder. Fleming is deceased, but Nancye is still living in TN.
5. Andrea McDonald Burkhart - Class of '59. ( I moved from AC in Jan 1956 but the class of '59 is still MY class!! ) I did attend my own 50th Reunion in AC. I was married a long time and then I got divorced. I am still alive and live in Austin, TX.!
My friend Besia Green still lives in AC. She is called Besia because I couldn't say Bethalice! Her son is Abby Abernathy. There was one house between her house and mine and we were born two weeks apart. She always likes to say that I am older than she! By two weeks!!! We lived just up the street from the school house. We were always playing together like sisters. Anyway, I digress. When we were about 5 (kindergarten age) we dressed up and I mean dressed to the nines! Marie Trigg (Mrs. Ed Trigg) was our neighbor in the middle of our houses and she was small and had small feet and her shoes were to die for!! And she would give us her old shoes to have for our dress up closet so we had REALLY gorgeous high heels to wear that actually FIT us! (This was before the advent of Barbie shoes, etc.) We dressed up to the nines—dresses, pearls, hats, gloves, purses and of course some of Marie's high heels—we looked gorgeous! (can't remember if we had makeup on or not) and decided to “visit" our siblings at the high school—my sister Nancye, on the third floor and Buford Berry, Besia's brother, on the second floor in Miss Hawkins class (north end of the second floor with the fire escape outside the windows). We knew where Buford's class was and we made it to that class okay. Miss Hawkins was such a wonderful hostess that the class sang a song for us. Anyway, they did something for us. Buford was ready to kill us but he couldn't touch us in front of everyone!!! He was sooooo embarrassed that these two "brats" had come to school to visit him. He was not honored by our visit at all! So, next we were on our way to the 3rd floor to visit Nancye, but we didn't know about the stairway toward the north end of the second floor and near to Miss Hawkins' room. We could see the stairway leading to the third floor at the end of the long hall. We started toward it and got to just about Mr. J. F. Gerron's office ( the superintendent) when he came out of his office and "encountered " us. (I still don't know how we managed to do all of this without being discovered by someone in the halls before then.) He asked us what we were doing and where we were going and we told him we were going to visit my sister in high school on the third floor. He said he was worried about our going up the stairs and maybe we should wait in his office instead. Of course, our mothers did not have a clue where we were. They thought we were still playing dress-up in one of our rooms. In fact, they had called the sheriff, Claude Morrison, and they were looking all over for us—checking the lake to see that we had not gone there and probably drowned or been kidnapped by someone. Our mothers were frantic, to say the least, and quite relieved when Mr. Gerron called to tell them that he had us in his office and maybe they could come get us. Our parents were so glad we were alive and had not been harmed that we didn't get a spanking that day much to Buford's dismay! My sister Nancye was spared that day from a wonderful visit from two very darling young ladies dressed to the nines.
Besia and I reminisce about this little excursion every time we get together. It is a pretty cute story or at least we think so!! I just wish we had a picture of us in our fine regalia! I do have a picture in my mind and I can "play that video" in my head anytime I want to remember. Where else but a small town could two little girls go on such an adventure dressed so elegantly and return home safe and sound?
On another note, someone always hung the new car signs from the top of the building at Halloween time and put all sorts of things on the lawn and the building and in the street in front of the school. Also, a great many teachers and the band director would receive an outhouse on their lawns and they would usually fire a shotgun in the air to scare us off! And it did, too!
Andrea Burkhart – Moved from AC in Jan 1956 but the class of '59 is still MY class!!
